Author Archives: Administrator

California Academy of Sciences

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http://www.calacademy.org/

I went for my second visit to the California Academy of Sciences today. My first visit was in July, you can read about it here. This time I took Vicki as my guest as she had not visited before.

We went to the rainforest exhibit first, I missed it on my first visit. Be prepared for warm temperatures and humidity. Kind of reminded me of Singapore. There were a lot of birds darting around and butterflies all over. I saw this bird’s nest on a tree with the bird hiding inside.

I was surprised at how the butterflies really didn’t care that we were walking around their home. I even saw a few land on people.

I guess it must be common they land on people as there is this sign as your wait for the elevator.

I didn’t take that many pictures this time around. We also went to see the new planetarium show about stars, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, and some of the other exhibits before it started getting busy and we started getting hungry.

There are still a few exhibits that I haven’t checked out, like the Bugs, so I’ll be sure to go back.

Alive!

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http://www.aliveveggie.com/

Our friends Shizuka & Hiro and their son Sean were visiting SF so we went to have dinner with them. Shizuka suggested this restaurant called Alive! located in the Marina, described as raw vegan cuisine.

It’s a small restaurant with seating for about 20 people total.

Considering this may be the only opportunity that we’d eat here, we decided to try multiple things on the menu.

This it the potato leek soup with black miso which is served cooked and warm. It’s a comforting vegetable soup.

They also have quite a collection of teas, served in these cute cups with lids. I tried the lemon ginger herbal tea. It had a nice tartness and spiciness.

The flaxseed flatbread with cashew cream, tomatoes, and avocado. Loved the cashew cream and avocadoes.

Spicy red curry avocado wrap. A bit difficult to eat but kind of like sushi. If you like things on the spicier side then this is for you.

These were their raviolis made with turnips. It was like a very filling salad.

I had the sunflower seed burger with avocadoes. The sunflower seed burger and toppings were really good but the bread-like item on the bottom was really hard to cut and eat.

We ordered four desserts and they were kind enough to cut some of them in half so we could share between couples. This is the apple pie which is uncooked so a bit crunchy and tasted similar to a crumble.

Asian pear torte.

Candy Cap Mushroom Cheesecake with berry sauce. The mushroom gives it a different flavor (described as kind of maple-like) and the berry sauce was quite tart.

We also tried the chocolate banana torte which I didn’t get to photograph.

Overall, it was an interesting experience but I’m not sure if we’d go back again unless we were specifically looking for a vegetarian restaurant. It was good to catch up with our friends as they were visiting from Japan and it was the first time we got to meet their son. I hope we can visit Japan again soon and our kids can meet 😀

Alive!
1972 Lombard Street

Little Skillet

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http://www.littleskilletsf.com/

I finally had the chance to try Little Skillet‘s fried chicken and waffles. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco so we stayed to eat our lunch in the alley where Little Skillet is located. There’s sort of a makeshift seating area across from the pick up window.

This is the 3 pc chicken with 1 waffle for $9.50:

I could just eat the batter, a bit sweet and freshly fried and crunchy. The chicken was really hot too and moist. The waffle was not that special but still a good compliment to the chicken.

Next time we’ll try a po’ boy sandwich or their special waffle of the day.


Little Skillet
360 Ritch Street

Zanze’s Blueberry Cheesecake

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/z…e-san-francisco

We had a chance to drop by Zanze’s Cheesecake to pick up a yummy cheesecake. We decided to try the blueberry one for ourselves and pick up a cherries with Kirsch for our friends.

I didn’t get to photograph it before Ron dug into it. So far this is my favorite. I love the blueberries on top, not to sweet and still had a bite to them so gave it a good contrast with the creamy cheesecake.

If you want to order one for Thanksgiving, they make a pumpkin cheesecake and orders have to be in the Saturday before Thanksgiving! Apparently they sell about 400 cheesecakes during the week before Thanksgiving. Amazing.


Zanze’s Cheesecake
2405 Ocean Ave

Pacific Catch – A Taste of Singapore

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http://www.pacificcatch.com/

Through November 15th, Pacific Catch is having a Taste of Singapore prix fixe menu for $27. Patrick arranged our supposed to be Q2monthly (now more like Q6month) dinner with Shirley for tonight. In a previous post I talked about how I was craving laksa so was very excited to hear it was part of their menu for tonight.

Free snacks included edamame and pretzel goldfish.

Since Patrick belongs to their mailing list, this month they offered a free shrimp ceviche appetizer with chips with any entree purchase. Thank goodness the shrimp were cooked so I could eat them but the rest of the ceviche was a bit tangy for me, just a tad too much lime, but yummy avocado.

The appetizer choice for the prix fixe was either the curry laksa or the Singaporean black pepper shrimp. I ordered the laksa and was a bit disappointed as it just wasn’t the same as the one I used to order at staff canteen at NUH (Singapore) for lunch. The chili (in the small bowl on the left) was nice and spicy and gave it a bit more of a kick but the noodle were thin versus the thicker noodles I was used to eating in Singapore.

Patrick ordered the black pepper shrimp and this was actually pretty good, very peppery like it should be but it would have been more traditional as crab. I only had a few pieces.

The main course was a salmon rendang served over rice. I was already kind of full by the time we got to the main course so couldn’t eat much. From what I could taste, the sauce and vegetables were flavorful and full of spices but the salmon a bit dry and the rice very bland (not enough sauce). I packed about half for lunch tomorrow.

Last but not least, dessert of coconut custard served with stir fried tropical fruit and banana tuille. The custard was more like a pudding but the tropical fruits were yummy, I think pineapples and papaya. The banana tuille tasted really like banana bread and I thought it was supposed to be crunchy but ended up kind of chewy and stuck to your teeth (a bit strange). Even though I couldn’t eat my salmon, I was able to finish an entire dessert (and Patrick & Shirley left me one for myself, probably because I am the pregnant lady).

It was good to catch up with friends over a good meal but now I am really craving to go to Singapore for some more authentic food…

Check out the website for Pacific Catch to see their next regional cuisine menus.

Pacific Catch
1200 9th Avenue at Lincoln