Playing with Food

"Mushrooms"

My friend made these wonderful "mushrooms" for brunch.  She kindly made them for my kids, but I loved them most.  This is exactly the type of thing I like to blog about, something that brought me a moment of joy.  As soon as I saw these I smiled and was happy.  All was right in the world.

I digress.  To make these, stand a boiled egg upright.  Top with three quarters of a tomato (has to be just the right size for an egg) and dot with mayonnaise.  Sprinkle chopped chives on the plate. Smile.

"Monster" bread

Another playful item that my friend made were "monster" breads.  She shaped the dough into animal shapes and then stuck pine nuts halfway into the bread which made them look spiky.  They were sort of dinosaur looking in the end :)

Happy New Year

There were a couple of really good subjects I should have blogged about in December.  But I forgot to take pictures and the holidays caught up with me.

Happy New Year everyone and I'll be back soon!

Ajisen Ramen

Premium Pork Tonkotsu Ramen

Recently, there was an article in SF Weekly about tonkotsu ramen.  Tonkotsu (not to be confused with tonkatsu which is deep fried pork) is a specialty of the southernmost island of Japan, Kyushuu, and has a pork braised broth that is simmered anywhere from 10 to 60 hours.  The broth is pork-y and milky - even though there is no milk added.  The broth is made from pork bones simmered so long that the bones and fat break down and give the broth a milky appearance.  There is a trend in S.F. right now for tonkotsu ramen and a few restaurants offering it.  For the past couple of months, my husband and I have been on a quest to try all of the Tonkotsu Ramen offered in San Francisco.

Tender Pork Rib Ramen

The best we have had so far is at Ajisen Ramen in the San Francisco Center.  Yes, this is the sad food court below Nordstrom's, not even the new, stylish food court by Bloomingdales.  Ajisen Ramen is a chain restaurant from Japan.  All of this probably makes you really NOT want to go there!  However, overlook the sad ambiance just to try the tonkotsu ramen. Ajisen is set up like a fast food restaurant but, in fact, has table service that is quick an efficient.

I had the "premium pork" ramen, which was tonkotsu ramen with wafer thin sliced pork on top.  The pork was so tender that it practically melted in my mouth.   My husband had the tender pork ribs ramen, and the kids had the b.b.q. pork ramen.  All good, but mine was the best :)  The tender pork ribs had too many chunks of fat so I wouldn't recommend it, but I do recommend the b.b.q. pork.

So what is it about tonkotsu ramen that we liked so much?  We've been eating ramen religiously for years, mostly miso based but sometimes shoyu (soy sauce) based.  Often the shoyu base can be bland, nothing special.  But the miso can be overly salty and cloying.  The tonkotsu broth is so smooth with a complexity of flavor - not overly salty but not bland either.  The kids gave it their "best ramen ever" rating, not really sure why this miso looking ramen tasted so much better than normal.
 

Quite big and fast food-like

B.B.Q. Pork Ramen

The line outside Ajisen

 

Off the Grid Truck Night

CupKate eating

Every Thursday evening on Waller Street at Stanyan, at least 8 food trucks pull up and start cooking.  This is called Off the Grid - a gourmet food truck gathering that happens at Fort Mason on Friday evenings as well. On Waller Street, chairs are set out for customers and the neighborhood descends upon Off the Grid for dinner.  Last Thursday was an unseasonably warm November Thursday evening, a perfect night for the food trucks!  My family walked down the hill for some chow.

51st State's Floribbean sandwich

First up, the 51st State food truck which serves Hawaiian style food.  I tried the Floribbean sandwich with Sofrito pork that actually turned out to be Cuban (?!).  Tender braised Cuban spiced pork with pickled vegetables on grilled ciabatta bread.  Omg, delicious!  I haven't had such a pleasurable sandwich eating experience in years.  I do enjoy pickled vegetables and vinegar, though, thus my love for this sandwich.  It's a huge serving for $8, my husband and I split the sandwich.  51st State also offers a Green Goddess salad, Mochiko Chicken rice plate, and Banana cream pie.  Next time, I'm trying the Mochiko Chicken.

The kids ate Nachos from the El Norteno truck.  Great for the kids, not for the adults.  Next up, the Korean BBQ truck.  Fried beef dumplings for the kids (yum, similar to gyoza) and Korean BBQ taco for the adults.  The BBQ is tender and Korean-style (soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, & onions) served up in a tortilla taco style.  A strange combination that works. 

There were 2 Filipino food trucks there, we tried the lumpia (Filipino version of egg rolls) at the Hapa SF truck.  What a surprise - the best lumpia we have ever had.  The pork and vegetables were so moist and full of flavor, and I liked the small size of the lumpia.  This truck deserves a return visit, I'm trying the Adobo chicken next time!

It probably sounds like we've eaten enough by now, but we had to try the Chairman Bao truck.  The line for the truck was long the entire evening so we knew it must be good.  I thought the buns would be typical pork bun style, but the bun was served open like a taco, with braised meat inside, not the typical sweet and sticky BBQ pork.  My husband purchased the duck confit with mango salsa bun, and the pulled pork with savoy cabbage bun.  The duck confit was out of this world, but the mango salsa was so SPICY that we had to take it off in order to enjoy it!  The pulled pork was very good as well, but the duck confit was the winner.  There is also a pork belly with pickled daikon, red sesame chicken with scallion and bok choy, and crispy garlic tofu with miso greens.  You can choose between a steamed bun or a baked bun, I would always go for the steamed bun.

Seoul on Wheel's taco & dumpling

Chairman Bao's Buns

Hapa SF's Lumpia

Finally, even though we could have happily finished eating and walked uphill towards home, we stopped at the CupKate truck.  The cupcakes just looked so good!  My son tried the salted caramel cupcake - chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting.  It was disappointing, no caramel flavor.  I tried the pumpkin spice cupcake in honor of my sister-in-law who is into pumpkin spice these days.  The cake part was a bit too doughy with pretty good flavor, but the frosting was pumpkin spice cream cheese and sooo good!  You know how the cream cheese frosting on carrot cake is the reason why you like carrot cake?  This pumpkin spice cream cheese frosting was twice as good.  There were other flavors like S'mores, Lemon Rasberry, Double Chocolate, and Tiramisu.  

Done eating, we waddled our way uphill in the warm evening air and thought about how happy we are to live in San Francisco.

CupKates

The crowd

Chairman Bao's

Green Chile Kitchen

Green Chile Stew w/pork

A friend of mine turned me on to this Nopa New Mexican restaurant.  I'm always wary of Mexican restaurants, not because I don't like Mexican food, but because it's usually very unhealthy.   I mean, I love a super burrito with sour cream and guacamole as much as the next person, but one of those is 2 days worth of calories for me.  Most Mexican restaurants use lard and pile on the cheese.  Green Chile Kitchen's food is clean, healthy "New Mexican inspired food with an emphasis on organic, sustainably grown, and local ingredients".

The spacious interior

Their signature dish, Green Chile Stew, is full of flavor and light and healthy.  My picture looks like brown stew, but it's really green!  You can order the stew with either Niman Ranch pork, chicken, or vegetarian.  The pork is really the best because it is braised slowly and very tender.  The chicken can be a little tougher.  Either way, the heart of the dish is the green chile stew which is almost soup like. It's pleasantly spicy with chunky bits of green chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, and some beans.  It's not greasy at all, and sour cream on top is optional.

Green Chile Kitchen also offers tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tamales, and rotisserie chicken.  All are of high quality ingredients but are pretty standard Mexican food.  What really stands out are the homemade tortilla chips.  Both yellow and blue corn tortilla chips are housemade and you can tell!  So crispy, salty, and warm - need I say more?

Apple Slice

Recently, Green Chile Kitchen moved into a large airy space so there's lots of seating.  The original location, just a block away is now Chile Pies (& ice cream).   At Green Chile Kitchen, there's always an incredible homemade looking apple pie in a glass dome.  The owners have probably branched out based on their success of their apple pies.

After dinner we walked down the hill and had dessert at Chile Pies (& ice cream) just to try it out.  We had the apple slice which had a very homemade taste.  The kids had the organic ice cream - there was a killer lemon cookie flavor and chocolate orange chip (!!!) just like Swiss orange chip from my Swensen's Ice Cream days.  Anyways, I'll eat there a few more times and post about it!

Green Chile Kitchen is located at:

1801 McAllister Street @ Baker
San Francisco, CA 94115
415 440 9411

Hours:  Sun - Thurs 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
             Fri - Sat       9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

www.greenchilekitchen.com

Bushi-Tei Bistro

Maguro Donburi

Donburi (rice bowls with meat or fish on top) are simple, standard Japanese food.  Bushi-Tei Bistro in Japantown makes a Maguro donburi with a western twist that keeps me going back for more.  Seared and sliced tuna sit atop perfectly cooked short grain rice drizzled in a sesame oil dressing with minced bell peppers, black sesame seeds, shredded carrots, and pine nuts.  I love this combination!  The dressing is mild, but over the rice it is refreshingly delicious.  A wonderful twist on donburi bowls that are usually seeped in shoyu (soy sauce).

We usually go to Bushi-Tei Bistro for lunch because of the ramen combos.  You can order ramen with either a miso or shoyu base and then choose a side dish to go with it for $10.95.  The ramen is tasty and comes with sliced chashu pork (slow roasted pork).  One of the side dishes you can order is Chirashi donburi, which is basically the Maguro donburi but with a piece of shrimp, salmon, scallop and tuna.  This is a bargain - I highly recommend ordering this.   For the kids, we usually order the ramen and gyoza combination.   You can never go wrong with gyoza - thin wonton wrappers filled with pork and vegetables that are fried and then steamed.   If you haven't tried Japanese gyoza, believe me, they are so much better than Chinese potstickers!

Chirashi Donburi

Miso Ramen

Gyoza

Zaru Soba

Bushi-Tei Bistro also offers pastas, salads, and other noodles such as udon and soba.  All of the dishes are of high quality, especially for the Japantown mall.   Most restaurants in the mall are cookie cutter average, but Bushi-Tei Bistro is an exception.  This is probably because it is the casual, inexpensive version of the French/Californian fusion Bushi-Tei restaurant located just up the street (I've eaten there twice and the food is creative and unique - at one time it had a Michelin star).    Bushi-Tei Bistro is the perfect place for a Japanese lunch with western influences.

Bushi-Tei Bistro is located at:

1581 Webster Street
San Francisco, CA  94115
In the Japantown Mall at Post and Webster
415 409 4959

Hours:
Open 7 days 11:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. 
http://www.bushiteibistro.com/

Lovely Boy

My lovely boy

I know this is a little cruel because I am not laughing with him, but at him (I do love him and he doesn't read this blog).  And I did cut off his head in the picture so he remains anonymous (sort of).  My son loves wearing Chinese outfits for some reason and put together this whole look by himself.  The white socks with black sandals complete the outfit.  Then he wore it to school.

Just sharing the joy.