Ladies Lunch in Fillmore and Japantown

A few weeks ago, I met with a friend of mine for a leisurely lunch. We deliberately left our schedule open, for we planned on doing nothing except enjoying each other's company. We wanted to spend our day aimlessly browsing the designer shops, contentedly window shopping, and delightfully gazing at the idyllic scenery in hazy San Francisco.

My friend and I met at one of my favorite San Francisco restaurants, La Mediterranee. There, I ordered the lunch special, which came with a creamy, silken yogurt soup to start. The decadent and lemony soup invigorated my palate, and whetted my appetite for more. The taste and consistency of the soup reminded me of a homey cream of broccoli soup. For my main dish, I enjoyed a protein trio consisting of (1) chicken pomegranate, a fall-of-the-bone dark meat drumstick marinated, basted, and slowly baked in a sweet and slightly acidic pomegranate sauce with wild herbs, (2) a crisp filo levantine meat tart filled with lean ground beef and toasted pine nuts, and (3) chicken cilicia seasoned with cinnamon-spiced chicken and served over golden rice pilaf tossed with crispy almond slivers, chickpeas, and raisins. The chicken cilicia also came in a golden-brown filo wrapper, and exhibited a perfect balance of complimentary sweet, sour, and savory flavors with the hot chickeny interior and sweet dusting of powdered sugar. I also enjoyed the pillowy wedges of warm pita, which I dipped in a small mound of tahini-rich hummus.


After our filling and satisfying meal, we stopped by Dosa, a trendy and new Indian restaurant, to appreciate the luxuriously designed restaurant space, which oddly was once occupied by Goodwill. The vividly colored hanging chandeliers glittered and sparkled with their feathery and beaded outgrowths. We decided to order some refreshments, and I went with the sweet mango lassi, which had a hint of mint and a rich, smooth, custardy consistency.


As we wandered from shop to shop, we made our last stop in Japantown. First, we visited the Hotel Kabuki, to visit their beautiful tea garden and watch the peaceful koi fish eagerly encircle the whispering waterfall. Next, we stopped by San Francisco's Benkyodo Co., where we snacked on their "manju of the month," a sticky rice flour mochi cake filled with supple marshmallow and chocolate filling. As we dusted the sweet manju flour from our lips, we took a last stroll around Japantown, and a few hours later, concluded our restful and enjoyable mini-tour of San Francisco.


I hope my day gave you some ideas of where to visit if you ever come to San Francisco. All of these places are within walking distance of one another!

Five Favorite Places to Eat in San Francisco

I have really been enjoying the memes that Tigerfish has been tagging me for! The object of her most recent meme is to list my five favorite restaurants in my hometown, the City of San Francisco. Here are my five favorite places in San Francisco, in no particular order. These places are not high-end, but they are places I feel comfortable going to on a regular basis with great food. If you are a tourist, I recommend you to stop by the Ferry Building and "peruse" the foodie atmosphere there, but these five are definitely worth your visit and your money.

#1. Tu Lan: Although this is a recent discovery for me, every experience at this restaurant has been a extraordinary one. Touted as "Julia Child's favorite restaurant in San Francisco," the image of Julia Child scrawled across the cover of the menu is an endorsement to be remembered. You will always hear two things about Tu Lan: 1) the considerable portions of food served and 2) the rock-bottom prices. Although Tu Lan is in a relatively seedy area of the City (read: "non-tourist friendly") and it is a sticky-table dive in the truest sense, it is the best value in the City for great Vietnamese. My favorite item there, is the refreshing chilled noodle salad, or bun cha gio thit nuong, which comes dressed in a spicy fish sauce and lime vinaigrette. The cha gio (fried imperial rolls) are substantial, cylindrical hunks of oil-crisped rice paper wrapped around ground meat. Dizzam! Those cha gio are a force to be reckoned with! (By the way, the pictures in this post are from Tu Lan.)

#2. La Mediterranee: In the Fillmore District of San Francisco, this tiny restaurant is flanked by colorful boutiques with glistening glass windows that showcase flowing mesh skirts and dangly artisan jewelry. You can work up a hearty appetite after perusing what the neighborhood shops have to offer and then feast on soft and chewy pita breads that are kept warm in cloth napkins. The pita breads are partnered wonderfully with La Mediterranee's flavorful extravaganza of thick and creamy Mediterranean dips, made with ingredients such as chickpeas, eggplant, or tart Greek yogurt. Check out a recent post of mine on my lunch at La Mediterranee, here.

#3. Chutney: This is my all time favorite Pakistani restaurant, I cannot say enough about the creamy, rich, and tomatoey sauce in their chicken tikka masala. I was one of the first patrons of Chutney on the day they first opened, and will be a patron of this fantastic restaurant until . . . Well, forever! Other "must try" items include bengun bharta (which is made with softened cubes of tomatoes and eggplant) and garlic naan (which is served piping hot and liberally sprinkled with roasted garlic and fresh cilantro).

#4. Café Bastille in Belden Place: Belden Place is a quaint, cute alleyway bordering Chinatown and the Financial District in San Francisco. Belden Place contains restaurants that are San Francisco's closest equivalent to the bistros on the cobblestone streets of Europe. Strings of white Christmas lights dangle wistfully across the skies and outdoor chairs and tables line the length of the alleyway. The alongside the tables are glowing heater lamps that warm your relaxed shoulders on chilly evenings and open-faced umbrellas that provide a blanket of shade on sunny days. My favorite restaurant in Belden Place is Café Bastille--I love it because of the croque madame sandwiches, with the blistered and enveloping gruyere surface and the glistening and runny egg yolk that oozes oh-so-gracefully over this classic open-faced French ham sandwich.

#5. Marnee Thai: Walking into the restaurant, you will immediately notice several things about this comfortable place. First is the hatch-patterned bamboo façade on the walls. The second is the numerous plaques and certificates decorating those walls. Those awards are for winning international competitions for pad thai. And yes, I said "international" competitions. Their awards for the pad thai are extraordinarily well-deserved. This place seriously has the best pad thai outside of Thailand. The flavors in the pad thai are delicate and arousing, with the perfect amount of tartness and sweetness from the tamarind paste. The noodles are also immaculately textured--mildly agglutinative but firm enough to be discrete, separate from the other noodle tendrils. For more on the deliciousness that is Marnee Thai, please one of my previous posts on the restaurant.

Additionally, if you are lucky enough to have transportation around the City, check out Shanghai Dumpling King for the best Chinese meat dumplings in the entire City. Try looking up the MUNI bus lines for easy public transportation access from where you are staying (if you are a tourist). It is definitely worth the trip. Also, for good Chinese food in Chinatown, don't just stop in any old place. There are many tourist traps with really bad food in Chinatown. I recommend R and G ("RNG") Lounge, which is a pricier place, but their Chinese food is no-fail. Definitely amble down North Beach for some Little Italy dining. Finally, for cheap and delicious banh mi sandwiches, check out Saigon Sandwiches in the Tenderloin District. Oh yes, and for a touristy taste of San Francisco's sourdough bread, check out Boudin Bakery, where you can get affordable clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.

And I would love to hear other people's take on San Francisco restaurants. For other San Francisco places, check out my posts tagged with "San Francisco Eats." For this post, I would like to tag my wonderful food blogging friends who write:

Taste Tests (see her list here)
The Short Exact Guide
Cooking with the Single Guy (see his list here), and
The Food Hoe (see her list here)!

As for all of my meme tags, even if you are tagged, feel no obligation to write a response. I understand you are busy. However, I would love to learn what restaurants earn your seal of approval. Also, if you were not tagged but are interested in this meme, let me know!

Currying Favor with Red Potatoes

I have a newfound admiration for red potatoes. With their thin red skins and supple, creamy innards, they sometimes are a perfect alternative to my first potato love, the Russet.

I am gradually substituting red potatoes in dishes where my family only used Russets. However, although red potatoes are more glamorous and are better suited for more visually appealing dishes, they are not always interchangeable with Russets.

Plus, I find myself encountering my own moral opposition when using red potatoes as a Russet alternative. Using red potatoes for potato salad? You can definitely do that. Stews? Of course! Potatoes au gratin? Bring it on! French fries? Although there may be problems, why not? What about Mom's curry? . . . Hey, wait a minute! That would be sacrilegious. Mama always made curry with Russet potatoes, and therefore, I need to too. Plus, you need the starchiness imparted from Russet potatoes to make the base of a hearty and thick curry gravy.

Or do you?

I decided to try it out for myself.

Although there wasn't as substantial of a curry sauce as I am accustomed to, the potatoes hadn't disintegrated into a sandy slosh. The red potatoes maintained firmness and their overall shape and form. Plus, the potatoes had absorbed the curry seasonings and tasted just as flavorful as Russets.

Hmm. . . I think I'm coming around to red potatoes. All the way around.

Karahi Kid

A few days ago, I was in the mood for some great Indian food. The only quasi-Indian food I know how to make is curry carrots and potatoes. I decided to be adventurous, and audaciously decided to try an impressive dish I had tried before, karahi beef.

Although "karahi" means a large, seasoned, circular, and flat-bottomed pan--that is comparable to a wok--it also refers to a richly-flavored curry prepared in a karahi and made with tomatoes, green chilies, and ginger.

In a wok, I stir-fried cubes of marbleized beef and white onion just until caramelized, so that the softened edges of the onions were glazed and browned. Following the recipe, I then added minced green jalapeno chilies, garlic, grated ginger pulp, a spoonful of garam masala, chopped tomatoes (with all their liquids), and bulbous chickpeas (garbanzo beans). The relatively dry curry began to metamorphosize and take on a life of its own, as the tomatoes emitted their juices and the liquid evaporated into a thick and fragrant curry gravy.

When the curry was eventually finished simmering on a low flame, I ladled the karahi over a fluffy bed of basmati rice and sprinkled it generously with chopped cilantro.

One bite and I was pleased that I tried something outside of my comfort zone. Mr. Miyagi would be proud of this Karahi Kid!

Traveling Eater Series: Reno

This weekend has been a blur. My friend and I decided to take a last-minute weekend trip out of San Francisco to Reno, so that we could gamble like low-rollers in a small-time poker tournament, gorge ourselves on monstrous buffets, and relax in the warming Nevada sun. My primary culinary goal for our trip to Reno? To do great meals in Reno the Rachael Ray way, for under $40 a day. Also, my friend planned our trip to coincide with Reno's Italian Festival, where we could participate as audience judges in the Italian Tomato Sauce Cook-Off.

Day One:
On our way out of San Francisco, we stopped in Berkeley to grab a taste-bud scorching meal at the spicy Vik's Chaat Corner.

We started with two golden-brown, pyramid-shaped samosas filled with a spicy potato mixture, and accompanied by a chunky dipping stew replete with bulbous chickpeas, minced onions, and a verdant nest of cilantro to garnish.

If that wasn't filling enough, my friend and I also ordered the Indian-style plate lunches. I ordered the shahjahani sea bass curry and my friend ordered the mangalore chicken curry with coconut milk. Each lunch plate came with a fork-fluffed scoop basmati rice, an ample ladleful of dal (lentils), unleavened tortilla-like round of chappati bread, a wafer-crisp pappadum cracker, cooling cucumber and yogurt raita, and strong-flavored pickled achar with tamarind essence.

The sea bass was stewed in a chocolate-colored curry gravy.

And the hunks of chicken breast was similarly stewed in a golden curry sauce.

We avoided dessert although we were seriously tempted by the bakery glass display-case that showcased the extensive dessert selection.

Grand total for our lunch? Around $20.00.

Once we arrived in Reno we hightailed it to the best sushi place in Reno (and arguably better than the majority of sushi joints in the Bay Area), Sushi Pier. The moment we strolled in the restaurant, we were overtaken by the friendliness of Reno natives. We ordered the all-you-can-eat-sushi dinner, and it was an extravagant affair. Once the waitstaff and sushi chef discovered that we were "tourists," they gave us extra special treatment, made us dishes that were off-the-menu, and giving us many "secret tips while staying in Reno." Before even ordering, the sushi chef laid multiple multi-colored and multi-flavored dishes before us. My favorites included a fresh mussels topped with a chilled seafood puree, salmon roe, and scallion ringlets;

Shrimp carved into boat-shaped vessels, and topped with hand-molded sushi rice, and a cool seafood salad made with scallops and shrimp;

A tempura-battered and deep-fried sushi roll stuffed with unagi and cream cheese and topped with toasted black and white sesame seeds and scallions sliced on a bias;

And finally, a tremendous roll of sushi layered with creamy sheets of avocado, fresh and vibrant slices of tuna, and stuffed with a chilled sushi rice which coddled elongated shrimps wrapped within the roll.

The total at Sushi Pier (plus tax and tip) was $50.00 for both my friend and I, making the grand total for Day One to be $70.00. So at $35.00 for Day One (my half of the $70.00), I made it well below Rachael Ray's $40.00 a day! Okay, I didn't have breakfast, but on to Day Two...

Day Two:

After a quick breakfast of a banana and strawberry yogurt purchased from the convenience store downstairs near the casino lobby, we headed off to check out the automobiles at the National Automobile Museum. My favorite vehicle in the complex? I was impressed by the 14-carat gold plated 1981 DeLorean. That ride is pimped.

Walking around the museum definitely revved up our appetites, so we quickly stopped for lunch nearby in downtown Reno at Silver Peak. My friend ordered the prime rib sandwich which came with a glass dish filled with a soy sauce-based au jus, and huge circles of crunchy onion rings.

Thankfully, I selected the "healthier option" of an ahi tuna burger stuffed with thin slices of pickled ginger and a refreshing Asian slaw made with a sweetened rice wine vinegar dressing.

With my breakfast totaling a mere $3.00, and lunch totaling $20.00 for the two of us, we were well on our way of reaching our goal of eating in Reno for only $40 a day.

After lunch, we decided to check out the old mining ghost town of Virginia City, where we perused the Civil War era exhibits in the Fourth Ward School Museum and did some tourist sightseeing on the main street in the town.

My friend and I decided rustle up some grub at Ruby River Steakhouse, a Western-themed chain with country music blaring from the restaurant speakers. As soon as we sat down in our darkened booth, our waitress plopped a metal pail filled with salted peanuts before us.

I think I was overcome by the moment, because I decided to order the appetizer sampler, which was an overdose of deep-fried and greasy carbs. The sampler came with a deep-fried onion blossom, breaded and battered jalapeno peppers stuffed with melted and stringy mozzarella cheese, buffalo wings, and an oily and heavy slice of bread blanketed with a melted cheese and scallions. Although the sampler was calorie-laden enough, I just "had" to dip my sampler items in the thousand island dressing, the blue cheese dressing, and the mint jelly that came with the appetizer. Whoa, I am full just talking about it.

My friend's order came with a fresh garden salad,

And a side of vegetables.

He ordered prime rib (again) with a shredded mound of sinus-clearing horseradish and a dark beef broth of au jus.

Although I was already full at this point, my order also came with a salad, and I chose Caesar salad because I love cheese.

Although I already had my share of fried foods from our appetizer, I was surprised to see the battered and deep-fried potato that came with my order. (Sadly, I ate it all, chives, sour cream, potato, and deep-fried batter.)

I ordered the barbequed chicken and pork ribs combo plate. (Yes, I ate all of this too.)

When the bill came out, I realized that I overshot for that day. The bill was $60.00 plus tax and tip, meaning that our combined total for the day was $80.00 plus my $3.00 from breakfast. I had spent $43.00! Okay Rachael, you won this one, but I'll show you that I can make it under $40 a day on my last day in Reno!

Day Three:

In the morning, I was a little tired of overeating, which I had been doing for the past two days. But, I wasn't "completely" tired of overeating, so my friend and I visited the breakfast buffet at the El Dorado, where helped myself to eggs, eggs, and more eggs.

My total for breakfast? Free! I used a coupon my friend and I found online which we were able to redeem since we stayed at the El Dorado Casino.

In the afternoon, we hit the bustling streets to visit the food booths and take part in the competitions during Reno's Annual Italian Festival. We were very impressed by the huge vat of risotto--which is the largest risotto pot in the world, according to the Guinness's Book of World Records.

My friend and I also got to mingle with the winners of last year's Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce Cook-Off in Reno, and paid only $1.00 for a bowl of plain spaghetti. We slathered our soggy (not at all al dente) spaghetti noodles with multiple ladles of Italian sauces from the Italian Sauce Cook-Off comeptitors, which we obtained by by visiting the individual sampling booths. After tasting the competing sauces, we then voted for who we thought was Number One.

Just look at the different sauce consistencies and different shades of red between these two cook-off competitors alone:

Pretty intense difference huh?

Lunch was only $1.00! Breakfast was free! Okay Rachael, I think I'm doing pretty well on Day Three of my trip! Given that the main part of my lunch was only $1.00, my friend and I realized we could get something to drink and some gelato for dessert, and still be pretty darn good for our $40 a day objective.

Miss Spaghetti USA would have been proud of my cheapness, as breakfast and lunch cost me less than $5.00!

My friend and I decided to splurge in the evening on the seafood buffet at Toucan Charlie's Buffet in the Atlantis Casino. The cost? $50.00 for the both of us, and we got to stuff ourselves silly with crab legs, shrimp;

Lobster cakes, breaded and baked scallops, oysters rockefeller;

Raw oysters, and mussels cooked in cream.

Who prevailed? Whose cuisine reigns supreme? (Oh wait, that is from Iron Chef.) Well, the total for Day Three was only $30.00! I successfully ate in Reno for $40 a day (on average)! Hope this post gave you some ideas for eating on the cheap but eating quality food, in massive fried amounts!