Berry Good

I used to complain a bunch about Trader Joe's produce, but today I picked up some organic strawberries that were holy-moly good! Since the rest of this food blog's entries are quite fat-filled, I've decided to offset the lard consumed with a shot of fruit.

Homesick

This is what happens when eight hungry people hit up Southland Flavor Cafe. We order everything! Okay, not everything. Have you seen their menu?

Mediocre food, but always a good time! I enjoy dropping by this place when in need of a Taiwanese fix.

Southland Flavor Cafe
10825 N Wolfe Rd
Cupertino, CA 95015

As I Walked Through the Valley...

In the shadow of death... er, no, not really.
Was in the South Bay for much of this past weekend so all my postings are going to be of Valley (as in Silicon Valley) eats. Jen Yen, Josh, and I had ourselves a satisfying meal of good-for-the-price Thai food on Saturday. If you come to this place with mild expectations, you should leave extremely pleased. Order the waitress' favorites, and she just might comp you with dessert (fried bananas with chocolate ice-cream)!

Pictured: Spicy Mini Rolls (they look a bit like ginormous Combos, but these chicken-filled babies are "good with beer", according to Josh), Dancing Prawns (the clever little "backpacks" are made of ground chicken), Chicken Pad See Yew (my favorite), and our complimentary. We also ordered a yummy scallop dish for which I have forgotten the name of.

Thai Pepper
1045 Monroe St
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 984-1931

Homemade

Josh made me scallion pancakes from scratch! Yummy-yummy-yum.

Good Enough to Eat

A couple weeks ago, I insisted that Josh pay a visit to this popular bakery that I (and numerous other San Franciscans) adore so-so dearly. We got there fairly early and and ordered ourselves a mountain of goodies. There was the open-faced sandwich (they ran out of shitake mushrooms so our shitake-asparagus sandwich was void of fungus), the ham and cheese quiche (to the delight of Josh, his slice was both fluffy and flakey), the classic orange cinnamon morning bun (oh boy!), and plum bread pudding (I still can't figure out why this dish is so popular). Sold the little cafe a little too hard. Josh's expectations had gotten kinda' high, and quite frankly, I think he was disappointed. Tartine's still good, but I'm not sure if it's worth the weekend wait.

Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero St
(between 18th St & 19th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110

When Josh Isn't Around

I venture out for Indian food! The cub does not enjoy Indian cuisine.

Fellow Andersonite Weber and I caught up over a meal of "yummy" earlier this evening. Since the restaurant was his suggestion, I had him order for the both of us. We started with the assorted appetizer platter consisting of Samosas (particularly tasty when topped with apricot chutney), Vegetable Pakora (imagine really good miniature onion rings) and Papadum (peppery crackers/flatbread). Our starters were followed by Chicken Vindaloo (spicy--but not too spicy--chicken and potato curry), Dal Saag (a mashed spinach and lentil dish), Naan, and Kabuli Naan (plain naan filled with fruit and nut). The company (Weber alone) was fabulous and the food? Fabulous as well.

Indian Oven
233 Fillmore St
(between Haight & Laussat)
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 626-1628

Ginormous Portions

Not the best meal meal of Korean BBQ of our lifetimes (as we've been spoiled by the authentic offerings in Los Angeles), but definitely one of the most satisfying. For under $10 per person, Josh and I each enjoyed a plateful of rice, japchae (glass noodles), steamed broccoli, kimchee, and beef kalbi (short ribs). We probably could have (and should have) shared, but I got greedy...

Sorabol Korean BBQ & Asian Noodle
Westfield San Francisco Centre

Shweet.

After a meal of ramen with one of cougar cub's Berkeley friends this past Wednesday, we shuffled on over to Sophie's Crepes for a sweet ending to our savory meal. Unfortunately, the joint was closed. Not one to give up (at least not in the name of dessert), I returned to Japantown the following day and shared a strawberry-nutella and vanilla ice-cream crepe with Josh. My crepe "skin" was somewhat on the brittle side yesterday (batter over-done?) but I was able to overlook the imperfect crepe texture due to the generous portioning of nutella. Oh, how I love nutella. On average, Sophie's still offers the best sweet crepes in all San Francisco. Just one girl's opinion.

Sophie's Crepes
1582 Webster Street
(between Geary and Post)
San Francisco, CA 94115

Maki Doesn't Sucky

Folks, consider yourselves forewarned. This restaurant is tiny. But goods things come in small packages, no? *nod-nod-nod*

I'd been to Maki before and wanted to introduce the restaurant's simple and clean flavors to Josh. Items on Maki's menu aren't cheap (a meal will run you about $25), but I think their grub is worth it as we left feeling simultaneously full and inspired by the various flavors presented.

Josh ordered the mini-wappa meshi with unagi (eel). His unagi "wappa" (unagi over rice in a bamboo basket) was accompanied by miso soup (not of the packaged freeze-dried assortment), oshinko (pickled veggies), hijki (seaweed), seafood salad (squid and shrimp), chawan mushi (egg custard). I ordered the sansai wappa(mountain vegetables over rice in a bamboo basket) and enjoyed the generous offering of compartmentalized tasty "tapas".

Josh liked his meal. The tastes were "clean, simple, and elegant." Maki was "delicately creative," their food "light, but filling," and "the whole restaurant was very neat, very... I don't know..."

His tummy definitely smiled :)

Maki Restaurant
1825 Post Street
(between Fillmore and Webster)
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 921-5215