Duck breast

Eastside Road, August 12, 2011—

DARK POULTRY MUST BE among my favorite things. Roast goose. Braised guinea hen. Duck breast.

Finding ourselves in San Francisco at early supper-time — no point hitting the freeway at that hour; we'd just be crawling — we stopped in at a French restaurant we've been meaning to try. I was immediately pleased to find “Bouillabaisse” on the menu, just like that, in quotes: it's a purée, not a traditional bouillabaisse, the waiter explained; and when I pursued the matter further, he disclosed that there was no shellfish in it at all, with or without legs: no bivalves, no arthropods.

In other words, fish soup. When we asked why they didn't just call it fish soup, he explained that that wouldn't seem French. When it arrived, I was happy to see a perfectly authentic soup de poissons, a reddish-orange bisque with a crouton covered with rouille decorated with a few threads of saffron. I'd been hungering for fish soup for weeks and here it was: and it was tasty.

I ordered a duck-breast salad Lyonnaise, with poached egg, but the waiter and I misunderstood one another and what came instead was a duck entrée, costlier and fruitier than I'd wanted. An honest misunderstanding, though, so I accepted it, swept the fruit aside from the careful presentation, took this photo, and dug in. I understand the point of sweet fruit with duck, but feel it unnecessary; still, this was a well-balanced dish. The spinach was beautifully cooked (in butter), and the little corn-based pancake was fun.

Rosé, Château d'Esclans Domaines (Provence): okay, a little sweet, light (Chez Spencer's list is on the costly side)

• Chez Spencer, 82 14th Street, San Francisco; 415.864.2191http://www.chezspencer.net/