Cooking with Arielle: Ricotta Lemon Bruschetta and Moroccan Carrot Soup.

Arielle Ring, one of the most genuinely beautiful people I know, an amazing friend and one heckuva cook! Her kitchen is tiny, but she does a great job and I was super excited to help her cook dinner! :)

Food52's Bruschetta with Ricotta, Honey and Lemon Zest.

Bon Appetit's Moroccan Carrot Soup.

Breakfast of Champions: Toast, Fruit, Tea.

Cinnamon toast from Whole Foods, Aveda Tea and fruit salad of honey dew, cantaloupe and pomegranate seeds. Perfect way to start the day. :)

Indian delivery from Little Dehli, Tenderloin, SF.

Eep! This is my first non-pizza delivery in the US (had delivery while I was living in Korea)! And my first delivery I've had by myself, but of course, I ordered like I was eating for 10! Hah. I feel like such a city girl now. Haha. ;)

I ordered through Eat24Hours.com, which worked great. The food came in about 15 minutes!

Here's what I ordered: Little Delhi Special Bread; Bengan Bharta; Okra Vegetable; Vegetable Malai Kofta.

I didn't care for the bread, but everything else was quite nice. I had tried everything except for the Vegetable Malai Kofta in other Indian restaurants. I'm so glad I tried the Kofta though--it was my favorite part of this meal and was really a delight.

This was a ridiculous amount of food for $30! I only had about 1/4 of it, froze some and will have some as leftovers this week. :)

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Yelp

Chef's Crab Fest at Bistro Boudin, Fisherman's Wharf, SF.

Bistro Boudin and Glodow Nead were kind enough to invite me to a special media dinner previewing crab season at Boudin.

We started off the evening with a little tour of the vast Bistro Boudin space (upstairs) at Fisherman's Wharf. Among other attractions, they have a neat Boudin museum and private banquet room. You can schedule to tour the museum and bakery here.

The Boudin bakers must have so much fun with these creations.

The main dining room. I love all of the dark beams and openness.

We were seated in a cozy private table in the Buena Vista Carneros Tasting Room, which was perfect for our event.

Chef Misael Reyes with Casey Shaughnessy-Gray of Glodow Nead. Chef Reyes, who is originally from El Salvador, was once Francis Ford Coppola's personal chef. He is also the only non-family keeper of Francis Ford Coppola's mother's recipe book--very cool.

Chef Reyes and prepared a lovely, crab-centric menu for us that was nicely paired by Sam, the Buena Vista Carneros Tasting Room manager.

Dungeness Crab Louis - Fresh Picked DUngeness Crab with Deviled Eggs, Avocado, Bibb Lettuce, Asparagus, RIpe Tomatoes & Louis Dressing.

Paired with 2008 Condes de Albarei Albarino

The crab was fresh, light and delicious. It went perfectly with the slightly tangy Louis (Thousand Island) dressing and mix of vegetables.

Dungeness Crab Mac & Cheese - Aged Vermont Cheddar Cheese, Fresh Cream & Freshly Picked Dungeness Crab with Buttered Soughdough Breadcrumbs

Paired with 2007 Buena Vista Carneros Chardonnay

Light, creamy and delicious. The crab wasn't overwhelming, but was present and, most importantly, the mac & cheese wasn't too salty or greasy. I happen to particularly love mac & cheese with shell pasta, too.

Soughdough Tortilla Taco - Fresh Dungeness Crab with Avocado, Red & Green Cabbage, Cilantro, Crema Fresca, Pico de Gallo & Roasted Tomato Salsa

Paired with 2008 Sagelands Riesling

Boudin's twist on fish tacos? A soughdough tortilla, of course! What a fantastic and fantastically Boudin idea! The tortillas were great, especially since I'm not typically a huge fan of corn tortillas. The crab was, of course, wonderful although they also offer fish tacos on their menu. The Roasted Tomato Salsa could have used a little more kick though--it was a little bland for my taste. The wine was my favorite wine of the evening though, and, more than the others, really enhanced the flavors in this dish.

Here is a photo of the full-sized portion of the Sourdough Tortilla Tacos. Thank goodness they cut down the portions for our dinner--even with our portions I walked out absolutely stuffed!

Cioppino - Dungeness Crab, Shrimp, Calamari, Mussels & Fish Simmered in a Spicy Saffron-Tomato Broth

Paired with 2007 XYZIN Zinfandel

What a beautiful dish. The calamari and mussels were just divine. They were cooked perfectly. My shrimp was a bit overcooked, but other than that, I really loved this dish. The crab was fresh and succulent and the broth--oh goodness, the broth! I loved the broth, especially with the toasty sourdough garlic bread.

The full-sized portion. Again, such beautiful presentation.

Left to right: Casey of Glodow Nead; Jason and Lizzie of ABC 7Live; Scott of Bistro Boudin; Susannah of YumSugar; Alison of Glodow Nead; Steven of the Nob Hill Gazette and myself.

I had to get a shot of all of us with our crab bibs on! What a fabulous group of people to enjoy a wonderful evening of food and wine with. It was lovely meeting you all.

Trio of Creme Brulee - Double Vanilla with Wafer Cookies; Peanut Butter with Ginger Snaps; Bittersweet Chocolate with Manjari Wafer.

Paired with 2007 King Estates Pinot Gris Vin Glace

What can I say.. I love dessert and I love modern creme brulees! I was already completely stuffed, but couldn't help myself! The peanut butter and dark chocolate were my favorite--so lovely.

A nice little cappuccino to finish off the evening. I only wish I wasn't too full to finish it!

Scott Shuttleworth, a managing partner at Bistro Boudin, and fabulous co-host this evening. Scott was a generous to provide each of us with a Boudin tote filled with all sorts of goodies--very classy.

I really love this tote. I'm going to cary it everywhere.

This limited Boudin baseball cap isn't even available in the gift shop!

Buena Vista Carneros 2007 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

A crab, of course! This is surprisingly soft, too. And as much as I love dungeness crab, I think I'm really going to enjoy this soughdough crab, too!

Bistro Boudin, Glodow Nead, Buena Vista, Casey, Alison, Scott, Chef Reyes and Sam, thank you all so much for such a lovely evening. Cheers to crab season!

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Yelp

Jalapeno Cheese roll from Andersen Bakery, Japantown, SF.

This place is always packed, at every location. And I'd never been, so we decided to stop and grab a roll.

Pesto roll (left), Jalapeno Cheese roll (left). Ed, Jess and I split the Jalapeno Cheese roll. The bread was a lot harder than I thought it would be. And it was greasy because of the cheese. Not my favorite roll, but I bet some of the other pastries are better.

Thanks for the snack, Ed & Jess!

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Lunch with Tae at Slow Club, Potrero Hill, SF.

grilled flatbread

sheep's milk mozzarella, smoked bacon,
roasted summer squash & caramelized onions $10.00

Slow Club has been on my list forever, but I never get out to Potrero! Luckily, I was heading out there to interview Tae Kim, President/Founder of Alite Designs, so we grabbed lunch before. The flatbread was very good.

burger

prather ranch dry aged ground beef, tomatoes,

greens, balsamic onions, dijon mustard, aioli

& cheddar, swiss or jack cheese,

served with french fries $11.50

We shared the burger, too, which was also excellent--well cooked, with soft bread.

We also grabbed one of their huge chocolate chip cookies! Mmmm!

Post-interview Tae at the Alite studio. Their space is so fun and the interview was fabulous! They encourage people to check out the space and hang out, too, so grab a bite at Slow Club (next door) and then head over to Alite!

Check out my Alite article on SF Station!

A HUGE thank you for everything, Tae! :)

Website

Yelp

Disappointing dinner at Sons & Daughters, Union Square, SF.

Trinh and I had both been wanting to try Sons & Daughters for awhile now. I hadn't really heard anything about it, but had been by a couple of times. We decided to go after attempting to hit up the First Thursday Art Walk at 49 Geary--most of the galleries were closed because of Labor Day. :(

Back to S&D--what a darling space! I really love what they've done with it.. Sadly, the space is a lot cuter than the food is good. :(

The menu looked great though.

Love this water jug! I think it's great to leave a nice thing of water on the table--I realize it doesn't work for every table setting, but there's really nothing worse than having to wait for water!

Housemade sweet roll with black salt. The bread was soft and lovely. I loved the salt, but could have used a little more salt with the butter.

Amuse Bouche: cucumber something with a caviared something else! Hah! I never quite catch what the amuse is! S&D's big thing is caviaring things and making these cool little balls! It's neat and fun. This amuse wasn't the most flavorful, but had a nice, cool taste.

Sweetbreads Lobster salad Garbanzo bean Baby greens Dijon 18

This was just okay. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. The dijon was foamed, which took away from the sharp flavor you think of when you hear "dijon". I really didn't taste any dijon at all, actually.

Squab breast Confit leg Chanterelle mushrooms Jus 22

The squab was cooked nicely, but the cuts were odd, difficult to eat, and not that flavorful. the mushrooms were nice, but, overall, the plate was lacking flavor and substance.

The sweet amuse bouche. This was nice. This and the bread were probably the best parts of the meal.

Needless to say, I was disappointed with Sons & Daughters. It's such a great space and Union Square has desperately needed such a restaurant, but the food just wasn't there. That all said, I am glad I tried it! :)

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Yelp

Trader Joe's blue cheese, gorgonzola flat bread.

Flat breads are turning more and more into pizzas. I don't know why it's fancier to call it "flat bread", unless it is actually a flatbread.. In any case, it was okay. It baked well, but it was just cheese and not super flavorful. I had to have it with Tapatio, of course. :) Good portions for the price and fairly low on calories! :)

Baked potato soup.

Baked potato soup from Safeway. I know I should make mine own, and I will, but the Safeway pre-made soups are actually very good. I also got the jalapeno cheddar loaf, which is another one of my favorite Safeway items. :)

Bagels and brunch at Terra Bakery, Hayes Valley, SF.

The new Terra Bakery and Cafe! I've been sooooo excited to try a bagel here! Yay!

Traditional Lox breaky with a toasted onion bagel. I couldn't really tell from this how great the bagels here are, but this dish was wonderful. The onions were so fresh and delicious. I don't think there were enough capers or smoked salmon, and I prefer this dish open-faced, but other than that, it was a great sandwich.

I'm pretty sure we ordered the lemon ricotta pancakes, but I'm pretty sure we got the normal pancakes... That or they are reaaaaaally skimping on the lemon and ricotta. I think they just got it wrong, which is fine. We just ate it and it was fine, nothing spectacular though. The sausage was great though and so well browned!

I'll be back to try just a bagel with cream cheese. I hope they are a real bagel shop and have veggie cream cheese!

Yelp

Indian night at Darbar, Russian Hill, SF.

Bottom left: Okra dish that isn't on the menu. We just said we wanted something very yummy with okra and they brought us this, which is soo lovely! I'm going to get this all the time now.

Middle: Saag Gosht - Lamb meat cooked with saag (spinach), herbs and spices.

We got the onion naan, which is so flavorful and fluffy, and the basmati rice.

After a long weekend of Korean, I thought it would be good to get a taste of something else. I would have happily gone for a burger, being that I didn't get to Father's Office this time around, but Indian sounded good, too! And I heart Darbar! :) It's nice and cheap, the food is tasty and the service is great.

Website

Yelp

Cinnamon sugar French toast.

Eep! After not really eating anything for days, I decided I needed bread (recommended online for food poisoning).. and eggs sounded good, too, so I decided to make a simple French toast! I used wheat bread, a single egg, and topped the slices with a little butter and cinnamon sugar. It was yummy, but took me forever to eat!

Ghirardelli and Boudin, Fisherman's Wharf, SF.

Ghirardelli Square! Sometimes it's so fun to play tourist in SF. :)

Mmmm.. their famous chocolate fudge sundae with mint chocolate chip and espresso chip ice cream. Way yummy.

Then we grabbed a roll of sourdough bread and this was our lunch! Haha. I love it.

Ghirardelli Website

Boudin Website