I went to the Stanford shopping center with my family a few days ago, where there is the only Sprinkles in Norcal. I obviously make cupcakes quite often - if you're in the wedding business, it's really unavoidable. However, just the thought of Sprinkles just makes me cringe - feelings that haven't changed for awhile. $3.50 for a tiny little cake?? It drives me nuts. A woman in front of us in line bought $70 worth of cupcakes. That's just plain ridiculous. And the lines! Their brand strategy is to serve customers at the door, so even if there are only 5 people queuing up, there's already a line out the door.
Granted, Sprinkles does have a good red velvet, which is what they're known for. Everything else, however, is not much better than a dozen you can get at Safeway for the same price. Cupcakes are cute; it's undeniable. But really. Sprinkles just has no soul in their food, just like all franchises. BLAHHHH
And yes, we did buy a few because my sister really loves them and my parents had never been before. =P
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Cupcakes Must Die, Part 2
Christmas Desserts A Plenty
I had a good amount of egg yolks, whites, and cream leftover after the wedding, so before I left SF I wanted to use it all up so it wouldn't end up in the trash.
- olive oil ice cream + fleur de sel ganache: When I arrived at my parents' house for the holidays, I mentioned that I had an ice cream base to spin and their eyes lit up as they inquired what kind. Olive oil, I said (adapted from a David Lebovitz recipe), and immediately their faces looked of disgust. After I made it my dad was like "it tastes too oily"... who would've thought. I used a really good bottle of olive oil that Mike gave me that was actually kind of old, so it probably didn't taste as good as it would have if it had been fresh. I made a quick 1:2 ganache using the leftover bittersweet chocolate from the truffles I made for the wedding and some fleur de sel to give the ice cream some contrast.
- leftover "vanilla" cupcake batter + vanilla buttercream
- leftover lime cream => lime meringue tart, pate sucree shell: Since the lime cream (adapted from a Pierre Herme lemon cream recipe) wasn't intentionally made for a meringue pie/tart it didn't really hold when I put it in the oven and the entire thing deflated by the end of the day. Usually you just use citrus curd, and not a cream that is mostly butter.
Friday, December 26, 2008
The Dining Room
Every year after Thanksgiving, my family usually eats at a fine dining establishment to celebrate both my mom's and my birthdays. Last year it was Aqua, and this time, after recs from quite a few friends, we decided to venture to the Ritz Carlton. Our family is very talkative and loud, and although the restaurant scene is a bit more lax in the bay area than, say, nyc, I found the Dining Room really stuffy and a bit too fancy shmancy for my taste. The ambience felt stiff and embarassingly quiet, and I think half the room was listening to our inane conservations. Sure, the chairs were ridiculously throne-like and plush, but they were definitely comfortable seats for our 3-hr ride.
All that aside, we were all extremely impressed by our meal. We each got the "Salt and Pepper" tasting menu - eight courses of dishes spotlighting varieties of (you guessed it) special salts and peppers. With 3 delicious amuse bouches to start (chicken empanada, sea urchin panna cotta, and caviar + the most perfect quail egg ever), we were already wowed with what they had to offer.
Foie, Sea urchin panna cotta, and the Caviar + Quail Egg on a vessel full of smoke (there's a better picture of that here)
Bar Crudo
I pass by this tiny nob hill "modern raw bar" every day on my way to work. It's been in the Chronicle's Top 100 for the last two years, and my friend suggested going there after reading some positive reviews. Taking some queues from yelpers (despite my disdain for yelp in general, I still skim reviews to see any ordering trends), we ordered the crudo sampler (left), the lobster + beet salad (right), and halibut cheeks (not pictured). They actually gave pretty fair pieces of fish in the sampler, but the flavor combinations weren't anything astounding. The halibut was quite impossible to eat - bones everywhere and barely any meat.
I think the only thing worth going back for would be the lobster and beet salad - light and refreshing, even with the chunks of buttery burrata. Sharing the salad between two people, with some $9 (seriously) Hitachinos would be a nice afternoon snack!
Thanksgiving, a month later
"Deep-fried" turkey, apple pie (cured apples to maintain shape), vanilla bean ice cream. Sweet and simple, hot and cold. The pie turned out much better than last year's. No pictures of the creme fraiche ice cream + pumpkin caramel sauce.
Monday, December 15, 2008
TOP 5: 2008 round-up
Top 5 Hits of my own:
brioche bread pudding
Roquefort quiche w/ leeks + mushrooms
chevre panna cotta
meatballs
Lime chiboust
Top 5 Meals:
Pizzaiolo
Taim
La Mar (Lima)
Michael Mina desserts
The Dining Room
Top 5 New Regulars:
Herbivore: soy chicken shawarma, red curry w/ quinoa + soy chicken
Blue Bottle: New Orleans
Philz: Iced Coffee, Philharmonic
Muracci's: katsu curry
Harvest + Rowe: split pea soup
Non-food-related lists after the jump!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Mission Street Food: Take 2
My second visit to Mission Street Food was for Ryan Farr's (Orson, Fifth Floor) guest menu. If you ever take a look at his blog, it's filled with detailed photos of how-tos, mostly involving meat. Vegans, stay away!
Photos (courtesy of Gigi) and details of our meal after the jump!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
3rd time's the charm - Salt House
This is my 3rd time eating at Salt House. The 1st time was when they first opened and it wasn't that remarkable. The 2nd time was lunch and I forgot what I had :P. BUT this time, it was very good. Thanks to our insider hookups (Thanks Kathy), we got to try a lot of different things and desserts were amazing!!
To start, we ordered the house favorite Poutine (crispy potato with gravy and cheddar, the ultimate comfort food)
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Scratched Bicycle/Smell Memory
- This holiday season is bittersweet. We all knew that small restaurants were already feeling the effects of this recession, but even SF's most popular are no longer untouchable. Times are tight - change in purveyors, changes in staff... then there are less bookings and less covers, giving us less to do.... If we're feeling it, everyone must be.
- Thanksgiving: apple pie (cured the slices) + vanilla bean ice cream, creme fraiche ice cream + pumpkin caramel sauce
- 25: The Dining Room (the most perfect soft-poached quail egg of my life). Tartine cookbook! <3
- Bar Crudo: lobster + beet salad, nothing else.
- Ramen + Asahi on a bloody cold night.
- Chewy chocolate mint cookies w/ white chocolate chunks - 5 dozen gone in one day at the office. Simple is always better. I am the best coworker EVER (Jason and Marc are so lucky to sit next to me).
- When I read this article, it reminded me of my friend Jason who lost his sense of smell awhile ago. He really liked the aforementioned cookies, which means I did a good job in evoking his other senses/catering to the tastes he can still detect (the potency of the peppermint, the crispy edges and chewy center, the sweetness of the white chocolate, etc).
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Mission-Street-Food
After weeks of waiting (Alice!), I finally made it out to this fairly new Thursday nights only pop-up restaurant, no longer a Mission Street-Food taco truck. Now Mission-Street Food, the team has been using this Chinese restaurant between 18th + 19th the last 2 Thursdays (they will be closed the rest of November). At first I was hesitant about the move away from the fun and laid back appeal of the taco truck, but the whole pop-up concept worked out just fine. The only real advantage from the customer's point of view is not having to brown-bag it. You can still BYOB, or get one of theirs for a buck.
Tan and I shared 4 of the 5 available dishes, where the one we didn't try was a vegetarian version of the smoked rice. The smoked rice had a very nice char flavor - I normally don't like smoked things, but it was also seasoned well which brought out other flavors so it wasn't just concentrated on the smoke. The coconut curry soup was my fave - very rich, lots of depth, and just really tasty.
The week's special was a rare beef and glass noodles app, served with fried lotus chips. It wasn't really what I expected - instead of the traditional thinly sliced pieces of raw beef, we got ground meat, like a steak tartare. It was OK - pretty basic. I think it needed some (or more?) acid.
The PBJ (pork belly + jicama wrap), their signature thus far, was actually disappointing for me. Maybe because there was a lot of hype around that dish so my expectations were high... but I just didn't like my pieces of meat. They were overcooked - dry and almost completely fried fat. I know pork belly is all about the fat, but it shouldn't taste like fat - it should taste like yummy pork goodness, which it didn't. I'm sure if I got better pieces of meat it would've tasted better, so it isn't just about execution.
Overall, the food was good - comfortable and in a relaxed environment. It didn't blow my mind, but this type of food isn't necessarily supposed to. And for $9? Yes, that's right. HELLZYEAH I'm going back!
P.S. Sorry for the horrible photo - it was REALLY dark in there and I don't like using flash in restaurants. That's the best one I had (soup + rice).
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
What A Wonderful, Magical Animal
To celebrate 53 years of cumulative old age, Mike and I, along with some talented friends, ate a lot of pork. Carnitas, Korean BBQ spicy pork, meatballs, kimchi fried rice with Korean pork belly, Chinese BBQ pork... the list goes on. Dessert? Bacon cheddar apple pie and [applewood and apple cinnamon] bacon cinnamon rolls.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Boozin for Barack
I made some Mexican chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche cream cheese frosting that I brought to an election party. To make up for the craptastic picture, I will include the recipe and my "yes we can" playlist (which I made during the primaries) after the jump! What a momentous day for American history and American people.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Candy Corn + Peanuts = Candy Corn + Peanuts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Ain't No Sunshine
Berkeley Thai Temple
I haven't been here since college (ie, a LONG time ago) and it was pretty much how I remember: Berkeley students and hippies, lines lines everywhere, and tasty Thai food. Spicier than I remember, and the token exchange lady this time was really rude, but that still won't spoil good food with great friends on a sunny day. Yay!
Here are some prices for reference:
Thai iced tea = $1
1 entree over rice = $5
2 entrees = $6
...
papaya salad = $5
mango sticky rice = $5
Sweet Coconut & green onion rice ball things (SO GOOD) + fried taro = $4
Sunday, October 19, 2008
The Richmond: More than Asian and Russian
Sure, there's more than just Asian restaurants and Russian bakeries out in the north avenues. Near my hood, there's the overrated Chapeau! ... the ecclectic Simple Pleasures... the always ironic Trader Sam's.... Yes, we really have quite a selection, I must say. Well I finally made it over to Pizzetta 211 after a long-time recommendation by a coworker. Goal: become a regular (ie. gain 15 lbs).
This tiny little 4 table+bar spot is so cute and so good... I am definitely going to return. Good thing we showed up a little after 5pm on a Saturday evening because almost immediately afterwards there was a wait outside. The staff was great and friendly... pizzas came shortly after ordering, even when they were made to order (I'm pretty sure they were at least). We only tried 2 - the potato, leek + pancetta w/ egg, and the margherita w/ white anchovies. They were both great - the former a bit heavy but tasty, and the latter could've had more anchovies. White anchovies are way less fishy than other kinds, so I would've liked more than just one per slice.
Regardless, we really enjoyed our meal here. The short walk from home is just a bonus! Mike said it reminded him of di fara's in bk because of the tiny space and thin crust. I still need to go =P
Sunday, October 12, 2008
El Farolito: Tastes Like Home
Not my home, but Mike's (Chula Vista, south of San Diego). I asked Mike to post about our meal here, but he said blogging was lame. Well, that makes him lame by association! Ohhhh snap! Moving on.
If you think I'm a food snob, just bring up bay area Mexican food with Mike. He is about as elitist as you can get (since he grew up next to the border, he's spent a lot of time in Mexico, eating real Mexican food. From Mexico. Made by Mexicans. Oh wait, that's not that different). However, we were in the Mission the other night after watching Call and Response at the Roxie, and I hadn't eaten dinner and wanted some tacos. With Mike's nose scrunched up and the whining commenced, we took a short walk to El Farolito since I had never been there.
Now, Mike judges a Mexican burrito/taco place by its carne asada, and to do that, he always gets the same thing: a carne asada burrito with guac, and everything else on the side (the rice and beans filler masks the taste). They forgot his, so mine was sitting pretty as we waited. Finally, with the salsa cups and marinated carrots ready, we dug in.
