Kin Khao

I've been interested in trying the food at recently opened Kin Khao for the past few months and since I'm not very familiar with Thai food, I was excited to try something new. We ordered one too many dishes for two people but we just wanted to try everything!

I thought the mushroom curry mousse was particularly good and unexpectedly spicy. Especially when paired with the crisp rice cakes, the dish offered a different taste and texture than if it were to be served with rice. Another dish that I liked was the grilled northern thai pork sausage. The sausage was well seasoned and not at all chewy. It's served with a spicy relish, lettuce, cucumbers, chicharones, and sticky rice and the concept is to wrap it all up in a lettuce wrap to eat. It's very similar to how korean bbq is eaten so it's cool to see the concept also working here. But we were most pleasantly surprised by the blistered green beans in xo sauce. I never really order greens as a side but I definitely recommend these. Served hot, I think the green beans were actually the best thing we ate here!

mushroom hor mok: curry mousse in-a-jar with mushrooms, crisp rice cakes

plah pla muek: charred monterey bay squid served with a tangy+spicy seafood sauce topped with peanuts & cilantro;
sai ua+namprik noom: grilled northern thai pork sausage served with spicy young pepper relish, chicharones, sticky rice

khao mun gai: chicken fat rice, ginger-poached chicken, pim's secret sauce, served with intense chicken broth;

make-it-yourself thai sundae: warm coconut+black rice pudding, served with burnt coconut sugar caramel, salty coconut cream, puffed rice+peanut+sesame praline

Salumeria

I'd heard the sandwiches at Salumeria were good, but I didn't know just how good.

My friend and I ordered two sandwiches and shared halves of each. The salumi sandwich with provolone, pickled peppers, shredded lettuce, oregano, red wine vinegar & aioli was pretty good but my vote goes for the roast beef sandwich. The roast beef, watercress, caramelized onions & horseradish aioli sandwich on pretzel roll is the best sandwich I've had in SF. That pretzel roll is perfection. 

Artichoke Basille's Pizza and Comal

I finally ventured across the Bay Bridge to spend a day in downtown Berkeley. I've only been to east bay a handful number of times and have been wanting to explore the area more. Alas, it was a beautiful day and I was excited to walk around the UC Berkeley campus and pretend to blend in with the students.

My friend and I went on a little hike up the hills where we got a fantastic view of Oakland, SF, and the bay. My friend had mentioned Artichoke Basille's Pizza before so we had to make a pitstop. We got a slice of margarita pizza to-go and went across to a grassy area to share it. Pizza is never that alluring to me but every time I eat it, I wonder why I don't have it more. This was no exception. Not fancy at all but so simple and well-made, all of the slices at this pizza shop are huge and the crust is thin and perfectly crispy. NY style pizza wins.

artichoke basille's pizza: slice of margarita

Next we went inside Sockshop, the store of my dreams, where they sold socks of every print imaginable. Friends know that I LOVE SOCKS, so I wanted to buy it all. Now that I know where to get cute, fun socks locally, I will definitely be back to get a pair of hamburger and bacon & egg socks.

For dinner we went to an upscale Mexican restaurant. The inside of the restaurant is huge and absolutely stunning. Other than the initial dining room and bar, there is also a covered patio and bar, as well as an open-air beer garden beyond that. We got lucky and were seated promptly with no wait. We ordered a bunch of dishes to share and I experienced soe Mexican food firsts such as chile relleno! My favorites of the night were the beef & pork albondigas en adobo, corn on the cob with chipotle aioli, and pork enchiladas.

So full but I couldn't turn down a scoop of ube ice cream on a waffle cone from John's Ice Cream. It's not the best ice cream but with interesting flavors like avocado and ube and only $1 a scoop, it's pretty darn enticing.

ensalada picada: little gems, beets, avocado, hearts of palm, goat feta, cilantro-yogurt vinaigrette

beef & pork albondigas en adobo;
chile relleno: queso fresco, salsa ranchera, epazote

grilled brentwood corn on the cob with chipotle aioli, questo fresco;
heritage pork, mole coloradito, crema

Brit+Co Re:Make Conference

I spent the day at the Re:Make Conference, volunteering part of the time as a cupcake lady. It was very inspiring to be surrounded by a community of makers and other attendees ranging from entrepreneurs, bloggers, techies, social media gurus, etc and yet, are all people who support innovation and creativity. Though I wouldn't ever call myself a maker, I thrive from having some sort of creative outlet and sometimes find myself in a creative rut when I can't seem to be inspired by anything. I gravitate towards cooking, drawing, photography, and even writing on this blog to charge my creative energy and even though no one might ever taste or see my creations, these are activities that I find personally fulfilling.

My favorite conversation of the day was a panel made up of Brit Morin (Brit+Co), Bradford Shellhammer (Fab.com), Craig Dalton (DODOcase), and Zach Kaplan (Inventables). They talked about how ideas are now being prototyped at home to become mainstream endeavors. Bradford Shellhammer and Craig Dalton gave particularly great advice on how to think strategically about delivering not just products, but great user experiences as well via online and offline community building and the power of social media to do so. Everyone has an audience so fans are the ones who can really make a splash in getting a brand's name out there.

Garaje

I was excited to meet up with a friend at Garaje tonight. I mean, panini-ed burritos? Genius. I had also heard through the grapevine that the cheeseburger was good and wanted to taste for myself if the burger makes it into my top 5 list. The decor of the restaurant is very casual, divey, and has a roadside feel with license plates hung along the walls. It's cash only and we ordered at the front counter, got a number, and waited at our table for the food to come.

My friend and I shared the cali steak zapato and it was amazing! One of the reasons I don't really like burritos all that much is because the tortilla is too soft and mushy but pressed and hot, the zapato was like a quesadilla-ed burrito. Loved it! The addition of fries inside the zapato was also on point as I enjoy fries inside my burger as well...

Next we shared the cheeseburger, which at $6, is a bargain. It was greasy, messy, extremely american cheesey, and very reminiscent of an in-n-out burger. Total drive in burger for sure. I wouldn't say it's one of the best burgers I've had but definitely worth trying at least once. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the crispy carnitas taco. The meat was dry, tough, and had absolutely no flavor. Perhaps it was an off night but next time I'll definitely stick to another zapato and taco selection.

cali steak zapato: skirt steak asada, jack cheese, fries, avocado, pico de gallo in a flour tortilla

street style crispy carnitas tacos with cilantro, cebollas, and salsa;
drive in single cheeseburger: 1/3 lb angus, double american cheese, griddled onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato, 1000 island dressing on an acme bun

B44 Catalan Bistro

A bit of regret surrounds eating at this restaurant. Its location makes it touristy and while situated in a small alleyway with cute European style outdoor seating, the food is just not worth the high price. But if for some reason you choose to dine here, a few dishes do deliver decent Catalan food.

We started off with three tapas to share. Starting with fire roasted piquillo peppers stuffed with local dungeness crab meat, then pincho moruno or grilled leg of lamb brochettes with cucumber salad and spicy red pepper sauce. Lastly and the best out of the selection were chipirones, baby squid stuffed with fennel sausage and cooked in its own ink. It's a weird dish but I'm kind of into interesting dishes so it worked for me.

We ordered the B44 paella to share and selected this particular one because it has a mix of both chicken and chorizo with seafood. The first and last time I had paella was in 2012 when I visited Madrid and ate the most incredible squid ink paella. It's obviously going to be tough to ever top that first paella experience but the paella B44 was good enough to satisfy that nostalgic craving.

paella B44: saffron rice, chorizo, chicken, shrimp, squid, mussels, clams, vegetables

numnums: Filipino Food Edition

We had a special lunchtime guest today at numnums and cooked up a special Filipino food feast for the crew. It was also my first time trying some of the classic Filipino dishes so it was exciting for me to help cook and eat the food.

On the menu: chicken adobo, cauliflower rice, lumpia, salad, torta talong (eggplant torta). My favorites were the chicken adobo and lumpia with a tasty sauce.

chicken adobo

Another highlight of lunch was when our guest grilled peaches for dessert. Grilled peaches with a scoop of bourbon vanilla ice cream topped with marcona almonds and all sprinkled with cayenne and black pepper, oh wow.