I should go to sleep but I'm going to blog a quick list of stuff I ate and did the last week before I forget.
Friday I was down in south bay so I had to have a burrito at my favorite place, Taqueria De Amigos at 2974 S Norfolk St in the Marina Plaza in San Mateo (right off the Hillsdale exit and 101). I just love their burritos - I always get the jumbo pollo burrito - they're one of the few places I've seen with tomato-stewed chicken, which I find the yummiest thing ever. I also love heaping everything into the burrito - the only thing I don't like are the little green spicy peppers they intersperse in there. They steam their burritos at the end so it all melds together in the yummiest melted together coherent way. Though that probably is why you should eat the burritos on the spot instead of taking them home, b/c they get kind of soggy after a while.
Was so full I didn't really have dinner, just made myself some improvised egg-drop soup.
Saturday was a friend's birthday, and she planned the best day ever. Tour at Scharffen Berger factory (chocolate!), dinner at Sushi House in Alameda (sushi!), and karaoke at Music Tunnel in Richmond. Chocolate, sushi, and singing, how could it get any better? I actually discovered that coupling all three activities together may not be the best idea - chocolate has the potential to make you too full for sushi, which doesn't put you in the right state for karaoke. Luckily it all worked out, though. Ate a bit too much chocolate truffle cake at the Cafe Cacao after the tour, but was able to digest enough to enjoy some quite yummy sushi at Sushi House (except their shiro maguro roll has raw garlic in it and boy is it ever potent! Watching people's eyes bug out while trying it was fun, though), and then was able to digest enough to enjoy another 4.5 hours of singing at Music Tunnel. Wheee! I'm not the hugest fan of Scharffen Berger chocolate, but I can't object to walking into a place where the air is scented with chocolate, and I did learn stuff during the tour about chocolate making which was quite interesting.
Sunday was hanging out at a friend's place for a low-key holiday party, which was fun. Playing with other people's babies is fun b/c you can always give them back when they get fussy ;). Ordered pizza for dinner from Nizario's which was quite decent, and apparently also has two locations in SF.
Monday we got Indian from Indian Oven again. I don't care what people on Yelp say, I like that place. Their chicken dishes are always quite yummy (though this time I'm not sure I got what I ordered, or their sauces all taste the same),their mango lassi is expensive but delicious, and their pulau and garlic naan are the perfect accompaniments to our meal. We only ordered one dish this time, plus the pulau, naan, and lassi, and it seemed to be the perfect amount for us.
Tuesday was my sister's birthday so we went to the sushi place of her choice: Kiji (1009 Guerrero at 22nd). This was really quite good. We had a red and white tuna poki which was delicious. They had nigiri of a whole bunch of fish I liked - butterfish (which had mayo on it for some reason but otherwise was yummy), kanpachi (amberjack!), shiro maguro, sake - all good... my bf happily got the hamachi belly and the chu-toro... We also got an Orange Spice Salmon roll which was fine - nothing spectacular but pretty yummy. I also tried my sister's aji tataki which was interesting b/c they deep fry the remaining fish head/backbone/tail after you finish the tataki, and it's pretty yummy. Good stuff all around and quite decent prices.
Wednesday and Thursday we cooked.
Tonight I went to Jersey Boys so grabbed a quick dinner at King of Thai Noodle at 420 Geary St (across the street from the Curran), which I didn't know until just now is a chain with locations all over the city. For some reason I thought it was affiliated with the place on Haight, but that's *Best* of Thai Noodle. It's a very down and dirty hole in the wall type place with the guys frying it up in the same room as the cafeteria-style tables, but it was very quick, very cheap, and quite yummy. I got the Pad See Ew Chicken and it came out pretty much exactly as I liked it, so I gulped up the entire plate. Got in and out in half an hour... works for me!
Oh and for lunch I went to Delica RF-1 in the Ferry Building, which was an interesting Japanese deli. Very confusing in how it works in that you can get combination bentos or combinations, or individual items, or salads, or whatever.. I ended up getting a bunch of random items which were for the most part quite yummy (potato croquette, some tempura ball of stuff I wouldn't get again b/c it was too hard to eat and had been sitting out too long so was cold, a chicken dumpling, and a kanpocha?? and butternut squash soup). Wouldn't mind trying it again. There was a beef and mushroom curry that looked interesting...
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Jersey Boys - again!
Just saw Jersey Boys for the fourth time, 'cause I'm crazy. And got lucky. Gonna cut and paste a post I wrote on the broadwayworld.com board.
I just saw Jersey Boys for the fourth time in SF tonight. I knew the run was nearing its end and couldn't resist trying for rush seats to catch this cast (I previously saw the 1st tour once and the 2nd tour twice). I left work early and got there at 5:45PM and was a bit worried because there were 13 people ahead of me in line, but ended up with lower box seats that were better than the rush seats I got last time - limited view but not as limited, and limited in the opposite direction (I was on the right side of the stage, last time I was on the left side). Though I don't think I realized how much was done on the catwalk until I couldn't see what was going on up there. And the people in the box with me totally missed the "Our Sons" going to "Four Seasons" on the sign because it was behind the spiral staircase from our perspective.
I don't seem to have gotten any understudies tonight, which is neat. I wonder if Rick Faugno was tired, though. I've never seen him before so I have nothing to compare, but by the end of the evening he looked noticeably more wrung out and with less energy than everyone else, and his control over his voice over the course of the evening didn't seem to be consistent. I have to say, Rick was far from my favorite Frankie, vocally - actually, probably my least favorite. He kept getting up into his throat rather a lot, which produced a rather unpleasant, pinched, sharp sounding voice, especially when he was belting or going high. What's odd is that I feel like his singing voice range went higher than the other Frankies I've seen in that he didn't seem to need to go falsetto as much, or he disguised his falsetto better, but I thought he sounded the best when he was singing the lower parts. "My Eyes Adored You," the beginning part of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," and the parts of "Fallen Angel" where he doesn't start going louder sounded terrific, I thought. But I couldn't get into his performances of "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," etc... On the plus side, my friend who has never heard or seen Jersey Boys before enjoyed it all, and leaned over after "Sherry" to say "Wow they really nailed that" and then again after "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" to say he really liked it. So maybe I'm just hypercritical now, or it's not fair because I keep comparing to Jarrod who's not only my favorite Frankie, but I also have a recording of from the Emmy's to keep his interpretation fresh in my mind. Also on the flip side, Rick probably sounded closer to the more gritty sound the real Frankie Valli achieves in his non-falsetto singing than Chris, Jarrod, or JLY. I think he let it get a little out of control from time to time though. But I go back to the tired hypothesis b/c at times his singing reminded me a little of me at the end of a karaoke night when I have to force my voice to go where I want it to, and at times it slips a little out of my control.
Acting-wise, I thought he was fine. At times he seemed to rush through lines, but at others I thought his emphasis and delivery were spot-on, and at times more convincing than either Chris or Jarrod. I was sitting on the side where his back was to me in some crucial scenes, like "Fallen Angel" and the pizza parlor scene with Mary Delgado, though, so it's a bit hard to judge. I still feel like Jarrod matures the most convincingly and the most subtly of the three Frankies I've seen. He becomes more mature without you really consciously noticing it, but just gradually takes on more gravity and more emotional weight. I thought Rick was ok here - I didn't really feel like he came off too young or anything. Hard to match what Jarrod did, IMO, b/c I can't even tell how Jarrod pulls it off.
As for the others, I actually quite enjoyed Bryan McElroy's Tommy DeVito. Though he has a far weaker falsetto in that jail ditty he came up with in Ohio than any other Tommy I've heard, I liked his singing voice in general, and thought his interpretation of the role worked quite well. He did the tough guy thing covering up for the screwups and delivering lines just right to get the laughs, and I liked him. Jeff Leibow as Nick Massi I also enjoyed. I feel like his line delivery and accent was actually fairly similar to Michael Ingersoll's which made me wonder if he was influenced by Michael's interpretation or if maybe Nick just sounded like that and they were both working off of that. His take seemed less fussy OCD than Michael Ingersoll's and a bit more wise guy, but I thought it worked well. Andrew Rannells as Bob Gaudio I have mixed feelings on. Vocally, loved his performance of "Oh What a Night," not as fond of "Cry for Me." He played up the humor really well, and did the young Bob in a really funny way. My friend found something a bit off about his performance but couldn't articulate it but I think I know what he means - he was a bit overenthusiastic and a bit too broadly winking outside of the role, I think. I mean, he got great laughs from the audience but then he seemed to react to it a bit more than was in character. I guess what I'm saying is he didn't seem to stay in character - the other guys all reacted to the cheering and laughter in ways more consistent with their characters. But he was a lot of fun.
I think I still like my first Bob Crewe (name slips my mind) the best - his interpretation completely colored what I think the role should be for me. Jonathan Hadley didn't quite hit the right note for me and wasn't as funny, I thought, though he was fine in general. Also looked a bit older than I expected for the role. The girls were great, I thought. Since the spiral staircase was right in front of us it was kind of interesting and touching to watch Joyce Chittick as Mary sobbing on the staircase as Rick sang the first part of "My Eyes Adored You" (also kind of interesting to watch Rick just gulp down as much water as he could during the whole trying to get "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" on the radio bit - not sure how he could sing after downing that much water, though I'm sure he needs it!).
I don't know if being on the far side throws off the vocal balance or how things are mixed, and whether that affects how I hear things. But at times I felt like the orchestrations/songs were a little flat - I felt like I could barely hear "Short Shorts," for instance. But at others, the harmonies were heavenly - I thought they sounded better at times than I'd ever heard before. The three non-Frankie guys and whoever was singing backstage to back them up just sounded awesome together.
I think it's funny whenever I read a review about how the show really gets going with "Sherry/Big Girls/Walk Like a Man" because I'm actually a huge fan of the earlier mix of songs - I love the whole intro bit, adore "Silhouettes", love "A Sunday Kind of Love" when they're harmonizing on it in the church... I think that's one of the things that keeps me going back to the show instead of just listening to the cast recording, since they don't have the full songs in the cast recording.
The audience was great, btw - very very into things, laughing hard, cheering and whooping appreciatively, and I don't think I've ever heard them gasp so loud when Tommy says he owes half a million in tax money. They jumped up for a standing ovation before any of the actors even hit the stage for their bows.
At any rate, I have to say I missed my favorite Frankie, Jarrod, but on the whole I'm very happy I decided to see Jersey Boys for the fourth time. I just love this show, and the finale always brings a huge smile to my face (except the part of me which goes "oh no, it's almost over!"). It's probably a good thing it's going away soon - I've never seen any show four times in a single year before, and there are very few shows I've even seen four times total! Not sure I should let myself be tempted to see it for a fifth time!
I just saw Jersey Boys for the fourth time in SF tonight. I knew the run was nearing its end and couldn't resist trying for rush seats to catch this cast (I previously saw the 1st tour once and the 2nd tour twice). I left work early and got there at 5:45PM and was a bit worried because there were 13 people ahead of me in line, but ended up with lower box seats that were better than the rush seats I got last time - limited view but not as limited, and limited in the opposite direction (I was on the right side of the stage, last time I was on the left side). Though I don't think I realized how much was done on the catwalk until I couldn't see what was going on up there. And the people in the box with me totally missed the "Our Sons" going to "Four Seasons" on the sign because it was behind the spiral staircase from our perspective.
I don't seem to have gotten any understudies tonight, which is neat. I wonder if Rick Faugno was tired, though. I've never seen him before so I have nothing to compare, but by the end of the evening he looked noticeably more wrung out and with less energy than everyone else, and his control over his voice over the course of the evening didn't seem to be consistent. I have to say, Rick was far from my favorite Frankie, vocally - actually, probably my least favorite. He kept getting up into his throat rather a lot, which produced a rather unpleasant, pinched, sharp sounding voice, especially when he was belting or going high. What's odd is that I feel like his singing voice range went higher than the other Frankies I've seen in that he didn't seem to need to go falsetto as much, or he disguised his falsetto better, but I thought he sounded the best when he was singing the lower parts. "My Eyes Adored You," the beginning part of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," and the parts of "Fallen Angel" where he doesn't start going louder sounded terrific, I thought. But I couldn't get into his performances of "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," etc... On the plus side, my friend who has never heard or seen Jersey Boys before enjoyed it all, and leaned over after "Sherry" to say "Wow they really nailed that" and then again after "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" to say he really liked it. So maybe I'm just hypercritical now, or it's not fair because I keep comparing to Jarrod who's not only my favorite Frankie, but I also have a recording of from the Emmy's to keep his interpretation fresh in my mind. Also on the flip side, Rick probably sounded closer to the more gritty sound the real Frankie Valli achieves in his non-falsetto singing than Chris, Jarrod, or JLY. I think he let it get a little out of control from time to time though. But I go back to the tired hypothesis b/c at times his singing reminded me a little of me at the end of a karaoke night when I have to force my voice to go where I want it to, and at times it slips a little out of my control.
Acting-wise, I thought he was fine. At times he seemed to rush through lines, but at others I thought his emphasis and delivery were spot-on, and at times more convincing than either Chris or Jarrod. I was sitting on the side where his back was to me in some crucial scenes, like "Fallen Angel" and the pizza parlor scene with Mary Delgado, though, so it's a bit hard to judge. I still feel like Jarrod matures the most convincingly and the most subtly of the three Frankies I've seen. He becomes more mature without you really consciously noticing it, but just gradually takes on more gravity and more emotional weight. I thought Rick was ok here - I didn't really feel like he came off too young or anything. Hard to match what Jarrod did, IMO, b/c I can't even tell how Jarrod pulls it off.
As for the others, I actually quite enjoyed Bryan McElroy's Tommy DeVito. Though he has a far weaker falsetto in that jail ditty he came up with in Ohio than any other Tommy I've heard, I liked his singing voice in general, and thought his interpretation of the role worked quite well. He did the tough guy thing covering up for the screwups and delivering lines just right to get the laughs, and I liked him. Jeff Leibow as Nick Massi I also enjoyed. I feel like his line delivery and accent was actually fairly similar to Michael Ingersoll's which made me wonder if he was influenced by Michael's interpretation or if maybe Nick just sounded like that and they were both working off of that. His take seemed less fussy OCD than Michael Ingersoll's and a bit more wise guy, but I thought it worked well. Andrew Rannells as Bob Gaudio I have mixed feelings on. Vocally, loved his performance of "Oh What a Night," not as fond of "Cry for Me." He played up the humor really well, and did the young Bob in a really funny way. My friend found something a bit off about his performance but couldn't articulate it but I think I know what he means - he was a bit overenthusiastic and a bit too broadly winking outside of the role, I think. I mean, he got great laughs from the audience but then he seemed to react to it a bit more than was in character. I guess what I'm saying is he didn't seem to stay in character - the other guys all reacted to the cheering and laughter in ways more consistent with their characters. But he was a lot of fun.
I think I still like my first Bob Crewe (name slips my mind) the best - his interpretation completely colored what I think the role should be for me. Jonathan Hadley didn't quite hit the right note for me and wasn't as funny, I thought, though he was fine in general. Also looked a bit older than I expected for the role. The girls were great, I thought. Since the spiral staircase was right in front of us it was kind of interesting and touching to watch Joyce Chittick as Mary sobbing on the staircase as Rick sang the first part of "My Eyes Adored You" (also kind of interesting to watch Rick just gulp down as much water as he could during the whole trying to get "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" on the radio bit - not sure how he could sing after downing that much water, though I'm sure he needs it!).
I don't know if being on the far side throws off the vocal balance or how things are mixed, and whether that affects how I hear things. But at times I felt like the orchestrations/songs were a little flat - I felt like I could barely hear "Short Shorts," for instance. But at others, the harmonies were heavenly - I thought they sounded better at times than I'd ever heard before. The three non-Frankie guys and whoever was singing backstage to back them up just sounded awesome together.
I think it's funny whenever I read a review about how the show really gets going with "Sherry/Big Girls/Walk Like a Man" because I'm actually a huge fan of the earlier mix of songs - I love the whole intro bit, adore "Silhouettes", love "A Sunday Kind of Love" when they're harmonizing on it in the church... I think that's one of the things that keeps me going back to the show instead of just listening to the cast recording, since they don't have the full songs in the cast recording.
The audience was great, btw - very very into things, laughing hard, cheering and whooping appreciatively, and I don't think I've ever heard them gasp so loud when Tommy says he owes half a million in tax money. They jumped up for a standing ovation before any of the actors even hit the stage for their bows.
At any rate, I have to say I missed my favorite Frankie, Jarrod, but on the whole I'm very happy I decided to see Jersey Boys for the fourth time. I just love this show, and the finale always brings a huge smile to my face (except the part of me which goes "oh no, it's almost over!"). It's probably a good thing it's going away soon - I've never seen any show four times in a single year before, and there are very few shows I've even seen four times total! Not sure I should let myself be tempted to see it for a fifth time!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Happiness is...
Finding a recipe. Trying it out. Having it work out really well (except the part where you're the slowest cook in the world and it took you like 3x as long as it should have) and really actually liking it. I've tried a bunch of recipes on Allrecipes.com recently that have been decent, but this one I really enjoyed.
Pear and Prosciutto Pizza using Quick and Easy Pizza Crust. At least the way I made it - D'Anjou pears (had no idea which to use so I got the more expensive ones =P), imported Swiss cheese (it was that or fat-free which I knew my bf would kill me for), fresh mozzarella, and six slices of prosciutto... I would advise using more than the 6 cloves of garlic it calls for, though - I didn't have enough to spread all around the pizza, though it still tasted fine. But it was super-yummy and I quite enjoyed the crust which really was quick and easy.
Made Sweet and Tangy Sauteed Collard Greens on the side b/c I figured I should branch out from my typical spinach (the only green in a standard grocery store I really know how to cook). It wasn't bad - not bitter like collard greens usually are. Of course, there's a lot of butter in that recipe. Some people said they made it without the butter and it still tasted good. Maybe I'll try that next time.
On the eating out note, I've been:
Yummy Yummy (1015 Irving St, btwn 11th and 12th) which was quite yummy yummy ;). Vietnamese restaurant next door to San Tung.. my bf's pho (which they let him add both flank and steak too even though the menu had them in separate offerings) was quite tasty. I ordered one of the special grills, which is basically something like lemon pork (or beef or five-spice chicken, or sugarcane shrimp, etc etc), vermicelli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and mint leaves on a plate accompanied by hard dry skins that you dip in hot water until they soften and then wrap your own spring-roll like things in. This was surprisingly good given that the ingredients are so standard for Vietnamese fare - fresh and delicious.
Lilly's BBQ (705 Divisadero between Fulton and Grove) Must qualify this by saying we got this takeout, and my bf biked it home. So it got home faster than when I walk/bus stuff home from, say, lower Haight, but it still cooled off by the time we started eating it. So that must be kept in mind since cool meat is not nearly as good as freshly warm meat. That being said, at the moment I favor Memphis Minnie's BBQ more. The people at Lilly's were really nice - seems like an entire family (all the males anyway) work there and the main guy was super down home and friendly. He advised us the tri-tip was too tough (in fact, wouldn't sell it) so we got the baby back ribs and beef brisket in a 2-meat combo, with a small order of cole slaw and corn on the side. The baby back ribs were ok - not particularly meaty, not particularly juicy, but reasonably flavored for the amount of meat I could get off the bone. The beef brisket - I don't think I'm as big a fan of beef brisket as I think I should be b/c I haven't liked it the last 3 bbq places we've gone... but at any rate, partly b/c it was cold, it was a bit tougher and not as tender as I think it should be. The mild bbq sauce was ok. I know it's not at all authentic but really, my favorite is KC Masterpiece. Particularly mixed with honey. The cole slaw I liked more than Memphis Minnie b/c it was standard creamy slaw as opposed to the vinegary stuff Memphis Minnie has. The corn was pretty much whole kernel corn out of the can though there's some smokiness to it so I'm not quite sure how it was cooked. It was better than the stuff at that Soul Food place we went to a few weeks ago. I've never had real authentic southern or Texas bbq so I don't even know if I judge these things right. But...Lilly's fell a little short for me.
Also had Squat and Gobble (1428 Haight St) for dinner but I don't even count that b/c I don't think it's really a dinner place. Got a Salmon Cobb salad. The salmon was fried. The salad was decent, particularly when I got the parts with bacon and blue cheese and ranch dressing all mixed in well, but the salmon was eh. It's fine when you're looking for a low-key dinner but it's not that fast.
Pear and Prosciutto Pizza using Quick and Easy Pizza Crust. At least the way I made it - D'Anjou pears (had no idea which to use so I got the more expensive ones =P), imported Swiss cheese (it was that or fat-free which I knew my bf would kill me for), fresh mozzarella, and six slices of prosciutto... I would advise using more than the 6 cloves of garlic it calls for, though - I didn't have enough to spread all around the pizza, though it still tasted fine. But it was super-yummy and I quite enjoyed the crust which really was quick and easy.
Made Sweet and Tangy Sauteed Collard Greens on the side b/c I figured I should branch out from my typical spinach (the only green in a standard grocery store I really know how to cook). It wasn't bad - not bitter like collard greens usually are. Of course, there's a lot of butter in that recipe. Some people said they made it without the butter and it still tasted good. Maybe I'll try that next time.
On the eating out note, I've been:
Yummy Yummy (1015 Irving St, btwn 11th and 12th) which was quite yummy yummy ;). Vietnamese restaurant next door to San Tung.. my bf's pho (which they let him add both flank and steak too even though the menu had them in separate offerings) was quite tasty. I ordered one of the special grills, which is basically something like lemon pork (or beef or five-spice chicken, or sugarcane shrimp, etc etc), vermicelli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and mint leaves on a plate accompanied by hard dry skins that you dip in hot water until they soften and then wrap your own spring-roll like things in. This was surprisingly good given that the ingredients are so standard for Vietnamese fare - fresh and delicious.
Lilly's BBQ (705 Divisadero between Fulton and Grove) Must qualify this by saying we got this takeout, and my bf biked it home. So it got home faster than when I walk/bus stuff home from, say, lower Haight, but it still cooled off by the time we started eating it. So that must be kept in mind since cool meat is not nearly as good as freshly warm meat. That being said, at the moment I favor Memphis Minnie's BBQ more. The people at Lilly's were really nice - seems like an entire family (all the males anyway) work there and the main guy was super down home and friendly. He advised us the tri-tip was too tough (in fact, wouldn't sell it) so we got the baby back ribs and beef brisket in a 2-meat combo, with a small order of cole slaw and corn on the side. The baby back ribs were ok - not particularly meaty, not particularly juicy, but reasonably flavored for the amount of meat I could get off the bone. The beef brisket - I don't think I'm as big a fan of beef brisket as I think I should be b/c I haven't liked it the last 3 bbq places we've gone... but at any rate, partly b/c it was cold, it was a bit tougher and not as tender as I think it should be. The mild bbq sauce was ok. I know it's not at all authentic but really, my favorite is KC Masterpiece. Particularly mixed with honey. The cole slaw I liked more than Memphis Minnie b/c it was standard creamy slaw as opposed to the vinegary stuff Memphis Minnie has. The corn was pretty much whole kernel corn out of the can though there's some smokiness to it so I'm not quite sure how it was cooked. It was better than the stuff at that Soul Food place we went to a few weeks ago. I've never had real authentic southern or Texas bbq so I don't even know if I judge these things right. But...Lilly's fell a little short for me.
Also had Squat and Gobble (1428 Haight St) for dinner but I don't even count that b/c I don't think it's really a dinner place. Got a Salmon Cobb salad. The salmon was fried. The salad was decent, particularly when I got the parts with bacon and blue cheese and ranch dressing all mixed in well, but the salmon was eh. It's fine when you're looking for a low-key dinner but it's not that fast.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Brunch at Zazie
Finally decided to try to wait in line for Zazie (941 Cole St), the French restaurant that everyone likes to go to for brunch. Got there at 11:30...got seated maybe 40 minutes later? And got the food right around an hour after I got there... Quite the wait, though a former coworker I ran into who goes frequently said it was the worst he's ever seen it this morning. Just my luck!
The lovely thing (or maybe the bad thing, depending how you look at it) about Zazie is that for all their pancake/French toast dishes, you can choose to get one, two, or three pieces, and it's priced accordingly. Similarly, for their poached egg (and possibly other egg) dishes, you can choose one, two, or three eggs, with a gradated price tag for that as well. This is great for me because I'm indecisive as all hell, I was starving (having not eaten anything yet that morning, and having worked out that morning), and everything looked great. Between my friend and I, we ended up ordering one slice of the gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd and bijou pear and one slice of the French Toast Tahiti (Challah French bread stuffed with caramelized bananas and walnuts) to share (we each took half), and then I ordered myself a one egg St Trop (poached egg on English muffin with smoked salmon, red onion, capers, and lemon hollandaise sauce with a side of home fries with whole garlic cloves baked alongside) while she ordered a one egg Monaco (similar to mine but with prosciutto and tomatoes provencale). Yumminess. The main problem was deciding in what order to eat - I saved the sweets for last and they ended up cooling down a bit and therefore not being quite as yummy as if they'd been fresh out of the kitchen. The St Trop wasn't quite what I had in mind - there's a smoked salmon eggs benedict-type sandwich I had at a restaurant in SF years ago that I loved, and this wasn't it - but it was decent. A few too many capers. The home fries with the garlic baked alongside were quite good. The French Toast Tahiti was yummy though I should have drizzled more maple syrup on it (it came with a sort of caramelized sauce but I didn't get the plate with the sauce). The gingerbread pancakes were rather thick and the texture was rougher than I'm used to for pancakes, but they were interesting,and the lemon curd and pear were really good.
I don't know if I want to wait 45 minutes for brunch again, but Zazie was yummy. Maybe I'll go again sometime when the line is shorter. It seems Bambino's two doors down serves brunch and the reviews on Yelp are pretty good for it, and that place never has a wait. So maybe I'll check out Zazie and go to Bambino's if it's got too long a wait next time.
The lovely thing (or maybe the bad thing, depending how you look at it) about Zazie is that for all their pancake/French toast dishes, you can choose to get one, two, or three pieces, and it's priced accordingly. Similarly, for their poached egg (and possibly other egg) dishes, you can choose one, two, or three eggs, with a gradated price tag for that as well. This is great for me because I'm indecisive as all hell, I was starving (having not eaten anything yet that morning, and having worked out that morning), and everything looked great. Between my friend and I, we ended up ordering one slice of the gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd and bijou pear and one slice of the French Toast Tahiti (Challah French bread stuffed with caramelized bananas and walnuts) to share (we each took half), and then I ordered myself a one egg St Trop (poached egg on English muffin with smoked salmon, red onion, capers, and lemon hollandaise sauce with a side of home fries with whole garlic cloves baked alongside) while she ordered a one egg Monaco (similar to mine but with prosciutto and tomatoes provencale). Yumminess. The main problem was deciding in what order to eat - I saved the sweets for last and they ended up cooling down a bit and therefore not being quite as yummy as if they'd been fresh out of the kitchen. The St Trop wasn't quite what I had in mind - there's a smoked salmon eggs benedict-type sandwich I had at a restaurant in SF years ago that I loved, and this wasn't it - but it was decent. A few too many capers. The home fries with the garlic baked alongside were quite good. The French Toast Tahiti was yummy though I should have drizzled more maple syrup on it (it came with a sort of caramelized sauce but I didn't get the plate with the sauce). The gingerbread pancakes were rather thick and the texture was rougher than I'm used to for pancakes, but they were interesting,and the lemon curd and pear were really good.
I don't know if I want to wait 45 minutes for brunch again, but Zazie was yummy. Maybe I'll go again sometime when the line is shorter. It seems Bambino's two doors down serves brunch and the reviews on Yelp are pretty good for it, and that place never has a wait. So maybe I'll check out Zazie and go to Bambino's if it's got too long a wait next time.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Food
Having not updated in a month, I clearly don't remember everything I've eaten. Here's what I do remember.
Tara (123 2nd St, between Minna and Mission). This is a new Thai/Asian-fusion place that opened up near work (just down the street from Osha Thai) that I'd been meaning to try for a while and finally got in for dinner Wed night when I was in a rush to get to AT&T Park for the Boitano show. They said they could get me in and out in 30 minutes, so yay! The service was great - the guy was unobtrusively refilling my water glass every 2 seconds, the food was quick, it was easy to grab someone's attention to get my doggie bag and check... The food... well I got the Pad See Ew with beef, which is a favorite of mine. The dish tasted fine - not the best I've ever had but certainly not the worst - but the beef was tough and chewy. Not so good when you're in a rush, or in general. It's cheaper than Osha, the *flavors* were fine, but the textures and the meat need work. Only having had one dish, I hesitate to judge the place overall, but it did give me pause...
Amici's East Coast Pizzeria (216 King St) - so it's a chain I've been to several times before, so maybe it's not entirely fair to review it. But I don't really like it. Never had a pizza here I particularly liked (and their pizza is gross once it starts to cool - my group ordered some for dinner one night and I got there late and the crust was so tough I had to tear pieces off instead of just biting pieces). So I went here b/c it was across the street from AT&T Park and I needed to grab quick food before dress rehearsal for the Boitano show. Got a spaghetti b/c really, how far wrong can you go with spaghetti? Also because their pasta choices are crap. And the spaghetti was both expensive ($10+ for a small portion with meat sauce) and pretty crappy. I had better tasting spaghetti in the IAD airport while waiting for a flight one night, and I watched them scoop the spaghetti out of a bin where it'd been sitting for who knows how long. So yeah, this is me dumping on Amici's. NOT recommended.
Brenda's French Soul Food (652 Polk St between Eddy and Turk). Closed on Sundays. So sad.
Dottie's True Blue Cafe (522 Jones between Geary and O'Farrell). Where we went when we discovered Brenda's was closed. Very popular spot - the line went halfway down the block and stayed that way the entire time we were there. Specials menu had some fairly unique items on it. My friend and bf both got the Banana Chocolate Chip French Toast with Balsamic Strawberries, which was pretty good. Not nearly as sweet as you would expect. Also not as spectacular as you would expect, but yummy. I was hungry and saw a combination that appealed - 2 eggs, piece of ham, hash browns, 2 pieces of French toast...yes, I'm a pig. The eggs were fine - standard scrambled, not entirely flavorful but bury it with enough ketchup and anything is yummy. The hash browns were the same - very standard. The ham was good - a nice big slice of real ham, and not some dinky little bits. The French toast was fine as well - their French toast is on big thick slices of bread which don't absorb the syrup quite as much as I'd like. Oddly, my combo cost like $1-$2 more than the special French toast and I only had one half slice less of toast than they got with their special. Maybe we should have tried some of their more exotic specials, but my conclusion is that the place was good but probably not worth waiting 1/2 an hour or more in line for...
Went to Abacus again for dinner the other night with bf's coworkers. Got more interesting food than the last time we went with coworkers - mongolian beef, tangerine chicken, creamed corn and crab meat soup, and house special chow mein (or lo mein?). I still think the dessert here is the best part - we got the ice cream sampler again, this time with lychee, coconut, mango, and double chocolate ice cream. The mango was kind of icy but otherwise so yummy. The food is ok. Soup was nice on a warm night.
Ziryab (528 Divisadero between Fell and Hayes). Looking for a quick place to eat Friday night before a comedy show at the Independent, and finding long waits everywhere, a local clued us into this place. We were seated immediately, no problem. It's a Mediterranean place so most of the people I was with ended up getting kebabs of some kind which they polished off so I assume they were quite good. My bf got a smoked trout? appetizer special (there was some confusion about whether it was an appetizer or an entree but luckily he also ordered some mediterranean herb bread so he had enough to eat) which he said was really good. I got the chicken schwerma plate - bunch o' little pita bread pockets into which I could stuff the schwerma and sauce. Quite tasty. Overall, not cheap, but a good meal in a not-overly crowded place with decent service.
It's never fair to judge a place by just getting takeout from them, especially when you have like a 15-20 minute walk to get the food home, and you placed the order before leaving work, a 30+ minute bus ride away. But that's what I did with Siam Lotus Thai Cuisine (1705 Haight St at Cole). The Golden Triangle appetizer I ordered actually still tasted quite yummy when I got home, despite it being in a crispy wrapper which you would think would get mushy (and got a bit softer than I'm sure it started as) and gross. These were little triangle shaped "crepes" stuffed with mashed potatoes, yams, and peas and weren't nearly as heavy as samosas and such tend to be. They had a nice, lightly sweet, almost fluffy texture and taste, and were quite yummy. The Pineapple Cashew Nuts Chicken wasn't as good, though I really do wonder if it's b/c of the delay in eating from prep time. The flavors of the sauce and such were quite good but the chicken itself was strips of quite bland dry white meat. Maybe they would have been better warmer? I definitely want to try this place again sometime from within the restaurant.
Got takeout a fair amount that week, actually. Well, delivery in this case. The North Beach Pizza on Stanyan St only delivers or has takeout - there's no sit in. We felt lazy one day so we ordered our typical pizza with pepperoni & tomatoes. Yummy. My only complaint is that North Beach isn't particularly fast - I think the order arrived like 50 minutes after I made it? Need to plan ahead better - they have an online ordering system and you can specify a time if you order ahead of time. I should try that and see how well it works. But I love North Beach Pizza. Yum yum yum.
Decided to try Tsuna mi Sushi Bar (1300 Fulton at Divisadero). My bf liked it a lot more than me. It's a fairly trendy type place - famous for its diverse sake selection, with kind of loungey-seating around the walls and tables in the middle. They have a relatively small, IMO, sushi menu with some unusual stuff. We ended up getting a Tsunami - maguro, bincho and asparagus flash-fried, topped with spicy aioli, tobiko, and scallions (Bincho is apparently albacore - what goes by white tuna or shiro maguro elsewhere?). That was fairly yummy. We also got sake sashimi and I forget what other fish...either hamachi or maguro, but pretty sure it wasn't bincho. I also think we may have gotten the Five Sisters roll, which I think is known as a rainbow roll elsewhere - california topped with five types of fish. It was all quite good. I guess my lack of enthusiasm mainly stemmed from the prices - we had only gone to Sushi Bistro like the week before, and Tsunami is decidedly more expensive. And I guess also the selection since there were less choices than Sushi Bistro. Given that they're in entirely different areas of the city, though, it's not like you'd necessarily skip one to go to the other. I guess my conclusion is it's a decent sushi place, but on the expensive side, and unnecessarily trendy (which means long waits on weekend nights).
That's all I can remember for now...
On a personal note, I had fun over Thanksgiving weekend going to see Kurt Browning in "Peter Pan", which was a fun stage musical. Also had fun going to the Boitano show at AT&T Park, which was quite an interesting experience - it was kind of funky being out on the field looking up into the stands. Big park! Went to a Comedians of Comedy show at the Independent - Patton Oswalt and the other two headliners (a guy from the Sarah Silverman show, a woman from I'm not sure where) were quite funny, but there were two comedians in a row who were the first to go after Patton warmed up the crowd who really sucked. None of us liked them, and they set the wrong tone for the evening for us, I think. I was in a bad mood for a while and wasn't ready to concede the following acts were actually funny at times, and some of the other people left early. It's a shame. Also odd was that it was a music venue so there were no seats, just standing room. And it was PACKED. Quite unpleasant. I'm so cranky =).
Tara (123 2nd St, between Minna and Mission). This is a new Thai/Asian-fusion place that opened up near work (just down the street from Osha Thai) that I'd been meaning to try for a while and finally got in for dinner Wed night when I was in a rush to get to AT&T Park for the Boitano show. They said they could get me in and out in 30 minutes, so yay! The service was great - the guy was unobtrusively refilling my water glass every 2 seconds, the food was quick, it was easy to grab someone's attention to get my doggie bag and check... The food... well I got the Pad See Ew with beef, which is a favorite of mine. The dish tasted fine - not the best I've ever had but certainly not the worst - but the beef was tough and chewy. Not so good when you're in a rush, or in general. It's cheaper than Osha, the *flavors* were fine, but the textures and the meat need work. Only having had one dish, I hesitate to judge the place overall, but it did give me pause...
Amici's East Coast Pizzeria (216 King St) - so it's a chain I've been to several times before, so maybe it's not entirely fair to review it. But I don't really like it. Never had a pizza here I particularly liked (and their pizza is gross once it starts to cool - my group ordered some for dinner one night and I got there late and the crust was so tough I had to tear pieces off instead of just biting pieces). So I went here b/c it was across the street from AT&T Park and I needed to grab quick food before dress rehearsal for the Boitano show. Got a spaghetti b/c really, how far wrong can you go with spaghetti? Also because their pasta choices are crap. And the spaghetti was both expensive ($10+ for a small portion with meat sauce) and pretty crappy. I had better tasting spaghetti in the IAD airport while waiting for a flight one night, and I watched them scoop the spaghetti out of a bin where it'd been sitting for who knows how long. So yeah, this is me dumping on Amici's. NOT recommended.
Brenda's French Soul Food (652 Polk St between Eddy and Turk). Closed on Sundays. So sad.
Dottie's True Blue Cafe (522 Jones between Geary and O'Farrell). Where we went when we discovered Brenda's was closed. Very popular spot - the line went halfway down the block and stayed that way the entire time we were there. Specials menu had some fairly unique items on it. My friend and bf both got the Banana Chocolate Chip French Toast with Balsamic Strawberries, which was pretty good. Not nearly as sweet as you would expect. Also not as spectacular as you would expect, but yummy. I was hungry and saw a combination that appealed - 2 eggs, piece of ham, hash browns, 2 pieces of French toast...yes, I'm a pig. The eggs were fine - standard scrambled, not entirely flavorful but bury it with enough ketchup and anything is yummy. The hash browns were the same - very standard. The ham was good - a nice big slice of real ham, and not some dinky little bits. The French toast was fine as well - their French toast is on big thick slices of bread which don't absorb the syrup quite as much as I'd like. Oddly, my combo cost like $1-$2 more than the special French toast and I only had one half slice less of toast than they got with their special. Maybe we should have tried some of their more exotic specials, but my conclusion is that the place was good but probably not worth waiting 1/2 an hour or more in line for...
Went to Abacus again for dinner the other night with bf's coworkers. Got more interesting food than the last time we went with coworkers - mongolian beef, tangerine chicken, creamed corn and crab meat soup, and house special chow mein (or lo mein?). I still think the dessert here is the best part - we got the ice cream sampler again, this time with lychee, coconut, mango, and double chocolate ice cream. The mango was kind of icy but otherwise so yummy. The food is ok. Soup was nice on a warm night.
Ziryab (528 Divisadero between Fell and Hayes). Looking for a quick place to eat Friday night before a comedy show at the Independent, and finding long waits everywhere, a local clued us into this place. We were seated immediately, no problem. It's a Mediterranean place so most of the people I was with ended up getting kebabs of some kind which they polished off so I assume they were quite good. My bf got a smoked trout? appetizer special (there was some confusion about whether it was an appetizer or an entree but luckily he also ordered some mediterranean herb bread so he had enough to eat) which he said was really good. I got the chicken schwerma plate - bunch o' little pita bread pockets into which I could stuff the schwerma and sauce. Quite tasty. Overall, not cheap, but a good meal in a not-overly crowded place with decent service.
It's never fair to judge a place by just getting takeout from them, especially when you have like a 15-20 minute walk to get the food home, and you placed the order before leaving work, a 30+ minute bus ride away. But that's what I did with Siam Lotus Thai Cuisine (1705 Haight St at Cole). The Golden Triangle appetizer I ordered actually still tasted quite yummy when I got home, despite it being in a crispy wrapper which you would think would get mushy (and got a bit softer than I'm sure it started as) and gross. These were little triangle shaped "crepes" stuffed with mashed potatoes, yams, and peas and weren't nearly as heavy as samosas and such tend to be. They had a nice, lightly sweet, almost fluffy texture and taste, and were quite yummy. The Pineapple Cashew Nuts Chicken wasn't as good, though I really do wonder if it's b/c of the delay in eating from prep time. The flavors of the sauce and such were quite good but the chicken itself was strips of quite bland dry white meat. Maybe they would have been better warmer? I definitely want to try this place again sometime from within the restaurant.
Got takeout a fair amount that week, actually. Well, delivery in this case. The North Beach Pizza on Stanyan St only delivers or has takeout - there's no sit in. We felt lazy one day so we ordered our typical pizza with pepperoni & tomatoes. Yummy. My only complaint is that North Beach isn't particularly fast - I think the order arrived like 50 minutes after I made it? Need to plan ahead better - they have an online ordering system and you can specify a time if you order ahead of time. I should try that and see how well it works. But I love North Beach Pizza. Yum yum yum.
Decided to try Tsuna mi Sushi Bar (1300 Fulton at Divisadero). My bf liked it a lot more than me. It's a fairly trendy type place - famous for its diverse sake selection, with kind of loungey-seating around the walls and tables in the middle. They have a relatively small, IMO, sushi menu with some unusual stuff. We ended up getting a Tsunami - maguro, bincho and asparagus flash-fried, topped with spicy aioli, tobiko, and scallions (Bincho is apparently albacore - what goes by white tuna or shiro maguro elsewhere?). That was fairly yummy. We also got sake sashimi and I forget what other fish...either hamachi or maguro, but pretty sure it wasn't bincho. I also think we may have gotten the Five Sisters roll, which I think is known as a rainbow roll elsewhere - california topped with five types of fish. It was all quite good. I guess my lack of enthusiasm mainly stemmed from the prices - we had only gone to Sushi Bistro like the week before, and Tsunami is decidedly more expensive. And I guess also the selection since there were less choices than Sushi Bistro. Given that they're in entirely different areas of the city, though, it's not like you'd necessarily skip one to go to the other. I guess my conclusion is it's a decent sushi place, but on the expensive side, and unnecessarily trendy (which means long waits on weekend nights).
That's all I can remember for now...
On a personal note, I had fun over Thanksgiving weekend going to see Kurt Browning in "Peter Pan", which was a fun stage musical. Also had fun going to the Boitano show at AT&T Park, which was quite an interesting experience - it was kind of funky being out on the field looking up into the stands. Big park! Went to a Comedians of Comedy show at the Independent - Patton Oswalt and the other two headliners (a guy from the Sarah Silverman show, a woman from I'm not sure where) were quite funny, but there were two comedians in a row who were the first to go after Patton warmed up the crowd who really sucked. None of us liked them, and they set the wrong tone for the evening for us, I think. I was in a bad mood for a while and wasn't ready to concede the following acts were actually funny at times, and some of the other people left early. It's a shame. Also odd was that it was a music venue so there were no seats, just standing room. And it was PACKED. Quite unpleasant. I'm so cranky =).
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