Weird Fish

My buddy, Yuichi, came to the city this weekend to help us move (again). He brought me to a place he frequents in the Mission.

Fish and Chips - I have always been a fan of fish and chips, and these were done really well. Not heavily battered and soaked with oil.


Breakfast Porridge-polenta, stewed tomatoes W/ loads of garlic, grana cheese, tortilla strips, and a baked egg - fantastic. Well-balanced, surprisingly lighter than expected, and easy to eat it all. I would definitely order this again.


Weird Fish
2193 Mission st
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-4744

Swan's

Went to Swan's today for a late lunch. The wait was about 30 minutes which wasn't too bad.





Clam chowder - it was okay in terms of flavor but I prefer a thicker clam chowder. They make their chowder solely with milk.


Combination seafood salad with dijon dressing, and a "Thousand Island" type dressing




Overall, nice, simple, tasty seafood. Cool experience and environment. Extremely friendly service. But probably not something I'd crave regularly.

Swan Oyster Depot‎
1517 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA‎
Tel: (415) 673-2757‎

2010 San Francisco Half Marathon

2007 SF Half Marathon: 2:30:39

2010 SF Half Marathon: 1:59:47



I threw up a little in my throat but kept on pushing. I don't think I've felt this kind of pain ever in my life. But no pain, no gain. Mind over matter. =)



I ended up running about 5 miles in a row at an 8:30 - sub-9 minute pace. I've never done that in my entire life. In fact, I was the kid with the 13-minute miles who always walked the last lap. This is probably the second time I have been proud of myself. =)

This was followed by a post-race meal at Zuni Cafe.





Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street
San Francisco, CA
Tel: (415) 552-2522‎

What an awesome day. I worked my ass off for this race. Training sucks sometimes, but races are so much fun!

It's CARBO-LOADING time

Chez Joe


Pasta with vodka sauce


Frog Hollow rustic plum tarte made by yours truly

Primavera - Ferry Building

Pre-race lunch

Guajillo Chile Chilaquiles - Organic, local scrambled eggs, refried beans, sour cream, avocado, queso cotija, white onion & cilantro.


I forgot what these were called but the bottom is corn filled with black beans, topped with radish, salsa, cheese, ground beef. Amazing stuff. Loved it!


What a difference when using fresh, organic produce and farm eggs. YUM.

Primavera
1 Ferry Plaza
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
San Francisco, CA 94101

Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant

And yes, we did get a couple glasses of wine. =)

Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant
101 The Embarcadero
Marketplace Shop #23
San Francisco, CA‎
Tel: (415) 391-9400‎

Suppenküche

German food with an emphasis on Bavarian cooking.









Suppenküche
525 Laguna Street (@ Hayes)
San Francisco CA 94102
Tel: 415.252.9289

Tataki Sushi

Tri-style poke - pretty terrible, fish was mushy/old, seasoning too sweet and off (pineapple... ?)


Spicy tempura - shrimp tempura, spicy albacore tuna, jalapeno, masago - this was quite nice although the tempura was slightly soggy like it had been left out for awhile before rolling/plating


Extinguisher - albacore tuna, avocado, habanero, masago, spicy aioli - this one was good. Nice balance of spice and flavor.


It's great that Tataki aims to spread the word on sustainable sushi, but with odd-tasting poke, lukewarm miso soup, decent rolls, doesn't make it completely exceptional.

Tataki Sushi and Sake Bar
2815 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 931-1182

Aziza Restaurant

I contemplated on posting these photos because of the horrible lighting but felt obligated to share it with you all anyway. Aziza is now up there as one of my favorite restaurants next to Commis and Manresa.

Seriously amazing "pretzel" bread


Wonderful cauliflower soup


Meatballs with jícama, grape, herb vinaigrette


Squab with cherry, tarragon, frisée, foie gras, spiced honey bread


Basteeya with chicken, almond


Black cod with broccoli, garlic scape, octopus, ginger


Lamb with fennel, morels, corn, sweet onion


Pistachio meringue cake with strawberry, burnt honey ice cream, nougatine (AMAZING)


Coconut milk cream with cherry, sponge cake, walnut crumble


Goat yogurt panna cotta with raspberry, rose gelée, hibiscus soup


I really can't say anything BAD about this meal. Seriously. LOVE LOVE LOVE ! AMAZING! Everything was perfectly cooked, plated, and seasoned. I mean, everything! The waiter was very well informed of the food preparation as well. I was also very impressed with the desserts which is nice because I have been rarely impressed with Michelin desserts in the past. OMG I can't wait to go back.

Aziza
5800 Geary Boulevard @ 22nd ave
San Francisco, CA 94121-2005
(415) 752-2222

Namu Restaurant

Korean "tacos". Very hard to eat, but tasty.


Excellent bimbimbap. High quality beef.


Mediocre and dry hamburger. But nice kimchee relish. Delicious fries.


Rather bland and dry chocolate chip cookies. Korean spice flakes were a very nice touch though.


My dining partner and I met the most boring waitress known to man today. It was like she was reading off a piece of paper and about to fall asleep. They live up to the reputation of having bad service. My burger was served first, then Christina's dish 5 minutes later. Cold burger. Not to mention it took about 45 minutes to get our food. The cooks were too busy drinking booze with their friends, and just hanging around. There were only about 20 covers. My friend and I could have worked way faster in the kitchen. Although a couple of the dishes were okay, not enough for me to go back. Too bad. I wanted to like the place!

Namu
439 Balboa Street
San Francisco, CA 94118-3937
(415) 386-8332

Golden Glass 2010

Golden Glass 2010

Sunstream Café

On my way to run errands this morning, I finally walked by Sunstream Café which is this teeny tiny Brasilian café close to my apartment in San Francisco. I had heard decent things about it.

I checked out the menu and they had all kinds of tropical fruit juices found in Brasil. They even had caju and graviola juice, but unfortunately they are not fresh squeezed and in fact frozen. Also $5/each. They do have the acai with honey and granola. I want to try that next time.

I had this seriously soft, moist, and delicious coconut pastry. I ate it fast before I could take a photo.

And of course, a conxinha ! Although different from what I had in the North of Brasil, it was still very good. I believe instead of the catipury cheese, they put cream cheese in it. The chicken was very moist and seemed to have been braised in a tomato based sauce.





Sunstream Café
2884 Geary Boulevard
(between Collins St & Wood St)
San Francisco, CA 94118-3408
Tel: (415) 567-5330

Pizzeria Delfina

I finally got a chance to eat here and see what all the fuss was about.

My friend and former coworker at Chez TJ, Christina loves this place. We started with the warm-marinated olives which came out piping hot.

And delicious


We dined on the following:

Napoletana (Tomato, anchovies, capers, hot peppers, olives and oregano)


Salsiccia (Housemade fennel sausage, tomato, bell peppers, onions, mozzarella)


They were both great, however, I was totally in love with the Salsiccia pizza. But I gotta say that my love for fennel sausage started when I ate at Mozza. They both have similar styles of pizza - flat, smaller gourmet pizzas, although Mozza's fennel sausage pizza is better *wink*.

We were quite satisfied.

Pizzeria Delfina‎
3611 18th Street
San Francisco, CA‎
Tel: (415) 437-6800‎

We finished the meal at Tartine Bakery which was right next door.

Can't go wrong with the Banana Cream pie here. Not the most pleasing photo, but nonetheless, a stellar dessert. This may be the first American dessert I've had that isn't loaded with sugar. I really tasted just cream (unsweetened), chocolate, real bananas, pastry cream, and a wonderful crust.



Then I had to try the famous bread pudding. It was okay but forgettable. A bit dry. Where's the "pudding" ? But I liked the addition of fruit.


I will stick to the Banana Cream Pie. I wanted to try the croissant and pain au chocolat since I've heard such great things about them, but I was put off to how disgustingly large they were. hahah maybe next time. =)

Tartine Bakery‎
600 Guerrero Street
San Francisco, CA‎
Tel: (415) 487-2600‎