See Us Eat: 2005-10-09

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Dinner at Home

We were so full from the chinese food that we didn't really get hungry for dinner until aroung 11pm. So Alexis sauteed some shrimp in butter, garlic and scallions. Simple and good.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 11:23 PM 0 comments

Lunch at Little Sichuan, San Mateo, CA

Needing to shake off the ghost of bad chinese food past, I took us down south to Little Sichuan, a restaraunt that one of my ex-roommates and I frequented. Since I usually let him order, we dialed him up on the cell and handed it off to the waitress. After a flurried exchange of words, this showed up. Everything came out to $60.

For those unfamiliar with Sichaun fare, there are a number of good spicy cold dishes. We got a beef tendon dish shown above and a beef and tripe beef below. The tendon was sliced thin enough that even Alexis could enjoy it. However she still balked on the tripe. I thought both were fantastic. Another popular dish is the cold spicy sichuan noodle dish.

Greens stirred fried with garlic. Not sure what the greens were, imagine spinach crossed with pea sprouts. Perfectly cooked though.

We aren't sure what this beef dish is called, but it was the highlight of the meal for Alexis. Although it came out fairly quickly, it tasted like it had been slow cooked all day.

Whole fish. It was good, but was a bit over-cooked, and not spicy enough. It looked much better than it tasted--there was no distinguishing flavor.

Ratings:
Food: 2
Decor: 0
Service: 1

Website
Health Code Violations

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 3:33 PM 0 comments

Friday, October 14, 2005

Dinner from Shanghai China Restaraunt, San Francisco CA

I was feeling a bit under the weather, so we ordered in. Alexis went through the sheaf of menus that get slipped under our door regularly, and came up with Shanghai China. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of those chinese places that has 100 things on the menu, but they all consist of questionable meat covered by generic brown sauce. After looking at the health code violations of this place, we threw away the leftovers...

Szechuan Spicy Beef ($6.75)
Crappy veggies, not spicy.

Tangy & Spicy Green Beans ($5.50) - Neither tangy nor spicy.

Hunan Sliced Pork ($6.25)
The broccoli was perfectly tender, and was the unfortunate highlight of the meal.

BANNED

Ratings:
Food: 0
Decor: N/A
Service: N/A

Health Code Violations (We usually don't do the Health Code link until after we eat there, otherwise we would have stayed away based just on that. We've never seen one this low.)

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 8:08 PM 0 comments

Lunch at Taylor's Automatic Refresher, San Francisco, CA

The Taylor's Automatic Refresher is a frustrating restaurant with it's inconsistency. Sometimes you go there and you get a solid burger, meaty and juicy. Other times you get a small piece that's overdone. The cost of it would be worth it, if they were consistently good, but we've been bitten too many times to give any sort of rousing endorsment.

Onion Rings ($4)
Big, beer battered onion pieces, crunchy and as light as a fried food can get.

Blue Cheese Burger ($8)
The burger was smaller than usualy, and they gave us lettuce in peices, rather than a whole lettuce leaf to wrap it in.

Bacon Cheeseburger ($8)

Ditto on the lettuce and the meat, and they forgot to put on the "special sauce" (which is sort of like a tartar/ketchup mixture).

Ratings:
Food: 0 (This visit, probably a 1 overall)
Decor: 1 (But only because it has a patio)
Service: N/A

Website
Health Code Violations

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 1:30 PM 0 comments

Breakfast at Home

Leftover steak and fried eggs. The steak was a welcome change to the usual bacon, although you can never go wrong with bacon.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 9:26 AM 0 comments

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Dinner at Home

I actually got off my lazy ass and cooked up a few steaks when Alexis was at the gym. It was New York strip, drenched in Maker's Mark, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic and then pan fried with bacon grease and olive oil.

Green salad in a balsamic vinagrette.

On the rare occasion that Giao actually cooks, he does a very good job. These steaks had great flavor from the marinade he concocted and were perfectly cooked. The crumbled bacon spinkled on top was the finishing touch.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 9:25 PM 0 comments

Lunch at Work

Salmon salad (with capers, lemon juice and pepper) and green salad with viagrette.

Miso Soup

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 1:23 PM 0 comments

Breakfast at Home

Fried eggs and Bacon. Looks the same as usual.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 9:14 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Dinner at Home

Hot Pot--Near the end, we add in the rest of the meat and vegetables, plus spinach, eggs (dropped) and a recent find, noodles made from tofu. This is the soup incarnation of hot pot.

The ingredients--Chanterelles, broccoli, shrimp, steak and an assortment of sauces (soy/sesame/garlic/chili; wasabi mayo; mustard; horseradish; tartar)

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 9:22 PM 0 comments

Lunch at Work

Green salad with leftover rotisserie chicken (from Costco), tomatos, avocados and vinagrette.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 1:19 PM 0 comments

Breakfast at Home

Fried eggs and Bacon. Looks the same as usual.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 9:05 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Dinner at Home

Rotisserie Chicken from Costco
We picked this thing apart and ate it with our fingers. Classy.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 10:00 PM 1 comments

Lunch at Work

Leftovers from yesterday.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 1:23 PM 0 comments

Breakfast at Home

Fried eggs and Bacon. Looks the same as usual.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 10:12 AM 0 comments

Monday, October 10, 2005

Dinner at Home

Chicken legs baked with olives, tomatos, onions, garlic, cadamom pods and coriander.

Miso soup with tofu, scallions and seaweed.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 8:20 PM 0 comments

Lunch at Work

Leftovers from the M.I.C supplemented with meatballs from Gambino's New York Subs. When Alexis got here from NYC, one of her biggest food complaints was how you couldn't get a good New York style sandwich. Much like me and cheesesteaks, she went on a mission to find that sandwich. Unfortunately for her, she never accomplished that mission, but on the way, we found Gambino's, which serves up the best meatballs in the city.

Leftover Saag Paneer, Aloo Gohbi and Chicken Tikka Masala.

Meatball Hot Plate ($12) includes lackluster side salad.

Ratings:
Food: 1
Decor: 0 (Specializes in Take-Out, with only a few tables)
Service: N/A

Health Code Violations

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 1:12 PM 0 comments

Breakfast at Home

Fried eggs and Bacon. Looks the same as usual.

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 10:05 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Dinner at Friday's, Dallas, TX

Cheesy Chicken $10
The name says it all. Cheese, Chicken, and some veggies, all baked up together. Not bad, not good.

Buffalo Chicken Salad $10
The chicken was moist and tasted like spicy buffalo wings, but the salad itself lacked both freshness and flavor. Still, airports are getting better and better in terms of food.

Buffalo Wings $7
Easily the best part of the meal. Hot and spicy, not sweet at all.

Ratings:
Food: 1
Service: 1
Decor: 0

# posted by Giao and Alexis @ 6:37 PM 0 comments

Brunch at Fountain, Philadelphia, PA

Fountain, one of the restaurants at the Four Seasons in Philly serves up a pretty good, albeit expensive ($62/person) brunch buffet. Actually, the price included access to the other Four Seasons restaurant