Sashimi plate – Barracuda Sushi

Sashimi plate - Barracuda Sushi
Sake (salmon), hamachi (yellowtail), hotate (scallop), maguro (red tuna), shiro maguro (albacore), escolar (butterfish), saba (mackerel). Pre fixe dinner
Barracuda Sushi, San Francisco CA

I love good, fresh sashimi and it’s pretty decent at Barracuda. It’s not the best cuts ever, but they’re good quality and they taste great!

Edamame - Barracuda Sushi
Edamame.

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Albacore confit salad – Toast

Albacore confit salad - Toast
With arugula, soft cooked egg, cucumber, and lime. $11
Toast, Oakland CA

I enjoyed just about everything I had at Toast, but this was probably my least favorite item. It was a little too tart for me and I don’t know what the tuna was confit(ed?) in, I’m guessing oil, but it did nothing to improve its flavor and texture. The albacore was actually a bit dry. Besides the beautifully cooked egg, this was kind of boring.

Place setting - Toast
Place setting.

Hecho roll – Hecho

Project 365: Day 67

I had to work half a day this morning and the anticipation for my Caribbean vacation is hitting me hard! After my French Laundry meal last night (I’ll try to get those uploaded asap), I’m not feeling so hot in the body image department. Oh well, not much I can do now. I’m hitting the gym this evening and probably tomorrow night as a final attempt to tone up. Lol!

Hecho roll Hecho

Spicy tuna with albacore and pico de gallo. $16
Hecho, San Francisco

I enjoyed this roll. The fresh salsa on top was a nice surprise. Kind of expensive though.

Albacore tuna tostadas – Tacolicious

Albacore tuna tostadas Tacolicious

“Contramar-style”. Sliced tuna with crispy leeks, chipotle mayo, avocado on a crispy tostada. $10.95
Tacolicious, San Francisco

Very tasty! I love the textures in the this. The crispy deep fried leeks and the crispy tostada with the soft tuna and creamy avocado. Squeeze the lime on top to brighten it up and you have yourself a delicious meal.

Chips and salsa Tacolicious

Chips and salsa. Complimentary. Dee-lish! The salsa is SO good!

7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012

My worst dining experience in Palm Springs!

Happy Sushi Ro Ba Ta, Palm Springs

FAIL!!!  This has possibly been my worst dining experience to date, no joke! We arrived a little after 5 on a Saturday and there were 3 tables taken outside and a few people at the sushi bar. Regardless, after getting our drinks and the extremely sad Dynamite Bites, it still took 45 minutes to finally get our sushi! Way too long!

Some food highlights:

Dynamite bites

The Dynamite Bites ($5) are billed as crabmeat baked with dynamite sauce. Sounds delicious, right? Wrong! In actuality, this abomination is a pile of imitation crabmeat on a scrap of aluminum foil with an indistinguishable sauce on top. They do provide some lemon wedges with it, no doubt to kill any lingering bacteria on this laughable heap!

Spicy tuna roll

The spicy tuna roll ($6 happy hour) is huge! Awesome, right? Wrong! No one wants to eat more of a crappy roll. There was enough rice on this thing to feed a small Japanese prefecture! And the tuna wasn’t spicy at all, but it was mutilated to the consistency of Whiskas cat food.

And how about some avian bird flu with your sushi?!!! The outside tables are conveniently situated under an eave where a menagerie of feathery locals hang out to take their dumps. Once we heard the rain of bird poop showering the hibiscus plant beside our table, and saw well-aimed poo bombs land on our table and splatter onto our food and my arm, we called it quits!

And no, our food was NOT comped! I wanna barf just recalling that catastrophic experience.

Note: Although they overtly display a happy hour checklist menu at the front, they sneakily hand you a normal checklist when you’re seated. So be sure to request a happy hour list.

Or save yourself some time and bird flu vaccination costs and don’t go there at all!

Other forgettable dishes:

Samurai Rock

Samurai Rock sake cocktail. $5

Albacore nigiri

Albacore nigiri.  Surprise, it comes seared!  No doubt to kill anything on the outside of this not-so-fresh cut of fishy fish.  $3.95 happy hour

Mackerel nigiri

Mackerel nigiri.  I’ll admit that this wasn’t bad.  $3.75 happy hour

Eel and avocado roll

Eel and avocado roll.  Tasted ok until it was splattered with bird poo!  $8 happy hour

Edamame

Edamame. $3

Asahi beer

Asahi beer. $4.50

Kamikaze roll – Tokyo Go-Go

Kamikaze roll Tokyo Go-Go

Spicy tuna, albacore, asparagus, scallion, and garlic ponzu.  $12.95
Tokyo Go-Go, San Francisco

I wasn’t blown away by this roll.  The spicy tuna wasn’t spicy enough for my taste.  Compared to the Azteca roll, this barely had any heat.  Everything just blended together so the flavors got muddled.  I couldn’t taste the garlic ponzu at all.  I’m not saying that this roll tasted bad, but the ingredients list was so appetizing that I expected more.

Albacore crudo – Reform Club

Albacore crudo Reform Club

Served with fava, mint, strawberry, aged balsamic, and garnished with wildflowers. $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco

We went to this weekly pop-up held at Specchio Restaurant in the Mission. It was $40 for four courses with a $25 drink supplement, and the menu changes every week! Overall, I enjoyed the meal partly because we were there as part of a great food club. This albacore crudo was SO good! It was such a small portion though, and this seemed to be a theme throughout the courses. I must say that I was still hungry afterward. But back to the albacore, hehe. It looked beautiful (loved the wildflowers) and all the flavors worked great together. Would’ve never thought that fava, mint, strawberries and balsamic would taste that amazing together!