BURGERMEISTER

Burgermeister is a small local chain of burger shops in SF, that's actually pretty popular. And I have eaten here before. However, it was last year right after we'd completed that AIDS walk, and I was so tired that I was in no mood to take pictures of food and write about them later.

However, on a rare visit to SF, we were in the Haight and decided to head to the Burgermeister in Cole Valley since Tom had never been there before. The thing with Burgermeister is that they give you a lot of options to customize your own burger. The bad thing is that they're pretty expensive - the most basic burger starts at $9. You can expect to spend around $12-$15 for a burger.

So on this visit, I went with a California burger- turkey patty with cheddar and avocados. I also like putting BBQ sauce on it. And it came with a side of very delicious curly fries.

Meanwhile, Tom went all out and got his burger topped with chili and cheddar. He got a side of their sweet potato fries, which I also like. And he did enjoy his burger (though he didn't think it was the best burger he'd ever had).

I admit that I do like going to Burgermeister for all the customization and options. And they do use great, fresh ingredients, and the make the fries fresh, so they're always super hot and crispy. However, the price is a deterrant for me. A meal here always costs around slightly under $20, and we're talking about burgers, fries and a soda. So really, it's more of a yearly thing for me - good thing it's located in SF.

CUGINIS, SOLANO AVE.

We're not exactly new residents to the Bay Area - we have lived here for almost 2 years now. We have our favorite places that we like to eat at, but what I like is that there are still a lot of restaurants for us to explore. So on one random evening when I totally didn't feel like cooking, we decided to check out Cugini on Solano Ave. Now, we'd driven or walked by this place a number of times (it's down the street from Kitty's vet) and what appealed to me is that they had a wood burning oven.

So to start off with, I had a salad - just a simple mixed green salad. I thought it was fresh and pretty tasty. Plus it wasn't too expensive.

Meanwhile, I think I got a pasta for my entree, but now I don't remember what it was and apparently I didn't take photos of it. So given that I've forgotten it, I can conclude that it was fine, but not memorable.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered a pizza.

I did try a slice of his pizza. But again, it was fine, and not that memorable.

I can see why people would eat here. It's moderately price, the food is fine and if you live nearby it's really convenient to just walk here. I don't think we'd go out of our way to eat here again - there are plenty of other options that we enjoy more on Solano Ave., but I truly have no strong opinions about this place - it's just fine.

TARA'S ORGANIC ICE CREAM

Wow. This is shocking, but it looks like I may actually be finishing up the posts that I had uploaded in April. And, I still have a ton of photos to upload and post about, especially from our recent trip to Seattle. It'll just have to wait until after we move into our new house this weekend. But onto the post.

A few months ago (actually, right after we got engaged as I recall), we had brunch and ice cream with a big group of our friends. We started off with brunch at the Thai Temple, and afterwards we headed down to Tara's Organic Ice Cream. I had heard about Tara's before, but none of us had ever tried it. Turns out it's just a few blocks from Wood Tavern.

So when we walked in, the place was totally empty, with only one employee to help us. I think she was pretty surprised when the giant group of us all walked in together and started staring at the case:

The case was set up like a gelato case (but of course, they were serving ice cream).

There were some interesting flavors, but I'm a traditionalist when it comes to dessert, especially if I'm trying a new place. I went with chocolate, in a sesame seed waffle cone.

What I really liked was that sesame seed cone. The ice cream was pretty good, not as intensely chocolatey as I normally like, but tasty, but that cone was really the best part. It was almost like those waffle cookies that you can get at Japanese grocery stores.

Here's Tom's allspice ice cream. He liked it, though I was not a fan.

Overall we had a fun experience here. I wouldn't say it's worth going out there just for ice cream (it's not like Sketch), but if I'm in the neighborhood and don't want to pay for dessert at Wood Tavern, I certainly wouldn't mind stopping by here for a quick cone.

BOSTON: DAY 2

Part of the reason why you're not going to see a lot of food places on this recent trip to Boston is that we went to a lot of our old favorites that I blogged about when I lived in Boston - India Quality, Clear Flour Bakery, Shabu Zen, etc. But I did manage to try a couple of new places. First up, the Natural Bean Coffee Company.

As Leah and I wandered down Newbury Street in the pouring rain, we spotted this new coffee place and decided to check it out. (Uhm, did I mention the large sign outside offering free coffee? And did I mention the pouring rain?) We stepped into this basement space to find a very hip, modern coffee shop. And their whole thing is to have organic, natural coffee, and compostable cups, and stuff like that. We both ordered free coffees and took them to the tiny seating area in the back to enjoy it.

The seating area only holds 3 tables, but it's quiet and was a nice place to take a break from the rain. Of course, all the compostable utensils, the bins to separate compost, recycling and trash - they're all things we see on a routine basis in the Bay Area. But I guess it's new to Boston, and if it encourages other businesses to do the same thing, I think that'd be great.

My second new food experience took place later that night. It seems that a Bon Chon Chicken has opened in Boston. Or rather, they're selling Bon Chon chicken at a lounge in Brighton. For those of you who don't know, Bon Chon Chicken is a Korean fried chicken chain with locations in NY. I'd heard of their chicken before, but never tried it. Of course, my friends had already tried it and were raving about it. So despite having stuffed ourselves on shabu, they insisted on order a take out order to chicken just so we could try it.

We ended up taking the chicken over to the Super 88 food court, cause there was seating there. The packaging was quite fancy:

And here's the chicken. It really was pretty good. Crunchy, sweet, a littly spicy. I definitely saw the appeal. And I liked the little tub on pickled daikon that it came with. I think I ate more of that than the chicken.

So we had additional good eating experiences in Boston and I look forward to having more Bon Chon chicken in the future.

BOSTON: DAY 1

Ok, so you all know that I'm engaged. And this is the meal that I had prior to being proposed to. Now, this wasn't the meal that we were supposed to have. I was supposed to have flown into Boston on a red eye to land early Sunday morning. And I made reservations at Craigie on Main - it's a restaurant that I never made it to while living in Boston, and with it's relocation to Central Square, I really had no reason not to go. Except my flight got cancelled. So I didn't land until 8:30pm on Sunday, so we didn't have dinner at Craigie on Main. Instead, we went back to the hotel we were stay at (the Hotel Marlowe in Lechmere) and went to the hotel's restaurant, which happens to be Bambara.

When I was living in Boston, Bambara had just opened and it was a pretty popular spot. But I never went. On the evening we went in Boston, it was pretty late, and the restaurant was fairly empty. All I really wanted was a quick bite before going to bed, and this was more than I really wanted to spend on dinner, but oh well, I was tired and didn't care.

So first we got some rolls with butter:

Then, I got some mini lobster rolls (hey, I was in Boston. I had to eat lobster at least once!) Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of them, but there were 3 mini lobster rolls on a plate, served on toasted brioche buns. They were really good. So good that I ate all of them and forgot to share one with Tom.

For my entree I got a seafood risotto with aspargus and some nice big prawns on top.

It was very good, but kinda heavy and full of butter. I didn't end up finishing the whole thing. The other thing I thought was really good were the fries (they come with Tom's steak frites).

These were well cooked, crispy and they had a nice touch of fresh rosemary. I like them a lot.

Service was uneven, though. It was a big, empty restaurant with not a lot of staff, so when we brought the wrong bill, Tom had to get up and find someone to get the right one. (we would've gladly paid the wrong bill, it was 1/3 of what our bill was). Overall we had a nice dinner there. It was on the expensive side, but I wouldn't mind eating there again, as long as someone else is paying.

SHAN DONG RESTAURANT, OAKLAND

Tom and I still don't have Oakland Chinatown totally figured out. We haven't had the best meals there and aren't quite sure where to go. Plus, everyone speaks Cantonese, which means mu Mandarin is pretty useless there. Luckily, we decided to meet up with our friends who've spent plenty of time there, and they took us to one of their favorite spots, the Shan Dong Restaurant.

Now, this is one of the random restaurants off a main street in Oakland Chinatown that you'll never go into unless someone takes you. When we arrived, it was pretty full, but we were able to grab a table. So this place is known for it's noodles and dumplings, and that's exactly what we ordered. You can even get homemade noodles for $1 more, but my friend said it's pretty much the same, and not worth spend the extra $1.

So here's what we got. This is the sesame noodle.

It's made with really nice fresh noodles, a sesame sauce, chilis and sauteed veggies. It's actually quite tasty (I'm kinda craving it now). Plus, you can get it with pork if you want. We also got a scallion pancake:

Which was pretty good. And finally, I got a plate of dumplings:

It's really nice that they even offered an option for chicken dumplings. I don't know if I've actually seen that in another restaurant. And they were pretty good. The skins were kinda thick, but the filling was pretty tasty. Overall our lunch there was quite good, and I think we didn't spend too much money there. And the best thing is now I know a restaurant to eat at when I'm hungry and in Chinatown.

PORTLAND: DAY 3

Our third day in Portland was a casual day for us to just wander the city and check things out in the downtown area. We started off with breakfast at the edge of the Pearl district at a place called the Byways Cafe.

It's a pretty normal looking diner, but apparently, it's very popular with the locals on the weekends. Luckily, it was a Monday morning, so the restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived.

We grabbed a booth, looked over the menus and checked out the funny collectibles in the glass cases that lined the walls. Pretty soon our food arrived. Tom got the sunrise special: One egg, two strips of thick-cut bacon and three fluffy buttermilk pancakes served with pure maple syrup. (actually, he got blue corn pancakes instead of buttermilk, cause that's what they're known for). Here's a photo:

I must say the blue corn pancakes were pretty tasty. And the portion was huge. Pretty good for $8.75. Meanwhile, I got a much smaller breakfast, just a basic breakfast with two large farm fresh eggs served your way with home-fried red potatoes and toast and I got it with a chicken sausage.

The eggs were well cooked, the potatoes were tasty and for $8, it was a pretty good deal for breakfast.

After stuffing ourselves, we wandered about the city, made a second trip to Voodoo Donuts and finally headed home. It's really a cute town - I could imagine myself living there if I had to, and I would have plenty of places to eat. Now if only it didn't rain so much....

PORTLAND: DAY 2

Our second day in Portland was another rainy day. Luckily, it didn't rain as steadily as our previous day, and it did eventually let up. We started our day with a breakfast at Brail's a local favorite diner, run by a Korean family (funny that our favorite diner at home is also run by Koreans.)

This place has your pretty average breakfast foods, but some with a twist. For example, below my breakfast looks like a regular omlette, but it's actually filled with chicken teriyaki. And it was yummy (so were those hash browns, look how nice and golden they are). My friends ordered spicy pork omlettes (I don't remember what Tom got).

Breakfast also came with a biscuit on the side. Now normally, I love biscuits, but this one was just a bit too undercooked for my taste. Overall, I really liked this place. If I lived in Eugene, I'd totally be a regular.

After breakfast, we wandered around a park, and then my friend Jess insisted on taking me to Sweet Life - a dessert place in Eugene.

This place had cases full of pastries, and because it's Eugene, there were a lot of vegan, dairy free, egg free, flour free, etc etc type options.

I just got a slice of chocolate cake, which I shared with Tom.

It was fine. But more importantly, how can Eugene have a dessert bar, and there's still not one in the East Bay??

Afterwards, we headed back in to Portland and spent the afternoon walking around the Portland Zoo. After a few ours, we were finally hungry enough to head out to dinner and this time, we checked out the eastern part of Portland. At first I had wanted to visit a well regarded Thai restaurant, but when we went and figured out it was closed on Sunday, we headed to my backup restaurant called the Screen Door. Basically, they serve Southern cuisine using local, organic ingredients. Even though we showed up pretty early, the place was already packed when we arrived.

I really liked the setting, lots of light woods, and big windows. The menu itself is pretty small, but the portions are not. We started off with two appetizers. The first was okra:

Now, I'm not a huge fan of okra, (Tom ordered these) but doesn't frying make everything better? Plus, these had a born meal batter and came with a spicy mayo type sauce. They were pretty good.

More to my liking were the hushpuppies:

These were quite tasty, though kinda dense, and I knew I had a good amount of food coming, so I only had one. So for my dinner, I picked a meal composed of three sides. Here you see mac and cheese, coleslaw and a cauliflower gratin and it came with corn bread (hey, at least it was all vegetarian!)
Now, that mac and cheese was pretty amazing. Actually, I really enjoyed all my dishes. The only thing is that it was all so heavy. I barely made a dent in the mac and cheese before I was stuffed.

Meanwhile, Tom got Jess' fiancee both ordered brisket:

Tom said it was really good, since it just fell apart when he cut into it (just like good brisket is supposed to). At this point in the meal, we were all stuffed, but I just have to order dessert when I go to restaurants like this. So I got the peanut butter pie for us all to share:

As you can see, there's a chocolate cookie crust, peanut mousse stuff and unsweetened whipped cream. It was really rich and delicious. I just couldn't eat more than a few bites.

We really did have better meals on our second day in Oregon. I'm actually a big fan of the Swing Door and hope they open an outpost here in the East Bay.

PORTLAND DAY 1:

The beginning of our crazy month really started with our trip to Portland. (not that we had planned it that way) The trip was planned as a casual trip - neither of us had ever been to Oregon, and I wanted to visit my good friend, Jess, and meet her fiancee. And more importantly, tickets on Alaska Airlines were super cheap.

So we left on the first flight out from Oakland (aka the cheapest flight) and landed in Portland super early in the morning. Now, my friend Jess actually lives in Eugene, which is 2 hours from Portland, so she wasn't able to pick us up from the airport and since I knew we have a couple of hours to burn while we were waiting for her, I planned some places to visit while waiting to meet up with her.

It was raining when we arrived, so it was nice to duck into Pearl Bakery, a well known spot located in the Pearl District of Portland. The space is huge - probably a converted warehouse, like many things in the Pearl District, with 20 ft ceilings. Though most of the space was taken up by the production area, there was a small seating section in front, filled with locals. We were able to grab a table for two, and ordered a few pastries and coffee for breakfast. Here's the line of locals waiting to order:

Here are two of the things we ordered. Tom got the plain croissant, I got the apricot danish.

Then I got a chocolate croissant and Tom get a donut type pastry thingy.

Overall, the pastries were pretty good. The croissants were nice and flaky, though I like mine to be cooked darker, so they're even flakier and crunchy.

After our breakfast, we headed over to Powell's Books where we spent an hour hanging out and waiting for my friend to meet us. We she finally showed, we checked out some chocolate shops together and then visited the Portland Saturday Market - a mix of outdoor crafts and food booths. Though it was raining, there were still quite a few people out. Here's a row of food booths:

It took a while to decide on what to eat, and we all ended up ordering from the same Philly cheesesteak booth. (Maybe I was persuaded by their display food).

Here's my chicken cheesesteak with ketchup on top. It wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten. The chicken had been precooked, so the cheese was just added on and heated until the cheese melted. However, I was hungry, so I ate in anyway. (We later learned that the "good" food booths were in another section of the market.)

Allright, so of course, since we were in Portland (and we were close by) we made our first of two trips to Voodoo Donuts. Below is a combination of photos from the two trips that we made (I didn't want to write up two different posts). First, we start off with the line outside of the donut shop. And yes, it was raining at the time.

It took about half an hour to get through the line and up to the front counter, but we had fun being entertained by an aging Elvis, in full Elvis regalia, singing Heartbreak Hotel.

When you finally make it indoors, you find a tiny, cramped space. This photo is from our second visit, which was on a weekday afternoon, so there were a lot less people there:

You definitely feel the pressure to order fast, with everyone waiting behind you. I got Tom the maple bacon bar, while I got the No Name - a donut with chocolate, rice krispies, striped with peanut butter. Here's Tom's maple bacon bar:

He thought it was just ok. I think he thought the maple part was overly sweet. Meanwhile, I also had a lukewarm reaction to my No Name. I thought it'd be coming with cocoa krispies, not regular krispies and they were a little soggy, so it was just eh. (The Old Dirty Bastard, which I had a few days later was much much better, though).

And here's a photo of the half dozen donuts my friend, Jess, bought. Notice the pink one - it's bubblegum with a piece of bubble gum stuck to it.

After the donuts, we did the two hour drive to Eugene where my friend actually lives. There we were able to rest and play with her pets before eventually heading out for dinner.

We initially tried to go to a well known Southern restaurant, but it was packed and had a long wait. Instead we headed to a place called Beppe and Gianni's, a popular local Italian restaurant located in a converted Victorian house. This place was also filled with people, but we got a table within twenty minutes.

I would characterize this place as the average Italian American restaurant, except dressed up a little nicer. I apologize for the pictures in advance, the place was pretty dark, and I didn't want my flash going off. We started off with their famous appetizer of blue cheese with roasted garlic served with toast:

I thought the garlic was well roasted, and it wasn't too bad.

I then started with a Caesar salad, which was pretty average, and quite over dressed:

And for my entree I just got something simple - spaghetti with red sauce: The spaghetti ended up being pretty over cooked, so it was kinda mushy, and the sauce was fine. However, we were in Eugene, OR, I wasn't expecting spectacular food. And so our first bites were decent enough, just nothing stellar.