Food, what else?

Hmm. I last updated 8 days ago? I'm never going to remember everything I ate in the last 8 days.

Well, here's what I do remember. Last week was kind of our week for wandering out of our usual neighborhoods for food.

Last week, I had the urge for bbq, simply because walking around the office at lunch, I got a whiff of someone's yummy smelling bbq sauce with a kind of vinegary undertone that really reminded me of Memphis Minnie's. But the bf wanted to try something new, and after looking around, we ended up going for "soul food" instead of straightforward bbq. Yelp turned up HardKnox Cafe in Potrero, at 2526 3rd St (btwn 22nd and 23rd). It's a soul food restaurant apparently run by Vietnamese people, tucked into a rather nondescript block. The inside is pretty neat, from a vibe standpoint - corrugated metal lines the walls, with pictures and stuff evoking a kind of country-ish feel, there are a series of red booths along one wall, a bar along the other, and some tables in between. Food-wise...well I think they probably have good food but as my bf says, maybe we're just not soul food people. He got the fried chicken everyone raves about it and was very good indeed (actually kind of reminded me of San Tung's even though it had no sauce of any kind). His sides of corn and mac & cheese were only so-so, though. The corn was actually fairly bland and got kind of nasty-tasting when it was cold, while the mac & cheese was like somewhat better Kraft, though as he pointed out, it's kind of scary that it was still as liquidy as when it started even when cold. I got the smothered chicken, was a stupid move - I think I would have been better off with the smothered pork chops if I wanted some smothering. The smothered chicken is basically fried chicken drenched in gravy. Which means soggy fried part, though very tender fall-off-the-bone chicken. I think if I liked the gravy better, I would have liked the dish, but I didn't particularly like the gravy, which is mostly just a flavor preference thing. Which didn't help the fact that one of my sides was mashed potatoes, covered in the same gravy... I also ordered the collard greens, which also was a mistake. I was misled by the greens I had had at Memphis Minnie's (and possibly that place in Oakland) into thinking that to cut the bitterness, southern cooking usually used some sort of sweet/vinegary sauce, but nope. It was just a pile of very bitter greens. The thing is, I don't think any of this was done badly (collard greens *are* a bitter green) but it was just bad ordering on my part. I probably would have been far happier with the bbq pork spare ribs or something, and there was a long list of sides I could have chosen from. Just didn't pick the best ones. Each dinner did come with two corn muffins, and those were very good. Sweet and tasty all on their own, so I didn't need to put honey on them. For the fried chicken, I'd recommend this place, but it's too far out of the way for us to go back.

Thursday night I decided I just really wanted to eat at Helmand Palace (2424 Van Ness Ave, btwn Union and Green). The Helmand is an Afghan restaurant that used to be located on Broadway, within (long) walking distance to work, and I'd been to that location a few times - the first time with a vegetarian friend who loved the place, later for the lunch buffet with my bf (I think on Valentine's Day, actually). I've always loved the food, but then that location closed down (I guess due to a mudslide?). Sadness. Then, one day, I was poking around Yelp and discovered that Helmand was reopening in a new neighborhood and was happy again, though not so happy it was further away now. But I love my Kaddo so I'm willing to do the two bus transfer to get home from there. Now Kaddo is their sweet pumpkin dish and is absolutely the yummiest thing ever. Pumpkin cooked for hours into a delicious sweet soft texture, with yogurt and meat sauce on top. I loved going for the lunch buffet b/c I could get as much kaddo as I wanted. This time around, I had to satisfy myself with splitting an appetizer with my bf. The Helmand is just about the only place I've had lamb that I actually enjoyed (I usually hate lamb's gamey taste) because they make it tender, and at least in the Qabalee dish my bf has ordered more than once, with a minimum of that gamey lamb taste I hate. I got the Theeka Kebab (prime rib marinated in onion, baby grapes and garlic, then grilled and served with lentils and pallow rice) which was quite good. Though I really wish I remembered what dishes I had tried in the lunch buffet because I know they have stuff I like even more there. If it wasn't so far from work...

On Friday, the bf suggested Indian food, so we decided to try the Indian Oven (237 Fillmore St at Haight) again. This was the place we got take-out from last time. The food is definitely better when you don't carry it for 20 minutes on the bus (after letting it sit in the restaurant for probably another 20 minutes b/c the bus took so long to get there). The garlic naan was super-yummy fresh from the oven/griddle, in particular, whereas it had gotten rather soggy when we got takeout. What we ordered was fairly similar to last time - mango lassi (still some of the best I've had), chicken korma (hey it's my favorite dish), chicken madras (spicy coconut sauce with raisins), and an order of pulau (the rice with peas and spices). Very yummy, not that cheap though my bf did get another meal out of leftovers from it. Personally, I definitely like this place. The flavors suit me.

Saturday I met up with friends for peking duck and karaoke, so it was off to the East Bay with me. The peking duck was at Great China at 2115 Kittredge St in Berkeley. I loved that place. Might help that my bf doesn't like Chinese so I hadn't had Chinese food in a while, and also might help that I had no hand in the ordering (I think when I order I get really mundane stuff based on the English menu, b/c I have no idea what to order). But the food was all really tasty. The peking duck was great as advertised, though for me, using the thin little skins instead of the white puffy buns leads to very sticky hands. But the skin was crispy and delicious, and the meat was great. We also got the "double skin" which is not a dish I was familiar with - seemed to be some cold blend of noodles, funghi, meat, veggies, and whatever "double skin" is in a Wasabi-seasoned sauce. It wasn't my favorite but it was very interesting. There was some soup I don't know the name of that my friends like to order where they dump in a bowl of cracked rice (or something) which puffs up and softens in the heat of the soup and is quite yummy. There was do miau (pea shoots) which were honestly, just ok - there was some odd taste I didn't quite like but they were tender and done well otherwise - I think personally I like the simple garlic/salt taste and I'm not sure what else they used to flavor it, but it wasn't my favorite. There was a beef dish - sizzling beef of some kind. My bf has made me aware that Chinese restaurants tend to over-tenderize (and I think cornstarch) their beef to the point where it no longer has beef texture, which he hates. I don't hate it as much as him but it's not my favorite thing. And my least favorite is to get over-tenderized beef that is nonetheless hard to chew and stringy. But the tenderized beef at Great China was truly tender - soft, easy to chew, and with the yummiest sauce. I started scooping up sauce to put on my rice, I liked it so much. They also ordered lettuce cups, which were also really tasty. I may also have just been hungry, but I was very happy with the food there. There was a weird moment coming into the restaurant, though. It was a rainy day so everyone who was waiting was gathered under the small awning, the restaurant is tiny, and a guy in a wheelchair decided to plant himself right in the door. I think he couldn't get further in because of the way the entry way was designed (*not* a handicapped friendly restaurant) but he also refused to back out. And he and the waiter got in a cussing match where he, I think, led things off in a fairly antagonistic manner "get your hand off my chair" before asking for his order, and the waiter initially refused to serve him because of his bad attitude. Eventually I guess they worked out that he had already placed the order (the waiter was going "no, I won't make it. I won't make it!") and he got his food, but it was a bit of a mess. And no one could get in or out while this was going on. Then I couldn't get in b/c this huge stream of people came out of the restaurant. This happened again later - I'm not sure where they all came from because the restaurant was tiny. They must have a banquet room in the back or something.

Sunday, we went down to a friend's house in Fremont to play Halo3 on their new Xbox 360. They took us to, I think, De Afghanan Kabob House, a tiny hole in the wall at 37405 Fremont Blvd. More Afghan food! I decided to go for the beef kabob, my bf got the chicken kabob, one of our friends also got the beef, and the other got the ground beef with cilantro, scallions, and spices. The place is teeny - there are 3 tables shoved in one side of the room where you basically have to get up so the people in the tables further back can get in and out, and most of the room is dominated by the counter and grill where they cook up their magic. It wasn't very fast because they make your order on the spot, but boy was it good. My beef kabob - at least the first half or so before it cooled down - was delicious and so tender. The last two pieces I couldn't even cut with my plastic knife, or tear off with my teeth - I have no idea if it's because I got two bad pieces or because that's what happened when they cool off - but that was ok because I was pretty stuffed by that point anyway. Each dish came with rice, a potato/garbanzo salad and a kind of tomato/onion/cilantra salad which really seemed more like salsa, as well as a piece of Afghan bread. We didn't end up eating the bread (which was out of a bag) because they ordered the bulanee (I think) - a bread stuffed with potatoes and spices - which was really yummy. My bf's chicken kabob was good. I wasn't quite as fond of the ground beef patty which my friend gave me a bite of, but the fact that I'm not fond at all of cilantro probably didn't help. All in all it was way too much food, but it was very good.

Then, last night, my bf's sister was in town, and in the mood for sushi. We poked around on Yelp, and turned up Sushi Bistro at 445 Balboa St (between 5th and 6th). It got fantastic reviews, so we figured why not try it out. They had a very interesting and diverse menu - some of the typical standard rolls, but then a whole page of "bistro" rolls that were very creative and different. Also, a page of "Something Unique" which were more like little plates of creative combinations of food (many of which were cooked). A lot of the rolls were fried or cooked in some way or featured much spiciness or fruits or whatever... We had a very hard time deciding because there were so many options, but finally decided to order a couple rolls, "something unique" and the 12-piece sashimi combination, which had the best combination of fish I've ever seen for one of those combos. Lots of stuff I love, nothing I didn't like - 2 pieces each of albacore, albacore tataki, salmon, tuna, hamachi, and butterfish. I didn't try the tuna or the albacore since there were 3 of us, but the albacore tataki was melt in your mouth delicious, the salmon (which had been resting against a slice of lemon) was sublime (and slightly sweet), the butterfish was, well, buttery and delicious, and the hamachi was quite good too. I also got myself a lettuce wrap - an individual portion of a slice of lettuce on which they put stuff. I got the "Summer" which had unagi, salmon, abacore, avocado, sushi rice, and sauce on a slice of lettuce. It was super-yummy, though also quite messy, and heavily dominated by the eel. The "Something Unique" was the most disappointing - we got - I forgot what it was called, but it was blue fin toro with some sauce and apples, but the toro was cooked which seems a total waste. It tasted fine but when you want raw fish, cooked fish just doesn't cut it. The rolls were good, though - I'm actually not sure which was which and now I'm not even positive I remember which we got b/c we went through so many choices making the decision, but I *think* we got the Albacore Dream (spicy tuna, and avocado topped with albacore and house special sauce) which was an 8-piece yummy roll, and the... I want to say M&L except the ingredients don't sound right (baby lobster, cucumber, avocado rolled with soybean paper, topped with salmon). Hmm..maybe the one we got isn't on the Menupages page? At any rate, they were all yummy. I would definitely go back. If we are feeling adventurous, there are still a lot of interesting looking rolls left to try, and if we're not, their sashimi was super fresh and delicious, and they know what fish should go together. Yummy. It's not particularly cheap would be the one downside, but it's quite delicious.

And those were my culinary adventures for the week. Oh, and the bf got me more XOX truffles (hazelnut, coconut, peanut butter, and mint) and mmmmmm..... Boy, am I blabby.

Munch munch munch

More eats from last week, which was probably one of our most satisfying weeks for eating out yet.

First up, one of my bf's former coworkers notified us kind of last minute that he and his wife were going to be in town a week ago Friday night, so we acted quickly to locate a Nob Hill restaurant (where there hotel was). We came up with Fino Restaurant (624 Post St btwn Taylor and Trader Vic Alley) in the Andrews Hotel. This ended up being a cute little Italian restaurant that had pretty decent food. Apparently the bolognese sauce on the wife's pasta was a bit overly sweet (I suspect I would have liked it) but they seemed to enjoy their Fettucine Carbonara, Caprese Salad, and Caesar salads... My Polla alla Saltimbocca was delicious, though I've never had it with avocado on top before. My bf seemed not to enjoy his Salsicce e Penne as much as he had hoped, but that may have been due to a high stuff:pasta ratio - I think he wanted more pasta. Overall, I wasn't blown away but it was a good meal.

Saturday, I got my hazelnut milk tea and Chinese pastry fix down in Mountain View, and then went to a friend's place for her Halloween pumpkin-carving party. We got lazy and didn't bring a pumpkin, but it was fun watching everyone else's pumpkin take shape. There were some pretty cool ones, especially a very cool Bowser (doubly cool 'cause he designed it himself instead of using a pre-existing pattern). I always thought of jack-o-lanterns as just being a face but we got a pirate ship, a tropical island, a Pikachu, and a haunted house/castle...pretty neat! Evidentally I stuffed myself too full of pastries and milk tea and didn't have much appetite for dinner, but there was a pumpkin cake-thing there that was super delicious. Had a layer of something like pumpkin pie filling on top of a yummy cake. Kept sneaking bites of that all night.

I have no memory of Sunday, but I think Monday was the day I got an urge for pho, so we decided to check out Pho Clement (239 Clement between 3rd and 4th) in Inner Richmond. That was a happy meal. They have an extensive pho menu, but like most pho places, for some reason did not offer a combination of brisket, steak, and flank. However they said you could create your own pho combinations, which I promptly did. Based on my bf and my experiences, medium is just about the perfect size there - the large was too big, the small looked tiny, but medium was nice and filling. I got a pineapple shake which was very yummy (if a trifle strong with the pineapple) while the bf got a mango shake which was great. Both our bowls of pho really hit the spot - good tasting broth (I actually didn't have to add the plum sauce or whatever it is they leave on the table for once), yummy meat, good noodles... It was just good, basic pho. The place is nothing fancy to look at - as someone on yelp says, standard Vietnamese pho cafeteria setting - though they do have a nice big flatscreen which was showing the football game. To my pleasure, it also wasn't particularly full, so we got very fast service and seating. Sometimes nice restaurants are what we're looking for, but sometimes something warm and comforting is really the way to go.

Thursday was my bf and my 11th (eep) anniversary, so we decided to get a nice dinner to celebrate. After House of Prime Rib and NOPA both said they only had reservations available after 9, we turned to Zoya (465 Grove between Gough and Octavia), a restaurant we had previously tried to go to on a performance night (it's near the opera and all the other performing arts venues on Van Ness) and weren't able to get in. That turned out to be a great choice, and a near-perfect meal. The venue is a little odd - it's a little almost tower/turret like thing stuck to the end of a Days Inn. There is a bar on the first floor with some seating but the small dining room is actually on the second floor - up some fake green grass covered stairs which also leads to the upper floor of Days Inn rooms. However, once you go through the curtain covering the door, the dining room itself is in a cute little round room, with nicely set tables (though not too many of them!), little candles flickering, and windows around looking out on Grove St. The service is a little bit slow, because there is only one very sweet waitress who had to go up and down the stairs to carry up all the food, drinks, etc, as well as to check if anyone was there and bring them up to seat them. However, as I said, she was really nice, and we weren't in a hurry that night anyway. We don't typically get appetizers, entrees, AND desserts in the same meal, but we decided to splurge that night, and it was definitely worth it. I got the butternut squash soup with creme fraiche - I love butternut squash soup and while this wasn't the best I'd ever had (it was a little on the bland side), it was still a nice starter. The bf got their poke - ahi tuna with all sorts of stuff mixed in and fried wonton skins to scoop it all up with - and absolutely loved it. My aversion to cilantro made it hard for me to enjoy it, but it did seem a good appetizer. For entrees, I got the roasted chicken breast quarter with marsala pan sauce and porcini risotto (or something similar - that's what's listed on the website) and it was absolutely delicious. The chicken was moist, tender, and flavorful, the broccoli rabe tender and not at all bitter, and the risotto flavored just right - not bland, and not overpowering, just delicate and yummy. My bf got the Australian lamb loin chops with pomegranate molasses and pearl couscous with cumin herb oil and his only complaint was that there wasn't enough meat - they gave him two smallish chops and when he'd eaten it down to the bone, he would have liked more. But the flavors he said were very good. The dessert menu looked great so we decided to go for that as well - I got the chocolate pot de creme with strawberries, which was quite yummy, with the strawberries blending beautifully with the chocolate rather than seeming a bit too tart. The bf got the blueberry in grand marnier with graham crumbles, and one scoop each of Tahitian Vanilla and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Gelato, which was also delicious. Just a happy meal overall, and one that didn't leave us feeling too stuffed, which was nice. I definitely recommend this restaurant, though make sure to go on a non-performance night, or make a reservation ahead of time, because the space really is quite small.

On Friday, we weren't in the mood for anything heavy, and decided to go for sushi. A quick browse on Yelp turned up Wayo Sushi (1407 Van Ness), which got very good reviews. Wayo Sushi is definitely not a high-selection sushi place - the roll menu was quite limited and the nigiri was limited to the standards - but the prices were very reasonable, and the fish was quite good. We ended up getting 3 sets of sashimi (6 pieces each for about $9-$9.75) - hamachi (which reminded me strongly of amberjack, which I love), maguro (fine), and shiro maguro (as usual melt in your mouth). We also got a mango salmon roll - I only had one piece b/c I had stuffed myself with the wakame salad (yummy, good quantity for only $3.75) but it was quite good. Overall, I thought it was a reasonably good sushi place - nowhere you'd go if you're going for exotic, but a nice place to stop for reasonably priced, fresh fish.

Afterwards, we walked down like 10 blocks to Grove St to go to Citizen Cake (399 Grove St at Gough) since the bf felt like some dessert. I thought I was too stuffed to get anything, but as usual couldn't resist. I ended up getting a scoop of the banana toffee peanut butter (and possibly some other stuff) ice cream, which was quite good. My bf got the lemon meringue tart, which was also good. He also brought home a giunduja (sp?) something or the other, and a mexican wedding? cookie... I got to try the first which was kind of like a nestle crunch but with hazelnut overtones - pretty yummy. I think he enjoyed the latter?

Beyond that, we've actually been cooking and eating at home for the most part. But that was a good week for restaurant choices!

Joss Whedon is my Master

Whoo-hoo! New Joss Whedon show! Starring Eliza Dushku! Already greenlit for 7 episodes! On Fox! Damn writer's strike!

Whedonesque post with links to articles