SF Jazz Festival and Foodie Tour #1

For the Fourth of July, we decided to head up to the city for some Fillmore Jazz Festival and foodie eats. There were 5 or us that went and after some time of walking up and down the streets of the festival as well as listening to some of the acts, we figured it was time to head over to Delfina Pizzeria for real dinner. My husband and I snacked on a funnel cake in the mid-afternoon, but we were plenty ready for thin crust pizza!

We started with a cured meat platter which had salami, and many other cuts of fatty and salty cured meat that were good, but not things I would eat on a regular basis. I'm actually not sure that I'd order that appetizer platter again. We also got a side of grilled fennel which was actually quite tasty, and was a nice intro as we waited for our pizza. It was a bit on the greasy side, but very flavorful.

Now for pizza we ordered the margherita, salsiccia, and the special of the day with a cured meat and a cream type sauce. I thought I was going to like the simple margherita the best, but it turns out I liked the other two even better. The salsiccia came with sausage, tomato, onion, bell peppers, and cheese. The sausage had plenty of flavor but without overpowering the other ingredients so it wasn't too much meat. The third pizza, which I can't remember the name of, was quite different and unique. It was a cream based pizza with cured meat, onions, and big chunks of cracked black pepper that gave it quite a kick that startled me at first but grew on me. This was the most unexpected pizza but I was very pleased by our choice. If I were ordering a whole pizza for myself, I wouldn't get the cream pizza, and the margherita would probably be my choice. Overall the dough was good and the toppings were good- the only thing was the burnt dough bubbles on the edges that were numerous and very burnt... We picked them off but I could do without that.

After finishing our pizza, we headed over to the Mission for some Bi-Rite Creamery Ice Cream and Tartine Bakery goodies for the next morning. At Bi-Rite, Jeremy and I shared a triple cup of 3 flavors: salted caramel, coffee toffee, and Ricanelas. Our order of favorites is Ricanelas, which is a cinnamon ice cream with Snickerdoodle pieces, salted caramel, and coffee toffee. The cinnamon was surprisingly good- thanks Quartons for the recommendations- and won hands down. The salted caramel actually didn't taste that different from regular caramel to me... I didn't really taste a saltiness to it that brought out more flavor, but maybe my pallet isn't refined enough... and usually I love coffee ice cream, but this one was a bit too coffee bean-y from me and the tiny toffee pieces didn't really bring anything special out. They were all good, but Ricanelas, which wasn't our automatic choice, was hands down the winner. By the way, Jeremy also got a chocolate and salted caramel soft serve at the window which was actually quite delicious also!

Now on to Tartine bakery where I got the morning bun, croissant, and country loaf. The morning bun was not as good as I expected- tasted pretty much like one of those twisty, flaky pie type snacks... although we only tried the outstide of it, so maybe the inner core is fantastic who know- I'll update tomorrow. The croissant was deliciuos- buttery, flaky, soft and pure goodness... the country loaf was a bit hard to tear off, but there was good flavor and chewiness. We were still pretty full so I'll update on this tomorrow too when I have some for breakfast :)

I also baked my own multi grain bread the night before so we have a lot of bread in our house! It might be freezing time!

Hand Pulled Noodles Lesson

Last night I was invited by my friend Jimmy to attend a personal cooking lesson to learn how to make Chinese hand pulled noodles. He had arranged for Chef Tomm to come teach us a lesson on how to make noodles and then make 2 dishes with the noodles we made- noodles with flavored chicken stock and stir fried noodles (spicy garlic sauce). For details, you can see the link below which is exactly what we did: http://www.cheftomm.com/chinese-hand-pulled-noodles/

It was a lot of fun (and work) since we were pulling noodles for about 2 hours if not more. That's also why there are no pictures- we were too busy and hands dirty! I brought my kitchen aid since the dough can be made by beating it in the kitchen aid mixer for 12 minutes. It was a bit crazy how hard the mixer was working to beat this dough, but it was also amazing to see the result of a very elastic dough. I found that it was all about getting the dough to the right consistency to come out with dry noodles ready to cook and to try to get the strands even. I must say that I think my noodle pulling skills diminished throughout the night somehow or maybe the first batch of dough came out the best... who knows.

The dough was simple to make but it is also very important to measure precisely and feel for the right consistency. The dough can easily be adjusted, you just have to know what you're looking for, so hopefully I'll be motivated to play around with this some more :) The other key is that you have to cook the noodles right after you stretch them, so you have to have a pot of boiling water to cook them in. As soon as they float they're good to go! I actually enjoyed the different sized noodles- skinny somen sized noodles, and fat, doughy, udon sized noodles... variety! I definitely enjoyed my first at home, personal cooking lesson so thanks Jimmy and Chef Tomm!

Yuki Sushi after Tuesday Golf

I am playing in a ladies' league on tuesdays thanks to a few co-workers who invited me, and after one round we all planned to go to Yuki Sushi in Santa Clara. I had heard so many great things about it, that I was excited to try it! By the way, the league is super fun and the ladies are fabulous!

They started us all off with little complementary soba noodle appetizers which was a very nice touch. I then got the nigiri sushi dinner combo which included 7 nigiri and a tekka maki. I must say that their fish was fresh, delicious, and everything else there looked fantastic also. My special favorites were the hamachi, salmon, and maguro. One of the girls let me have a california roll and that was good too although I guess you can't go too wrong there :) Also to note, their edamame pods were huge, served warm with a bit of salt, and not over cooked to mush- great to keep us waiting for the rest of the food. Everything that came out of the kitchen looked fantastic and I can not wait to go back and try more!

Dining Club is Back!! Sumiya!

For this month I had the ambition to bring the dining club back! I missed my lovely old roomies and I love going to new food places so this was a good excuse. Plus, maybe now I'll update my blog AT LEAST once a month! This time I chose to go to Sumiya in Sumiya, which is known for its yakitori style japanese food... they even give you a big bowl of cabbage with ponzu sauce to start off so you can eat veggies with the rest of your meal!

We ordered a number of things- the second set menu with tori soup (translated bird or chicken soup) which had chicken meatballs, kalbi don, 2 tsukune (chicken meatball) skewers, 2 negima (green onion and chicken) skewers, and 2 butabara (pork belly) skewers. We also ordered a gyutan (beef tongue) skewer, a tri-seaweed salad with yuzu miso dressing, a yakitori don, and a peach and oolong tea panna cotta to round out our meal.

I liked the soup, which I loved that we were all comfortable sharing a few sips out of the bowl haha, since it had depth of flavor and the meatballs were melt in your mouth delicious. I also liked the negima skewers which were simple but the meat was nice and tender. The pork belly was a bit on the fatty and salty side, but still good for a small piece. The seaweed salad and the dressing was delicious- perfect to offset some of the fatty items! *Sorry about the lack of pictures- I was eager to eat and they turned out blurry... maybe I need to upgrade to an iPhone 4 :P

Unfortunately, I thought I was going to love the kalbi don and gyutan, but both were a bit disappointing. The kalbi was nothing like what korean kalbi is... it actually tasted more like liver that was marinated which was quite odd. The gyutan was not the thin, chewy, grilled deliciousness I've had elsewhere, but small ball- like pieces that were chewier and not as flavorful as others I've had. I thought the donburis (rice bowls) were a bit disappointing due to being on the bland side. They looked great with the half cooked egg to mix, but there just wasn't that much taste... maybe the yakitori sauce on there didn't have that much flavor... and finally the panna cotta- that to be honest was something I would recommend highly against. It was too rich to be a panna cotta with overpowering tea taste that did not mesh well. It was not light and gelatine-y but much more like a heavy custard or cream dish that was not very sweet or well flavored. It was a disappointing end to the meal, but I did get frozen yogurt at Yumi Yogurt right close by to make up for it!

Wow it's been a while

I knew that I had put off blogging even though I took food pictures everywhere... but I just now figured out it's been 2 months! I need to get back on the ball!
I'm thinking about starting another food project, maybe a bento project to see if that's something that I could do someday... I'll have to give it some thought but it's always nice to have a goal or project to keep me motivated and steering me in a direction I want to head in!

On a different tangent, I am aiming to start up the dining club again so that the girls and I can check out a new place at least once a month and spend time together! Those I will force myself to blog about!

What happened in the last 2 months...
-Tonight we went to eat at Premier Pizza, at which I got a HUGE slice of creamy chicken pizza (recommended by the guy who looked like the store manager) and small salad. Jeremy got a pepperoni pizza slice and a BBQ chicken. The creamy chicken was actually too creamy since I don't care that much for cream sauces- I prefer a lighter tomato, so I had a bit of mine and I had a bit of the BBQ chicken (quite good). The pizza is good- I'd go back!
- At the beginnning to mid May we went on a cruise to Alaska with some friends on the Norwegian Pearl. Overall my opinion is that the food quality was better than Carnival, but variety day to day in the buffet was subpar. Also, no 24 hour pizza (their pizza was mehhhh) or soft serve??
-Right after the cruise, I went to Austin for work. We had some good margaritas and queso at Guero's, good ribs and bread at County Line, and some good Salt Lick brisket at the airport. I will say though that I was quite meat, tex mex, and BBQed out when I got back!

I think those are the highlights from the last month... I promise to be better about this! It's like following my life since my life revolves around food!

Cupcake Battle: Sprinkles vs Kara's

The perfect opportunity arose to have a Cupcake Showdown between Sprinkles cupcakes and Kara's Cupcakes! They were the double chocolate with sprinkle cupcakes from each place, so we had a side by side taste test after dinner. The picture may not do it justice, but the Kara's cupcake on the left was quite a bt smaller than the Sprinkles one- not sure what the price difference was.

My opinion to be honest is that they were pretty similar as far as cake portion, but as an overall experience, I preferred Sprinkles. The cake portion as I said was fairly similar, but I think I preferred the Kara's one a TINY bit more- there was a lasting flavor that I enjoyed after I had swallowed my bite. The frosting however, I liked the Sprinkles one better. It was a little denser and creamier compared to the light fluffy one on Kara's. I think Kara's cupcake has a very large layer of frosting because it's so light (as you can see from the cut cupcake picture). I'm not a huge frosting person to begin with, so I liked that the Sprinkles cupcake had a much higher cake to frosting ratio in one bite. Both cupcakes were moist, quite tasty, and not too sweet- bottom line I'd eat both :)

I made Jeremy do the taste test too and he actually was the exact opposite of me. He liked the Sprinkles cake and Kara's frosting- he didn't really hesitate on it either! Again, to each their own! Of course, he doesn't discriminate when it comes to eating chocolate or chocolate cake :)

Also, our work bake off round 2 is coming up next week... I haven't decided what to make for it or if I'll submit something, so I'll have to think about it. The categories are: pies, cakes, cookies, and bars. If anybody has ideas or suggestions, feel free to let me know!

April Foods

There have been a number of food adventures already in April (Coconuts Carribbean food may have been end of March...) that I thought I'd share!

1) Coconuts Carribbean Restaurant in Palo Alto- We went to celebrate our friend Robbie's new job, which has been his dream as long as he can remember! Several of our friends had been there before and had rave reviews and for cheaper than Mantra Restaurant, at which we were there for Happy Hour drinks prior to dinner. We ordered the plantain/chickpea cakes with guacamole appetizer that our friend was raving about. They were in essence mashed and fried plantains and chickpeas that were battered and fried served with guacamole. I didn't think it was all that great enough to order again, but to each their own!

The main dish that I ordered on the other hand was delicious. I went for the traditional dish of jerk chicken, since that's what they're known for! It was deliciously cooked- moist and very flavorful but not overpoweringly spicy. It was served with delicious fried plantains that were sweet as could be, rice cooked with red beans that were fantastically flavorful, and assorted vegetables that were good but slightly oily for me. I was very glad to see vegetables though :)

Jeremy got the jerk salmon so of course I tried some of that as well. Again, very flavorful but it didn't completely take over the salmon, and it was cooked to perfection. I could have done without the tartar sauce type sauce on top since I'm not a mayo fan, but others seemed to like it. Their mashed potatoes were mighty delicious, but you can tell they had a lot of butter to make it that good. Finally the green beans that came with the salmon was good too- thankfully not too mushy! Overall, I would definitely come again for the main meal!

2) Kung Fu Taco Truck- Some people at work arranged for the Kung Fu Taco Truck to come down from San Francisco so I decided to give it a try. It is a fusion of mexican and chinese food, which a lot of people were skeptical about, but since the Korean/Mexican fusion taco truck is so popular in LA, this seemed pretty normal to me. There were 5 choices: chicken with asian marinade, steak with asian marinade, mushu veggies, roast duck, and char shiu. After much debate, I decided to go for the steak, duck, and veggie tacos. My favorite was the roast duck because the flavors were pretty much like peking duck, just with a tortilla not a bun or thin wrap. The mango salsa went fantastically with the duck that was a little fattier but oh so flavorful. They were all different so it's hard to pick a second place since the other two were both good as well. The steak wasn't too different from a normal taco, just a little sweeter because of the marinade. It also had a carrot salsa type dollop on top which was a bit different. The only bad thing about it was that I had a very chewy and fatty piece of meat that I had to spit out. The mushu veggies taco was very flavorful and tasted just like mushu which I love. The only bad thing about this one was that it was quite juicy from the vegetables and sauce that it was really messy to eat. I would definitely eat at this taco truck again and I want to try all of the other kinds too!

3) I decided to make homemade honey nut granola since I had thought about it for a while and have started cutting out processed foods. Plus, it's a lot cheaper when you make it at home and you can control what and how much sweetness goes into the product. I don't think I had enough liquid because it didn't come out as cluster-y as I wanted, but the flavor was good. I may have added a little too much healthy stuff like flax seed which takes away a bit of the sweetness. With that said, I feel like it's healthier, because I put in thick rolled oats, sliced almonds, flax seed, and sesame seed mixed together with just vegetable oil, honey, and vanilla. It was very easy and I would definitely make it again, although it's dangerous since I keep munching on it at work! Maybe next time I'll make granola bars- thanks All Recipes!

4) Bibimbap- We went to Cupertino Village for korean food since several of us were in the mood for some dolsot bibimbap. I had been to the restaurant in Cupertino Village before, but I had only had the tofu soup before so I ventured out for the bibimbap. As usual, I thought the side dishes were great, even though there were a few items that were a little strange to our non-Asian friends. Now for the main course... when it first came out, I was a bit surprised because it is definitely smaller in size than other restaurants in the area, but it was good. It was awesomely crispy on the bottom already so you could start mixing pretty quickly. It wasn't too greasy either which I appreciated, but I thought the vegetables could have used a little more flavor and I could have used a little more meat since the pieces were very small and just floating on top in a thin layer. With that said, I still took part of it home, since I didn't need to eat the whole bowl plus the side dishes just for lunch!