Category Archives: Italian

CSCM looking for…

Day 151

CSCM = Cute Single Chinese Male looking for…

I can’t imagine the day when Simon has his first girlfriend… I hope it’s a long long time from now.

Ron found a good way for Simon to play with two toys at the same time, sitting in his Exersaucer next to his playmat propped up so that he can try to reach the toys.

Success!

From the newsdesk of Simon Chung:

I spent the day in Sonoma for my friend Kathleen’s bachelorette party. Her sister Colleen did a great job of organizing our relaxing day. We had a limo that took us around to a few wineries, had a picnic lunch at Imagery, relaxed by the hotel pool, and had dinner at Meritage. Imagery has two beautiful spots for picnics, a lawn with picnic tables set up and a patio area with many tables. They also have bocce ball although we did not have a chance to play. I prepared the lunch last night which included a broccoli quinoa salad with a sweet sour cream based dressing, zucchini orzo with basil salad, cheese and crackers with cold cuts, veggies with Ranch dressing, blueberries, and apricots. I didn’t get my own picture of the lunch so I hope someone else did but I did get a good group shot of everyone by our limo. Our driver Lee did a great job driving us around and taking photos for us.

Old Chicago Pizza (Petaluma) and Golden Island Cafe (San Francisco)

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Ron decided that we should take a drive out of town at least one more time before our baby is born so we headed out to Petaluma to walk around and relax. It seemed pretty quiet generally, maybe because it was a long weekend and people had left town.

We stopped by to have lunch at a place called Old Chicago Pizza. Famous for their double crust deep dish pizza, it has an extra layer of dough and extra cheese. You can only choose two toppings but the regular deep dish, you can split the pizza in half and have different toppings on each half. We chose chicken and artichoke hearts.

One piece is quite filling, even without eating the outside crust (which I couldn’t eat but was quite delicious).

We had plenty of leftovers with a medium size. Lunch for tomorrow!

The location on the restaurant is supposedly the main downtown of Petaluma and used to house a brothel! The women would entice men from the windows and as they came up the stairs, they would go into one of the small rooms in the hallway. Pretty interesting history.

We went for a walk around the outlets before heading back to San Francisco. Back in SF, we went for a snack at Golden Island Cafe which has my favorite Asian desserts. I love their tapioca desserts with fresh fruit and any of their steamed egg or milk desserts.

Ron ordered the rice balls with toasted sesame and ground peanuts and syrup. Not exactly what he wanted as he likes it with nuts inside the rice balls.

I ordered the steamed egg custard with ginger. These take about 15 minutes to steam and come out super hot. I love the bit of spiciness from the ginger and the creamy texture.

It was getting cold outside so it was also good to end the day with a warm dessert.

Old Chicago Pizza
41 Petaluma Blvd N
Petaluma, CA 94952

Golden Island Cafe
1300 Noriega St
(between 20th Ave & 21st Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94122

Uva Enoteca

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http://www.uvaenoteca.com/about.php

I had dinner with V at Uva Enoteca in Lower Haight. Another co-worker also came to join us so that we could try more items. It didn’t seem like a lot be we were quite full in the end.

First a selection of cheeses served with almonds, honey, and golden raisins.

Plus a selection of cured meats. I love their presentation.

Three veggies: baby onions with figs; carrots, parsnips, peas and farro; red lentils, herbs and croutons.

We tried a pasta dish: Orrechiette, wild boar ragu

For dessert, a fresh peach pie with vanilla gelato.

The only part of the meal we didn’t enjoy were the vegetables, probably one is enough if you’re craving for grains or vegetables. They weren’t that flavorful and the best one (the one with figs) didn’t have enough figs, just a lot of onions. The cheeses were delicious with the honey, almonds, and raisins and with the endless supply of bread.

The gelato was the perfect way to end the meal for me.

Uva Enoteca
568 Haight Street

The Cheeseboard Collective

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http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/

Ron happened to be in Berkeley today so stopped by The Cheeseboard Collective to pick up some pizza for dinner. He always talks about this place and I have yet to try it. They post their menu each week online and today’s special:

Tuesday’s Pizza (09/01/2009):

Heirloom Tomatoes, Onions, Mozzarella Cheese, Parmesan Cheese, PINENUTS, Basil, Garlic Olive Oil.

Ron said their was a line forming out front before they opened at 4:30pm. I thought the pizza would be spectacular but other than really fresh ingredients, I’m not sure what was so special. One funny thing though is they serve you a full pizza plus two extra slices on top.

The Cheeseboard Collective
1512 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA

Ella’s and Flour + Water

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I had the opportunity to try interesting restaurants today. This morning I went to Ella’s for brunch. I walk by this place whenever I walk home from work but it’s always closed. Little did I know that it’s only open for breakfast, brunch, and lunch.

I tried their ginger orange punch. The ginger note is at the end, refreshing.

So many yummy options for brunch.

We shared the freshly baked sticky bun. Not as moist as I would have liked but the topping was fantastic.

I tried their famous chicken hash, served with your choice of egg and toast. Here is an egg over-easy with wheat toast. The greens on top gave it a bit of a bite but I still needed some ketchup to moisten the hash. It had lots of chicken but I think I prefer corned beef hash.

So that was breakfast, for dinner, we went with friends to Flour + Water. We shared a few appetizers and had our own main courses and then shared desserts.

This is a stuffed squash flower. Not something that is easy to share as it was hard to cut the fried flower but it was nice and light with the fresh tomatoes.

This was some sort of braised oxtail meat made into a fried cake served with a salad and mushrooms.

We shared the margherita pizza with a fresh egg on top. A little soggy in the middle and the toppings were sliding off the pizza. A bit messy.

Fried peppers for our veggie dish. Lightly salted. I’d order these again.

Ron’s pork dish with fig and beans. I remember it having a nice flavor but not sure what was so nice about it. I probably only really liked it because of the fig.