Monthly Archives: February 2010

Old Chicago Pizza (Petaluma) and Golden Island Cafe (San Francisco)

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Ron decided that we should take a drive out of town at least one more time before our baby is born so we headed out to Petaluma to walk around and relax. It seemed pretty quiet generally, maybe because it was a long weekend and people had left town.

We stopped by to have lunch at a place called Old Chicago Pizza. Famous for their double crust deep dish pizza, it has an extra layer of dough and extra cheese. You can only choose two toppings but the regular deep dish, you can split the pizza in half and have different toppings on each half. We chose chicken and artichoke hearts.

One piece is quite filling, even without eating the outside crust (which I couldn’t eat but was quite delicious).

We had plenty of leftovers with a medium size. Lunch for tomorrow!

The location on the restaurant is supposedly the main downtown of Petaluma and used to house a brothel! The women would entice men from the windows and as they came up the stairs, they would go into one of the small rooms in the hallway. Pretty interesting history.

We went for a walk around the outlets before heading back to San Francisco. Back in SF, we went for a snack at Golden Island Cafe which has my favorite Asian desserts. I love their tapioca desserts with fresh fruit and any of their steamed egg or milk desserts.

Ron ordered the rice balls with toasted sesame and ground peanuts and syrup. Not exactly what he wanted as he likes it with nuts inside the rice balls.

I ordered the steamed egg custard with ginger. These take about 15 minutes to steam and come out super hot. I love the bit of spiciness from the ginger and the creamy texture.

It was getting cold outside so it was also good to end the day with a warm dessert.

Old Chicago Pizza
41 Petaluma Blvd N
Petaluma, CA 94952


Golden Island Cafe
1300 Noriega St
(between 20th Ave & 21st Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94122

Kukje Market – The Restaurant

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/k…urant-daly-city

We spent Valentine’s Day at Babies R Us checking out the new baby strollers and adding last minute things onto our baby registry. Afterwards we decided to have lunch at the restaurant inside Kukje Market. We heard the tofu soup was really good.

Of the appetizers, the seaweed and squid/cuttlefish was really good. They kindly refilled all of them too.

We ordered the kalbi, meat was very tender. On weekends, the serving size is the “dinner” size even for lunch so a bit more expensive.

The seafood tofu soup. Ron is putting the egg in it. You can choose how spicy and we chose hot. Lots of clams and a few shrimps. The heat was just right, we love spicy food.

We picked up some supplies at the market to last us for a week or two but will have to do some more shopping before the baby comes because I’m not sure how often we’ll be going out once he’s here.


Kukje Market – The Restaurant
2350 Junipero Serra Blvd

Jollibee

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http://www.jollibee.com.ph/

We had lunch at Jollibee today after watching Valentine’s Day. It was the first time we tried their food but weren’t very impressed so probably won’t go back.

It was kind of expensive too. This is one of their meals, a piece of fried chicken and Palabok (not exactly sure how to describe this but it is a noodle dish) with a drink. I think this was $8.

We also ordered a corned beef sandwich for 99 cents and a bowl of noodles.

Afterwards to cheer up my tummy a bit, we walked to Blue Bottle to get a latte.

We probably won’t be returning to Jollibee but then they do have a Spam sandwich for 99 cents so may go back to try that.

Jollibee
200 4th Street

Marble Cake

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http://www.marthastewart….est-marble-cake

I tried another recipe from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.

Marble Cake

Ingredients

Makes one 9-by-5-inch loaf

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
* 1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup sugar (used light brown sugar)
* 3 large eggs, room temperature
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
* 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
3. In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined.
4. Spoon batters into the prepared pan in 2 layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife (or wooden skewer) through the batters in a swirling motion.
5. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cake from pan and cool completely on the rack. Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

The cake came out really dense, the chocolate part almost like a fudge but simple and yummy.

Breakfast at home and Lunch at Epic Roasthouse

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http://www.epicroasthousesf.com/

I had a lovely breakfast this morning prepared by RC. He used these cute egg molds that we bought at Disney World many years ago.

In the late morning we went to the Ferry Plaza to walk around the Farmers Market before meeting up with our friends Susan & Ken for lunch. We wanted to catch up and to thank them for planning our baby shower a few weeks ago. We had lunch at Epic Roasthouse.

It was a lovely day and we had a seat near the windows. I read that this restaurant has great happy hour so I look forward to being able to enjoy that sometime as well.

I started with the lavender lemonade with green tea. The lavender flavor is obvious but the lemon and green tea is not. It was refreshing though.

Ron ordered from their “Hangover Libations”, this is called “Orange”. It tasted like a mimosa except that it had a bit of bitters.

At the table they offered three types of salt: pink, sea salt, black salt. We taste tested them all and I personally liked the black salt.

Their bread selection included a puff (cheese I think), cornbread-like madeleines, and a airy but chewy bread.

They had a few changes to the menu so I ordered one of their specials, the lobster quiche which was topped with potatoes and a small salad and a sauce of caviar creme fraiche. There were only a few pieces of lobster but the flavor of the quiche was good, I like the pastry and the freshness of the salad.

Ron had the steak enchiladas (one of the lunch items). I thought the wrapping was a bit too thick and the meat not seasoned enough but then I only had one bite.

We also tried their side of onion rings with the housemade ketchup (with anchovies). It was yummy.

I had a lovely day of eating then a massage at Burke Williams in the evening. This was my fourth pregnancy massage, I still have two more to use before baby is born. I look forward to taking my maternity leave in a week and a half and having some more time to prepare but also relax.

Epic Roasthouse
369 Embarcadero