4238 Park Blvd, Oakland, CA | 510.336.1180 | online reservations | website

Hey there!  I had to drop out for a short interval… it’s been a tough transition for me.  I’ve really missed my kitty Shiso, who always liked to cuddle next to me and purr while I was processing photos and typing up posts on my laptop.  But fast forward a bit, my appetite is back and my camera keeps clicking… 

Last weekend we ventured over to a foster cat home in Oakland where we met a clutter of kittens looking for dominions to rule with servants.  Mr. K and I stepped up to the plate, offering our humble abode and services.  We were adopted by two young cats, who were rescued together in Oakland by the ICRA (Island Cat Resources and Adoption), a group of volunteers dedicated to reducing the suffering of abandoned and feral (wild) cats.   Afterwards, we got into our car, hungry and thrilled – cats to be delivered to our home later.  Fortunately, we were less than a mile away from Bellanico in the Glenvew area, where we enjoyed a nice dinner a while back.  A quick search online showed that they are open for brunch on the weekends.  Excellent news, as I had a Blackboard Eats discount to boot.  The brunch menu offers intriguing and rustic Italian dishes that change seasonally.  It includes savory antipasti, hash made from duck confit, a pork belly panini with fried egg, pastas and even short ribs and roasted char as a lunch course.  I couldn’t resist ordering the 3 course brunch tasting menu.

We were the first customers to walk in, but the cozy table in the front window was already reserved, so we sat up in the front area which felt bright and airy from the windows. The restaurant soon bustling and I must say that I’m glad we had the paper to read as the sound levels were incredible, conversation was fairly impossible with the tumultuous roar of happy diners amped up on caffeine and mimosas.

We shared the first course of hand pulled Burrata which was served with thinly sliced crostini to spread on, preserved arthichokes, thin slices of watermelon radish, a handful of candied walnuts and chewy oil cured olives.  The composition was lovely and the flavors inflamed our hungry tastebuds.

My entree was a decadent Eggs Florentine, two poached eggs served over chewy cavolo nero (a black leaf kale from Italy,  a leafy cabbage with deep greenish black leaves), on top of a slice of grilled country bread and then drenched with rich lemony hollandaise sauce.

The marble potatoes were tiny and very flavorful, sautéed with aromatic slices of fried garlic and green onion.

Mr. K enjoyed the two eggs over easy and sausage ($10), which included the delectable marble potatoes and a plump Italian sausage which had a delicate texture that was more hot dog than sausage, but had a good snap and was juicy and savory from fennel seeds and other spices.  It was served with grilled country bread.  Strangely, they told Mr. K that they did not have dijon mustard for his taters and brought him some home made jam for his toast instead.

I admit that I really ordered the tasting menu so that I could have this dish along with breakfast!  Bomboloni, which are Florentine doughnuts, served with sage custard and bittersweet chocolate dipping sauces.

The doughnuts were very tender and moist inside, with a cakelike crumb and crunchy crust that was lightly crusted with sugar.  I liked it best with the sage custard and dunked into coffee…  yes I am a philistine when it comes to donuts!

The coffee was very good, the cream came in a cute little ceramic milk bottle.  I drank too many cups of coffee and contributed to the general cacophony.

It was a delicious, restorative meal filled with happy anticipation.  We just wish this was walking distance and in our neighborhood, but it is only a short drive down the 580 and will definitely be added into the weekend brunch rotation.

I took this photo last summer of the shiso that grows in our backyard.  Years ago, a potted plant of shiso had flowered and spread its seeds, and so each spring I find tiny sprouts growing in the yard.  Because I love shiso so much, I pluck up the sprouts and replant them in my herb garden.  Shiso is a uniquely flavorful herb that is difficult to describe.  It has an intense flavor similar to anise but with a cinnamon kick that tickles your nose.  I think it tastes best eaten fresh, and is excellent paired with fish, or vegetables, or chopped fine in a chiffonade and spread over pasta or tofu.  It is so popular in Japan that in the summer of 2009, Pepsi Japan released a new seasonal flavored beverage, Pepsi Shiso.  Shiso (its scientific name is Perilla), is also known by its more common names of beefsteak plant or ooba.  Perilla seeds form an essential part of the famous “shichimi” seven spices of Japan , which originated more than 300 years ago in Kyoto.  I am so smitten with this lively herb that I named one of my kitties Shiso, who sadly, passed on over the weekend.  This is the only baby picture I have of her, she was awfully cute; a tiny fuzzball that loved frolicing and playing.

She grew up to be a long haired beauty with fire trimmed raven tresses and a mysterious allure.

And she had such a soulful gaze, you know how it is when a cat is trying to glamor you…

Green perilla leaves are often wrapped around sushi or served with “sashimi” as a garnish.  Shiso and tuna is a classic combination and when my little girl was suffering, tuna was one thing that she would respond to.  I had a stack of canned American Tuna that I ordered from Open Sky in the pantry.  Not to knock Open Sky, but you can get a better price shopping directly from the American Tuna website.  It is a small family business, based in San Diego, CA and their product is 100% pole caught — a sustainable fishing method.

ooh did someone say tuna?

Just look at this gorgeous hunk of sashimi grade albacore tuna, it is made from the loin, hand filleted and hand packed.  You can tell that the contents are made from a single filet. The small (12-25 pound) albacore used are very low in mercury levels, making their tuna exceptionally safe to eat, which is important, especially when feeding a sick cat or its anxious caretaker.

I drained all of the precious liquid and mashed it up with a bit of the filet, which made a restorative elixir for my ailing girl.  After that, it took a bit of work to break up the remaining filet, but it makes a gorgeous mound of tuna that is infinitely more flavorful and fresh tasting than chicken of the sea.

I made a rather grand tuna sandwich for Mr. K and me.  Simply made with vegennaise, chopped red onion and capers, it is fabulous with shiso leaves tucked in with the lettuce…

Mmmmm, delicious… a very special sandwich indeed!

Shiso the cat 1999-2012. RIP.

Shiso is in our heart and thoughts, we’ll think of you every summer when the garden is in bloom…

260 Floresta Blvd, San Leandro, CA  94578 | 510.351.0463 | website

My cousin Megu recently directed Mr. K and I to this local restaurant after hearing us whinge about the lack of a really good breakfast spot in our fair city of San Leandro.  We regularly shop at the OSH hardware/garden shop in the same complex, but from the looks of the outside we had assumed it was another mediocre restaurant stuck in a bygone era, slinging greasy and uninspired hash… We went to check it out and I’m glad to say that we were so very wrong – we have been for breakfast almost every weekend since!

The interior has a certain nostalgic appeal, cushy booths with swanky naugahyde upholstery that just purrs supperclub…  even the stools at the counter have been given the royal treatment, and match all of the chairs in the overflow banquet room next door.

Each table is well appointed, the condiment station includes Tabasco, ketchup, a shaker of parmesan, a stack of jam tubs and a bottle of the fabulous Pepper Plant Hot Sauce that is my hot sauce of choice.  The menu offers classic diner fare, many have a Greek flair as the restaurant is family run, and are originally from Kyparissi, Greece.  Most importantly, they serve breakfast all day long.

The first time we visited I had to try the Ligurian Omelette, which was filled with a delicious mixture of goat cheese, basil, asparagus and onion.  Omelettes are served with hash browns or home fried potatoes or fruit salad, and choice of toast, butter and jelly.

The egg was a cooked a little more than I like, as it had a browned crust and was a bit dry and crumbly (I like my eggs soft and creamy).   But inside, the filling was intensely flavorful from the tangy goat cheese, aromatic basil and fresh asparagus and onion.  I wonder if I could order it less well done?  But overall, this was very good.

A side of Linguica $4, a mildly spicy smoked portuguese sausage.  A bit dry but satisfyingly chewy, I had no problems finishing it.

Mr. K had a breakfast plate of two eggs cooked over easy, three pieces of sausage, toast and kick-ass hashbrowns ($7.99).   By kickass, that means they are cooked on the griddle to a delectably crisp crust, crunchy, chewy and meltingly tender on the inside.

He was especially excited about the toast, which was perfectly crisped and slathered generously with butter that had melted into the bread.  This is how toast should be.

The next visit I couldn’t resist ordering the Eggs Genovese, poached eggs served with goat cheese, tomatoes and basil over toasted english muffin and a few generous ladles of rich hollandaise sauce.

The combination was unusual and delicious.  I loved the bright tangy flavors of the goat cheese along with the fresh tomato slices and pungent basil leaves.  All that green stuff, that’s not spinach, that’s basil!

On the other end of the scale, Mr. K craved something light and healthy, and ordered the Omelette made with Low Cholesterol Egg Whites, filled with a mixture of tomatoes, bell peppers, onions & mushrooms.  He said it was bland, but that’s what the hot sauce is for.

Another visit he had the eggs plate but said the potatoes weren’t cooked as crispy.  Can you specify crispness, I wonder?  We shall see… Anyways we came later in the day, and I was thinking about a sandwich and chose a green salad as my side.  It was big, and came with a cellophane wrapped packet of saltine crackers.  A standard salad of iceberg lettuce, chunks of cucumber, cherry tomatoes and croutons from a box.

I enjoyed the Elios Famous Grilled Crab Sandwich ($10.95), served with swiss cheese and chunks of avocado.  The bread was buttered and toasted on the griddle and developed a nice crunchy crust and melted the cheese.  The crab mixture had also been griddled and had a lightly crisped edge!  Very decadent and rich.

Daily dinner specials (click here for a sample menu) include choice of vanilla ice cream, rainbow sherbet, jello, tapioca or rice pudding for dessert; baked potato, mashed potato, french fries, spaghetti or rice for a side, and your choice of homemade cup of soup, dinner salad for a first course.  The special also includes coffee or tea (sodas not included).  Sandwiches on the specials menu only include a cup of soup.  That’s quite a hearty meal!  And it’s a good thing they have such big cushy booths to sprawl out in…

p.s.  I really apologize that I haven’t been posting much, life has gotten in the way.   My girlie kat has been sick and this is a photo of our sliding glass door that got smashed last weekend by some thugs.    I’ve been distracted to say the least…

1529 Fillmore St (@Geary), SF, CA 94115 | 415.795.1272 | website | twitter

Have you heard of this restaurant?  The name refers to one of the Chef’s signature dishes, the crispy spiced quail (CA’s state bird if you didn’t’ know) from the  now-closed Rubicon, along with the providing of good food and libations.  Located on the west side of Fillmore, between Geary & OFarrell, the front is extremely low-key with no signage, but you can see activity in the brightly lit kitchen through the front window as soon as you walk up.

The friendly staff in the kitchen greet you as you enter and direct you to walk down to the end of the kitchen for the hostess to seat you.

The food is brought out of the kitchen on trays and carts.  It’s similar to dim sum or passed-plate receptions, where you grab what comes by your table, and each item is added to your bill.

The dimly lit dining room in the back has 49 seats with barely enough room for the carts to come through, so most of the dishes are carried around on trays.

The roe was super fresh, clear and golden, filled with the essence of the sea.  The orbs slowly rolled off the horseradish cream and fell with soft plops onto my hand while I tried to take the picture.  The ethereally thin chips were crispy without a trace of grease and scooped up the dip very well.

Next we enjoyed an exquisite array of tiny crudite with goat cheese that was generously topped with toasted sesame , which imparted a lovely nutty flavor and crunch.

Duck neck dumplings in sauerjus ($7).  The dumping bottoms were fetchingly crisped and swimming in a savory sauerkraut broth that was really good.  It was so flavorful that we asked for spoons to drink it up!

Bone bread and marrow ($) was a long bone shaped bread stick similar in texture to a pretzel, served with a thin sauce presumably made from marrow, although it seemed more like a vinaigrette containing pink peppercorns and herbs that was poured from the aptly designed sauceboat.  This was not at all the marrow we were expecting (you know what I mean, the decadent and fatty stuff scooped from the bone) and a bit disappointing, although I loved the squishy bread.

A Chicken Salad with buddha’s hand & celery root curd included a jiggly gelée and bright vivid citrus flavor from the hand of buddha and a lovely crunch from the vegetables.  There was a small dollop of dijon mustard included.

The Wild Mushrooms with root purees and toasted hazelnuts ($6) smelled fantastic and had a nice combination of crunchy textures from bits of toasted bread and nuts.

Carnitas stuffed squid ($7) tiny squid stuffed with spicy tender pork and pungent wedges of watermelon radish.

We all enjoyed a restoratively healthy dish of Braised carrots & braised jammy greens ($5)

I couldn’t get enough of the Pork ribs with broth and lemon oil ($8).  The flesh fell off the bones and was so good dipped into the broth.  If only there were ramen noodles at the bottom of the bowl…

At last they came around with State Bird with Provisions ($8), the namesake dish that the restaurant is named for.  Each order is half of a buttermilk fried quail served over lemon onion confit, sprinkled with shaved parmesan and frilly micro greens.

We stayed for several hours, and a line began to form as the evening wore on.  Sweet dishes were offered earlier, but we felt compelled to wait to the end, although P commented that at dim sum we always grab up the egg custards, sesame balls and sweet tofu along with the savories throughout the meal…

The pastries are created by pastry chef Nicole Krasinski, who was a Chronicle rising chef back in 2005. Peanut Muscovado Milk ($2) with clove spiked fig cookies ($2). Peanut milk is an elixir with curative properties, muscovado is type of brown sugar that added a rich butterscotchy flavor to the addictively tasty brew.  The tender buttery pinwheel cookies were filled with a swirl of fragrant and sticky fig that was delicious.

We split bites of Chocolate croquettes with rosemary-lemon sabayon ($4), which had a lovely delicately crisp wrap surrounding a dark chocolate filling.

The Golden Egg ($3) topped with gooey toasted meringue, filled with saffron egg custard which was topped with a tart layer of fruit.  Interesting presentation, hard to get to the custard without breaking the eggshell.

Of note:  there is a U.S. map in the restroom in the back listing the various state birds created by Caitlin Freeman, a pastry chef/artist (known also for her mondrian cake at SFMOMA), who happens to be married to James Freeman owner of Blue Bottle Coffee which is also on the menu…

open nightly from 5pm-12am. CLOSED TUESDAY

And as it sometimes ends with this particular dining crew, we walked across the street to take a look at Holy Dog, another new restaurant that opened recently.  Yes, it was Dinner #2 for these intrepid diners.  Me, I took pictures and sampled bites from all.

Holy Dog

1552 Fillmore St, SF, CA | 415.441.9299 |Website | Menu

Daisy and P split a Beef Frankfurter ($4.95) topped with spicy beef chili ($2.95).

and JT was inspired to try the Katsu Dog ($5.95), an Italian sausage that has been battered and deep fried in the manner of japanese cutlets, drizzled with wasabi mayonnaise and katsu sauce and topped with sweet peppers.  I thought the katsu sauce tasted more like teriyaki sauce that was quite sweet.

The battered crust was pretty tough for a katsu, combined with a thick skin casing the sausage, it required vigorous effort to bite through.  We admitted that we were really too full to appreciate the rich and decadent katsu dog, that means we’ll just have to come back!

Sun-Thur, 11a-1130p and Fri-Sat, 11-2a

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Foodhoe crashed and burned recently, this restored post was previously published, lost the comments too.  So, yes you may have seen this already, sorry for the duplication/confusion, but I was busy making some enhancements to the site… bear with me, I’m still tweaking!

1546 Bonanza St., Walnut Creek, CA | 925.938.5959 |

This is one of our favorite places in downtown Walnut Creek for a quick bite to eat. It’s a cozy, quick and casual spot tucked away on a side street. The menu presents a variety of Asian influenced rice and noodle dishes, all of which are served in bowls. One of the highlights of the menu is the tender grilled chicken that is offered as the protein in many of the dishes.

They offer a quite few Korean dishes, which makes them the closest thing to a Korean restaurant in the Creek. If you ask, they will give you a bowl of garlicky housemade kimchi. It’s fresh and crunchy, spicy but not incendiary and doesn’t have any fermented funkiness.

This is the Chicken Vegetable Bowl ($7.95), which is basically a Bibimbap, full of fresh vegetables (julienned carrots, zucchini, spinach), marinated bean sprouts, topped a pile of their famous grilled chicken, covering a layer of savory vermicelli noodles (japchae) over rice. There are squeeze bottles of homemade gochujang, which is so good drizzled over almost everything. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is a very informative post on the fabulous One Fork One Spoon blog written by Grace Meng.

And if you don’t want all of those vegetables, you can order the Chicken Bowl ($7.50), which is a big pile of grilled chicken over rice and noodles. Diablo Magazine has the Hot Pork Bowl listed as #21 on their list of 101 best things to eat and drink in the East Bay. Hmmm, that list looks good, I’m tempted to try them all!

They serve a very good Dolsot Bibimbap ($9.95), served in a sizzling hot stone bowl that is heated so that the rice sizzles and cooks to form a crisp crust.

I love getting a bowl of Soondubu Jigae, spicy soft tofu soup ($8.95) when the weather is chilly. It’s bubbling hot and warms you from the inside out. It comes with a bowl of rice and salad

The Unagi Bowl ($9.95) is a generous portion of thick slices of grilled eel laid over a layer of japchae (korean vermicelli noodles) and steamed white rice. It is topped with strands of toasted seaweed and sesame seeds, which add a rich aroma and flavor. The eel is coated with a sticky sweet soy barbecue sauce and develops crispy caramelization on the edges.

The Japanese style Curry Rice ($7.95) is a generous mountain of steamed potatoes, zucchini, carrots and broccoli made with beef, chicken or pork in a thick savory curry stew that is served over steamed rice. Japanese curry is not spicy hot in the least, it reminds me of a basic brown stew with the addition of curry, and is surprisingly addictive.

My favorite of the noodle soups is the Tempura Udon ($8.95) which is served in a savory dashi broth that is flavorful and satisfying. The tempura is served in a separate plate with a bowl of dipping sauce, but I like to dip the tempura into the bowl of noodles which softens the batter and adds richness to the broth.

They offer a variety of noodles, udon, soba, saimin and something that might be ramen, all of which tend to be on the bland side but are good when it’s cold out. The Garlic Shrimp Noodle Soup ($7.50) has an entire head of garlic floating in the thin broth.

The Fishball Noodle Soup ($6.50) was filled with fresh julienned vegetables.

The Soba Salad with fresh vegetables and grilled chicken ($9.95), is a cold dish that is refreshing on a hot day. It’s served on a plate like a salad, but probably should come in a bowl because it swims in a ponzu-esque dressing (soy sauce and vinegar).

Urbanspoon needs to update their website, this used to be Sorabol, which is a Korean chain that sells teriyaki and bulgogi but doesn’t serve kimchi. Koreana Kitchen is way better than Sorabol and definitely has kimchi. It is an excellent place for a quick affordable meal and is one of the few places that has serve yourself hot tea!

Yes this is a redo…  If you happened to try to visit last night between 7-8 pm, the site was down and I had to have the site restored to a state from a couple of weeks ago.  Reminder to do more frequent backups…  However, nothing on the web is ever truly lost, I was able to salvage the lost two posts from cached pages on google!

My Japanese grandmother used to welcome the new year with an elaborate feast of traditional foods that required days of preparation, similar to the one I posted about here by my Aunt Tomiko a few years ago. Like I said, elaborate and symbolic dishes that none of us learned how to make, so it’s a good thing that you can order platters at the local Nijiya market as pictured above.

I wish I could afford the local gourmet version for $250 from Peko-Peko Kitchen in SF, but I would have had to purchase two to feed my family! So instead, I cobbled together a meal with fresh crab from Half Moon Bay, a pile of Chinese Spareribs, drunken tangy chicken wings from the Just Hungry blog, California Rolls, a variety of fresh salads, a couple of sashimi platters, the osechi bento box, along with homemade ginger spice cookies and ice cream.

No new years celebration is complete without bowls of Ozoni, a traditional soup comprised of dashi broth with pounded rice cakes and vegetables. My sister Barbara is an ozoni master and we were so lucky that she came up from soCal to join us and make her version which includes napa cabbage, surume (dried shredded squid, trust me this is soo good), slices of kamaboko (fish cake), satoimo (boiled starchy potato) and kinpira gobo that she also made the day before. Kirk from the inimitable mmm-yoso foodblog posted an excellent recipe for gobo here.

My sister softens the mochi cakes by simmering them in a hot water bath for a few minutes before serving, that way they are tender and pliable, that’s just the way we like them in our family. This is my cousin Megu feeding her son the mochi, it’s really soft and stretchy. A word of warning about mochi, which is made from pounded rice. Each cake is equivalent to one bowl of rice and eating one is never enough, so I’m just saying that you begin the feast with something like two bowls of rice. My father once ate 9 mochi (yes nine) and had to lie down for the rest of the day moaning about how full he was…

I had an excess of kaiware (spicy daikon sprouts), kimpira gobo and Momofuku ginger-scallion sauce (that I forgot to even put out) which made excellent and flavorful accompaniments for breakfast the next day. In my mind, I call the ginger scallion sauce midas sauce because everything it touches is instantly transformed into something so dazzling that makes me want to hoard mountains of it under my scaly dragon’s belly… I enlisted Mr. K to make the eggs, they were velvety and creamy and made the perfect base for these flavorful condiments. The kaiware (daikon sprouts) have a vibrant and fresh, radishy kick to them which complemented the eggs perfectly. I added slices of cucumber and avocado, some shishito peppers and shiso leaves, which were surprisingly good wrapped around the egg along with strands of the savory gobo.

A very fine start to the new year! Kind of healthy too. Best wishes for a happy and joyous new year!

6 restored comments

Rosa
Posted January 3, 2012 at 10:03 am | Permalink
Wonderful and refined food!

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2012!

Cheers,

Rosa

Ben
Posted January 3, 2012 at 11:09 am | Permalink
Always fun seeing your new year’s celebration feast! This year sounds like another success. Did you host at your host? Is the Momofuku ginger-scallion sauce basically just chopped ginger and scallion with oil? Or is there another secret ingredient that makes it the “midas sauce”?
Ben´s last [type] ..What’s New in the Ferry Building

BeefNoGuy
Posted January 3, 2012 at 5:48 pm | Permalink
That Ozoni looks absolutely fantastic, in fact everything does!
BeefNoGuy´s last [type] ..三訪 知味館 Yum’s Bistro (part trois) Fremont, CA (USA) – what do turtles, snakes, and lamb have in common?

Cookie
Posted January 4, 2012 at 10:46 am | Permalink
What a feast! I’ve never seen a traditional Japanese New Year dinner before so thanks for sharing!
Cookie´s last [type] ..First Time with Leg Quarters!

Barbara
Posted January 4, 2012 at 10:40 pm | Permalink
Thanks for the kind words sis!

foodhoe
Posted January 5, 2012 at 7:56 am | Permalink
rosa, best wishes to you too!
ben, I accidentally deleted the sentence with more detail about midas sauce… It has a splash of sherry vinegar, soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, and grapeseed oil. It is amazing and there is a link for the recipe in the post.
Thanks BeefNoGuy
Cookie, it wasn’t very traditional, but the Ozoni was!
Barb, I’m so glad you guys arrived early, I was starving!

1001 South Van Ness Avenue. SF, CA 94110 | online reservation | 415.821.2134  | website

JT organized yet another holiday get together this time at the South Van Ness location of Limon Rotisserie, one of several in the City.  I hope you all are enjoying the holidays!  As the name implies, they proudly serve the official dish of Peru, Pollo ala brasa.  The specialty of the house involves marinating free-range chickens, then roasting them over a rotating oven to form a crispy skin.   You can sit at the bar and be mesmerized watching the chickens cooking in the main dining room.  I believe the artwork on the back wall is a stylized version of the name, or perhaps the sangria affected my vision… it is sleek and modern nevertheless.

Our largish group of 15 (including kids) was seated down in the spacious downstairs dining area, with overhead lighting which added a garish red cast to the already dark lighting.  That’s Sarah supervising the kids.  We were also celebrating her birthday along with the holidays. Happy Birthday Sarah!

Rather than using the overbearing flash, I used the torch feature of my phone, which ended up looking like I used the flash; however, it really helped illuminate the dishes and counterbalanced that hideous red light… We began with an assortment from the small plates selections.  Lomito Saltado ($9.75), is a traditional Peruvian dish of stir-fried beefy top sirloin strips, onions, tomato and soy sauce, mixed with FRIES.  Now that was an interesting combination of cultures in a stir fry!

We had to order the Ceviche Mixto ($9.75), which was a combination of fish, calamari and shrimp bathed in a citrus marinade called leche de tigre or tiger’s milk.  It was like poetry, the seafood was gorgeously fresh and served with a thick slice of sweet potato and a mound of choclo, which are a mutantly humongous variant of corn.

We ordered two plates of the Anticuchos de Res ($8.25) that I found irresistible.  Skewers of tender and flavorful grilled beef heart coated with fresh herbs and spices were served over choclo and yucca.  I just loved the texture and the flavor from the marinade of  garlic, vinegar, cumin and aji panca chile peppers. I couldn’t stop reaching for more!

Chicharron de Pollo ($8.95), was a mound of crispy pieces of fried chicken that had been marinated in soy sauce, garlic and aji amarillo, and  served with salsa criolla.  This reminded me of Japanese karaage, the chicken flesh was savory and juicy and the accompanying salsa added an intensely flavorful sparkle from the fresh lime juice and herbs.

Seco de Costillas (8.95), braised boneless beef short ribs topped with huacatay and cilantro, served with potatoes carrots and english peas.  The fork tender beef short ribs were slow cooked in an herbal huacatay-cilantro broth. Huacatay is a Peruvian herb that has an aroma that is a cross between mint and basil.

Strangely out of place, but popular with the kids was the Truffle Mac and Cheese ($5.95), creamy truffle infused macaroni and cheese.  It reminded me of an alfredo pasta really, I would have liked it better if it had spent some time under the broiler to at least melt the cheese.

Empanadas ($7.75) crispy pastry dough filled with hand cut top sirloin, onions and finished with hard boiled eggs and raisins.  I found this to be addictive, the tender buttery pastry dough surrounding the rich and flavorful meat filling, dunked in a rich spicy sauce.

For the main dishes we shared two of the famous rotisserie chickens, Pollo a la Brasa ($19,95 for a whole chicken with two sides and sauces). The semi-crisp skin was a delight to bite into, the flesh was tender and infused with smoky juices…

The chicken is served with two sides and three “Aji” sauces, which are aji amarillo, rocoto aji and chimichuri.  The two on the left were spicy from chili peppers, made thick and creamy with cheese.  Chimichuri on the far right is a sauce made from parsley, oil, vinegar and onion.  They were good on everything from the chicken, antichuchos to the fries.

Yucca Fries ($3) were tender inside, like starchy mashed potato croquettes and quite delicious.

Vegetales Salteados ($3.25), someone always wants to order a healthy dish, and the sautéed vegetables with a savory soy based marinade fit the bill.

We consumed baskets of Sweet potato fries ($3.25) and regular fries, although I thought the Yucca Fries were the best.

We were quite stuffed but ordered the Chocolate Bandido ($7.25) for the birthday girl, a warm chocolate cake, with chocolate sauce and lucuma cream.

Unfortunately at this point of the meal, with a group of 15 sharing 3 desserts, I had lost my determination in documenting everything on the table and neglected my duties.  We shared the profiteroles ($6.75), and the Panna Cotta Amazonica ($6.75) which was by far my favorite of the desserts sampled.  Who can resist sweetened cooked cream topped with mango coulis…  you’ll just have to take my word for it.

2184 Union Street,  SF, CA 94123 | 415.440.8626 | website

My friend DebbiG chose the new temple of ground flap meat, Umami Burger as the location to celebrate her birthday last week.  Our party of 10 were told to expect a 45 minute wait for the only large table in the restaurant, so we wandered down the block to find a bar or cafe to hangout.  In one of those inevitable mishaps, we ended up at a very disorganized outdoor cafe that delivered our drinks just as we received the message that our table was ready.  I know, huh?  I had to chug my $12 glass of Turley zin which gave me a warm and fuzzy glow.

The logo is a stylized bun, that also resembles lips, which by the way, are all branded with a big U.  They grind their own meat, process the cheese and make the pickles to boot.  The menu is pretty much burgers, with options for a turkey burger, a couple of vegetarian burgers, a variety of sides and has a wide selection of wine and beer.  Umami Burger is a small growing chain that began in Los Angeles, which has received a lot of press (read it on umami tumblr). This is their first location in Northern California and we hope that they open up a spot in the east bay as the rumormill indicates.  Long ago, 1908 to be exact, a professor in Japan observed that the taste of konbu dashi was distinct from sweet, sour, bitter and salty and named it umami, meaning “savory” in Japanese.  Umami is imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods.  The taste of umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavors, most people don’t recognize umami when they encounter it, but it plays an important role making food taste delicious.  A burger to me is pretty much an umami bomb to begin with, so I was interested to see what the fuss was all about.

I had to order the Bacon-Wrapped Scallop Burger($15) mostly because it is only offered at this San Francisco location, and well I love bacon wrapped scallops!  It was gorgeous, the scallop patty was nicely seared but juicy, topped with slices of crisped rich pork belly, sweet chili sauce and yuzu-garlic aioli.   Not exactly bacon wrapped, but the flavors were heavenly.  It was really delicious, I recommend it if you like scallops and pork belly!

Bacon-Wrapped Scallop Burger ($15)

Mr. K had the Umami Burger ($11), their signature dish which includes shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, parmesan crisp, and a swirl of umami ketchup.  Most of the toppings were on the sweet side which knocked the balance off for us who prefer mustard to ketchup on our burgers.

Umami Burger ($11)

The burgers are slow cooked and then finished off at high heat and are generally served medium rare.  The patty was delicious, juicy and flavorful, the shiitake were velvety, and I loved the parmesan crisp; but overall I prefer the traditional toppings (lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles) on my burger.

Scott had the Hatch Burger ($10) roasted green chilies, house-made American cheese.  He ordered it as one of several packages available, Kombu Meal #3 which includes the hatch burger, tempura onion rings, and a Hoegaarden draft beer for $17

Hatch Burger ($10)

Elizabeth had the Manly Burger ($11) which was topped with melted beer-cheddar cheese, smoked salt-onion strings, and bacon lardons.  How did I miss this on the menu?  That looks so good.

Manly Burger ($11) mmmm, bacon lardons!

A couple of people had the Ahi Burger ($15), which is made from hand-chopped sushi grade ahi tuna and is topped with crushed avocado, pickled ginger, and sprinkled generously with wasabi flake.

Ahi Tuna Burger ($15)

I can’t remember who it was that ordered the Earth Burger ($12), that required a visit from far across the table.  It is a mushroom & edamame patty, white soy aioli, truffle ricotta, cipollini onions, lettuce, slow-roasted tomato.

For sides, we shared a few orders of the Tempura Onion Rings($4.5), which were ridiculously delicious.  The batter was well seasoned with a delicate crunch. I don’t usually like thick batter on rings, but these were exceptional and gone in a flash because there were only 4-5 pieces per order.  Served with a garlicky aioli in a spoon.

Tempura Onion Rings $4.5

The Cheesy Tots were insanely delicious and addictive.  They were more of a savory mashed potato filled with melted cheese kind of thing rather than the traditional coarsely grated tater tot, but we gobbled them up in a frenzy.

Cheesy Tots

The Truffle Fries were a good sized helping, but the cheese was a bit thick and only covered the top layer.  I was not able to detect the flavor or aroma of truffles…

Truffle Fries

There was this very cool looking facsimile of a samurai sword highlighted in the entrance.  We recently watched volume two of the movie Kill Bill, so images of Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu flashed through my mind.

While I’m more inclined to ask for the more traditional toppings if ordering a beef burger, I’m definitely hoping they open up an East Bay outpost that serves the killer bacon wrapped scallop burger!  Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. No reservations, major credit cards accepted

1556 Stockton St San Francisco, CA 94133-3306 | 415.835.9888 | website

Hours: 12pm to 11:30pm, Wednesday through Sunday.

Mr. K and I are fans of Tony’s Pizza, or more specifically the owner Tony Gemignani.  He runs our favorite pizza parlor, Pyzano’s Pizzeria in Castro Valley.  And he has expanded his pizza empire with his International School of  Pizza and flagship restaurant Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, which used to be my lunchtime stomping grounds back in the day…  I enjoyed checking it out when it first opened in 2009 (read about it here).  You can find every variety of pizza on the menu – thick Sicilian, thin-crusted Romana (sold by the meter), classic American (including New Haven  and New York style), classic Italian, and his special award winning margherita that he limits to 73 a day.

Last year, he opened Tony’s Coal-Fired Pizza and Slice House next door to the restaraunt, which offers take out fare like sandwiches and slices of pizza which are finished in the only coal-fired oven in Northern California.  The slices are dense and chewy, gently charred and are wide because they are meant to be folded in half down the middle.

It’s a small shop with only a couple of tables, but is brightly lit with tiled walls, a lovely embossed ceiling and eye catching overhead fans with shiny propellers that are a blur of motion.

The glass shelves on the counter display the current offerings.  There are a lot of options: New York-style pizza, Roman-style pizza, Chicago-style Italian Beef Sandwiches, and New York deli sandwiches.

I thought about the Prosciutto Panini…  I just love that combination and especially in a panini, but we decided to stick to pizza by the slice for this visit.

There is a menu on the wall that lists meats and cheese by the pound, hmmmm, housemade pastrami?  Definitely must come back to check out these and the sandwiches!

Coal fired pizza has a  chewy pliable crust and a gentle charring which provides some crispness.  Here’s a slice of Tomato Pie with Cheese($3.50).  The delicious crust is topped with a good dose of savory tomato sauce; and is held together by a molten crust of cheesy mozzarella.  The slices really do invite folding over, but I resisted because I wanted it to last longer…

The Pepperoni ($3.95) was a most excellent slice of pie.  Crisp chewy crust, spicy pepperoni, lightly charred…

We split the special, which was sliced meatball with ricotta cheese, red onion and garlic ($5).  It was surprisingly full of flavor and was a fine partner with the spicy pepperoni.

Everything we sampled was delicious, best pizza by the slice I’ve had in quite a while!  And with so many varieties of pizza, there’s something for everyone.  Definitely worth stopping there for a quick meal, on a nice day you can take your meal across the street to the park.  Next visit I’ll be checking out the sandwiches…

3481 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110  | 415.503.0650 | reservations |  website

I had a little holiday get together with some girlfriends last week and chose this restaurant after I read that they have a special Pigalito menu, but only on Tuesdays.  When Chef Thomas Peña visited a free-range Iowa pig farm, he was inspired to devote one day a week where he slow-roasts half a Niman Ranch hog and then the meat is used in street food fare like carnitas, tortas, and gorditas.  Whoops, our reservation was for Weds., so missed out on Pigalito, but we enjoyed several renditions of pork that satisfied my cravings and well, there’s always next time…  The restaurant is intimate and has been designed to encourage community between the kitchen and the guests.  The kitchen is inviting and open, separated by a simple wooden diner counter

The interior has brightly painted walls that are filled with mesmerizing artwork by local artist Julian Faulkner.  We sat under this series of bugs that totally captivated me.

Regalito offers the flavors of Mexican market foods composed with roasted pork made from Niman Ranch hogs, range free rotisserie chicken, authentic moles, margaritas, sangria and an expansive wine list.  It’s a different kind of local taqueria, having earned a recommended rating in the MICHELIN Guide San Francisco, AND they deliver!  *sigh* I do think about changing my address when I visit these neighborhood gems and compare them to the delivery options I have in San Leandro…  I had to order the Chicharrón when I saw it on the menu.  The plate held a combination of the airy fairy crackly pieces of fried skin and thick chunks of fried pork belly that rivaled the ones from La Palma Mexicatessan that I swooned about here.  Two of our party declined to partake in this highly caloric indulgence, so it was up to Debbie G and me to finish up the plate… and I got to eat all of the crispity pork rinds!

We went through a couple of baskets of their awesomely fresh and toothsome corn tortillas, which we wrapped around the magnificently rich nuggets of chicharron along with some pickled jalapenos and carrots and spicy pico de gallo that came on the plate.  The pork was tender and consisted of rich pockets of pork custard that nestled in between layers of luscious meat, surrounded by the crisp and flavorful crust that can only be developed  in the deep fryer.

Debbie G proclaimed that she has been on a Mole kick recently and really wanted to try the Mole Negro ($19), a mountain of tender pork ribs slathered with dark, rich Oaxacan mole.  The thick sauce is complex, made with chiles, nuts, fruit and spices, and includes Mexican chocolate.  It is lip smacking good; multi layered, spicy and intense, infusing the fall-off-the-bone tender ribs.

I ordered the Enpanadas de Chicharron ($12) which were three large corn masa turnovers stuffed with savory ground pork and salsa verde.  They were served with black beans, a light drizzle of crema and garnished with bright fresh pico de gallo.  The corn masa had a surprisingly firm and crispy crust, I think they were fried as well, but tender and flakey inside.

We shared the Taquitos made with Chicken and Potato with Cheese ($9.5).  Rolled tortillas filled with chicken or potato and cheese, fried crisp and topped with salsa fresca, queso fresco, crema and cilantro.

Someone wanted a side of vegetables so we went with the seasonal Brussel Sprouts ($6)

Libby was drawn to the Tinga de Pollo ($17) which was a mound of tender shredded free-range chicken in chipotle sauce, served with rice and avocado salsa.  This was spicy and set my ultra sensitive heat sensors ajangle, but in a very positive way.

The fluffy side of rice was savory and addictive both plain and garnished with the mouth watering sauces.

We enjoyed our meal and had a delightful time!  Chef Peña combines traditional cooking methods with a modern commitment to quality, organic and seasonal ingredients in a cozy neighborhood location that compels you to return.  I know I’m going back for that lovely rice, and Pigolito Tuesday and am always looking to find new brunch options…

Brunch: Saturday & Sunday, 11am – 3pm

Lunch:  Saturday & Sunday, 11am – 5pm

Dinner:  Mon – Sat, 5pm – 10pm; Sunday, 5pm – 9pm