Saturday, April 05, 2008

Kid-Friendly Lunch at Custom Burger, San Francisco, CA

Custom Burger opened up several months ago on a rather sketchy block in SOMA, pretty close to where we live. When tasked with finding a kid-friendly place to eat with our friends (with two kids under 3) we thought it would be a good time to try out this diner-style, order at the counter restaurant.

The menu and ordering were stream-lined into this single page. Sort of like the Burger Bar format, you choose the type of meat, the bun, the toppings and the sauces, as well as any side dishes.


Onion Rings $4
Served, rather ingeniously, on a paper towel holder. The rings them selves were very crispy, but a bit too bready.


Double Bacon Blue Cheese Burger with Fried Egg $12
This was Giao's enormous, artery-clogging concoction.


Bacon Cheeseburger with Special Sauce $9
This was Alexis' slightly more healthy burger with balsamic caramelized onions and arugula.

Ratings;
Food: 1
Decor: 1
Service: 1

CustomBurger
121 7th St
San Francisco, CA 94103

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Friday, April 04, 2008

Dinner at Bar Tartine, San Francisco, CA

We had never been to Bar Tartine, strangely, and we were happy when our friends suggested it. We met them for dinner and it was fairly good, but not amazing. The service was a touch spotty; we were served soup without spoons and the waitress knocked over a glass of water at the next table. The food was good, but not great. The decor was nice, however.


Olives $4.50
These were served warm, which was a pleasant surprise that we had not seen before.


Sunchoke Soup with Pancetta $8
This soup was creamy and smooth and very tasted, but tasted more of cream than of sunchokes.


Pork Belly with Frisee Salad $14
The pork belly itself was succulent, fatty and crispy all at the same time, which is exactly what we were looking for. The puree it was served on was very, very sweet, however and we tried to avoid it.


Sweetbreads and Spot Prawns $15
This dish was quite tasty and well prepared.


Gnocchi with Mushrooms, Sage, Kale and Parmasean $18
Giao has this theory that gnocchi is never as good as the first time you have it. I'm starting to agree. This was good, but the gnocchi was lacking chew and sort of fell apart in our mouths.


Quail with Barley and Peas $24
This dish was the highlight of the night for us. It was tender and flavorful.

Ratings:
Food: 1
Decor: 2
Service: 1

Bar Tartine
600 Guerrero St. (@18th Street)
San Francisco, CA 94110

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Parsnip and Cardoon Gratin


This dish sounded better than it tasted. Truthfully, it was the first idea Alexis had for the cardoons, which we'd never had before and probably won't have again if we can avoid it. Cardoons look sort of like rhubarb or very large celery, but are a sort of dingy green color. We had heard that they tasted like artichokes, but we didn't find this to be true. The parsnips were not bad, but even after blanched and baked for an hour, the cardoons never became tender.

Parsnip and Cardoon Gratin
-4 parsnips, peeled and thinly sliced
-10 stalks cardoons, blanched
-1 cup cream
-2 cups cheese, grated
-salt and pepper to taste

Place a layer of the parsnips on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. season with salt and pepper, pour on some cream and sprinkle with cheese. Dice the blanched cardoons and layer half of them in the pan. Then repeat the parsnips, seasoning, cream and cheese layer. Sprinkle the rest of the cardoons on and top with the rest of the cheese and cream. Bake, covered, on 350 for about an hour.

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Lunch at Mexico au Parc, San Francisco, CA


Taco Salad with Carnitas $5.50
A filling lunch at less than 6 bucks is hard to come by. Not great, but definitely not bad.

Ratings:
Food: 1
Decor: 1
Service: NA (counter)

Mexico au Parc
24 S Park St
San Francisco, CA 94107

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

Mustard Balsamic Samlon with Fennel-Artichoke-Radish Salad


A simple, quick weeknight meal.

Mustard Balsamic Salmon
-1 lb salmon filet
-1 tb whole grain mustard
-3 tb balsamic vinegar

Mix the mustard and the vinegar and pour over the salmon. Bake on 350 for about 15 minutes, until the fish flakes easily with a fork but is still moist.

For the salad, simply combine radishes, artichoke hearts and cherry tomatoes, all halved and coat in your favorite homemade vinaigrette.

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Smoked Tofu with Meat Sauce and Agretti


This week we had a lot of veggies in our CSA box that we'd never heard of, including agretti, a particularly delicious and very odd green vegetable. It most closely resembled something called "salicorns" that Alexis had had pickled in France several years ago. Agretti is sort of like a very thick and crunchy grass, that is slightly salty when raw.

-1 block smoked tofu
-1 lb ground turkey
-1 lb agretti, "bulbs" trimmed
-4 tb black bean garlic sauce
-2 tb chili garlic sauce

Brown the turkey. Add the sauces and tofu and cook until turkey is done. Add the agretti, cover, and simmer for a couple minutes. Remove cover, stir and serve when agretti is tender.

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Monday, March 31, 2008

Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad


Alexis wanted to do something different with our rotisserie chicken from Costco, so instead of making a standard, mayo-based chicken salad, she used shirataki noodles and made a spicy sesame/peanut sauce. It was a very tasty salad, served warm, hot or cold.

-1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
-4 packages shirataki noodles, par-boiled
-4 stalks celery, diced
-2 bell peppers, minced
-3 stalks green garlic, minced

-2 tb sesame seeds
-4 tb dark soy
-3 tb natural peanut butter
-2 tb rice vinegar
-2 tb sesame oil
-1 tb rooster sauce
-2 tb hoisin sauce
-1 tb garlic powder

Sautee the green garlic, celery and bell peppers in a bit of oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and sautee for a few minutes, until beginning to brown, but not yet soft. Mix the sesame seeds, dark soy, peanut butter, rice vinegar, sesame oil, rooster sauce, hoisin and garlic powder together until smooth, then mix with the sauteed veggies. Then add the boiled noodles and the chicken and mix until thoroughly incorporated.

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