Daily Archives: January 29, 2012

Huff’s yakitori birthday dinner – Mokutanya

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A group of us from work went to this yakitori restaurant to celebrate Huff’s birthday. I’d tell you what age he was turning, but I don’t know that information. Huff is good at keeping a tight lip about his age. Such a girl, lol!

I can’t remember if I’ve ever eaten at a yakitori restaurant where you take your shoes off outside of your table area and step down to sit below the level of the floor. It was kinda cool!

What wasn’t cool was when the host came by and “entertained” our table with some card tricks and a few jokes. It was OK, but it seemed forced and I felt a little uncomfortable, like I was trapped in my below-ground table while he stood above us performing for his captive audience.

The dinner went great and the food was pretty good. Apparently the noodles were really good – I didn’t have any though. I like my work group and dinner always flies by. At the end of dinner, splitting the bill was a headache, again! I think we all expect Papa Chang to take care of the check and let everyone know how much they owe, yay!

Mokutanya, Burlingame CA

Hotate yakitori Mokutanya

Hotate yakitori. Sea scallops grilled with pepper. $4

Spicy kurobuta sausage yakitori Mokutanya

Spicy kurobuta sausage yakitori. Made with Berkshire pork. $2

Chicken kawa yakitori Mokutanya

Kawa yakitori. Chicken skin. $2

Butabara yakitori Mokutanya

Butabara yakitori. Pork belly. $3

Wagyu beef yakitori Mokutanya

Wagyu beef yakitori. $3.50

Croquettes Mokutanya

Croquettes. Deep fried panko-breaded mashed potatoes, served with tonkatsu sauce. $6

Lychee shochu cocktail Mokutanya

Lychee with shochu cocktail. $10 for bottle

Candy cane ice cream – Bi-Rite Creamery

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Candy cane ice cream Bi-Rite Creamery

Peppermint flavored ice cream with candy cane bits. Kid size $2.50
Bi-Rite Creamery, San Francisco

This was one of their seasonal flavors before the Christmas holiday. It looked so bright and festive that I had to try it. I loved the peppermint ice cream and the candy cane bits were fun and crunchy! Yay! Bi-Rite remains a winner in my book!

There’s a new ice cream parlor on Valencia Street toward my apartment, though. Gonna have to try it and see how it compares!

Crispy scrapple – Magnolia Pub and Brewery

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Crispy scrapple Magnolia Pub and Brewery

Sweet bacon jam, soft poached egg. $7
Magnolia Pub and Brewery, San Francisco

I’ll admit that I had NO idea what a scrapple was when I order it. I think it was the bacon jam that called to me. I quickly Googled it on my phone and found this on Wikipedia:

“Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name pon haus, is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then panfried before serving. Etc.”

Sounds super healthy, right!? LOL. So after munching down the bacon-wrapped and cheese-filled dates, this isn’t exactly what I wanted to eat, but DAMN it was tasty. In addition to the Wikipedia description, this scrapple looked to be breaded before being pan fried.

The bacon jam was frickin’ amazing and once you broke the poached eggs and ate everything together, it was pork lover’s heaven!  Don’t think my arteries could handle another round of this, though, hehe!

Crispy scrapple Magnolia Pub and Brewery