Chicken velvet – Benu

Posted on April 25, 2012 by vicentesf

Project 365: Day 108

Omg, the weather is still SO warm, sunny, and perfect. I went to the gym this morning, got my hair cut, picked up some Euros from the bank, caught up with DVR, and now just sitting on my balcony to blog (and pay bills, ew). It’s been a perfect day! I think I’ll go for a light run before dinner. It’s days like this when I feel so blessed and happy to be where I’m at in life. I do miss my honey, but he’ll be back from his conference on Monday.

With abalone, abalone mushroom, and chrysanthemum. Pre fixe dinner $180
Benu, San Francisco

Another first! When this arrived, I asked “Where’s the chicken?” I’d never had chicken velvet before so I didn’t know where to look, hehe. I’ve subsequently read that chicken velvet is usually fried or poached in oil, then reheated through in a hot broth. I’m not sure if this velvet was ever fried, it didn’t taste like it, but it was definitely velvet-y and oh so delicious. The soup broth in this dish was also very delicious. And I loved the combination of abalone and abalone mushrooms. Fun!

Thousand year old quail egg – Benu

Posted on April 22, 2012 by vicentesf

With potage, ginger, and micro greens. Pre fixe dinner $180
Benu, San Francisco

I guess potage is a kind of thick soup. I must say that the potage was the best part of this dish! It had such a depth of flavor. Everybody has made such a fuss about the thousand year old quail egg, but unfortunately it doesn’t taste like anything! It’s more a texture in the dish than a flavor. This dish was beautiful though and I loved the bowl it was served in.

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

Sushi lovers plate – Asian Gourmet & Sushi Bar

Posted on March 8, 2012 by vicentesf

3 maguro (tuna), 3 sake (salmon), 3 hamachi (yellowtail), 3 unagi (eel), 3 hirame (halibut – we substituted this for the California roll). Served with miso soup. $33 + $3 substitution charge
Asian Gourmet & Sushi Bar, Gahanna OH

This looks really pretty on the plate, but this wasn’t all that great in terms of fresh sushi. The fish was of OK quality and the pieces were super cold (recently defrosted? ew). I’m just glad that they didn’t taste fishy and old. I’m still hoping that I can get good sushi in Ohio! The service was friendly though. This restuarant was SO weird though because it had food from all different Asian countries. It’s like the corner shops in San Francisco that have burgers, Chinese food, and donuts! Can you really trust that they can make any of it authentically or decently?

Miso soup.

Warm sake. $12

Sansai soba – Ebisu

Posted on February 29, 2012 by vicentesf

Soba noodles with assorted Asian vegetables, fungus, and slcied greet onions. $8.50
Ebisu, SFO San Francisco

Like most items at Ebisu in International Terminal G, this soup is VERY salty! The broth has pretty good flavor, but I don’t think I can ever finish an entire bowl of this because of the high salt level. This is an interesting bowl of soup though because all the vegetables are all cut long and thin so they look and work well with the buckwheat soba noodles. Just wish

Stewed beef tongue and turnips – Mission Chinese Food

Posted on February 28, 2012 by vicentesf

Project 365: Day 55

Not much going on today. Just another day of training at work, hitting the gym afterward and I have to remember to swing by Walgreens for some hairspray. Other than that, I’ll prolly just catch up on DVR. I should start thinking about what I’m going to pack for Ohio. It’s gonna be in the 40’s, EW! It’ll be fun to see Codes though. Not looking forward to all the food and drinks though so close to the cruise, bad timing.

Stewed beef tongue and turnips Mission Chinese Food

Tendon terrine, hot mustard, pickled burdock root, chives. $10
Mission Chinese Food, San Francisco

This soup is very rich and kinda too salty! The beef tongue is fall-apart tender and so tasty as are the root vegetables, but the broth is super soy flavored, smoky, and salty. I’m not sure where the tendon terrine is in there. I would imagine that a tendon terrine with just melt in such a hot soup.

Seafood and beef soon tofu soup – Jang Su Jang

Posted on February 27, 2012 by vicentesf

Sizzling bowl of combination soft tofu soup with beef, prawns, clams, mussels, egg, and green onions in spicy broth. $10.99
Jang Su Jang, Santa Clara CA

This spicy tofu soup always hits the spot. I think the shrimp in this soup was the best part! I love sucking the heads with the spicy broth. You can actually choose from white, mild, medium, spicy, and extra spicy broth options. Nice!

They bring out the egg with the banchan.

Then you crack the egg into the soup and stir it in.

Here is the array of banchan that comes complimentary with the meal, noms! My favorite were the spicy bean sprouts, fried tofu, the greens, and the sweet mayonnaise-y fruit were surprisingly good too.

Autumn salad – Fish & Farm

Posted on February 24, 2012 by vicentesf

Red endive, frisee, red pear, candied walnuts, pomegranates, and Humboldt Fog goat cheese with mustard vinaigrette. Menu says $11 but receipt says $12 – BOO, LAME!!!
Fish & Farm, San Francisco

So the price discrepancy is totally lame! I don’t know if the menu wasn’t updated or out server was completely brain dead. I did mention during dinner that our server wasn’t very good compared to the server at the next table. Ours didn’t even give us the specials before we ordered. I didn’t even know there were specials available until the server at the adjacent table told her guests! Whatevs, our server was definitely “slow”, if you know what I mean.

This salad was tasty, but not very original.

Red bell pepper soup. Complimentary. I really liked this shot of free soup. It was hot and very flavorful.

Egg flower soup – Xiao Long Bao Kitchen

Posted on February 24, 2012 by vicentesf

Hot soup with egg, seaweed, and tofu. Complimentary with lunch special.
Xiao Long Bao Kitchen, South San Francisco CA

This was a new one for me! I’ve never had a Chinese egg drop soup with seaweed in it. It wasn’t bad, but just different. There was nothing else in there – no tofu or vegetables. Kinda weird, but not untasty.

Egg flower soup Xiao Long Bao Kitchen

Tom yum gai – Sai Jai Thai Restaurant

Posted on February 23, 2012 by vicentesf

Spicy and sour soup with chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, lemongrass and lime juice. $6.95
Sai Jai Thai Restaurant, San Francisco

This was tasty, but it arrived at our table barely warm! Not good. There’s not as much flavor when it’s cold and it starts tasting more sour for some reason. Also, I thought it was weird that the huge pieces of mushrooms and tomatoes were completely raw.

Salisbury steak – Orphan Andy’s

Posted on February 16, 2012 by vicentesf

Fresh ground beef smothered with mushrooms, grilled onions and brown gravy. Served with a biscuit, green beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy. $11.85
Orphan Andy’s, San Francisco

Uh, this was disgusting! It was a really bad version of cafeteria food. You know I love gravy, so I thought it can’t be that bad if it’s doused in gravy. Yes it can! The gravy wasn’t good and everything was SO bland and disgusting. This was an ordering experiment that should not be repeated!

Side of minestrone soup. Obviously from a can and not even heated well.

Why did I go to a lunch buffet? – Fresh Choice

Posted on February 1, 2012 by vicentesf

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

Sopa de albondigas – Mijita

Posted on January 27, 2012 by vicentesf

Mexican meatball soup. Beef and pork meatballs in a tomato based broth with carrots, onions, zucchini, celery, lime, parsley, and shredded tortilla chips. $8
Mijita, San Francisco

Yet another soup that was served luke warm! Was this suppose to be served that way? I like my soups HOT! If they’re too hot, then I’ll just wait a couple minutes for them to cool down, but I enjoy them so much more when they’re able to warm my stomach, literally! This soup was OK. Not sure why it’s on the 7×7 Big Eat list. There are plenty of other soups out there that have more flavor (and are served piping hot). The meatballs are tiny, making them easier to eat I suppose. With that much vegetables in the soup, you’d think that it’d have a little more flavor.

Oh, and a sea gull tried to attack me while sitting at the outside table. That was my cue to move inside, but there are still birds running around there too. Gross, so unsanitary!

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

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