At Home in the Castro :)

I freaking love the Castro! It is the only neighborhood that is always hopping no matter what the day or time. Plus, I miss my beloved el Seandola so much, and it reminds me of his awesomeness (altho he's not that awesome considering he doesn't even read my blog >:P)

Last Friday, despite being up for like 2 days straight due to the International Date Line and some serious bummed-out-ness about leaving Japan, I knew I had to go out. As much as I am in love with Tokyo, San Francisco means everything to me and I had missed it very much <3. What could be better than eating dinner at Home, a comfort-food stop in the Castro?? :)

The location is great, right by the downtown cross-section of the neighborhood on Market St. There is ample seating, and a full menu with a lot of traditional "home-cooked" favorites. Since Eugi was super hungry, and owed me big-time for withholding important information :P, we got lotsa food! The appetizers all looked amazing. We ended up with beer-batter fried beans and macaroni and cheese. Loved them both!! The batter on the beans was crazy addictive. I wanted to gobble up the whole plate. The mac & cheese was very homemade tasting, and had a great combo of cheeses. In my haste, I spilled quite a bit on the table :( so I didn't consume as much as hoped.

Meal-wise, I got a pork chop with applesauce dressing and cheesy grits. SO GOOD! I'm not a big meat person, but pork has always been one of my favorites. The sauce really well illuminated the flavors. Also, the way the meat sat in the cheesy grits was perfect. By the end they got all melty and mushy around it, mmmmmm. I love cheesy anything. Sadly I was full and couldn't finish (having like 5 meals in one "day" will do that), but I totally would go again.

The portions were HUGE! Eugi ordered chicken and got half a freaking bird. His side was Rice-a-Roni. This made me happy for multiple reasons. 1. Rice-a-Roni rocks 2. It's the San Francisco treat! How regionally appropriate :D 3. He's from Italy, was unaware of the brand, and I got to sing the jingle and describe the 90s commercial to him <:D

Rice-a-Roni, the flavor can't be beat~~

Recommend!

Down a Mysterious San Mateo Ave

I have the bad habit of assuming all restaurants in San Mateo lie within the three block 3rd & B street radius. Considering I live on 20th, this is rather silly... but it still gives me a little thrill every time I find a row of culinary commerce elsewhere. Bingo!

Gee Unit and I have started up our own rendition of Fancy Food Fridays (sorry Alice!) and try to hit up a non EA place for lunch once a week. A few weeks ago, we tried Yuzu Sushi & Grill on 37th street. Also as per usual, we went a bit early. Lucky thing because it quickly filled up. As per usual I think this place is a game industry favorite because I spied a herd of Pogo people at a table nearby.

According to Yelp, this place is hardcore traditional. I guess so? They serve a lot fewer of the awesome fried American rolls than other places in the area do. It has a reputation of being expensive, but luckily they have lunch specials for under $15 (still kinda pricey). 

I ended up getting a weird teriyaki bowl. I totally can't remember the meat. I *think* it was unagi. I'm so terrible at remembering nihongo de fish names. Totally silly since I eat Japanese a ton and studied the language, but it's one of those things that just won't stick. It was tasty, but the eel wasn't my favorite. Granted I'm not a meat person, but I ate all the rice around it and left probably 1/2. 

Came with soup and Japanese tray!

Steve got a typical sushi fare. It's funny looking back at the picture, because his lunch is practically identical to the sushi plate I got at the tsukiji fish market last week :) (post soon to come). I guess this place is legit! He seemed to like it, and the presentation was pretty.

no prawn head in soup. not THAT authentic :P

Seems like a good place to hit up if you want fresh, non-Americanized rolls. 

But watch out! Service was SLOWWWW. He got his food like 15 mins before me. totally awkward.

Kartoffelpuffen Quest #1

Ever since I had those most amazing potato pancakes at the Apple Farm, I have craved to find the delicacy closer to home. I asked around and found out #1, they are called Kartoffelpuffen in German, and #2, they aren't that rare. One night, Eugi and I were at the local Cupertino Yogurtland <3 and I randomly decided I must have some potato pancakes!

After a quick yelp, I found that Heidi's Pies in San Mateo had them listed. I was super ecstatic at this revelation because I live on the same street as HP! We arrived and immediately ordered the "sweet" potato pancakes. Little did I know that one small adjective would make a whole big difference :(

What came was not the savory delicacy of San Luis Obispo, but rather a very sweet, rather gingery, almost pumpkin pancake. Although they weren't bad, and I ate the whole plate despite having already consumed dinner and mass froyo, it was such a bummer/fail. I will have to press forward in my search, and take careful note of the type of potato pancakes I partake in. sigh sigh

they looked so good. Well.. actually they were. but not right. :(

P.S. in general, I REALLY like Heidi's Pies. They have such good slices :) raspberry cream and key lime and peach mmmmm. Someday I'll do a better post about them

Rick's Rather Rich

I like the name of this ice cream shop so much that I don't even want to come up with a wittier title for my post :)

Cookies & Dough and Mango in Waffle Cone

Rick's "Rather Rich" Ice Cream is a cute small shop in a weird southern cusp of Palo Alto. It is in a strip mall and has nowhere to sit, but it has delicious fare. They have about 20 flavors of homeade ice creams (as guessed, pretty intense) and some sorbets/yogurts. I've been there several times and never been dissapointed. I love their waffle cones! I'm a huge waffle cone fan, and theirs are very fresh and flavorful. They even have a great selection dipped in chocolate with sprinkles and nuts.

The ice cream is really delicious too. I ALWAYS have to get a scoop of the "cookies and dough" because seriously, it's a combo of cookies & cream and cookie dough... it's hard to get much better than that. I've also tried some of their fruity flavors. My favorite would be the mango sorbet. All of their products are super fresh and simple, but in an awesome way. You can tell it's not processed :D

They also have a selection of homemade fudges, but I've been too lazy to try them yet. Big recommend!

Dinners with Dad

Although my dad and I share the same love for eating, I swear we have opposite tastes. He's all about the generic "fancy" restaraunt, so on our last biweekly meal, we ended up at Cafe Pro Bono in Palo Alto.

This is a small place in the southern end of town. I was sooo stressed that night, so it was great to get away for dinner before returning to work until midnight :(. The meal itself wasn't too noteworthy, but I did have a nice piece of breaded halibut. My only complaint was that the place didn't serve any salads with the main courses. I think it should be included if you spend a fair amount on a nice dish. I did enjoy the side of their version of rice-a-roni :) can't live here without the san francisco treat!!

Presentation was good. Probably worth checking out if you are in to that stuff 

Late Sweet Treats

ack!! It has been awhile :( I am going to try and catch up on my bay area backlog before I delve in to my Tokyo eating adventures. Here goes!

A few weeks back, Ken and I had a wonderful experience getting dessert at Sweet Orchid in Fremont. This adorable mom & pop sweet stop is open late on weekdays (11 pm), has a great atmosphere, and some really unique desserts. The whole place is very cutely decorated, and outside you see the stereotypical asian ice cream cone trash can.

The variety includes gelato, gelato cakes, froyo, cookies, and, my fav :) homemade mochi!! What make it unique are the variety of flavors. After about 10 mins of browsing (and sampling thanks to the very patient owner) we decided to get 2 gelato cakes, 2 cookies, and some mochi. The gelato cakes were awesome!! About the size of a cupcake, but artistically shaped with crust and topping. The flavors were bizarre too. I ended up getting "pandan" which I'm not even sure how to describe. Ken got coconut lime which was awesome. Some of the gelato flavors included rose bud (tastes exactly like it sounds). 

our goods :)

DR

The froyo was interesting too. You could get it in fun waffle bowls or delicate chocolate cups. The cookies were good, but not outstanding. The mochi was the freaking best :D we all know my love for mochi!! It was so so so soft. Ken had his double rainbow moment over it as he could not get over the texture.

It was such a nice find for a relaxing treat after a hard night of aerial acrobatics

World Famous Pea Soup!

disney feel

As noted a few posts back, the road trip meal is always a risky one. For our travels back, we decided it was necessary to go to the most overly advertised place on the southern 101, Pea Soup Andersen's in Buellton. We honestly saw like 6 billboard's for this place touting it's world famous Pea Soup. How could we not check it out?!

mascots Hap-pea and Pea-wee

As expected, it was a big, highly touristy/Disneyland looking building with German theming, a specialty store attached, and lot's of fun knick-knacks. We were quickly seated, and of course ordered Split Pea Soup in a bread bowl. They had an interesting looking "traveler's special" that included bottomless soup and any beverage (including a milkshake!!! :O) for $9. Since I was already a hugefast all weekend, I refrained :(.

split pea soup in a bread bowl! mmm

fun menu

soup toppings

The menu had a fun chart on it that showed the distances from a bunch of random places in CA to each other, and to Andersen's famous soup. It was another, I wish I had come here when I was 8, type places. The pea soup was pretty tasty :) it came with a bunch of toppings like chives to dump in which made it better. 

Truthfully, I've never had pea soup before so I have no frame of reference. I think it was decent, surely not the world's best :P, but the ambiance of the place was fun enough that I would definitely stop by if you are passing through.

Token Bakery Visit

Being Sharon I had to hit up a bakery. I actually was very set on finding one that was similar to Meryl Streep's in "It's Complicated," but after some research, I found out that the majority of the film, including the bakery scene, was filmed in NYC. LAME!

By default, I hit up the local trendy, Food Network featured cupcake shop, Crushcake. They had the typical selection of flavors, and I wasn't actually too impressed by their novelty choices. I think today was something gross like Lemon Drop; however, I did see that Weds was Blueberry Cheesecake! That sounds awesome. I decided to get their specialty "make cake not war" 60s cupcake.

they always look so cute

Although the cake was simple, vanilla with tye-dye buttercream, I REALLY enjoyed it. The frosting was the best buttercream I've had in years, and they were almost overly generous with it. I like the soft, but not shortening-ey, texutre. The cake was also good.

bad photography, good cupcake

Check it out if you are in SB! :)

i'm flippin' burgers, you at kinkos straight flippin' copies

Wow, once again this is a crazy misleading name. Since I was in Santa Barbara, it would have been completely feasible and even likely that I took a boat ride. I was, in fact, not on a boat :( 

We of course had to hit up the SB nightlife :) State Street seemed to have lots of fun stops. We at first tried to go in the club Tonic, but the f-ing bouncer was such a douche to us trying to get our IDs that we walked instead of paying the $5 cover. Good plan too because we heard them playing the same song within 1.5 hours. Real nice DJ skillz.

Instead we started at the James Joyce, a typical looking bar/pub. It was karaoke night, always fun! Except some dude did "Don't Stop Believing" and didn't know the song... and another was completely tone deaf singing "White Flag" by Dido. Dunno how the two most stereotypical doable songs could be butchered so fully within the same hour. The place was pretty packed so we didn't sign up to sing, instead we snagged a bench seat by a fireplace in the corner. This place was terrific! The crowd was fun, and the people watching was plentiful. Highlights included me trying to make flirty eye contact with 3 obviously freshman boys out with the sole girl hallmate. SO AWKWARD!! Made me feel so old though, they thought I was a cougar and wouldn't even say hi hehe. 

Wish they had this place at Penn!

After they left, the fun died down a bit so we went to another tavern a few blocks down, Madison's Sports Grill. I had a great time, don't mind the bad ratings. I did not order food though, so maybe that was their issue. The bar had warm patio seating, tables, a fun island bar, and then a dance floor! Once again there was great people watching, and even a fight. I was starting to get pretty sugar drunk from my froyo, sodas and virgin margarita, so by the end I was totally in the dance floor area. There was some crazy girl who was a professional dancer. She was dressed like GaGa in huge stilettos and was doing these zetta awesome moves without even a hint of a shakey heel. There was also a super trashed hott college girl who was centimeters away from popping out, and appeared to go home with two guys simultaneously. Good times :)

Oh!! andddddddddddd the DJ played I'm On a Boat by our request, hence my title <3

Gag Reflex Pasta >: |

I am so not a picky eater. As you've prolly noticed, most of my reviews describe the foods as "awesome!!" I can appreciate almost all types and I'm not even that elitest, so it takes work for me to dislike a food. Congrats Pascucci on State St. in downtown Santa Barbara, you did it.

My road trip was pretty sporadic, so we didn't really make plans for much. After arriving, we hit the beach for awhile, enjoyed the scenery and freshened up at the hotel. We heard that State Street was the hott place to be, so we headed out. By this time it was around 8 on a Sunday, so we figured we'd be ok. NOPE! I think it was like UCSB back to school weekend. SO MANY PARENTS AND KIDS! Most of the places down there were getting $$$ and $$$$ yelp reviews, so we were a bit limited in selection. We put our name down at 3 or 4 places before finally ending up at this Italian place, Pascucci. I was starving and excited. It was cute inside, very fake but cute. They started us off with garlic cheese bread! Ok, great so far! I excitedly saw a pumpkin and squash ravioli dish and was decided.

Little known fact- I don't actually eat out THATTT much. I try to bring frozen dinners to work everyday to save money and calories. One of my favs is Lean Cuisine squash ravioli, so I figured a nice restaraunt would rts. >: |

It finally arrived and I excitedly bit in. I was punched in the face with a stronggg pumpkin taste that was followed up by cinnamon. Weird. Ok, keep going. By the time I had finished my second ravioli I started feeling nauseous. This thing was sooo strong. And with some flavor that just tasted off. It had a strong cinnamon and some other spice after taste that destroyed me. And not in like a fun pumpkin pie way, in like, I just ate a rancid rotting gourd way. 

    >

Turns out Eugi was hating his salmon bowtie pasta as well. There was just an off flavor about the whole dish, and the salmon was so ridiculously smoked tasting that it kind of permeated the taste of the whole entree. We were so disgusted that we asked for the check after 5 mins. Didn't even want to bother complaining (mainly cuz it was almost 9 at this point, and I was concerned that the Yogurtland that I'd seen a few blocks down would be closing). Thankfully Yogurtland was open till 11, and so I had a most delicious froyo for dinner :D. They even brought back pumpkin pie flavored, so I had a sweet and satiating squash experience to carry me through the night. 

Fun at the Apple Farm

ROAD TRIP!!! Eugi and I decided to celebrate the long weekend by making a 1.5 day road trip to Santa Barbara. It's always a dangerous line to walk figuring out where to stop for food on the road. You don't want to end up at a chain, but at the same time you don't want to go to some crap-ass random diner in the middle of nowhere. Also! It's hard to know when to stop, cuz you don't want to waste your intake on a truck stop if a fun town is on its way, but then you don't wanna be 3 hours with nothing :S:S:S. We lucked out this time, and guessed perfectly to stop @ the billboard advertised Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo. 

I LOVE POTATO PANCAKES!!

From the outside, this place appears tiny. Once you enter you realize it's actual a huge place, kitschy country store included :). rock on!! We got seated in the furthest of four wings of the restaurant. Each one had it's own cottagey feel. I totally wish I had come here when I was 8. The menu was massive and dinerey, but I immediately eyed "potato pancakes." I've never had those before, nor did I know what it meant... it seemed like the perfect breakfast/lunch fusion. Well played Sharon :D. They were AWESOME!! It reminded me a lot of a Chinese green onion pancake. The texture was like a normal pancake, but the flavor was much more savory with a hint of like, onion? chive? iono, it was good though! It came with sour cream spread, mmm. 

Eugi ended up getting mac + cheese, my second choice, so we split half and half. It was also quite tasty, baked and crispy, but not quite as stand out :O as the potato pancakes. Either way I was mucho satisfied. 

baked mac and fruit

Since I'm still a kid at heart, I had to buy a couple of the specialty flavored candy cane sticks. They totally remind me of being young and going special stores with my mom :). The one I had was kind of gross and melted to the wrapper, but I don't regret dishing out 20 cents purely for nostalgia.

nostalgia flavored candy sticks

P.S. Does anyone have recommends for more places I can try potato pancakes?? Totally loved them :D I tried to look it up on Wikipedia on my phone on the drive back, but it was kind of a fail. It called them "Latka" and then informed me for information on "Latka Gravas" I needed to click thru to a diff page. If there is one thing that will distract me in to laughter fits, it's unexpected Taxi allusions. How can I do research after that?!?!

diner in bfe san mateo!

Last Feb, I hit up Toy Fair in NYC and had a wonderful chat with Shelly from our east coast PR firm. She was so totally floored when she found out that I live in San Mateo and had not yet been to Nini's Diner, apparently the best dive brunch place in the peninsula. I excitedly stuck it on the list... but due to budget constraints and lack of getting up in time to brunch, I hadn't managed it. UNTIL NOW!!!

What better way to kick off labor day weekend that hitting up infamous brunch?!?! Nini's is on the total fringe of North San Mateo, like 3 blocks North of Peninsula 101 exit. I thought that was Burlingame? sketch. This place is totally tiny, street parking in the middle of a neighborhood. We were seated quickly though, and given awesomely full menus. It also had a giant wooden board behind the counter with the menu. I love places like that :D

so much goodness in the scramble <3

I ended up getting a scramble that had cream cheese (go figure) and various other veggies. Totally amazing :) I horked it so fast. Also came with their specialty, super good homefries. I'm not a big b-fast potato person so I can't compare, but I did really enjoy them. This place is great!! Small review, but big recommend :O

fried food fail

This was like the shizziest work week ever for a multitude of reasons (including an airplane almost crashing in to our office!). Gee Unit and I decided that we needed to go out to lunch on Friday and celebrate it being almost done. By suggestion of his Louisiana bred friend, we ended up at Picadilly's Catering in Foster City. I was totally starving, so honestly, any food would have been great. The service was great and the prices were affordable, so I was stoked. I ended up ordering the 2 piece fried chicken with a side of mac & cheese and cornbread. It came and look how yummy it appeared :O 

mmm, right??? NO!!! The chicken was cooked weird. I couldn't even eat any of the meat on the drumstick because it seemed dark and undercooked. The thigh wasn't much better, and there was nothing special about the fried outside. At least the mac + cheese would be good, right?? No again :( it was very starchy tasting, and the cheese was bland. I ended up eating all of that and the corn muffin just cuz  I was so hungry. Not the best feeling afterwards. I even tried Steve's fried catfish which looked way better. Once again, I was way disappointed! The outside fry was super corn-mealy tasting, and the fish itself was pretty nondescript.

FAIL!

Food at the Home Depot

This weeks FFW (fancy food weds) brought us to the home depot deli! According to food connoisseur Alice, this place has the best breakfast burritos. Truthfully, I don't generally eat those, so I'm not sure how awesomely excellent they were. They were freaking huggggge tho :| 

 

The highlight of my meal was actually the Aloha bev I got!! It was like a smoothie/shake made out of ice cream, pina colada mix, and berries!!! ahhhhhhhhhh since it was like 100 degrees that day, YUMMMM. i need to start frequenting the HD just to get this :|

the other highlight was when the cashier knew i was from SLC before i even opened my mouth. creepy but worth the 10% discount!

pronounce it sure-oh! dododo~~~

my awesome LA friends! check the stylin' wall :O

My last post about churro questing made me remember my ultimate churrtastic adventure... XOORO!! One day Ken randomly mentioned the place while we were on our way back from Yogurtland and I was insta-intent on dts-ing. Fortunately, I frequent LA for work and have super awesome friends like ishii-ish and mike roth who are willing to escort me :)

such fond memories of that night

 

We hit the Santa Monica location (now closed!! boooo) and shiz. It was so mindblowing! This shop had like 10 different crazy "premium spanish fritters" and a bunch of plainer filled ones. We ended up getting 4 to split: smores, double chocolate, turtle, and condensed milk filled. They are pretty much exactly what they sound like (AWESOME), take your regular, delicious cinnamon and crispy churro, fill it with sauce or choco, and then dip it in more sauce or choco and then maybe add some toppings. 

It was an intense experience, and not something one could do every day. My favorite was by far the turtle. I think it had caramel in the middle and then milk chocolate and almonds. This is a must-have experience next time you go to LA :)

display xooros. such variety!

P.S. I always feel like I have to explain my titles since they only make sense to me. If you go to the actual xooro website w/ your sound on, all confusion should be alleviated