2010 Looks Like a Good Year for Art Lovers

This year is shaping up as a good year for viewing interesting exhibits at San Francisco's major museums.  On February 12, the Asian Art Museum opens "Shanghai," an exhibit focusing on the art of this great city over the past century.  Running through September 5, this exhibition is part of San Francisco's effort this year to celebrate our sister city, which will host a World Expo this year.  "Shanghai" features paintings, furniture, revolutionary posters, movie clips, and other works of art.

The de Young Museum is hosting three major exhibitions this year.  The Tutankhamun exhibition, which opened last summer and which I wrote about at the time, runs through March 28.  The Musée d'Orsay in Paris will be undergoing major renovations.  As a result, some of its major works will be on tour.  The de Young will be hosting two exhibitions featuring works from the d'Orsay.  The first, "Birth of Impressionism, Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay," runs from May 22 through September 6.  This show will feature over 100 pre and early Impressionistic works from the mid-19th century.  

Then, from September 25 through January 18, the de Young will host "Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay."  This exhibit will display over 120 of the museum's late Impressionist paintings.

Concurrently with "Birth of Impressionism," the Legion of Honor will show "Paris: City of Light," which will feature 150 Impressionistic works from the Fine Arts Museums' collection as well as from some private collections.

Lastly, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is celebrating its 75th anniversary and will show six exhibitions featuring works from its collection.

If you're an art lover, you'll have much to choose from this year.  And don't forget some of our smaller museums and galleries.

Great Peruvian Food by the Bay

San Francisco may have more Peruvian restaurants per capita than any city outside of Peru.  Last September, I wrote about Limón Rotisserie, a casual offshoot of Limón, the first upscale Peruvian place in San Francisco.  This past weekend, I finally ate at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, which opened over a year ago at Pier 1 1/2 on The Embarcadero north of the Ferry Building.  La Mar is the first U.S. effort from Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio.  (He also has restaurants in Lima, Mexico City, Santiago, São Paulo, and Panama City.)

When you walk into the space, you are immediately struck by the size, wondering if the restaurant will be unbearably noisy and if the kitchen can successfully service so many tables.  While La Mar is noisy, I've been to far louder restaurants in San Francisco.  The kitchen does a great job of turning out small and large plates of terrific seafood.  While we were still looking over the menu, we were treated to chips made from white potato, sweet potato, and plantain accompanied by 4 dipping sauces.

Being big ceviche fans, we went for the tasting of 4 cebiches, all of which were terrific.  Just watch out for the peppers.  They pack a punch.  Until this meal, we'd never heard of causas: whipped potatoes and yellow garlic topped with seafood and/or vegetables.  Again we went for the sampler of 4 and loved each one.  We also tried the sampler of 4 empanadas.  While tasty, these were the least interesting of the small plates.

We shared two main courses among us, a seafood saltado and the tuna dish.  The saltado consisted of a variety of stir fried seafood and vegetables topped with French fries and served with rice.  The tuna was seared, topped with a sesame sauce and served over mashed purple potatoes.  Both were delicious.

Being gluttons, we also shared two desserts.  The dulce de leche mousse was too sweet for any of us but the buñuelos de chocolate caliente, warm beignets filled with warm chocolate sauce, were terrific.

We stuck to wine with our meal and were able to select from a good list of California, South American, and Spanish wines.  The cocktail list featured drinks with pisco, a grape liqueur that first arrived in San Francisco in the 19th century.

If you like seafood and interesting spices and preparations, then I highly recommend you visit.  I'll go back when the weather warms up so I can dine outside on the terrace overlooking San Francisco Bay.

Sea Lion Update

Last month I wrote about the sea lions that disappeared from Pier 39.  It now appears that the sea lions that frequented San Francisco Bay and the waters off Northern California went north to the Oregon shores in search of food.  Rangers in Oregon parks are reporting larger numbers of California Sea Lions off their shores.  It's possible that herring, anchovies, sardines, and other fish enjoyed by the sea lions are further north than usual due to the El Niño effect.  We'll just have to wait to see if they return to Pier 39 later in the year.