Food Adventure Day

We went from Sun Stream on Geary (for some Brazilian breakfast and fresh squeezed juice), to Japantown for strawberry mochi (devoured before I could snap a photo), and somehow we ended up all the way in Half Moon Bay at Crab Landing. What a great way to spend a Saturday.

Cheese Bread

The first time we ever had cheese bread was at Fogo de Chao in LA, but we like this one MUCH better--t's bigger, and way cheesier!

The most delicious fried ball ever created by mankind

Chicken and cheese in fried goodness

Bread filled with cheese, hearts of palm, and tomatoes

Crab Landing

Kumamoto

With Cocktail and Horse Raddish and a Mignonette Sauce

Clams and Cheesy Garlic Bread

Crab and Abalone Chowder

Miyagi

We were obviously overly excited for our second dish of oysters because we forgot to take a picture until there was only one left!

Norcal Tacos

Can you believe that it's been over a month since I've moved back to Norcal, and I haven't been to a taco truck until now? Despicable.

Al pastor and lengua.

As always.

Live and Die By Fenton's

Fenton's, Fenton's, Fenton's, O how I wish I lived closer so that I could eat your delicious blueberry cheesecake ice cream or have a peach cream soda every day. Life is rough.

Burma Star

I'm a huge fan of Burma Star in San Francisco! But when I get off of work in the East Bay, at PRIME traffic hour, the last thing I want to do is sit though traffic before dinner. So, when Matt told me that there was a Burma Star in Alameda, we rushed our butts over there to get some grub.

This fish stew is something that I had a few times growing up. My mom's Burmese friends would cook up large pots of this stuff, and give my mom potfuls to bring home and enjoy. My favorite part of this soup was definitely the fried, crunchy stuff you put on top (I think it's friend mung bean chips, but my mom says it's corn...we'll have to find out for sure). This is definitely a meal within itself, a rich fish broth with hard boiled egg and noodles.

The home-cooked version my mom's friends make, in my opinion, is much better. It's more flavorful, and dense than the one we had at Burma Star. I'm also used to having it with ho fun (or thick rice noodles) this one came with the thin rice noodles which didn't hold up to the soup very well.

Nonetheless, it's a good substitute for now...until my mom's friends decide to make another batch!

Who's Complaining?

Crab two days in a row is NEVER a bad idea, and I can vouch for that.

Day 1:

The family and I went out for a Chinese dinner at Superior Palace to celebrate me getting an internship with our long time favorite Italian specialty store, A.G. Ferrari.

Along with many other things, we had my favorite, salted duck egg yolk fried crab and fried kabocha squash. Heavenly.

I love this dish because flecked throughout the batter around the crab and the squash are the smashed salted egg yolks and it just adds such a unique savoriness to the tender and juicy fresh crab meat that is unbeatable.

Day 2:

PPQ on Clement with Matt.

We had the peppercorn crab. Although the service was HORRENDOUS (we're never going back there again), the crab and the garlic noodles definitely saved the night. The garlic and peppercorn mixture on top of the crab, o my goodness, I could eat that by the spoonful.

And of course we had to order a side of garlic noodles--it just seemed like the right thing to do at a Vietnamese French fusion crab and garlic noodle place.

The noodles were OK, they were a bit too greasy for me, and they weren't garlic-y enough (a spoonful of the crab toppings did the trick though). I like the crab and garlic noodles at La Vie on Geary much better (as well as the service!)

Aziza

I had never had Moroccan before, and while many may argue that a one Michelin star Moroccan restaurant isn't exactly the best place to have authentic Moroccan food, (and though I may agree), I definitely was satisfied that this was the place Matt and I chose as an preface to the Moroccan food places we'll be visiting in the VERY near future.

(Sorry, the photos came out very blurry. We were trying to discrete and not use flash, but when you're SO excited that you just want to dive in to your plate...it's difficult to have a steady hand)

Chicken Crackling Salad

Each piece of chicken skin was fried into a paper thin chip that complemented the freshness of the avocado and tomatoes perfectly. It was such a simple and refreshing salad, and really, who can say no to chicken crackling?

Basteeya

A pastry filled with chicken, almonds and spices. This thing was HUGE! The basteeya alone would have sufficed as a meal. The server cut this into fours and I had to take a quarter of it home.

Cod

This was cooked to perfection. It had been a while since we went out to eat that I had a perfectly cooked piece of fish.

Quail

With an egg! You know this is something we had to order!

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Blackberry Mousse

Matt and I were impressed by how simple each dish seemingly was, but we were proven wrong as each mouthful presented us with a complex combination of flavors and textures. Delicious and oddly enough, very affordable for a Michelin star rated restaurant.

Tortoise Jelly

Yes, tortoise jelly. Traditionally, this was made with powdered tortoise shell and other Chinese herbs and medicines...although I don't think the version I ate at dim sum the other day had any tortoise shell in it (otherwise, it would have been very expensive!) it was still very satisfying.

Because it's said to have medicinal properties, because of the Chinese herbs, it does have an acquired taste. The real thing is definitely much more bitter than the imitation guilingo I had, but with the help of a little bit of syrup to sweeten thing up a bit, this, formerly known as medicine, can become a tasty dessert.

I guess you could say that I grew up eating this black Jello. I saw my grandpa eating it out of a porcelain crock when I was very young, and because I wanted to be like him, I asked for a taste. He told me that it was very bitter, and that I probably would not enjoy it. But I begged and pleaded until he gave me a spoonful. My mouth instantly puckered up as I tried to stomach the insanely bitter Jelly. "WHAT IS THIS???", I thought to myself, "This isn't Jello...YUCK!" But to avoid being ridiculed, I happily swallowed it and asked for more. From that moment on, I basically trained myself to like this bitter Jello, asking my mom to buy me cans of it whenever we went out to Chinese markets.