A year has passed and it was time to head back to one of my favorite places. Hog Island Oyster Farm! What can be better than fresh raw oysters, BBQ, happy people, and gorgeous scenery?? It’s been an annual trip for the last 3 years and the experience is different everytime. A must-see if you’ve never been.
50 unshucked Kumamotos.
My new favorite go-to appetizer—Smoked salmon w/homemade garlic aioli and pita crackers.
Skirt Steak, of course….and plenty more not captured.
And since that wasn’t enough, I had another awesome dinner tonight at Delfina.
Green Iced Tea with Lime and Mint.
Grilled Fresh Calamari with warm white bean salad (i need a sturdier hand for dim lighting). SOOOOO GOOD.
Insalata di Campo with bitter greens, pancetta, walnuts, Parmigiano and balsamic vinaigrette. Another good choice!
Tripe alla Fiorentina. Excellent especially with bread.
And as full as I was, I still managed to get Bi-Rite Ice Cream across the street. They had a flavor called, Ricanelas (cinnamon with snickerdoodles)!!!! How did I not know about this before?? Tasted like a mix between a snickerdoodle and a churro…with chunks of cookie dough.
Luckily, softball yesterday (2 innings worth 
) worked me good that I am hurting twice as much as yesterday and will hurt three times as much tomorrow.
The title pretty much sums up how I feel. A friend of mine took me to the most authentic Mexican “restaurant” you can find in the Bay Area for dinner tonight. Her coworker’s backyard. We strolled through a residential area, parked our car outside the house, and walked straight into this family’s backyard for some darn tasty tacos. We both ordered 3 tacos — steak, pork and lengua (mmmmm. tongue….). I wasn’t completely full and wanted another lengua taco so another one I got…Why do I torture myself so?
On a better note! Ever since I went over to my friend’s house where her and her husband (the ones that met at La Folie) made us dinner, I’ve been DYING to have his recipe for garlic aioli. And I finally got it!! OMG. If you like garlic, you’ll LOVE this. It’s made the old school way with a mortar + pestle and requires some muscle, but it’s DELICIOUS…and you’ll get a strong forearm.
My friend says that by smashing the garlic, the oils are brought out more than if you chop it up in little bits. 1 clove of garlic crushed in a mortar + pestle tastes like 10 cloves chopped in the finished product. It’s SUPER garlicy so if you want it less potent, chop it instead of mash it.
Final product. If you’re lucky enough to try it and love it, I will share the recipe with you.
When they sent me home with leftovers last time, I had smoked salmon in the fridge so I toasted some of her homemade bread, spread some of this garlic aioli on top and added smoked salmon. It was to die for. Now i just need to ask them nicely for their bread recipe too. 
Do you have a close group of friends that you can just talk to about serious stuff and yet make each other laugh endlessly? And I don’t just mean laugh. It’s like the I-need-to-stop-walking-so-I-can-catch-my-breath kind of laughing. Granted I naturally laugh a lot but I don’t think you’ve seen the real me until you see me with these friends. It’s like we’re the 16 year old dorks we once were, or still are, back in high school. Ahhh, good times.
So while we laughed our asses off, we ate one of the most comforting Chinese food. RAMEN!! I’ve been wanting to try Katana-Ya in SF for awhile now because people have been raving about it. And while the noodles are good, it just doesn’t compare the two places I’ve tried in NY, Rai Rai Ken and Ramen Setagaya. BUT, I still polished my bowl.
This is the Kim Chee Ramen with rich miso soup.
We got there a little after 6PM and there was 1 table left. By the time we left, there was a crowd outside waiting to be seated. So if you ever want to try this place, go on a weekday night no later than 630PM.
Why is it that you always need a vacation after a vacation? I think I’m still on relax mode after a retreat in Santa Cruz this weekend with lots of sun and some beach. Can someone tell me why sun makes one SO tired?
Tonight, I made my favorite Snickerdoodle cookies using this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers! The first time I made these, I went Amish style and beat everything by hand but THIS time, I have my sexy Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Just looking at the batter alone, I could tell that this batch would turn out better than the first. And indeed they did! Crusty on the outside, soft in the middle…just as it should be.
Whoever sees me tomorrow might just get a piece of this yummy goodness!
Has anyone heard of BlackboardEats? It’s basically restaurant deals to some great and not so great restaurants. It started in LA and NY and finally came to SF just last month. And their first restaurant deal was 30% off at SPQR restaurant on Fillmore St. Other deals I’ve seen are at smaller restaurants for a free drink with appetizers or a free dessert. So this one to SPQR has been by far the best one! The catch is, is that you have to use it within a month. Not hard for me since ya know I LOVE to eat!
So SPQR we went on Friday night. SUPER cute place in the middle of Fillmore. Websites label it as $$$ but when we got there, we were surprised that entrees were no more than lower $20s, max. My friend laughed and questioned if that means we’re just getting old when lower $20s doesn’t seem so much anymore. But anyhow…food was delish!
I started off with a bubbly Prosecco.
You know the menu had to be good because it took me/us SO long to decide what we wanted even though I saw Papperdelle w/Lamb Ragu on there (papperdelle pasta is my fav!) but shockingly, I didn’t end up choosing it! But first, we chose 2 appetizers.
Lamb Belly, Baby Artichoke, Truffle Vinaigrette & Walnuts (Awesome!…but crappy picture)
Chopped Chicken Liver, Balsamic Vinegar, Rhubarb Jam & Crostini (OMG. TO DIE FOR!! Believe it or not, and I’m sure you can….but I practically LICKED the jar clean. If my mouth fit into that jar…I would’ve stuck it in there! The PERFECT salty and sweet. MMMMmmmmm).
Actually, I was lying. I really didn’t like it.
The tables were SO close together that i didn’t want to embarrass myself even more by putting the jar to my mouth.
For my entree, I chose Veal Sweetbread (and other ingredients I forgot to note down). Tasted like beets, rhubarb and Israeli Cous Cous. SO good, but so rich.
And I had a taste of the Tagliatelle, Sea Urchin, Spicy Tomato & Green Onion. Mmmmm! Odd combo but a perfect mix. LOVED the spicy kick to it.
So by the 100th taste of sea urchin in my life, ladies and gentleman…I think it’s FINALLY growing on me.
Would I ever go back to SPQR? In a heartbeat!!
Boy oh boy. I feel like I’ve just gained 10 pounds in the last few hours.
After a full week of work, I headed to an early dinner tonight at Wayfare Tavern, Tyler Florence’s new restaurant in SF! Since I don’t work in the financial district anymore, I had to hear about it through word of mouth and glad that I did! Out of 5 stars, I would give it a 3.5-4. It wasn’t the BEST I’ve ever had but it was definitely up there. We even saw Tyler Florence himself in the kitchen. The hostess told us to feel free to chat and take photos with him. But…it’s just weird and intimidating to go up to a chef who looks like he’s busily working! Next time! But the cool thing about this restaurant is that it JUST opened this past Tuesday so we were one of the first hundred or so to dine during the first week of opening.
And boy, did we DINE. I’m stuffed as we speak.
We sat upstairs where there’s a second smaller bar and a pool table in a side room where it seemed like the owner and friends were hanging out.
So much to choose from! And that’s just the Hors d’Oeurves section.
After reading Yelp, people raved about the Deviled Eggs and Sardines…so that’s exactly what we got!
This would be the Deviled Eggs with Mustard-Creme Fresh Yolks, Crisp Anchovy, Capers and Lemon Thyme.
And this was is the Monterey Bay Sardines Roasted with Garlic-Parsley Butter, Lemon, and Toast. The friendly waiter taught us how to filet the first sardine and was impressed when he saw me do the next!
Clearly yet oddly enough, I think this was my fav dish of the night.
And of course, I had to wash my dinner down with something so I got the Occidental Sour. Mmm!
For my entree I got a dish called Hangtown Fry. Written next to it on the menu, there’s a caption that says “a dying man’s last meal.” And YES. IT. WAS. A Hangtown Fry consists of Fluffy Petaluma Eggs, Crispy Fried Oysters, Smoked Bacon and Arugala. There’s a reason why they say “a man’s last meal” and not a “woman’s last meal.” It was good but SO heavy.
But it didn’t stop there. We got 2 sides. One Buttered Mushrooms and Watercress, and a Creamed Corn that the waiter recommended. Both very tasty!
And NOW, we’re done. I really wanted to try their Banana Bread Pudding because of good reviews but we just couldn’t do it. I’d definitely love to visit again and try the other dishes. They had Escargot on the menu the first night but took it off by tonight. So sad. I’m guessing not many people in SF like eating snails….except for me.
I had no idea what to make for dinner tonight except that I had a bag of sugar snapped peas, chicken thighs, and an open bottle of white wine. So I immediately thought of making Israeli cous cous with sauteed peas and chicken. Halfway through cooking, I realized I really didn’t have cous cous. So what did I do? I immediately went to my latest subscription of Bon Appetit because I JUST saw a recipe in there with sugar snapped peas, chicken and udon (and yes I always keep dried udon in my cupboard just in case!). Their recipe is called Asian Chicken-Noodle Salad with Snap Peas. But because I didn’t have all the required ingredients, I improvised. And like I always say, Asian food is the hardest to get wrong!
Here’s their recipe plus or minus a few things that I found in my fridge and pantry:
- 12 ounces sugar snap peas, strings removed
- 1 8-to-9 ounce package of fresh Japanese-style noodles, such as udon (I used dry and it lasts forever. The package comes with 6 bundles of udon and I used 1.5 bundles for this dish)
- 1 Tbsp Asian sesame oil
- 2 grilled chicken breast halves, cut horizontally in half, then crosswise into thin strips (I used 2.5 chicken thighs because I prefer dark meat, cut into strips)
- 6 green onions, thinly sliced (I didn’t have green onion so I left it out)
- 1 cup Mango-Sesame Dressing (Bon Appetit has a separate recipe for this which is listed below with my alterations)
Bon Appetit’s recipe: Cook snap peas in boiling salted water until crisp-tender, 2 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Return water to boil. Add noodles. Cook until tender but firm, 3 minutes (or as directed on package). Drain; rince under cold water until cook. Transfer to large bowl. Toss noodles with sesame oil. Cut noodles with kitchen shears to shorten. Add peas, chicken, and green onions; toss with enough dressing to coat. Arrange salad on platter; top with toasted sesame seeds, if desired.
My recipe: Marinate chicken in a little bit of corn starch, white pepper, salt, sesame oil. Heat pan with oil, and cook chicken through. Set aside. In same pan, add a little more oil and toss in garlic, chopped shallots and snap peas until cooked (about 5 minutes). Set aside with chicken. Meanwhile, boil water and throw in udon. Cook for 12 minutes. Drain and throw in same bowl as chicken and peas. Mix dressing in (recipe below) and eat!
Mango-Sesame Dressing
- 3/4 c vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup Major Grey’s mango chutney (didn’t have)
- 6 Tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar (I only had seasoned rice vinegar.)
- 3 large garlic cloves, peeled (i chopped mine as well.)
- 6 3/4 tsp soy sauce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Asian sesame oil (I omitted this because I already added it to my chicken.)
- 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard (I’d recommend not using this. Makes it taste funny.)
- 1 1/2 tsp dried crushed red pepper
- 1 tsp sugar*
- 1 Tbsp dry sake*
- 2 Tbsp soba soy sauce* (Found in Asian markets. Is sweeter and less salty than soy sauce.)
- 1 shallot, chopped*
*my own additions
Mix the ingredients above together and toss in with your noodles/salad (I actually didn’t use their suggested amounts for my sauce because I eyeballed everything and tasted occasionally).
The dish as a whole didn’t taste awesome but was still good.
Hope everyone enjoyed the hot weekend! And unlike me, I hope no one else ended up with a tomato face (aka. a sunburned face).
First off, I forgot to post a fun meal I had earlier this week with some friends at my place. We called it…Breakfast for Dinner. 
And it was exactly that! Freshly made Belgium waffles (with a cherry/peach compote (made from the freshly picked fruit I got two days before), bacon, scrambled eggs (cooked with bacon fat!), and…mimosas!
(Sorry, picture is kind of blurry. I was trying to take it as fast as I could so we could eat!) Waffles and fruit compote were cooked and prepped by my very own pastry chef friend! She even helped me brave the first use of my Kitchen Aid mixer and whipped up some egg whites for the waffles!
Then this weekend was an action packed weekend as well. Bright and early at 6AM on Saturday, I hopped on BART and headed out to SF to run the Giants Plate to Plate 5K. And considering it was an exceptionally hot weekend, SF was abnormally scorching as well! SOMA had NO wind and it felt like 90 degrees at 8AM. But the run must go on and run I did to finish at home plate!
Sadly though…I was deceived. We didn’t technically finish AT home plate. The finish line was inside the park but was near left field and after you ran past it, you lined up to walk to home plate. No biggie, I thought. At least I get a picture at home plate! So I get to home plate after 15 minutes of waiting and I’m looking around for the photographer….and there is none! What they failed to tell us was that you were supposed to have friends and family sit in the stands and take a picture of you! WHAT!? And considering my friends were still running, I pretended that someone was in the stands and I smiled. So sad.
BUT I did however get to roam free in the park and we had some fun in the dugout. The Giants team wanted to call and congratulate me on finishing the 5K!
Then after a long day of BBQing at Crissy Fields and the Giants game at night, I woke up Sunday with another full day. At night, I was rewarded with some AWESOME food. My old college roommates and I got together for dinner and one of them and her husband cooked up a feast for us!! And I’m not kidding you but the meal was EXCELLENT. I had no doubt that it wouldn’t be anything but spectacular because they were both former chefs at La Folie (one of my fav restaurants in SF) where he was a sous chef (I think?) and she was the pastry chef.
When we first arrived, we were greeted by freshly made bread with fresh garlic aoili to spread on top. OMG. DELICIOUS!! Then for dinner we had polenta, ratatouille, and flank steak (I think)!! Then to top it all off, she made 3 kinds of French custards with cherries, banana and blueberries! Needless to say, we were stuffed. I didn’t get a chance to take pictures but what I do have a picture of is all the left overs they sent us home with!! They outdid themselves.
It is SO hot today! I’m sitting in my family room with all the lights off, the ceiling fan humming and swirling above me with only the glow of my laptop illuminating the room. Best of all, I’m super sweaty and sticky from all the activities that went on today. Sexy.
This morning I went cherry, nectarine and peach picking in Brentwood on what seems to be the hottest day of the year, thus far. And while I’m glad the weather wasn’t like how it was a few days ago (muggy and sprinkling), I was sweating before we even started! But for those of you who know I don’t like fruit, you’re probably wondering why I even went. Because it’s fun! It reminds me of my childhood.
When we got back, I enjoyed a long and decently healthy lunch at Cheesecake Factory…up until we got Strawberry Shortcake for dessert. YUM. I then proceeded to take a 30 min nap…and immediately got my butt up to go to the gym to stay in okay shape for the 5k run next weekend. But 5k? Piece of cake! (Watch me sprain my ankle or something).
After the gym, I was starving so….I cooked up an oldie but goodie meal that my mom taught me to cook before I went off to college. Tomato Beef Over Rice w/an Over Easy Egg. I had a ton of ground beef from last weekend that I froze in individual ziplock bags because I bought a 7lb. pack from Costco for slider burgers. And the first two dishes I think of cooking when I have ground beef is…pasta and tomato beef.
Ingredients:
- 4 Tomatoes
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- soy sauce (or in my case, maggi sauce)
- corn starch
- sugar
- sesame oil
- white pepper
- ketchup
- dried thyme (optional)
Steps:
- Marinate the ground beef with soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, corn starch, white pepper, dried thyme (thyme is something my mom started putting in a few years ago that totally changes the taste of this dish but I like it. It’s not the “traditional” way of making it so it’s optional). Honestly, I eyeball the amount of all this. I’ve never measured, which is why I like cooking Chinese dishes more. It’s hard to mess up!
- Heat up pan with a little bit of vegetable oil and toss in onions. Toss until transparent.
- Throw in ground beef, stirring occasionally until almost cooked.
- Toss in tomatoes with a tablespoon of ketchup, some more soy sauce and white pepper, and a pinch of thyme.
- Mix 2 tsp of cornstarch with 2 tsp water and stir and dump into pan. Stir until combined, turn heat down to medium low and cover.
- Let simmer for another few minutes and it’s done!
- In another clean pan, heat up with a little bit of oil on medium high. Crack egg into pan and flip when the white is opaque.
It’s so easy! Hope everyone’s weekend is going well! Time to clean up.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend! I didn’t have to work Friday morning so I took my time to decide what I wanted for breakfast instead of the usual grab a piece of bread (to toast at work) and run. I didn’t want my usual craving of oatmeal (must be old age!), nor did I want cereal, nor did I want scrambled or hard boiled eggs with the new box of eggs I bought yesterday. I did however want to eat some of the Hawaiian bread/rolls I bought. And then a light went on! I had a can of light spam in my cupboard (who doesn’t keep a can of spam stocked at all times?!) so naturally, I made a spam + egg + Hawaiian roll breakfast sandwich! Or, two. And man, was it good.
- First I scrambled 2 egg whites + 1/2 egg yolk in a bowl.
- Heat up a pan to medium high heat with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
- Pour eggs into pan and when it looks like it’s cooking up (not very transparent anymore) on the bottom, take a flat spatula and dig it under the egg and start wiggling it loose from the pan. Then flip. You’ll get a nice egg “pancake.”
- Once it looks cooked, remove and place on paper towel to soak up oil.
- Using same pan (no need to add extra oil), add 2 slices of spam and brown just a tad on each side (about 1-2 minutes each side).
- Cut 2 Hawaiian rolls down the middle and you can either eat toasted, or non toasted which is really soft.
- Cut the egg in half and place inside each roll along with one slice of spam. And you’re done!
The reason why this reminds me of a Chinese breakfast is because in Hong Kong, a popular item is white bread (without crust, not toasted, and buttered) with a slice of ham (they call it luncheon meat) and egg. It’s one of the most easiest and most comforting breakfast to me.
And well, it’s a bit of Hawaiian because of the Hawaiian rolls and ….spam! Try it!
Yesterday, after a bday/graduation/memorial day bbq, some girls went to watch Sex and the City 2 (not good at all) and had a snack for dinner at Stomp! in Danville. It’s a small plates and wine joint that was pretty cute. Lots of variety of wine and cheeses. And though we were still full from the bbq, we wanted to enjoy the weather a little more with a glass of wine and snacks. We settled on 4 small plates — Grilled Endive Caesar Salad with Prosciutto, Asiago Croutons and Roasted Garlic (the bitterness from the endives made it a non-traditional Caesar Salad but I still enjoyed it), Cassoulet of Baked French Cheeses with Leek and Fennel Confit, Chives, and Crusty Baguette (a take on Artichoke Dip but lighter…Tasty! (not pictured)), Spicy Shrimp Empanadas with Creamy Avocado Mole and Crushed Pumpkin Seeds (I didnt’ try but it looked good), and lastly, a Rib Eye Paninoteca with Watercress and Spicy Mustard Aioli (an upgrade from Roast Beef Sandwich. YUM!).
And of course, I had to get a glass of wine. My choice was Thomas Fogarty Gewürztraminer, Monterey County 2007.
Today, had a 2nd bbq and now I’m beat. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their long weekend!
