Diced pork with onions, green onions and jalapenos mixed with egg. $12.95
Patio Filipino, San Bruno CA
I’m not sure I’ve ever had pork sisig this way before. The diced pork had to have been deep fried because there were delicious crispy bits mixed in. The dish was tasty and fattening, hehe. You could definitely taste lemon juice in there, which was probably added to help cut through all the fatty fried pork.
Buttery, flaky tart shell filled with warm, creamy egg custard.
Golden Gate Bakery, San Francisco
It took me 3+ months and four visits to finally get these! The first time I went, there was a festival going on and I waited in line but all they were selling (or I thought) were mooncakes! I got a pineapple mooncake and left but immediately saw that other people were ordering these from the back area. Argh! There was NO way I was going to wait in that long line again! The second couple of times the bakery was closed because they were on vacation. That’s all the sign said! It didn’t say when they were coming back either, lame! Finally, on the fourth trip I was able to snag a couple of these and there wasn’t even a line, score!
These egg custard tarts were worth it! They are probably the best egg tarts I’ve had! I’m not even a fan of these, but I really like Golden Gate Bakery’s version. The crust is super buttery and flaky, very different from others I’ve tried. And the egg custard filling is amazing! These tarts are larger than most so there’s a LOT of filling but I didn’t mind because it tasted so good.
7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Project 365: Day 31
Lazy morning today. Putz around at home with Silverfox then walked down to the Mission for coffee at Philz Coffee then brunch at Local Mission Eatery. Don’t have much more to do today, it’ll be relaxing. I won tickets to a showing of Best In Show at the Castro Theater later. That’ll be fun! A couple of the actors in the movie are doing a Q&A beforehand. Silverfox has never seen the movie, but I think he’ll get a kick out of it. Codes is also arriving this evening and I’m sure he’ll want to go out. Thank goodness it’s only Saturday, lol!
Soft scramble with red and yellow beets, sliced radishes, greens on top of what I think was a sunchoke puree. $11
Local Mission Eatery, San Francisco
This was super tasty! It wasn’t what I was expecting since the menus said that the scramble was gonna come with “brussels, sweet potatoes, goat gouda”, but I think that this combination turned out better. I LOVE beets and the whole plate tasted fresh and light. The eggs were cooked perfectly and I loved the composition of the plate with all the beautiful colors.
We must have been bored or something and that’s why we randomly went to Fresh Choice for lunch. OK now I remember! Papa Chang thought he found a coupon we could use for the buffet, but it ended up being expired. They ended up giving us a discount anyway so we paid less than $8 for the lunch buffet. Although the food wasn’t amazing, I’m not going to complain at that price. And I have to commend them because they have healthy options and they post the ingredients and calorie counts for the dishes. I’m not a big lunch buffet kinda guy (except in Vegas, omg), but it’s fun to go every once in a while.
Fresh Choice, San Bruno CA
Mama Mia’s pasta toss. Spaghetti with a meat sauce of ground beef, tomato, onions, celery, garlic, and spices, sugar and salt. Pretty good. Carbs + meat sauce = comfort food!
Tuna tarragon salad. Medium shell pasta wtih tuna, red onion, celery, carrots, red peppers, relish, mayonnaise, oil, lemon juice, tarragon, and black pepper. Decent.
Watermelon radish. These were pretty, healthy, crunchy, and tasty!
Tomato basil soup wtih shaft blue cheese. Tomatoes, onions, vegetable stock, basil, croutons, blue cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic, canola oil, olive oil, kosher salt, thyme, black pepper. This soup tasted like it had cream in it too but it didn’t! It was rich and tasty and the croutons added a nice texture.
Pepperoni pizza. Standard.
Sesame kale toss salad. Kale, rice wine vinegar, canola oil, carrots, red cabbage, sesame seeds, olive oil, kosher salt, sugar, sesame oil, black pepper. I loved this salad! It had a great texture from the kale and the light dressing was flavorful.
Greek orzo salad. Orzo pasta, spinach, balsamic vinegar, red onion, feta cheese, olive oil, pinyon pine nuts, dried walnuts, basil, white pepper. Yuck! Too sour for my taste and it had an odd texture.
New England clam chowder with oyster crackers. Clams, clam base, cream blend, red potato, celery, yellow onion, diced red pepper, garlic, Tabasco, sherry, parsley, roux, and spice. Good standby. Pretty flavorful.
Hard boiled eggs. Great source of protein. Try not to add salt.
Chocolate and vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream. Somehow not very satisfying. :-(F
Project 365: Day 26
I hate Mondays! I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. But I dragged myself up and forced myself to the gym. Stopped by Subway on the way and grabbed a breakfast sandwich.
This weekend was pretty busy and I drank WAY too much. The bottomless mimosas at brunch yesterday got me really tired and I fell asleep early last night. Now back to the daily grind. I need to win the lottery, lol!
Turkey, crispy bacon, black forest ham, pepper jack cheese, egg, pepperocinis, and olives on an english muffin. $2.50
Subway, San Francisco
First time to have one of their breakfast sandwiches and it was pretty good! And the price was cheap for what you actually got. You had the option of getting egg whites but I opted for the regular egg. I’m glad I got this instead of a pastry from a coffee shop. I ate WAY too poorly this past weekend.
Project 365: Day 25
I only had a mild hang over this morning after my work birthday party last night. As much as I complain about work, I do like the people I work with. That’s comforting. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I had enough food for everyone and I even sang a few songs on the Magic Mic, lol!
Of course I had to have another cocktail this morning while I finished cleaning up the apartment (see below). What?! It makes house work go by faster!
Then I headed out to Jones which is downtown in the Tenderloin/Union Square area to meet B2 for brunch. She’s so sweet! She wanted to take me out to brunch since she missed my actual birthday last weekend. I’ve never heard of this place but it’s actually really cool. The space is super cute and the vibe is young and energetic.
I didn’t focus much of the food since I was having such a great conversation with B2, but I think it was pretty good. And they have bottomless mimosas so you know we had that! We had such a great time catching up and talking that brunch lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes, nice! I need to hang out with B2 more often! No really, she’s an amazing person and we have a lot of common interests so it works.
Now I’m dreading work tomorrow, but at least I get to hang out with Silverfox tonight. I missed him while he was away.
Steak and potatoes with sausage, pancetta, carrots, onions, and parsley with a sunny side egg on top. $16
Jones, San Francisco
Talk about hearty! This plate had SO much steak, then more sausage and pancetta added, geez! It was very good. I wish the egg had been poached so that it was runnier but that’s only a minor complaint.
We sat at the bar and the service was great. I would definitely go back for brunch. I’m not sure that they have full on dinner service. The interior is also very nice and I can see why this is a popular drinking spot!
Here’s the view from the balcony, which is a surprise because you actually have to walk down into the space from the street entrance. Because Jones Street is so steep, one end of the patio actually overlooks Geary Street. It’s very cool.
Hair for the dog. Smirnoff Tuscan Lemonade cocktail topped with Santa Cruz organic strawberry lemonade. Here’s my morning cocktail. Gotta love Sunday Fundays!
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!
Petaluma Farm egg salad, anchovy garlic butter, aged provolone cheese, greens. $9
Il Cane Rosso, San Francisco
This was REALLY good! And huge! I could barely eat it all but I didn’t want any of it to go to waste. The eggs were good perfectly, soft and creamy. The anchovy garlic butter put it over the top – SO nommy! I also loved the simple salad that helped to cut the richness of the egg salad.
Definitely worth tackling the crazy tourists at the Ferry Building, hehe!
Roses on the table with my order number. It was cold outside that day, brr!
7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2011, 2012
Project 365: Day 15
These days before my birthday weekend are DRAGGING by! It’s painful, hehe.
Omg! Hubbs and I booked our flights to Dublin and London last night! I’m SO excited. We’re meeting Kryan and D-Dubbs in Ireland to celebrate Kry’s birthday, then heading to London to visit our friend D. Did I mention how excited it am?!?! The airfare did cost a pretty penny so I’m feeling a bit poor right now. Not the way to be when you have dinner at Benu coming up. Lol! So I’m gonna have a pretty busy Spring in terms of travel. I have a Caribbean cruise, a Europe trip, Las Vegas trip, and a possible trip to Ohio for a friend’s birthday. This is the most I’ll be travelling in a while! Heck yeah!
Egg frittata with asparagus, potatoes and tomatoes with smoked salmon and lemon wedge on top. Served with creme fraiche, mixed greens and toast. $6.75
La Boulange de Noe, San Francisco
I stopped by La Boulange on the way home from the gym this morning and ordered what I thought was going to be a small snack because I was starving yet again. It ended up being an entire plate of food which I couldn’t finish. Gotta love breakfast at La Boulange though! The food is consistently good and super cheap. You get all this for $6.75! The frittata was a little overdone but it still tasted great. It was filled with lots of vegetables and topped with plenty of smoked salmon. The salad was good but overdressed.
Project 365: Day 14
Yet another excruciatingly cold day in San Francisco! Those of you in places where is actually gets below 30 degrees F are probably scoffing at me, but we San Franciscans aren’t used to a lot of super cold days in a row. My workout was much more productive today. I’m always super hungry still though.
So a group of us went to Mom’s Tofu House as an early birthday celebration. I haven’t been to a tofu house since my Berkeley days. Everyone else had the sizzling stone pot rice, but I opted for the tofu soup. When at a tofu house…! We arrived just in time to beat the lunch crowd, heck yeah!
One of the ladies was so cute. I was taking a photo of Papa Chang’s food so I had it in front of me. Then one waitress brought out my soup and I told her to put it in the middle of the table so I can finish taking the pic. I think the head waitress thought we were confused so she came over and took Papa Chang’s food away from me, placed it in front of him, and said “This is HIS!” We started laughing!
Soft tofu stew served in hot stone pot with pork, calamari, mussels, clams and fish (? it’s kinda hard to make everything out) and mushrooms. Served with raw egg and rice. $9.99
Mom’s Tofu House, South San Francisco CA
This thing came out super HOT! The soup was steamed and bubbling when it arrived at the table. I ordered it spicy and it was SO delicious! I’m glad that I got the combination because it was fun to see everything in the soup with every spoonful. The flavors were great and it seemed spicier at first because the soup was so hot, but as it cooled down you could start comfortably tasting all the yummy flavors of the stew. Nommy noms!
Raw egg. They bring the egg out while you’re eating the ban chan, and when the tofu soup arrives the waitress cracks the egg into the soup. Yum!
Steamed rice. I was very good with my attempted healthy eating, and I only had about a quarter of the rice!
Bowl with steamed rice.
Project 365: Day 11
Ok, so I’ve failed! I didn’t get this post out yesterday, but you know what? I’m still gonna move forward with my Project 365. We ended up partying a little too hard at Toucan’s last night so I completely forgot to post this, but I’ve noticed that some people post on a weekly basis. At least I’m only a day late.
We had a pretty full day yesterday. Had brunch at Cheeky’s, then went shopping at the Cabazon outlets (bought a couple cute t-shirts), had tacos at Crazy Coyote tacos, then happy hour drinks and food at The Tropicale, then more drinks and played trivia at Toucan’s. The last couple times I’ve been at Toucan’s, I’ve run into old friends. Previously it was old Seattle friends who now live in Los Angeles, and last night I ran into MT from San Francisco. Fun! He seemed very happy!
Palm Springs weekends always fly by way too quickly! 😦
Fried tortilla chips in a sauce made with homemade chorizo, tomatillo, sliced red onions, queso fresco and cilantro. $10. Scrambled eggs $2 extra.
Cheeky’s, Palm Springs CA
Cheeky’s is currently my favorite brunch spot in Palm Springs. Next time we’re down, we’re gonna try Jake’s next door. I must say that I’m not very impressed with the overall food scene in Palm Springs, but the food at Cheeky’s is consistently good. The service is friendly and there’s always great people watching. And I LOVE their bacon flight (post to come). The chilaquiles were pretty good. I liked the chorizo and the tomatillo was a nice surprise. I’m used to chilaquiles having a red sauce. Overall, the plate was bright and fresh. Just want I needed after the previous day’s debacle at Pinocchio. My only complaint is that some of the tortilla chips were very over-fried.
Water.
Project 365: Day 4
It’s a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning in San Francisco! I’m only slightly hung over from a late-ish night out with Silverfox and friends after a yummy dinner at Hecho and an even later after-bar dinner at Curry Boyzz (ugh!). We trekked it over to the Outer Sunset to try Outerlands, it’s been on my list of restaurant to try. I never really noticed some of the beautiful homes along Lincoln Way before. When we got to the restaurant 10 minutes prior to opening, there was already a throng of people waiting and we got onto the second column on the waiting list. Sadly, we just missed the cut for the first seating, but the tables turned pretty quickly and we were eventually seated outside to enjoy the amazing morning weather – no fog today!
Organic egg fried into house baked organic levain toast, with 2 strips of bacon and side of mixed greens. $9
Outerlands, San Francisco
Everything we had was SO good! I think that the quality ingredients made all the difference because the things we ordered were simply prepared. Their levain toast was lovely and the bacon was delicious. The simple salad was also very good – I liked the variety of greens.
The table next to us ordered a dutch pancake and it looked amazing! It came to their table totally puffed up and the size of a football. Once they cut into it, it deflated of course. I’ll have to remember to order that on a return visit.
All done!!!
It’s such a beautiful day today that I’d love to just go to the park and do nothing but relax. I have to hit the gym though and have a productive workout. The nice weather will totally motivate me. Also have to make a grocery store run so I can prepare lunches for the work week. So excited that I have a 4-day work week because because Silverfox and I are driving down to Palm Springs on Friday. F-yeah!!!
7×7 Magazine’s The Big Eat San Francisco: 100 Things to Eat + Drink Before You Die – 2011, 2012
Vittle Monster 