More restaurants

A few more restaurants:

Wanted something light, like tapas, so we decided to hit Pisco Latin Lounge, which is next door to Destino and has the same owners. It's a lounge/bar with a tapas menu, and was pretty empty on a random Monday. Light != cheap. We got the plantain chips (yum), caprese empanadas (pretty yum - mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil in an empanada), the PisCo-Chino Roll (yellowtail, quinoa, lemongrass oil, soy-tamarind reduction - quinoa is gross or at least not what I expect in a sushi roll), the Tiradito de Corvina (white sea bass crudo, crema de rocoto, meyer lemon-agave salsa - crema de rocoto is SPICY, good thing we got it on the side. crudo was yummy), and the Jamon Serrano Spears (cardamom infused persimmon, goat cheese, jamon serrano, pomegranate reduction - would have liked a lot more if I liked goat cheese). Not a lot of food, pretty hefty price. Pretty tasty, except for the use of quinoa in the sushi roll, though! Definitely a very different type of tapas than I got last week, but not surprising given these were Peruvian.

Tuesday I was starving (opposite of Monday) and decided to hit B's BBQ and Grill, a new BBQ place on Divisadero between McAllister and Fulton that we pass every day on our bike. The whole place is super-smoky so we decided to eat at home. It took maybe 20 minutes for our order to be ready, which isn't terrible. We got a 1/2 order of the ribs, and 1/2 order of the brisket, plus a sweet tea. The sweet tea was delicious. My biggest complaint, even though I love sauce, is that they DROWN their meat in sauce. More than I like, which is saying a lot. The ribs were meaty but a bit tough and dry, which was disappointing. The brisket was tender and good, though, and would have been excellent with a bit less sauce. I have a theory about bbq places, though - I think that unless they're super-good, they aren't that consistent. Smoking meat I don't think is an exact science. I might go again. It's a bit more consistent than Memphis Minnie's but I think at the moment I still like Memphis Minnie's more - more meat choices, more side choices, and I think it's a bit cheaper.

Wednesday we had leftover ribs and brisket. Thursday we went to Pauline's again and got a pepperoni pizza. That place is not fast and not cheap but it's pretty darn good and not greasy (well, except for the little pools of grease cupped in our little pepperoni, but the crust and cheese are not greasy). Friday we tried fresh spaghetti I had bought from the Crocker Galleria farmer's market Thursday, along with sauce we made following the Best Recipe from diced tomatoes, olive oil, basil, oregano, garlic.... it was ok. The spaghetti was quite chewy.

Saturday we tried buying pre-marinated Kalbi from the Woo Ri Korean supermarket on Fillmore by Geary (in a little refrigerated case near the front counter) and grilling it at home on our cast-iron grill. The first couple pieces were super-salty, probably b/c we usually use the cast iron grill to make our pepper and salt seared filet mignon (and we don't wash it since it's cast iron). After that though... I don't think I'd get the meat there again. The marinade wasn't very good. Mostly on the salty side, not very sweet. And it's not cheap - we got a case with 9 pieces of kalbi for $15 or so. It was supposed to be 2.3 lbs but I think a lot of that weight was the marinade. Might as well just go to a korean bbq like Pine Restaurant for that price. Oh well...

Yesterday I made a chicken pot pie which we're eating tonight as well. That's not so interesting, but it was tasty =).