kchowder's Profile
Tulum trip report
Great report - thanks for all the detail! I have to second your rec for El Tabano. It was really atmospheric and the food was excellent. In general, it seemed like the food in Tulum isn't crapified for tourists. I figured I'd add my two cents to your original thread:
La Gloria de Don Pepe: Nice little tapas joint on a side street off the main drag (Avenida Tulum). We had the albondigas and grilled veggie appetizers -- both were excellent -- as well as a very tasty seafood paella that was full of clams, head-on shrimp and a mollusk that looked kind of like a periwinkle.
Sandbar: This was the restaurant/bar attached to the hotel we were staying in, so we had breakfast there every day, drinks often and dinner once. In general, the quality and preparation of the food was top-notch and the scenery was unbeatable - you could just sit there and watch the pelicans and terns dive all day. The grilled whole fish was a highlight. FWIW, the homemade granola was really good, too. I imagine people don't go to Mexico for the granola, but there you have it.
El Capitan - I felt like a cheesy tourist eating here, but it was worth it for the lobster tail, which I got "al mojo de ajo". Hard to say no to shellfish smothered in garlic.
Cetli: I really, really wanted to like this place. The decor and atmosphere were so cozy, and the chef was so charming. But the food just didn't live up to expectations and it was quite expensive. It feels mean-spirited to trot out a laundry list of what I didn't like about the food, so I'll just leave it at that.
Happy Frog's: This is a little antojitos spot off the main square - they offer tortas, gorditas, sopes and huaraches with a variety of toppings and fillings like chicken, potato and chorizo, nopales and the like. It was cheap and tasty.
We ate at a couple of other inexpensive Mexican eateries around downtown, and it seemed like it was hard to go wrong with just picking one at random and munching away. The Tortas Gigantes place close to the Coba/Tulum/Cancun intersection was totally forgettable (it's not much to look at, but we were curious and gave it a shot). But aside from that, we didn't encounter any duds in town.
Upicks this season/ serendipity farms
Has anyone gone to upick tomatoes or peppers this season? Any recommendations would be great. Also, as anyone ever visited this farm: http://www.serendipity-organic-farm.com/
If so, would you recommend visiting from the city (sf)?
Islands in Malaysia
Thank you! That's very helpful. Thanks for linking everything, too. Have you ever been to Pulau Perhentian? It looks so stunning, but it doesn't seem like there's a local population to support non-touristy food.
Islands in Malaysia
I'm trying to plan a trip to Malaysia and am very excited about some quality beach time. But the guidebook makes it look as though most of the beachy destinations are package-tour kind of places where you get package-tour food.
What are your recommendations for the perfect combination of beach and good food?
Battimamzelle, Port of Spain, Trinidad Report
My fiancee and I had dinner at Battimamzelle on our last night in Trinidad and Tobago, thinking we'd cap off a lovely vacation by splurging. What a mistake!
I feel slightly guilty about panning a restaurant on the basis of a single visit. But. Battimamzelle is hyped as Trinidad's best restaurant in every conceivable guidebook (and elsewhere on Chowhound), so I'd like to put my two cents in.
Battimamzelle is brutally, grotesquely overpriced and stunningly mediocre. Apparently, dignitaries, heads of state and other Big Important People have dined here, so Battimamzelle has quite a reputation. But there was something oddly Sunset Boulevard about entering their dark, empty outdoor seating area that really should have indicated to us what we were in for. We should have taken the hint when we had the chance and gotten the hell out of there. Instead, we ordered appetizers.
We had curried crab ravioli and spinach soup to start. Puzzlingly, instead of the soup, the waitress brought out a seafood bouillabaisse appetizer we had merely inquired about (and which was twice the price of the soup). The crab ravioli was passable, if a little too chewy; the bouillabaisse was atrocious. Gummy, shrivelled seafood of the kind you'd get in a freezer-burned brick at a cheap supermarket swimming in an unremarkable tomato broth. Strike one.
The main course was even more egregiously awful.
My fiancee had a lamb fillet that was artfully arranged together with some sort of sweet potato concoction crammed into a wonton shell. Basically, his dish was designed to be photographed, not eaten. All plating and no flavor.
I had "citrus grilled shrimp and scallop" on a bed of greens. You would think that in an island nation, the seafood would shine. Nope. This turned out to be a Red Lobster quality entree. The shrimp was tough and dried out; the scallops were hacked into tough little bite-size chunks; both tasted less like seafood than the disgusting marinade, which left a whiff of orange juice, raw garlic and liquid smoke all over everything. This was arranged atop a bed of mercilessly sweating lettuce greens that were composting under the carnage that was strewn over it. Revolting.
Not even the cocktails were any good. Stupidly, I ordered a Hurricane. This is a rum concoction of the kind that is meant to be cloyingly sweet, highly alcoholic and complemented with an umbrella. So I should have known better. It was like drinking fruit punch concentrate right out of the can.
The real kicker was the bill. The entire misadventure ended up costing about 850 TT, which works out to around $150.
Now, it's not as if we didn't realize how expensive everything was as we were ordering. But we wrongly assumed that if the prices were as breathtakingly high as they were (there was a $63 lobster tail entree, for example), they would deliver quality to match.
So basically, I'd say that if you have scads of money and absolutely no taste, by all means, head to Battimamzelle next time you're in Trinidad. Otherwise, save your money and just get a roti in St. James instead.
Late Night Dining Ideas (Bay Area)
Two newish places in the Mission are also open on the later side:
Beretta, on 22nd and Valencia, is open until midnight every day
Monk's Kettle, on 16th and Albion serves food until midnight, albeit not the full menu
Neighborhood Bodega favorites?
I used to be a total junk food rat when I was in high school, and I don't remember any 25 cent ice cream sandwiches! Can't believe I missed out on that. What are those things anyway? Do they still sell them?
What's up w/ Katana-ya?
Katana-ya on Geary and Mason was one of my most reliable go-to places for satisfying, inexpensive Japanese food at all hours of the night. But something strange seems to have happened to it - I went there last night and I felt as thought I'd been sucked into an alternate reality. The place appeared to have been renovated, and the staff had all changed. There was a girl by the bar who seemed to be employed there (she kept popping back to the kitchen to get people utensils), but spent most of her time laughing loudly and drunkenly by the bar, and squawking in pidgin Japanese. The tonkatsu was all dried out and there was a hair in it; the ramen was tasty, but something was slightly off about that, too.
Has it changed owners? Was it an off night? Or am I just imagining things?
xiao long bao at Shanghai Dumpling King
Also good here: Spicy Shanghai Wonton - supple wonton skin filled with pork and bok choy, served in chili oil with chopped scallions, minced turnip pickle and sesame seeds on top. Tasty!
Tortas El Primo (SF mission)
A new branch of this place just opened on 22nd betw Mission and Bartlett. It's very pleasant inside - sunny and airy - and has plenty of outdoor seating. I had two gorditas, one with mole chicken and one with beef. Both were packed to the brim, with a nice slathering of refried beans on the bottom and queso fresco bursting out of the top. I especially liked the chicken, which was coated in a nutty green mole, although the beef (in a peppery-oniony stew) wasn't shabby either. Papaya agua fresca was fruity and not too sweet.
Bf had a carnitas torta, which also looked good, but which he deemed inferior to those at Tortas Los Picudos. Then again, it's pretty hard to beat Los Picudos in the carnitas department.
Can't wait to go back and try their chicharron & nopales torta. Sounds like a novel combination that could either be a revelation or just plain revolting.
An unbelievable amount of tasty food for very little money ($3 gorditas, agua fresca for $1.50/2.50).
Late night delivery
Here I am at 10PM on a Sunday, looking for some satisfyingly crappy Chinese delivery - and I come up empty. Very, very frustrating. It seems as though pizza is your only real option after 9PM for delivery in San Francisco - can anyone share their favorite "late night" (i.e., after 10:00 PM) delivery options?
Peruvian Survey
Inkas on Mission and 29th is another really good Peruvian joint to check out:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/360383?query=inkas
http://www.inkasrestaurant.com/
It's definitely not as fancy as Fresca or Limon, but it has a nice, homey feel to it and the service is very friendly, if a bit on the slow side. Definitely get some appetizers to tide you over until the entree comes. Then again, you might end up filling up on (pretty crappy) bread, which you will use as a vessel for the addictive aji amarillo sauce they have at the table. Pollo a la brasa was excellent, as were the anticuchos.
GIve Mi Lindo Peru a shot - it's also on Mission around 29th. Again, it's not upscale Peruvian, but like INkas, it has a cozy, home-cooking kind of unpretentious atmosphere I like a lot. Very tasty cilantro-seafood soup, good picante de mariscos and lomo saltado. Can't comment on the ceviche.
Tamasei Sushi, Noe Valley
Omakase is a great deal at $25 (!!!). If I'm feeling hungry, I might get a bowl of rice on the side and maybe some oshinko.
As for being closed unpredictably, who knows? It seems like a lifestyle thing for them. You'll walk by and see a sign in the window that says they're in Japan for Obon or for a butoh festival or something. It's usually around 10 days or so.
ISO Recs for W Marin area...Inverness, etc.
For the best bang for your buck, I'd highly recommend the Coast Cafe in Bolinas. I lived out in the area until recently and would often venture out to Olema, Nicasio, Marshall, Pt Reyes, etc. when I just didn't feel like hitting the Coast again for the 1000th time...and always regretted it. There just isn't a place in that area that is as consistently good and reasonably priced. You can always count on excellent fish specials, and their outside seating area is a nice place to spend a lazy afternoon downing oysters and beer.
The Olema Inn is very good, with fresh, local ingredients served in a gracious setting - but it's also quite expensive and ultimately, not really on par with restaurants in its price range in the city. Definitely avoid the Farmhouse in Olema. Everything tastes like it came out of a Sysco truck.
If you happen to hit the Station House in Point Reyes, do be aware that the menu is pretty inconsistent. Excellent crab cakes and clam linguine on one end of the spectrum, absolutely awful spare ribs on the other with a fair smattering of acceptable to good dishes in between. As a general rule, the simpler the dish, the better it's likely to be.
If you are passing through Fairfax, the ice cream at the Fairfax Scoop is not to be missed. It's a tiny little shop on the main drag near the B of A that makes homemade ice cream from local, organic ingredients. Vanilla honey lavender is just phenomenal. Also in Fairfax, avoid the food at Cafe Amsterdam and the Iron Springs brewpub like the plague - both have a fringe of the usual "local ingredients" on their menu to try to distract you from the mediocrity of what just has to be pre-prepared crap from a supplier. It's mind-boggling that any restaurant in such a rich agricultural area could have the audacity to serve such middling, unsatisfying food.
Have to second the Tony's oysters rec. I would stick with the simpler seafood dishes b/c that is what really shines there. Just straight up oysters, clams or fish
without any of their not-so-great pasta sauce or any of that.
Rye chops?
Are there any baking Chowhounders in San Francisco out there who could recommend a place to get rye chops?
Tamasei Sushi, Noe Valley
Tamasei opened up about 6 months ago and I'm astounded not to see anything about it on Chowhound yet. Though it isn't exactly a destination sushi restaurant, it's a really nice addition to the smattering of neighborhood sushi places in Noe Valley and is in the same spot as the old Matsuya (24th and Vicksburg). I've been a couple times since it opened and have always gotten either the sushi special or the sashimi omakase - both are quite solid. There are often excellent specials like slightly smokey-tasting bonito sashimi with a hint of garlic or clean, refreshing hirame with a nice ponzu dip. This place has all the little details down- excellent sushi rice with just the right texture , tasty (though probably not homemade) oshinko and miso soup that tastes like it was made with homemade dashi, for example. And the atmosphere is just right. It really feels like a cozy neighborhood sushi place somewhere in Japan, with a nice older couple running the show. It is a pleasure to sit in the rather small, cozy space and listen to them talking back and forth to each other as they prepare and serve the sushi. All in all, a much nicer and far more authentic spot for sushi than either Amberjack or Hamano, which both get a lot of mentions on CH - though it *is* a little pricier. The only downside is that it can be closed for long stretches of time when the owners go back to Japan for some reason or other.
Central American food?
Could anyone tell me a little about the different cuisines of Central America? What are the typical dishes, what to look out for, etc? I've never been very adventurous with this kind of food b/c of an admittedly silly paranoia that I'd unwittingly choose some Mexican thing put on their menu to placate people who see Guatemalan, NIcaraguan, El Salvadoran, etc and immediately think Tex Mex.
Any news on Spork?
Just went there last night with a friend. The food is well-prepared, but on balance, I'd say the place is heavier on style than substance; the menu is an exercise in creative writing that the food doesn't really bear out. For example, we started with the shrimp and chips, which is billed as "gulf prawns, housemade potato chips, american accoutrements". Sounds exciting, right? Actually, it's shrimp cocktail and potato chips. Obviously, we should have asked the waiter exactly what it was - I was thinking a fish n' chips type thing with whatever "american accoutrements" could be, homemade pickles, maybe? Maybe I'm crazy, but isn't it a tad pretentious to call a little dish of cocktail sauce and horseradish "american accoutrements"? The inside-out burger was tasty, as was the "between the sheets with champignons" - but really nothing special. Given the description of the food and the prices, you'd expect creative California food on par with say, Blue Plate, which it unfortunately falls short of. So, not a bad restaurant as long as you manage expectations.
Boogaloo's
Made the mistake of having brunch at Boogaloo's again today - could someone explain what the appeal of this place is?! There's always a crush of people outside waiting, even if half the restaurant is empty. Do they do this on purpose?? The food just isn't that good and the service is awful. I waited about 15 minutes for someone to take my order, and sometime later was served a quesadilla stuffed with bland, reconstituted Sysco food service chicken breast and iceberg lettuce. Blech.
Easy & Tasty Way to Cook Okra
A really simple and easy way to prepare it is to cut into thin slices crosswise, then dress with lime juice and soy sauce to taste. Add bonito flakes on top. Doesn't even require cooking.
Big Sur suggestions?
I'm headed down to Big Sur this weekend for a mini-vacation and was hoping some people could share their dining tips. My big paranoia is that I'll end up getting trapped at someplace mediocre and overpriced. Any ideas? Any places that should be avoided? I have a feeling that a lot of weekend-out-of the city-type places (like Big Sur) are rife with small-town restaurants outpunching their weight to meet city expectations. I'm thinking of places like the Station House in Point Reyes -pretty good restaurant, but definitely a decent West Marin-type joint that's all gussied up for the weekenders with prices to match.
Big Sur suggestions?
I'm headed down to Big Sur this weekend for a mini-vacation and was hoping some people could share their dining tips. My big paranoia is that I'll end up getting trapped at someplace mediocre and overpriced. Any ideas? Any places that should be avoided?
SOMA suggestions?
Specifically, does anyone have a good rundown of lunch places around 4th and Brannan? Not looking for fancy nouveau french-californian whatever that seems to proliferate around here.
El Gallo Giro on 23rd and Treat
Just stumbled across a taco truck on 23rd and Treat called El Gallo Giro and wanted to recommend it. I had two tacos- carnitas and cabeza, and both were exceptionally good. Not sure if I'd say the cabeza was better than El Tonayense's, but it came in a tasty tomatillo salsa that brightened up really nicely with a dash of lime. The carnitas had great little crunchy bits strewn through it and wasn't overly greasy (keeping in mind that we are talking about deep-fried pork, that is). Can't wait to have an excuse to make another visit.
Mapping function? [moved from CHOW Feedback]
Hi
I haven't been following this board, so maybe this has already been addressed. But it often occurs to me that it would be nice if when you find a restaurant on chowhound, you could click on it and be linked to a map showing its location.
Help! I work in a culinary black hole!
Does anyone have some recommendations for a lunch spot in the Civic Center area? To be more precise, in the area around the intersection of Van Ness and Market, which has to be one of the very few places in SF where there is NO good food. Aside from Zuni, which is a bit much for lunch every day.
Salty drinks
Oh my god! A kimchi cocktail!!! That is a brilliant, amazing idea. That sounds perfect - even better than a bloody mary. Of course, you could never get something like that in a bar...could you?
Salty drinks
Can anyone recommend a savory, salty cocktail to try out? I am tired of getting looked at cross-eyed when I order Bloody Marys anytime other than mid-day. But I can't think of any adequate substitute - let alone any other salty cocktail- other than dirty martinis, and sometimes that's just not enough flavor.
bloody mary brunch in san francisco
Thanks! That's wonderful. I can't wait to try all these places out. On another note - does San Francisco do brunch? As in, have alcohol with breakfast on the weekend? I think the bloody mary is indispensable with weekend brunch, but my bf says that this is mostly a new york pretension/phenomenon.
