After a long hiatus born out of a sense of ennui at eating the same types of dishes over and over, I finally had a meal that made me sit up and think, “I have to blog this!” The wife and I took a trip to the suburbs of San Bruno/South San Francisco on a bright Sunday to shop at Lowe’s and Target. For lunch, we decided to try Boracay Garden and Grill, a popular Filipino restaurant that is located about 2 blocks further down El Camino Real road from the freeway than we normally drive. The smells were fantastic and seeing the restaurant fill up within 15 minutes of opening their doors for lunch was a good sign. We ordered the Seafood Black Rice which was a wonderful fried rice dish that contains about four different seafood species and is very savory. The Alimasag (Soft-shell crab) was great. Perfectly fried breaded soft-shell crab covered with crab paste, it reminded us a bit of Singaporean food. My favorite dish of the meal was the Bangus Sisig. A deboned milkfish dish; you get all the best things about eating tasty fish, without any of the annoying drawbacks like choking on tiny fish bones. We also got the Kare-Kare, which turned out to be our least favorite dish (very few places bat 1.0oo). We ordered it because our friend Joel’s mom makes a killer Kare-Kare that I could bathe in. Unfortunately, Boracay’s version’s peanut flavoring was overwhelming and blocked the natural flavors of the oxtail and tripe. If they got Mama Enriquez to show them how to make Kare-Kare they would be a near perfect restaurant. So, if you’re in the area to watch a movie at Tanforan or picking up lumber at Lowe’s or Home Depot…stop by and get your Filipino grub on.
Recipes similar to this have launched a dozen restaurants and have proved to be a job creation program when combined with well made crab dishes (a future recipe posting). The An Family is crazy rich and often photographed at celebrity events thanks to their garlic noodles, first at Thanh Long and now at their multiple Crustacean Restaurants. PPQ is an SF institution that is always busy and their garlic noodles no longer play second fiddle to crab at Perilla in Sunset district and SOMA district. A simple but delicious dish that can be recreated at home, but I am always open to a PPQ or Perilla run as fellow food blogger Lou knows.
Garlic Noodles Recipe
Boil 1 lb of fresh pancit or chow mein noodles for 3-5mins. Immediately remove noodles from the pot and drain in a colander under cold running water. While the pot is boiling/noodles are cooking, chop or pound 3-5 cloves of garlic. In a small bowl, mix 3 teaspoons of oyster sauce with 3 teaspoons of fish sauce and a small chicken bouillon cube. Also set aside 1/4 stick of unsalted butter.
Heat your wok on medium high and coat well with 5 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the garlic for 20-30 seconds. Add in the noodles and the butter and work the mixture together until the noodles are well coated with the butter and garlic-infused olive oil. Add the oyster/fish sauce mix to the wok and continue to mix well. Plate your garlic noodles in a big bowl or plate. Garnish with shredded or grated Parmesan cheese and parsely. That’s all there is to it. Combine that with a well cooked Dungeness crab recipe and enjoy.
My wife and I were running errands in Castro and decided to check out Woodhouse Fish Co. in the Castro district. Ever since our lobster roll experience in Maine, we’ve wanted to find someplace that provides an equal or better experience. Anchor and Hope, downtown, proved to be a disappointment in spite of rave reviews on Yelp. While some of our friends had negative things to say about the Pacific Heights location, this particular Woodhouse provided just what we were looking for. We started with the fried whole-belly Ipswich clams as an appetizer. They reminded us of fried oysters, crunchy on the outside and salty and soft on the inside. Less explosive than fried oysters, they were yummy and easier to eat. My wife got the fish and chips which were an excellent deal. For $10, you get two massive pieces of fried fish on a bed of delicious fries. The lobster roll did not fail to disappoint either. 6 oz. of large lobster claw pieces in an excellent slaw-like dressing, the lobster roll featured high quality buttered and toasted bread that all combined to make a lobster roll that actually bested our experience in Maine. Even at a $10 premium over Maine, the fact that we can drive 5 minutes and eat a superior roll makes the extra $10 worth it. So, for all my readers that want a great lobster roll. No need to fly to Maine, just drive or MUNI out to 14th and Market and enjoy the meal.
I apologize to my tiny community of readers for taking the winter off. But the boy is back and looking forward to bringing some great eating and cooking experiences to you for 2011. We will start with a post that I actually was supposed to do before I went on vacay.
HRD is the greatest worst kept secret in SOMA/Mission Bay. It is an Asian-American diner that serves up everything from pineapple shrimp fried rice and wonton noodle soup to cheeseburgers and Denny’s type breakfasts. While all their dishes are generally awesome, they really shine when they take the Asian-American experience and create dishes that reflect the mashup of cultures that occurs in those of Asian descent who are decidedly American. This is best reflected in their Mongolian Cheesesteak. Tender Mongolian beef chunks stuffed into a small roll and covered in a ton of melted cheese may sound strange, but it tastes natural and delicious. The combination of the sweet sauce in the beef and the natural savoriness of a cheesesteak is fantastic. There are other such mashups that you may also like. I’m not a huge fan of kimchi, but if you like burritos and kimchi, you’ll love HRD’s Korean Burritos which feature Korean bbq’d meats and kimchi served up burrito style. Even now, the news is spreading and there is a guaranteed line out the door every lunch, so bring a good book and a good appetite and enjoy this gem of SOMA/Mission Bay.
This weekend, we engaged in a social exercise that few like to talk about, but many enjoy. This social phenomenon is Karoake/Norebang. The best places are those that offer good music choices as well as good food and drinks. Playground in Japantown is one of those. While they didn’t have “Jessie’s Girl”, they did have “Like a G6″ and “Welcome to the Jungle”. What they also offer is really good food. The chicken gizzards were chewy bite-size pieces of joy that pared well with garlic slices. Few things are better than digging into a fried combo plate that consists of fried mozzarella sticks, chicken nuggets, potato croquettes and french fries while wailing to your favorite Whitney Houston hits. In addition to these bar-type foods, we also ordered zha jiang mian, a fried sauce noodle that Playground mixes with beef. Proof that Korean and Chinese cultures aren’t so far off that we can’t all be friends, it is referred to as jajangmyeon here at Playground. However you call it, it was delicious and should be ordered everytime you set foot in this establishment. A classic Korean favorite of mine is dduk bok-ki. There are many warm memories from college of going to Koko House in Berkeley/Oakland and eating this at 1am with friends. The rice dumplings are chewy and filling. The spicy sauce is great and was used to add flavor to everything else we ordered. The mix of great food and good music makes for an enjoyable night that yearns to be replicated often.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving weekend, we started things off with a quick happy hour early dinner at D&A Cafe on Clement St. This small, relaxed Chinese cafe has a vast menu that is priced incredibly low at various time periods (before 11am, 3-6pm, after 10pm, etc.). Faced with an overabundance of delicious options for cheap, we covered the entire real estate of a 4 person booth with all the food my wife and I ordered. While regularly priced at $8-12 in normal restaurants, Dou Miao (snow pea shoots) were deliciously cheap at $4.95. They continue to be my favorite vegetable in the entire world. Tender, flavorful and nutritious; they are the perfect green. For carbs, we ordered the Singaporean noodles which were average, but acceptable. I have been on a liver and gizzard kick lately and this outing was no exception. The duck gizzards were chewy and delicious, bathed in a slightly tart sauce and pared with pickle-like veggies. We also loaded up on our individual fried food of choice. My wife picked fried sweet potatoes and I chose salt and pepper smelt. I like to call smelt Chinese caviar. This is because good restaurants serve smelt that are loaded with fish eggs inside. It is a glorious experience when you crunch into a smelt and taste the fishiness of the smelt meat and eggs. Grab one of the jalapenos and mix that in and the sensory assault is pretty fantastic. Overall, it was a great experience. The staff are friendly but busy and the food was great, especially for the price.
I had the chance to spend a weekend in Vegas with close friends who I don’t see enough. We stayed at the new all-suite, non-smoking hotel Vdara at the City Center and loved it. It is definitely my hotel of choice at Vegas now. In the City Center, celebrity chef Todd English opened an affordable English pub and grill called Todd English P.U.B. The decor is fantastic, reminiscent of authentic English pubs but with the cleanliness and flash of a new Vegas restaurant. As an appetizer, we got the Filthy Chicken. Chicken liver and meat is breaded, deep-fried and served with buttermilk cream. Growing up as a kid, one of my favorite snacks was fried liver and gizzard from KFC (when they were still called Kentucky Fried Chicken). I felt like an 8 year old again as I crunched into the wondrously gamy livers. My wife got a footlong Kobe sausage that came in a roll that seemed a bit big, even for this monster. It was tasty but could have used better quality cheese toppings. I ordered a bison burger that was enjoyable but not anything special. When a restaurant attaches a famous name to it, one often expects extraordinary. However, I can think of a couple non-celebrity burger places in SF that do the bison burger better. Overall, it was an enjoyable lunch and I would go back again.
In case you haven’t heard, THE GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!
Now on to the review. My wife and I attended the Giants World Series Parade and got to cheer at the players and staff as they walked past 3rd and Market. Afterward, we and about 50,000 other people were hungry for lunch. Since my wife works in the area, I figured I’d see what kind of options she likes to eat at for lunch. We chose Pasta Bene, a great boutique Italian restaurant on Hardie Place off Kearny. It normally serves the downtown business crowd set, but today it quickly filled with visiting Giants fans. One of my favorite things to order at Italian restaurants is lasagna. Pasta Bene’s lasagna is good. I do like really saucy dishes, so the fact that it is bathed in sauce is a plus for me. My wife got the chicken parmigiana. One thing I like about this type of dish that is appealing is the mix of the crunchy grilled texture of the chicken combining with the moistness of the sauce and cheese. We also shared a tiramisu which was okay, but seemed to have a bit of an alcohol taste to it. I have definitely had better before. It was a fun, delicious lunch that contributed to making a Giants fan day out memorable.
This weekend was my first time in Maine and my first time in New England during the infamous leaf-turning autumn season. Popularized in media, I never understood watching leaves turn orange until this weekend. My fraternity brother and his wife chose a wonderful time to have their beautiful wedding in Bangor, Maine. The setting was perfect and the town has a certain New England charm I thought only existed on television. In an attempt to bring my readers a taste of local flavor, I visited Eagles Nest Restaurant in Bangor’s sister town, Brewer. Supposedly serving up the best lobster roll in the area, they did not disappoint. A simple riverside diner, they were generous with the fresh, moist lobster claws covered in just enough sauce to hold them together. All served on fresh bread with sides of fries and coleslaw, it was fantastic and I yearned for the addictive rolls for the rest of my stay there. We flew in and out of Philadelphia and had an opportunity to try some philly cheesesteaks in the airport. They were good, but I do think my wife’s Great Steak and Potato training results in a better cheesesteak at home. It was a good trip and I can’t wait to visit New England again and spend more time checking out this fascinating part of the US.
In graduate school, one of my favorite things was to walk down to Palomino in Westwood Village for happy hour. Yesterday, I revisted my old favorite’s Northern California brethren, Palomino in downtown SF, to watch the Giants win yet another game against the Phillies in the NLCS. The main classic that was the big draw for me in graduate school was the Potatoes Gorgonzola. The combination of deep fried waffle-cut fries covered generously with strong, slightly stinky gorgonzola cheese makes for one of the best happy hour dishes ever conceived and is just as tasty now as it was then. Other classics include calamari and their inexpensive pizzas and flatbreads which are all fantastic. We also got the Manilla Clams which tasted like the ocean mixed with butter and that’s a good thing. Overall, it was a great time and I’ll be there again today cheering on the Giants, hoping they finish out the series on the back of their ace, Big Time Timmy Jim “the Freaky Franchise” Lincecum.
