Author Archives: Administrator

Ron happened across Patisserie Philippe while downtown and picked up a few pastries for us to share. On the right side, French macaroons: cassis, passion fruit, and hazelnet. On the left side, a apricot tart.

So far I’ve only tried the macaroons and the cassis had a bit too much cream so it squished out when you bite into it, good if you like messy eats, and the passion fruit nice and tart. Ron liked the hazelnut one so he had that one for himself. The apricot tart looks really yummy, can’t wait to try it out.

According to their website, they also have sandwiches, salads, quiche, and lots of other yummy pastries. I think I will have to pay a personal visit someday soon.

Patisserie Philippe
655 Townsend St

Miette, Arty Salon (a 12 inch hair cut!), and Iroha

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On my long Saturday walk I stopped by Miette to check out their pastries. I decided on a rose macaroon and a box of ginger snaps. I had the macaroon as my breakfast this morning. The macaroon was $1.50 and a bit small, the circumference about the size of a silver dollar. The rose flavor was very light but fragrant, the cookie nice and nutty.

This evening I had my big haircut. Every 2 years or so, I usually will cut the length of my hair for donation to Locks of Love. This will be my third donation. Your hair donation must be at least 10 inches so if you’re interested in donating, check out their website. It’s always a good excuse for me to get a new hairstyle and my hair grows pretty fast.

So my length before haircut:

My friend Susan recommended ARTY Salon in Japantown and their stylist Kumi. She’s a busy girl so I wasn’t able to get an appointment during my vacation so had to wait until tonight. She did a really great job with my hair consultation and gave me a lot of options. Eventually I just asked her to do what she thought would be best for my face shape and my style of hair. She took a lot of time putting the finishing touches on my cut. My haircut took almost 90 minutes but my hair feels really nice and light, it just is taking some getting used to. Wait until I wash it and then I’ll have an opinion on how I really like it.

So ta-dah! At dinner:

My 12 inch ponytail:

After my cut, we went to Iroha for dinner. I had bought a gift certificate from Restaurant.com so it was a good time to use it. It was a $25 off a $45 minimum purchase, the gift certificate only cost me $5. We ended up ordering quite a bit of food.

Seaweed salad, a bit too much dressing.

Mushroom stuffed with pork, oversauced with teriyaki sauce.

Beef wrapped around green bell peppers. Again, too much teriyaki sauce.

Vegetable tempura. Great vegetables: mushrooms, bell pepper, eggplant, carrot, yam, zucchini, and some sort of pumpkin or gourd.

Tonkatsu curry. Curry was piping hot, a bit spicy which was good. The rice not very good but tonkatsu well fried.

Ron ordered the beef teriyaki + tonkatsu combo (not on the menu but they said they would make it).

It was quite a bit meal, needless to say, we were stuffed. I’ve been drinking lots of water since dinner since I feel parched, too much protein and saltiness.

Miette
2109 Chestnut St

ARTY
1680 Post St #G (2nd floor)

Iroha
1728 Buchannan St (2nd floor) between Post St & Sutter St

Little Star Pizza and Mitchell’s Ice Cream

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Last day of vacation, a good meal to end it.

Ron and I headed to Little Star Pizza in the Mission. Even though the one in Western Addition is closer to us, I wanted to head out for ice cream at Mitchell’s after dinner. Lucky for us, we arrived just at 6:30pm when the first group of diners were finished so that we were seated right away. They also have happy hour 5:30-6:30pm everyday where alcoholic drinks are $1 off.

Ron anticipating yummy pizza.

We ordered a thin crust pesto pizza as an appetizer because the deep dish takes about 25 minutes to cook. The pesto is squeezed right on top. The thin crust was really crunchy, sort of cracker-like but really good, not a single soggy spot anywhere. The pesto made it extra yummy.

The deep dish we ordered is a special called Brass Monkey (it’s the Little Star Deep Dish + sausage). The sausage was delicious. The crust is pretty much the same as the thin crust so quite crunchy but a bit more oily. I think I prefer the chewy crust of Zachary’s. But the spinach made it really fresh and the ricotta made it really creamy and delicious.

Although pretty full, I saved room for ice cream. We headed to Mitchell’s to a really long line. But they have a queuing system that goes really fast. If it’s really busy, remember to grab your number the first thing when you walk in then decide on your flavors.

Ron had the Kahlua Mocha Cream single scoop and I had a double sccop with buko (young coconut) and mango. The buko had chunks of coconut in it, oh so yummy. Mango tasted a bit more like dried mango than fresh mango but still yummy. I tried the cantaloupe flavor but it wasn’t as strong as I would’ve wanted.

A good way to end my vacation. Revived and re-engergized to get back to work.

Little Star Pizza
400 Valencia St

Mitchell’s Ice Cream
688 San Jose Ave

Aloha Festival and walk through SF

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I decided to go to the San Francisco Aloha Festival at the Presidio. Ron had some things to do in the South Bay and I didn’t want to stay cooped up at home so decided to take a walk and see if I could find myself some spam musubi.

I walked from home, through the Arguello Blvd gate to the Presidio Main Post/Parade Grounds. As I neared, I could hear the music and smell the BBQ. Otherwise, they had some interesting knick knacks from Hawaii, some different foods, jewelry and such. It was pretty crowded, the music loud and plenty but the lines for food were way too long. I decided to just try the spam musubi at one of the stalls, 2 for $5, although I wasn’t impressed. The spam wasn’t pan fried and the seaweed was chewy and tough.

I only stayed for about an hour before continuing my walk. I exited the Presidio to Little Marina Green then to Chestnut St. On the way there, I stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts for some photos and saw three wedding parties there taking their photos.

It looks so much better after their restoration.

Continuing my walk along Chestnut St to Union St then the walk home, all totaled about 7 miles (as mapped on Google Maps). If you’ve never been, check out the view from Broderick St & Vallejo St but be sure to wear shoes that don’t slip because the incline is steep. Good exercise.