Some eatin'

We, or at least I, have been trying to cook more and eat at home more. But we did hit a few restaurants in the last week.

Rosamunde Sausage Grill - 545 Haight St (btwn Fillmore and Steiner)
Really cheap eats, small place with counter seating (most people apparently take out or take it next door to the bar to eat, which the guy knows and will explicitly ask which you're doing). Very popular. We got the Hungarian sausage and the beer sausage, along with the German potato salad (for me) and a bag of chips (for him). You can put (choice of 2) hot and/or sweet peppers, onions, sauerkraut, or beanless beef chili on your sausage, along with choice of wasabi honey mustard, dijon mustard, or ketchup. We both got sweet peppers and onions on our sausage, and traded sausages halfway through. Our verdicts were actually the same - it's well done sausages of a particular style, and it's not our style. I might go back b/c it's really cheap and they have a huge variety of sausage types (kind of want to try the duck and fig or chicken and cherry ones), but stylistically, the ones we tried weren't really our thing. It's hard to explain what I'm talking about. They are good sausages, and the guy behind the counter was cool. I liked my German potato salad (not mayonaissey, more vinegary). But I guess I like my sweet Aidell sausages? Also, the Hungarian sausage was not at all what I had imagined - the sausages on the Hungarian pizza at Applewood Pizza, all smoky and yummy. It was more spicy and salty, not exactly what I had in mind, which didn't help my opinion. I do think I'll try it again sometime though.

Where else have I gone? We actually went all the way down to Mountain View to get Pho Hoa, which I realize must not be very authentic pho but we love their broth, we know what we like here, and it's so fast...and to get my hazelnut milk tea from Verde. I realize people who really like tea don't like Verde but I don't like tea, I like sweet drinks, and I love their hazelnut (which no one else has - the drink at Tea Era doesn't remotely taste like this) and their slightly sweet chewy pearls. I was a happy girl that night, though I then couldn't fall asleep for the rest of the night =P.

Friday night, we went with a friend to Pine Restaurant (1330 Noriega, between 20th Ave and 21st Ave), a Korean restaurant in the Sunset. I was very pleasantly surprised - we didn't do the grill at the table (though it was an option) but I found that I really liked their bulgogi and kalbi, which was yummy and cheaper by like $5 than Brothers. Plus there was no wait. Good stuff, I'd definitely go back. Afterwards, we went to Golden Island Cafe a few doors down. They've got one in San Mateo too, but this one was better - more options, better options, better service... My bf got a "Yummy Mango" which was HUGE and yet only $6 - big heap of mango sorbet, crushed ice, sago, fresh mango, coconut juice... I got something smaller and more standard - the sesame paste + sweet tofu. I love these Chinese dessert places. Yummy!

That's all I can remember off the top of my head...

Busy days...

Sunday was a pretty stacked day. We went to Alice's Now and Zen during the day, and then drove over to North Beach (I think the first time we actually chose to drive in the city to do something since moving here) to catch Russell Peters at the Cobb's Comedy Club.

The rationale behind going to Alice's Now and Zen was primarily "there's a fairly cheap concert in the park, and we're relatively near the park. Why not go?" The bands I didn't particularly care one way or the other about - Gin Blossoms, Joss Stone, James Blunt, and opening group Peter Bjorn and John. Turns out I knew and liked the Gin Blossoms music the best, didn't know anything by Joss Stone, and James Blunt is a lot more energetic than I would have expected in concert. And for some reason unknown to me, he covered Peter Bjorn and John's "Whistle Song", only minus any whistling. We got to the park around 10:50AM (doors opened at 11) to discover a long line stretching down JFK Drive, but luckily it turned out to not be so bad when we got in - got a good-size spot a reasonable distance from the stage so it wasn't too loud but we weren't super-far, either. I was extremely happy that the day before we'd gone to get lawn/beach chairs from Sports Authority - a 5 hour concert lounging in chairs with $5 toss pillows we'd gotten from Target turned out to be a great way to see things. Admittedly, after the crowd stood up for Joss Stone, we stayed resolutely sitting so I didn't end up *seeing* much (also, I pulled out my book), but it was an enjoyable way to spend the day. The weather was typical SF - went from slightly drizzly and extremely grey when we arrived to bright blue and sunny and almost hot by the time we left. We brought our own sandwich-making materials and a lot of snacks, so I didn't have to pay for any over-priced festival food (plus, they didn't have funnel cake!). They did have a number of booths giving stuff away for free, though.

The Russell Peters show at Cobb's was hilarious. It's always interesting to see the distribution of the audiences to shows, and the audience for his show was very telling - primarily Asian/Indian. It was totally sold out, and the line was already stretching halfway up the next block by the time we arrived almost an hour before the show. We got a great seat - not close enough to the stage for him to pick on us, but close enough to get a great view. They chose an interesting array of comics to open for him - one white guy, one Mexican, one black guy, and one Japanese guy. Definite rainbow there. The Japanese guy I didn't like that much - he had funny jokes that he would then ruin by taking too far, laughing at too hard, or explaining. The other guys were pretty good. Russell Peters was definitely the highlight, though. I'm still unclear how much of the show is pre-scripted and how much is spontaneous (drawing from his pool of jokes) based on the audience responses he gets...and how much is planted (why are people suddenly shouting their nationalities at random points in the show when he doesn't even ask?). But his style is very loose and funny and very interactive. He can get quite insulting when interacting with the audience, but he turns it out all into hilarity. And his accents are great - Indian, Chinese, Filipino, etc. His comedy is largely about race and racial stereotypes (or not even so much stereotypes as inside joke for each culture) and it totally cracks me up.

I'm my own mother!

I recently signed up on broadwayworld.com so I could post about Jersey Boys, and as a consequence have seen more random information about Broadway than I've read in, well, ever. A recent news bit caught my eye and made me realize just how circular and small the theater world can be.

Apparently Lea Salonga (formerly Eponine) is currently playing Fantine on Broadway. And she's going to be replaced by Judy Kuhn, who was Broadway's original Cosette. Not only that, but looking at the current cast list for Les Miz, it says Gary Beach is playing Thenardier. The name is really really familiar...I could have sworn he was in Les Miz ages ago and there *is* someone named "Gary Beach" in the credits of the Complete Symphonic Recording which is definitely over a decade (even two, maybe?) old...

Ye gods! Apparently Daphne Rubin-Vega (the original Mimi in Rent) played Fantine when this production first opened on Broadway. That's so not right...

Odd Jersey Boys tribute

The cast I saw Thursday of the Jersey Boys was on the Emmy Awards tonight, doing a tribute to The Sopranos. So I get the Jersey connection (Frankie Valli apparently even guest starred on the Sopranos) but it was just odd, seeing all these clips of people getting beaten or shot or drowning themselves or something juxtaposed with "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You." I'm not sure who thought that one up but I guess the "Jersey Boys" show is best known for that song, "The Sopranos" is a really violent show, so if you're going to show what's well known about each, you put violence over a love song?

I dunno. Anyway. I'm not sure that was the best representation of the show or the cast it could have been, since it seemed to be missing the full sound and energy in that large space, but I'm just glad to finally have a recording of Jarrod Spector as Frankie. Even though the performance seemed to be missing a little something that's there when you see it live. Wish it had been longer...

Who loves you?

I love, love, love the Jersey Boys. Absolutely adore it. The music, the harmonies, the story, the jokes, the energy, everything. Puts a huge smile on my face while I'm watching.

I just came back from seeing the Jersey Boys for the third time at the Curran Theater, first time from rush seats (I arrived at 5pm, I was probably the 8th or 9th person in line?). They aren't kidding when they say the seats are limited view. We were in the front row of the left orchestra - I had the centermost seat of the four of us, and most of my view was blocked everytime they had a bar or table or something set up, and I couldn't see anything from the actors' waists down once they got only halfway back (or barely their heads when they were in the back), and my friends were even further to the left and could see even less. On the other hand, you really get caught up in the energy of the show when you're that close up, watching the spit fly, getting a wink or a glance from a cast member, seeing the glittering moisture in Jarrod Spector's eyes during "Fallen Angel," watching every facial expression cross the actors' faces (when they weren't facing away from you, at least), and almost, almost thinking you could hear their actual voices instead of the projected voices.

I've now seen the original SF cast - Christopher Kale Jones as Frankie, Deven May as Tommy, Miles Aubrey as Bob (Erich Bergen was off that day), and Michael Ingersoll as Nick - from 3rd row center orchestra seats we were lucky enough to snag the day or two before the show. I've seen the new SF cast shortly after they started - Jarrod Spector as Frankie, Jeremy Kushnier as Tommy, Drew Gehling as Bob, and Steve Gouveia as Nick - from balcony seats. And now I've seen the current SF (soon to be Chicago, I believe) cast with Michael Ingersoll as Nick from 1st row left orchestra. Not to mention countless YouTube clips of the Broadway cast. My assessment? It's far, far, better to be close up, to feel more caught up in the energy and the emotion. Center orchestra 3rd row (which probably cost 4x as much as rush seats) are much better than left orchestra 1st row. Jarrod Spector sounds an awful lot like the actual Frankie Valli and his acting is spot on - the emotion feels genuine, his growth from callow youth to mature father very convincing, yet extremely subtle, his quiet strength and barely-restrained anger in the confrontation scene with Tommy believable, and his anguish during "Fallen Angel" palpable. He delivers one of the most beautiful versions of "Fallen Angel" (and "My Eyes Adored You") I've heard, and his voice is fantastic. My only complaint is that I sometimes felt, in both performances I saw of him, that he was a bit too restrained - his falsetto is flawless but doesn't project as strongly as his non-falsetto singing voice so he could get a bit lost in the orchestrations, and he doesn't have the extroverted energy of the rest of the cast (though how he could maintain that for the length of time he's on stage, I don't know). On the other hand, from the recordings I've seen of John Lloyd Young, that could simply be the character. He seems to me to approach the character in a very similar way to JLY. Christopher Kale Jones, on the other hand, was a bundle of joyous energy. Of the three Frankie's I've heard, he's the least authentically Valli sounding, but he has a very powerful falsetto and possibly the best musical theater singing voice (though when Jarrod actually got going on songs like "Beggin'", he was right up there in the projection and energy as well). His energy level was infectious, and it could be b/c it was the first time I saw it, but Sherry/Big Girls Don't Cry/Walk Like a Man was an absolutely incredible energy shot in that first performance in a way that didn't quite hold as true after that. On the other hand, I found his dramatic scenes - the confrontation with Tommy, the "Fallen Angel" scene (though sung beautifully) a bit less convincing. Christopher Kale Jones was a ton of fun to watch, Jarrod Spector is extremely compelling to watch. The funny thing is, the first time I heard both Chris Jones and Jarrod Spector sing as young Frankie, I could not stand their voices - both were far too nasally (and I thought Chris Jones went slightly off key from time to time). It was my bf who suggested that it was a deliberate acting choice to indicate him being young and untrained, I was too busy cringing to interpret =P. I don't know if it's b/c I expected it or b/c he's toned it down, but I didn't think Jarrod's voice was nearly as nasally as young Frankie tonight. At any rate, I would love to see Chris Jones' interpretation of Frankie again now that he's had more time to settle into the role and I'm much more familiar with it, but I'm not *quite* crazy enough to drive out to Sacramento to see the show for the fourth time. It's tempting...

As for the rest of the cast, I have a definite fondness for Deven May as Tommy DeVito - he seemed more dangerous, more edgy, but really played up the sly humor and the broad winking at the audience. Plus I like his voice. However, Jeremy Kushnier brings his own spin to the role and is equally compelling in a different way. He plays Tommy more as an ineffectual blowhard than someone actually dangerous or tough, which I initially found a bit offputting after Deven May's interpretation, but made him backing down to Frankie and the way everyone started dismissing him after a while a lot more believable. Both are awesome and I'm glad I saw them both. Of the Bob Gaudios, Miles Aubrey had a wonderful, wonderful voice, but as a character, I thought Drew Gehling was both more convincing and brought a lot more interpretation to the role. Of course, Aubrey was an understudy so he didn't have night after night to perfect the role, but IMO he also didn't have the right look to play the super-youthful Gaudio early on. I loved his "Cry for Me" and "Oh What a Night" but Drew Gehling also has a wonderful voice and made me laugh harder. His rather overexaggerated but hilarious reactions as the extremely nervous inexperienced youth at the beginning of "Oh What a Night" (and when he first talked to some girls at the bar in his first scene) were priceless. And it was pretty amazing glancing at him as he stood on the catwalk and watched Frankie sing "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You". He was facing me directly from where he stood, and even though he's in the background of the scene, he looks completely proud, and fond, and every emotion you would imagine Bob Gaudio feeling as he watched his best friend sing this song and capture the audience you could see on his face. It had me wondering if he's just a great actor, or if that was actually his genuine emotion watching Jarrod. Pretty cool moment. Though I was a bit distracted at times b/c I think he looks a bit like Todd Eldredge, the figure skater. As for Nick Massi, there's no question about it. Michael Ingersoll's interpretation wins for me hands down. The character can be a bit of a non-entity, in the background all the time but never really exhibiting a really strong sense of who he is in the way the other three do, but Michael Ingersoll brings him to life in his line deliveries, facial expressions, and body language as a slightly offbeat, quirky, precise and fussy, and wistful person. His every line reading is deliberate in the same way he straightens his cuffs, really taking what's in the script about this slightly OCD character and embodying him with dignity and humor. And the way he turns "maybe I should start my own group" into a running joke, just by his delivery and expressions, is awesome. Steve Gouveia's interpretation was far more ordinary guy, and given how in the background Nick Massi already is, it just didn't make him stand out at all. And the "maybe I should start my own group" repetition seemed to just blow over the audience's heads, wasting a great joke. He was good, but I love Michael Ingersoll's version.

Overall, though, it's the music more than anything that keeps me obsessed with this show. I love guys harmonizing anyway but there's something about the Four Seasons music that is just so infectious and addictive. One of the people we talked to in line was waiting for her 3rd show in a row, and had seen the show a total of six times. I'm not quite at that level yet, but boy..it is kind of tempting to go back tomorrow night and try again... ;)

Oh I almost forgot - one funny bit that I don't remember ever seeing in my previous two viewings of the show (maybe they added it, maybe I didn't notice it?) was when Frankie and the guys are singing backup for "Miss Frankie Nolan", at one point Frankie sings backup alone for her, really belting out his part in falsetto, and she starts looking really pissed, waving at him to be quieter, and trying to outsing him, finally giving him a very dirty look as she leaves the stage. In the meantime, he's looking really amused (probably one of the few times you see him laugh on stage) while the other guys are basically laughing and slapping him on the back for it. That was cute. Ah, poor threatened lead singer...

Who loves you, pretty baby? Who's gonna help you through the night... *goes off singing(

How far is heaven?

Los Lonely Boys sure put on a good show. High energy, great harmonies, a rockin' guitar (or bass, or both) solo in every song, special guest appearance by their dad on two songs, and a very show-off but impressive encore where they played the hell out of their instruments, out of each other's instruments, simultaneously out of their own instruments and each others' instruments, and then played the guitar and bass one-handed (I guess for the electric instruments you don't actually need to pluck the strings??) and behind their heads...

Apparently for the Fillmore you either need to get there super-early to claim one of the very few tables/chairs along the balcony (and I think you may have to order food) or you may as well not try to get there early at all, since it's pretty much standing only, with just a few half-walls around you can sit on. I'm a lame concert goer - my knees hurt too easily while standing and I'd rather be sitting. Still, Los Lonely Boys got me moving around enough that it wasn't nearly as bad on my knees as I had feared.

Dinner was at Little Star Pizza (846 Divisadero, between Fulton and McAllister), reportedly the best deep dish pizza in SF. Having never tried any other pizza in SF I couldn't really judge the merits of that statement. It *was* very yummy, but quite different than the deep dish pizza I've had in the past. The crusts I'm used to are like Pizzeria Unos (which I love) - buttery and I guess chewy. Little Star's crust was some kind of cornmeal, actually kind of crunchy and a lot less greasy. Not exactly what I love in a pizza crust but it was good. It was also less cheesy and more tomato-ey than I'm used to. The sauce was good, though, and sufficiently buried the Italian sausage (which I usually can't stand, or maybe the sausage here was particularly good) that I could eat our Classic (sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions) without picking anything off and enjoy it. It's not exactly the type of deep dish I like best, but I do recommend it. Apparently there's usually a huge wait on weekends but if you get there at 6pm on a Tuesday like we did, it's fairly empty.

More SF doings...

Other stuff I've done around SF this past weekend:

- Went to the Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival on Saturday. Less chocolate than you would think - only Ghiradelli actually had chocolate chocolate, and that was their chocolate squares. Everyone else had chocolate-related desserts, I guess. I ended up having a Ghiradelli sundae (small but yummy), banana mango sorbet (ok, not the best I've had) from Ciao Bella Gelato, chocolate malt (mmmm) from Lori's Diner, chocolate truffle cake with raspberry and whipped cream on top (not bad) from McCormick & Kuleto's, 3 small samples of cookies from Kit's cookies (Pecan Rum Raisin w/ chocolate chips, cashew coconut with dark chocolate chips, and cranberry walnut with white chocolate chips) which were all right, and then used up the rest of the tastings on Victoria's Toffee (had it last night, very yummy), and Ghiradelli Chocolate Squares. My favorite was probably the sundae, actually, even though it was your basic vanilla with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry. The chocolate was delicious, though. I also ended up spending more money than I should have buying two pretty glass beads that I've made into a choker and a necklace/choker thing. Had a good time, though!

- On Sunday, a friend and I went to the free San Francisco Opera in the Park concert. We got quite a good spot, almost centered, right behind the paved path running 2/3 of the way back from the stage, so we had no one directly in front of us and a good, if slightly far view of the stage. Not that we were really watching the stage. We both had books and a bunch of snacks, and spent a relaxing afternoon with good music in the background, a good book, and constant eating.

I really need to eat less...

Another night only...

I seem to always decide to do these things very last minute. I knew that there was to be a "One Night Only" cabaret featuring the cast of Mamma Mia but I hadn't really thought I'd go before - I like Mamma Mia but not like I like Avenue Q & Jersey Boys. But once again, day of, I found myself spontaneously deciding to go, this time with my sister.

Hmm blogspot outage in 15 minutes.

Briefly then, the show wasn't nearly as funny as the Jersey Boys/Avenue Q one, it didn't have any kind of attempt at a plot, and it didn't have nearly as much recognizable music to me. That being said, it was still a very entertaining show, and the cast did an amazing job putting it together. We certainly got our money's worth - the show was almost 2.5 hours, without an intermission. There were practically no in-betweens, it was just song after song after song. There were solos, many of which were written by the singers, some of which were from musicals or otherwise, and the singers were all fantastic. A couple of these were really funny, like "Misfit's Lament" about the gay man singing about how out of place he felt, trying sports, etc, until he got to San Francisco and found guys who made *him* look masculine, or a hilarious Bernadette Peters impression. But the great stuff, IMO, were the group numbers. There were soloists with backup singers who almost made group numbers, like a very sexy version of Sway, or the powerful "Midnight Radio", and the fantastic fun scatting in "The Ability to Swing" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head". There was a great performance of "Son of a Preacher Man," and a very funny "A Taste of Chocolate." There was a funny trio of guys singing to "Buff" about how all they did was work out. But the very best number of the night, IMO, was "Mamma's Boyz", with five of the guys dressed up as a boy band, with choreographed moves, breakout solo bits, hilarious poses, and an awesomely excellent medley of Mamma Mia songs, arranged into almost unrecognizable but amazingly sung boy band harmonies. Totally frickin' awesome and what made the night completely worth it.

The show definitely picked up in the second half, and it was a great, fun night of music.

Oh, almost forgot, special guests were Sharon McNight, who was very funny, and Deborah Gibson, who I was amused to see lists Skating with Celebrities among her accomplishments (along with her musical theater credits). She came out saying her outfit (a shimmering gold shirt) was from the skating show, accompanied by a sort-of waltz jump on stage. She is quite the performer, totally playing to the audience singing "Greatest Star" and then performing a lovely version of her old hit "Lost in Your Eyes" while accompanying herself on the keyboard. Sort of shows why she is still out there performing after her 80's heyday ended - actual musical talent and a tremendous voice.

Dinner was at Cafe Divine (1600 Stockton St between Filbert and Union). Despite being almost empty and us saying we were in a hurry, they weren't that fast to take our orders or to bring us our food, but they were nice. My quiche was quite good. Water was odd - came out of a wine bottle and it tasted like they didn't wash the wine bottle before putting the water in. We were in too much of a hurry to really assess this place. Just eat and run...

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Can anybody hear me?

Yay for updated Firefox at home, now I can update blogger!

Just in time to complain...ANTS! We've been invaded by ANTS! Damnit! I know what I'm doing tomorrow, I guess - lots of killing, buying ant traps and gel, and cleaning our dining/kitchen areas thoroughly to eliminate any scent trails. They're just in the dining room right now, coming in through the balcony door. Hopefully they won't find the kitchen before tomorrow. We've sprinkled cinnamon all over to throw them off, but those little buggers are sneaky, walking on walls and such. And there are a hell of a lot of them. Ugh. I hate ants.

More eats

Haven't blogged in a while - too busy at work, too sucky a browser at home (though we're finally upgrading the stuff on my computer)... Got a few more restaurants that I've visited in the last few weeks.

Citrus Club - 1790 Haight (between Cole and Shrader)
Supposed to be healthy because they replace "heavy oils" with "citrus." Not at all sure what that means. A very noodle-devoted place, where basically every dish has noodles of some kind involved. Also a quite inexpensive place, though my bf and I of course both ended up ordering specials which cost closer to $10 instead of $7 like everything else. The food is pretty decent, nothing spectacular. My bf complained his grilled chicken was burnt and the garlic noodles didn't at all taste like garlic, but he still liked it enough to want to go back. My noodle dish had an interesting tamarind sauce - definitely different tasting. Good cheap option. Not a fast one, though, b/c it's a very popular place.

RNM Restaurant - 598 Haight (between Fillmore and Steiner)
Recommended by a friend and independently found on yelp by my bf. It's a semi-upscale "trendy" place in the Lower Haight with a very odd odor around the doorway which we couldn't figure out. When we arrived, the guy asked if we had a reservation and when we said we didn't, spent some time thinking and looking into the restaurant before finally asking if we were ok with sitting at the bar/counter thing along the back of the room. We had no problem with that, and it worked out quite nicely for us. For one thing, it was a nice deep counter with comfortable high chairs, and hooks underneath for my bags, far enough back we didn't kick my stuff all night. For another, as they brought dishes out, they tended to put them down on the counter next to me while they figured out what should go to who, so I got to eye all sorts of dishes as they went by. And lastly, we got nice whiffs of baking dessert, which was really yummy smelling. Unfortunately, it wasn't as yummy-tasting (the dessert) as it smelled - I'm pretty sure what we smelled was the molten chocolate hazelnut cake with espresso creme (or something) with vanilla ice cream. Turned out to be not at all molten, kind of dry chocolate cake with hazelnut overtones. Disappointing, really. The dinners were better - my bf got the pork tenderloins wrapped in pancetta, which were super juicy and yummy but too few - they only gave him 3 little medallions - on a bed of polenta, which he despises. I got halibut baked in parchment paper with string beans and sugar snaps and cherry tomatoes with lemon butter. The halibut was quite good, but I'm not sure baking string beans in there was the best way to cook them, b/c they were quite tough and tasteless. Overall, though, it was a decent dining experience.

Park Chow - 1238 9th Ave (between Irving and Lincoln)
Came here for brunch with a few friends before visiting the SF Botanical Garden. I thought the reviews had said they had waffles - I was a bit disappointed to find their breakfast menu was a little short (pancakes, blueberry pancakes, baguette French toast, some egg/omelet dishes) but happy that they were even serving breakfast food at 12:30 on Labor Day (supposed to be Sat/Sun). My bf got the French toast. I was skeptical of it being made out of baguettes, but it turned out to be pretty good, quite eggy. My blueberry pancakes disappointed me, to be honest - the blueberry sauce on top looked like it had been allowed to dry there for a while before they brought it out, and it just wasn't that good. One of my friends got the ham omelet and seemed to enjoy it. The other got the fish sandwich and I have no idea whether he liked it. The mango-cantaloupe cooler my bf got was not very good - not sure cantaloupe makes the best drink or they didn't make a very good drink out if it. The place was neat, though - we thought it might not be that big but then you go in and up the stairs and there's this whole upper level roof deck-type seating area, only with retractable roof overhead for when it rained. Lots of capacity. The menu looked like it could be interesting. Might be worth trying agin.

San Tung Chinese Restaurant #2 - 1031 Irving St (between 11th and 12th)
Famous for their chicken wings, so of course we had to get some. We got lucky when we came here for lunch on Sunday - there was a line but it moved pretty fast, and we got seated within 20 minutes (I think). I saw a bigger crowd when we left. The "dry" fried chicken wings came coated in sauce, so I'm not quite sure what the dry part was. They were quite yummy. Not necessarily the "best ever" chicken wings I've had but I liked them. The sauce was kind of sweet and tangy, and I rather enjoy battered/fried chicken wings. We also got the pork dumplings, which were fine (I'm not the biggest connoiseur of dumplings - as long as they taste reasonably good and don't have big chunks of ginger in them, I'm happy). Also got two different homemade noodle dishes - a pork & pickled chinese vegetable noodle soup, and the tomato beef chow mein. The chow mein was more like a lo mein and kind of overdid it in the white pepper, but was reasonably good otherwise. The noodle soup was fine though they didn't give us a ladle or anything to serve it with, so it got quite messy. Might be worth another visit for the chicken wings or to try something else, but the chicken wings were the only thing I really thought stood out here, and the wait is long...

Brothers Restaurant - 4128 Geary Blvd (between 5th and 6th Ave)
Korean bbq at its smokiest =). We got pretty lucky here on lines too - we had to wait but there was a huge crowd waiting by the time we left. It was real wood/charcoal bbq at the table - the guy came with these trays of coals which he put into the thing in the middle of our table and then later took away when we were done - which definitely enhanced the experience and the flavor. We got the bulgogi and the kalpi. Both were quite yummy, the kalpi a bit more so than the bulgogi. Apparently we weren't cooking fast enough for the waitress, though - we were happily cooking at the rate we ate, making sure the food was always fresh off the grill and evenly cooked, but then she came along and dumped all our meat on the grill and spread it out efficiently but somewhat haphazardly, and then left it there for us to deal with. That was rather disappointing though probably did make us eat more efficiently. We figured out later that we probably should have left the cooked meat on the foil lining the side of the bbq area to keep it warm. Instead, we piled it all into our plates and tried to eat it as fast as possible before it cooled. The side little dishes they gave were plentiful but ok. I'm not a huge fan of anything bright red and glowy but I chomped down on all the little side veggie dishes - the bean sprouts, the sweet/tart radishes, the cucumbers (which I wish were sweet/tart), and the seaweed. They also gave us a tofu soup which I didn't realize came with the meal (I hope it came with the meal - we didn't order it). That was quite good except for my low tolerance for spice. Overall the meal was quite yummy, if a bit expensive (the dishes were $22 and $20 each, I think, and you had to get a minimum order of 2 bbq dishes to do the table bbq), and we left smelling very very smoky. In fact, we went into a tea shop out of curiousity afterwards b/c my bf's coworkers like tea, and the proprietor, while giving us our free sample, speculated that we went to brothers after we mentioned feeling particularly smoky, 'cause he could smell it. BTW, that tea shop - Aroma Tea - was fun since he gave out free samples, talking as he prepared the tea, and while I usually really dislike tea, I actually quite enjoyed the ginseng oolong whatever it was he served us. Very mild taste with a nice sweet aftertaste that wasn't at all apparent in the tea itself.

Bambino's Ristorante - 945 Cole St (between Carl and Parnassus)
Next door to Zazie's and apparently a good brunch alternative when the lines are too long (as they always are), so I need to try that sometime. In the meantime, we went there for dinner the other night when lines at the Citrus Club were too long (not that it's that close to the Citrus Club). It's Italian food - pretty decent stuff. I got the pasta primavera with marinara sauce, which I don't think you can expect to be exceptional anywhere. It was loaded with veggies, including peas, corn, and arugula, which I don't usually see in Pasta Primavera, I don't think. At least I felt healthier after eating it. My bf got the prosciutto and sun-dried tomato pasta (in the dim lighting, we couldn't tell which was which) which was quite good except I don't like rosemary and that was one of its primary spices. Our friends got one of the pizzas and the angel hair pasta and seemed to enjoy both. Not the cheapest Italian place (I didn't think pasta was that complex, why are so many Italian places so expensive?) but I'd probably go back.

Akiko's Sushi Bar - 542 Mason St (between Post and Sutter)
This place amuses me b/c the bar in the alley next door is super-popular, so sitting in the window, we watched all these people go to the bar, or the occasional person wander into the restaurant and then get redirected to the bar. And a waitress from the bar come next door to order and then later pick up some food to go. The place had decent, if unspectacular and slightly high priced sushi/food combos. I got the sashimi combo with udon. The chicken udon was pretty good, the "chef's choice" of 7 pieces of sashimi was somewhat disappointingly 3 pieces of maguro, 2 pieces of sake, and 2 pieces of a white fish with reddish edges (red snapper??). The maguro was decent, the sake was pretty good, the last fish wasn't that good - texture or taste. My bf got the katsu donburi which looked pretty good, along with an order of shiro maguro sashimi which was quite yummy. You can't go far wrong with shiro maguro. The sashimi slices were on the thin side, IMO, but overall it was a decent meal.

We've hit a few places more than once now - Magnolia (got a garlic/cumin crusted pork/ham/cheese sandwich last time that was ok - not fond enough for pickles or mustard to really like it), Abacus (went with a bunch of friends so got to try more stuff - better for sure than the first time I tried it but didn't really love any dish - however they were really sweet. I never told them it was my birthday and my friends all claim they didn't talk to the waiters, but they must have overheard, b/c I got surprised with a chocolate mousse cake with a candle in it at the end of my meal, which was the yummiest thing I ate there), etc.

I feel like there must have been more meals than this since the last time I blogged (though we have been eating at home slightly more now) but not remembering what off the top of my head...