Hawthorne Lane: Take TWO

Last week, I took Karen out to celebrate her birthday. Since it was a "school night", I thought that it would be nice to go somewhere interesting, fun, and low key. So, I decided to take Karen to TWO. Located in the space once occupied by the restaurant Hawthorne Lane, TWO was born out of chef/owner David Gingrass' desire to reinvent his restaurant to have a hipper and more casual atmosphere. We had the opportunity to visit Hawthorne Lane twice before it closed, the last time for its final cooking class.

While Karen had already been to TWO once before for lunch, I had not visited since our cooking class. While there were some differences in the decor, notably the wall panels and the lighting fixtures, the place still seemed to be quite similar to its previous incarnation.

Soon after we were seated, we were pleased to be presented with their starter plate of flatbread and biscuits. The flatbread was deliciously cheesy with a hint of heat and the biscuits were flaky and wonderfully buttery.


After a round of drinks (Karen ordered a mojito and I got a glass of Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine), we were ready to order dinner. We started out with a decadent appetizer, slow-roasted marrow bones served with crusty bread and caramelized onions. There was the perfect amount of marrow in the order: one bone for each of us with enough marrow to spread over the toasted bread. Despite the richness of the marrow, there was just the right amount so that we didn't feel overly sated by the starter before our main courses.


Since we were both pretty hungry, we decided to order a couple of entrées which we split. The first main course was braised beef cheeks with gaufrette potatoes, maple glaze, and horseradish crème fraîche. The beef was really flavorful and fall-apart tender and went very well with the horseradish. The maple glaze was interesting, having a slight hint of port, but was perhaps a touch sweet for my taste. Nevertheless, this was an excellent dish.


Our second main dish was a pan-fried pork cutlet, which could be prepared in two different ways. We could have ordered it with broccoli rabe and lemon, but opted to have it with spicy marinara and aged provolone cheese. The huge cutlet was deliciously tender and not at all greasy. With the marinara and cheese, it was reminiscent of a veal parmesan. It was another fine dish, though given the heaviness of the marrow and beef cheeks, it would have been more prudent to go with the lemon and rabe option.


For our side, we continued with the rich food theme and ordered some truffled macaroni and cheese. I enjoyed the mac and cheese, though the truffled flavor was a bit too strong for Karen's liking. I am curious if they used real truffle oil or something that came out of a laboratory.


Though we were getting quite full, it was, after all, Karen's birthday, so we ended the meal by sharing a decadent dessert, their signature "TWO Chocolates" mousse cake. The dessert consisted of semisweet and milk chocolate mousses, devil’s food cake, and caramel rice krispies. It was wonderfully rich and delicious. Even though I'm not a dessert guy, I'd definitely order it the next time I'm there.


So, there you have it, a fabulous birthday meal. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't do anything special for Karen, as per my OpenTable request, but the food was great and the service was prompt and attentive, so we really can't complain too much.

Engagement Photos!

I know, I know... Things have been pretty quiet around the FFT blog the past few months, but there's a good reason! As I mentioned earlier, Karen and I got engaged last summer and have been ridiculously busy working out the details for the wedding. After months of work, we are finally looking down the home stretch of wedding planning.

The past weekend, we had an engagement photo session with Laura, our fabulous photographer from Beautiful Day Photography. Accompanied by my mom (on Mother's Day!), we had a really fun time getting shots from multiple locations around San Francisco, including Alamo Square, the Presidio, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Chinatown.

Yesterday, Laura gave us a sample of some of the shots that she took this weekend and they look fabulous! Below is one of our favorites. You can see more photos from our weekend shoot on her blog.

Photo courtesy of Laura Grier/Beautiful Day Photography.

We had a blast working with Laura and are really excited that she will be working with us to capture a special moment in our lives.

Another Strong Bay Area Showing

This past week, James Beard Foundation announced their nominees for the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards. Like last year, the Bay Area food community is well-represented. Boulevard and The Slanted Door, two perennial San Francisco favorites, are up for the Outstanding Restaurant Award. While not a clean sweep like last year, four of the five nominees in the Best Chef in the Pacific Region (California and Hawaii) are from the Bay Area: Douglas Keane of Cyrus, Craig Stoll of Delfina, and Michael Tusk of Quince are repeat nominees from last year, with David Kinch of Manresa joining them on the list of nominees.

Nate Appleman of A16 and SPQR is a repeat nominee in the Rising Star Chef of the year. Nicole Plue of Yountville's Redd and Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery were nominated for Best Pastry Chef of the Year.

Other Bay Area nominees include Terra for the Outstanding Service Award and Merry Edwards of her eponymous winery for the Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional Award. Bobby Stuckey, formerly of The French Laundry and now co-owner of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado, is another nominee in the latter category.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center on Sunday, June 8, 2008.

Top Chef Chicago: The Block Party

Three weeks into the new season of Top Chef and the first San Francisco-based chef is gone. It was too bad to see Erik go - having eaten at his restaurant, I was hoping that he would stick around for a while. So much for those rumors.

It was interesting to see the SF contestents group themselves onto the same team, though given the political leanings of this area, it probably would have been more appropriate if they had been on the Blue Team.

"Hey, did you go to Carleton?"

For whatever reason, I seem to hear this question quite often when I am wearing the attire of my alma mater. Karen is amazed at the number of random places where people, seeing me wearing a Carleton shirt, ask me if I actually attended the college in Northfied, Minnesota. The encounters have occurred in many different situations including, while eating lunch in Maui just before exploring a volcano, during a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park on a trip to Boulder, and while seeing the terra cotta soldiers in Xi'an. Of course, there have also been a lot of Carleton call outs during my eight years in the Bay Area, including shout-outs on the streets of San Francisco and a few brief exchanges in various locations in Wine Country. You might think that my entire wardrobe consists of college gear, but, in reality, I only have a t-shirt and a sweatshirt. (Okay, I do have more Carleton shirts lying around, but none that I ever wear; I doubt the '89-'90 Third Myers floor t-shirt even fits anyway.)

Yesterday, while wearing my Carleton sweatshirt, I went over to the Ferry Building's Saturday morning farmers' market in search of some Fatted Calf bacon. While wandering around the stalls, I was asked not once, not twice, but three separate times in the course of an hour if I attended the small liberal arts college. One of the people who asked me, Dave, is actually a vendor at the market. After procuring some bacon, I stopped by his booth, Andante Dairy, to check out his offerings and picked up some butter, which was hand-churned by Dave himself. After trying some of the butter on some crusty bread that I picked up from the Acme Bread Company, I can attest to the quality of this delectable, creamy, high-fat content butter. I'll definitely go back for some more butter in the future.

One place where I haven't gotten a Carleton shout-out is in Europe, even though I've been there almost a dozen times over the past few years. I guess that it's a function of me not really wearing much Carleton gear during my business trips over to the Continent. Perhaps I'll have to include one of my Carleton shirts to wear during one of my forays into Heidelberg after working hours. I'll let ya know when happens.

Top Chef 4: Chicago

Attention Reality Food TV fans: Top Chef is back.

Set in Chicago, the Emmy-nominated series will begin airing new episodes from Season 4 on Wednesday, March 12. While I've been critical of Top Chef in the past, the last season reeled me back. I'm looking forward to the new season, especially with four local chefs in the running: Erik Hopfinger, executive chef at Circa; Jennifer Biesty, the executive chef from COCO500; sous chef Ryan Scott of Myth; and chef/consultant Zoi Antonitsas, formerly of the Presidio Social Club.

As Michael Bauer noted in his blog post today, San Francisco has been underrepresented over the past couple of seasons. Hopefully, one of the chefs will be able to take home the title of "Top Chef", bringing the prize back to where the series was first set.

A 'Buzz in the Air

If you are a regular reader of Food for Thought, you may have noticed that I recently became a Featured Publisher for Foodbuzz, a virtual community dedicated to the love of food. Last week, the virtual intertwined with the real as the Foodbuzz team hosted a Featured Publishers' dinner at the Slanted Door in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Over a delectable assortment of appetizers and entrées, I took the opportunity to meet the fabulous editorial staff at Foodbuzz, as well to chat with some of my fellow Bay Area food bloggers, including the authors of The Petite Pig, The Whole Wheat, Cheese N' Things, Taking the World Over One Bite at a Time, and Lunch in a Box.

(Photo originally posted by eatingplum.)

I'd like to thank the gracious staff at Foodbuzz for putting together and hosting a fantastic event. I had a wonderful time and hope that there will be many more dinners with the Foodbuzz crew and other Bay Area bloggers soon!

Looking Forward to 2008!

Like many of you (at least I hope!), I'm looking forward to a great 2008. This is going to be quite a big year for me. As many of you already know, Karen and I got engaged a few months back and are in the midst of planning our wedding. We haven't set a date yet, but we are looking to getting married in the Bay Area sometime toward the end of the summer or the beginning of the fall. Over the next few months, I'm sure that you'll see some posts chronicling the trials and tribulations of our wedding planning. Of course, not all of it will be bad - I'm sure that we'll have a fun time tasting wedding cakes and sampling delicious food as we go through the process of selecting a caterer, so stay tuned!

I'm also looking forward to an exciting year at work. Last year, I picked up a lot of new tasks and additional responsibilities, so I hope to continue expanding my role in my immediate team and in the larger organization. I'll likely be doing some travelling, both for work and for leisure, which should give me the opportunity to expand my culinary horizons, as well as to continue my airline food reports.

Of course, I will continue to blog about our food adventures. Work and wedding planning permitting, I will try to post at least as frequently as I did last year. I recently joined up with the Foodbuzz Publishers Program, which will hopefully motivate me to write more often. And yes, I still owe you "The List" of restaurants - hopefully I will be ready to share it with you very soon.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited to see what 2008 will hold. I look forward to your continued comments and encouragement which make writing this blog so fun and enjoyable, so keep them coming!

Dine About Town '08

Nearly 100 restaurants in San Francisco are now taking lunch and dinner reservations for the 7th Annual Dine About Town event. Participating restaurants will be offering three course prie fixe lunch and dinner menus that will allow you enjoy a wide variety of gourmet cuisine throughout San Francisco.

The event will run January 15-31, 2008 and will feature three course lunches for $21.95 and dinners for $31.95 (excluding beverage, tax, and gratuity). You can book your reservations online at OpenTable.com.

1300 on Fillmore

(This post is way overdue, but better late than never, right?)

A couple of weeks ago, Karen took me out for a fabulous birthday dinner at 1300 on Fillmore (1300 Fillmore St; 415-771-7100), a new restaurant located in the Fillmore Jazz district of San Francisco. Having opened only five days prior to our visit, 1300 on Fillmore features American food with a Southern flair. Indeed, their website describe their cuisine as "Soulful American". Opened by Executive Chef David Lawrence and his wife Monetta White, 1300 on Fillmore is located in the Heritage on Fillmore high-rise, next to the soon-to-be-open Yoshi's Jazz Club.

Arriving at the restaurant, Karen and I initially walked right by the nondescript wooden front door. Once we realized our mistake and made our way through the entrance, we found ourselves surrounded by the dark walls of the stylishly appointed space. Designed by the MCCARTAN design firm, the restaurant exudes sophistication without feeling overly formal. Covering its walnut and chocolate brown walls are portraits of famous legends of jazz, an homage to the heritage of the surrounding Lower Fillmore neighborhood. Strategically placed rows of indirect and spot lighting provide just right amount of illumination to offset the dark walls without losing the intimate and cozy feel.

When we arrived, the restaurant had ample availability (not surprising given its recent soft opening and the time of our mid-week visit), so the hostess led us to a four-top near the Eddy Street-facing windows in the main dining room. Since it was my birthday, we started off our dinner with a little bubbly - I enjoyed a glass of Gloria Ferrer as we perused the menu.

Both of us were pretty hungry, so we ordered two appetizers: the freshwater shrimp hush puppies and the bourbon braised pork belly. These hush puppies differed from ones that I had eaten in the past as it appeared to have a simple cornmeal coating as opposed to a layer of deep fried cornbread batter. Accompanying the basket of shrimp hush puppies was a small ramekin of spicy ancho chile remoulade. The Louisiana-style remoulade was different from mayonnaise-based ones that I've made myself, but it provided just the right amount of heat to accent the flavor of the piping hot and tasty hush puppies. After polishing off the shrimp, we started in on the pork belly. The generous portion of braised meat was fall-apart tender and simply succulent. However, I didn't care so much for the shelled white bean puree on which the pork was served. Normally, I like the combination of sweet flavors with pork (ever tried pig candy?), but in this case, the sweetness of the bean puree just did not work for me in this dish.

For the main courses, Karen and I split the skillet fried chicken and the maple syrup braised beef short rib. The fried chicken is one of the house specialties and requires 30 minutes of prep time. The chicken was excellent - its crunchy coating was packed with flavor (highlighted with cumin, if I'm not mistaken) and sealed in the juices, resulting in a savory and moist entrée that's well worth the wait. The side of truffled mashed potatoes with pan gravy was tasty as well, but it is the chicken that is the highlight of this dish. With three pieces of chicken per order, there is plenty of goodness to share. Our other main course was delicious as well. Our order of short rib had only a small sliver of bone, which meant that we were able to enjoy a generous portion of tender beef between the two of us. I don't normally associate sweet flavors with beef, but it definitely worked in this dish, in marked contrast to the braised pork belly. The sides of mashed potatoes and braised greens were good, but it was the short rib that was the headliner on this dish. We liked both of our selections quite a bit, but if there was a small complaint, it was that both of these dishes came out to us a bit on the cool side. The plates were each very hot, but the food itself was less so. Nevertheless, the chicken and beef were very good, despite cooling off quickly. We just chalked it up to newness of the restaurant; hopefully, they'll be able to work out the kinks quickly.

The service at 1300 on Fillmore was impeccable. Our server, Annette, was very friendly and attentive to our needs, as were the bussers who kept our water glasses from going empty all evening long. Since it was a bit slow that evening, Annette stopped by our table frequently, not only checking to make sure that everything was going well, but also chatting with us about the restaurant when we expressed interest. Both Chef Lawrence and his wife paid a visit to our table in order to welcome us to their new venue as well as to pass along birthday wishes, which I thought was quite nice. At the end of our meal, Annette brought us an order of chocolate-filled beignets, on the house, topped off with a birthday candle. The freshly made beignets were accompanied by chocolate and vanilla dipping sauces - they were a delicious end to a very nice meal.

While it was a bit slow during our visit, I suspect that soon it might be difficult to land a reservation there, especially on weekends. During our dinner, a large party came in to the semi-private 22-person party room, located just off the main dining area. Apparently, they had already been receiving some requests for that party room, even though they had not yet started taking reservations officially at that point in time. Once Yoshi's opens, I think that they'll be getting a lot of the spillover traffic from its next-door neighbor, especially since they will be serving dinner until 11pm and a lounge menu until 1am. They have also applied for permits so that they can host live jazz entertainment, which will be quite nice once they start up their weekend brunch. We plan to pay them a visit again soon.

One Dram at a Time

Last night, Karen surprised me with a fabulous early birthday present: tickets to the First Annual San Francisco Whisky Fest hosted by Malt Advocate magazine. We met up after work yesterday evening at the Hyatt Regency, site of this tasting event, and headed into the main ballroom where more than 200 of the world's finest single malt and blended whiskies were waiting for us to sample. Whiskies of all kind from around the world were present at this event. There were Canadian and Irish whiskeys, Japanese single malts, and Kentucky bourbons distributed among the 70 or so booths at the gala. For me, however, the highlight of the evening were the Scotch whiskies, which were well-represented at this event.

As we walked around the ballroom, it was difficult to figure out where to start, but after a few minutes of wandering, we ran into the table for Highland Park, a single malt label that I had been looking to try for some time. Not only did I get a chance to try to 12 year old bottling, I also was able to sample 15, 18, 25, and 30 year old versions of this fine liquor. The gentleman pouring the drams for us at the Highland Park table was very friendly and happy to answer our many questions. This was our experience all evening: many knowledgeable and nice people who were more than pleased to serve us their version of the distilled beverage and share their extensive knowledge about this famous liquor. Over the course of the evening, we took the opportunity to sample the whisky from many different distilleries, including Talisker, Oban, and Dalwhinnie. We also sampled some blended whiskies, such as The Famous Grouse, and a Japanese whiskey, Suntory of Lost in Translation fame. Karen and I also sampled some of my favorite Scotch, The Macallan. We capped off our evening with a tasting of various bottlings of Glenfarclas.

At each booth, we had the opportunity to try multiple offerings from each distillery, including some 30 year old whiskies and a few 110+ proof cask strength ones as well. I learned that I'm not a fan of full cask strength whisky, but I also realized that just a tiny bit of water opened the liquor enough to enjoy the complex flavors. Even though each pour was quite small, the total amount that we consumed added up, so we took several breaks from imbibing to eat some pasta, roast beef, and crudite in the adjacent ballroom.

Interspersed throughout the evening were a number of breakout lectures on whiskies, on topics ranging from "The Art of Japanese Whisky" to "Scotch... or... Bourbon?" and "Deconstructing Glenfiddich 21 Caribbean Run Finish". We decided to check out the lecture "Chocolate and Scotch Pairing", also known as "The Fruit of the Gods meets the Water of Life". Our session was sponsored by the maker of Laphroaig and The Dalmore single malt whiskies and Bay Area chocolatier, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker. The session was hosted by Simon Brooking, Master Ambassador for the two aforementioned distilleries. Simon delivered a very engaging and entertaining lecture about the making of Scotch whisky, which contrasted markedly with the far less energetic presentation given by his chocolate making counterpart. It was interesting to see the parallels between the making of Scotch whisky and chocolate, and even more intriguing to try various types of Scotch paired up against specific kinds of chocolate. Some of the pairings worked better than others, but all of them were palatable.

All in all, I had a really fun evening enjoying some whisky with my sweetie. It was a great birthday surprise and an event that I hope to attend again next year. (Hint, hint.)

What We Ate... At Saha

Wednesday, October 17

Dinner: Saha, 1075 Sutter Street; 415-345-9547

Tonight was Date Night, so where does a guy take his lady? For a dining experience in the Tenderloin  the Tendernob Nob Hill, of course. For our date tonight, I decided to try something a little different, so I took Karen to Saha, a Middle Eastern restaurant in the Hotel Carlton. Named after the Arabic word meaning "a toast to good health", Saha serves up Middle Eastern fusion cuisine, combining the flavors of Yemeni cooking with Californian and French influences.

What we ate:

• Stuffed avocado: Knaffe (see below) coated & lightly fried avocado stuffed with pomegranate, couscous, tabouleh, and served with semi-soy marinated tofu and raspberry reduction. This starter had an interesting mix of textures and flavors with the crunchy coating contrasting nicely with the creamy avocado. The slices of tofu were surprising good as well.


• Kofta: Yemeni meatballs of ground lamb and beef marinated with allspice, cumin, mint, cilantro, onion, and olive oil. Served with zahaweg, a spicy tomato and chile sauce. The meatballs were nicely charred and tasty. The accompanying sauce provided quite a bit of kick.


• Classic Moroccan couscous: prepared with 7 seasonal vegetables and 8 spices in light saffron broth with chicken and merguez sausage. This dish was excellent, with the couscous soaking up the plentiful juices from the meat. This plate had an interesting mix of vegetables too, included what I thought may have been daikon.


• Lamb tagine: served with basmati rice. This was another excellent dish. The lamb was very flavorful, with a slight hint of sweetness, and fall-apart tender. This dish was a special addition to the menu tonight.


• Knaffe: a sweet dessert made with shredded phyllo and melted cheese. A fabulous dessert, not overly sweet, with an interesting contrast in textures between the phyllo and cheese. Worth the 20 minute wait.

What we drank:

• Sokol Blosser Evolution: a blend of 9 varietals, from Willamette Valley, Oregon

Angels and Cupcakes

A couple of weekends ago, San Francisco hosted Fleet Week, an annual event held during the Columbus Day weekend to honor the Sailors and Marines serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. The past few years, Karen and I have missed Fleet Week, as either one or both of us have been out of town for some reason or another. (For instance, we were in Hawaii during last year's event.) This year, both of us were in town, so we decided to head down to the waterfront to check it out.

One of the main draws of the weekend is the airshow, which is highlighted with an aerial performance by the Blue Angels, the Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron. Though I had been to a few other airshows in the past, this was the first one where I saw the Blue Angels. They did not disappoint. The precision in their maneuvers was amazing; at times, it appeared that the six planes were moving as a single entity, as the fighters flew together with just a few feet of separation between them.


From our vantage point near the shore, we could feel the immense power of the jets as they roared overhead during their 45 minute show. One of the more memorable moments for me was when a solo F/A-18 did a high-speed pass at what must have been no more than 50 feet above the water, the vortex of its mighty wake turbulence parting the waters of San Francisco Bay. It was just a lot of fun to watch the planes weave between one another against the gorgeous backdrop of the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge.


After the show ended, Karen and I decided to take advantage of the fact that we were in the Marina District to grab some sweet treats at Kara's Cupcakes, named after owner Kara Lind. An advertising sales exec turned baker, Lind sources the organic ingredients for her cakes from local suppliers to ensure that her products are as fresh as possible. After having read about this little bakery in both the Daily Candy and in the local paper, both of us were excited to pay them a visit.


Luckily, we beat the big rush and only had to wait a minute or two before it was our turn to order. Karen decided to go with the Chocolate Velvet (below left), a chocolate cupcake with a velvety bittersweet chocolate buttercream, while I went with the Raspberry Dazzle, a chocolate confection frosted with a raspberry buttercream.


The cupcakes were very good, a bit lighter than I expected. At $3 (or more) per cupcake, it's also a bit on the expensive side. I wonder how the cupcakes compare with those from New York City's Magnolia Bakery, of Sex in the City and SNL fame. Maybe it's time for a West Coast v. East Coast, SF v. NYC, cupcake face-off.

Alive and Kicking

Lest you think that my recent lack of posts means that I have been not eating (as my friend Doug seems to think, at least judging from his comments in a recent post), let me reassure you that I am alive and well, but simply quite busy. Despite our somewhat hectic schedules, Karen and I have managed to fit in a few dining outings here and there.

A couple of weeks back, Karen took advantage of her half-day Friday to hop on a mid-afternoon train and head down in my direction, meeting up with me just as I was getting off work. We had made plans to meet up with one of our friends, Diana, before she headed out to the other coast for grad school this fall. We left the dining plans up to Diana, who wanted to enjoy some cuisine that she might not be able to get in her new home city. She thought that some Indian food would be nice, so we headed to Amber India (377 Santana Row; 408-248-5400). This was our first visit to the Santana Row location, though we had previously dined at the Mountain View restaurant. I was a bit surprised at the differences in decor between the two locations. The atmosphere at the original restaurant is subdued and traditional, a marked contrast from the new location's trendy and sophisticated decor, which fits in perfectly at Santana Row. For dinner, we decided to share a few entrees: asparagus kofta, maans ki soweta, and butter chicken. The kofta was good, but then again, how could a paneer cheese dumpling not be good? We also liked the maans ki soweta, a lamb curry with yogurt and corn, but our favorite was the butter chicken, which was very rich and quite decadent.

The next morning, we slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast of egg, cheese, and Spam sandwiches (yes, I do like Spam) before heading up to the City to meet up with a group of friends at the Nihonmachi Street Fair in Japantown. It was a nice day for a walk, during which we took in the sights and sounds of the fair. We also liked the smells that were coming from the many food vendors, who were grilling up large quantities of teriyaki chicken and beef over hot coals. Though I was tempted, I refrained from ordering any street food as we had agreed to an early dinner with our friends. After walking around the fair for a bit, we wandered down to Fillmore Street and checked out Pacific Heights, one of my favorite neighborhoods in San Francisco. Soon, all of us were starting to get hungry so we decided to pick a nearby dining establishment for dinner. We settled on The Elite Cafe (2049 Fillmore Street; 415-346-8668), a Cajun/Creole restaurant located in Upper Fillmore. By the time we were seated, all of us were quite hungry. We definitely needed some starters. We ordered a dozen of Doňa Luisa's Infamous deviled eggs for the entire group as well as a mess of cornbread, which we devoured as soon as the food hit the table. For the main course, I ordered the duck confit, shrimp, and andouille sausage jambalaya, while Karen opted for the Niman Ranch pork chop. The jambalaya, which came out in a large steel pan on a big plate, was chock-full of generously-sized portions of duck, shrimp, and sausage and pretty tasty, though I was expecting a bit more spice and heat from this dish. The pork chop was very good as well, but the accompanying side of corn stole the show - it was simply bursting with flavor.

The next morning, Karen and I met up with another group of friends, one of whom was passing through town on her way from Hawaii to Norway. We brunched at Pomelo (1793 Church Street; 415-285-2257), a cozy (35 seat) restaurant located in Noe Valley. The menu at Pomelo features traditional selections from around the globe; the items are named after locations in the countries from which they originated. I picked Cork, aka corned beef hash with eggs, while Karen selected the Altamira, a plate of three white corn buns, each containing a different filling. The Cork was one of the best hash dishes that I've ever had, with huge pieces of delicious corned beef. It would have been the best version of this dish had they omitted the accompanying vinaigrette, whose sharp flavor felt way out of place on this dish. The Altamira was decent, though the egg filling was rather bland. After this delicious brunch, we hung out with our friends for a while before heading off to enjoy an afternoon walk in the Mission District. On our walk, we stopped by La Palma Mexicantessen (2884 24th Street; 415-647-1500), where we picked up some carnitas, which is sold by the pound, and birria, a spicy, stewed goat dish. We also grabbed a dozen fresh corn tortillas, hot off the griddle and better than any tortilla that I've ever eaten previously. We threw in a small order of chicharrón for good measure and brought all of this food back to Karen's place, enjoying it later for a very tasty and filling dinner.

Fast forward to last weekend. Last Friday evening, Karen and I took a relaxing, evening drive down beautiful California Highway 1 from San Francisco down toward Half Moon Bay. Our destination: Mezzaluna (459 Prospect Way; 650-728-8108), a Southern Italian restaurant located in little harbor town of Princeton-by-the-Sea. We started out dinner with an order of calamari, which we quite liked for its very light batter. For our main courses, we ordered a plate of Mezzelune al Salmone, half-moon shaped ravioli filled with salmon in a tomato cream sauce, and a politically incorrect Chilean sea bass dish. Both of these fish dishes were excellent, especially the sea bass, which came with an olive tapenade, grilled polenta, and a pea puree. We were quite happy with our dinner selections as they were not only quite tasty, but also reasonably light.

The next morning, we caught up on some much needed sleep before we got up and headed out to Le Village for its monthly open house. We picked up some pâté, cheese, and crackers, which we enjoyed for lunch after we returned home. We also picked up some Veuve Amiot champagne sparkling wine at the spectacular price of $84 for an entire case. After lunch, we spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing, which was great - both of us continued working away at our sleep debt by catching a cat nap. That evening, Karen had plans with her friends, so I headed back down toward my place in the South Bay, but not before grabbing a Matisse crepe with her at Frjtz Fries (570 Hayes Street; 415-864-7654) in Hayes Valley. After I got home that evening, I whipped up a batch of macaroni and cheese using a recipe from the new issue of Bon Appétit. Karen had requested this dish, which I was more than happy to make and take up to her.

The next day, I putzed around my place, doing some of the mundane chores that I had neglected for the past few weeks, before heading back up to Karen's place, with a Pyrex pan of mac and cheese in hand. Of course, I already knew that I would not be tasting the macaroni dish that evening, as we had dinner reservations at Zuni Cafe (1658 Market Street; 415-552-2522), the James Beard award-winning restaurant featuring Mediterranean-inspired cuisine. You would think that as self-proclaimed Bay Area-based foodies, we would have been to Zuni already, but this was my first visit there. Zuni is very well-known for its roasted chicken for two. This dish, which comes with a panzanella salad and dressed with mustard greens, is roasted to order in a wood oven. As you might expect from a roasted-to-order chicken dish, you have to endure a long wait (up to an hour, according to the menu) for your dish to arrive, but it is well worth the wait. The moist chicken and nicely roasted skin is absolutely delicious. The best part is that since you get an entire chicken, there'll be leftovers for the next day. The only drawback, in my opinion, is the cost; the roasted chicken dish for two will set you back more than four sawbucks, which is quite steep, even for this delectable dish.

So, dear readers, no need to worry about whether we are eating or not. (This means you, Doctor No.) Our Bay Area dining adventures continue.

What We Ate... At The Alembic

Monday, July 30

Dinner: The Alembic Bar, 1725 Haight Street; 415-666-0822

Last Monday, we decided to check out The Alembic, a trendy new bar in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

What we ate:

• Sliders: Moroccan spiced lamb burgers with harissa aioli and olive tapenade. Tasty, but I wish that we got more than two burgers for $10.


• Stout-braised oxtail: with melted cheese and roasted peppers on toast. Good, but also a bit expensive.


• Herb and Spice Dusted Fries: with lemongrass, garlic, and aromatic aioli.


• Spaetzle: with braised rabbit, bacon, gruyère, dijon mustard and tarragon. Absolutely delicious, our favorite dish of the evening.

What we drank:

• Bourbon Old Fashioned


• Mint Julep


• Mellow Yellow: not the soft drink, but rather a variation on a whiskey sour


• Sara's Ruby Mild from the Magnolia Pub and Brewery, The Alembic's sister restaurant

Introducing... What We Ate

Here's the first in what hopefully will be an on-going series of posts summarizing some of my dining experiences. I often find that when I am busy, especially with work (like I am now), I tend to let this blog go by the wayside. Hopefully, with this is condensed version, I can still share some of my stories, even when other things take over my life.

Friday, July 13

Lunch: Coco500, 500 Brannan Street; 415-543-2222

One of the perks of Karen's job is that they have summer hours, which means her weekend starts at 12:30pm Friday afternoon. This past Friday, I took a half-day off to join her in an early weekend.

What we ate:

• Braised duck panini: shredded duck on lightly toasted bread - dee-lish! Came with a watercress-orange salad on the side.


• Spaghettini: pasta with local squid in a ink-based sauce with a hint of lemon and olive oil. Also excellent.


• Truffled squash blossom flatbread: Also very good, though it seemed that it would be more appropriate as an appetizer (which is how we had it) instead of a main course

What we drank:

• Blueberry fizz: blueberry infused gin, milk, egg white, organic sugar, lemon, seltzer. The citrus was stronger than we expected, but it was still quite good.


• Samuel Smith's Organic Lager

Dinner: Chutney Restaurant, 511 Jones Street; 415-931-5541

Ah, nothing like dinner in the middle of the Tenderloin at 10pm on a Friday evening (Friday the 13th no less).

What we ate:

• Saag gosht: Nice tender pieces of lamb in a spinach-based sauce.


• Chicken Biryani: The rice was nicely flavored, but the chicken was a bit dry.


• Lamb Kofta: Tasty with a nice amount of spice and seasonings.


• Naan

Saturday, July 14

Brunch: Mayflower Restaurant, 428 Barber Lane, Milpitas; 408-922-2700

Karen and I went out to dim sum with my mom, who flew into town late the previous evening.

What we ate:

• Dim sum: We had a lot of our usual favorites, including shu mai, chive dumplings, shrimp rice noodle rolls, and fung zau

Dinner: Out the Door, 865 Market Street, Westfield San Francisco Centre; 415-541-9913

Karen and I stopped by for a quick dinner before the Ani DiFranco concert at the Warfield.

What we ate:

• Imperial rolls: With shrimp, pork, tree ear mushrooms, and glass noodles. Very tasty and quite filling.


• Grilled lemongrass pork over vermicelli noodles with lettuce, cucumber, and mint: A nice, fresh-tasting dish.


• Star Route Farm baby chard, kale, and mizuna: Sauteed with garlic just the way we like it.

What we drank:

• Ayinger Jahrhundert


• Trumer Pils: I'm not sure how we ended up ordering two European beers at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Range: Our Dinner in Pictures

Last weekend, Karen and I were finally able to meet up with Tesha and Jeremiah for dinner out on the town. Even though my ex-pat friends have been back in the Bay Area for over nine months, it's been amazingly difficult find a mutually workable time to get together for a nice, sit-down dinner due to our exceedingly busy schedules. In fact, we were fortunate that Tesha had just flown back from Europe last Friday and was eager to meet up for dinner (despite the jet lag).

Karen and I thought that we would introduce them to one of our favorite dining spots in San Francisco, Range (842 Valencia Street; 415-282-8283), a Mission District destination featuring American cuisine. Karen has this knack for picking out up and coming restaurants before they become the buzz of the town. Range was one such find, a restaurant that we visited well before it received its Michelin star rating.

We started our dinner with a round of drinks. The ladies both opted for a peach bellini, while we guys went for the cocktails: Jeremiah had a Dark and Stormy, while I chose the Siren. While we were sipping on our drinks, we ordered a couple of appetizers. We put in for an order of the chicken liver mousse, the silky smooth and fabulously tasty starter. It was so good that I probably could have devoured the entire serving by myself. Since Tesha isn't a big fan of offal, she started out with a bowl of the lentil soup, which was also quite good as well.

After we polished off the starters, we each ordered a glass of wine to go with our main course. Rather than going through a detailed analysis of each of our entrees, all of which were very good, I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Karen ordered the Alaskan halibut with a stew of pancetta, flageolet beans and fennel:


I went with the slow cooked pork shoulder with romano beans and a morel mushroom sauce:


Jeremiah ordered the special of the evening, roasted quail on a bed of trumpet mushrooms:


After some deliberation, Tesha picked the pan-seared hanger steak with fingerling potatoes and a horseradish sauce:


As usual, the food was fantastic. Each dish was generously portioned, full of flavor, and just well-executed. As delicious as the entrees were, the desserts, made in-house by pastry chef Michelle Polzin, might have been even a bit better.

The bittersweet chocolate-armagnac soufflé with chocolate sauce:


The strawberry shortcake with lemon cream:


Freshly made crêpes with blackberries and ice cream:


The Three Sister's Serena cheese plate with raw cow’s milk cheese with date purée and hazelnuts:


A snapshot of us, the happy diners:


Once again, our dinner at Range was excellent. It is simply a great place for dinner, whether you are celebrating a special occasion or just passing though the neighborhood during the evening hours. Range is one restaurant that I plan to visit again and again.

Garlic Crab Noodles

A while back, Karen and I went out with a few of our friends to celebrate the beginning of the dungeness crab season, which starts in mid-November and runs well into the new year in this area. We chose to have dinner at PPQ Dungeness Island (2332 Clement Street; 415-386-8266), which specializes in this crustacean delicacy. The restaurant features several different preparations of crab, including roasted, drunken, and curry versions. As tasty as the crab is, a necessary component of the meal has to be a big plate of garlic noodles. The version served at PPQ Dungeness Island is very savory and pairs wonderfully with the sweet and delicate crab meat. Karen just loved these noodles and ate so much at that dinner the she coined a new phrase, garlic noodles full, to describe her state of being afterwards.

Last night, I decided to surprise her with a little treat by making her a crab dinner which included, of course, a large plate of garlic noodles. I thought that it would be an interesting twist simply to add the crab directly to the noodles to create a plate of garlic crab noodles. Yesterday afternoon, I dropped by Costco to pick up some Phillips jumbo lump crab, but they apparently were completely out of stock. Luckily, their Seafood Roadshow was taking place at the store this weekend, so I was able to obtain several nice looking king crab legs.

When I got home, I took half of the crab legs, cracked them, and removed the meat from the shell. (Helpful hint: A pair of kitchen shears come in quite handy for this task.) I would use this crab meat for the noodles. For the remaining legs, I would prepare them using the Alton Brown recommended cooking method and served them alongside the noodles. On my way home from Costco, I had picked up some fresh egg noodles from 99 Ranch Market. I prepped the noodles by quickly dunking them in boiling water, rinsing them with cold water (both to stop the cooking and to remove the excess starch), and draining them in a colander. Now I was ready to made the garlic crab noodles.

I set up my wok on medium-low heat and melted a generous amount of sweet butter. After the butter had melted, I threw in about six cloves of minced garlic and cooked them until they were just about to turn brown, about 3-4 minutes. Next I threw in the drained egg noodles and jacked up the heat to medium-high. Quickly stirring the noodles to mix in the garlic and butter, I poured in about a 1/4 cup of oyster sauce, and a small amount of granulated sugar which I mixed in with a bit of nước mắm, a Vietnamese fish sauce. I stir-fried the noodles for several minutes until they were thoroughly heated through before the final step of mixing in the king crab. Since the crab was already cooked, I didn't want to toughen the meat by overcooking, so I was careful to take the wok off the heat as soon as it got up to temperature. Here were the results:


Karen and I both really liked the noodles, but the next time that I make the dish, I think that I'll make a few tweaks. First, I'll add in some more garlic. I was afraid that I would overpower the crab so I held back a little, but I think that the dish can handle some additional cloves of garlic. Also, I might use an extra-virgin olive oil and butter mixture instead of straight butter to give the flavor a little more depth, though I'm not sure how the taste of the oil will mix with Asian flavors of the oyster and fish sauces. I also wonder if it would be good to add a few flakes of dried chiles to add a little kick to the dish. I guess that we'll all know the next time that I make garlic crab noodles.

Tsunami Revisited

Last night, Karen and I dropped in for dinner at the restaurant where we had our first "official" date, Tsunami Sushi (1306 Fulton Street; 415-567-7664), in the NoPa neighborhood of San Francisco. We had thought about ordering take-out last night, but the evening weather was pretty nice, so we made the short walk from Karen's place over to the restaurant. As an added plus, we brought along a $15 gift card from our CozmoDeck that we purchased earlier this year.

The interior at Tsunami is cozy and the decor is very trendy; with the contemporary music playing in the background, you almost feel like you are in a nightclub rather than in a sushi bar. We didn't have reservations, but luckily there were a couple of open seats in the lounge area. We started out our dinner with an order of Tsunami fries, rectangular planks of yams lightly coated in tempura batter, deep fried, and served with a small dish of red salt. To accompany our meal, we decided to order a bottle of sake. Tsunami is well known for its extensive selection of sake, all imported from Japan. We settled on a bottle of Tedorigawa Daiginjo "Chrysanthemum Meadow", which was fragrant and floral.

After polishing off the tasty fries, we moved on to the main attraction: sushi and sashimi. Our first main dish was a Scorpion maki roll, which had tempura shrimp, kani (crab), and cucumber topped with unagi (freshwater eel) and avocado. The roll was big (8 pieces), which was good as we both really enjoyed this dish. After we finished off the roll, the empty plate was cleared away and replaced by a platter with all of the sashimi specials of the day: waloo (escolar from Hawaii), seigo (Japanese sea bass from Nagasaki), Kona kampachi (amberjack from Kona, Hawaii), hirame (halibut from the East Coast), and aji (horse mackerel from Japan). We split the sashimi right down the middle with each of us getting one of the two pieces of each fish. All of the fish selections were very fresh and flavorful. While each type of sashimi was quite good, we both really liked the waloo, which had an amazing texture to go along with its fine and delicate flavor.

After the sashimi, we moved on to nigiri sushi. We ordered some unagi (our usual) and a plate of amaebi, raw prawns served with their deep fried heads on the side (which is the real reason for ordering this dish). Both orders were good, especially the amaebi head, though I was a little surprised that the unagi didn't come coated with the usual sweet sauce. I was still a bit peckish, so we ordered a second round of nigiri consisting of an order of hotate (scallop) and broiled bincho (albacore tuna). Both dishes were good, but the broiled albacore didn't taste much different from the non-broiled version that I'm used to.

In between the two rounds of nigiri, our server (whose name unfortunately escapes me) brought over a small tokkuri of umeshi sake, on the house. While the gesture was nice, we normally eschew warm sake, so we continued drinking our daiginjo. However, after the bottle was empty, we decided to try the complementary sake, which cooled off to room temperature. Boy, were we surprised! The sake had a pleasant aroma of almonds, which was strong but not overpowering. It was very smooth and quite sweet. Normally, I can only tolerate so much in the way of sweet alcoholic drink, but the amount of sake that we had was just right. It was a really nice way to cap off our dinner.

Karen and I both had a good time last night at dinner. Each time we have been to Tsunami, the food has been great and the service friendly and attentive. The complementary sake was very nice as well. In addition, they gave us a gift card from the CozmoDeck to the sister restaurant, Nihon, which I thought was another nice touch. We'll definitely have to make another return visit to Tsunami.

Goodies in the Mail

Today, I received a package in the mail. Inside the padded manila envelope were two copies of the Zagat 2007/08 San Francisco Nightlife Guide. Apparently, my blog caught the attention of one of the Marcom guys at Zagat, who sent me a nice email last week and offered to forward a couple of complementary copies. I actually have a paid subscription to Zagat.com (not that he knew about that) so I already had online access to all of the content in the book, but it's still nice to have a physical copy that I can leave in the car.

I'd like to send out a big thanks to Michael in Corporate Communications, not only for sending me the guide (which is very cool!), but also for keeping in touch with the blogosphere and reaching out to their constituents. You can count on me to renew my subscription next year.