San Francisco and Silicon Valley – Page 2

Roadtrip: Koi Palace (Daly City) 17 years later

March 19, 2014 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum, Road Trip, San Francisco and Silicon Valley

In 1996 I had a meal that changed my view of dim sum. I had grown up eating the typical, run of the mill stuff back home in Honolulu, siu mai, char siu bao, blah, blah, blah…..I was in San Francisco, had a car, and decided to visit this new (at that time) Chinese Restaurant that was supposed to be "possibly" the best in the country. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But I'll say this much, that visit to Koi Palace changed the way I looked at dim sum, in terms of quality, flavor, and how things were put together. I'd longed to return. In fact, I once mentioned Koi Palace to a supposed "foodie", who looked at me, laughed, and said, you're "the only person I know who wants to go to Daly City and eat"….such was the depth and breath of much of San Diego when I arrived here in 2001. Gladly, much has changed since then…..and so have I. So when we made plans for this little road trip, I really wanted to see Koi Palace circa 2013. I also wanted to share that experience with the Missus.

We arrived just before opening. Folks were already milling around just inside the door. When they started seating, all the "Popo's" pushed to the front of the crowd….it was chaos; though controlled chaos, as the host had kept track of who was in line and ignored the folks who cut in front of the line.

17, almost 18 years, is a lot of water under the bridge, and I have to say the place really shows its age; dark, somewhat dank, scuffed tables…well, I felt right at home. The Missus on the other hand, "the best dim sum in the states, huh?"

We started things off with the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling with XO Sauce:

In many ways this was just perfect; the shrimp plump, full of flavor, steamed to perfection, the XO sauce added that wonderful, deep savory flavor….the much over-used "umami". My biggest problem with this were the wrappers, too thick, too sticky, and falling to pieces when you picked it up with chopsticks….the juices leaked onto the table….of course, this is Koi Palace, so they just placed the next dish right on the oil slick.

I have a rule, "never order Xiao Long Bao at a Cantonese Dim Sum chop", but I broke that rule after seeing Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao on the menu. And I'm glad I did.

This was very good. The dough was just chewy enough, the filling had a wonderful balance of sweetness, which wasn'y cloying, along with pork tones. There was enough "soup" to keep me happy. And yes, you definitely could taste the crab in this. I'm glad we ordered it.

We also ordered the Seafood Pan Fried Noodles, which was good, but not great.

The cooking technique of the seafood was excellent….down to the the oft mishandled squid which was very tender. The sauce/gravy was really bland and there was too little of it and some parts of the noodles were hard instead of crisp.

The Turnip Cakes were average.

The texture was too gummy, like too much flour was used. Not much flavor; I think we make better at home, though that XO sauce that came with it was killer……

The other dish that was "killer", though not in a good way was the Cheong Fun with Fried Fish Filet. It sounded like a good idea, but was a mistake in retrospect.

I've noticed this fad recently, especially at Sichuan Restaurants where fish filets are being coated with a sweet flour, that reminds me of artificially sweet cake mix. It's not a pleasant flavor to us and this was no exception. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed that. The sauce(balanced salty and sweet) and the rice flour roll(thin and of perfect texture) were excellent, but that fish and the batter was just not our thing.

Things ended on a high note though, as you can see.

This wonderful example of porky beauty is the Koi Palace Suckling Pig. It ain't cheap at $18, but I'd pay that much just for the skin, which was just spot on, perfect in texture….light, crisp, swiney deliciousness. The meat itself was on the chewy side, but the pork flavor was just so good. I hadn't eaten swine so good since we got back from Pork-u-all, ummm Portugal. This is the real deal…..

I think the place needs to be freshened up a bit, that carpet looks like it hasn't been cleaned since 1996. Perhaps more effort goes into their other location(s).The service was pretty good, efficient, non-intrusive……

As to what the Missus thought about Koi Palace, "I expected more, I think Sea Harbour in Rosemead is better…." I read some time ago that Jonathan Gold was of the opinion that Koi Palace was the best "Hong Kong style restaurant in the US"…..or something like that. Personally, I'm not so sure…..but that suckling pig was really good….

But in response to the person who made that remark about Daly City all those years ago, "yes, Daly City is a great spot to find good eats; just ask the hundreds of thousands who've been to Koi Palace."

Koi Palace
365 Gellert Blvd
Daly City, CA 94015

Roadtrip: Shopping Edition – Crystal Springs Produce and The Gourmet Corner – San Mateo

March 13, 2014 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, San Francisco and Silicon Valley

One thing I really enjoyed about our post Thanksgiving Roadtrip was the theme….it really wasn't planned, but much of it revolved around food in one way or another……we ended up in San Bruno for two nights. San Mateo is close enough and we ended up going market-hopping. There are places where I didn't really take the time out to take photos; Nijiya and Whole Paycheck in San Mateo, but here's a couple of other places we stopped at while just checking things out:

Crystal Springs Produce:

I had read about tis place and thought it might be a nice stop. I didn't quite know where it was and the irony of the location and where we were was to evident in our selection for dinner, which was basically right across the street, though we didn't know it at the time.

The shop is not very big and you can't really do all your shopping here, but this is one of those places that every neighborhood should have; a nice selection of local, organic, with a nice selection of European products.

The Missus was especially interested in the Sardines and tinned Seafood, having been to Portugal earlier in the year.

The Missus was obsessed with apples at this time; She hoarded them, Jazz Apples, Crimson Gold, Blakc Arkansas……we added to the collection here…..

Remember those" I went to xxxx and all I got to show for it was this t-shirt", well, I went to NorCal and all I got to show for it was a bunch of apples…..

This was a nice shop, every neighborhood should have one of this quality; though I gotta say, the young man manning the counter treated me like he was doing me a favor by ringing me up……

Crystal Springs Produce
770 Polhemus Rd
San Mateo, CA 94402

The Gourmet Corner:

I'd actually heard about this shop a while back.

When we entered, it looked like what I'd call a "box wine shop"…..

With a nice selection of canard products. I mean, I really wish I had room for a six pack of duck confit!

Things really didn't click for us until one of the guys working here said, "we've got lots of other stuff in the back" and opened the door……

While there wasn't anything amazing…..think of this as the "Smart and Final" of French ingredients.

I was tempted to ask "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"

Some of it was quite good……

Some of it was meh……

Still, I'd really love a shop like this in San Diego….though I'm not sure we could support it. The gentleman at the front counter told me that a good majority of the duck products went to Canada and I later saw some of it a Surfas. I was also told that I "should have come here before the foie gras ban"

I really enjoyed this stop.

The Gourmet Corner
873 N San Mateo Dr
San Mateo, CA 94401

Roadtrip: Burma Cafe (Daly City) and other stuff

January 25, 2014 mmm-yoso Burmese Food and Restaurants, Road Trip, San Francisco and Silicon Valley

Full and happy after lunch at the Firestone Grill, we headed northward. Hitting Gilroy we couldn't help but stop at one of these tourists traps…..

We also stopped at the Gilroy Outlets. The Missus doesn't shop much at outlets, it's not Her "thing" I guess. But She was interested to see what the lululemon shop had to offer. Of course She was wearing some limited edition jacket thingy which made all the sales girls go "that's so nice isn't it?" ick….. Then I came to find out that we didn't stop for Her…..we stopped here to get some stuff for me???? Anyway, two shirts later we left the place……me wearing lululemon, sigh. I feel somewhat emasculated for some reason. They are comfortable though.

We eventually got to our hotel. We were staying in San Bruno at the Villa Montes. It gave us lots of options and we kept joking that we were going to NorCal, but not into SF……

After a short rest we got back on the road a drove around a bit. We were still pretty full form lunch and decided on a fairly light dinner. I gave the Missus a couple of options and She chose the restaurant which was located in Daly City. So we drove to Daly City stopping here and there. When the Missus saw the 99 Ranch Market we decided to stop since we were still running a bit early. After stretching our legs a bit we headed to our dinner destination, Burma Cafe.

Burma Cafe is located in, what else, a strip mall. The mall looked a little run down, with most of the shops looking like this one right next to Burma Cafe.

Burma Cafe was without a doubt the nicest looking shop in the place.

****Burma Cafe has closed

They had just opened for dinner when we arrived, so it was pretty empty. The interior was on the dark side, yet it created a fairly nice intimate mood.

The really nice young lady seated us, we came to find out she is the owner's daughter.

The menu is concise, but full of dishes I wanted to try.

Of course we had to have the Lahpet Thoke, the Fermented Tea Leaf Salad, which is often called the Burmese National Dish.

I realize that the traditional version of this dish doesn't usually include lettuce, but in this case the crispness of the greens really made this a refreshing dish. The mildly bitter-astringent-pickled flavor of the fermented tea leaves, which looked a lot like pesto was really enjoyable for us. The addition of various nuts, beans, and seeds added textural contrast and flavor. The tomato gave the dish a bit of an acid kick as well. I'd have this weekly if we lived in the area.

A while back, I read that kabocha is used quite a bit in Burmese cooking. I thought the Missus would really enjoy the Kabocha Pork Stew.

The Missus, a big fan of kabocha loved this dish….even if it had pork in it. The pork was perfectly tender, soft, but not mushy. I really enjoyed the combination of spices used in this dish, complex, mildly spicy, but not overwhelming. I wasn't such a big fan of the kabocha, I felt it was a bit too starchy and undercooked….but hey, the Missus loved it.

We both enjoyed the ambiance. The young lady who served us was very nice and even chatted with us about how the food was prepared and the spices they use. I wish we had a place like this in San Diego.

Burma Cafe
63 St Francis Sq
Daly City, CA 94015

Pork Belly Buns!

January 14, 2013 Vicky (SF Bay Area) Cooking, Recipes, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

Hi Everyone! 🙂 It's Vicky again… blogging about my gluttony up here in the Wonderful SF Bay Area. For some time I thought I fell off the face of the earth!

Taiwan is well known for a type of "sandwich" where a fluffy slightly sweet steamed bun (think a la Peking duck bun) that's filled with a thick slice of stewed pork belly, pickled mustard (suan cai), cilantro, and a sprinkling of ground peanut and sugar. It's called a "Gua Bao" and you can find it all along the streets throughout the island country.

It used to be really hard to find these pork belly buns here in the states but in the last 5 years, it seems like everyone has their own version of it. Momofuku (NYC), Ippudo (NYC), random izakayas here and in the SF Bay Area, there's even a food truck that sells buns like hot cakes named "The Chairman" (play on words with Chairman Bao).

The concept of these buns are pretty easy to make and this past weekend I whipped up a large batch of them using David Chang's Momofuku recipe as inspiration. I brined a large pork belly after removing the skin, roasted it on high heat to render out the fat and then switched to low heat to let it slowly confit in its own juices and fat. Chilled, sliced, steamed some buns, added in some quick pickles, shredded green onions, smudge of hoisin sauce and a squirt of kewpie mayo. Voila! Luscious pork belly buns at home.

No more standing in long lines at the Chairman truck to get my buns…

Pork Belly

2-3 lbs of Pork Belly (have your butcher remove the skin)

1/2 c. kosher salt

1/2 c. sugar

1 T 5 spice powder

2 c. water

Mix the salt, sugar, and 5 spice powder together and dissolve in the water. I use the lazy method and toss everything into a large gallon sized ziplock bag and shake. Put the pork belly in and squeeze out all the air in there and let it brine overnight in the refridgerator.

Preheat the oven to 400, remove the pork belly and wipe dry. Place in a roasting pan and roast the belly at 400 for an hour and then turn the temperature down to 250 for another 2 hours. The belly should plump up and per Momofuku, "feel pillowy."

Let it cool down and wrap it in a sheet of saran wrap and chill in the refridgerator so it can be easily sliced.

Pickles

2-3 persian pickles thinly sliced

1T sugar

1t salt

Slice the pickles and toss in the sugar and salt mixture. Let it sit for about 20 minutes and then rinse. Do a quick 5 minute soak in fresh water to remove the excess saltiness. Squeeze dry and set aside.

Assembly:

Slice the pork belly into slices and reheat on a good cast iron pan to crisp up the edges, steam some store bought buns, shred green onions, and get the hoisin/kewpie ready. Put a dollop of hoisin on one side of the bun, tuck in the hot pork belly slices, squirt some kewpie on there and top off with the shredded green onions and enjoy!

It’s So Easy to Gain Weight from the Big Easy!

March 2, 2010 Vicky (SF Bay Area) Cajun, Southern, and Soul Food, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

Hi Everyone! 🙂 It's Vicky again… blogging about my gluttony up here in the Wonderful SF Bay Area. Actually not too wonderful as we're getting another storm pass through.

So my workplace placed us in teams and challenged us to a weight loss challenge.. a "Biggest Loser" or sorts. Before the challenge started, I managed to get one more wonderful delicious brunch in. Being that I LOOOOOOVE Cajun food, we made a trip up to the city to go eat at Brenda's Soul Kitchen. (Keep in mind, this place is in a shady place…. The Tenderloin… and you'll get taunted at as you wait outside for an hour for your table… We've had more than one hobo walk by and go "Man, who would spend 15 bucks on breakfast! You're nuts!" Seriously? I'd spend 15 bucks on my breakfast… especially from Brenda's!

The cafe is a tiny little place; you bump shoulders with everyone around you and you better get there right when they open or an hour before they close at 3PM so that you don't have to wait eons for food. Oh yeah… and out of towners, go on Sunday or have a Handicapped placard cause those meters are sharks!!

We finally settled in and Sam ordered the Andouille Sausage Omelette with a biscuit. I LOVE their biscuits. Flakey… light, buttery, oh so delicious!! It came topped with a smokey cajun-y salsa. Yum!

I ordered their special for that day: Bananas Foster French Toast. OMG it was French Toast heaven… Delicious and completely out of this world… The bananas were tender, well balanced with a hint of rum, and had a wonderful carmelization to them.

Being a Southern cafe, Brenda's also served biegnets. OMG… Biegnets…. Strangely, I hate doughnuts but LOVE biegnets. Something about the chewiness of them just totally appeal to me. Brenda's offers plain, Ghiradelli chocolate filled, cinnamon sugar and apple filled, and spicy Creole Crawfish and Cheddar filled. For those who can't decide, they also make a biegnet flight.. You get one of each!

Brenda

I guess my days of eating Brenda's is now on hold…

Brenda's Soul Food
www.frenchsoulfood.com

652 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-3328
(415) 345-8100

Seeing Stars!! Lot’s of Stars!!!

January 10, 2010 Vicky (SF Bay Area) San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

Happy New Year's!! It's me, Vicky, blogging again about the food I put into my mouth.

One of the biggest benefits to moving away from San Diego and into the Bay Area is the endless amount of food options up here. Granted we don't have a great taqueria where I can get my carne asada fix, or that I'm still finding something to rival Din Tai Fung's dumplings, but the food up here is pretty amazing. The biggest find up here is the amount of stars up here. Now I'm not talking about Catherine Zeta Jones or Brad Pitt… but something even more coveted. Michelin Stars. Yup! The Bay Area boasts of plenty of Michelin Stars… including the only 3 star restaurant in the US. French Laundry! I'm still awaiting the day where I can eat there again… with my D300 so I can capture my meal in its wonderful photographic glory!

Last year, for my 21st birthday (yes, I'm still celebrating my 21st birthday… I think we're up to a few anniversaries of my 21st birthday… but seriously, whose counting right?) Sam arranged for a lovely get together at the wonderful One Market in San Francisco. It touts a star so now overall my star count is up to 8… They were wonderful in keeping a large round table for our dinner party and the food there was delicate and well thought out.

I started out with the pea soup, accentuated with crisp pancetta and topped with a soft boiled organic egg. Now keep in mind, I've always hated egg yolks ever since I was a kid. It still baffles me to this day; this egg-yolk hating habit. Evolution has made it so that we crave high fat and rich foods (which explains my endless love affair with butter…) but to this day, I still have a hard time eating yolks. This soup… was perfect. This was the first time I understood why people call egg yolks creamy. We gently broke the egg and mixed it into the soup to create this amazing creamy rich finish. The pancetta broke up the smoothness and added a nice textural balance along with the briny saltiness. Emulsified peas never really appealed to me but the soup was this beautiful beautiful bright green color. Nothing was overlooked here; even the croutons were crisp and well seasoned!

I recall awhile ago when I was living in San Diego, there was quite a bit of controversy about foie gras. I'm not sure if it is still served down there, but it was offered on the menu up here. (Along with at the menus at the Google cafeteria… their Kobe burger with foie gras with a side of Maine lobster tail is amazing!!) In any case, we ordered a side of the foie gras to whet our palate. Oh Mr. Goose… you did not die in vain. The foie gras was seared perfectly; I normally hate liver in any shape, way, form or preparation but I didn't turn my nose down on this one. The foie gras had a perfect creamy consistency, paired with the carmelized hazelnuts and apricot compote, it was one fab dish!

In my family, we grew up eating a lot of fish. Having Taiwanese roots, fresh whole fish is super important to my family. When we have family dinners, there's alway a whole steamed fish which then the chopstick battles ensue to claim the fish cheeks. Yes… fish cheeks. Since fish spend their whole lives bug eyed and gulping, these two highly priced muscles are extremely tender yet firm at the same time. When I saw that they had Halibut Cheeks on the menu… I squealed. I ordered the Halibut Cheeks with Root Vegetables and Fennel Foam. I didn't really quite understand the foam component but the cheeks were amazing! Tender… chewy… and very "Q!"

Sam ordered the Seared Steak on Polenta with Bok Choy and Brussel Sprouts. Again… seared perfectly, but I couldn't really tear myself away from my fish cheeks to eye his dish. When I finally sampled it, it was utter steak heaven. The meat was amazingly tender, flavorful and seared perfectly. The centers were warm and moist and the edges were still slightly crusty from the hard sear. The sauce was a wonderful reduction and the bok choy was cooked perfectly.

All in all, it really showed on how well the restaurant was run. The dishes were very well presented and thought out. The pairings were great and our server suggested great wine pairings. I was pleasantly surprised at how great the service was since they were charging a standard service charge for how large our party was. If you ever find yourself up here in SF, check out One Market.

1 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
415.777.5577

www.onemarket.com

MMMMmmm! HuMMMMMmmmmus and Chicken Wraps

December 1, 2009 Vicky (SF Bay Area) Mediterranean Restaurants, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

Hi! It's Vicky again… blogging again… This time, I'm finally featuring one of my favorite hole in the wall lunch places.

My friend Jennifer introduced me to this gem that's super close to work (since we work together) and it's fairly off the beaten path. I've always liked Mediterranean/Greek/Middle Eastern food, but this hails as some pretty authentic cuisine. I didn't realize that so many places had their "take" on hummus (similar to how Panda Express does "sweet and sour chicken.") Needless to say, this place does a perfect style of the traditional-going-back-to-the-founding-roots type of hummus. Perfectly balanced out with tahini and garbanzo beans, served with a flavorful extra virgin olive oil, it's the balance to my carb addiction. Ahhh… Tartousa… It's truly our mini oasis during lunch.

Jenn and I love sitting in the back patio, soaking in the sun and savoring our long awaited lunch break. This restaurant tends to be kinda slow during lunches but picks up during dinner. Their back patio turns into a quasi-hookah lounge that serves food – often they have music too.

Today for lunch, we both ordered our usual… the chicken daya wrap with Mediterranean pomme frites, and a side of hummus. Behold… the glorious hummus!

Here's another shot of the hummus, with some of the pita bread served in the back. The hummus was perfectly creamy (not gritty like some places), thick, flavorful. It has become our fall back on comfort restaurant for rough day at the office.

Service here can be slightly spotty probably since we tend to sit on the patio and the waitress seems not to check up on us as much as I like. (I still have my camel tendencies and need multiple refills of water.) The upside is that when we just need to vent or talk, we're not constantly interrupted. Shortly after we scarfed down the basket of pita, our wraps came out. Delicious! The chicken was marinated perfectly, cubed and tossed in a creamy garlic sauce and wrapped up in a pita/shwarma bread. Paired with cubed tomatoes and their homemade Mediterranean pickles, it provided the perfect textural and taste balance. Ahhh…

I've always been particularly picky about my french fries. They need to be perfectly crisp and not greasy. Tartousa does a good job. They're cut thick so the centers are nice and mealy, tossed with some salt and paprika, served with a side of ketchup topped with a dollop of their garlic sauce. Delicious!

If you find yourself in the area on the way to SFO for a flight or having some time to kill, swing on by… The food was great!

Tartousa Mediterranean Bistro
514 Peninsula Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
650.558.9674

Darda Seafoods – Amazing Chinese-Islamic Food

November 18, 2009 Vicky (SF Bay Area) Chinese Restaurants, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

It's Vicky again… blogging away about another restaurant up here in the Bay Area.

Sam and I recently moved in the Bay Area and left the vicinity of this restaurant that used to be a staple-go-to-place. For months we didn't swing by but would occasionally entertain the thought of eating there. Yesterday, bogged down with 18 library books were pushing the deadline for being overdue, we had rushed to my cousin's solo concert at San Jose State to hear her perform for her graduate studies… and still forgot to go to the library. When we got home, we decided to go to Darda for dinner since there was a library branch along the way.

It's interesting… how over time and distance certain cravings become more muted. When I first decided to move away from La Jolla, I couldn't fathom how I would be able to survive with Roberto's or Mister A's. Over time, I whetted my cravings with a taqueria crawl up here and spanning distance, those cravings slowly disappeared. To us, Darda was the same way. Fortunately, it's not a plane ride away. Unfortunately, it meant that we'd have to fight tooth and nail through some really bad traffic in order to get a good meal. Last night was the perfect opportunity.

It was a nice familiar shopping center and we found parking at our usual curbside spot. Walking into the restaurant, Sam had told me that we moved to the Peninsula to be closer to San Francisco, yet it seemed like our dinner variety had greatly been reduced and at the end of the day, we actually visited SF far more frequently than now. I guess that just means we should schedule in more day trips up to eat.

Darda is a favorite amongst the Muslim community here. I remember when I was attending UCSD, and meeting some of my new suitmates, one of them hailing from Walnut Creek (which is an hour northeast of San Jose) we bonded over our mutual liking of the green onion bread from Darda.

Sam and I settled in and ordered our classic staples: Knife Cut Noodles Stir Fried w/ Chicken, Green Onion Pancakes, Beef w/ Scallions, and Szechuan Green Beans… Ahhh… it was glorious!

The beef dish came out first, glistening was flavor and absolutely fragrant with the "high heat wok smell." The beef was extremely tender which leads me to put in a little blurb for how much I love Halal restaurants… their meats all taste extremely fresh and are tender to the bite.

The beef was followed up quickly by the knife cut noodles. Being that we just came back from TW, the noodles weren't as chewy or "Q" as we'd like them to be. They didn't have that much of a bite to them and the thinner pieces were bordering on the mushy side. At the end of the meal we had mentioned this to our server and she advised us to make it a point to order it on the "Q" side in the future and it would come out perfectly.

Ahhh… and the green onion pancakes… they were more like crepes, super thin, yet extremely extremely chewy. It was perfect! Sam wrapped the beef in the crepes and ate them a la burrito style.

I love that they sear the beans with oil at an extremely high heat which results in the skins separating and wrinkling. The beans are cooked with marinated turnip and ground beef and finished with some wine and soy sauce. Delicious!!

I'm starting to drool as I'm writing up my recap. As we finished our meal and walked out with really full stomachs, again… we questioned why it took us so long to make the drive out here after we moved… Darda… oh Darda…

Oh and ironically since I finally did do my TX post… I just booked my tickets to head back to Houston to spend New Year's. More southern eats coming ahead! 🙂

Darda Seafood Restaurant
296 Barber Ct
Milpitas, CA 95035-7915
408.433.5199
http://www.dardaseafood.com

Lark Creek Steakhouse – My favorite source of protein…

September 22, 2009 Vicky (SF Bay Area) San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Steakhouse, What Vicky Eats

Hello! It's Vicky again. With another installment of another fantastic meal available up here in the beautiful SF Bay Area.. (Man I need to think of another tagline… That's getting old.)

As of the the writing of this post, I am finishing up my 2 week trip wandering around Taiwan. (Hopefully I'll be able to go through my 2000+ pictures of food and scrounge together a post in the future.) Right before I was to leave for my trip, Sam got us tickets and treated me out to the SF Taiko Festival. I in return, treated him out to Lark Creek Steak. Which is now my FAVORITE steakhouse. Ever. Even more so than Donavan's. I have to say though, Donavan's is still my favorite steakhouse in San Diego. (I have an extensive review on Yelp, so I won't go into great detail here.) But it has lost its place as my favorite steakhouse. The reason? Lark Creek serves Dry Aged Steaks. Yes. I will say it again. Dry. Aged. Steak. *puddle of drool.* Ever since purchasing the dry aged babies from Bristol Farms and grilling them up in my kitchen when I was living in La Jolla, I've become a steak addict. I question my servers at steakhouses like we're in Guantanamo Bay about their aging processes.

I was very happy to hear that Lark Creek served up a fantastic NY Strip that was dry aged in house around 30 days.

It was delicious… and nutty… and everything a hunk of meat needed to be. It was cooked to my perfect medium rare, without butter, spices, toppings, etc. It was just a piece of meat that was cooked the way it should be. (To this day, I still don't understand why Morton's and Ruth's Chris slathers their beef with butter… it may explain why the plate's like a gazillion degrees… so all that butter doesn't congeal!)

In any case, here is a pictur eof the lovely steak I had:

Lark creek

Ahh… Served with some nice organic mixed greens and a dollop of Cabernet butter (ON THE SIDE!)

Sam ordered a burger… Yes… A burger… Equally delicious… Probably one of the best burgers there are. It also came with a gourmet chocolate shake. Behold:

Lark creek2

Yum!!!

If you're in the Bay Area, come by Lark Creek and check it out… At least the dry-aged stuff is AMAZING!!

Lark Creek Steak
845 Market Street Emporium Rotunda Area
San Francisco, CA 94103
415.593.4100

You can drool at their menus here: www.larkcreeksteak.com

San Mateo: In Search of the Holy Grail…. Filled w/ Ramen!

October 18, 2007 Vicky (SF Bay Area) Japanese Restaurants, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, What Vicky Eats

Hello there! It’s Vicky again… Blogging about the latest act of gluttony.

In my previous post, I blogged about Gluttony Partner and my trip up to Point Reyes to gorge ourselves on oysters. (And speaking of Gluttony Partner, after a short conversation with him, he’s willing to forgo whatever anonimity he has remaining and is allowing me to use his name. Voila! Now we’re both going to ousted as societal gluttons. Muahaha!) We had lunch at the ever elusive Long John Silver’s (Yes… what is up with that anyway? I remember seeing all these ads for them on tv when I lived in SD, and even when I moved up, I’m continuously flooded with blown up pictures of fried goodness. Yet, there was never a location convenient to me. Argh!)

Fortunately, I found out there was a new one that had just opened up in South San Francisco so that was where we made our second stop for food…. the first being a donut shop in Half Moon Bay. I did mention it was a trip of gluttony right? Sadly to say, in our hunger and elation of finding Long John Silver’s I forgot to take the pictures of the food prior to gobbling it all down. We just have a few silly pictures of us wearing the paper cut out pirate wannabe hats, which if you even glance in the mere direction of, is enough to make you blind. Hence, they’re not posted.

So after a breakfast of donuts and milk (yes… we are the poster kids of the healthy food pyramid….) and a lunch of fried seafood at Long John Silvers (man… I’m making my nutritionist mother proud!)….and a pit stop at a farmers market fruit stand (oh yes. must have our one peach to balance out all the fried goodness! See! I know how to eat healthy!)… and over 50 oysters at Hog Island…we finally made it to dinner. Thank god this little restaurant closes at 11! We finally drove out of the Point Reyes area around 930pm and made it down to San Mateo. Sam and I absolutely love ramen. We constantly need to get our ramen fix. I had introduced him to this restaurant after a hike we took in the San Mateo hills and needless to say, it was the perfect way to end a great day of excercise. I shall now present to you…. HIMAWARI in downtown San Mateo. The main thoroughway of downtown is 3rd Avenue. Himawari is located a little off to the side on 2nd.

We walked in and got seated immediately and ordered our usual appetizer. I absolutely love the Buta Kakuni ($7.95) appetizer they have. Early on, Sam had cooked me an amazing meal of Dong Po Rou (Braised Pork Belly), and ever since then, after discovering our mutual liking for fatty cuts of pork, I’ve been raving about the Buta Kakuni here. Unfortunately, in our eagerness to polish off the dish, I forgot to pull out my camera and take a lovely picture. All I have to offer the dear readers is a picture of the last piece of Buta in the precious death grip of Sam’s chopsticks, with of course, his upper body cropped out. Don’t worry, he doesn’t really look headless in reality.

I think Himawari just has large vats of this braised fatty goodness bubbling behind the counters. In the appetizer version, they take the cubed pieces, lightly dust them in what I think is Mochiko powder, and fry them so that the outsides are dry and crispy. Placed on a bed of thinly sliced onions and topped with scallions, they serve the Buta Kakuni with this tangy and slightly sweet soy based sauce. Absolutely divine!! The textural contrast of this dish is amazing. The outsides are dry, crisp and fragrant, and the center of the cubes are braised to the point where the fibers of meet are falling-apart tender. Yes… you read that right, it is a fried piece of cubed pork belly. No, I do not care to know how bad it is for me and how clogged my arteries are. They do a very good job of rendering out most of the fat from the meat during all the braising so I’d like to think that most of it is cooked out…. Thank god Himawari is around half an hour away from us. Otherwise we’d turn into roley poley’s from eating this all day long. This stuff is so good, that all I have to do is mention "Hima…" to Sam, and I can see his eyes glaze over and images of this dish dancing like sugarplums above his head.

While Sam was busy polishing off the last treasured piece Buta Kakuni, our server brought out our other appetizer. Make sure you take the time to read the cover of the menu. They post up their seasonal specials and this was one of the ones available during our visit. I now present to you, Seared Hokkaido Scallops w/ Wild Mushrooms on an Artichoke Tapenade ($10.95). (Now say that ten times fast!) These plump little babies were GOOOD! The restaurant definately did not skimp out on the quality of the scallops. They were sashimi grade – sweet, fresh, and tender. I really enjoyed the twist on surf and turf. The earthiness of the wild mushrooms contrasted nicely with the slight hint of sea from the scallops. The mushrooms were cooked in a sweet mirin/soy base and that went well with the tapenande. The tapenade had a very unique texture – being that it was made from artichokes… It was slightly tangy, reminscent of yuzu, and really pulled the entire dish together. Now if only I could have this for breakfast…and lunch… and dinner…

Patience, dear readers, we’re not even onto our main course yet! This is yet ANOTHER appetizer we ordered: Asari Garlic Butter Clams ($6.95). I’m guessing it is the Japanese version of clams cooked scampi style. The clams are cooked in their own juices, and the broth tasted strongly of clam essence. It was balanced out with just enough sake and sweet butter. Oh the glory my tastebuds were in! The clams were firm and al dente, combined with the wonderful broth they were swimming in, I really wished I had a loaf of crusty ciabatta to dip.

That is my bowl of Shoyu Ramen with Extra Bamboo ($7.95 + $1 for the bamboo). Himawari also offers the Deluxe Ramen which comes with 3, yes THREE pieces of the braised (unfried) buta kakuni and extra toppings for a price of $10.95. The ramen was cooked to a perfect bite and the hot steaming soup warmed us right up. The broth carried a lot of depth and hinted at all the bones sacrified in the making of the soup. I honestly would not be surprised if they snuck in a couple spoonfuls of the braising liquid from the buta kakuni. Needless to say, it was a great way to have dinner. (And if you are wondering… we did have dessert after this… at Hong Kong Style dessert place around the corner. And no… we’re not trying to set a new guiness record for stomach capacity…)

Himawari
202 2nd Avenue

San Mateo, CA, 94401

650.375.1005

Mon-Thu 11:30 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat 11:30 a.m.-12:00 a.m.
Sun 11:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.