foodzings

Foodzings Has Moved!!!

2009-12-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

As of December 1, 2009, foodzings has moved permanently from this blogger site to a new home: http://www.foodzings.com/ All existing posts and content from blogger will be available on the new foodzings site. Old links will be redirected to the new site. Please update bookmarks and RSS feeds to the new site!

Thank you!

Percy Street Barbecue

2009-11-22T22:44:00.023-05:00

Y'all know I'm not known for going to brand new restaurants right away. I like others to experience them early on while they're still working out the kinks, so I can enjoy them later, once they've got their act together. But in an effort to enjoy a nice Christopher Columbus outing, we dared visit Percy Street Barbecue during their first week of business. I was intrigued by this place due to the central texas style bbq that they promise. I went to grad school in Austin, so I ate my fair share of bbq while I was there. I don't claim to be an expert on bbq, or let alone food, but I do have plenty of experience in this field. And the bbq options in philly aren't all that great. There certainly aren't texas style bbq places around here. So I was hooked. Plus, I had watched this video of their trip to bbq mecca and I was optimistic that they would really be able to pull this off.
The space is pretty gorgeous and big. The menu is simple, and you can even see it written on these giant chalkboards by the kitchen. But this is a nice restaurant. Unlike the genuine bbq joints in texas, you won't see brown paper strewn across tables. But you will get rolls of paper towels to use as napkins. So it's a mix of modern design aesthetic and down home grubbing.
Bottles of water in vinegar bottles are set on each table and you can even get 1/2 gallons or gallons of beer. These come in big brown glass jugs. It's a lot of beer people, a lot. Please be warned. Meats are sold by the 1/2 lb and sides come small or large.
The waitress recommended that for each person, 1/2 lb of meat and two small sides should suffice. We got large mashed potatoes, large german potato salad, two large mac and cheeses, small green beans, and small collard greens. Ok, so the number one gripe with this place is the paltry portions of the side dishes. Mac and cheese only comes in large, and this large is perhaps an elf's definition of large. These are way too small, and the mac and cheese is way too good to be served this small. Please, this needs to be fixed.

The mashed potatoes seemed whipped, but were not completely smooth, so you know it was made from genuine potatoes. I liked them. The large portion was a genuine large portion. The potato salad was good too, but the large wasn't quite large. The green beans were good, and the small portion seemed right. The collard greens were ok, and like the green beans, its small portion sizing seemed spot on. The collard greens could have been cooked down more and probably should be cut up into smaller pieces. It was a bit hard to maneuver the big hunks of green.
Ok, onto the meats! We got everything but the sausage. Everything comes out in a tray and is served with white bread, pickles, and sliced raw onion. The accompaniments are pure central texas through and through, so I was impressed. There were 10 people in our party. We got 8 slices of bread. I'm pretty good at math but that simply does not add up. Are we supposed to cut this bread into pieces and share? Each person should get at least two pieces of bread(or more) on their own. This is how it should be done. There should be no sharing of bread. It's white bread. I think you guys can swing it!

The ribs were ok. As you can see they are pretty big, but ribs are ribs. These are not baby back ribs where the meat falls of the bone. These require work, and it was just a bit too much work for me. But they tasted fine. Now the pork belly on the other hand, the pork belly was AMAZING. Yes, so amazing that I capitalized it all. This pork belly was some of the best bbq I've ever had in my life, but also some of the best food I've ever had in my life. No joke. I could eat this day and night, despite what my arteries may have to say about it. This is the best thing on the menu here. Heed my word. Forget everything else, it's all about the pork belly here!
The brisket was ok. There are three options - moist, lean, and extra lean. We opted for the lean, but even the lean had a bit thick hunk of fat on top. The brisket was good, but it was too charred on the outside. The char is definitely not adding to the flavor. My favorite bbq in general is brisket (or at least it was until I had the pork belly here!) and whenever I've had it in texas, it never had char on the outside. It's supposed to have a nice red ring around the edges due to the smoke, but there should be no char.

Everyone was disappointed with the chicken. R wanted the chicken to taste like oven roasted chicken or rotisserie chicken. She also felt the chicken was dry. No one else thought the chicken was dry. In fact, we found it quite moist and juicy, but it was bland. It was so, so, so boring and bland. It had absolutely no flavor at all. We told the manager none of us liked the chicken and he was shocked. He said the chicken was his favorite thing on the menu. Egads. If plain, flavorless, bland chicken is your thing, then go for the chicken here. If not, then avoid it at all costs. But if you do get it, be sure to bring some kind of sauce for it.< src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EdJfiQywcUo/SwwLLyR9_FI/AAAAAAAAI0Y/oq0JPYaRoDs/s400/percycake.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 354px; " alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407709549668727890" border="0">No one wanted any dessert, except for R. She wanted the chocolate layer cake. Man, was this thing disappointing. We thought the chicken couldn't be topped, but this sure beat it. This cake was dry, dry like the freakin Sahara, and it tasted like yellow cake mix from the grocery store. And not even Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker, I'm thinking generic no-frills yellow cake mix. We passed this around and after everyone took a bite, everyone had to drink. Cakes should be moist. What a cake fail!
But we did end the evening on a high note. We didn't order the pecan pie, but it showed up. I think it helped that we spent a whole crapload of money in their first week in business and that we gave them some honest constructive feedback. This pie was awesome! It wasn't freakishly sweet like some pecan pies I've had before, this was just sweet enough. I wholeheartedly recommend this pie.

So the service needs some work. The amount of time it took for our drinks to come out was not really acceptable. We were just sitting there wondering where our drinks were, for a very long time. This desperately needs to be improved. But the food came out pretty quick, so we were impressed with that. And the servers are nice and friendly. So basically, there were definitely hits and misses with the food here. The pork belly and the brisket are hits, as are the sides, and the pecan pie, but the portions of the sides, the chicken, and the chocolate layer cake are severe misses. But would I eat here again? Hell yeah, as I've been dreaming about the pork belly ever since!

Elevation Burger Lunch

2009-11-21T22:43:00.004-05:00

Stopped by Elevation Burger for a quick lunch the other day. I challenged P to get the 10 patty elevation burger, but he declined. Yes, you heard me, you can get a burger here with 10 hamburger patties. Then the manager proceeded to tell us that some college kids had been having burger eating challenges, and that the current record was 18. This came about because NBC's Aditi Roy had done a story on Elevation Burger and had eaten 8 herself. Whoa.
I'm a rational human being, so I just got a cheeseburger, and only one. I did get extra caramelized onions, because the regular portion is just too small, and these onions are just too good! So ask for extra, and they will oblige! They serve a good burger here. I'm a fan of it. I skipped the fries because I didn't like them the last time (they're made with olive oil and kind of limp and lame) but I did get a coffee shake. Good shake!

Project Runway Finale Party

2009-11-20T22:41:00.009-05:00

As a bookend to the project runway premiere, E held a fitting project runway finale party. She once again cooked everything, and made it seem effortless. Homemade breadsticks using phyllo dough and cheese. Obviously, the before! Even though the veggie tray came with a thing of dip, E made her own. It didn't quite turn out like the photo in the cookbook (it should have been green!) but it was still good. But it did taste a bit strange. It was hard to pinpoint what it was, but it was a bit odd. The beautiful veggie tray, crackers, and the breadsticks. The breadsticks had some problems in that they stuck to the pans. So they ended up being breadstick bits and not whole breadsticks. They still tasted fine. The main entree was mac and cheese, made with corkscrew macaroni and genuine cheese! This shot was obviously before the cheese sauce was poured in and the whole thing was baked. The mac and cheese turned out amazingly well. It was cheesy but mild, piping hot, and with a nice breadcrumb topping. The other main entree was asian chicken wings. And the girl didn't even buy pre-cut chicken wings at the store, she actually bought whole chicken wings and cut them into the wing bites! Nuts I tell you, nuts! These were fried up after being coated in a corn starch mix and then drenched in an asian marinade. These puppies were delish! E throws good parties! And she even gives away door prizes! Can't wait for the next season!

Latest Yakitori Boy

2009-11-14T22:40:00.005-05:00

Before heading out to a cabaret show, R and I stopped by Chinatown to grab some vittles. I hadn't been to yakitori boy in awhile, so that's where we ended up. R went with sushi and I went with non-sushi The rolls at yakitory boy have fewer pieces than at other restaurants, but that's ok, because the price tags tend to be smaller as well. Here are two philly rolls. And a couple sets of tuna and salmon nigiri. Even though it was actually fairly warm out, I still wanted noodle soup. So I went with the tempura soba. This is a fairly small sized bowl, but it's a decent portion for the price. One big piece of tempura shrimp and firm soba noodles. I like their udon broth here. I also got the tatsuta age, which is a deep fried marinated chicken dish. These were super duper hot! As in temperature hot. This chicken is awesome. And I totally dug the dipping sauce that came with it. I would put it on everything if I knew how to make it or if I could buy it! The food here comes out as it's made. There's no waiting for everything to be ready or appetizers showing up first. It just comes out when it's been made and ready. My chicken didn't come out until we were pretty much both done with everything. Which is bad timing, but that's part of their concept. And all the dishes are delivered by different people as well. Service is ok. Nothing bad, nothing great, somewhat inconsistent. But it's not fancy dining so it doesn't really matter to me. I did order a side of rice though and I had to ask for it again before they brought it out.

Tiffin Coming To Wynnewood

2009-11-12T23:29:00.000-05:00

While running errands today, I saw that Tiffin was setting up shop in the old Wynnewood Pharmacy location. This is just doors down, if not next door, to Elevation Burger. Man, Wynnewood is getting lucky! I've been looking for a good indian takeout place since I stopped patronizing Khajuraho due to their horrific customer service (have not been there for nearly 4 years!). So for suburbanites like me, what an exciting opening to look forward to! Whoohoo!

Emmy's Spaghetti Shack

2009-11-09T22:48:00.007-05:00

For my last dinner in SF and for dinner with A and E, we wanted something different and interesting. J had told J about this spaghetti shack place that had amazing spaghetti with amazing meatballs. We were all intrigued. So we headed over to Emmy's Spaghetti Shack in Bernal Heights to try some of this illustrious spaghetti. I read that there would be a wait, but I was optimistic. First problem was trying to find a parking spot. That took awhile. When we finally got there, there weren't other people waiting. We thought we'd get to eat right away! Wrong! There was actually a huge table ahead of us, so we had to wait. We walked around a bit looking for other alternatives, then just decided to have some drinks at the bar. Eventually, we were seated.
Some complimentary bread while we looked over this simple menu. Although they do have a few other options, we were here for the spaghetti and meatballs.
A and E ordered the grilled polenta with sauteed mushrooms and mascarpone drizzled with truffle honey. Yum. I love me some polenta! J had never had polenta before. Or he didn't know if he had ever had polenta before. He officially likes polenta now!
J and I ordered the arugula, pear, and crispy speck salad with blue cheese crostini and caramelized shallots. We didn't know what crispy speck was. It's bacon! This salad was practically perfect, as long as you avoided the blue cheese. :-)
Ok, so the spaghetti! We all got the spaghetti with meatballs. You get three ginormous meatballs. The sauce is a bit on the spicy side, which surprised all of us. One would think Emmy's would want the diner to control the level of spiciness, but instead, Emmy's just makes the sauce spicy. I like spice so I didn't mind it. J would have preferred it to not be spicy, but he liked it anyway. These meatballs were quite good, but they were not the typical meatballs you would have expected in spaghetti. Normally, italian meatballs tend to be more juicy and made with egg and breadcrumbs and things like that. The thing that was unexpected about these were that when you would take a hunk off of the meatball, the whole thing would sort start falling apart. And you would see the ground meat marks in the meatball. As if it was just a plain wad of meat that was formed into a ball, instead of it having been combined with spices and breadcrumbs and egg and mixed well before being formed into a ball. It was just strange, but still tasty.

So the service... oh the service. Where do I start? Ok, so our server was nice, but he was a terrible waiter. He made two huge mistakes. First, he took our drink orders and completely forgot about it. We waited and waited and waited. And then we had to ask him about it. Then it dawned on him that he'd completely forgotten about it. Oops number one. Then next, he completely forgot to put in E's spaghetti order. So J and I had our plate, A had her plate, but E was spaghetti-less. And we were all starving so we started eating, while he had nothing to eat. And again, our waiter was totally clueless that he had forgotten about it. So then awhile later he came over, apologized, and said he would take care of E's drink. Remember, the drink that was part of all the drinks that he'd forgotten about? ~Sigh~ Eventually, E's spaghetti came out. This was after the rest of us were pretty much done our meals. We'll definitely remember this meal. Not necessarily for the food, but for the awful waiter!

Ramblas Tapas Brunch

2009-11-09T22:47:00.003-05:00

Once again, we woke up super late. And I pretty much missed the festival goodbye brunch. But we still had to eat, so we headed out for brunch again. We thought about trying again for Boogaloos, but didn't want to trek all the way over there again, just to be disappointed. So we roamed a little bit closer and ended up at Ramblas, which is a tapas place. J had been here before for dinner and had liked it, so we thought why not? We were slightly concerned because we were the only people there. And it was about noon. We thought maybe this was a terrible idea. Luckily, after we showed up, more people started coming in. So perhaps this is a late brunch type of place.
J's Croque Senior - grilled jamon and manchego on country bread topped with two fried eggs with a spicy bechamel. It said it came with hash browns but when it showed up, it clearly came with fries. Quite misleading indeed.
So J actually mentioned this to the waiter, and he brought out some of this really cool potato hash for him. It came with an aioli that looks ok to the eye, but is secretly extremely spicy. It is apparently made with the potent ghost pepper, and damn, you can taste it! Despite the extreme spicyness, the aioli was beyond good.
I wasn't sure what I wanted so I asked the waiter for recommendations. One of his recommendations was what I picked, the Eggs Charles V - poached eggs on english muffin with some greens, jamón serrano, all piled on top of some potato hash, sitting in a pool of pimenton hollandaise. Whoa, was this recommendation on point. I love, love, loved this! Service was good. While we were apprehensive at first due to the dearth of customers in this place, we were both pleasantly surprised. Skip the lines at other over hyped spots and try the brunch here. It ain't pancakes or hash browns, but it's delicious and affordable!

Outstanding In The Field Feast - Foodbuzz Fest Dinner

2009-11-08T22:48:00.013-05:00

The big event of the blogger fest (well, at least for me) was the dinner on saturday night. It was run by Outstanding in the Field. In their own words, "Outstanding in the Field is a mobile restaurant without walls. Our seasonal farm dinner events are organized as a celebration of place and honor the farmer and other producers of a region." Their dinners are typically held outdoors on farms, but being in SF, our event was held at a very unique location, the Greenleaf Produce Warehouse.

The table setups for their events are art installations in themselves. To accommodate all these crazy food bloggers, dozens of tables were lined up throughout the warehouse space. They used some of the warehouse's typical inhabitants as decoration.

Chef Dennis Lee of Namu designed the multi-course menu with wine pairings from Randall Grahm of Boony Doon. He was actually in the hospital this evening, so it was his team that created this fabulous dinner in a make-shift kitchen.

While we mingled, we were treated to appetizers of ahi tonnato on pain de mie with kochukaru (korean hot pepper flakes) and parsley. Despite the korean ingredients, this was decidedly not korean tasting... but still great!

They had shrimp chips laid out in baskets at every table. Seeing as how the chef was korean, this made some sense to me. But it amused me a bit, as this isn't exactly highbrow stuff. I could eat bags of these in one sitting, and well, I often do!

While still on the starter front, we got to munch on various pickled treats... broccoli, greens, kimchi, and yellow beans, amongst others. The kimchi was the only korean tasting part about these veggies. Everything was extremely... well... pickled! I love pickled anything, so I was a big fan of these veggies.

Next up was the only dish where we got our own servings. Everything else was family style. This is a mushroom dashi soup with a variety of fresh mushrooms. Now you know how I dislike mushrooms most of the time, but I tell you what, I ate all these up. This was simply delightful.

Onto the next dish! Udon noodles topped with calamari, cucumber, yellow tomato, and fancy greens in a browned butter ponzu reduction. I really thought this would taste korean-ish. And once again, nope! But this was another winning dish. I love cold noodle salads.

Next up was our only fish dish. Looks like salmon, but it was sea trout baked with dashi kombu, fried garlic, and japanese curry powder. All the flavors were quite mild. This was a deliciously simply prepared fish.

Up next was the mushroom risotto. This menu was heavy on the mushrooms! Made with fancy koshihikari rice, this was topped with crispy maitake mushrooms. Again, I enjoyed these mushrooms! As well as the creamy risotto. Let's be honest, I like pretty much anything made with rice!

You won't believe what I ate next! Brussel sprouts! These little beauties were roasted with ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, and bonito flakes. These muscles from brussels had soaked up the flavors and were beyond delicious. Shockingly enough, I'd say these were some of my favorite bites of the entire evening.

The final big dish was soy braised beef cheeks and oxtails with baby carrots and fingerling potatoes. As it was infused with OB Beer (korean) and doenjang (fermented soybean paste, korean style), I also expected this dish to taste a bit on the korean side. And again, not at all! But it was delicious nonetheless and super tender.

Dessert was a koshihikari rice pudding with cookie crumbles topped with Warren pear. It wasn't the most exciting rice pudding, but the cookie crumbles and the pear were amazing. In fact, the man who raised these pears was at the dinner. It doesn't get much cooler than that!

Kudos to Foodbuzz for letting us experience a dinner this amazing and special. It truly was a meal to remember for the rest of my life. And now that I know what the heck Outstanding In The Field is, I'll be sure to catch one of their regular farm dinners! You should too!

Craig's Place Brunch

2009-11-08T22:43:00.006-05:00

After getting up super late on saturday and it being too late for me to make it to the tastings that I'd signed up for, we just decided to take it easy and grab some brunch. We were told to go to Boogaloos... so we trekked over there... and then came upon a list of about 20 names. So we kept on walking. After agonizing hunger set in, we ended up all the way back at Craig's. Which was so unfortunately near where we started. We should have just gone there first!
The breakfast burrito with hash browns (please excuse the particularly terrible photography in this post!). This was take 2. J h ad asked for no sour cream, and it almost seemed like they put extra sour cream in there. So they had to try and again and this time, they indeed left it out. Oh, and it was good!
I was totally hankering for pancakes so I got two pancakes, a coupla eggs, hash browns, and apple sausage. The sausage looks a little sickly, but damn, it was tasty! The pancakes were tasty as well. Basically, this was the breakfast I was really looking for. We were both quite satisfied. And we didn't have to wait one minute to be seated.

Craig's Place
598 Guerrero St
San Francisco, CA
(415) 355-9191

FoodBuzz Fest Street Food Fare

2009-11-07T22:40:00.006-05:00

The kind people at FoodBuzz (--> I am a featured publisher!) held the inaugural FoodBuzz Food Blogger Festival in san francisco this year. That was my other reason for going out there for this trip. On the first night, they had a street food fare at the Ferry Building. Street food... Ferry Building... put them together and it's like a dream! There were tons of local vendors who let us grub on their fine grub. It was a nice variety as well, and everyone was super friendly. Even though we only ate little plates, I was beyond stuffed by the end of it. And yes, all this food was prepared on the site!
What's a trip to sf without tacos? Beef, of course!
The food above is not only completely vegan, but also completely raw. Scary sounding, I know, but surprisingly tasty. The cheesecake was good, even though there was a slightly funny this isn't real cheese taste. I still liked it!
The star of the evening... the porchetta sandwich from roli roti. What is it? Pork belly rolled into pork loin with crispy skin rotisseried the crack up, with fresh herbs, onion marmalade, and curly cress stuffed in between bread. Oh. My. Word. Yes, it is that delicious.
Delicious thin crust pizzas. Yes, the oven was there!
Freshly shucked oysters from Hog Island Oyster!
Mini meat pies! These ones were steak & gruyere. This was my second favorite of the evening!
Adorable little mini cupcakes of various flavors from Mission Minis. So cute and so tasty! You can even find these at whole foods in the sf area! Schmancy!
Freshly fried chicharrones. Ok, obviously, this wasn't an event for the health conscious.
Ok, here's one thing that was slightly healthy... vegetables! I had the beet salad which I loved. You heard it here people, I love beets! I love street food. I especially love it when it's within one confined area so I don't have to walk far between gourd stuffings.

Vietnamese In The Mission

2009-11-06T22:37:00.005-05:00

J had been hankering for pho and we finally got a chance to have dinner in san francisco, proper. We went to Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant the Mission, which is a unique restaurant, in that it has to entrances on two different streets. For whatever reason, we waked the extra 50 yards and went through the Valencia entrance, which was the one further away. It's your standard vietnamese place, with pho, rice plates, noodles, and stir fry dishes.
J got his pho hankering hankered. A nice big bowl. Excellent broth!
While I would have typically gone for a vermicelli bowl or a rice plate, I went buck wild and got a crepe instead. I love these things, but I order them rarely. I'm not sure why. It's a big ass crepe made of rice flour and coconut milk filled with sprouts, shrimp, and chicken. I think it's typically pork instead of chicken, but this one just happened to be chicken. Which I ended up preferring. Of the crepes that I've had in my day, this one was excellent, but the crepe itself was a bit thick and too well cooked. So it ended up being a bit too crunchy. Typically the are crunchy, but they're really thin, which this one wasn't, so the cruchiness doesn't become an issue. But in this case, with a thick and crunchy crepe, it was just a bit different. Still good though, don't get me wrong.
The plate of fixins that come with the crepe. You can make yourself little red leaf lettuce wraps by putting in hunks of crepe and then putting on nuoc mam and hunks of pickled daikon and carrots and cucumber. Delicious! The food took surprisingly long to come out (I mean for a vietnamese restaurant), but it was well worth the wait. The service was just fine and our waiter happened to be fabulously flamboyant! People must like it here, as it was packed on a weekday and there were people waiting.

Mifune Japantown

2009-11-06T22:01:00.014-05:00

I walked like a fiend this day (as google maps calculated, about 6 miles... that's on foot people!!!) in light misty rain and rewarded all this hard work with some japanese food. Located in the Japan Center San Francisco, Mifune Don is a tiny offspring of Mifune, a japanese restaurant (duh) specializing in udon and soba. Whilst roaming japan center, there were so many restaurants I didn't know how to choose. I simply chose Mifune on the name alone. And simply because of the Mifune of Kurosawa movies. I'm strange, I know.
It's a teeny little lunch and take out spot, or so it seems. They do have these built in burners, so you can cook your own stuff. Hot pots and what not.
I wasn't in the mood for hot soupy noodles, so I went with one of the lunch specials, which was zaru soba and curry. The curry was just plain, no real veggies hunks and certainly no meat, but it was still pure delicious japanese style curry through and through.
For those of you not familiar with zaru soba, it's a cold noodle dish. You get a pile of cold soba noodles, which are buckwheat noodles. These are topped with some shredded nori. You get a little bowl of cold broth, soba tsuyu, and you dip your noodles in and then eat away. You can also season your broth with green onions, grated daikon, and japanese mustard, if you so choose. It sounds odd but it's quite delicious. Just ask my mom. When I was a wee lass, we used to have to go for weekly doctor appointments for her. And when we did, we would always stop for some eats. And even at my young age, I would eat platefuls of zaru soba. Who knew a little kid could pack in so much noodles? Not much has changed. I still love zaru soba!

This is a no frills place with simple and tasty food. It's all cooked by one dude in the little kitchen, and you can watch him do it the whole time. It's not a secret. The service is just fine. The prices are alright too. For a place selected on its name, it wasn't a bad choice.

Katana-Ya Ramen

2009-11-05T22:01:00.006-05:00

After snagging a deeply discounted ticket for the show at the orpheum, I walked through some choice areas of SF for a coveted bowl of ramen at Katana-Ya. I had consulted yelp and it had gotten good reviews.
It's a teeny little place with a tiny sushi bar with 4 seats and a handful of small tables. It's definitely not made for big parties. And you will wait during lunch. They have ramen and udon and soba and tons of sushi, as well as other japanese treats. The menu was actually surprisingly large. I figured it would be ramen, ramen, and more ramen.
I went with the buttered corn ramen. Why? Because I was clueless, and the chick next to me ordered it. So I figured I'd give it a go. And plus, I love corn in just about anything. I got the soy broth, and you can order the broth is a certain strength. I did not indicate, so by default, I think they give you light. This is a big bowl with a good sized helping of noodles. And the noodles were awesome. The broth however, was a bit on a bland side for me. It definitely tasted pork-y, but there wasn't much actual flavor. It was underwhelming. But the noodles definitely rocked it. And the corn was great. Like I said, you could put corn on just about anything and it would make me happy. I haven't had enough authentic japanese ramen in my life to know whether this was good or not, but I was definitely a fan of the noodles and the value. Perhaps I would need to try the miso or the salt broths to know more. But it was definitely a good and hearty bowl that filled my belly plenty. But I certainly have a feeling there are much better bowls of ramen out there.

Katana-Ya
430 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA
415.771.1280

Heart Of The City Farmers Market

2009-11-05T22:00:00.007-05:00

After dropping off my rental car, I roamed the civic center area before watching a show at the orpheum. I kept seeing people with shopping bags of produce so I figured there was a big grocery store around. Then I came upon this farmers market. Yes, it is smack dab in the heart of the city.
A variety of green squash type things and eggplant and such. You know, veggies.Potatoes of all colors!
And fruit too, here we have persimmons. I've never seen persimmons in a farmers market before. It's hard finding these in grocery stores even!
They have normal fruit too, like berries, berries, and more berries.
A table full of grapes! And a smiley posing vendor!
Cage free eggs!
Seafood too. Although I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to pick up fish at a farmers market. Am I that trusting?
And flowers too!
Along with the farmers market, there were tons of food carts. What a lovely thing to have in the middle of a busy city!

Burmese In Burlingame

2009-11-04T22:59:00.008-05:00

I met up with A in Burlingame after cruising around Monterey and the south bay. Burlingame is another cute little ritzy town with a strip of shops and restaurants. We decided on Mingalaba, which is burmese. I've only had burmese, years ago, and don't remember too much from it. I think I remember that it was like thai food. The menu is a strange amalgam of indian, thai, and other asian cuisines. Which makes a helluva lot of sense when you look at a map of burma. It's a rather large country, with india and the bay of bengal on its left, and thailand and china on its right. We ordered mango lassis, and we all know that's traditionally indian/pakistani.We didn't really know what to order, so we picked the House Special Noodle with chicken. It was a flat rice noodle dish with coconut chicken, lime leaves, cilantro, yellow pea’s powder, onion, and fried thin noodle on the top. It comes unmixed and then the server mixes it in front of you.
And here's the result. We both enjoyed this a lot. I'm usually not into anything with coconut milk in it (like this chicken), but I still liked this. The one thing I absolutely did not care for was the lime leaves. I found them to be absolutely disgusting. They were sliced extremely thin but still gave off an extremely strong taste. Luckily, after realizing their awfulness, I was careful to avoid them.
We had to order something else so we just threw the dice and went with the Asparagus Spicy Chicken. This was pan fried chicken breast with asparagus, fresh basil, eggplant, fresh mushroom, and green chilies in a spicy sauce. This had a straight up thai basil flavor, reminiscent of many thai dishes. So if you're into that, you'll be into this. This also was not spicy at all, so don't let the name fool you. It's just a nice chicken stir fry dish. The asparagus were of the extremely fat variety, and I'm partial to the scrawny spears.

Service was fine, if not seemingly cold and robotic. But I think that was just the server's personality, or lack thereof. One could not describe her as warm and fuzzy, but the service itself was fine. And the meal actually turned out to be quite a bargain! On this tuesday night, the place was packed! If you're a fan of thai food, then you should definitely give Mingalaba a try. Heck, I can't stop saying mingalaba!

Carmel Lunch

2009-11-04T21:58:00.006-05:00

Do you remember when Clint Eastwood was a mayor? Well I do, and that was in Carmel California. I took a drive down to this adorable little wealthy seaside town to check it out. Man, is this place so cute it makes me want to puke. It's just all adorable trinket stores, adorable restaurants, and antique shops. And I think the media age of its residents is about 65. I felt like a baby. After walking around for awhile, I stopped at the Village Corner for lunch.
It has a nice outdoor patio area. While they did have some umbrellas, it was mostly quite sunny. Normally it would have bothered me, but I decided to soak it in.
Some complimentary bread. Nothing worth noting, really.
This salad was definitely worth noting. This is the baby spinach with grilled prawns salad, with apples, crisp rice noodles, and a sesame orange vinaigrette. The apples were getting towards the mushy side, and the vinaigrette needed a bit more zing, but otherwise, I loved this salad. The prawns were big and well cooked and it was just a perfect summer type salad.

The service, on the other hand, kind of sucked. I had to wait super long to get a menu, and the server was just terrible. And the worst part is that she knew it. One of the regulars even joked about it. He said "let us know when you get your waiter license". I'm afraid she will never pass!

Tahoe Lodging Breakfast

2009-11-03T21:57:00.005-05:00

We stayed at a best western, which had quite nice rooms! And free breakfast was included at the restaurant. It was quite a bargain deal, indeed!
Eggs, hash browns, bacon, and toast.
Blueberry pancakes, bacon, and a coupla over hard eggs. You get juice and coffee too. All for nothin. A nice breakfast, plus nice clean heated rooms within walking distance of the lake and shopping. Can't beat that at the lake.

Tahoe Brew Pub

2009-11-02T21:56:00.005-05:00

For our one dinner in tahoe, we had a bit of trouble. The places close fairly early, and especially because it was a sunday night, so several of the places we were first going to try were about to close. So eventually, we went subterranean to the Stateline Brewery, with only 20 minutes to spare, and they gladly welcomed us. The place is quite big and takes up quite a bit of the basement of the the little shopping center. It was pretty deserted at the time.
They brew their own beers, and J partook of their wheat brew.
He got the fish tacos again. As you can see, these fish tacos were quite different from the last ones he had. Black beans, instead of refried beans, the rice was completely different as well, and the fish in this one was lightly battered and fried. It was also a giant honkin piece of fish. And he wouldn't stop going on and on about them. Mark his words. Best fish tacos he's ever had.
It was quite cold, so I went with the two soups again, which I tend to do on occasion. First up was french onion soup. Good.
Next up was clam chowder. Also good. This one had hunks of celery, but they were easily avoidable. This had big giant hunks clams too. They're into big hunks of seafood here. Service was great. Our server was super friendly and didn't think it was weird when I ordered two soups. She was also kind enough to take a picture for us. Good food and good beer, can't beat that!

Puck Eating

2009-11-02T21:55:00.009-05:00

For a little seriously off-season r&r, we drove to south lake tahoe. It's a long drive, but quite easy and lovely, if you don't hit traffic. The last bit once you are approaching the lake is stunning. We walked around a bit during the day and it was pretty deserted since we were pretty much smack dab in between any kind of real season. Feeling peckish, we stopped at the Wolfgang Puck Express because J had never had it before and he was feeling adventurous. It was pretty deserted, as was the entire town, because no one in their right mind would be going to lake tahoe in the beginning of november. But that was fine by us.

The chicken pesto romaine sandwich with red onions, tomatoes, and lemon pesto, served with crispy chips. Perhaps a bit too much pesto, but still a good sandwich.
The chinois chicken salad, with romaine, veggies, fried puffy noodly stuff, and a sweet mustard-ginger vinaigrette. I'm a big fan of this salad. The dressing is rather strong though, so it might be something that's better left on the side or left to the diner to dress themselves. It's a pick up your food and sit down kind of place so it's definitely casual. There was plenty of sitting space and the place was clean, bright, and inviting. It's definitely a safe spot to dine if you're ever in the area.

Point Reyes Lunch

2009-11-01T21:54:00.006-05:00

After picking up a car, we hopped over the Golden Gate Bridge to head over into Marin County to check out Point Reyes National Seashore. On the way, we stopped in Inverness for a quick bite. There's a tiny teeny strip with a couple of restaurants and a market. Priscilla's is an adorable little seaside spot. It was halloween so everyone was dressed up. The place is totally adorable, like a whitewashed beach cottage. There's some outdoor dining as well.
You get a little mix to snack on at every table. It's basically chex mix and japanese rice crackers. I picked out all the rice crackers!
J got the fish tacos. The beans were nice and creamy and the rice was nice. The fish was a nice portion and grilled, with all the right fixins. He really enjoyed these.
I got a bowl of the clam chowder and half a meatball sandwich. The clam chowder was great and so was the sandwich. These meatballs were surprisingly flavorful, so much that they didn't even need sauce. It came sandwiched in a dense sourdough roll, which was delicious as well. I was happy with both of my choices. Service was fast and friendly and the whole dining experience was nice and relaxed. The bathroom is outdoors though, and smells quite terrible. So avoid it if you can!

Little Star Pizza

2009-10-31T21:53:00.010-05:00

From vegas, I headed over to san francisco. J had recommended this deep dish pizza spot, so we headed over to Little Star Pizza. Apparently, President Obama's favorite pizza is basically the deep dish pizza from here. Once when he had a party, he had this type of pizza made for the guests. Can a president be wrong? The place was pretty packed but we only had a short wait. There's a small bar area where you can wait for a table. It's a pretty small place. The menu is pretty small as well. We weren't in the mood for meats, so we got the vegetarian pizza. The large pizza is quite sizeable, and we could only eat half. The crust is a crunchy corn meal crust. It is not very doughy or chewy. All the different veggies are thinly sliced and layered with the sauce piled on top. As you can see, there's very little cheese. We both liked this a lot. But this is definitely not your standard slice. So if you want something different, try this out. They also have thin crust pizza, and I read good things about that type as well.

Terrible's Breakfast

2009-10-30T21:51:00.003-05:00

For our last breakfast, we ventured out and went to Terrible's Casino, to dine at the breakfast buffet there. We showed up too late, so we went next door to the Bougainvillea Cafe instead. It was much like the other breakfast spot, but they also had more mexican dishes. C got the loco moco. You know, the loco moco, it's a hawaiian thing. A heap of rice, with a burger on top, all covered with gravy, and topped with egg. Breakfast of hawaiian champions! I got the blueberry pancakes. Hard to see em, but I swear, there are blueberries there! All on the bottom. I quite enjoyed these. And look, they even have food themed gaming machines! Be still my heart!

rumjungle Meat Fest

2009-10-29T21:47:00.008-05:00

For our last dinner, our CEO came down and took us to rumjungle. It is a restaurant and club. It is rather outrageously decorate. Strange, yet cool. It is a rodizio type place, so if you choose to do so, you can do the whole all-you-can-eat meat thing. We all ended up doing that. When in Rome! In addition to the meats, you get a "peruvian" chopped salad. Our CEO happens to have grown up in Peru, and he confirmed that there was nothing peruvian about this salad. Ha. But it was good nonetheless. Black beans, pineapple-coconut rice, and corn on the cob. All of these things were delicious. I love me some corn on the cob, and I was stuffing myself silly with these. The "gaucho platter" which has various cold salads and cold cuts and cheeses. Good, but what was annoying about this was that they didn't leave it at the table. This chick comes around and you have to tell her what you want. So not exactly all-you-can-eat. And then the meat started coming around, including sirloin, turkey breast, pork and pineapple, bacon wrapped jerk chicken, chorizo, lamb, and tri-tip. All the meat was quite good, but my favorite by far, was the bacon wrapped jerk chicken. I'm not sure what they put on it (it says bacon wrapped jerk-spiced chicken with guava-chipotle bbq sauce) but it was like crack to me. I could have eaten this all night. They also have some fancy and strong cocktails, and some desserts. I was too stuffed from all the meat to eat dessert, but M ordered the doughnuts, which were unbelievable. They were like heavenly donut holes, freshly made, light, fluffy, and addictive. Service was ok. They try really hard but are perhaps a bit too overeager. The ambiance is a little too much too. For the price, it's actually not that bad. You get a lot more choices at fogo de chao, but that's also more expensive. I actually thought this was a pretty good value for the quality of food. And if you hang out after you eat, you can shake your moneymaker!

Sushi Roku

2009-10-28T23:20:00.009-05:00

For our next dinner, we headed over to Caesar's for some sushi at Sushi Roku. This place is fancy. And the view we had was amazing. We could see down the whole strip. The view is nearly worth the visit alone.
I wanted some veggie, so I ordered the kimchi cucumber sunomono. I imagined this would be like normal sunomono. Boy, was I wrong. It was hunks of kirby cucumbers, that had been sliced, but not sliced off of the cucumber, so they were still seemingly somewhat whole. Instead of a regular sour sunomono taste, it was like a spicy pickle. I really liked this a lot, in fact, I ended up nearly eating the whole thing myself, but it was definitely not what I expected. But I was quite happy with my choice.
The assorted sushi combination. It was really surprising how fresh this fish was. It was definitely high quality and melt in your mouth. They were a bit overeager on the wasabi!
After the initial combo, we just started ordering a whole bunch of stuff. Rainbow roll, baked lobster roll, shrimp tempura with asparagus, etc. All good.
More sushi! This time, some king crab, salmon, and toro. Look at that first piece of salmon. Look at all the wasabi! Yeah, one of those salmon pieces cleaned out my sinuses!
Totally forget what this is, but this may have been an apple type thing. Whatever it was, it came with a giant long cookie.
The volcano cake, a chocolate tort type of thing with liquid chocolate in the middle. C ordered this, but he's allergic to nuts (there was a nut on top), so we all ended up picking at it. Incredibly rich!
I got a banana type of thing, I think. It was sitting in a fried pastry type of thing, which was good, but a bit too thick and crunchy. It was ok.
The sushi here was excellent. While it was incredibly expensive, the quality of the fish here is insanely good. Is it worth it? I'm not sure, but it sure was tasty. The service was great too.

Burger Bar

2009-10-28T22:17:00.008-05:00

Everyone I was with watches Top Chef (I do not) so they all know who Hubert Keller is and all wanted to go to the Burger Bar. This is the burger restaurant that he has in Vegas, along with a few other places. They have chef's burgers which have been pre-designed and you can also make your own burger with whatever normal and crazy toppings you want. They have a $60 rossini burger with kobe, foie gras, and truffles. There's also a crazy surf and turf burger topped with half a grilled lobster.
I got the sliders, which gave me three different little burgers. I also got to substitute sweet potato fries for regular fries. One of these was a buffalo burger, another was angus, and the third was corn fed beef. These little puppies were quite tasty. It was a little bit too much beef for me, but it was ok, I didn't eat all three of them.
M ended up getting one of these sweet dessert burgers after ordering a crazy design your own burger. This was the creamy cheese cake burger. The buns are donuts. The "burger" is cheesecake, and the "cheese" is caramelized pineapple. This thing is wrong in every single way, but I'm not gonna lie to you, this thing was good. If you're really into burgers and willing to drop a buck or two, definitely try this out. And leave room for dessert!

Casino Breakfasts

2009-10-28T21:14:00.008-05:00

We were staying at the Orleans, so for breakfast, we went to the Courtyard Cafe. It's a diner type of place, only it's in a casino. And because it's in a casino, the clientele is random and mixed, along with the staff. Both mornings there, I got the two egg special, which came with canadian bacon, hash browns, and white toast. I'm not a big breakfast eater, especially not so well-rounded, but I love everything about breakfasts like this. This was good food, prepared well and fast, and served with a smile.

Chinese In A Casino

2009-10-27T21:12:00.006-05:00

I headed off to vegas for a short work-related visit. For our first night there, we had a rough time finding food. We went to the Rio to eat at an italian place that C had been to before, but when we got there, we found out it was no longer there. So then we walked to a different italian place there, but it was too expensive and the advertisements for the restaurant were too creepy. Several other places we tried to go to were already closed. This is why we resorted to eating at Mah Jong. It's a fast food chinese spot. I went with the beef chow fun. It was ok. The hot and sour soup was awful. It's hard to describe why it was so bad, but it was neither hot nor sour nor good. And this food was horribly overpriced as well, for less than mediocre chinese. I like the Rio, but not for this place!

Grandmom's 88th!

2009-10-25T21:29:00.009-05:00

We visited my grandma to celebrate her 88th birthday. Whoa man, 88 is pretty damn old! A variety of korean foods in fancy aluminum pans. I forget where my mom picked this food up from, but it was actually pretty damn good. Later that night, we trekked to my aunt's house for some more food. She had these freakishly ginormous shrimp. She didn't realize that she didn't have any normal tempura batter, so she ended up having to use this spicy chicken batter. These were so big she could only fry up a few at a time. There's my hand for scale. They really were pretty much as big as my hand. I don't have the biggest hands, but they're quite normal sized. These shrimp were huge. The chicken batter ended up being fine. It's hard to screw up fat giant shrimp being fried in a hot vat of grease. We would be terrible koreans if we didn't bbq some meat. We would have grilled outside but it was storming something terrible, so we had to resort to using an indoor grill. In addition to meat and shrimp, we also had some spicy fish soup.

Free Chipotle

2009-10-23T20:55:00.004-05:00

What's better than a chipotle burrito? Well, lots of things. But really, what's better is a free chipotle burrito! While digging through all the mail that had accumulated from my trip, I found a random free coupon. And man, it totally worked. I definitely enjoy me some free burritos!

Flying Home!

2009-10-22T20:43:00.004-05:00

The flight back home also featured chicken or pasta choices. I went with the chicken again. This one was not nearly as good as the other one. I think it was paprika chicken? The chicken was on the dry side. The potatoes were ok, and there weren't enough broccoli spears. There were carrots too, but I don't eat cooked carrots. The tomato and mozzarella salad was ok. The dessert, ok as well. But nothing was really good like it was on the flight to europe. Bummer.

Fire Restaurant - Dublin

2009-10-21T21:41:00.006-05:00

On my last evening, my colleague R and I got to talking about food. She recommended Fire as a place with excellent cocktails and steaks. Since I wasn't sure where to go, I decided to head over there. It's next to the Mansion House, which is some sort of event place, and the restaurant itself is kinda huge. It's in one giant room with extremely high ceilings. It's rather daunting, bordering on gawdy. It's another place that probably considers itself fine dining. It sure has fine dining prices, that's for damn sure. Did I get cocktails? No. Did I get steaks? No. So here's what I did get.
Some complimentary bread. It was only ok. They have their own brand of water. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
I got the soup, which was sweet corn and fresh tomato. Only thing though, I don't recall any tomatoes being in this at all. It was more of a creamy corn soup. I quite liked it, but the name and description was a bit of a misnomer.
For my entree I got the pan fried fillet of monkfish, served with a basil and lemon hollandaise sauce with asparagus and scallion mashed potatoes. This dish was quite good, but man, so just not worth the high price tag. It was three fairly teeny bits of monkfish, a small heap of mashed potatoes, and three asparagus. This is all you get for nearly 30 euros? It's slightly offensive. I said it was good, but it was way overpriced. The soup was a bit expensive too, but it was a lot of soup, so that price point didn't offend me as much. I was pretty stuffed though, so I didn't have room for dessert. The food was good, but it wasn't great. It wasn't good enough to have the price tags that it did. The high prices seem to be because of the ambiance, but for me, the ambiance wasn't that rich either. It was a bit showy and cheesy. So maybe I would have done better if I had gotten steak and cocktails as per the recommendations, but I have a feeling I would have found them not worth their price either. For me, I say skip this one. You can get much better food elsewhere in Dublin. Service was only ok. Again, for these prices, I expected much more.

Burlington Hotel Buffet Breakfast

2009-10-21T20:42:00.006-05:00

My last hotel on my european journey was the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. This was my least favorite out of the three breakfast buffets. None of the fruit was fresh, except for whole oranges and apples. These berries were frozen, these apricots and grapefruits were canned, and there wasn't a kiwi in sight. The yogurt wasn't bad. The pastries were ok, but nothing compared to the ones from Basel. Croissants... didn't try them though. Cheese and cold cuts, it's everywhere in Europe. The cereal selection was pretty good. There were these weird cereal blocks here. I think it's weetabix, whatever that is. And I thought I'd try a bit of the full irish breakfast before I left. Sausage, black pudding, and some beans. The beans were fine, a little on the bland side. The sausage was pretty good, and I'm not usually a sausage link type of person. The black pudding wasn't bad either, but it wasn't really my thing. I just wanted to taste it to see what it was like. Not bad, but I'm not necessarily going to order it.

French Fine Dining At Pearl Brasserie

2009-10-20T21:39:00.013-05:00

After my fine dining experience the night before, I decided to treat myself for the rest of the trip and continue with the fine dining streak. So for my next adventure, I dined at Pearl Brasserie. It is a French brasserie located in a basement. But don't worry, it's a very nice restaurant, despite its underground location. From my first moment in, it was an extraordinary experience. And that's exactly what it was, an experience. It wasn't just a regular meal, it was an event. The place is very nice, but not snooty at all. There are light fixtures that look like pearl onions. I assume that's where the pearl in Pearl Brasserie came from.
Complimentary whole wheat baguette with pesto and butter. This butter was incredibly rich and amazing. And while I'm not normally a pesto person, I enjoyed it on the baguettes.
While waiting for my entree, we were all treated to a complimentary appetizer. It was pork with cumin with a horseradish sauce. Man, was this thing good. With a start like this, I knew my entree was going to kick ass.
And kick ass it did. I got the seared queen scallops and dublin bay prawns. It was served with curried gnocchi, and fresh garden peas, in a prawn bisque. Everything about this dish was amazing. The scallops and prawns were perfectly cooked, the gnocchi was tender, the peas had just enough crunch, and the bisque had an amazing flavor. I could have licked this plate. And if I wasn't surrounded by so many high class people, I totally would have.
I couldn't stop eating. Since it was french brasserie portions, I still had room, and a need to keep eating. So I got the creme brulee, and my server said it was a good choice. I love me some creme brulee, and if it's on a menu, and I'm feeling dessert, there's a good chance I'm going to pick it. This one was particularly great. It was made with organic free range eggs, and you know what, you really could tell. It had good texture, a lovely strong vanilla flavor, and a nice and crispy burnt crunch on top.

And let me tell you about the service. This place is run like a machine. But not in a cold and robotic way. Just in an incredibly precise and well-oiled machine kind of a way. Everyone worked as a team, and they were immaculate professionals. Everyone was nice, friendly, and great at their jobs. And you could tell they deeply cared about what they were doing. This was one of the most memorable meals I've ever had in my life. It was the type of meal where they spoil you a bit, and well, I enjoyed it. I wholeheartedly recommend anyone in Dublin to try this place out. You'll remember it for the ages!

Brazilian Fine Dining In Dublin

2009-10-19T21:38:00.009-05:00

When I went to Green Nineteen, I had actually wanted to go to Sabor Brazil, but it was closed. So when I got back to Dublin, that's where I headed. The weather was a bit warm for hot stew, but I didn't care. My body wanted feijoada!

The place is really small and tucked away on a side street. It looks really crappy from the outside, but on the inside, it's really fancy. Or at least they try to be. It was almost too fancified that it borderlined cheesy, but that kind of made it charming. The tablecloths and the chair covers were a bit too much for me. And fine fancy dining when it comes to brazilian food is kind of an oxymoron. I was literally the only diner there. Which is a shame, but apparently, sundays are really slow in Dublin. It was fine with me, at least I knew I would have their full attention.
While waiting for my feijoada to come out, they gave me a little amuse bouche. This was like a shaved iced type of thing, made with cachaca, lime, and other goodies. Kind of like a frozen shaved caipirinha served in a cute little glass with a spoon. Whatever it was, I liked it.
The menu isn't too big, but boy, is it expensive. I ordered the feijoada, and here's everything it came with. My bowl of piping hot feijoada, a heaping of buttery rice, hot greens, sliced oranges, some spicy oil, farofa, and a veggie vinaigrette. Despite the freakishly inflated price, everything was delicious, and quite authentic. I did not finish everything and I was beyond stuffed. I guess for "fine dining" in Dublin it was not necessarily expensive, but for brazilian food and feijoada, it was ridiculous. If you order feijoada in brazil, it would probably cost a couple of bucks. This was well over 20 euros. And when you translate that to dollars... well, it ends up being about $30 overpriced. But whatever, it was still good, and the service was excellent. After all, I had the server all to myself!

Sabor Brazil
50 Pleasant Street
Dublin
01 4750 304

Frankfurt Airport Eats

2009-10-19T20:36:00.003-05:00

Going back to Dublin, I had a layover in Frankfurt. I grabbed a few things to nibble on. I got a tuna sandwich on laugenbread. It was great! I loved the tuna because it was extremely fine (no big hunks of tuna) and had no horrible bits of celery crunch. It was almost as if the tuna had been mixed in a blender. I decided to give those paprika flavored chips a try. They were not that exciting. The flavor itself was ok, but there wasn't enough of it. They just didn't take it far enough.
The best thing was this blood orange flavored fanta! It had blood orange flavor, along with some other red fruits. Man, what I would give if this were available in the states! But unfortunately, this would be considered way too exotic for US markets. Damn it!

Sushi in Zurich

2009-10-18T22:31:00.007-05:00

So when it came time to figure out where to eat for dinner, it was a complicated process. This was mostly due to the whole smoking being allowed in restaurants thing. I actually found a few resources online that list non-smoking restaurants in Zurich. The selections ended up being quite slim. There was a thai place, a vegetarian place way south of downtown, and a few other places. Yes, in the entire giant city of Zurich, exist only a handful of places where there is no smoking. So this was one of the reasons why I ended up at Isakaya. Yes, I came to Zurich and ate sushi. In the land of fondue and raclette, I ate raw fish.
It is a teeny tiny place, with no smoking, and no cell phone use. Hallelujah! There are about 15 seats in the place, tops. About a handful of tables and some seats at the bar. They sell sushi. That's it. No ramen, no udon, no chicken teriyaki. Just sushi. There's only one chef - the old japanese dude. And he makes all the food. There's no kitchen, it's just sushi bar.
I got a cup of miso soup and the sunomono salad. The miso was excellent, and had some juliennes of daikon in it. This is the first miso I've ever had where they threw in some daikon, and I quite enjoyed it. The sunomono was also excellent, zesty, sweet, and sour.
I got a sushi platter called " ganze portion" which had some tuna roll, cucumber roll, and sushi pieces of salmon, tuna, yellowtail, shrimp, tamago, and masago. This wasn't the prettiest sushi in the world. In fact, it seemed quite hastily made and not well put together. The rice kept falling apart. But damn it if it wasn't super fresh and delicious. Who knew? Not necessarily made with love, but made with super fresh ingredients. Mr. Japanese sushi chef in Zurich was a bit heavy handed with the wasabi though. There were a few bites where my sinuses were cleaned! The sushi itself wasn't freakishly expensive, but the soup and salad and water were ridiculously overpriced. That's how they stick it to you. If you're in Zurich and need delicious smoke-free sushi, stop by here! You won't find any crazy rolls or bento boxes, but you'll get extremely fresh sushi made with like.

Lunch In Zurich

2009-10-18T20:29:00.011-05:00

I hopped a train back to Zurich to spend the day there before heading back to Dublin. Zurich is super cute too, but much bigger. I walked tons that day, but never really made my way out of a tiny area of town. Let me tell you a little something about Switzerland. Damn, it be expensive people. Like it doesn't make sense to me kind of expensive. But that's just the way it is. The grocery prices are just somewhat expensive, but prepared food is just horrifically overpriced.

And here's another horrible thing about eating in Switzerland. You can smoke in restaurants. Like 99% of them. And people just do it. All the time. Morning, noon, and night. Coming from Philadelphia, and having just come from Dublin, both cities which are smoke-free, it was such a strange reminder of the past. So finding places to eat that aren't smoky can be extremely difficult.
Most department stores have a dining hall. They tend to be very popular because they are somewhat affordable. Well, relatively affordable, for switzerland prices. And they're smoke-free. So I decided to check one out for my one lunch in Zurich. They had hot meals but my body was hankering for some veggies. So I got this little thing of salad. This is considered a medium salad in switzerland. I got all kinds of random stuff and quite enjoyed it. Yes, those are beets. You're looking at a beet lover. The green drink you see is freshly squeezed kiwi juice. Not quite sweet enough, but still great! And don't even think about asking how much this meal cost. Much more than you would think. But I consider it cheap here!
It was still cold this day. It was also raining. And then all of a sudden, it turned to hail! Yes, hail! I ended up walking back to the hotel in the middle of a hailstorm. Check em out! I watched it fall from my hotel room...

Breakfast At The Basel Marktplatz

2009-10-18T20:25:00.012-05:00

Basel is so freakin cute. Like seriously cute. As far as Europe goes, I haven't seen much of it, but it's definitely up there on the cute scale. Like postcard cute. And it's quite a manageable little city. Quite walkable, trams take you everywhere, and it's nice to look at.
Every morning at the Marktplatz, there is an open air market where locals hawk their food wares. Like these beautiful veggies.
More veggies. I think.
Olives, my nemesis, and some cured meats.
More of my little enemies.
Fresh stuffed pastas!
Laugenbread. Looks just like challah, huh?
Fruits and nuts.
Strange berries. There are blackberries and blueberries, but there are some blue and red ones that I am not familiar with.
Who wouldn't want to buy fresh foods at a place this picturesque?
On this morning I got a delicious little latte from that adorable cart and a special crepe made with grapes. I had to wait awhile for this crepe, as the lone crepemaker had taken a break, but unfortunately, it was kind of awful. It was just super sweet and mushy. But that's ok, I forgive for the surroundings.

Food Shopping In Germany

2009-10-17T21:22:00.015-05:00

So I walked to Germany (yes, it's that close), and decided to check out the food shopping there too. The Rhein Center happened to have this giant Marktkauf store in it. Let's explore! I was impressed by the Swiss yogurt selections, but this one is even more freakishly vast. And they have giant sized tubs here. Oh look, the best of the wursts... They too are fans of tube technology. Here, we see tomato paste concentrate in tubes. Ketchup and mayo in a tube. I'm not sure how I feel about this. In addition to tube technology, Germans love packet technology. There are aisles and aisles of packeted foods. In no other country will you see so many purple foods sold. Apparently, McDonalds sells ketchup in Germany. These greens look sickeningly amazing. Um... someone tell me what this giant pointy freak cabbage thingy is... Even more cheese than in the Swiss grocery. It's too much! But then you look at the giant aisle simply dedicated to butters and spreads. Seriously, it's frightening. They also like to put their veggies in jars here. Cans are popular too, but you'll see many more jars than in the US. I wonder why that is? And you can bet your on-time German trains that they're already selling christmas stuff. Oh dear. Prices are quite reasonable. And the depth and breadth of the offerings here were quite impressive. The germans do their grocery super stores quite well!

I Only Want Hot Soup - Nooch

2009-10-17T20:20:00.011-05:00

It wasn't my plan to eat so much non swiss food while I was in switzerland. But damn it people, it was so cold there. While I was in Dublin, the weather was stupendous... in the high 50's, low 60's. As soon as I got to switzerland it was in the 30's. Yeah, the 30's. I could see my damn breath. So I only wanted hot soup. This is what I kept craving. So I ended up at Nooch. It's a small chain of asian noodle restaurants. So I ordered the fujiyama noodle soup - udon noodles, dashi broth, tofu, veggies, and such. This thing was kind of a mess. They took japanese noodles and broth, and then tried to bastardize it with things clearly not meant for japanese food. Cilantro? Thai basil? Seriously, have you ever seen those things in japanese cuisine? It was almost blasphemy. And they threw in a giant heap of pickled ginger into the soup too. Luckily, I was able to fish it out. The broth was ok, and the noodles were ok, but similar to the ramen, there weren't enough noodles. And unfortunately, I could still taste the ginger in the broth. The rest of the veggies were ok. But similar to the ramen, it was an underwhelming bowl of overpriced noodles. Hot, but otherwise just blah.

It's Hard To Find Dinner

2009-10-16T21:11:00.004-05:00

It's funny. I came all the way to Basel to work with one of my customers. There were 4 people I was working with, and not one of them was Swiss! we had a Brit, a German, a Croatian, and a Brazilian, but not one Swiss. After meeting up with my Brazilian colleague, we set off to find some food for dinner. While I was walking around some more in Basel, I had come upon this cool looking rock-n-roll type place on a little side street up a hill. We tried this place first and we couldn't eat there because they were having a special event in the dining room upstairs. The only place we could hang out was the bar area and that was full and packed. So we moved on. It was my colleague's turn next so we walked a little bit to another cool looking spot. We weren't sure if they served food or not, so we asked. Although they did have a food menu, it was really just appetizers or steak. We really weren't in the mood for either. So we tried again! We went next door to another place and they told us they had just closed the kitchen. Dammit. Were we going to get to eat tonight? The lady who had just rejected us kindly told us that the pizza place across the street would still have food. So we said ok, because honestly, we simply couldn't take any more of this food rejection!

This is how we ended up at Centro. When we got there, the place was positively packed! And this made sense to me because even though there are so many other restaurants in Basel, apparently, it's quite a challenge to actually eat in any of them! Centro is an italian joint. They have pizza and pasta and other italian fare. When we first looked at the menu, it was really hard to figure out what was going on. The dishes were named in italian and they were described in swiss german. Although it's fine for me to figure out that lasagne is lasagne and that penne is penne, it was what was on them / in them that was hard to figure out from the swiss german. Eventually, I got an english menu and was finally good to go!I ordered the penne centro, which was penne with chicken and pepperoni in a creamy tomato sauce. It took forever for our food to come out. And we were both so damn hungry at this point. But it was totally worth the wait. I loved this dish! The sauce was perfect and although there wasn't that much chicken, what chicken there was was perfect. I ate the whole thing. As in I cleaned the plate. Yes, I stuffed myself silly. And if there had been more, I would have eaten more, as it was an amazing pasta dish. I don't actually recall pepperoni being in this, but I didn't care. And it looks like a hot damn mess in this plate, but trust me, it was damn good. If I'm ever in Basel again, I would get this again!

Radisson Breakfast Buffet

2009-10-16T20:09:00.002-05:00

While in Basel, I was staying at the Radisson Blu hotel. On working days, I ate at the hotel breakfast buffet. No, I won't tell you how much it costs. It hurts just trying to conceptualize it. But it was a pretty kick-ass buffet. Breads and pastries and all sorts of awesome little spreads. I tried some of these little fruit filled pastries, and it was pretty amazing.
Birchermuesli. I have no idea what this is. Looks like yogurt and muesli mixed together? Perhaps a peach flavor?
They also had an amazing selection of fresh fruits. They also had kiwi, and I did a good job of hosing their kiwi bowls.
A bunch of random cold cuts for breakfast.
Cheese and grapes... are you supposed to be able to eat that half a fig?
Cereal and a very serious looking pitcher of milk. They also had hot items as well, such as eggs and potatoes and various bacons. They had an even better array of tea selections and their coffee was hot and super strong. While it was a nice breakfast, I still balk at the price. But if you're staying here for work, then go for it. You'll be quite happy with the spread.

Food Shopping In Basel

2009-10-16T17:11:00.006-05:00

So the main grocery stores in Switzerland seem to be Migros and Coop. They come in different varieties and sizes. Switzerland has some convenience stores as well, but they're pretty small. These full grocery stores are a nice size though. Their yogurt aisle shames the US in comparison.
They also have much more sophisticated food tube technology. I believe these are mayonnaise in tubes.
Their pasta seems to prefer coming in bags, instead of boxes.
And they're fans of non-refrigerated milk.
And it is Switzerland people, so the chocolate selection is ridiculous.
Along with their cheese selections.
Chip flavors include paprika, curry oriental, and mexican.
The laugenbread that I had on the plane! It's delicious!
Oh, and you can get socks too.

The Most Expensive Ramen In The World

2009-10-15T23:08:00.007-05:00

While looking for some restaurants prior to my trip, I found out that there's a japanese style ramen bar in Basel. Ok. There isn't even a ramen joint in Philly, but there's one in Basel? There's something wrong with this. We need a ramen joint in Philly! Anyways, enough of my ranting. But again, please, someone open a ramen place near home. Pretty please. I thought I'd try this place, because really, what the hell?

This place is pretty adorable. Not too big, with the kitchen and bar area in the middle, and then some tables on the outer edges. It's modern and clean and cute. They have ramen and udon, some sushi rolls, and some japanese appetizers. That's it. And some drinks and booze and perhaps a few desserts. I decided to pick the ramen with chicken in a miso broth. The server told me that the most popular bowls were the ramen with gyoza and the ramen with chicken. Can other Namamen eaters be wrong?
The food comes out fairly quickly. They cook the noodles and then pour it into the bowl which has miso paste in it. Then they throw the fixins on top. So, the verdict? Meh. Basically, it's just a bowl of miso broth with some mediocre ramen noodles topped with mediocre chicken and really inexpensive and flavorless vegetables. For a bowl of ramen, there was actually not very many noodles. And they're extremely thin. The broth itself is fairly boring. The chicken was ok, but nothing special, and without much flavor. It looked like boiled chicken. And they put shredded carrots, shredded big green onions, spinach, and some mushrooms in it. Oh, and half a boiled egg. All of these fixins were blah. The egg was the best part. But you know, it was freakin cold as soon as I got to Switzerland, so a bowl of mediocre hot broth and noodles was just fine with me. At least it was warm in my otherwise frozen body.
Ok, now let's talk about how expensive Switzerland is. This thing cost 22CHF. That's about $22. That's right, I ate a $22 bowl of ramen. And no, it didn't have gold or diamonds in it. And it wasn't chock full of hand pulled ramen noodles made by the premier ramen noodle puller in all of japan. But this is the frightening thing about Switzerland. This type of pricing is normal. $22 for a bowl of ramen is not that big of a deal. Isn't that CRAZY?!?!?! It actually offends me a little. For $22, I'd expect something amazing, along with maybe a song and dance number, or a foot massage. But no, for $22, you can get your own bowl of mediocre noodles in Switzerland. And dont' get me started on the $5 sodas.

Roasted Chestnuts On The Streets of Basel

2009-10-15T22:58:00.002-05:00

After landing in Zurich, I hopped on a train to Basel, my actual destination. The train ride was fantastic. I'm not sure if you can eat on the trains (they're freakishly clean and spotless), but I was doing it anyway. These are my most delicious digestives that I picked up in Ireland. And they have a layer of caramel. Amazing.
My friend A had told me that they sell roasted chestnuts on the streets of Switzerland. I got most excited when she told me this. Then when I saw it in person, my heart skipped a beat. When I lived in the motherland, we used to get roasted chestnuts from street vendors all the time. During the wintertime, of course. But you can't really buy roasted chestnuts from street vendors in the US. If you can do that, please tell me where. And please make it somewhere near my home.
In any case, I love roasted chestnuts. If you've never had, you have to put a slice in them first before you roast them, otherwise, they'll explode. The moisture in the nut heats up and steam up, and if there isn't a place to release all the pressure, your little nut will explode. These are roasted from burning charcoal so they get nice and toasted and some even get some char marks. Because of the steaming, they're super easy to peel. I love chestnuts. Don't you?
You'll also see carts for pretzels. They're not like the ones from Philly! They taste similar, but the texture is completely different. Philly pretzels are dense and chewy. These are much more dry, more airy, and not chewy. I think I prefer the ones from home!

Flying Again

2009-10-15T20:51:00.007-05:00

The next leg in this journey was in Switzerland, so I headed off to the airport to catch my flight to Zurich. Grabbed a lovely latte at Soho Coffee. It was excellent.
Swiss Air, my first time on this fine carrier. Great flight. They even gave us sandwiches, and I didn't have to pay for it. This is laugenbread, which I've been seeing all over the place now. There was sliced chicken, cheese, and mustard on it. At first, I freaked out about the mustard because I'm not a mustard fan, but I just decided to eat it anyway, and it was just fine. I could barely taste the mustard, even though it was very seedy looking. I am definitely a fan of this bread though! They even asked us if we wanted seconds... but I did not partake. The other sandwiches were laugenbread also, but just with mozzarella cheese.
And yes, they gave us little mini toblerones too.

Green Nineteen

2009-10-14T21:47:00.011-05:00

I actually hadn't planned on going to Green Nineteen this night. It was on my list, but I had really been hankering for some feijoada. So I had walked to Sabor Brazil and found out that it was closed. It looked like they had gone on holiday or something, and wouldn't be open again until the next day. The next day I would be leaving town. I had passed Green Nineteen on my walk to Sabor Brazil and noted to myself, oh, that's where Green Nineteen is. Well good thing I saw it, because I was starving, and then I had to end up going there. This place is cool. Yes, they have a big poster of Obama in their entry. It's modern, clean, and cool. Just cool. Lame description, yes, but it's true. This place seems to be quite popular, as I saw many people being turned away. I was lucky to get a spot right in the front where they have a couple of high tops.
I started with a red fruit smoothie that they made fresh just for me. I had wanted green but they only had this one available. It was super tangy and full of so many different fruits and berries. It was extremely seedy... but certainly tasty.
Their menu is actually quite small. And shocking to Dublin standards, these prices are positively cheap. Most things are 10 Euros or less. Seriously folks, that's cheap for Dublin! I asked the server for recommendations and one of the things he recommended was the lamb chump tagine. I went for it. It is a big hunk of lamb served with couscous and root vegetables. I'm not normally a lamb person, but I really enjoyed this. It had a tomato based sauce with lots of spices and it was delicious. The couscous was the perfect companion and even the root veggies (aside from carrots, as I dislike cooked carrots) were good. And this was only 10 euros! For something that equates to about $14-15 bucks, even that's cheap. They could, and should certainly charge more for a dish like this. That's even super cheap for american standards.
Service was great and super friendly. It's a cool place, but it's a totally relaxed and casual atmosphere. It's no wonder so many people want to eat here. I'm having good luck with Dublin eats on this trip!

Conrad Hotel Breakfast

2009-10-14T20:46:00.003-05:00

I was staying at the Conrad Hotel and the buffet breakfast was included. It beats having to think about where and what I'm going to eat. Scones and pastries and spreads and such. Whence in europe, the obligatory Nutella.
I mostly stuffed my gourd with the fresh fruit, especially the kiwi. A big bowl of already peeled and cut up kiwi? It's like a dream! Some cheeses and some funny little irish yogurts. I wasn't too crazy about the yogurt. I tried one that came in a jar, and it just tasted a bit odd.
A bunch of breads, including irish soda bread. They also had hot items that are the normal bits and pieces of a traditional irish breakfast (bacon, eggs, tomato, baked beans, etc). And they had a really great variety of different juices (orange, mango, apple, tomato, etc). The coffee wasn't hot though. And they had a lovely selection of teas.

Thai Noodles In Dublin

2009-10-13T21:44:00.007-05:00

I was staying in a fairly central part of Dublin centre, but I decided to roam around a bit to explore my surroundings. I ended up walking into a fairly residential and cute part of town, Ranelagh Village. It had a little strip of shops and restaurants and in general, life! I had read about Diep Le Shaker and saw that it had sister restaurants Diep Noodle Bar and Diep At Home so I decided to stop into the noodle version after all that walking. It's a thai place. They bill themselves as Thai and Vietnamese, but I'm sorry, there's nothing Vietnamese about this place. It's straight up thai.
I started with some spring rolls. These were nice and hot, but they were pretty boring. The dipping sauce was straight out of a bottle, and you didn't quite get enough of it. And for how little the rolls were, even though you got so many, these are expensive. But that's Dublin for ya, and that's the Euro.
For my entree I got the bangkok noodles, which was basically thai basil chicken with rice noodles. There was nothing extraordinary about this dish, but it was perfectly fine. It was certainly on par with other ok thai food I've had in the past. I haven't actually eaten that much thai food in my life, so I can't call myself any kind of connoisseur, but this was just ok. All the ingredients were fresh though, which is really fine by me. Again, this was expensive, if you think about it in dollars. You certainly couldn't charge $22 for something like this back home.
The service was good and the place itself is very nice. Attractively decorated, just the right amount of mood, and they play amazing music. Again, no problem with the credit card here as well.

Food Shopping In Dublin

2009-10-13T20:28:00.008-05:00

What's food shopping like in Dublin? I set to find out. There are little convenience type stores all over the place. Like this SPAR. I think they're open pretty much all the time.
Or this Centra. These convenience stores all carry staple groceries, as well as lots of prepared foods.
But let's explore this proper grocery store called Superquinn. If you look real hard, you can see the "Cheesemonger" sign!
The Irish love their sparkling waters.
In Ireland, Uncle Ben makes asian sauces. Does he do this in the US? No idea.
These strawberries look amazing. Strawberries in the US look gross compared to these adorable little beauties.
It is Ireland people... there are plenty of potatoes to be found.
Here's some bread just sitting around. This would never happen in the US.
Some pies just sitting around too, without covers. Again, you would never see this at home.
Hee.
Brown sauce! You know it's the UK now!
These eggs are just sitting on a shelf. And not refrigerated. Again, you never see this in the states. Food prices aren't too crazy here. But you have to remember it's the Euro. It's the restaurants that tend to be on the expensive side. And oh, you have to pay for bags.

Wagamama

2009-10-12T22:11:00.007-05:00

The first and last time I went to Wagamama was when I was in London. This was forever and a half ago. I have no idea what I got that last time, but coincidentally enough, this place looked exactly like the last one. It's in the basement (do they only build restaurants in basements?) and has cafeteria type seating. I actually don't mind seating like this. I think whatever I ate that time years ago, I was underwhelmed. But I was willing to try it again.
They sell asian-esque food here. The options aren't that many. But it comes out pretty fast. I went with the spicy chicken ramen bowl. I also got one of their special fruit juices, which was freshly squeezed with various fruits, including apple, orange, and a few other delicious things I can't remember. I had to keep stirring it so that the apple pulp wouldn't just be floating at the top.To my shock (because I had extremely low expectations, and remembering my past Dublin meals to be so meh in the past, I was simply being realistic) my bowl of ramen was great. There wasn't anything fancy or complicated in here, but the broth was fantastic. Super zesty and full of flavor with a hint of spice. The chicken was well cooked and good quality, and the fixins were fresh. It was simple, yet delicious. And I was thankful it was so. I happened to pick something good that I liked, but that doesn't mean their other dishes are going to be as good. I'm pretty sure I got one of their noodle dishes last time, and it was probably pretty bland.The service is ok. Various people help you. One person takes your order and writes it down on your placemat. Another person might bring out your food. And then someone else may give you your check. But it's a pretty efficient system.

* A note about credit card usage. In preparation, I found a bunch of articles related to the credit card technology in europe being different than in the US, and that many businesses in europe would no longer take US credit cards since they do not have chip and pin technology. I have not had any issues so far. Everywhere that takes cards, that I've tried, has been fine in giving me a receipt to sign. So as of now, I would say no worries. They'll happily take your money.

La Croissanterie - French Fast Food

2009-10-12T20:58:00.003-05:00

I literally roamed around for 6 hours waiting for my hotel... there's only so much walking you can do in Dublin before you run out of things to do. But if you roam around enough, you get hungry. There's a big indoor shopping area at the beginning of Grafton Street. There isn't too much to eat here and it's pretty touristy, but I was tired and just decided to eat at La Croissanterie. Turns out to be a french chain. They sell sandwiches (baguette types, paninis, etc) and some sweets. I got a special which comes with a sandwich, dessert, and drink. I forget what this sandwich was called, but it had country turkey (don't know what makes it country, except it has an orange-ish ring around the edges) and cole slaw. The sandwich wasn't terrible, but it was freezing cold (everything is kept in refrigerated display cases). If they had maybe heated it up or put it in a press or something, it would have been a thousand times better. The pastry was an apple puff and it was stupendous. So I'd have to say oui to the pastry and peut-etre to the sandwich.

Lemon Crepes

2009-10-12T20:43:00.000-05:00

What an amazing first meal to have in Dublin. I was seriously lacking sleep having just flown overnight into a european morning. While roaming around the Grafton St area a bit, I happened upon Lemon Crepe & Coffee. I actually remembered the location of this place. I don't necessarily remember the restaurant being this restaurant when I was last in Dublin (years ago now) but I definitely remember the corner it was on. And that whatever restaurant it may have been those many years ago, it was always busy and full of people. I was not only tired, but starving, so I gave this a go. I thought this place would be a safe bet. Good decision girl!

I got the house special lemon crepe. It's served with organic syrup and a lemon wedge. And I also got a latte. Yes, I needed to stay awake! I honestly don't think much was in this crepe, if anything, but it doesn't really matter, because it's perfect. I haven't had that many crepes in my life, but this was the best one yet, and it had no fillings of any kind. It was the batter that made it so good. I could eat this all the time. Just plain. It needs no accessories!!! Not that the syrup and lemon weren't good on it, but it's not necessary. And it's big too! The latte was also excellent. He asked me if I wanted it strong or not, and I said not. I'm still in the process of acclimating myself to caffeine again. But it must have been not too strong, because I did just fine. This place is teeny tiny, and there are only a few spots inside and a few spots outside. Cash only folks, so bring your Euros!

Dining In The Skies

2009-10-11T21:38:00.003-05:00

Heading over for my european jaunt, they actually fed us on this flight to Dublin. And it was even hot food! The entree was actually chicken in a cream sauce. This chicken was high quality chicken breast and well cooked! And the green beans and roasted potatoes that came with this were amazing! I'm completely serious. The roll and butter were also good. The salad sucked. Trying to keep mixed greens fresh in an airplane must not work. And this cake was good too. I know, I sound crazy, but this was a well appreciated meal.

Nice Cheap Buy

2009-10-08T21:59:00.006-05:00

Sometimes when I'm at the store, I buy something I don't want or need, just because it happens to be on sale. Such as this random soup I picked up at target because it was half price. I'm very into soup, so I thought why not. And man! Did I pick a winner! This soup was so surprisingly good. Now I will have to stalk the clearance aisle ends at target to stock up!

Tim Hortons - Airport Style

2009-10-07T23:36:00.005-05:00

I always mention that my favorite thing about Canada is Tim Hortons. This fact hasn't changed. I even found a little spot in the Toronto Airport. I grabbed a turkey sandwich to go while waiting for my darn delayed flight. It was a whole wheat baguette with some turkey and lettuce and tomatoes inside. This bread was delicious and super crunchy! And I'm not normally into wheat bread at all. It was a great little sandwich. So simple yet so perfect. Tim Hortons, I still love thee.

Eating At Living Arts

2009-10-07T23:34:00.008-05:00

So my work in Mississauga was taking place at the Living Arts Centre, which is their performing arts center. On my second day there, we ended up eating the lunch buffet at the restaurant there, LIVE Cuisine Restaurant. It's actually quite a nice buffet.

They have cold items... a plethora of salads, pasta salads, beets, noodles, veggies.

The hot selections included penne, fish, chicken stir fry, and veggies. Everything was quite good. I particularly liked the chicken stir fry.The desserts included cake, pie, tarts, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and blueberry strudel. I only had room for the strudel. Damn, it was good strudel. I love buffets because I like trying a little bit of everything, instead of lots of one or two things. All in all, this is quite the decent buffet, and well worth it.

Seafood in Toronto

2009-10-06T23:49:00.012-05:00

The next night I entrusted yelp again, and found that Rodney's Oyster House had consistently good review. So I headed into the big city! After the GPS taking me through some of Toronto's most sketchiest neighborhoods (thanks GPS!) I finally ended up at Rodney's. It's actually in the basement, so you have to go downstairs. Once you're downstairs, it's completely unpretentious. It's just a comfortable place where they take their food seriously, not their decor. Come on, they have corrugated steel as design elements! This was the lone shucker they had. And man, did he shuck a lot. Behind him are the day's oyster offerings. I know nothing about oysters. And even though I went to an oyster house, I did not get any. Even though I do like oysters. I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it that night. The menu is fairly small. They obviously have oysters, and the oyster selections change daily. They also have a few daily specials. They have a few soups and apps, a few cold dishes, a few hot dishes, a few smoked fish dishes, and a few desserts. It's very simple. They give you complimentary bread, which was good, and it comes with a giant bowl of whipped butter. Yum. I'm a clam chowder fiend, so I had to try the one here. For a cup, it is actually quite pricey, but the cup itself is pretty decently sized. The chowder itself was ok. Nothing great, but perfectly acceptable. It had many tiny pieces of celery which really bugged me. I can't stand celery, and they're hard to avoid when they're that small. But the flavor was good and it had lots of clam in it, even though they were in teeny little pieces too. I really wanted scallops but their scallop offerings were slim. So instead, I got a half order of their pasta special which was scallops, shrimp, skate, and green beans served with fettuccini in a cream sauce. This half portion was actually quite big, and they did not skimp on the seafood. The scallops were perfectly seared, the shrimp was perfectly cooked, and the fish was delicious. It was a pretty plain cream sauce, but still an excellent dish. After a couple of twists with the pepper grinder, I hosed it.

The service here is excellent. Most of the servers were men, and they were super friendly, attentive, and definitely knew their stuff. I really wanted to end up trying some oysters at the end, but I was beyond stuffed. Even with my half portion of pasta, I was done. If you're into seafood and especially if you are a fan of oysters, head down to Rodney's. Oh, and ladies, and some of you men too, these servers were quite pleasing to the eye. So if you're in the mood for some seafood serving man candy in Toronto, check this place out.

Lunching in Mississauga

2009-10-06T21:39:00.007-05:00

My customer was in Mississauga, and the location was literally across the street from Square One Shopping Centre, one of the largest malls in the entire country of Canada. It was overwhelming, even for someone like myself who grew up with King of Prussia. In any case, I got to dine at the food court there. P recommended Cafe Madina, which was lebanese food. I got a chicken shawarma, which was filled with lettuce, cabbage, chicken, garlic and hot sauce, and these crazy pink pickled turnips. It was all rolled up and grilled/pressed. It was so damn good! I could eat these all the time. The chicken was well cooked and all the fixins and flavors worked well together. And because it was rolled up, it was actually easy to eat. I also got a side of half potatoes and half salad. The salad I got had apple, mango, carrot, and cucumber, along with a bunch of herbs. Loved it. And the potatoes too. Really, this was an excellent meal, especially for a mall food court meal! But really, it would have been good anywhere.

Momiji Sushi, Eh

2009-10-05T23:39:00.010-05:00

On a recent trip to Toronto, I was staying in some outlying suburbs. Whenever I'm somewhere new, I like to consult my trusty friend, yelp. It has treated me very well when travelling to new places. I wanted some japanese food, so that led me to Momiji, in Etobicoke. Try saying that 5 times.
It's located in a cute little downtown strip type of area. The place is rather unassuming and dark and dank looking from the outside, but the inside is lovely. It's modern, yet comfortable. Swanky, but not snooty. I really liked the decor. They even had some odd christmas lights hanging down from the ceiling. Rather out of place, but I liked it. And amongst the swank, an oddly placed flatscreen tv, where they played football, soccer, and cage fighting. It was amusing.
I started off with some agedashi tofu. I love me some agedashi tofu. This portion was ginormous. It was practically an entree. There was a giant heap of nori and bonito shavings on top. And a teeny tiny bowl of dipping sauce. Most times when I get agedashi tofu, it gets served within the sauce. So a separate dipping bowl was a first for me. It was ok. My favorite agedashi tofu still remains at Sagami. But this dish was ginormous and quite a bargain. The server even offered to bring me another tiny bowl of the dipping sauce. I appreciated that, as there clearly wasn't enough.
It is a sushi joint, so I had to at least try something. So I got a spicy california handroll. Man, was this good. I couldn't quite figure out what made it spicy. I was thinking it was the sauce, but it also seemed like that perhaps there were super thin slices of jalapeno or something else spicy in there too. Whatever it was though, it was good eatin.
I was super hungry, so I got a bowl of the nabe yaki udon. It came in this lovely earthenware bowl with a bunch of seafood and chicken breast and a bunch of veggies and egg. The broth itself was a little bland, but I still enjoyed it. The chicken breast was suprisingly good and grilled. Aside from some dark mushrooms, there wasn't even anything else offensive in this. It was a nice bowl of udon.

This was a great meal. I would highly recommend it to anyone in the western Toronto burbs looking for some good japanese food. And it was also affordable. It was reasonably priced, even in canadian dollars, so you know it's even better in US dollars.

The service was also good. It took awhile for my server to come over initially, but after that, it was smooth sailing from there. This place is also run by koreans. You remember me saying this before. There's probably a 50/50 chance that a sushi place is run by koreans. I think what gave it away was the k-pop playing on the stereo along with bulgogi and "spicy seafood noodle soup" being on the menu.

Oh, and the other thing that gave it away. The majority of the servers were male, all dressed in black, and tall, slim, and attractive, and all looked like they were part of a k-pop boy band. Seriously. They all had extremely trendy and stylish hair (for korean hair) and were extremely well groomed and polite. The styling gel use ratio of these boys was 100%, that's for damn sure. Later in the evening, when most of the guests had left, the servers all started gathering around. And in my head, they busted into a well-choreographed dance routine and started lip-synching to some good bubblegum k-pop. Like this.

Seriously folks, it was uncanny. Can you imagine getting served sushi by these guys? Maybe they ARE part of the next up and coming k-pop act, and they all happen to work at a sushi restaurant as their day jobs. Because really, I can't imagine every day regular folk looking like this on a regular basis.

But yes, back to my point... the food and service here are good! Give these boys some love and help them pay for their guyliner!

Dinner Party Time!

2009-10-03T21:38:00.010-05:00

On friday night, I had the honor of attending a lovely dinner party by R, teacher of young children and awesome dinner party thrower, extraordinaire. Can I just tell you how awesome his condo is? It's just awesome. I love everything about it. When I dream about the type of condo I would like to have, it's just like R's condo. Damn him. Not only the condo itself, but everything he has in it. If he ever wanted to trade, I would totally let him have my house. Really. No joke.
A variety of delicious cheese and crackers, pate, nuts, and olives. Wait till you see what else he made for this party. And he made it all himself. And the crazy thing is that he said he cooks like this every night. How can anyone cook like this every night? I'd need an extra 4 hours in my day! My jealousy grows...
A couple more appetizers... Chorizo with a shallot, onion, and apple reduction. Um, hello, can we say delicious? And some type of shrimp based appetizer housed in adorable little red endive leaves. Again, delicious. Who has time to make stuff like these? And we all adored the human pincushion toothpick holder.

A gorgeous antipasti with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, mozzarella, artichoke, peperoncini stuffed with ham and cheese, and all of it topped with the loveliest and thinnest slices of proscuitto. I took this picture before it was drizzled with olive oil and balsamic. Goodness. If all salads are like this, then I could agree to eat salads all the time.

For the main course, R outdid himself. Slow braised short ribs with wine and an apple based sauce. It was super tender and so heavily flavored and amazing. It was served on top of mascarpone polenta. And served with some haricot verts. Again, can I ask, who cooks like this? I would end up eating at 1AM. Everything was amazing.
Just when you think you're done, he laid these little puppies on us. Lemons filled with lemon curd, topped with lemon meringue. And at the bottom of these tasty little treats, crushed graham crackers. Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. If all dinner parties are like this, please, please invite me to your dinner parties. I am an excellent guest. I will sing and dance if you ask. I will bring cake (like the mocha cake). I will help clean. Really. And as for R, he can invite me over any time. It was definitely a dinner party to remember. My stomach won't ever forget it!

Agape Sweets

2009-10-03T20:49:00.005-05:00

While I was at Assi's food court, I picked up a few sweets at Agape Bakery. Mainly, I was there to pick up a mocha cake for the dinner party. After I paid, the lady gave me a couple of pastries for free. I was too stuffed to eat it that night, but it made a great snack the next day.
I love these types of cakes that the korean bakeries make. They're super light. This particular one is a mocha cake. Unbeknownst to me, the cake came with candles and a plastic cake knife! Surprise! When we ate it at the dinner party, we lit the candles in preparation for R's birthday coming in the next few weeks.

Agape Bakery

1222 Welsh Rd # B10

North Wales, PA 19454-2059

(215) 412-0478

Assi Food Court

2009-10-02T23:10:00.006-05:00

It got pretty cold in the middle of the week, so I got in the mood for hot noodle soup. Particularly hot and spicy soup. So I dragged H/A to Assi's food court to get me some korean noodles. There's a variety of korean food to choose from, as well as a bit of japanese.

H/A got some kitsune udon. He said that ever since we went Mitsuwa and I got the kitsune udon there, he'd been wanting to get some for himself. The portion sizes at the japanese spot at Assi is nice and big.

H/A likes to order two entrees. He just does. So he also got a bulgogi platter. It came with a giant plate of rice, and some banchan. The kimchi was ok, the radish kimchi was weird, and the black bean dish was too salty, not enough sweet. The soup was good too.

I wanted my hot korean noodle fix, so I got a nice big bowl of jjamppong. It's a dish that originated in china, but it's been quite koreanized. It's one of my favorite korean dishes of all time. This wasn't the greatest jjamppong around, but it really hit the spot. The noodles are usually thick and hand pulled, but these were just some boring thick spaghetti type noodles. There certainly could have been more seafood in it. Not exactly what I wanted, but you know, sometimes, you take what you can get. I still enjoyed it! It looks like a big bowl of red death, but it's not too spicy. Spicy, but not too much so.

Assi Plaza Food Court

1222 Welsh Rd

North Wales, PA 19454

(215) 631-9400

Soho Pizza Slices

2009-09-30T23:11:00.004-05:00

After barely eating at Supper, we needed some genuine sustenance before heading out to National Mechanics. So we quickly grabbed some slices at Soho. It's in old city on Market. You see a lot of late night activity here. I think the last time I ate here was super late. They're open til 3:30!R got a couple slices of plain and I went with pepperoni/sausage. They didn't have plain pepperoni or plain sausage. It was a winner. This is perfectly good pizza to fill your belly. The crust is nice and thin and slightly crunchy. The sauce is good. It's nothing extraordinary, but it's a nice fairly cheap slice that you can grab while in this neighborhood. If available, there is nice outdoor seating up front. Just be wary of the very aggressive homeless people.

Soho Pizza
218 Market St
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 625-3955

Supper Snacks

2009-09-30T21:37:00.003-05:00

Got to attend another yelp event earlier this week. It was held at Supper, and my only previous experience at Supper was for their deviled egg event. This event had a fall theme so they even had some hard apple cider (spiked with tequila of all things), regular margaritas (which aren't fall themed at all) and some various beers. This was the strongest and harshest margarita I've ever tasted. And not in a good way.
There was really barely any food, to all our stomachs' disappointments. What they did have was teeny tiny spinach fritattas. These were actually excellent. But you know, practically thumbnail sized. And there just weren't enough of them or enough rounds of them to go around.
The only other food they had were these teeny tiny crab cakes. Theses were probably the best crab cakes I've ever had. I don't know much about crab cakes, but these were super creamy and not chunky. I know lots of crab cake have hunks of veggies and stuff in it, but these were nice and smooth. Love, love, loved these! Just wished I could have had more of them since they were so petite! I still haven't had a real meal at Supper yet, but judging by these crab cakes, I just might have to!

Pre Show Eats At Good Dog

2009-09-28T21:35:00.004-05:00

Before heading out to catch an amazing show by Mono (japanese post-rock band extraordinaire) wet met up at Good Dog for some food. I wasn't actually super hungry, or else I would have scarfed a good dog burger, so we just ordered a big thing of their signature fries. You know I'm so in love with these. They're a mix of regular and sweet potato, and it comes with a dipping sauce too. I would pay so much money if I could get a bowl of just the sweet potato fries. I don't know where they get these, but they're just the best sweet potato fries. What ends up happening is that I just pick out the sweet potato ones, leaving the regular fries for whoever wasn't quick enough to sneak them first.

Bloomsburg Eats

2009-09-27T22:53:00.007-05:00

So what did we actually eat? Well, lots of random stuff. H/A got an orangeade. It was made with actual real oranges! And made by free child labor. Yay for free child labor! This was like an orange julius, without all the added sugar, and in a much larger cup. Really good. The cup was so huge we hardly madea dent in it. H/A and R both got gyros. R got hers without any veggies, and H/A got his loaded. I actually got stuffed cabbage, because I wanted some old-fashioned home cooked food. It was good!Roasted corn on the cob dipped in a giant vat of melted butter. Whoohoo! Damn I love this stuff. And we hosed this bag of cotton candy on the drive home. It was awesome!

Bloomsburg Fair - They Really Have This Stuff

2009-09-27T21:48:00.016-05:00

I'd never been to a county fair/agricultural fair like this before. You've seen it on tv, but seriously folks, this stuff really happens. People grow fruits and vegetables and animals and stuff, and they compete. And you get blue ribbons and such. It's crazy, yet adorable.

Award winning bell peppers. Award winning watermelon! But to me, how would you know if it's tasty on the inside? Just because it's pretty on the outside doesn't mean shit. It could be a terrible watermelon.

Prize winning beets and brussel sprouts. I had no idea this is how brussel sprouts grew. Don't they look like... giant buds?

All kinds of apples.

And to top off the freakshow, the award winning giant pumpkins. These weren't the winner. But they were huge, and their poundage was written on them.This is the one that one. 1105 lbs of pure unbridled freak gourd. Just imagining the logistics of transporting that pumpkin from patch to the fairgrounds makes my head hurt. There were also baking contests too. This one was for angel food cake, which is a cake I'm very partial to. There were also pie and chocolate categories as well. And oh yes, there were cows, and sheep, and goats, and chickens, and rabbits!

Bloomsburg Fair - Too Much Food

2009-09-27T21:33:00.005-05:00

We went to the 155th Bloomsburg Fair on saturday, its opening day. R has been talking about this for awhile as she went to school in Bloomsburg and wanted to go back and check it out again. She had mentioned that it was a big deal, and huge, and had crazy stuff, like Elvis impersonators. Man. Huge it was. Like freakin ginormous. In the night that we were there, we probably only covered about 1/2 of it. We didn't even get to the rides. We didn't see any of the tractor pulls, or the demolition derby, and other crazed shenanigans. What we did see was tons of food options. It was rather mindboggling. And way too many to choose from. We walked around for hours trying to decide where to eat. And here are some of the things we passed.

Stromboli Land, or space ship? I liked the name of this sticky bun joint. Tons of waffles, but this was the only pumpkin waffle joint. Homemade ice cream with the churning done by some sort of old-fashioned cranking machine. This was truly old school. Tons of hot sausages. Eat the Bowl, another cute name. Deep fried stuff! Are we in Scotland? I've never met any Greeks named Dave, but he's selling gyros here. Crabby Larry sells seafood. This was a family affair so there was no alcohol served. Sadly, this was the only kind of beer to be had.

Varga Bar Al Fresco

2009-09-26T21:32:00.009-05:00

After falling in love with Kanella earlier this year, it was hard to not notice the birth of the Varga Bar across the street. It opened in May and I finally got a chance to go check it out. It is literally across the street from Kanella. Lots of pinup shots and even pinup murals on the ceiling. There are a smattering of tables and booths inside, and while it's still nice out, a decent amount of al fresco seating.

It was coincidentally the last night of restaurant week, but we just decided to pick our own food. The menu itself is kind of slim, but there's plenty of choose from. It's actually quite simple, but the dishes have been swankified a bit. Like these crab cheese fries. A simple bowl of fries, but they throw crab on top! It was like a bowl of fries topped with crab chowder. It was brilliant. I'm going to start doing this on my own. They also have a large selection of beers and cocktails. This was one of the special sidecar cocktails. It was nice and strong, but it still doesn't beat my favorite sidecar, at the Sidecar.

Another example of how they swankify food. This is a little crock of mac and cheese, but it is made with gruyere, fontina, and mascarpone cheese, and topped with bacon and some bits of truffles. The bacon was a lovely touch. The truffles, not so much. Since my last experience with truffles (the truffle deviled eggs at supper) I realize that I'm just not into it. But it was still a good dish.

P got one of the specials of the evening - goat with pasta. He liked it, but it was not enough goat. I do have to say, the bowl was a little small, and probably way too small for a grown man. He cleaned his bowl and probably could have eaten a few more bowls of this.

I wasn't too hungry after the mac and cheese so I went with the kobe beef sliders. You get three adorable little sliders with bacon, shallots, vermont cheddar, tomatoes, and lettuce. I liked these (they just come cooked medium) but the buns were too thick and too dense. There was tons more bread than slider, so it was a bit too heavy on the bread side. It also came with really excellent onion rings on the side, and some pickle slivers.

The service here was pretty good. The clientele here is nice and mixed . I think it's a nice place to stop by for a drink if you are in the neighborhood. The food is pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. It's a nice addition to the philly dining/drinking scene, but nothing to bowl you over. But I could probably see myself coming back here.

Late Night At Coney Island

2009-09-20T20:51:00.009-05:00

After the wedding, we went back to Club 18. And then we left to get some beers and some health food from Coney Island. This place is a pottsville institution. And everything in there is terrible for you. I had to have some.
Some lovely rows of dogs heating up on the grill. It was nearly 2AM and they had this many dogs on the grill. I suspect they get quite the after hours foot traffic.
They throw mustard, onions, and chili on top. Who can resist a chili dog?
See this vat of... grease? Under those onions are burgers. Yes, burgers. They fish the burgers out from that mystery liquid and throw it on a roll, along with some of these soft and sweet onions.
And yeah, then they throw cheese and chili on top. And then you stuff it all into your gourd and hope you keep it all down. I really liked this burger. Would it have tasted as good if I hadn't been drinking and it wasn't the middle of the night and I wasn't sitting in front of a fire? I can't be sure, but I'm willing to find out some day.

Coney Island
2300 W Market St
Pottsville, PA 17901
(570) 622-7722

Another Wedding!

2009-09-20T20:50:00.006-05:00

So I ended up crashing a wedding at the Schuylkill Country Club. As it was at a more traditional type of place, it ended up being a pretty traditional wedding. No pizza, no ribs, no nacho bar. But there was quite the open bar.

Salad and bread. Both of these were actually really great. The rolls were warm and dense. The salad had lovely dressing... slightly mustardy, but still good.There was no meal selection in the rsvp's, so it wasn't surprising that it was a buffet. Although this place was kind of fancy, so it was still a bit surprising. Here's the rice dish that's hard to describe. It was like a cross between plain rice pilaf and plain risotto. The rice was incredibly mushy, but not in a bad way, so it was like a risotto, but incredibly buttery. So we're not really sure what it was, but we all really loved it. There was also asparagus, chicken, and salmon.
I'm not a big salmon fan, so I just stuck with the chicken and the asparagus, and the mystery rice dish. It's hard to describe the chicken too, but it was baked, and it was incredibly moist and tender. The asparagus was also cooked quite well and nice and buttery. The meal was quite heavy on the butter. No complaint from me though. I'm all about putting butter on everything.

The cake was an incredibly rich and dense chocolate cake with chocolate goop in the middle and some vanilla frosting on top. There was also a raspberry sauce drizzled on it. The sauce was too tart though, so I had to avoid it. I'm not typically a chocolate person, but this cake was quite delicious. I ate the whole thing. I couldn't help myself. I'm all wedding'd out for the rest of this year!

Orwigsburg Dining

2009-09-19T20:48:00.004-05:00

I headed up to the Pottsville area over the weekend to crash a wedding. After my drive, I was starving. So we walked a few blocks to downtown Orwigsburg for some small town eats. Valenti's is an italian joint, and apparently, they bake their own bread.
C got a side salad with mozzarella cheese. This actually looked like a pretty amazing salad. I did taste some, and it was really good. The dressing was great. But the amount of cheese was ridiculous. This starts a theme of heavy cheese.
J got the fresh turkey club sandwich. This is tons of food. It was a pretty good sandwich. These chips were amazing! They looked homemade. Homemade or not, they were super crunchy and not too salty and quite great. I ate too many.
I really wanted a sausage sandwich so I got this sausage parm with sweet peppers. Can you see any sausage or peppers or bread? Not really, as it was positively drenched with mozzarella cheese. There were about 3 slices of cheese on the bottom, then some sausage and peppers and sauce, and then a few more slices of cheese on the top. It was just beyond a ridiculous helping of cheese. It was more like a cheese sandwich with some sausage and bread. I ended up scraping most of the cheese off. It's a shame really, because the sandwich itself was fine. It was just hard to eat and had to be severely edited to attempt enjoyment. Take our advice Valenti's, ease up on the cheese. It's just not necessary.

Valenti's Pizza
218 W Market St
Orwigsburg, PA 17961
(570) 366-1408

Feelin The Love At South Philadelphia Taproom

2009-09-16T19:26:00.006-05:00

I wanted to go back to South Philadelphia Taproom ever since the first time I went. I dragged J there on a quiet tuesday night.

There weren't too many people there, so we had our pick of tables. We didn't get to pick the super low table in front, as it was already occupied. We tried a few beers. Our server was beyond nice, and actually from Ireland, and happily brought us free samples of the beers without us even asking. To tell you the truth, I think he had a little man-crush on J. He didn't bring me any free beer.
J got the burger. Look at that beautiful and giant yellow tomato. The burger came with mustard already on it. Lucky for J, he likes mustard, and he liked the burger. If I had ordered the burger, I would have been livid. It came with a side salad and a bunch of pickled veggies - cucumbers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. They were a bit on the spicy side, and I liked it.

Of course, I got the meatloaf entree, which comes on top of mac and cheese. It was still as good as I remembered. The meatloaf has a nice grilled flavor from the char marks. And the mac and cheese is so super mild and delicious and creamy. And the homemade ketchup just makes the dish. It's different than store-bought ketchup, but perfect for this meatloaf and the mac and cheese. I really should branch out and try other things on the menu here. I guess it's an excuse to go back!

Free Donuts

2009-09-15T20:52:00.005-05:00

I love it when you go to Dunkin Donuts on really off times (late nights, weekend afternoons) and order a donut and they throw in a bunch of free ones. Yet another reason for me to heart DD!

Pabbit!

2009-09-14T21:25:00.011-05:00

After enjoying probably one of the last hot days of the year, we worked up quite a hunger. So we met up with J and S and headed to Pub & Kitchen. You know, the place with the pabbit logo. Pig and rabbit. By dinner time, it'd finally cooled down, so we got a table outside. The temperature was perfect, but unfortunately the bugs were out. The sangria. Strong, and expensive. J's salmon. Seared on the outside and still mostly raw on the inside. Served on top of wax beans. J absolutely positively cleaned this plate. Squeaky clean. It's impressive. J's burger. It is presented quite beautifully. With caramelized red onions and a perfectly sized piece of bibb lettuce. He couldn't stop raving about it. He absolutely loved it. S and I both got the meatloaf special. The meatloaf was ok, but it had big hunks of carrots in it. A big no no for me. And not much flavor. And the green beans had a mustard sauce, with whole mustard seeds. Another no no for me. But the potatoes and gravy were pretty good, although it needed more gravy. Overall, ok meatloaf, but nothing I'd order again. Service was fine. I think the menu is a little limited, so it'd be great if they could add some more things to the menu. But I would definitely come back here.

Tampopo

2009-09-14T20:25:00.011-05:00

The plan was to have lunch at Kong, but Kong is not yet open for lunch. So our plans were dashed. H/A and I had been talking about getting ramen, and didn't really know a good place to get it, so we thought we'd give Tampopo a shot. I had also gotten my haircut a day earlier, and my stylist is adorable and japanese. I had asked her about ramen in philly and she said there is no good spot for it. Things were looking ominous.

There are three Tampopo locations, and we went to the one in west philly because it's the only one open on sundays. It's actually quite a cute spot. It's also the newest one. You order your food, get a buzzer, and pick it up when it's ready. There's plenty of dining space and cute little stools. They serve mostly japanese food and some korean dishes as well. I have a feeling they're run by koreans.The day actually turned out to be super hot, so I wasn't in the mood for ramen anymore. But H/A and D both got the tampopo ramen. There is no choice, just one ramen dish. It has pork and chicken broth, chashu(braised pork), bok choy, fish cake, egg, and scallions. And the broth is shockingly super hot and spicy. It's fine at first, and then it totally hits you. I liked it! It's unlike any ramen you've had before, but because it was so different, I have to give it props. D thought the noodles were too doughy. H/A wolfed it down like he hadn't eaten in days. Seriously, he ate the whole entire pile of noodles in one spoonful, it seemed.
J got the yakisoba and the miso soup. The yakisoba portion is a bit on the small side, especially for dudes, so beware. He got it with chicken, and he liked it very much. H/A also got yakisoba (yes, he was eating multiple meals) and he also liked it. The miso is just fine.
Since I wasn't feeling the hot food, I wanted something cold. So I picked the fresh tuna bibimbap. Mine came with brown rice, raw tuna, avocado, Korean pear, cucumber, lettuce, and red and white cabbage in a slightly spicy/sesame oil dressing/sauce. Everything in this dish was raw, except for the rice, which was obviously cooked.Here's the slop after you mix up all the goodies. I loved this! The flavor of this dish is quintessentially korean. But it's something that everyone could like. You can get it without the raw tuna, so for those of you wary of raw fish, you can still enjoy this. It's fresh, crunchy, and quite healthy. The texture is amazing. And the tuna is a nice touch. Others enjoyed this dish as well. I think the portion of rice was a bit on the paltry side, but otherwise, a perfect dish. I'll definitely be back to Tampopo.

Yes To Carrots

2009-09-13T21:24:00.005-05:00

I attended a little shindig the other night for yes to carrots. None of us were blown away by the products, but who can say no to free stuff, especially during times like these? There was also a little noshing going on. Multiple salads, hummus, guacamole, multi-colored carrots, muffins, and brownies.

The yes to carrots people had actually sent these bags of popchips. They're not fried, they're not baked, they're actually popped through heat and pressure. Which makes them healthier, with really good crispity texture. The flavor, or at least these cheddar ones, were only just ok. Oh, and one of the girls made some booze slushies. They were amazing and strong.

A Carnivolution Of Sorts

2009-09-12T22:31:00.005-05:00

Each month in west philly, they hold a carnivolution at a "museum". And by "museum" I basically mean someone's house and their backyard and their adjoining neighbors' backyards. It's a hoot. The sideshow featured the siamese twin towers, sword swallowing, fire play, a fat guy with a purse dressed as satan, a stripping osama bin laden, and the list goes on and on.

They served a tiny bit of food this month. Rick's Raw Bar served oysters and clams. He also had vegan fruit salad soaked with alcohol. Some steamed shrimp as well. And he was hocking his own brand of horseradish.

H/A went and ordered one of the oyster shooters. Freshly shucked oyster, vodka, cocktail sauce, and horseradish. Rick told him to just swallow the thing, or chew it. H/A chose to swallow it.

He looked like he knew what I was doing, but there was no way I was going to risk my life buying oysters off a dude named Rick in someone's backyard. There's one more carnivolution left this year, so go check it out!

JB Burgers

2009-09-12T21:24:00.016-05:00

Before heading out to a crazy show of epic proportions, I met up with some friends at Johnny Brenda's. We had just missed the 4-6 happy hour with half price oysters. Darn. The menu at JB's is always changing. That's why there aren't printed menus and only blackboards. They didn't have the kabobs that night, which I love, and nothing else was drawing me in, so we all ended up getting burgers.

These burgers are good, but they must heat them way too high because all of the burgers were pretty much charred black on the outside. Ranging from medium to well, while the middle was prepared as requested, the outside was all charred. I didn't mind, as I actually like char (no matter how bad for you it is), but if you're not a burnt fan, then this isn't the burger for you. It comes with caramelized onions, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and pickle on a buttered and toasted bun. The bun ends up with a slight crunch, which I liked. The fries were good too.

Our server was... not the best. She seemed out of it. As if everything we requested was a chore and hurt her head. Bless her heart.

Suburban Pho

2009-09-11T21:23:00.019-05:00

While pho places abound in the city of brotherly love, its sisterly suburbs are mostly devoid. But there are a few spots... emphasis on the few. One of them is Pho Tai Nam, and we headed out there on one of the annoying rainy nights of this week to check it out. It actually turned out to be a perfect day for pho as it was cold and dreary. It's like a pho/vietnamese/thai joint. So definitely a mix of cuisines. It's in a nondescript strip mall. The inside is bright, sizeable, and clean.

Three of us got various bowls of pho, and H/A went crazy and got the pad thai. Which he didn't really like very much.

We also got some dumplings, as C had mentioned they were good here. And they genuinely were.

The pho did not dissappoint. While clearly overpriced for pho, it was still a sizeable bowl and the broth had good flavor. The meat was nice quality, and overall, I enjoyed it.

C got some mango ice cream for dessert and S got some green tea mochi.

I never leave room for dessert. I was too busy stuffing myself with a long awaited bowl of suburban pho. So for those of you afraid of venturing into the city, head up to Blue Bell and get yourself a bowl in all its suburban glory.

Franzone's, It's Been Too Long...

2009-09-09T21:23:00.006-05:00

I was chatting with a friend and she mentioned that she's been craving pizza every day. I don't know how that's possible, but her saying that made me crave pizza. And in particular, Franzone's. So what did I do? What every red-blooded Franzone's addict would do... I drove the 30 minutes there and back to get myself one. And it was worth all the effort. Franzone's, you've never failed me. And I think it tastes even better the day after once you heat it up again.

Fort Lee Is The Best Place Ever... Sort Of

2009-09-06T23:21:00.003-05:00

After walking down main street (there's really not anything worth showing), we stopped inside Parisienne Bakery just before we left. And then the most amazing thing happened! There was a Beard Papa's counter inside! What? For real? Are you kidding me? Yes, it happened. It was a real Beard Papa's! Here's the crazy thing. Outside this bakery, there isn't even a sign that it is a bakery and that it is Parisienne Bakery. There's some writing on the windows, but it's barely legible. And there's no obvious indication that there is a glorious Beard Papa's inside. Gah, I was so shocked!
Who could resist anything from this adorable little bearded man? "Buy my cream puffs!" he said. And I obliged. 6 times over.
Since we had just gorged ourselves after being starved and stuck in a car, I didn't actually have room to eat these right away. And there's a sign that says that these cream puffs should be enjoyed as soon as possible. So when we got home a few hours later, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to eat all these quickly. As much as I wanted to eat 6 giant cream puffs, I knew it wasn't a good idea. So I did what any full-blooded cream puff loving american would do - I played cream puff fairy. I called up a few friends and just dropped some cream puffs off. I wanted others to enjoy them while they were still good!
But here's the sad part. When I eventually tried one, I realized that the cream filling was too eggy. Yes, it wasn't that good. It wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't the beard papa's I'm used to. I was so disappointed. And after hyping it up, my friends probably think I'm crazy. I've eaten beard papa's enough to know that this filling batch wasn't up to par. Normally, it' just creamy, dreamy, and vanilla-y. But this one just tasted way too much of egg. So excited about this discovery, yet so disappointed at the same time. Maybe next time!

Best. Pho. Restaurant. Name. Ever.

2009-09-06T22:21:00.003-05:00

While on Fort Lee's Main Street, I passed by this place. Mo' Pho. Hands down, the best damn name for a pho spot, ever. So bravo to you. If I'm ever in Fort Lee again, I'll stop in, just because the name is so good.

Fort Lee Late Lunch - Picnic

2009-09-06T20:20:00.006-05:00

Driving back home was just about the worst thing ever. I was starving, I had to pee, and we were stuck before the GW for about two hours. It's just horrific when cars are not moving, there's nothing you can do about it, and you're physically uncomfortable. Ugh. But as soon as we got over the bridge, it was just fine. And we stopped at Fort Lee so I could cram food into my gullet. A had told us to stop in Fort Lee at this little takeout spot. She raved about it. She didn't know what it was called, but it was on Main Street and right across from Parisienne bakery. After a few hiccups, we eventually found it. It's called Picnic. It's mainly a takeout spot, but there are a couple of tables and some counter space. It's korean, chinese, and japanese bento type fare. There's tons to choose from. There are a variety of different bento boxes that you can customize. Tons of sushi and rolls and such, as well as some korean dishes. My mom went with the spicy stir fried squid bento box. It also came with tangsuyuk (korean sweet and sour pork), seaweed salad, a bit of pickled radish, and of course, rice. Now normally, this stir fried squid dish is one of my most favorite of all korean dishes, but here, not so much. They put perilla leaves in it. And perilla leaves are just one of those things that I cannot stand. At all. It's like how my mom hates cilantro. So it absolutely ruined this dish. Perilla leaves aren't something that is normally used in this dish, so it puzzled me so as to why they would ruin this perfectly fine dish. Boo to picnic for taking something great and bastardizing it to nastiness. A had mentioned that the dukpoki was very good here. It's one of my favorite korean dishes, so I had to get it. It turned out to be only ok. In fact, A has made me dukpoki before, and hers is far superior to this one. She should go into business and hawk her dukpoki! I would totally buy it. The picnic one I can take it or leave it. I mean since I was starving, I wolfed it down, but otherwise, I would not have really bothered. It was just missing something. All in all, this place did the job of filling our bellies, but neither of us was very impressed. I've had much better korean elsewhere.

Picnic
239 Main St
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
(201) 363-188