Asian brunch at Thai Noodle Jump, Inner Richmond, SF.

Deep Fried Chicken Fried Rice?!! Whaaaat?! Out of control!

21. Tom Yum Gai Soup Hot and sour soup with chicken, shrimp, lemon grass, galangal, tomato, and mushrooms.

Mmmmmm. We ordered it with the flat vermicelli noodles.

63. Thai Hot Basil Choice of chicken, pork, or beef with bamboo strips and basil.

Yummy.

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Ending Girls Night at Osha Thai, Tenderloin, SF.

Spring rolls with tofu.

Like!
Pad see ew with tofu.

Like!

Pumpkin curry with chicken.

Dislike and like! I dislike this because it wasn't pumpkin curry--it was red curry with a few bits of pumpkin... definitely not what I was expecting. It was a nice, mild red curry though.

The girls and I went for a little pub crawl along Polk and, after debating between thai and pizza, we ended up getting a late night bite at Osha--of course! It's apparently the spot I go for late night bites!

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A big win for brunch at The Wynn, The Strip, Las Vegas.

The Buffet at the Wynn! This was the other place I heard so many rave reviews about so I had to try it.

The place was whimsical and fun, like you were brunching in a majestic garden from Alice in Wonderland. Yay!

Only one half of the buffet! It was quite classy for a buffet. I was very impressed by the presentation and cleanliness.

Cute little cups of salads!

Super yummy phad Thai and stirfry.

The skirt steak with au jus was incredible.

These little sour cream and garlic fried potato balls were AMAZING.

Pizza! Nice crust.

Cheese and olive bar! Mmmmmmm.

One of the salad bars. They had nicely themed salad bars with either romaine, mixed greens (above) or iceberg, with various dressings and veggies that went well with each--smart.

The pastry kitchen. This is where the real love happens. :)

Cakes! Treats! Ah! Yummy! :)

Gelato and toppings.

Candied apples. Too cute.

Cream puffs. I'm not the biggest fan, but they looked fabulous.

Pretty. :)

Brunch at the Wynn really was the best. There was a great selection, great presentation, fresh ingredients, edgier food, and everything was pretty yummy! Definitely better than The Bellagio. I'm glad I tried the Bellagio, but next time I'll be brunching at The Wynn.

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The Tao experience, The Venetian, The Strip, Las Vegas.

Taaaaaaao! Gosh, I had heard SO much about this place from SO many different people that I immediately put it on my "must" list!

Pretty.. I guess on the weekends they have models in these baths as you walk into Tao.

The Tao Buddha.

It's a pretty spot. I like what they've done with the decor.. not overdone, but definitely a nice mix.

I liked the raised silverware holder.

Crispy Coconut Shrimp with Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce.

We had to ask for more peanut sauce, but this was pretty good. Not the best coconut shrimp I've ever had, but solid. The slaw underneath, with the peanut sauce, was SO yummy.

Top: Satay of Chilean Sea Bass with Wok Roasted Asparagus.

Bottom: Sophisticated Udon Noodles with Mixed Vegetables.

The Sea Bass was like butter that melted in your mouth! The asparagus, too--I've never had asparagus that was so soft! They were both very nice. The noodles were good, too, but were the most generic tasting with the sauce.

Chocolate fortune cookie! With clever little fortunes! Fortune cookies aren't really my thing, but these were fun.

Sooooo Tao! It was a fun spot and I'm glad I went. I would definitely go again, too! :) It's a bit chainy, but prices weren't outrageous and they have a huge menu so that's nice.

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Eggplant, chicken and vegetable fried rice.

This was pretty great. I used my special Asian sauce with rice, egg, eggplant, chicken, baby corn, broccoli, green beans, black pepper. This was great! :)

Whenever I make fried rice I cook rice in my rice maker like normal. Then I cook the egg first and then set it aside. Then anything else that needs to be cooked separately like chicken and eggplant. Next, everything else. Then I mix in the rice and sauce and add the cooked egg last.

Thai style fried rice with spicy sausage.

I'm going to mix in the recipe with the photos.. Approximate ingredient measurements are below.

1. Cook sausage, set aside.

2. Scramble egg in fry pan, use spatula to chop.

3. Add 2 cups of cooked rice, sausage, the above Korean spice/veggie packet, fish sauce, olive oil, sesame oil and soy sauce.

4. Use spatula to mix everything and keep the rice moving so it doesn't stick to the pan.

5. Add cilantro and mix in.

6. Serve! :)

This is definitely one of the best fried rices I've ever made. I'm in love!

Ingredients*:

• 2 cups rice, cooked
• 2 eggs, scrambled
• 2 hot link sausages (You can really use any meat, but the spice here adds to the Thai style of this dish and sausage is nice because it's not messy. I slice and then quarter mine.)
• 1 packet Korean or Japanese dried veggie/spice mix
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

*I don't measure while I cook so these measurements are an approximation. Be careful with soy sauce because it can make dishes very salty so keep using small amounts and tasting to your liking. Fish sauce is also pretty strong, but balances nicely once you have added the other sauces--it shouldn't smell like fish sauce in the end! :)

Great Souther Thai at Jitlada, Hollywood, LA.

We have a wonderful Jitlada Thai restaurant in SF (no affiliation), too, but this was cooler because of their special Souther Thai menu. :)

Morning glory salad. Fried morning glory flowers. Seriously yummy. They had a fried spinach salad on their menu, too. I wonder if it's anything like the amazing palak chaat from Rasika in DC!?

Their famous green mussels! They were on the Top 10 Dishes from LA Weekly.

They are the biggest mussels I've seen! They were very good too, with a delicious, fragrant lemongrass broth. There was a spicy sauce for the mussels, too--excellent!

Basil eggplant. Not the best I've had, but I always love a good, soft eggplant. :)

Phad see-ew. My father looooves the big flat noodles, so I knew he'd like this dish! It was very good.

Duck fried rice. I really wanted some duck. Whenever I get Thai I want eggplant and duck--they just do both so well! The duck is always hit or miss though and here it was a bit of a miss. The dish wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't necessary. I was too full to have much of it by the time it came out.

The entire dinner was really great and the restaurant is kitschy and cute. I love how LA is just one huge, never-ending suburb and these great restaurants are just parts of strip malls--that cracks me up. I guess the Simpsons guy comes here a lot so they have all of these little drawings from him of Homer eating and whatnot! That's pretty cool about LA. :)

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Modern Thai, Polk, SF.

Crispy tofu with peanut and sweet & sour sauce. This was SO yummy. The peanut sauce here is absolutely delicious. I need to try to make it.

Tofu and veggies with peanut sauce and bok choy. I love this! The steamed bok choy was so nice and, again, their peanut sauce is awesome.

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Late night Thai at Osha, Tenderloin, SF.

Fresh rolls.

These were super interesting! I thought they were going to be like Vietnamese fresh rolls, but these were wrapped in a huge noodle!! I really liked them.

Pad Khee Mao with chicken.

This is like Pad See Ew, but with more veggies, which is great. Pretty awesome. I love these wide, soft noodles.

Lemongrass Sauce with tofu.

Lemongrass is a very interesting flavor. I don't love when I get a piece of lemongrass though--too much too chew on. The tofu, veggies and sauce were nice, but this wasn't my favorite Thai dish.

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Lunch at Sai Jai Thai, Tenderloin, SF.

The better Pork Shoulder (left) and Phad Thai.

This pork shoulder was so much better than this one. The Phad Thai was red, which means I didn't like it because it was tomato based and not authentic! Sad. My friend Lena though, who is Thai, really likes this place--they apparently make many authentic dishes, some that are very hard to find at other restaurants!

Big Eat SF 2010 Dinner Party Part 1

I'm not really sure where this photo is from, but maybe the cheeseburger is from Fish & Farm? I snagged it from the Facebook invite for my friend Scott's oh so fabulous 2010 7x7 Big Eat List dinner party! Such a great idea. :)

Here is what was on the menu:

• Papaya Salad ("Somtum") with Crab from Sai Jai Thai: Eh. This is a love or hate thing and I just feel indifferent toward it. It wasn't a big hit at the party either.
• Pho Ga Chicken Soup from Turtle Tower: Delicious. Best pho ever.
• Dry Fried Chicken Wings from San Tung: Yummy.
• Nick's Crispy Baja Fish Tacos from Underdogs: Yummy.
• Niman Ranch Cheeseburger with Special Sauce from Fish and Farm: Delicious. I didn't love the pickles, but other than that this burger rocked.
• Roast Pork Sandwich from Saigon Sandwich: Yummy. I don't think there's anything that makes Saigon Sandwich stand out other Vietnamese sandwiches though.
• Apple Fritters from Bob's Donuts and Pastry Shop: Delicious. Must have warm--makes all the difference.
• Ube Ice Cream from Mitchell's: Eh. I like Mitchell's texture, etc, but I don't know why this flavor is on the list. It just doesn't have any flavor!? I would take vanilla over this, and I don't like vanilla ice cream because it's usually too plain!
• Chips & Salsa from Papalote: Delicious. The salsa is really something else!

Sai Jai Thai, Tenderloin, SF.

The pork shoulder that everyone raves about! Well, they rave about this and the papaya salad with salty crab, but we decided to go with this. :) It was very interesting. With the first bite, I didn't get the hype, but then I liked it more the more I ate it. It's sliced thin and is almost bacony (not crispy bacon, more tender bacon).

Duck with yummy sauce. D had never had any duck before so we had to get some. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite Thai duck.. and I love Thai duck! :)

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