lmarie's Profile
Breakfast pastries at Boot and Shoe Service [Oakland]
Did you find out the source of their pastries? - Especially the five star croissant?
need source for good gravy in SF or peninsula
A few years ago I bought delicious gravy at Golden Gate Meats in the Ferry Building.
-----
Golden Gate Meat
Ferry Slip, San Francisco, CA 94111
Where's a good place to Fig out?
RW:
I've found delicious black Mission figs at Monterey Market for the last two or three weeks.
Best Fruit Pie Oakland/Berkeley?
Sweet Adeline's in Berkeley makes excellent pies - and the crust is buttery and delicious. In the fall they make a great Sierra Beauty apple pie - I ordered one for Thanksgiving a few years ago and it was wonderful.
The lemon meringue pie at Sweet Adeline's is also outstanding; nice and tart.
-----
Sweet Adeline
3350 Adeline St, Berkeley, CA
Jaew Bong (Laotian chili paste) at That Luang Market in San Pablo
The market doesn't exist anymore, but they have a small glass-faced refrigerator in the dining room where they still sell the Jaew Bong chili paste. This sauce is incredible; thick, slightly sweet with lots of chili seeds, and small strips of what I think is pork skin. It's $5 for a tub. Among other myriad uses, I put it on a sandwich with lao sausage, cilantro and kimchee. Out of this world.
Fatted Calf open in Hayes Valley
Is there any seating at the Fell St. store? (The better to enjoy one of their meatloaf sandwiches at its freshest?)
The Sentinel for Breakfast?
Walk a few blocks to Leary's other shop (The Golden West) and get a bear claw. Fantastic. Also there this week he had fig coffee cake and pork and beans and an apple cinnamon muffin.
-----
Golden West
8 Trinity Pl, San Francisco, CA 94104
Recommendations for Tahini paste
I've purchased the tahihi in bulk at Rainbow - and it idoes have a bitter edge to it. So I won't get it again. However, since I don't use much tahini, it was nice to be able to buy just a small amount.
Best sausages?
Try the delicious lao sausage from Vientiane Cafe on Allendale in Oakland. They sell a bag, frozen, that is probably about two pounds, for $6. Delicious.
Restaurant suggestions for Pac Heights (near the Landmark Clay, on a Saturday night)
Four of us ate at SPQR in January. Nothing stood out as anything above average. In particular, I had a pasta with shredded duck; the duck tasted warmed-over. I won't go back.
Stone Korean Kitchen
Do they serve panchan - and if so can you describe? Also, what are the prices like?
Thanks
Where's your fave porchetta?
I've had the porchetta sandwich from the Roli Roti at the Thursday FB farmer's market. Meat not particularly tasty, huge hunks of fat, the skin tough as leather and unchewable. The carmelized onions are a nice touch, but I won't bother with this sandwich again.
-----
Roli Roti
, Hayward, CA
Oasis Market - Oakland
Do they serve any of their prepared foods in/with their house-made pita? Also, is there any seating or is it strictly take-out for the prepared food?
Metreon Farmer's Market - Monday Lunchtime - Persian Food
This past Monday I wandered in to the Metreon farmer's market looking for lunch eats. The prepared food selections are EXTREMELY sparse on Mondays. (So - no Amber Indian food, no Tara ice cream, no Vietnamese bahn mi, no Singapore food, no African food, no Phat's BBQ, momos, or Bulgarian food, as have been reported in previous posts about this farmer's market.) Among the very few that were open (a "mediterranean" place, the cupcake vendor, the ever-present Afghan (I think) bolani/dips vendor, Juicy Lucey's and the wonderful empanadas vendor) there was a lovely woman selling Persian food. (I'm sorry that I did not read the name of the booth.) She offered two soups, chicken fesenjoon over rice, a mini-sandwich of beef tongue, pomegranite gelatine, and mini-carrot cakes that looked like mini-cupcakes. The soups were amazing, and she generously offered samples. One was yogurt-based, with other ingredients I am forgetting. But the one I chose was plum soup. This had well-cooked-down small yellow plums (still with pits!), bulgar, a few yellow split peas and kidney beans, and lots of green herbs. It was intriguingly sweet/sour, and served hot. It came with two pieces of flatbread, which were toasted on order. The soup was $6, the fesenjoon was $7, and a soup plus mini-sandwich combo was $8.
Bottom line: there is LOTS left to discover at this FM, as several of the original vendors (i.e., the organic dim sum, OctoberFeast, etc.) have left, and new ones added.....
Where can I buy marbled rye bread?
The San Francisco Arizmendi on 9th Ave has marbled (as well as plain and currant) pumpernickel bread on Thursdays.
-----
Arizmendi Bakery
1331 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA
Off-season crab ... fresh or frozen?
My husband bought a live crab at the 99 Ranch in Dublin a few weeks ago. I berated him for buying Dungeness out of season - but it steamed up big, succulent and delicious.
Question: Must try bakeries in San Fran - staying at SF Marriot on 4th St
October Feast (the source of delicious pretzel croissants) has withdrawn from the Metreon farmer's market. They are at the Berkeley Sat. morning FM, and have a shop on University Ave. in Berkeley.
Question: Must try bakeries in San Fran - staying at SF Marriot on 4th St
I've been to Casa Latina. The pastries did not appeal, but I tried the tres leches cake, which was very ordinary (my favorite version of tres leches is at Delessio's on Market St. in SF.
I did have a delicious carnitas torta at Casa Latina.
Question: Must try bakeries in San Fran - staying at SF Marriot on 4th St
I agree, no matter how beautiful or enticing the smells (I'm thinking of several Mexican bakeries along 24th St. in the Mission - the taste is usually very disappointing, and indicative to me of cheap shortening being used rather than butter.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if some enterprising baker would open an "artisanal" Mexican bakery............
looking for a great torta
Xiao Yang - do tell where you got the great pastor Cemita........
PAL'S TAKE AWAY - INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS SANDWICHES
I've been buying sandwiches at Pal's Take Away about once a week for the last couple of months since they opened. Pal's is a take-out only counter in the back of a liquor store on the corner of 24th and Hampshire in the Mission - across the street from Dynamo Donuts.
Today I had a fantastic Columbia River salmon blt - the salmon was perfectly roasted, moist and subtly delicious. There was also applewood-smoked bacon, both red and yellow tomatoes, some arugula/baby lettuces, and herbed mayo.
Pal's meatloaf blt and tuna sandwiches are also delicious. My absolute favorites, however, are the vegetarian sandwiches. Yesterday they built the sandwich on Acme seeded whole wheat, with some small slices of mozzerella (they often put slices ranch egg on the veg sandwich instead, which I like even better). The bread was smeared with a puree of heirloom shell beans - this was wonderfully spiced, with among other things, whole coriander seeds. The lightly roasted vegetables consisted of rapini and wide romano green beans. Also included were slices of perfect red heirloom tomatoes, thin cucumber slices, and some baby lettuce leaves. The vegetables had been dressed with a vinaigrette - yesterday I tasted fresh basil. Truly a work of art - perfectly balanced taste, and beautifully colorful.
Other times, the vegetables have varied - tiny roasted carrots, cauliflower, romesco. Sometimes it is built on Acme herb slab (I always request whole wheat if it's available 'cause I'm just a whole wheat type of gal.)
Really nice people. Take out only -
china village - wow, really?
I too was greatly disappointed in China Village after having read years of glowing CH reports.
A few months ago we went for lunch on a Sunday; we ordered the fish soup w/floating chilis, and a dish recommended by the host/manager, which was a stirfry of smoked duck with some chilis and green onions. The soup lacked any special flavor or even heat (especially lacking the mala and deep bean paste flavor we loved in the same prep at the Szechuan place at the Richmond Asian mall), and the smoked duck tasted like leftovers, dry and reheated, and the dish was way too oily.
The room was shabby and none to clean, with that stale oil/dirty carpet smell, and our table was sticky with oil. I won't be back.
Enjoy Vegetarian In Chinatown
No leafy greens. I got the $7.50 lunch special of "taro, gluten puffs and pumpkin" cooked in coconut sauce. Very bland, and too sweet (tasted like canned gluten puffs, which I always find too sweet). Served w/ a soup that was a broth with a few shreds of seaweed and tofu, and a vegetarian egg roll that I did not eat - it disintegrated in my left-over box. At least you get the option of brown rice.
An adjoining table had a chow mein dish that looked pretty good though.
Baby's Eatery and Palabok
This is a tiny Filipino restaurant at 4609 Mission in the Excelsior district. It is mostly "steam table" type dishes, some of which rotate daily. Most of the business is take-out, but there are a few VERY tiny tables next to the wall. The place is so narrow that if you are standing at the counter and someone wants to walk past you, you must literally step outside to let them pass. Prices are not posted.
I've visited three times over the past few weeks. I really know very little about Filipino eats, but I think the food here is delicious. (I have also tried Kababayan on Mission near 24th, which is also quite good, and Taste of Manila in Hayward.)
On a Tuesday I had a wonderful, thick mung bean soup flavored with ground pork and whole large shrimp (Kababayan also has this and their's is excellent); also a white fish steak in a clear, salty and sour soup filled with onion slices, and a stray piece of ginger and lemongrass. The mung beans, fish soup and rice were $7.50.
On a Wednesday I had a wonderful dish of some kind of green vegetable cooked in coconut milk, flavored with whole shrimp and lots of crunchy, fresh ginger shreds. Also that day - whole squid cooked in fermented shrimp sauce, again with ginger shreds. These two dishes plus rice were $6.
And on a Thursday I had a delicious chicken stew, with red bell peppers, potato and carrot chunks. Thursdays they also have pinkabet, but I did not try it.
I also ordered the namesake palabok as a takeout. I have only had palabok one other time (at Taste of Manila), but I liked Baby's version less well. The rice noodles were too al dente for my taste, and the reddish topping was not particularly tasty. It comes garnished with lemon, shrimp and hard boiled egg slices.
This place is a gem. Their chicken and pork skewers look wonderful.
-----
Baby's Eatery & Palabok
4609 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94112
Jai Yun Open For Lunch
Is the $9 pricing at lunch something new? Looking at recent Yelp reports, the least expensive lunch set is $18.
Green Papaya Deli - Lao-Thai in Oakland
Robert: Can you tell us the current hours?
Thanks
Berkeley: Chick-O-Pea's - The falafel place with a falafel bar
Just back from DC, I ate lunch at Amsterdam on Memorial Day. The small is $3.50, the large is $4.99. Choice of white or whole wheat pitas - delicious. As we sat eating, I told my companions that if someone opened a similar place in the Mission in San Francisco they would have lines out the door......
Kitchenette report...happy, happy, happy
Today was my second time at K'ette. Again, the sandwich was an oil/grease bomb. The house-cured brisket was very nice, the cured cabbage/(I wouldn't really call it sauerkraut) wasdelicious. But the bread (Acme rye) had been griddled in a ton of oil to toast it. It was literally soaked w/oil - shining and gleaming with oil, and, except for the crust, it had almost disintegrated by the time I took a bite (and I sat down immediately to eat after it was handed to me.) All the oil obliterated the taste of the rye; I think the "farallon island dressing" was probably mayonnaise-based, and so contributed to the oil factor.
Today's Whoopie Pie ($1) was great. I also liked the potato and pickled ramp salad. I really want to love K'ette - the ingredients are delicious and creative, but both times I've had them their sandwiches have been drenched with oil.
