21-Day Detox Day 17: Incanto Restaurant Review

As someone who is used to eating out often, going a whole 17 days without a meal prepared by someone other than myself has been hard. Luckily, living in San Francisco, there are plenty of places where someone on a cleanse can find a gourmet meal. One of my favorite places in San Francisco is Incanto, where the chef/owner, Chris Cosentino, delivers rustic Italian head-to-toe meals. Head-to-toe cusine has become popular on foodie scene in recent years, with more restaurants cooking kidneys, livers, sweetbreads and other parts of the animal usually considered to be garbage.

When I saw my acupuncturist today, he recommended that I eat more organ meats because of their warming and nourishing nature. On my way home from work, I decided I didn't want to cook and called Incanto looking for a reservation. As expected, they were booked but did have tables available for walk-ins. And so, I picked the hubby up (he was working from home) and we headed over.

As an appetizer, we ordered the house-cured olives. The olives arrived warm, which was a pleasant surprise. Since I haven't eaten a significant amount of salt on this cleanse, the olives seemed extremely salty to me. It was like a salt field exploded in my mouth. It was so bizarre because we had olives there about a month ago and they tasted just fine. How amazing that 17 days into this 21 day cleanse, my senses are so enhanced.

Because I knew an entree  portion of protein would be too much, I ordered an appetizer. The one that jumped off the menu were the sweetbreads. Sweetbreads is an umbrella term for a variety of glands usually from veal or lamb. They are rich in digestive enzymes and important minerals that help normalize blood sugar. The chef prepared them with radishes and herbs. I happen to cook sweetbreads at home fairly often and have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this dish. Organ meats have a funky texture if they are undercooked or overcooked, resulting is a very chewy experience. And so, these sweetbreads were very tough and even lacked flavor. It kind of sucked to have gone to a restaurant for a meal and then realizing I can make the same dish better for a fraction of the price.

I didn't really want this to be a bash session against one of my favorite restaurants but the kitchen was off it's game tonight. In addition to the sweetbreads, we ordered a side of braised leeks with salsa rustica (chopped eggs with herbs) and braised onions. Both dishes were bland and lacked flavor. Hubby ordered the gnocchi and he said they were okay, but nothing really special. Considering that this one the restaurants where I've had two of the best meals ever, I was pretty confused about this meal. I'm pretty sure that we aren't going to heading over there again in the near future.

Going out also reminded me how much cheaper and tastier cooking at home can be. It's been pretty hard to be cooking almost daily, but I've been doing that to keep from being bored. Once I'm done with the cleanse, I'll be posting recipes for a variety of one pot wonders that should last you and the family for a couple days. That way there aren't any excuses for not healthy real food!