Category Archives: Sweets/Bakeries/Desserts

Miette, Arty Salon (a 12 inch hair cut!), and Iroha

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On my long Saturday walk I stopped by Miette to check out their pastries. I decided on a rose macaroon and a box of ginger snaps. I had the macaroon as my breakfast this morning. The macaroon was $1.50 and a bit small, the circumference about the size of a silver dollar. The rose flavor was very light but fragrant, the cookie nice and nutty.

This evening I had my big haircut. Every 2 years or so, I usually will cut the length of my hair for donation to Locks of Love. This will be my third donation. Your hair donation must be at least 10 inches so if you’re interested in donating, check out their website. It’s always a good excuse for me to get a new hairstyle and my hair grows pretty fast.

So my length before haircut:

My friend Susan recommended ARTY Salon in Japantown and their stylist Kumi. She’s a busy girl so I wasn’t able to get an appointment during my vacation so had to wait until tonight. She did a really great job with my hair consultation and gave me a lot of options. Eventually I just asked her to do what she thought would be best for my face shape and my style of hair. She took a lot of time putting the finishing touches on my cut. My haircut took almost 90 minutes but my hair feels really nice and light, it just is taking some getting used to. Wait until I wash it and then I’ll have an opinion on how I really like it.

So ta-dah! At dinner:

My 12 inch ponytail:

After my cut, we went to Iroha for dinner. I had bought a gift certificate from Restaurant.com so it was a good time to use it. It was a $25 off a $45 minimum purchase, the gift certificate only cost me $5. We ended up ordering quite a bit of food.

Seaweed salad, a bit too much dressing.

Mushroom stuffed with pork, oversauced with teriyaki sauce.

Beef wrapped around green bell peppers. Again, too much teriyaki sauce.

Vegetable tempura. Great vegetables: mushrooms, bell pepper, eggplant, carrot, yam, zucchini, and some sort of pumpkin or gourd.

Tonkatsu curry. Curry was piping hot, a bit spicy which was good. The rice not very good but tonkatsu well fried.

Ron ordered the beef teriyaki + tonkatsu combo (not on the menu but they said they would make it).

It was quite a bit meal, needless to say, we were stuffed. I’ve been drinking lots of water since dinner since I feel parched, too much protein and saltiness.

Miette
2109 Chestnut St

ARTY
1680 Post St #G (2nd floor)

Iroha
1728 Buchannan St (2nd floor) between Post St & Sutter St

Little Star Pizza and Mitchell’s Ice Cream

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Last day of vacation, a good meal to end it.

Ron and I headed to Little Star Pizza in the Mission. Even though the one in Western Addition is closer to us, I wanted to head out for ice cream at Mitchell’s after dinner. Lucky for us, we arrived just at 6:30pm when the first group of diners were finished so that we were seated right away. They also have happy hour 5:30-6:30pm everyday where alcoholic drinks are $1 off.

Ron anticipating yummy pizza.

We ordered a thin crust pesto pizza as an appetizer because the deep dish takes about 25 minutes to cook. The pesto is squeezed right on top. The thin crust was really crunchy, sort of cracker-like but really good, not a single soggy spot anywhere. The pesto made it extra yummy.

The deep dish we ordered is a special called Brass Monkey (it’s the Little Star Deep Dish + sausage). The sausage was delicious. The crust is pretty much the same as the thin crust so quite crunchy but a bit more oily. I think I prefer the chewy crust of Zachary’s. But the spinach made it really fresh and the ricotta made it really creamy and delicious.

Although pretty full, I saved room for ice cream. We headed to Mitchell’s to a really long line. But they have a queuing system that goes really fast. If it’s really busy, remember to grab your number the first thing when you walk in then decide on your flavors.

Ron had the Kahlua Mocha Cream single scoop and I had a double sccop with buko (young coconut) and mango. The buko had chunks of coconut in it, oh so yummy. Mango tasted a bit more like dried mango than fresh mango but still yummy. I tried the cantaloupe flavor but it wasn’t as strong as I would’ve wanted.

A good way to end my vacation. Revived and re-engergized to get back to work.

Little Star Pizza
400 Valencia St

Mitchell’s Ice Cream
688 San Jose Ave

Dynamo Donut, Tartine Bakery, Bi-rite, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, and Three Twins Ice Cream

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Today was quite the busy eating day around San Francisco. We tried so many great places… let’s start at the beginning at 1pm.

We first started out at Dynamo Donuts in the Mission. Our friends said they sometimes have this maple bacon donut but sadly, not today. Instead, we tried their ginger orange (on the left) and lemon pistachio (on the right) with a Gibralter (a very strong but mini cappuccino). The donuts were okay but not something I’d try again, I’d want other more unique flavors. The coffee was delicious though and kept me going all day long.

Next stop, something salty for lunch at Tartine Bakery. The line was out the door but we were lucky enough to secure a table for 5 inside the bakery. The hardest part was for Ron to find parking in the area. I took about 15 minutes to place our order and another 15-20 minutes for our sandwiches to arrive. I ordered a lemon cream tart and a croissant to go and two pressed sandwiches for Ron and I to share. They serve sandwiches starting after 12pm.

I ordered their spicy turkey sandwich with provolone and broccoli rabe pesto. The sandwiches were huge and good enough for two meals (there are 3 pieces in these boxes). They are served with a spicy pickled carrot. I couldn’t really taste any spiciness but I loved the broccoli rabe pesto and the toasted bread itself was so delicious.

I ordered Ron the Jambon Royale and Gruyere which is Niman Ranch smoked and cured ham with dijon mustard on country bread. Gruyere so yummy.

It’s great there were five of us so we could mix and match pieces of sandwich. I also got to try the Proscuitto and Provolone, the pastrami, and the mozzarella and tampenade. All very good and unique. The tampenade was especially interesting. It’d be great to take this away to the park and have a picnic.

Afterwards, we went to Bi-rite Market just down the street from Tartine. I realize now that there is the Bi-Rite Creamery probably just a few doors away but in my eagerness, we missed it. But no matter, the market still sells their famous salted caramel ice cream. We also picked up a pint of the balsalmic strawberry ice cream. We went back to our friend’s place to try them out.

Even after putting them in the freezer for an additional 15-20 minutes, the ice cream was still creamy and not as solid, just as their warning mentions (on the door of the market freezer, they warn because of the sugar content, the ice cream probably won’t be as hard as you’re used to. The salted caramel was so creamy and yummy, almost like a very thick milkshake. At first it overpowered the strawberry but after finishing off the salted caramel, the strawberry flavor is quite light with the hint of balsamic at the finish.

Dinner for the evening as at Rosamunde Sausage Grill in Lower Haight. I ordered the beer sausage topped with sauerkraut and grilled onions. You order your sausage types first then when they’re done on the grill, they ask for your desired toppings and you pay. They also have hot pepper and chili. Plus a variety of mustards (including wasabi mustard) plus ketchup. Reminded me of Germany.

They have a few seats inside but you can also take to go or to the bar next door to eat. The sausages range from $5-6.50 each I think. I’d like to try the wild boar with apple and spice or the duck with fig sausages if we ever get the chance to go back.

Our last stop for the night (at least for Ron & I) was Three Twins Organic Ice Cream which is just down the street. Yes, more ice cream, can you believe it? Ron and I ordered the kids’ cone of the toasted almond and peanut butter crunch. You can tell their ice cream is really fresh and clean. The story of the company is pretty amazing, read it on their website.

This was the end of the eating for us but our friends went to get ribs…. I’ll have to ask them how they were.

Dynamo Donuts
2760 24th Street

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero Street

Bi-Rite Market
3639 18th Street

Rosamunde Sausage Grill
545 Haight Street

Three Twins Organic Ice Cream
254 Fillmore Street

Father’s Day

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Had a busy Father’s Day with going out to see my parents and having early lunch at Koi Garden then later in the evening, having a BBQ at Ron’s parents’ house in Millbrae.

After lunch, I headed over to my parents house to hang out for a while and my dad just happened to decide to give their dog Happy a bath.

She’s a little timid at first but once you get her wet, she seems to really enjoy the scrubbing (she probably just really likes the attention).

All sudsy.

Getting a good rinse.

Looking for a place to dry off.

If you’re not going to dry me off, I’m going to dry off myself.

Ahhh…

All clean and smelling like apples.

We decided to buy our dads the cheesecakes from Zanze’s so for my dad, the mocha flavored.

Yummy and I loved the chocolate on top. For Ron’s dad we got the Kirsch cherries cheesecake but the Kirsch was a bit strong for all of us.

Zanze’s is closing for 3 weeks, starting June 28th (I think) since they’re going on vacation, so better get your cheesecake fix now or else you’ll have to wait until the end of July.

Happy Father’s Day!

Zanze’s
2405 Ocean Avenue

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)