Tag Archives: basil

Crispy chicken – Krua Thai

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Crispy chicken Krua Thai

Crispy chicken sauteed with onions, bell peppers, jalapenos and sweet basil leaves in Krua’s special hot chili sauce. $12
Krua Thai, San Francisco

This was a delicious plate of food!  I love the hot chili sauce that they use in this dish.  It wasn’t very hot, but it had a nice sweetness to it that tasted great with the fried, breaded chicken.  You get a great amount of food and the prices are decent!  Krua Thai hasn’t been open that long and I’m glad we tried it.  It’s great tasting comfort Thai food!

Colored duck – Krua Thai

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Colored duck Krua Thai

Crispy boneless duck with snow peas, pineapples, bell peppers, carrots and basil leaves sauteed in red coconut curry. $15
Krua Thai, San Francisco

Fried duck in a yummy curry – how can you go wrong?!  I love when the cut the carrots with the scalloped edges.  It makes for a more interested presentation.

Eric’s spicy eggplant – Eric’s Restaurant

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Eric's spicy eggplant Eric's Restaurant

Sauteed eggplant with chicken, shrimp, red bell pepper, and basil in a special spicy sauce.  $9.75
Eric’s Restaurant, San Francisco

I’m an eggplant fanatic so, naturally, this is one of my favorite dishes at Eric’s.  You also get a great combination of different proteins with the beautifully sauteed eggplants.  The sauce is so flavorful and made even better with the basil.  My only complaint is that I always order this extra spicy, but I always receive it with barely any spice.  C’mon people, gimme some heat!!!  🙂

Duck confit – Reform Club

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Duck confit Reform Club

Large leg and thigh served with succotash, corn, tomato, shelling beans and basil. $40 for 4-course dinner.
Reform Club @ Specchio, San Francisco

This dish was one of the highlights of this pop-up dinner, partly because it was a full sized portion.  The other courses were tiny!  OK, the duck was also delicious and it was beautifully plated.  I also loved the succotash.  The bright vegetables were a great counterpoint to the rich duck.  The skin on that duck was SO good  and crispy, noms!  One guy at our table contemplated ordering another portion.  He was a big fellow and he was starving, poor thing…

Eggplant caponatina – Beretta

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Eggplant caponatina Beretta

Fried Japanese eggplants with cherry tomatoes, celery, basil, capers, Sicilian green olives, toasted pine nuts, white balsamic vinegar, and topped with a generous portion of burrata cheese. $9
Beretta, San Francisco

Wow, Beretta doesn’t skimp on the burrata cheese for this dish!  I personally love buratta.  The cream filled fresh mozzarella cheese acquires such a creamy, luscious texture.  It’s absolutely divine.  I’ve never had eggplant caponata before this, but I really enjoyed it.  The dish was very flavorful and the fresh vegetables, basil and pine nuts helped to brighten the fried eggplants.  There’s a lot going on here, but they all work.  The buratta is additional, but I highly recommend ordering it.  I don’t think I would have enjoyed this dish half as much sans the buratta!

Wild boar sugo – BIN 38

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Wild boar sugo BIN 38

Served with pappardelle, summer greens, tomatoes, cheese, purple basil and a 63 degree egg. $19
BIN 38, San Francisco

Ever had a dish that looked amazing, but was sabotaged by one ingredient? Ding, ding, ding, ding! This dish was absolutely beautiful and tasty (I think), but the summer green (whatever it was, somekind of brassica) was overpoweringly bitter. I couldn’t taste anything else, and the bitter flavor continued to linger and intensify in my mouth as I ate more. The pasta was cooked perfectly, but I couldn’t really taste the wild boar sugo because (1) the aforementioned summer green killed my taste buds and (2) there was so LITTLE of it! For some positives, the 63 degree egg was amazing and flowed beautifully over the plate after it was broken and the colors from the tomatoes and purple basil were striking.

Margherita pizza – Pizza Politana

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Margherita Pizza Politana
Fresh out of the oven, this Margherita pizza has tomato sauce, basil, and fresh mozzarella.  I ordered it with a farm egg on top!
Pizza Politana, San Francisco

The Margherita, your classic wood-fired oven pizza, is absolutely divine on its own but I was feeling extra giddy and had a farm egg added!  Pizza Politana’s Margherita was actually very good (for the most part).  The crust was thin, chewy, airy, and had a great flavor.  The ingredients are directly sourced from local farmers and artisan producers so they are of great quality and taste amazing.  My only complaint was the blistered bottom of the dough.  I don’t know what they use, but the bottom of the crust has these oily, black blisters that have an overpowering burnt, ashy flavor.  It was sad because I really enjoyed the crust, but after a while I couldn’t get the ash flavor out of my mouth and it eventually ruined the rest of the pizza.  I would have eaten around the blisters, but the shear number made it impossible.  *sad*