Dining Out: Quality Social
Sometimes, being a magazine editor is really very nice. We had the opportunity to visit the kitchen of Quality Social, a restaurant in the Gaslamp District of San Diego, Calif., to take some snapshots for a magazine we are working on about meat and charcuterie.
Salted, smoked and aged meats are a point of pride at Quality Social, and they make them all in-house. A few of the things they gave us to eat included sopressatta, finnochiona, pate de campagna, mortadella, pepperone, chorizo, pastrami, coppa, toscano, potted rilette and lardo (yes, we ate pork fat spread on a baguette). The sous chef came out of the kitchen to explain what everything was, pointing out the different parts that made up some of the meats. (“This one is a baby pig, and here are what used to be his thighs,” he said, or something along those lines; we were busy eating the baby pig’s parts.) We ate the meat with a selection of raw milk cheeses made in California. One of them was as soft and white as the lardo, but tasted pure and milky.
Even though we were all up in their kitchen, asking questions and snapping photos, they were very nice and accommodating. We want to go back!
Quality Social
789 6th Avenue
San Diego, Calif. 92101
www.qualitysocial.com
this is a great ideas guys! It might be good to include the restaurant details as well as a google map that shows the locations of the restaurants. Looking forward to seeing more. I’ll be adding this RSS feed to my blog reader so I can keep up with all of the delicious food that you eat.
Ah, good idea about the restaurant details!