Lemon-Cornmeal Cookies

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http://www.marthastewart….ornmeal-cookies

Well I tried to go a little healthier today with the Friday baked goodie but either it was too healthy or because there was leftover birthday cake and a fruit cake competing with my cookies, I actually had a few leftover.

My base recipe was the Lemon-Cornmeal Cookies recipe from marthastewart.com but I altered the ingredients a bit.

I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup of all purpose flour (instead of 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour) and 2 tbsp of lemon zest (instead of just 1 tbsp).

The reason why I wanted to do something with lemon was because someone brought in two full grocery bags of lemons from their tree so I grabbed a few thinking I could make something yummy. Plus Patsy gave me her extra micro zester so that it’d be easy to zest the lemons. I had a whole bag of yellow cornmeal which I didn’t know what to do with (I guess I could make cornbread…) so wanted to use it up as well.

I forgot to take pictures of the whole batch so here are the few remaining. I put a little bit of brown sugar on top to give it a touch of sweetness because they really weren’t all that sweet.

The whole wheat flour seems to make the cookie drier and more crumbly than it probably should be but some said they liked the crunch of it.

Well, maybe I’ll be more successful next week with some sort of lemon bar or lemon shortbread. I still need to figure out what to make with the lemon juice from the lemons I zested.

Bia’s Restaurant & Wine Bar

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http://www.biasrestaurantandwinebar.com/

I hadn’t given Vicki her birthday gift yet so we met up for dinner tonight. I went on Opentable to find a restaurant since I prefer to have a reservation somewhere so that we wouldn’t have to wait. I also wanted to try somewhere new and I’ve generally had good luck with the restaurants on Opentable.

We met up at Bia’s Restaurant & Wine Bar on Haight Street. We ended up selecting items from the prix fixe menu. Lucky for us we had a reservation before 7pm, so the prix fixe was only $26 per person. The menu includes an appetizer, main course, dessert, and glass of wine.

For an appetizer I ordered the prushki which is a pastry kind of thing stuffed with chicken, onions, and carrots. Surrounding it seemed like a tangy kind of tomato sauce.

I had the Kofta for the main course which was like a big meatball stuffed with raisins, nuts, apricots, and other herbs. It was also served with broccoli and roasted potatoes. The roasted potatoes were really good, crispy and just the right amount of salt. The meat itself was quite filling and had an interesting texture with the chewy raisins and crunchy nuts.

Vicki ordered the penne made with vodka, tomatoes, chili flakes, arugula in a light cream sauce. The penne may have been a touch overdone, a bit soft, but I liked the amount of chili they used, nice and spicy!

For dessert, we ordered one of each: chocolate souffle and the creme brulee. The chocolate souffle was fresh and steaming hot, the cream on top was especially nice… best souffle I’ve ever had. The creme brulee was only so-so, the custard a bit runny and the sugar on top a bit too hard, you really had to crack it to break into it.

They have a good selection of wines and the two we chose went well with our meals.

The restaurant itself is very cozy. We had the seat by the front window seat, with a bunch of cushions as our seats. Very much like the window seat I would like in my future home. Since it was a Weds night, it wasn’t very crowded so it was an easy place to have conversation. My only complaint about the area is my phone has terrible reception. I have AT&T and couldn’t get a signal on the whole block. But I guess if you don’t want to be bothered, it’s a good place to go. If I had the chance, I’d probably go dine there again.

Bia’s Restaurant & Wine Bar
1640 Haight Street

My mom’s birthday dinner at Koi Garden

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My mom’s birthday is this coming Tuesday but she decided to have her celebration a bit early on Sunday. Apparently you’re not supposed to celebrate your birthday after your actual birthdate, it’s bad luck.

My parents planned this dinner at Koi Garden in Dublin, now their favorite Chinese restaurant in the area. It was quite the extravagant dinner, we were all quite stuffed and had leftovers to bring home. We had one of the private rooms in the back so my parents and friends also sang karaoke using a gadget called Magic Sing. All the songs are stored on a memory chip and all you have to carry around is the microphone and cable to hook it up to your TV. The songs are not like music videos but just a photo slideshow with the words for the songs. At the end of each song, they give you a score. It’s pretty handy… so much has changed since they came out with the huge laser discs.

My parents singing together:

So on to the meal…

Fried salmon skin, very crispy, like pork rinds (so a bit oily) but fishy… omega 3s?

Squab with cha su and seaweed salad.

A 6.5 lb Australian lobster. Apparently these don’t have claws, so all the meat is in the tail and body. The lobster is stir fried with sugar snap peas and chives, served with some broccoli. Surrounding it is also geoduck and ham.

Here’s looking at you!

A shark fin soup cooked in a winter melon, good on this cold evening.

There was chicken and pork in the soup.

Rehydrated dried abalone with fish maw (stomach) and mustard greens.

Each person got their own serving… with enough left for seconds.

Fresh crab meat served with vegetables: white mushrooms, Napa cabbage, asparagus, and Chinese broccoli.

The white mushrooms looked so clean, like they weren’t even grown in the ground… very fresh and delicious.

Drunken chicken.

Lobster meat noodles with lots of vegetables (especially packed with many types of mushrooms). They used the lobster meat from the little legs of the 6.5 lb lobster we had earlier.

For dessert, sweet bird’s nest soup served in a steamed papaya. Piping hot! but very good, good for your skin and possibly good for my cough because my throat felt much better after eating it.

My mom cutting her favorite cake, a Sogo mango mousse cake (the same as our wedding cake), plus those cute little buns that look like peaches.

A very rich meal and very delicious. I learned to love to eat good food from my parents. I used to go out with them a lot to eat dinner with their friends. I probably was a bit bored because I’d usually be the only kid there but I didn’t mind it so much as long as we had a good meal and I could spend time with my parents rather than sit at home.

The service here was excellent as usual. I think my parents frequent Koi Garden enough so that all the managers know them and are always willing to accommodate them when they come in for dinner, and even more so for a special occasion like my mom’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Godzilla Sushi

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/g…i-san-francisco

We had dinner at Godzilla Sushi tonight, close to my work, unfortunately for me, only open for dinner. Ron met someone who recommended it as a cheap sushi joint in Pac Heights.

The restaurant has 5 tables and then a sushi bar.

We ordered three of their special rolls, from top to bottom:
1. Tinky Winky Roll with scallop, salmon, chopped crab, avocado, shiso leaf, sprouts and tobiko
2. Pink Dragon Roll, inside with shredded crab, avocado, cucumber and outside with fresh salmon and wasabi tobiko
3. Godzilla Roll, inside with tuna, hamachi, sake, BBQ eel, avocado and outside with tobiko

Here are their other special rolls:

After we got our order, we decided it wasn’t quite enough so ordered two other things, suzuki nigiri, which is Japanese sea bass:

and the spicy baked mayo mussels (the mussels were chopped up so very easy to eat, kind of tasted like it was seasoned with sriracha hot sauce, was yummy):

We shared their large size of hot sake and our meal came out to be around $38 + tip. Ron said he found the fish texture a bit mushy but I thought it was fine. I guess the real test would be to have sashimi or the chirashi (sashimi over rice). I wish they’d open for lunch then I could have sushi for lunch!

Godzilla Sushi
1800 Divisadero Street