Category Archives: Sweets/Bakeries/Desserts

Farmers Market, Stacks, Russian Hill, Okoze Sushi

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Certainly had a fun filled, packed Saturday with the beautiful weather.

We got up surprisingly early, 7:30am! On a Saturday, that’s almost unheard of, we usually only get up early to go snowboarding or if we have to really go somewhere. But it was nice because we spent a quiet morning at home drinking our coffee and having a bit of breakfast and catching up on a few things. Maxwell enjoyed our early rising so that he could peek out the window to smell the morning air. He’s in mid-sniff:

I took the bus down to the Embarcadero to get some goodies at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and just enjoy the beautiful weather.

My treasures for the day: strawberries,

Pepper jelly and beautiful Pomelos,

A huge artichoke and brussel sprouts,

Garlic Quark and Red pepper Curds.

I enjoyed brunch at Stacks’ in Hayes Valley. My friends Kat & Jon had some to pick me up from Union Square to join them for brunch. I ordered a short stack (2 pancakes) of their banana macadamia nut and coconut pancakes, quite a mouthful to say and an even bigger mouthful to eat! I only ate like 2/3 of the portion and packed the rest in a doggie bag. I liked the macadamia nuts but probably too much coconut.

After brunch (which Stacks’ is open until 3:30pm on Sat/Sun), I invited myself over to my friend Kat & Jon’s place to spend the afternoon (I hope they didn’t mind) since we hadn’t hung out in a while. They live on top of Russian Hill and have a great view from their building. You can see all the beautiful San Francisco landmarks.

The Transamerica tower, Bay Bridge, Coit Tower.

The new span on the Bay Bridge to the left.

Alcatraz (which I’ve yet to visit…)

The Golden Gate Bridge.

Berkeley’s Campanile… in the middle, that tall skinny thing.

I wish I had a better lens.

We met up with some of their friends for drinks at Bistro Aix before having dinner at Okoze Sushi, where Ron joined us.

I remember dining at Bistro Aix before but I didn’t remember them having such a lovely outdoor dining area. The heat lamps were on and we were seated at a quiet table in the back corner. It was quite cozy and the service was very attentive. We were only there for an hour for wine and appetizers.

We had dinner at Okoze Sushi where Kat & Jon recommended. They had met one of the sushi chef’s on previous visits, his name is DJ, and he has always treated them well with good food on subsequent visits. Tonight, Jon asked him to prepare some things for our party of 7, whatever he thought would be appropriate. We started out with some edamame and this waygu beef carpaccio dish. Yummy!

The restaurant was too dark so I gave up on taking pictures with my phone’s camera and just decided to enjoy the meal. We had delicious sashimi, an extra large special roll that had soft shell crab inside and some sort of white fish outside with siracha sauce and salmon roe, tempura, and a few other little things. Everything had really strong flavors and seemed more fusion cuisine rather than traditional Japanese. My only complaint would be that it was quite loud inside the restaurant so it was hard to have a conversation but then you can really concentrate on eating.

What a wonderful activity packed day in San Francisco…

Stack’s Restaurant
501 Hayes Street

Bistro Aix
3340 Steiner St (between Lombard & Chestnut)

Okoze Sushi
1207 Union St (at Hyde)

Monsters vs Aliens

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http://www.monstersvsaliens.com/

Ron and I went to see Monsters vs Aliens in 3D! I can’t remember the last time I saw a 3D movie… this was a great experience! Some of the previews were 3D showcasing some of their upcoming movies… now I can’t wait to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (who wouldn’t want food dropping from the sky) and Up (a cranky old man can be cute).

We went to the Century 20 in Daly City and since I think it was the early bird matinee $6 + $3 for the 3D, our tickets were only $9 each. A bargain considering…

After the movie, we had ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We had the OREO Overload Signature Creation in a waffle bowl… sweet cream ice cream, chocolate chips, double OREO cookies, and fudge.

Yum!

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!

Sophie’s Crepes & Halu

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I had a craving for crepes after hearing my co-worker Patsy talk about them so after work, Ron took me to Japantown for some Sanrio shopping and crepes. Patsy told me there was a new Sanrio store open in Japantown so of course I had to go see. It’s one of the new boutique shops of Sanrio. For a picture of the storefront, check out Patsy’s blog here. I got myself a new coffee mug, a sweatshirt, and a cute green frog for my friend.

Afterwards, we stopped at Sophie’s Crepes to satisfy my crepe craving. I ordered the strawberry and nutella crepe (for $5.37 total). The crepe seemed a bit overcooked, too crispy but the strawberries were refreshing and the nutella nice and gooey.

We stopped by Sports Basement afterwards just to check it out, we’ve never been there before. I get a 10% discount from work. It would’ve been great if we found something but didn’t find anything we wanted just then. We do need new bindings and maybe new boots for our snowboards but probably won’t get them until the end of winter.

Afterwards we were craving Japanese for dinner and went to check out this local place called Halu. We’ve passed by it a few times before while looking for parking in the area and I read good reviews about it on Yelp! so thought it a good place to try. They serve mostly yakitori, ramen, and rice dishes. The place is very unique, very small… they have tons of Beatles paraphernalia and great Beatles music!

We had some sake. Light and refreshing.

The deluxe yakitori combination platter. There’s no choice but a good selection of 7 skewers. From left to right: chicken wings, shrimp, okra, mushrooms, chicken, chicken meatballs, and beef (the beef was the best).

The agedashi tofu. Was a bit soggy but the sauce very tasty.

Chasu ramen. Soup was a bit bland but with the addition of a bit of spices, much better. The soup is very “creamy” so watch out. The pork was very tender, almost melted in your mouth. The ramen was thinner than I liked but cooked well.

Overall, I probably wouldn’t return for the chasu ramen but they do have a special butter garlic ramen that might be yummy and also have okonomiyaki which we’ll have to go back and try. The beef yakitori was the best and the people sitting next to us had asparagus wrapped in bacon which looked really good too so we’d have to try other yakitori options if we go there again.

Sophie’s Crepes
1581 Webster Street (between Geary Blvd & Post St)
Near Kinokuniya Bookstore

Halu
312 8th Avenue (between Clement St & Geary Blvd)