I'm baaaa--aackkkk!

December 2014 = last post.  Let's see... what's different than that time in my life?  Oh that's right... EVERYTHING! 

First, I'm no longer in Seattle.  Moved to the Bay Area 3 1/2 years ago. 

Second, I am back at work full-time. 

Third, the FITs are much much MUCH bigger.  The Big Guy is bigger than me.  For blog purposes, he'll be TBG.  The Little Guy (TLG) will be there soon enough. 

Most significantly, it's just the three of us.  We are the Three Musketeers now. 

If you know me, you know bits about the rest.  And if you don't... feel free to ask I suppose. 

I was driving back from downtown SF today where I did a tour of AT&T park and was thinking, as I often do, about what I'm going to do while The Guys are with their dad for the next four days.  I began creating a supper club in my brain, but when I went to think about how to find 3 other willing participants I found too many "musts" and "must nots".  For example:

Must
*Not be picky
*Be willing to go out once a week
*Be willing to order a variety of foods

More importantly Must Not
*Order Cali style
*Flake out
*Complain about driving to a variety of places in the Bay Area

See -- I've taken notes since I moved based on Check Please, Bay Area, which airs on PBS here but I've rarely gone out to those particular restaurants.  And the more I focused on the "musts" and the "must nots" the more I realized that, for now, it will be best if it's just me.

Which reminded me of the blog.  Now I can have a conversation with myself about these places.  Here's the plan:

I will go on alternate Tuesdays or Thursdays to one restaurant featured on CPBA.  My "review and talk about" will include the show standards:

Ease of getting to
Started wtih
Also had (main course)
Dessert
Service
Value
Wrap it up with a quick summary

And that's it.  It will basically allow me to get out of the house once a week and get around the Bay Area and do something for myself.  :)

So stay tuned!

Gordon Biersch

The Guys and I joined my extended family to see The Nutcracker Ballet in Seattle -- the last year of the Maurice Sendak version.  We all loved it a lot.  The Big Guy wanted pizza -- FIT wanted a burger.  I figured Gordon Biersch would be a great option. 

When I sat down they handed me a picture menu of their "special tasting menu" which included three of several appetizers.  Most of the prices said they were around 7.95 so I decided that was a good way to feed me for not a lot of money.  With the upcoming SF move we just don't have much eating out money... plus we're trying to use up every blessed scrap of food since we need to store things and can't even store dry goods.  Ugh.

So I saw a crab and lobster melt that looked good.  Ordered the special tasting menu version of that.  Big Guy got a pizza, FIT got a burger.   We also shared a small garlic fry.  And each of us had a soda.  The kids meals are around $5 each but don't include their drinks, which run about $3 a piece.  No problem.

The crab and lobster melts were "meh".  Quite small and not a lot of flavor, but for the price, who could complain?  $8 seemed fair... not low price by any means for what you get. 

My bill came for $50!  Wait... drinks were about $9.  Kids' food was $10.  Garlic fries $5.  My appetizer... $8.  How on earth did tax double my bill???  I looked... the appetizer?  That DINKY appetizer, was nearly $21!!!!!!  Seriously.  Each ONE was $7.95.  Or, for a BARGAIN OF A DEAL, you could get three for $20.95.

$20.95!!!!!!

See ya, Gordon Biersch.  I can live without that kind of financial strain!

Swish Swish

The Critic wanted to introduce us to Hot Pot before we left for San Francisco.  It's a ramen meets fondue idea.  A friend of his took him to Swish Swish and so, as a last hurrah, we all went for a lunch one day.

We decided on the all-you-can-eat route.  We were all pretty hungry.  That ended up being a pretty good deal as we were able to try a variety of things.  We weren't fans of really anything seafoodish (seafood meatballs, head-on shrimp) but otherwise it was delicious.  I thought the beef was best.  Everyone else really liked the pork belly (which I enjoyed but not as much as the beef).  FIT and I had the onion broth and The Big Guy had the chicken broth.  The Critic had a miso one, I think. 

Hot pot makes a delicious dinner option for our whole family.  Swish Swish really was a great place for us. 

Il Fornaio

Today's dinner involved a visit to an old friend.  6 years ago we enjoyed Il Fornaio in San Francisco.  There is one in Seattle but it's not the same -- not even on the list of chains with the name on it.  Not sure why -- it's the same logo.  But what I remember, six years later still, was the gnocchi.

This trip we discovered a three course "tasting" menu.  The quotes have to do with the portion.  I started with a bright, fresh, acidic salad that included garbanzo beans (yuck) and mostly deliciousness that I devoured.  And then felt like I had dined enough.  But that was not to be... out came THE GNOCCHI!  Not as amazing as I remembered it -- it had a rabbit ragu which was very good but think 6 years ago I had a creamy cheesy sauce that pressed my happy buttons.  I ate about 1/2 of the "small" portion before I was ready to be rolled out of the restaurant.  Still, the third course came.  Short ribs.  Now, on any given day, one bite of short rib is really enough to fill my stomach completely.  So an entire portion of it... however "small" they want to say it was... was too too much.  Deliciousness.  Thankful for the company dime because we had no way to reheat the food.  It really was delicious.  Just too much of it.

Also, to visit another old friend and welcome in a new life to come, we decided to order tiramisu.  This dessert has its roots in our dating history and it was definitely a delicious way to end an indulgent meal.

The nice thing about this restaurant is the joy I would get bringing friends and family who visit us in the city.  Hopefully the tasting menu continues.  What a nice way to enjoy a wide variety of special food at a reasonable price.

Embarcadero -- Farmer's Market and Boccalone

No houses to look at today.  Boo!  What good is a house hunting trip where you can't hunt houses?  And it was POURING all morning.  Boo! 

Eventually, and thankfully, the rain poured off and we began to get excited about the idea of moving to San Francisco, rather than being worried about what on earth we committed to!  Luckily, on such a beautiful day, two able-bodied adults with NO children to wear them down were able to literally walk the city of San Francisco all day.  We walked from Union Square to The Embarcadero/Ferry Terminal, then down the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf, up through Giradelli Square, back toward town, up through China town, and eventually back to Union Square.  And it took us all day.  That's ok... we were learning to explore our new home.

While at the Ferry Terminal we went to the Farmer's Market.  We will be visiting this market with The Guys when we all get to SF.  The Critic came up with the awesome idea of giving everyone a certain amount of cash and saying "find something to share".  More later on how that ends up.

While there we ate at a stand that had some lamb merguez and hot dogs.  They were quite tasty!  And we went to Boccalone.  This is a foodie stop for me as I've been intrigued by the "meat cone" idea for a while.  It's pretty neat and we were able to get one easily.  One of the meats was a bit soft/slimy for me, but the other two were good.  At $5 it's not a ridiculous expense either. 

French Restaurant -- I think it was Bouche?

This is a perfect example of how to use the company dime to try a place you would never otherwise consider.

We needed a spot that was open late and found this little... and I mean little... French restaurant that was open until 1:00 or 2:00.  And they had duck which The Critic was actually craving (weird thing to crave, don't you think?) so we went.  HOW CUTE IS THIS PLACE???  I swear they can only seat 20 people total and possibly not even that many.

First up -- crispy pork belly.  Very tasty.

Critic's dinner -- Duck.  Delicious.  Came on Farro that was quite tasty.  The rillettes were not a texture The Critic enjoyed.  I was fine with it. 

My dinner -- Ummm... I don't remember.  I'm not a main dish person.  I remember my sides though.  Polenta (yum) and fall veggies.  It was great.  It was also late.  And we were VERY tired.

We also had dessert.  What was dessert?  I have no idea.  Did I mention we were tired?

Such a cute little french restaurant -- get a reservation and try it at least once.  I do recommend going when you aren't exhausted just so you can actually remember the experience.

Daville Cafe

This is my post to remind me of the little cafe we ate in after enjoying the area of Danville.  And still not finding a house.  Sigh. 

Cute little cafe, perfect for lunch.  Noted clientele are women are mother's ages.  Which, let's be honest, fits for Danville.

I think The Critic got a Cuban that was pretty good.  I got the risotto which was VERY good. 

A nice place to eat.  But really, we want a house!