Category Archives: Asian

IHOP, Tal-y-Tara, Kushi Tsuru & Joyce’s Visit

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A relaxing and beautiful San Francisco day. Ron & I started out early in the morning with breakfast at IHOP. We had a very filling breakfast.

I ordered the strawberry stuffed French toast combination with bacon, eggs, and hash. The filling was a bit like a Toaster Strudel that you can toast at home and it wasn’t really like French toast, more like a donut, but not bad overall. I love bacon and eggs over-easy.

Ron ordered the Colorado omelette with a side of Butterscotch Rocks pancakes. The Colorado omlette has bacon, pork sausage, shredded beef, ham, onions, green peppers, and cheddar cheese. It’s supposed to be served with salsa but I just realized they probably forgot.

Later in the afternoon, I had tea at Tal-y-Tara Tea & Polo Shoppe. Joyce is visiting from Singapore and we needed to catch up! Lisa & Patsy came to join in the fun.

The front of the shoppe sells things for horse riding including saddles and clothing. We were seated right away and had a few moments to look at the menu. We were seated inside but they do have a small patio in the back which would have been nice if it wasn’t so windy, great for a small party.

We decided to order the Classic Motorloaf which is a variety of tea sandwiches that include cream cheese and cucumber, egg salad and capers, cheese and chutney, smoked turkey and watercress, black forest ham with mustard, and lox, cream cheese and capers. The center of the bread is cut out and made into sandwiches then put back into the bread. The bread was a little sweet and nutty.

We also ordered the motorload bread with fruit and cheese, served with cream cheese and chutney.

We ordered two types of tea, each of these large pots serve two. The tea pot cozies were really cute. We tried the English Breakfast and Rhumba Rooibos Chai. I liked the spiciness of the Chai.

After the sandwiches, we tried their blueberry scones and the crumpet. The blueberry scones were served with blueberry preserves and cream cheese. The scones were a bit bready for my taste.

The crumpet came out nice and toasty but I still don’t really care for it much.

I was surprisingly full and was ready for a nap but ended up going to buy Misu some new cat food and some groceries. I hope he’ll eat the chicken wet food.

Ron and I then met up with Joyce for dinner in Japantown. We ended up at Kushi Tsuru.

We ordered the Pink Lady roll, agedashi tofu, the large sashimi plate, and tempura appetizer. Plus I ordered the katsu-don and Joyce had the oyako-don.

I would say the sashimi was good while eating but left a strange aftertaste. It was probably the squid with shiso that left the aftertaste rather than the fish. Overall the rest was pretty standard and this restaurant is a bit cheaper than the rest in Japantown. Too bad they don’t have ramen, only soba and udon.

So it’s been a full day of eating and it was good to catch up with Joyce, I’m hoping we can go to Singapore to visit soon!

IHOP
2398 Junipero Sterra Blvd
Daly City, CA

Tal-y-Tara Tea & Polo Shoppe
6439 California Street

Kushi Tsuru
1737 Post St (in Japantown)

Shecky’s Girls Night Out

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http://girlsnightout.shec…ult.asp?rf=home

Tonight went to hang out with the girls at this event called Shecky’s Girls Night Out which was at Fort Mason’s Herbst Pavilion. For a $15 ticket (discounted from $35), you get a free goodie bag at the event. I bought tickets last month so have been looking forward to seeing what goodies were in the bag. Otherwise, admission is free with registration.

Upon showing your ID at the door, you sign in at the registration table and get your ticket for the free goodie bag. You get a wristband that you have to wear throughout the event. We headed first for their beverages, good thing we did because shortly after, the lines started to form.

We took this pic but honestly did not drink them all. The pink one is something called X Rated Fusion which was actually pretty good, a mix of vodka, blood oranges, mango & passion fruit flavors. The green one was a midori margarita and too strong for us to drink. They also served beer and had a tasting of Budweiser Chelada, Budweiser + Clamato. If you like a bloody mary, then you might like this, it tastes like tomato soup!

I didn’t end up buying anything at the event but there were a lot of nice jewelry booths, just didn’t find something I thought was worth the cost. I did pick up my goodie bag which included random things: M&Ms, Luna Bar, free romance novel, toothpaste, tampons, microwave brownies, aspirin + caffeine pills for headache, etc. Very random and not sure it was worth the $15… but maybe something in it will come in handy… we’ll see.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Doobu in Japantown. I think I’ve been there like five times already, it was perfect for the windy chilly night.

Had the fried tofu salad. Nice light vinegar-like dressing but only tastes good once fresh or else the breading for the tofu gets soggy.

Bulgolgi.. steaming hot.

Combination soon tofu.

We ended up chatting until the restaurant closed. Tiffany is moving to Lancaster in a few weeks to be with her hubby so it’ll be one of the last times we’ll get to hang out in SF while she’s still here. She’s offering me some of her stuff so that she won’t have to drive it down there and so we can stock up our apartment with missing things (like a toaster oven!). We were also giving Kat wedding tips for her upcoming wedding early next year.

It was a good evening with good friends.

San Francisco Outing

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Enjoyed my last day of vacation by having a day out around Union Square. Virginia made lunch reservations at Campton Place since it’s Dine About Town time again. A group of 5 of us had their $21.95 3-course prix fixe menu.

The appetizer selection included a green salad, a mediterranean salad, or a mushroom soup. I had the mediterranean salad of chick peas, cucumbers, and squid. It had a bit of sourness and spiciness from the raw onions. Squid was nice and tender.

Main course selection included chicken, halibut, or gnocchi. I chose the halibut which was served with mussels, a cioppino. Fish was tender and fresh but mussels had a bit of a strong aftertaste of sea water. There were huge white beans which were good.

For dessert, strawberries with vanilla ice cream or lilikoi (passion fruit) chiffon. I chose the strawberries which also included thin slices of honeydew melon. Very refreshing!

After we were stuffed, we did a bit of shopping. My favorite find of the day was this dress from BCBG that is super long but so pretty that I had to get it, it was 50% off with an additional 30% off for friends & family… couldn’t resist!

I met up with Ron and friends for dinner at TK Noodle in Daly City. Apparently, our expert diner friend has been to this place often enough to know you can order extra bean sprouts and extra pork fat. This is the pork fat, seriously, fried fat, not bacon.

I had #1, a combination rice stick noodle. This is small and it was enough. I love rice stick noodles.

Ron had #5, the beef stew rice stick noodles. Beef really tender.

Lastly, we shared the fried rice cakes. It has egg all over it and some peanuts inside. By itself it’s a bit bland but with some sirachi and plum sauce, it tastes better. Although it is served with a vinegar-like soy sauce. It’s very filling too.

Although it didn’t seem like that much food, Ron and I were both really stuffed.

Sigh, back to work tomorrow. It was a good vacation.

Campton Place
(near Sutter/Stockton St)

TK Noodle
6917 Mission St
Daly City, CA

Chef Yuyu Za Zang

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/yuyu-za-zang-oakland

I was in Oakland working so had the opportunity to go to one of my favorite places for lunch. I remember it as being called Chef Yu but upon searching for it, it’s actually called Yuyu Za Zang. Parking is kind of hard in the area, especially when there is a funeral nearby, and today there seemed to be cops out in full force so even parking meter parking makes you anxious that your time will expire. If you live in the area, it’s probably great for take out.

Ron and I had lunch together so we ordered two dishes. This is the original za zang noodles.

This was a little bit plain, I think I prefer the other one, I think called “gan za zang” which has other things in it. The spicy soup noodles are really good though, it’ll make you cry with happiness. Their noodles are fresh, chewy, and not too thick.

Ron ordered the fried chicken, much better than Za Zang Noodles in SF because it’s made with a lot less breading so you taste more chicken. The sauce isn’t as vinegared so you can still breathe in while eating (have you ever tried to inhale strongly vinegared food while it’s still steaming hot?).

The deep fried stuff comes a bit slower so if you’re in a rush, this might not be the best place to have lunch. I had an hour lunch and we had to rush to eat to get back in time.

Your meal is served with the pickled yellow turnip, raw onions, and bean paste. Rice is separate. They serve tea or water.

They also have Chinese food which I haven’t had a chance to try yet. I like the noodles too much, can’t wait for the next time I get to work in Oakland 🙂

Yuyu Za Zang
3919 Telegraph Avenue (between 39th and 40th St)