Sam Won Korean BBQ Restaurant Oakland

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/sam-won-bbq-house-oakland

We went out to Oakland to visit with my dad and had lunch together at one of our favorite Korean BBQ Restaurants. This is one of the places where we were first introduced to the concept of Korean BBQ and where we had our first learning lesson of not wearing your best clothes to have Korean BBQ.

We got there about 1pm for lunch and there were only a few other tables occupied. During evenings, you would usually have to wait for a while to get seated. I’m guessing it was quiet since it is Saturday and there are less businesses open.

I really like their side dishes, as you can see my dad is already digging in.
(From top left to right: tofu, broccoli, spicy cucumber, kimchi AND
bottom left to right: eggplant-one of my favorites, black beans, spicy radish, and octopus)

The octopus was a new one to us, simple with spicy sauce drizzled on top.

We didn’t do the BBQ thing today but I wanted to try something I haven’t had yet so I ordered the kimchi tofu rice cake stir fry. It was a bit too sour for me and I wished it had more rice cakes. It has plenty of fatty bacon though so if you like that, this is the way to go.

Ron ordered the stone bowl bibimbap which came out sizzling hot and continued to sizzle through the whole meal. He had to keep on stirring it around to aerate it to cool it down. I love all the vegetables in bibimbap… makes you think you’re eating something healthy!

We have leftovers, enough for another full meal 😛

We went to the Korean supermarket, Koreana Plaza, to stock up on Korean foods… we’re going to have a yummy week!

Sam Won
2600 Telegraph Ave
(b/w 26th and 27th St.)
Oakland, CA

Sushi Raw San Bruno

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http://www.sushirawsanbruno.com/

We attempted to go have dinner with Ron’s parents tonight since we hadn’t seen them for a few weeks but unfortunately, they already ate so we went to find our own dinner before visiting with them.

We ended up in San Bruno and stopped at Sushi Raw. The restaurant itself looks like a converted Jack-in-the-Box or other fast food joint since it had a drive-through window still installed.

The place only has about 10-12 tables but also has a sushi bar. The tables had cute bowls for soy sauce/chopstick rest.

We ordered something called the Island Roll which has hamachi, salmon, and tuna wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber. It was $13.95 which was a bit expensive but likely because it contained so much fresh fish. There was a tangy sauce but we still requested for wasabi because their sauce didn’t quite do it.

We tried their tako sunomono which is an octopus salad. The restaurant that makes my favorite tako sunomono is in Stockton because they make it spicy… haven’t been able to find it since. The toasted sesame seeds were a nice touch but still not exactly what I wanted. This was $6.95.

Lastly we ordered the special bento box where you get your choice of 3 items. We chose the tonkatsu, chicken teriyaki, and spicy tuna roll. The bento is served with miso soup and salad. The miso soup was good because they added those white long mushrooms. The rest of the bento was good but not spectacular but had a nice presentation, I liked the plates. This was $13.95.

Now upon coming home and looking online, apparently you can place your order online and they can deliver! Too bad we don’t live down there. One other thing to mention, their wasabi was good, nice and spicy, it hits you in the nose when you least expect it.

Sushi Raw
1789 El Camino Real
San Bruno, CA 94066

My Hello Kitty Obsession

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http://www.sanrio.com

A little bit today on my most long lived obsession… Hello Kitty. It all started when I was around 4 years old and my brother won me this imitation Hello Kitty plush doll at a carnival. It was made of synthetic fabric and stuffed with styrofoam pellets. I loved that thing until it fell apart after being carried around so much and my mom made me throw it away… it was leaking styrofoam pellets 🙁

So in place, she bought me this small Hello Kitty in yellow overalls sitting in her classic side view position. She is about 3 1/2 inches tall and I named her “Baby Kitty”. I know, not very creative, but give me a break, I was only 4.

In the beginning, I didn’t buy much Hello Kitty paraphernalia myself but would receive them as gifts from my many aunts. I was their first niece and they were only in their teens or early-20’s so they also liked Hello Kitty. I was always really excited whenever I got a new Hello Kitty plush.

However, I only really started wanting Hello Kitty stuff on my own when my mom asked me to get my ears pierced. I wasn’t looking forward to the experience but she wanted me to do it so she said after I got them pierced, we’d go to the Sanrio store so she could buy me a present. So I did it and when we walked into the store, the rest is history.

I stopped collecting for a bit during high school because I became interested in other characters like Tweety, Animaniacs, Lion King, Little Mermaid, etc. but it’s something I always go back to. Their motto holds true:

SMALL GIFT, BIG SMILE

The biggest smile was during our wedding. Ron proposed with a solitaire in a plain gold setting but let me know he had a surprise in store for me. Here’s the end product:

Our wedding was also “kittified” with my Hello Kitty wedding veil & gloves, Hello Kitty & Dear Daniel on our limo, Hello Kitty sign-in book & pen, etc.

I still have “Baby Kitty”… she’s safely in storage.

DooBu Korean BBQ & Tofu Restaurant

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/doobu-san-francisco

We met up with our friends Tiffany and Cassie to have dinner in Japantown. Cassie recommended this Korean restaurant called DooBu, what a cute name!

We’ve passed by a few times while shopping in Japantown and heard good things about it so were excited to try it.

The place was pretty empty on a Tuesday evening, while we were there, only 2 other parties came in to have dinner as well. But that just means we got better service.

We ordered an appetizer and 3 bowls of tofu soup. You can tailor the spiciness of the tofu soups from “non-spicy” to “spicy”. We were warned by Cassie that “spicy” was really spicy but thought we’d try it anyways.

Our dinner included a deep fried fish per person:

Plus with each tofu soup, a stone pot of purple rice.

The appetizers (tofu, chap jae, seaweed, kimchi, & bean sprouts). In this picture is the sauce for the pajun (a pancake).

Ron & I ordered a kimchi and vegetable panjun, kind of like a Korean pizza or pancake, served on a hot stone plate. Had lots of vegetables and with the sauce, was really yummy.

We also ordered their special: ham and cheese tofu soup. It was a bit weird to have so much cheddar cheese and it was very gooey. It ordered “spicy” but it was tolerable, not as hot… definitely not like the experience we had in Korea, read about it HERE.

Cassie and Tiffany ordered the dumpling and rice cake tofu soup. I tried one of the little rice cakes. Cute and chewy.

Boy we were stuffed, the bread of the pancake and the cheese filled up our stomach.

DooBu
Korean BBQ & Tofu Restaurant
1723 Buchanan Street
San Francisco, CA
415-292-6002

Christopher Columbus Elementary

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This weekend I went to Daly City and Colma to stock up on supplies from Target and Trader Joe’s. I was just driving around and decided to drop by my old elementary school Christopher Columbus.


I think this is the multi-purpose room where we had lunch and assemblies. It’s been so long since I’ve visited the place.

It closed in 2004 and this building seems to be full of boxes and is boarded up. However, it does look like the school buildings are being used as a Baptist Church.

I wanted to get out of the car to take a look around to see if everything was still the same but felt a bit weird as there was a man who just parked his car and was staring at me while I drove by in my car…

Elementary school seemed such a long time ago…