Brunch at Caravan

Brunch at Caravan is worth the usual wait. We stumbled upon this last weekend during the long holiday walking through Exmouth Market and we were lucky to have missed the usual wait for a table. I really enjoyed the salmon and egg dish and the service was also very good. Because the menu offered several different dishes, I would definitely go back. 

A Trip to Borough Market

I am in London for the next few months and on a mission to find the good foodie places. So far, I've discovered that the weekend markets have good food vendors. Last weekend I went to Portable Market  and this weekend I went to a Borough Market. 

Borough Market is entirely a food market. There are a variety of food vendors with unique dishes and tailored to all kinds of diets. When I saw the gluten free bakery, I knew that I could bring anyone here and they find something they love to eat. I had the Mixed Game sandwich from the Guildable Manor and it was delicious. I can't wait to go back to try different dishes. 

Bar Bambino in the Mission

Bar Bambino is a cozy Italian restaurant with good food. The appetizers and desserts were most memorable. I also loved the fact that all the seats in the back, covered patio had blankets. 

Finally Checked-in at the Best Super Burrito

I finally tried the best super burrito in the Mission at El Farolito. From the looks of the place, as you can tell from the photos, it doesn't look so appetizing but it is. I had always been a fan of Papalote (#2 on 7x7 list) but El Farolito is not my new favorite. First of all, a burrito is suppose to be just the right size so you can eat it with your hands and juicy (so you can make a mess!). Papalote burritos are a bit over-sized and dry in comparison. I always have to eat mine with a knife and fork. I also like to see pictures of the other items, just in case I want to try something new. Rarely happens- but I like the visual options for a different food adventure. It's also essential to have a salsa bar. While I love Papalote's special salsa it always bothers me that you get one little serving and if you want to help yourself to more, you have to pay. Finally, the sour cream that made El Farolito my new favorite burrito place is that it's cheaper than Papalote. Super burritos can add up for a burrito lover.

Turkish Coffee

My favorite rainy Sunday activity is to sip on Turkish coffee with a treat. This cup was enjoyed with a date from Dubai (thanks Lobna). Afterwards, I can spend hours making up what the future holds from the left over coffee grounds. 

The Brixton

I had dinner at The Brixton in SF Marina neighborhood a few weeks ago. For a Monday night, the newly opened restaurant was relatively busy and entertaining. Two tables down from our table dined a guy wearing sunglasses throughout his entire dinner. At first I thought he may have had an eye problem, but he did take it off  and was looking around just fine. It was definitely to grab some attention and it worked! The crowd was fun and the staff was as well. Most importantly, the food was also very good. They mainly offer an American cuisine. I had the French onion dip for appetizer (yum) and a fried chicken salad for my meal. It all got washed down with a finely made dirty martini. My friends had the half-chicken and skirt steak and were also happy with their meals. 

Organic Cauliflower Pasta

Recently received this amazing cook book as a holiday gift. The recipes are organized by seasons to reflect the vegetables and fruits available. Last week, I selected the cauliflower pasta to make from the winter section. The recipe listed a few simple ingredients that I already had and took about an hour to cook but tasted like I had been making it for hours. 

Ryoko Sushi

Recently checked-in Ryoko Sushi to find a cool basement place with great fresh sushi and a lot of personality.

Wexler's BBQ is Finger Licking Good

Wexler's has been on my foodie list for awhile now but for some reason I've always wanted to go there for brunch, which they do not offer. After two failed attempts of trying to go for brunch, I made it for dinner this last week. I really liked the vibe, and food. The interior is really simple, and clean. Yet, it's still warm. Best of all is the finger licking BBQ! I really hope the considering starting brunch because the BBQ would be amazing with a side of breakfast eggs (mmm). 

Simple Sugar Cookies

Finally, I found a really easy cookie recipe that I can follow. The cookies turned out really taste but not very cute. I'll have to get some cookie cutters for my Christmas batch.

Ubuntu Restaurant in Napa

On a recent Napa trip  I discovered Ubuntu Restaurant  in downtown Napa. We went to dinner at Ubuntu without knowing that they had received a 2011 Michelin Star. When I called for a reservation early in the morning, I was surprised to hear that they were already booked and that we could try our luck at the bar.  During the course of the meal I was surprised that I hadn't heard more about the restaurant because the food and service was so good. Every dish was made with extra care and consideration and it was delivered to us in the same manner. Since this is a vegetarian restaurant, they are very creative with their dishes so that they can provide a variety of filling flavors. Every time we asked the waiter about an ingredient on the dish, like a piece of dried fennel, he was able to go into details of how it was made. Even the smallest garnish had been chosen with care. When I learned that the  name Ubuntu  originates from a South African humanist philosophy of focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other, I couldn't think of any other way to express the experience of eating at Ubuntu. 

Local Wine & Merchant

Local Wine and Merchant is a genuine neighborhood restaurant. Since it opened up in SOMA a couple years ago, I have ate here a handful times. I have never been disappointed by the food nor the experience. The only thing I don't like about this place, is the formal name. I feel like the restaurant's tag line, "Eat Local, Drink Global," is more reflective of the experience. I am surprised that the executive chef-partner Ola Fendert, would give it such a blah name after giving my other favorite SOMA restaurant OOLA such oh la la name. It goes to show that you really can't judge a restaurant by it's name. 

Twenty Five Lusk

Twenty Five Lusk is a new restaurant in SOMA that according to the Chef Dolan, in an Grub Street article interview, has been three years in the making to become "an approachable fine dining experience." I really enjoyed the dining experience. I have to say that the thing that I enjoyed more than the Scandinavian fire places, semi-private dining areas, the service that never allowed an empty glass of water on our table, was the Cauliflower Creme Brulee! Where had it been all my life? It was really delicious. You have to try it if you ever go there and you have to share it. I ordered one for myself and almost ate all of it. Leaving very little room for the rest of my meal. I will definitely go back to Twenty Five Lusk. If you want to learn more about others food experience, here some more Yelp reviews.  

A Simple Sunday Dinner

The last two weeks have been filled with many nights of eating out. Trying new restaurants and going back to some old favorites is always a fun food experience but sometimes you really want a home cooked meal. Tonight I was craving a healthy home cooked meal so I turned to my all time favorite easy meal - baked salmon. I can never ruin a salmon meal. It's just so tasty that you would really have to try hard to make it awful. I found a salmon with caramelized leeks recipe on All.Recipes.com that I have never tried before. To add some additional greens, I made this simple roasted Brussels sprouts. I cooked the salmon with the brussels sprouts at the same time in the oven at a lower temperature of 400 degrees. It took a bit longer than the recipe said it would but it tasted great. 

French Apple Tart

Every Thanksgiving we all gather at my aunt's place and she does pretty much all the cooking. I love to cook, so every year I eagerly volunteer to make something and my offer is usually kindly dismissed.  Last year, I was finally extended an invitation to make a side dish. This year my contribution was upgraded to making a dessert. I wanted to make a traditional Thanksgiving dessert but I've never made pies before and was worried about the outcome. A floppy dessert could have resulted in being demoted to making a salad next year. I found this French Apple Tart recipe on the Food Network and it was really easy to make. The taste results will be finalized next year when or if I get my invitation to cook a Thanksgiving dish.

Best Ribs in San Francisco @ Oola

Oola is one of my favorite SOMA restaurants and their baby back ribs dish is my all time, everywhere favorite ribs. I don't know what they put in that sauce, but it somehow tranquilizes me. It's the best prescription for a bad day. One bite into the tender ribs and all that has bothered me is forgotten and forgiven. If you are having an extra bad day order the Parmesan truffle fries as well. This combination will put a smile on any rib lover's face.

Flour + Water = Amazing Rich Chocolate Dessert

Last Tuesday I went to Flour + Water. 1 hour wait for a table + 4 lovely ladies + 2 bottles of wine + 2 slices of  calabrese pizza + a few bites of strozzapreti pasta + many bites of the amazing pumpkin tortellini + profusely licking the spoon that fed me the chocolate budino with expresso-caramel cream & sea salt = the evening left me with a big smile and a new dessert obsession with the chocolate budino with expresso-caremel cream & sea salt.

Greens Restaurant

Last Sunday night I tried Greens Restaurant for the first time. As the name suggests, everything is vegetarian. Even though most of my lunches are vegetarian and filling, I still have this misconception of vegetarian food as not being filling. Because of this, I checked the menu before I went to dinner and picked the most filling dish I could spot. I chose the the stuff squash -the Ronde Nice Squash Provencal.  Thinking if it is stuffed, it must be filling too..Right? It was definitely stuffed but not as full of flavor as I expected. However, I loved the polenta. I recently tried to cook polenta and learned that it is not as simple to make as it appears. This experience left me with an appreciation for good made polenta. The salad and entree were both very fresh and simple. The dessert was the best. We ordered an upside down cake and these amazing profiteroles. One of them was stuffed with Carmel ice cream and tasted just like the amazing Salted Carmel ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery.  It was a really nice, healthy dinner and thanks to Black Board Eats 30% discount  the meal came to a good price as well. 

San Francisco Radius Restaurant

"Locally sourced French California Cuisine"

At first glance at Radius motto, "Locally sourced French California Cuisine", I thought that this would be a food match made in heaven. First of all they are in SOMA. Anywhere I can walk to to get good food, I get excited about. I love staying in my SOMA  zipcode. On top of that they support local growers. All the ingredients are from 100 mile radius, hence the name Radius (ah huh!). So many reasons to love it... but I recently went for dinner and I didn't love it. The food was very fresh, and the combinations of ingredients were good. The rockfish I had was served with fennel and potatoes. So, why wasn't this a food match? Something was missing from the dishes I spotted and it was the spices. The dishes were bland. Maybe they had an off night because the Yelp reviews are mostly 4 stars. I noticed the good reviews are for lunch so I will give Radius another try because it is local.

Te Gusto Tacolicious

I am probably late to the fiesta but I am happy that I finally arrived because I love Tacolicious. I didn't expect delicious tacos and for a "reasonable price," outside of the Mission. $12 for 4 tacos is reasonable to me. I especially loved every bite of the carnitas taco except when I accidentally added a big helping of the yellow salsa on it. For some reason, I thought yellow is suppose to be mild. WOW! was I wrong.