City Eats Part II: Central Kitchen

This week, we tried Central Kitchen. 

OK, I have to admit, I've been slacking. Again, I had to rush out the door this morning without my camera so I used my phone. I figured, recording happy memories are more important than beautiful pictures :) 

Why a photo of the dessert to start of this post? Because we were there to celebrate my be-earlied birthday! I am very thankful for my wonderful friends and their family for having this small celebration with me. I realized that I've been focusing too much on work that I've completed neglected my love for spending time with good friends and enjoying a good meal together.  So this photo serves as a good reminder for the wonderful time that I had tonight.

It's chamomile oil cake with fennel and blackberry sorbet. For the first time I actually remembered what I ordered. The cake was very moist and yummy. The flavors were perfectly infused together and beautifully plated with flowers. I'm not so crazy about sorbet but the wafer looking thing was actually very yummy. The texture is between a wafer and a pavlova. It reminded me a lot of my childhood wafer snack but much better in terms of taste and texture. A tad chewy and lightly sweetened.

We started the dinner with liver mousse with summer truffle, mushroom and scallion. I love truffle but this time, I didn't pay attention at all to the truffle because I was too surprised with how tasty the liver pate is. I do eat liver pate occasionally but sometimes I find it way too gamey to my liking. This liver mousse was absolutely smooth and sweet. I just couldn't have enough of it, this is a good portion to split with the group. Less is more. Enough to awaken the taste buds but not too much to be sick of it.

This dish is also very interesting, it's melon, cucumber and avocado with fig yogurt and fresno chili. It looked so pretty and tasted very refreshing, like spring. The ingredient sounded simple but I wonder if I could actually replicate this at home? For sure not as pretty. :)

   

For my entree, I ordered the charred squid with tomato, peppercorn fregula & garum. What? Fregula? Garum? When I saw my plate, I thought they had served caviar with the squid. Sweet. I thought. Haha, no, it's fregula, a type of pasta. I don't know why it's black, they definitely don't taste like peppercorn, I wondered if they had used squid ink to cook the fregula to make it black. And garum? It's actually a type of fish sauce. I really love this dish because they had served the squid with different herbs. So when you're tasting the food, you get to savor the tender squid, a splash of sourness from the garum, sweetness from the cherry tomatoes, and the flavorful herbs. Although the dish looked much smaller than I had expected but by the time I finished my food, I was full and satisfied. In the end we split the dessert with the group. The ambience and food were really good, I really like this place, I'm so glad that my friend picked this place for dinner. We definitely wanted to go back for more!

So we thought being full, happy and satisfied, we have no more space for more dessert. Well no, I guess we do have a different stomach for dessert. Humphry Slocome was only 5 blocks away. I've always wanted to go to Humphry's and since we were so near, we had to go.

This place was so unpretentious, the sign was so small, I wouldn't have noticed it if I drove by. Only that I see people lining up for ice-cream. So what is so special about Humphry Slocombe? Because they have the wildest and craziest flavors out there. To name a few, kumquot poppy seed, flaiming rum and raisin, fume, guinness gingerbread.....etc. etc. etc.

They do it on a rotating basis. I was hoping to try out one of those crazy ones but today's selection was more typical and they were kind enough for you to actually taste all the flavors before deciding on which one you want. I only tried 2 - secret breakfast (vanilla ice-cream with bourbon) and brown sugar fennel. Which one did you think I choose? The latter one. I was very curious, I love fennel but in ice-cream? It was very refreshing. On the first bite, the ice-cream tasted like brown sugar but there's a hint of fennel taste after each bite, so that was very interesting. 

A scoop of Humphry Slocombe's ice-cream a day keeps the sorrow away?

I had such a beautiful day and all I can think of is how grateful I am for the people in my life.  I am a better person because of the wonderful people around me. I am so so so thankful....♥♥♥

City Eats Part 1: Mission Beach Cafe

I realized that I haven't been spending enough time in the city lately. So I've set a goal, that is to eat at at least 3 top rated restaurants in the city before the year ends. And who knew, suddenly I have 3 reservations within 1 month to eat in the city.  *How exciting*

Restaurant 1 : Mission Beach Cafe 

This cute little restaurant is highly reviewed and based on the photos we saw online the food looked absolutely delicious. I had a long day at work, and had completely forgotten about my camera before I left the house so I had to use my phone to capture this beautifully plated grilled summer squash and broccolini. They change the menu often and in a state of famished, I don't really remembered what I ordered exactly. All I know was I was eating amazingly sweet grilled vegetables with humus.

The menu was small, and what stood out for me was the pork chop so I had to try it. We ordered medium well and when it came out, it looked a tad well done. We were worried that the meat would be overcooked but no, it was so tender and juicy. It was so yummy and I had the urge to clean the bone but was too embarrassed to do so. Did you notice the strawberry/fig? How they sliced it and stacked it up alternately? The green was cream of kale with some sort of grains and caramelized onions. Yumm.. my favorite.

The food was indeed amazing. The plating was beautiful and what we noticed was not one plate was plated the same. Every plate was unique. I had a really great time and enjoyed the food tremendously. I can't wait to come again to try out their other dishes, since we also skipped dessert this time because we were very full.

What the reviewers hadn't said was parking is awful. I couldn't find a parking spot for almost an hour. How ridiculous is that? I was driving and I couldn't stop to Google for a nearby parking garage and every spot that I saw was not mine to take. Finally on the verge of giving up, there was this beautiful spot right next to me without me noticing it. I was so thankful that finally, I found a spot. I can't wait for my next restaurant next week!  Yippeee....

Dawn to Dusk

 

The view of Golden Gate Bridge at 7am from Sausalito.

Literally chasing after the sunset at Sunset.

Jelly Legs

I can barely stand, my legs are sore because I have not ridden a bike for the past 15 years and I actually biked from Fisherman's Wharf to Sausalito Pier all in 3 hour's time. It's too much for one day but seriously, it's so worth it! It took us so long because I had to stop every other mile to snap photos! 

 

We rented bikes at Fisherman's Wharf, then we proceeded to Fort Mason. From Fort Mason we biked towards the bridge.

The wind was quite strong on the bridge, I had to stop suddenly a couple of times when the wind picked up because I couldn't keep my balance.

 

Then it was all the way down slope towards Sausalito. Wheee...luckily my brake works! Haha...

Since it was all the way down towards Sausalito, do you think I could ride all the way back up to the city? No way! So we took the ferry :)

The view of the city from the ferry. It was such a beautiful day, what's missing are my lovely white clouds, but I'm not complaining. With good company and good weather, it was a lovely day out! I'm so happy today! ♥

Out the what?

There's the Slanted Door and now Out The Door. How peculiar I find these names. Just like its sister restaurant, OTD is a Vietnamese fusion restaurant, with French influences. After taking a walk at the Golden Gate Park in the cold cold but beautiful day, we went for our lunch at OTD. I really liked the interior of this restaurant. Reminded me of my little dream of opening my own restaurant one day. It's a long restaurant, there are tables along the pine wood wall on the right and on the left it's the open kitchen with bar stools along the counters. The floor consists of granite tiles and they have marble/granite counter tops as tables. If you want, you can sit along the counter and watch them prepare the food while you eat, that is if you want to see how they handle your food. If not, I'm happy to be just sitting by the wall and enjoy my meal away from the kitchen. It is a really simple chic restaurant.

How many types of eggs have you tried? Sunny side up, scramble, over easy...but have you tried slow cooked egg? *chuckle* well it's just like poached eggs. We started the meal with some beignets and Vietnamese coffee, for our main, we ordered the slow cooked eggs, soft scrambled eggs and french toast. Ah, you'd say, why do we bother to eat out such simple meals?

Here's the catch:

Slow cooked eggs come with niman ranch brisket, caramelized onions and crispy potatoes. Soft scrambled eggs come with dungeness crab, crispy creamer potatoes, gribiche, and chives. Mixed berry french toasts come with strawberries, blueberries, mint, lemon creme fraiche, and maple syrup.

Now wouldn't you be enticed to check this place out? :)

Cha Ya Vegetarian Japanese

It was one of those it's too beautiful to stay indoors and let's go spend it outdoors day. So I decided to spent the afternoon in the Mission district, exploring the fun boutiques and quaint little shops. I walked passed this restaurant and was really intrigued by it, Cha Ya vegetarian Japanese? How wonderful, now vegetarian would not be deprived of Japanese food! After spending the afternoon in the strong wind, I'm dying for some hot soup so we ordered the sukiyaki, Cha Ya roll and stuffed eggplant. The flavor is really good but most of it are rather sweet and a lot of the items are deep fried. Nonetheless it's really good and I would love to go again to try other stuff, there are way too many options to choose from. Also, it's really packed, so if you plan to go, go earlier and bring cash (because it's cash only).

Twin Peaks

The view of SF from Twin Peaks. The wind nearly blew the car door away but hey, it was worth it.

The Painted Ladies

Ever watched Full House? Well this is where they shot one of the opening scenes. Finally after 2 years, I visited The Painted Ladies. Apparently there are many victorian houses refered as Painted Ladies in SF but this is the one made famous by Full House! Now, I can say I've been to the painted ladies! The weather was so clear I could even see the city's skyline!

Happy Birthday ML!

The weather finally turned better and what could be better than to sit outside, have brunch and to celebrate a friend's birthday? So for her birthday brunch, the birthday girl requested The Front Porch.

While waiting for the guests to arrive, we ordered some beignets to start with. What are beignets? They're kinda like donuts sprinkled with confectionary sugar, but I believe that the beignets we had had banana in it. My, it was really good, it wasn't too oily and not too sweet. I can pop 2 or 3 of these anytime with coffee! Only that I was saving space for the main course!

Our party ordered the chicken waffle, fried oysters po'boys, spicy shrimp and grits, and the ever mysterious vegan lunch. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of deep fried chicken, but when you eat creole food, you MUST try their deep fried chicken, it's their specialty. For a person who doesn't like fried chicken, I really liked it. I don't know what they marinate the chicken in but it's very flavorful, it'll be a sin to eat it with ketchup! Even the waffle tastes different. Either they served us red potato waffle if not they must've used some of the chicken marinate in the waffles *haha*.

Verdict? Thums up!! I would definitely bring you here if you want to! :)

Ti Couz

I love Ti Couz for their savory/sweet dessert crepes. We were going somewhere to eat but the line was too long and we lost our patience and detoured to Ti Couz. Oh boy we're glad we did. It's been a while since we've been to Ti Couz and I've forgotten how much I love this place.

We couldn't resist so we ordered both savory/sweet dessert crepes and shared. We thought it might be too much but frankly, I think we could do a 4th crepe! We had the shrimp and mushroom, apple crepe flambe and a mix berry crepe I believe. I'm not much of a big fan of savory crepes and I love my sweet and alcoholic flavored dessert but they really do make exceptional savory crepes. I really liked this shrimp and mushroom crepes. It really hit the spot. Moreover they're wheat crepes. How many people like to eat wheat flour? Let alone wheat crepes? But this is a place for healthy decadent food! :)

Baker's Beach

Finally I see you Ms. Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day, the beach was full of people basking in the sun. Like an orchestra, the waves, splashed, surged, rise and fall with a tempo of its own, finally rolling up the shore like glittering diamonds.

Ta.Ra Thai

I love the city. I love it even more during the holiday season when the whole place is deserted. I assumed that this place would be packed if it had been a normal evening, but considering it's Thanksgiving night, there were only 3 tables of patrons when we reached. I must say the interior of the restaurant is beautiful. Even though the food is good, but you probably pay a premium for the ambience.

We ordered the fried calamari, samosa, tea leaves salad, satay chicken, Singapore meehoon, and fried sambal ribs. They are as good as they looked. The most satisfying are the ribs. I have been craving for ribs for a very long time so I was very excited when I saw this on the menu. It's so good the meat just slip off the bone. All in all, it was a good meal and I am thankful for the good food.

Ta.Ra

123 2nd street. @ Minna San Francisco, CA 94105 415.34.8.9977

The Slanted Charm

Grumpyurbanslacker said that he wanted to try Vietnamese when he comes to visit. After much planning and research, he decided that he wanted to try The Slanted Door. Right after he decided I called up to make reservations. It was a month ahead but all the preferred time were booked so we settled on a Sunday night at 7:45pm. We couldn't believe how packed the place was! GUS joked that the place resembled a bus transit station. As usual, I couldn't decide what to eat so he made all the decisions.

We started with the appetizer, the slanted door springrolls.

Then seared dayboat scallops with mango, toasted lemongrass and spicy fish sauce. I really liked this one very much! The scallops were cooked just right and I really liked the fresh and pickled mango. Was so glad that we ordered this over the others!

For the main course we tried the grilled ranch brother's berkshire pork chop. I know GUS loves pork! My oh my, it was really good, I really like chewing on the ribs but I don't know what GUS thought of my dinning etiquette and I didn't care to check with him and used my hand. Haha..

And the grass fed estancia shaking beef. We have no idea why it's called the shaking beef and we forgot to ask the waitress. But the beef was good and I really enjoyed the watercress in lime sauce! Haha.... I was ready to go to bed after being so contented with the meal... Hehe..

But we couldn't leave just like that, so GUS ordered the Vietnamese drip coffee. It was a tad too sweet for me but he loved it.

I was really full and we couldn't even finish our main courses but GUS had to entice me into ordering a dessert. Good call GUS, because we orderd the almond milk tapioca. Oh my god, it was really awesome. I could just come to this place again just for this dessert and nothing else! The brown thing is puree kabocha and the white part is tapioca in almond milk and the grapes were garnished with caramelized almond I think. Bottom line is I like this dessert! Yummy!

I had such a great time and towards the end of the meal I was laughing so much, I hope the food wasn't spiked with happy substance that's why we all loved it so much! Hehe...

Thanks GUS for the wonderful time!! :)

Steps of Rome

On a beautiful summer day, my friend and I took the vespa and zoomed into the city for a dessert break. The beautiful day took us to Steps of Rome. From just a coffee and tiramisu we ended up staying for dinner before heading home and that was yumm.... indeed.

A few months later, my friends came to visit and chance brought us back to Steps of Rome for dinner the 2nd time. I really loved my eggplant baked in mozzarella and the bruschetta. But this time, the tiramisu is a little soft and there was not enough alcohol in it. However, the great company compensated the not so perfect dinner. I hope my friends had as much fun as I had with them!

It was indeed a great day out with my dear friends!

Aaaah....what a life. :)

Baker's Beach

Ms. Golden Gate Bridge was too shy to come out and meet us today! As I thought I've gone to all the touristy spot to visit Ms. Golden Gate Bridge, apparently I have not. I went to Baker's Beach to visit the beauty but she was hiding behind the fog. Looks like I'll have to visit her again some other time! Hope to see you again Ms. Golden Gate Bridge!

1982

What happened in 1982? It was the birth of Marco Polo Italian Ice-Cream Gelato. My heart was sold - to this wonderful in the middle of no where gelato ice-cream parlor. It was almost 45° F and the wind was blowing strong, but we just had to go and check out this Marco Polo Italian Ice-Cream Gelato place.

My oh my, the flavors? Durian, jackfruit, guava, lychee, sesame, mango, soursop... on top of all the other typical chocolate, strawberry, pistachio, irish coffee, chocolate, rum raisin, .... (and a lot more).

From top left: Mango/Lychee, Durian, Lychee, Melon/Guava, Lychee/Strawberry

It was 9.30pm and the place was packed with a line! The verdict? It's so good, you can say bye-bye to B&J and Haagen Dazs. The texture is so smooth and the flavor is just so lightly perfectly accentuated that they will have you wanting for more! Serious. Don't believe me? Try it yourself! :)

Ending of 2009

I thought I was going to have a quiet and boring winter break but before I got enough of rest, I embarked on a frenzy week traveling with friends and families.

We were thankful because the weather was so beautiful and here's only a snippet of what happened over the week.

18th-20th : Point Reyes

8am at Point Reyes, the fogs were rolling in and streaming through the sunlight.

The quaint little cabin that we stayed for 2 nights. Fully furnished with a hot tub!

A stroll through the national park to reach to the Limantour Beach.

Limantour Beach

21st - Around SF

Then my friends wanted to see Lombard Street, but I didn't manage to take any cool lombard shots though. 

It's supposed to be very 'S' like windy, you can google it and take a look for yourself.

22nd - Tiburon

The weather was so beautiful we had to go to Tiburon.

The pier at Tiburon

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great ending for 2009 and a great year ahead for 2010!

Lulu's Excuses!

It's pretty ridiculous I know, but what do you do when you have a bunch of great friends gathered together? Eat drink and be merry of course! So after the Crab House we attempted another dining spot in the city -  Lulu House, only 8 of us made it but the meal was definitely fit for 12! We were planning for a simple dinner but we had all these excuses to try almost every other thing on the menu. 

As we sat down, we smelled this wonderful aroma of baked mussels, hence we have to order the mussels.

I was cold, so I needed some hot soup - Tomato Basil Soup.

But we needed our quintessential appetizer, so we ordered the French Fries, with a twist! Truffle Parmesan French Fries... OMG! It's so yummy.

Hmmm.. some pizza maybe? So we ordered the Spicy Prawn Pizza for the shrimp lover.

But wait, there's also the Monday special - Steak with potatoes.

And also for the pork lover - Pork tenderloin with mash potatoes.

Then we mustn't forget the vegetarian dish -  Squash and mushroom salad.

More vege pizza - cheese and mushroom.

But after all these food, we have to try the dessert - Warm donuts.

It was almost end of the year, we figured we should order some Profiterols for good omen - profits rolling in... Haha *lame*

And the warm chocolate fudge cake!

Verdict? It's good, so good that by the end of the meal I gained 5lbs. Hahahaa....