Chronicle review of Medicine

[Guest guest]

FYI ... This was a review earlier in the week about the new restaurant.

Thanks to Amy who first gave us the heads-up about this place before it even

opened :-)

 

Tammy

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/17/FDGNHE86481.D

TL

 

Vegetarian food as Medicine

Medicine New-Shojin Eatstation -- Medicine for short -- is a mouthful of

a name for a restaurant, and doesn't sound particularly appetizing. However,

once you find out it refers to a new Japanese vegetarian restaurant serving

a centuries-old Zen Buddhist diet, it starts to make sense.

Housed in the former location of Faz restaurant in the Crocker Galleria,

Medicine's serene atmosphere and long, plain benches are meant to mirror the

communal seating of Buddhist monasteries. Large windows face onto Sutter

Street, and a 10-foot-wide video mural plays a calming loop of a Southern

Utah desertscape.

Shojin cuisine as it is practiced today in Buddhist temples and

restaurants in Japan is about 500 years old, says co-owner Will Petty, who

brought chef Ryuto Sakamoto over from Kyoto. His menu offers new takes on

the simple, vegetable-based cuisine that eschews dairy, eggs and

strong-flavored foods like onions and garlic.

The main courses, called sets, are similar to bento boxes, although each

component is served separately. The soba set features a bowl of buckwheat

noodles nestled in a housemade vegetarian broth topped with wakame seaweed

and fiddlehead ferns; sour plum punches up the flavor. The tempura set stars

fried lotus root, asparagus spears and sweet corn kernels in a light batter,

served with a chilled soup and a daikon and ginger dipping sauce.

All sets include lightly pickled vegetables as well as delicate handmade

tofu with a choice of garnishes: sweet-savory miso paste, shredded nori and

fresh ginger. Diners can augment the sets with side dishes like cool cooked

spinach tossed in a crunchy sesame coating.

For dessert, chilled coconut soup dotted with cubes of chewy agar-agar

and crunchy silver ear mushrooms is so decadent tasting that it doesn't seem

fit for monks.

Medicine offers sake, beer and organic wine, as well as Japanese teas.

Service (17 percent) is automatically included in the bill. .

Medicine, 161 Sutter St. (between Montgomery and Kearny, in the Crocker

Galleria), San Francisco; (415) 677-4405. Lunch, early dinner (until 8

p.m.) weekdays; lunch Saturday. Entrees, $8.95-$10.95; sides, $1.50-$6.75;

dessert, $4.50.

-- Tara Duggan