some cinnamon rolls i made in December

i thought all proof of the cinnamon rolls i made had been lost, for some reason i can't find the pictures i took (so very sad). however, leave it to hao to always been documenting. it took quite a while to make these due to the cool bay area temps and the time it took for the dough to rise (2.5 hours) and then the time it took for the formed rolls to rise (1.5-2 hours). i was a little stressed at first about these not coming out, but they turned out pretty tasty.

on a southern roll

it's been about 10 days since my last post. i'm obviously not a good, everyday blogger. whatever.

i've been on a bit of a southern roll lately. i must be gearing up to go home next month. i am ready to visit nc! october (also of course known as rocktober) has always been my favorite north carolina month, and no it's not just because my birthday is in october. it's the best month by far. the temperature drops to 70/60-65 degree days and the nights start to cool off too - and, an important plus is those pesky mosquitoes start to disappear. light jackets slowly make their way back into your life and by the time the state fair rolls around, you are wearing a medium jacket at night to keep cool while you are outside enjoying roasted corn and elephant ears. mmm...

so, the point of this blog is the breakfast i cooked last week. i won't say much about it except it just heightened my need for a bojangle's biscuit when i arrive home on october 12th. i had bought some buttermilk for my fried okra the weekend before, and so i decided to make buttermilk biscuits because what the hell else do you make with buttermilk?? so, i made them and i thought they turned out good although, as commented by geoffrey, not as big as bojangle's. oh and in case you are wondering, those are long skinny biscuits. my grandmother use to make them too. you make them out of your leftover dough.




i also made gimmie lean veggie sausage. this is by far my favorite meat product. i pan fry it in vegetable oil - a hearty amount. the sausage is covered about halfway, not completely submerged. you just flip it as it cooks. then drain on paper towels. looks like i could use a new pan.




the grits i made were a super indication that i am ready for a trip home. i made them just right, not too thick and not too runny, with lots of salt, lots of pepper and of course butter.



i order my grits online here, from the Lee's Bros. Boiled Peantus Catalog. if you live outside of the south, far away, and don't get there too often this is the website for you. i buy the Guildford Mill Stone Ground Grits - wow, who would have known that their grits are made from heirloom white corn? i just found that out; this makes me like them even more. i do have one warning for you in regard to the lee's bros. catalog: if you are used to homemade boiled peanuts don't order theirs. i did once because i really wanted/needed some and wasn't going home for a long time. they disappointed because, first off they were expensive, i won't bother to tell you how much. second, they boil what appears to be spanish red peanuts - this is no good - plus i wouldn't be surprised if they also use dried peanuts to boil..ick.

i am used to the peanuts that my dad buys in pender county, nc. they are a type (i'm am not 100% of the actual variety) of "green" peanuts. "green" just means they are freshly harvested. all you do is put a bunch in a large pot and boil them with a lot of salt until they become soft and yummy (this can take a few hours). using a pressure cooker makes the process go a lot faster. each year my dad buys a bushel of peanuts (which is about 8 gallons) and boils them for me. then he freezes them. they last all year. it's awesome. when i lived in nc, just two hours away,i would eat them a lot faster. but being in san francisco now makes them last a bit longer, which my brother probably appreciates. i can't wait to have some when i am home next month!! one other thing, when i first tell people about boiled peanuts they think i'm crazy and they sound gross; maybe you are thinking the same thing. but i can tell you have converted many a naysayer and even made a few people boiled peanut addicts.

for a little more information on boiled peanuts you can check out wikepedia, although i think i could really add to their definition. when i go home next month i'll take some pictures and post them for you.

also, i have been known to stoop to eating these when my dad run's out, although that rarely has ever happened. yes, i know, canned peanuts - totally gross. sometimes you just get desperate. plus their not too bad if you warm them up.

the cookout vs. the bbq

have you ever been to a cookout? if you don't live in the south you probably haven't because you have been going to barbeques (or bbqs) your whole life. if you live in the south most likely you have been to both. there is a big difference between the two, that many people outside of the south just don't get. see, a cookout is when you have your family or friends over and grill out burgers and other meats, but not a pig. when you have a bbq in the south, there is a huge grill/smoker with a big, fat, pig slowly cooking on it. this is the big difference. oh, and then there is also a bbq sandwich (pulled pork) which you can eat whenever you want, not necessarily at a bbq. i won't even get into the different between eastern and western nc bbq (even though i of course do know the difference and besides this is a veggie blog).

i was so confused a few times when i first moved to san francisco. i heard that the bottom of the hill has bbqs every sunday with bands. i thought "wow, they actually cook a whole pig in san francisco of all places." nope, i soon found out - they call what should be a cookout a bbq or barbeque. that is when i realized that most of the country just doesn't get the distinction that is made in the southeast. and actually i am not really sure if this distinction is made all over the southeast, i just know that from durham to southeastern nc, expect a pig to be the focal point if you are invited to a bbq and expect burgers, hot dogs, chicken, etc. if you are invited to a cookout. of course you can expect delicious sides at both events.

with all of this said, last sunday, geoffrey and i hosted a "cookout, not a bbq" for our friends. we had a good turn out and i tried really hard to make some good southern sides. i made some potato salad, the way my mom does, except i added some dill. i made some coleslaw almost exactly the way my dad makes it which is actually the kind of coleslaw you would usually eat with fried fish (catfish or flounder most likely), on hot dogs, or with bbq (the pulled pork plate or sandwich i mean). i also made some really good fried okra.

fresh fried okra
cut up a pound of okra into bit size pieces.
beat two eggs (and half a cup of buttermilk if you want to be extreme).
soak the okra in the egg mixture for 5-10 minutes. start heating up your oil while the okra is soaking. i recommend using a cast iron pot or a shallow wok to fry the okra.
use a spoon (with holes) to scoop up the okra and then place the okra in
a mixture of 1 cup corn meal and 1 cup flour. add salt and pepper liberally to this mixture.
after you add the okra to the mixture, stir it around to get it coated and then start adding the oil.
i usually put a test piece in to make sure my oil is hot enough. the okra should sizzle as soon at you put it in the oil. depending on how big your pot of oil is you may not be able to add all of the okra at once. just make sure you don't add so much that the temperature of your oil goes down.
once the okra is looking nice and golden brown, scoop out of the oil and put on a plate that has 4 or so paper towels on it (to soak up the oil).
salt again and serve hot. yummy.

i would give you the potato salad recipe but it's pretty long. i do recommend every vegetarian check out this amazing southern veggie cookbook: heart of home. it's my favorite cookbook of all time and the tofu fried chicken recipe is something i cook at least once a month. the potato salad recipe is similar to what i made but i left out some of the fancy extras (like poppyseeds). i also substituted celery salt for fresh celery because geoffrey doesn't like celery and i found out that's what my mom does.

mm, what else. besides the potato salad and coleslaw (by the way it's top secret) i tried to make these "city 'chicken' legs" that are in the heart of home cookbook but they really did not turn out. in defense of the book i have to say it's the first thing i have made from there that didn't turn out awesome. i did make the bbq sauce in there (a sweet/spicy red sauce) and it turned out amazing. it made a TON of sauce though that we will be eating for a very very long time. i made tons of veggies for kabobs which all turned out yummy even after i spilled a ton of them on the brick patio. i marinated everything in a tomato vinaigrette i threw together. it just had the gooey seedy parts of 4-6 tomatoes, some lemon olive oil, salt, pepper and some basil. i thought it was pretty good. for the veggies i had onions, tomatoes, squash, and also halloumi cheese. if you don't know halloumi cheese you should go straight to the grocery store and get some. it's great for grilling or pan frying. it doesn't get very melty and retains it's shape. it comes from cyprus. delicious.

i made some pineapple salsa also and it turned out really great. i was pretty surprised by this because sometimes when i make salsa i tend to put too much garlic or onions in it. i tried really hard though this time not to over do it and i think it paid off. i just made a basic salsa fresca with 6 tomatoes (no seeds), half a red onion, about a cup of cilantro, two garlic cloves, 2 jalapenos chopped fine, and about a cup of fresh chopped pineapple. the salsa gets pretty juicy from the tomatoes and pineapple so you have to drain some of the liquid off. i drained what i thought was a ton off and it just seemed to get juicy again, so my point is at least drain some of the juice off. i let this sit and chill in the fridge for about 2 hours before i served it. it allowed the flavors more time to mingle. i think the juice from half a lime would have been a great addition to this but i forgot. it still tasted amazing, not to brag or anything. i got this recipe from a friend who lives in hawaii.

for desert i made some brownies. i got the recipe from epicurious. this is a really easy recipe and the brownies turn out gooey and perfect if you cook them for 35-40 mintues. i recommend getting some nice chocolate to melt. i would like to try some recchiuti chocolate sometime but i used some semi-sweet ghirardelli chocolate which of course is pretty good chocolate. however, recchiuti is my favorite chocolate and i will definitely try the brownies with their bittersweet bar sometime.

and finally, last but not least, i made some banana pudding. all you do is layer vanilla wafers (aka nilla wafers), vanilla pudding, sliced bananas and then top with whipped cream. i decided to make my pudding fresh. it was easy, i got the recipe from allrecipes.com. i forgot to ask my parents how they make their banana pudding so i used a recipe from my trusty our state magazine. my grandmother has gotten me a subscription to this for christmas every year since i moved to san francisco. this was the first time i made one of their recipes. basically i made the pudding recipe - i think it made about five cups and then into it i folded half a cup of sour cream and half of the whipped topping. i made fresh whipped topping; i used a pint of cream (which i added half a cup of sugar to - yes intense but soooo good). then i just started out with the nilla wafters in the bottom of my dish, then bananas on top, then pudding. then i started over. i think i had three layers in total and then covered the top with the other half of my whipped cream. i let it sit overnight so it would get cold and the nilla wafers absorb some of the cream and take on a more chewy texture. by the way i must give a special thanks to geoffrey once again for cutting the bananas so expertly and also for eating the left over vanilla pudding for dinner on saturday night. waste not want not.

i think everything was pretty much eaten (except the not so good fake chicken legs i tried to make) which made me happy. it's fun to cook for everyone. i should mention also that my friends stephanie and tanner brought some excellent deviled eggs, deena brought her family's cole slaw recipe (which as noted by hao was sweet compared to my savory coleslaw and of course was delicious), and chantal and jamie brought some wonderful pasta salad. everything turned out great and i was glad i got to share our backyard on a sunny sunday, labor day weekend.

the return of dinner club

last saturday geoffrey and i went out for a fun dinner at a relatively new restaurant in the mission, maverick. i had read about maverick on the latest edition of the san francisco magazine, in their best restaurants august issue. maverick had been voted one of the top three new restaurants in the city. once i read the review and noticed they had a southern edge i was intrigued and checked on open table for a reservation. we were lucky to get one that night for 8:30pm.

the main point of this post is not write a new review of maverick, i already have one yelp, but to let you know that with this meal geoffrey and i revived our monthly dinner club. we had a strong dinner club going for about a year during the 2004-2005 year. sadly it ended about a year ago when our friends sean and katherine moved back to nc. they were our steady dinner club companions and we miss eating with them. you are probably wondering by now "what exactly is dinner club?"

well, dinner club, you see is a once a month visit (sometimes every 2-3 months due to scheduling problems) to a restuarnt of choice. each month, in a rotating order, a dinner club member picks a restaurant they really want to try. before this choice is made official they have to check to make sure no other members have been there before and if they have, they cannot have been to the restaurant within 12 months - this is the only way a veto is made. no one in dinner club is allowed to veto that month's selection based on their own food likes and dislikes - this allows for some picky eaters (not naming names) to try some new, exciting dishes for the taste buds to savor. (although i will have to say that an official rule is there at least be one vegetarian entree since geoffrey and i are veggie, although sometimes i will eat fish if it sounds amazing.)

we had a fabulous dinner club with sean and katherine. our friend chris was also a frequent dinner club member and came into the mix a little later in the game. we tried some great places, see for yourself:

Bissap Baobab
Firefly
Slanted Door
New Ganges
Chez Panisse
Foreign Cinema
Medjool

for this past year we have grieved the loss of our dinner club friends - yes, i know it's a little dramatic... chris still lives out here but we hardly ever see him. we hadn't much thought about having dinner club since last summer. we still of course ate out a lot this past year and tried new places but i never really felt like dinner club until this past saturday. i don't know why, it just came back to me. SO, dinner club is officially back!! this means we'll be recruiting some of our friends to join. i think we already have hao in the mix.

here is what i wrote about maverick on yelp:

"i went to maverick last night after reading a few reviews and seeing they were voted as one of the best new restaurants by the san francisco magazine's best restaurants august 2006 issue. i looked over their website and was excited to see they did indeed have a vegetarian entree in addition to plenty of appetizers and sides.

i was easily able to make a same day reservation for 8:30pm through open table. and once we arrived, we didn't have too wait long, just about 10 minutes to be seated.

we (2 of us) started with the fig salad and the fried green tomatoes. first off the portions were generous which pleasantly surprised me. i thought the salad was good but a tad boring. the fried green tomatoes were wonderful and the goat cheese complimented their tangy flavor.

for dinner we only shared one entree, the pan fried tempeh. we were going to order two but they only had one left. i found this a little surprising since it was only around 8:45. however, it all worked out fine because we ordered the roasted cauliflower and the mac&cheese as supplements. this ended up being more than enough food and left plenty of room for dessert. i thought the cauliflower was amazing - make sure you order it. the mac&cheese was standard. i loved the tempeh dish. you get two hearty pieces of tempeh that have been pan fried in a vinegary gravy with mushrooms and baby bok choy. i love vinegar so i had no problems with it. i also appreciated there being an interesting vegetarian dish even if there was just one.

for dessert we shared the pecan pie and the double chocolate bread pudding. i thought the pecan pie was excellent and the bread pudding was enough to share between two. i wished it had been a bit more gooey.

overall i would go back to maverick just probably not anytime soon. i'll probably keep an eye on their menu for changes. also, be prepared to drop a little bit of cash here. our meal, as described above, plus one beer and a glass of wine totaled 95 dollars (with tip). of course you could do it cheaper if you didn't get appetizers, drinks, and desserts but what's the point?"

i look forward to more fabulous meals like this made possible through dinner club.

secret dinners and veggie ribs

it's been about a week since my last post. i have found it somewhat hard to keep up with these and especially since i have been trying to be better about not eating out quite so much.

i was a little saddened this past weekend to confirm that dairy is causing me some stomach problems. i didn't eat any cheese until this past friday for 2 weeks. i luv cheese to death and it was hard to go off of it for 2 weeks. this past friday, at panchita #3 i opted to go for cheese again and had pupusas and cheese enchiladas. of course i thoroughly enjoyed my meal but my tummy paid dearly for it the next few days. so, i am off cheese again but i have bought some lactaid to keep on me for when i can't hold myself back.

on a positive note i was treated to a wonderful vegan meal on saturday night. our friends maya and ben invited us along to celebrate their engagement and their cousin's birthday. it was a fun night with friends and good food. we were treated to a wonderful salad with strawberries and pine nuts, some empanadas stuffed with potatoes and some other veggies i can't recall, lemongrass skewers with grilled mango, tomatoes, starfruit... these were the main dishes. there were some others but sorry they escape me. i really liked the idea of using the lemongrass stalks at the skewers and the starfruit made them very cute. the empanadas were good but i wish they had been a bit more juicy or maybe had some salsa to go with them. we were also treated to a chocolate vegan cake that was incredible. there was raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries to top it off with. maya had asked some of us to bring extra desserts and so i made some brownies (not vegan) i found off of epicurious and they were amazing. very chewy and made with ghirardelli chocolate (my decision) not coco powder. all in all it was a fun night with good food.

since saturday i haven't eaten out for dinner. well i take that back, i had a burrito at el metate on sunday night and as usual it was very good. and you know, i actually had cheese that night because i was starving. geoffrey and i went on a 50 mile bike ride and that was hard but fun.

i did eat out lunch yesterday and had some thai food from plearn in berkeley (i work in downtown berkeley). plearn is my go to place when i want a lot of good thai food at lunch. i always get the green curry with tofu. it's not on the menu but you can ask for it. yesterday it was especially spicy which i liked. if you get the combination lunch plate you get a salad, 3 mini spring rolls, 2 are fresh and one is fried. the fried one has taro in it and is yummy. you also get a nice piece of fruit, like watermelon, to eat when you are done. oh, and before the meal even starts you get a bowl of their wonderful rice soup. it's salty with a few chunks of celery. sounds boring but i promise it's good. they swear its veggie but sometimes i do wonder if they don't put some stock in it. let's hope not.

tonight i cooked at home and tried something new that caught my eye in the grocery store recently: garden burger bbq riblets. i usually don't buy fake meat except for gimme lean sausage. however, occasionally the weird fake meat product will catch my eye. so, i deciced to try the riblets because i like the garden burger brand. what i forgot though is that i never really ever liked pork when i did eat meat, except very crispy bacon and sausage. so, i was only able to eat half of one of the riblets. at first i thought it tasted ok and the bbq sauce was good which is crucial. however, the taste was a little too real for me and i had to throw the rest out. so, overall i say if you miss ribs and are veggie or vegan (yep, they're vegan) then give these a try. also i may try to grill them in a few weeks for a cookout (the picture from the garden burger website gave me that idea), they might be better in small pieces mixed with other veggies.

dosa

last night i returned to dosa to give it a second chance. for those of you who don't know dosa is the only south indian restaurant in san francisco; it opened up earlier this year. it is named after a south indian dish called "dosa". dosas are somewhat like crepes, but are usually bigger and have a spicy filling in the middle. you typically dip your dosa in either sambar or a coconut chutney. i went the first week dosa opened with VERY high hopes because i love south indian food.

note: some might think i have sort gone overboard with indian food in general since geoffrey and i visited ryan in india one and half years ago. but i don't see how that can possibly be a bad thing except listening to geoffrey complain if i make indian food more than once in a month.

so, anyway i had high HIGH HIGH hopes for dosa when i went earlier this year but sadly i was not blown away. i thought the portions were small compared to what i have had at other places in the east and south bay and also dosa is far more expensive. also, i really didn't appreciate the look, or feel of the restaurant. as a result of this first trip to dosa, i wrote a review on yelp, giving dosa only two out of five stars. one of the owners of dosa immediately wrote to me asking me to return and try them again.

last night i finally made it back. it's been a long time coming. geoffrey and i met up with our friend tommy and only had to wait about 20 minutes. i have heard horror stories about the wait and was expecting more like an hour. as soon as we were seated, i immediately noticed the noise level. i don't really know what dosa can do about this but it's too loud in the restaurant. sometimes, i could barely hear geoffrey or tommy and i felt like i had to yell a little bit (and i talk loud as it is).

we started out by ordering the potato croquettes. the plate came out which just two, but they were a decent size and enough for three. we also orderd the south indian mung sprout salad. this was my favorite part of the entire meal. i loved the crunchy mung spouts mixed in with tomato, cucumber, chiles, ginger, and lettuce - dressed lightly in oil with cumin and other spices.

for my main entree i had the chile and coriander uttapam. my mouth was on fire in a good way and i ate almost the entire dish which was pretty big. i did think the sambar was a little to thick and i also found the coconut chutney to be somewhat flavorless. the coconut chutney is usually my favorite dipping sauce and last night i barely touched mine.

geoffrey and tommy both had the chatni masala dosa. i had never heard of this type of dosa before. i guess sometimes it has a ridge gourd in it, but last night the chutney featured eggplant. i can't really say much about this dish because i actually didn't try geoffrey's. i can say that the dosa itself looked more like a crepe you could get at ti couz. i thought this was strange because dosas are typically larger than this and also more cripy toward the outer edges of the dosa. they don't usually start getting the moosy texture until you move in towards the filling. however, like i said, i didn't taste this - i only tried to absorb a little bit of what geoffrey and tommy said.

i did enjoy the food i ate better this time. i increased my rating on yelp from two to three (out of five) star. probably, two was a little harsh now that i think about it. so overall i would actually give dosa three starts if i could go back in time. the reason i can't give it five is first of all the dining room is way too loud. also we spent close to 75 dollars total, or 25 each. note, you can get a bigger dosa plus appetizer for about 10 dollars cheaper (if not more) in the east bay.

i complained about the price in my first yelp review of dosa and the owner told me to consider their location and the style of the restaurant. and, yes i can agree dosa does not have the cafeteria/no style/boring thing going on that can be typical of some indian restaurants - dosa is indeed decorated with a more hip vibe. dosa is dark, with a lot of dark red, and nice lighting overhead. however, i think there is a way to make a restaurant look and feel nice without having to make the cost of food suffer.

today i wrote to the owner again to tell him about my latest experience. i once again brought up the cost issue. this time he told me that restaurants in sf have to pay servers a hourly wage of almost 9 dollars an hour (i wasn't aware of this) and also he brought up the style difference between dosa compared to vik's or udupi. he also informed me that his staff, some of who have worked in kitchens at updupi, are paid a higher living wage. when he tells me this sort of information i can understand their prices being higher but still i have to think they are making a killing charging 10 dollars for a masala dosa and 7 dollars for idli sambar (now that's just crazy).

one last thing, dosa only offers three curries. two of these have meat and the one veggie currie is channa masala (which is a north indian dish and is so typical of indian restaurants). i am disappointed that dosa doesn't offer some of the more exciting curries and other veggie dishes you can get in south india. when geoffrey and i were in kerala with ryan, we had a thali almost everyday. we also had some amazing vegetarian food in ernakulam, outside of cochin. and, not to mention the menu at a vegetarian restaurant would have an overwhelming amount of items to choose from and i wanted to try them all! i want a restaurant like this to make it's way into the bay area. i know i can get a thali in the east or south bay, but i want even more exciting and different dishes!

with all of this said, i can say i am glad i went back to dosa and gave it another try. if they get some new things on their menu i might try it again down the road. however, for now i think i will just stick with getting dosas in the east bay (since i work in berkeley mon-fri). i don't have a problem with a restaurant not having a hip atmosphere as long as the food is outstanding and a good deal.

tortilla soup veggie style

so all of a sudden our tivo has started recording every food show imaginable. it's actually pretty cool because i am getting lots of pbs food shows, although some of them are a bit dorky, but nonetheless it's fun to watch yummy things being cooked that i know i can somehow transform into my own.

this past weekend, everyday food appeared in our tivo choices, and i decided to give it a whirl. i don't remember much about the show except for the tortilla soup one person made. it seemed so simple and easy that i decided that tonight i would make a veggie version. i just ate it and i am happy to report it turned out quite nice. here's what i did and it is pretty different from what they did on the show.

so if you want that recipe you can look it up on their website: everyday food

first, I sauteed about a tablespoon of butter with one clove of chopped garlic. Then after about 45 seconds i added a small handfull of onion and celery to the mix. this all sauteed for a few minutes and then i added another small handful of potato and tofu. again, this all sauteed for a few minutes and then i added a small box of imagine organic vegetable broth.

i also added 2-3 cups of water. then i added one diced (seeds and all) jalapeno to the soup. i let everything boil until the chopped potatoes were cooked through and then i turned the soup down to low.

next, while the soup was on low and simmering, i put the oven on 400 degrees. i coated about 5 corn tortillas with canola oil front and back. i used a brush to do this but you could use a paper towel instead. i stacked them and cut them into then strips and then once across the middle. i spread them out over a baking dish and put them in the oven for 15 minutes or so. i flipped them a few times with a spatula.

once those were done i ladled some soup into a bowl and topped it off with the crunchy tortilla strips. then i added some scallions, avocado, sour cream, and a taste of lime.

here is a picture of the final product. i think it turned out pretty tasty and i will have leftovers for at least two days. it wasn't quite salty enough so make sure you add enough salt to where you like it. i had to add some to my soup after it was already in the bowl.



let me know if you try it.

what else. this past weekend landon and melissa came to visit us and we had a great time. we ate out a ton. friday we went to my all time favorite neighborhood spot, el nuevo fruitlandia. as usual it was outstanding. my favorite thing to get at fruitlandia are the chile rellenos. however, i am trying not to eat cheese (or any dairy) for two weeks. i of course ended up cheating when we were at fruitlandia and like usual geoffrey and i split the chile rellenos and an order of maduros (fried plantains). i did forego ordering my own pineapple shake or having any of geoffrey's mango shake. i have a review of fruitlandia on my yelp page (see link for kristie's yelp page).

saturday, being on a good eats roll, we ate breakfast/brunch at the universal cafe.
as usual everything was delicious and if you are afraid to eat here because of the cost or the long waits on the weekend, just give in and you'll see that it's worth it. you can read my recent review on my yelp page.

later saturday, we ate at spices II to get our spice on. hao has been going on and on about spices II and i decided to give it another try. once i ate there and it wasn't so good. spices II has however redeemed itself. there were tons of veggie options and the ma po tofu was very spicy which i enjoyed. once again there is more on this experience on my yelp page.

being the pigs we are, we went right around the corner to genki crepes and mini mart. genki is one of my favorite stores in the city. it's basically like a japanese 7-11 except a million times better. they have savory and sweet crepes, egg puffs (like waffles), cool sodas and snacks, and fun toys! i hardly ever get to go there though because we live in the mission and the richmond always seems so far away and it's cold there. but, whenever we do venture over there i always stop in to buy something cute at genki. that night though, we were there for crepes. well everyone but me was there for a crepe. being on my no dairy kick i had to settle for egg puffs which may have had some dairy but not as much as a crepe with ice cream and nutella. the best part of the night was when i discovered a cute new toy. they are called "woodmate kitchen petite" and i must have the entire collection. someone has some pics up on flickr:


and now that i have gotten way off the topic of food i will end here. i also promise to take more pictures of the fun food we eat out.

too much food so little time

i ate out a ton this past weekend. i have posted some to my yelp page but i am working on posting to the blog soon. tomorrow, i'll have a massive post because i am going to cook a veggie version of tortilla soup. more tomorrow.

southern style tacos

most of my friends know i love okra. i feel like it's much more prevalent during the nc summer months and so about this time of year i try to patiently wait for it to make an appearance in my sf grocery store. (note however, i have found out i can sometimes find okra year round in indian groceries around the bay area, although i can't believe it's local). anyway, i was in rainbow the other night and behold, they had okra! i was very excited and bought about a pound. basically i like okra cooked just about every way: breaded and deep fried, breaded and pan fried, pan fried no breading, boiled (gotta love the slime) and pickled, especially spicy pickled okra. mmm....

obviously i didn't just whip up a batch of pickled okra, although i do want to take up pickling one day. so, instead i decided to make tacos. that's right, okra tacos. i used to make these way back in the day in chapel hill when ed and i had a huge garden. those were the days. i miss having a garden out here. instead, for now, i am settling for two very teeny tiny planters of lettuce (see pic). depressing isn't it?



back on track now.

for my okra tacos i first boiled some black eyed peas with a smidge of butter and salt. that's right black eyed peas!, not black or pinto. i always have black eyes peas on hand - they are quite versatile and i love to just make beans and rice with them (and they sort of repalce field peas which seem to only be able to get at thanksgiving and christmas via pender county, nc). while the peas were cooking, i made some salsa with two green zebra and 1 cherokee purple heirloom tomato. i tossed in a little lime juice, cilantro, salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, and jalapeno.

i pan fried okra (not breaded) with garlic and a little chopped onion in some olive oil. i salted everything while it was cooking and let the okra get a tad brown. i took the okra off, kept the skillet super hot, and added my corn tortillas one at a time (about 30 seconds each side). a small pinch of pepper jack was added to each tortilla before piling on the black eyed peas, okra, salsa, avocado, and a taste of sour cream.

i have to say this meal turned out pretty damn good. i did get one crtique from my nightly critic, geoffrey. he said i piled the tacos a little too high so he couldn't easily pick them up with his hands. i think he just wanted to eat more tortillas. next time i'll try to remember to take a picture of what i cook instead of just posting a pic of some depressing lettuce.

never too busy to eat out

i have been super busy the past 1.5 weeks and so have been pretty slack about writing. however, due to having a lot of visitors in town this past week (my brother and ryan and rebecca) i have gotten to eat out a lot and have even gotten to eat a three places i have never tried before.

first, i ate at the roosevelt tamale parlor. they have one of the best signs in the city and if you see it, you will want to eat there just because of it. in fact two years ago i ate here mainly because the sign was so great and also the menu seemed interesting. unfortunately my experience eating there as a vegetarian ended with an appetizer with some hidden meat surprises, yick. back to present day...i was pleasantly surprised to hear they were under new management, had changed their menu and decor, and had also had some help with their menu from the owner of primavera.

primavera is one of my favorite places to eat brunch/lunch at (it's at the ferry building and i have reviewed it on yelp).

with this new knowledge, i had very high expectations going in. i thought the servers were very nice and friendly and the food also came out really fast. i was surprised at the lack of flavor in the beans and also in the veggie tamale but i am happy to see a restaurant at least making the attempt to serve a veggie tamale. my brother had a combo plate with a taco, chile relleno and beans/rice. his chile relleno was pretty good (although not as good as el nuevo fruitlandia). we also split the chilaquiles, which are chips that are cooked with a red or green sauce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilaquiles). the chips are not crunchy. i thought this dish was one of the best, but i do wish there had been cheese, sour cream, or avocado on top.

i am really looking forward to giving the tamale parlor another try. they have some interesting sounding enchiladas and also a quesadilla with sqaush blossoms (doesn't that sound so good?).

later in the week i finally ate at boogaloos. i know, everyone has been there but i never get there because st. francis is very close and also the line at boogaloos on the weekends is crazy. i had the day off this past tuesday and finally decided it was the right time for boogaloos. more soon.

Roosevelt Tamale Parlor
2817 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

been eatin' chaat and cookin' with garlic

i haven't eaten out in a few days. i just spent way to much money at rainbow which i always seem to do. so for the next few days i am taking it easy. ok, whoops... i just remembered i did actually eat out today for lunch. i had a super huge craving for the Chaat Cafe. they have a great paneer wrap there. if you haven't had the experience of indian food in a wrap then you should go check out the chaat cafe. my favorite is the paneer wrap. the grilled paneer is warm and just ever so slightly tough on the outside. you also get a side of either potato salad or cucumber salad. my only complaints are, i think the paneer wrap could be a little spicier and sometimes the naan is not warm enough. as a side note, i had a wrap similar to this in bombay that had way more kick to it and was a bit smaller and used roti instead of naan, so wraps similar to chaat's really do exist in india. one other thing, i have only eaten at two chaat cafe locations: sf and berkeley. the one in berkeley is way better than the one in san francisco. once i got the paneer wrap at the sf location and it was gross and runny. no good at all.

when i haven't been eating a huge paneer wrap i have been eating my favorite standby, the tempeh sandwich. i buy the fakin' bacon brand tempeh and pan fry it in a medium amount of oil (i like to fry). the strips get just right when they get sort of dark but not burnt looking and that also means they will be crispy. i put fresh tomatoes on the sandwich which i make with toasted sandwich bread. also, fresh basil and some mayo. you have to eat mayo with the fakin' bacon; the two go together like milk and cookies.

just so you know i do eat some healthier stuff. monday i made fresh pasta sauce with heirloom tomatoes. it was complemented by sautéed onions, basil, oregano, garlic, fennel, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. i have been eating a lot of garlic lately and i do think i put a tad too much in but whatever, garlic is always good!

speaking of garlic, i also put a ton in the fresh salsa and guacamole i made last night; i made enough to munch on for about three days! for the guacamole i halved some sungold cherry tomatoes (which plain make a very nice sweet snack) and put them in. they added just the right amount of sweetness i wanted in the guacamole and helped to put some of the garlic in it's place. i still had some pretty icky breath in the end though.

yum yum chinese

last night, after a long day at work, geoffrey and i both decided to be lazy and order out for food. around 8:30, while geoffrey was out working up an appetite, i decided on yum yum house. yum yum is located on valencia (cross st. 17th). i thought ordering three dishes would give us a better idea if yum yum would warrant a third visit (note: the first time was good but not entirely memorable and the ma-po bean cake was not spicy).

with that said, i ordered the garlic eggplant, mandarin meatless chicken, and veggie chow fun. i don't typically go for ordering a while dish that is 100% eggplant; in this case i did because i asked the guy on the phone what the spiciest vegetarian dish was. the eggplant wasn't even close to spicy and now i wonder if he thought i meant which item was the least spicy, but nonetheless the eggplant was flavorful and after having recently trying to cook this dish, i can say that the yum yum house does a good job. the eggplant was soft tender but not mushy. i would get this again if i ate at the restaurant in person (which i never have).

onto the fake meat. i had to try to their mandarin meatless chicken. i am huge fan of chinese fake meat dishes and this is listed in their menu as a Special dish. i have to say i loved it. fyi: it's pretty boring, just straight-up fried balls of fake chicken with a sweet, tangy sauce all over. i know it's a little boring but i get excited when i actually find some fake chicken that i like.

the chow fun was standard. we had gotten it before and there weren't any differences or surprises.

with all of this said, i will say that yum yum is shaping up to be on of my standard chinese take out places. the food gets to you in no more than thirty minutes and the portions are large. an average veggie dish will range between 7 and 8 dollars.

next time i will try the kung pao meatless chicken and if that's good then i will be hooked.

what i eat and want to talk about

i never much thought i would care to blog, but finally i have a reason to. i want to let all of the people out there that don't eat meat, vegetarian not vegan (sorry, i love cheese), what's up and where to treat themselves to yummy bites to eat. this will mainly occur in san francisco and the greater bay area with occasional trips home to north carolina as well as great places i try while on vacation. so, in the coming days, i'll be creating posts based on various restaurants i love as well as new ones i try.

as a lover of food i also pay close attention to what my meat eating friends enjoy at the same restaurants, and therefore i will be happy to pass this information along. i know most of us veggie folks have meat eating friends and so if you are part of a friendly dinner club or eat with different friends/family/co-workers whenever, then you'll want to be able to pass on the meat scoop since so many people can cringe up when they first hear you talk about veggie offerings, because they suddenly conclude it's going to be all vegetarian. this is quite silly because as most of us know the majority of restaurants out there are not all pure veggie or vegan.

and, so just to make things clear i will not be posting about hardcore veggie or vegan places. i enjoy the variety of veggie food from all types of restaurants and refuse to limit myself in such an extreme way.