One thing I appreciate about the San Francisco food scene is the tell it like it is-ness of it all: bottled water is bad for the world from a carbon imprint standpoint; if a chicken’s not free-range it’s miserable and probably not so good for you; eat local/think global; a paper napkin was once a tree. All of these seemingly fringe-y thoughts are, or are on their way to being, standard sentiments to sophisticated foodies. And many of them started in SF. And while it’s not overtly a political statement, I love the tell it like it is-ness of Pizzeria’s Deflina’s name for their fish fritti: “Fries With Eyes.”
There’s an inherent honesty to the name that I like; an admission that some food is actually comprised of real animals that were, well, killed so that we could live. Not that we got into it in those terms at the table. Mainly we talked about how tasty the fish were, how perfect the batter was in its airy crunchyness, how we wished there were more fish per order. And while 5 year old Vi was hesitant at first, it took just one little dip in the aioli and one hearty bite of the head (eyes and all; brains even when you think about it) and she was, ahem, hooked.
—Hugh
That is fabulous! We used to fish a lot when I was growing up and my mom would fry the smallest ones whole…and I ate them, head and all. My theory was if I ate the brains I would be smarter…not so sure it worked, but they tasted great nonetheless.