Amazing dinner at Delarosa, Marina, SF.

Delarosa is a pizzeria. It's fast and loud and hip and fun and delicious! :)

Champagne courtesy of Delarosa! That's a large glass of champagne and it was glorious! :)

Eggplant caponatina with burrata 9

Appetizer courtesy of Delarosa. This was ridiculously good. I know I never stop talking about how much I love eggplant, but this was really something else. Lovely.

Fava bean and pecorino bruschetta 7

I overheard a guy telling his friend the Fava bean bruschetta and the meatballs were killer. Then I asked our server what she recommended and, right off the bat, she said the same two apps! We went with those and they were both fabulous!

I don't know how they grate the cheese into this beautiful cloud over the bruschetta, but the textures and tastes were all right on!

Meatballs in spicy marinara 6

Okay, I wouldn't say the marinara was spicy--really, it wasn't, but the meatballs and sauce were both fantastic.

Margherita with burrata 15

We ordered the Margherita with burrata and added panchetta--SO GOOD. Move over Delfina! There's a new thin crust pizza joint and it's good. Everything about this pizza was wonderful--the cheese was perfect, the sauce and dough were excellent, the basil was fresh and the panchetta was heaven. I'm already craving this pizza again!

Coppa Mocha 7

Coffee gelato, crème anglaise, chocolate sauce, candied almond, and meringue

Beautiful. Delicious. This whole dinner just kept getting better right down to this dessert. The coffee flavors weren't those muted frappuccino flavors you get with other coffee ice creams--they were real, and the texture of the gelato was spot on, too. The meringue was crumbled up as a topping, which is such a fabulous idea!

Delarosa is one of those spots that you'll keep going back to. That and every time you go back you'll want to order everything you had last time because it was so delicious, but you'll also want to order all new dishes because you know they are going to rock your world! Now, that's my kind of restaurant. ;)

A very special thanks to Lauren at Rivera PR and Delarosa for the fabulous reservation and for the drink and app! Rivera--you guys are always SO fabulous and represents the hottest spots! :)

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Uvaggio wine pairings at Ristobar, Marina, SF.

What a lovely, casual event with great wine and good food! I tried four of the Uvaggio wines with an assortment of yummy bites from Ristobar. The Uvaggio whites are bold and crisp and not afraid to be true white wines--it's so refreshing to see that!

The Uvaggio Muscato Dolce was fabulous with these sweet treats.

A special thanks to Lauren Eastman & Associates, Rivera PR, Uvaggio and Ristobar for the fun tasting!

Uvaggio Website

Ristobar Website

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Bar Agricole, SoMa, SF.

After MUCH anticipation and months of staking it out as our new office lunch spot (SF Station is right around the corner), Bar Agricole finally opened! Very exciting!

The space is great. A lot larger than it seems from outside (I feel like this is very SF), and very rustic-modern. The menu on the other hand.. While the actual design of it is fabulous, it reads a bit strangely. From everything I've read and from how they are presenting their chef (Brandon Jew), it seems like Bar Agricole is a bar/restaurant. That said, the menu is odd. It wasn't presented as a tapas place, but the menu seems incomplete for a normal restaurant. The line breaks + prices don't present a clear meaning either.

That all said, the food is great! Haha. But, with the exception of a couple dishes on the menu, none of the plates were full meals on their own.

Cheese plate 15

Our server (who was very sweet) said there would be crisp apples with this! There were no apples. I wanted apples. :( Both the bread and cheeses were very nice though. There was a camembert and two goats' milk cheeses. The plate could definitely use more bread, or fruit though.

Chopped liver on toast 8

I don't normally like pate, but this was SOO good. Apparently it isn't a traditional pate because it's technically "chopped liver", but it sure looked like pate and was definitely a spread.. ;)

Roasted peppers with napatella 13

These were lovely, but I wouldn't say they were anything extraordinary.

Grilled eggplant & farro with basil 11

This was pretty yummy. I just really love eggplant though. Haha. I didn't really taste the basil, but it was a nice, unique way of serving eggplant.

Mussels with pork sausage and pea greens 16

This would be the only plate that I would consider to be a full meal on it's own. Still, I never understand when people order a big bowl of mussels as their whole meal! Haha. They were very yummy though.

Blueberry shortcake with lemon verbena cream 8

This was yummy. It wasn't a shortcake though. Shortcake with fruit and cream is my favorite dessert and this definitely wasn't a shortcake. It lacked the crumble that I hoped for. although the plump blueberries were nice, I think wild blueberries would have brought in more flavor. Their cream is amazing though!

Pluot upside-down cake 8

This was my favorite dish of the evening. The cake was moist and buttery and just perfect with their light, yet flavorful cream and wild blackberries! Mmmmm!

After writing this, I feel like it was a negative review, but it really wasn't. The drinks were great, the food was great--the menu was just a bit odd. I don't know that I'd go for a full meal, but I'd certainly go back for drinks and dessert!

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Brunch at Red Door Cafe, Lower Pacific Heights SF.

Haha--cute.

French toast with seasonal berries and banana.

You have to at least get the banana here--they fry it nicely, which makes it even more delicious! Their French toast is truly the best I've had. They do something to it to make it slightly crispy--I think maybe put brown sugar in the batter and it caramelizes? I don't know what exactly it is, but it's ammmmazing!

Roll my Cuban.

Mmmmm! I didn't get a great shot of the bamboo skewer tower, but it was awesome--great presentation, great food. Richard is a total food snob, too, and this was his dish. He loved it! :) I'm 2 for 2 now! ;)

Grizzlidilla.

Smoked salmon and lots of other yummy things in this huuuge quesadilla! Their house salsa is SO yummy and was perfect with this!

Dahn's dish--can't remember what it's called, but it's basically the Red Door's take on the standard American breakfast--2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 slices of toast. ;) Dahn's not really a breakfast guy either, but he loved this!

I don't remember what this was called either, but it was basically an open faced breakfast sandwich and it looked great!

The Red Door continues to shine. Love it. Love Ahmed (owner).

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Best (secret) Brunch Article, SF Station

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Drinks and late dinner at Gitane, Financial District, SF.

I took Richard to Gitane for drinks and a late bite after Patton Oswalt at Cobb's Comedy Club. I love this bar.

Coup Glacee - riesling ice wine, Pimm's No. 1, sliced cucumber, strawberry, ginger beer, mint 12

I like rieslings and I love Pimm's, but I don't love cucumber. Normally with Pimm's the cucumber is fine, but it was too strong for me in this particular drink. It might have had something to do with the strong flavor of ginger beer, too.

Padrons - fried Spanish peppers, smoked sea salt 6

Fesol - butter beans, pork belly, picada 8

Both very quite nice. Super tender beans, yummy peppers although the salt could have been a bit more even throughout.

Caille - Roasted Tolenas farm quail, chorizo herb stuffing, sweet corn, potato galette 22

Once again, the quail! I loved it when I had it and recommended it to Richard. He loved it, of course and he's not easy to please! The crispy potatoes and the corn are just awesome. And the chorizo stuffing packs a big punch of flavor into the lovely quail. Mmmm!

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Post-softball raspberry shake at Flipper's, Hayes Valley, SF.

Filpper's is a great spot for us to head over to after our softball games! :)

I was still absolutely stuffed after brunch at Namu though so I just went for a milkshake. I wanted a strawberry milkshake, but they only had raspberry. I'd never had a raspberry milkshake before so I tried it and it was okay, but definitely make with syrup, which I don't love. :(

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Pre-sotball brunch at Namu, Inner Richmond, SF.

Mimosas courtesy of Namu--thanks so much, guys! Their mimosas are fabulous--a nice amount of pulp, and not super cheap bubbly. ;)

Pickles also courtesy of Namu. Yummy.

Kimchi and pancetta fried rice.

Perfectly cooked sunny side up egg. Great combo of kimchi and pancetta. To be honest though, I thought it would be more flavorful from the look of it. It was a bit light, but still very nice--a really nice amount of fatty richness throughout the rice.

Korean breakfast burrito.

Beautiful. Again though, a bit of a tease! From the looks of it, I was expecting lots of big flavors, some spice, etc, but this was very light. Not bland necessarily, but definitely not the flavors you're expecting when you look at it. Also, the crispiness was a bit in-between--it wasn't a chimichanga (which would have been GREAT), but it wasn't a soft burrito.

Burger with kimchi relish. I really like how they asked if we were sharing and then cut it into 3 parts for us!

A good burger, not super great fries. The burger was nicely cooked and flavorful, but there needed to be more relish! I had maybe one good bite with relish and that bite was great, but then the rest were a bit sadder. Haha. Solid burger though.

This was a great brunch. I would definitely recommend it. I'd probably even recommend brunch over dinner at Namu. Nice and quiet, too, with no lines.

So I went to brunch with my friend Joe and our friend Alan. Joe doesn't think SF has that great of a food scene and I've taken it upon myself to show him otherwise. he really enjoyed Namu's brunch--even more than I did. That and I took him to Sai Jai Thai a few weeks ago and he liked that a ton, too! I'll have him raving about SF food in no time! ;) Haha. Thanks for the great brunch, Joe! :)

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Doggie Diner Giants Dog at AT&T Park, South Beach, SF.

Doggie Diner had the shortest line, but great food! I think they are one of the cheaper eats at the ballpark, too.

Gotta keep 'em grillin'!

My brat with onions. This was amazing. Okay, I was really hungry, but this was honestly a very good hotdog. Great flavor.

Tony, super excited, obviously! ;)

Ahh, there's nothing like hotdogs and baseball. :)

Thanks for the yummy hotdog and for not leaving me during the game, Tony! (We somehow managed to lose everyone else we went to the game with!) Haha. ;)

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Mission Chinese Food, Mission District, SF.

Salt cod fried rice, fresh black cod, Chinese sausage, scallion, egg - $10

This was nice and light. I love fried rice with cilantro! It's also nice to be able to order fried rice at a Chinese restaurant and not have it dripping with oil! :)

Braised Mongolian beef cheek, scallions, onions, peppers, and horseradish over noodles - $9

Amazingly tender beef. So yummy, but I could have used a bit more spice! ;)

Taiwanese eggplant, three types of garlic, hot basil - $8

I loooove me some eggplant! You can't seem to go wrong with eggplant, but MCF does a particularly awesome job with it.

Sizzling cumin lamb with salt & peppered pickled long beans (see below) - $12.50

Yow! The lamb was falling off the bones. It wasn't as flavorful as I was hoping, but was still very nice.

The pickles went well with the lamb, too. They weren't spicy, but more refreshing and added a nice little zing to the meal. As a Korean, this was the kimchi that balanced out the fattiness of the meal! ;)

Okay, I heart Mission Chinese Food. They are awesome. The food is great, and, of course, we came on the last day of the old menu! The new menu isn't too different, but has some changes and a couple new dishes. Can't wait to try them! I'm going to order spiciest dishes next time--exciting.

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Kalbi dinner at home, Spokane, WA.

We grilled up tons of my parents' amazing kalbi for my last night in town!

This is what I call hardcore marinating. :)

Mmmmm. This was the first batch.. there were many more to come!

Apologies for the blurry photo. This was the spread, with banchan and kalbi!

Here is one of my ssams! Ssam is the traditional way to eat Korean BBQ. You take a piece of sang-chu lettuce or a sesame leaf (some even layer up with both!) and you create your own lettuce cup of sorts. My ssam (pictured above) included rice, ssam-jang (spicy soy bean paste), walnut banchan and a piece of kalbi. Sooo great!

When my parents and I cook we just use our hands and taste along the way so the below recipe isn't exact, but it's one I found online that sounded the closets to how we make it!

Kalbi Recipe
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef short ribs (flanken cut)
• 1/2 cup light soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons garlic (finely chopped)
• 3 tablespoons rice wine (or Soju)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 green onions (finely chopped)
• 1 cup Coca-Cola

Directions:

1. Place the ribs in a dish for marinating.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl, being sure to add the coke last, as it will foam up a bit when added to the other ingredients.
3. Pour the marinade over the beef and massage it in for about one minute.
4. Cover and let marinate for at least 4 hours turning at least once.
5. Heat gas or charcoal grill to medium hot.
6. Remove the ribs from the marinade and place on the hot grill.
7. Grill the ribs, turning once, to desired doneness, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.
8. Serve with rice and a variety of Korean side dishes such as kimchi, namul (trio of vegetables) and musangchae (white radish salad) for a delicious Korean meal.

South Perry Pizza, Spokane, WA.

I kept hearing about South Perry Pizza so I made the trek out to the adorable South Perry neighborhood to try it out! They have a great patio area and a cute modern space.

Bleu 5
Spring mix, candied walnuts, bleu cheese crumbles, red onions, red grapes, blue cheese vinaigrette

This salad was huge for $5! Gosh, I love eating in Spokane. You really get some bang for your buck. This salad was seriously delicious, too. Just like something I would make at home with the red grapes. :)

Artichoke 12
olive oil, feta, mozzarella, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers + pesto

We couldn't choose between the Artichoke and the Pesto pizzas so we got the Artichoke with some pesto! Seriously yummy. Very good crust, and AMAZING portions for the price! This was a pretty large pie and for only $12.

$20 with tax and tip and more than enough for two to share! Ridiculous! Amazing! Haha. I'm SO excited to eat here again next time I'm in Spokane!

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