Do Not Do This

By Parry

Free food. It is my alcheles heel. It is my weakness. Along that vein is all you can eat. If I order all you can eat, I have to stuff myself to get my every last penny's worth. This is why I avoid buffets. However, in a late night run to Denny's after a church dance, I decided to to get all you can eat pancakes. What a mistake. OH, the pancakes were just fine, and so were the 6 shots of maple syrup and butter whip cream, it was my stomach that wasn't. I managed to get through 6 pancakes before vowing *Never again*. I did not eat another meal for more than 48 hours after. Such is what happens when you work to live on less, and then stuff your body with more. Just don't do it.

ALL SYSTEMS GO

The before shot. James is amazed at what I'm about to consume. 

Ice Cream? Technically mostly...

By Parry

I remember when I was young and every meal came with ice cream after, or maybe that was just when Granpda Wayne used to come visit. He loved the stuff, and somehow we still do, even after having had an ice cream place ourselves. In San Francisco there are two ice cream places that I've made it a habit to go visit. They are Humphry Slocumbe and Bi-Rite.

Humphry Slocumbe has had some of the most interesting ice cream flavors I've ever had. My favorite by far was the Thai Curry Sorbet. Yea, you heard that right, Thai Curry. At first, my mouth didn't know what to make of the sweet sorbet combined with the distinct flavor of a dinner dish. After a few bites it was won over. While technically, this was not ice cream, the other flavors were. Other flavors I've experienced here include beet, salted carmel, carrot, and butter thyme. All of them were fun to have, and if you are interested in pushing the limits on what you expect from your ice cream, this is a good place to visit.

Bi-Rite is definitely my favorite. Like Humphry Sloclombe, they have some pretty unique flavors, however I have to favor Bi-Rite since half of the flavors aren't beer or rum (which rules them out for me). The Lavender flavor at Bi-Rite is the clutch flavor to get, however don't make the mistake I did and try to get it after some spicey Indian food. It is a really delicate flavor, and to appreciate it your taste buds need to be able to, well, taste it.

Lavendar Scoop

Indian Food

By Parry 

This is a little compare and contrast between four Indian places I've eaten at recently (all in San Francisco). They include the Kasa Indian Eatery (SF), Shalimar (Fremont), Chutney (511 Jones, SF) , and Pakwan (3180 16th St, SF). The more you experience what a food should be, the easier it is to be picky. That is why I can't be too picky when it comes to Indian food! My friend at work mentioned, she thinks that most Indian restaurants are too greasy, especially when compared to what she and her mom make at home. Hmmmm...I probably wouldn't notice, unless they way overdo it.

Kasa Indian Eatery

A really clean looking, quick moving place with helpful folks serving. Accepts Visa. My friend Marcia and I got four rolls, Chicken Tiki (no sauce), Chicken Tiki Masala (with sauce), karahi Paneer, and a vegetable roll. The reviews on Yelp indicated that the rolls were the way to go here.

Total bill was $20.00. At first, looking at the size of the rolls and feeling the grumbling in my stomach, I was a bit disappointed that I just dished out $20, but after the first bite of the CTM roll, I felt a lot better about it. It was quite delicious and tasteful, I might go back for that one. When it came to the Chicken Tiki roll, it was good but far too dry for my liking. The Karahi roll was all around good as was the vegetable roll. Overall, I would say that you pay more here for the cleanliness, speed, and ability to use Visa, which is great for a lot of folks, although it is not my cup of tea. Cheap and tasty is what I prefer, so unless I am hanging around 18th and Noe, and I suddenly have a surge of money, I think I will stick to other places I have found. Still a good place though.

Introducing Flat Stanley, and Kati Rolls from the Kasa Indian Eatery 

Shalimar (Fremont location)
A little bit of a disappointment. The rice was luke warm, not hot and fresh like the other places I visited. The Naan was a little dense. The Chicken Tiki Masala was good, but not as good as the other places I visited. It cost about the same as the other spots, which is why its safe to say I will not be going back. Sorry Shalimar!

Chutney (511 Jones, SF)
The Safron flavored rice was warm and delicious. The Naan was good, and not as dense as a few of the other places I've visited. The Chicken Tiki Masala was good, and plentiful. The CTM took a little hit to quality in exchange for the sheer volume. Usually when I order rice, naan, and a dish I can down the whole thing without too much effort, but this CTM had me beat. I even took breaks, but I simply could not finish all that Masala. I mean, they really pour it on! The chicken was not as tender as other CTM's I've had and the tomato base for the Masala tasted something like Campbell soup at times, but on the whole it was still quite good. This place also gets major Kudos for having hot sauce that was delightfully spicy and tasteful. This was my second favorite of the places I visited, second only to Pakwan.

Look at all that MASALAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Pakwan (3180 16th St, San Francisco)

The Pakwan Indian eatery has been my favorite place so far. I didn't have enough cash on me, but they let me order while I made a run to the nearby Wells Fargo ATM at 16th and Mission.

I think if you can master the simple things, its a good sign of the quality and/or taste of all your dishes.  For starters, the basmati rice here was the best of any place I've been to so far, so hot and tasty! It was the kind of rice I could eat up without needing to put anything on it, but I do anyways. What else am I to do with all that fine Masala. Actually, the lad running the counter mentioned I could get extra Masala, and was so generous as to provide me some. The Masala was by far the tastiest I've had so far at any place. The portions here were a little more conservative, so I easily chowed through my naan, rice, and CTM. Even so, the sacrifice of quantity for quality was worth it, and Pakwan is one place I definitely intend to revisit.

Chicken Tiki Masala with some rice and Naan

From all the reviews I've combed through on Yelp, it looks like Chicken Tiki Masala is the popular dish to get at a lot of Indian places in and around SF. I had been trying to avoid it since I was looking for something more from the subcontinent and not Britain, where CTM was disputably invented. However, I am done fighting it for now and will enjoy that tasty tasty Chicken Tiki Masala. 

And to finish my Indian eating run, I went Bhangra dancing with my friend Marcia! 

The best part of the dancing was that the audience/fellow dancers were mature, decent, and quite respectful. 

Can we call it SF Pizza?

Una Pizza Napoletana

I heard that Anthony Mangieri was so annoyed at being rated the second best pie in NYC that he moved out to San Francisco. Whatever the reason, I'm glad he came. His vibe is so NY. He seems like he is no nonsense, and his pizza place follows suite. With just a few pizza options to go with, I had to do the Bianca: a regular (Cheese) pizza made with Buffalo Mozarella. Why Buffalo Mozarella? Its the kind of cheese that started it all. So...what do I think of this place? Well, it put my mouth on a celestial ride from the fields of buffalo cheese and fresh basil, through the forest of slightly charred crust and back to the salty sea salt used to balance the beauty out. Ok, in other words, it was amazing. The real kicker for me was the salt he used. I'm a huge fan of using different kinds of salt, and there was a great taste to the salt that also brought out the other flavors at work on his pizza. Oh, can't forget the nice tasting olive oil, but that's pretty standard from a New York Gourmet Neopolitan Syle kinda pizza, from what I've had.

As a side note, I Yelped this place and found it had pretty low ratings for how good it was. This is why finding good food is all about the searching, hunting and seeking...and knowing your sources. I always take advice from Yelp or Google with a grain of salt (yuck yuck), and its good to cross check with other sources like foodie friends, reliable guides, and now TV or other media. Zagats is usually pretty reliable. Food network does a pretty good job too. I've been to a few tourist traps in San Francisco since I've been out here that had top Google or Yelp ratings, and greatly disappointed, on all accounts. Know your sources.

Here is a real close Pic of the pie. Lower right hand corner is the crust. Behold the basil, chessy goodness.

And on another tangent, now that Una Pizza Napoletana is in San Francisco, can we call it SF pizza?

May San Francisco only be so lucky... 

Olive oil on Ice cream and Pastrami on a Bun.

By Parry

My first trip to San Francisco of 2011 (back in January) proved to be a productive one , and a good refresher. I went with a couple friends who have not frequented the city too often and were tight on cash, so I took them to Tommy's Joynt. I got the Pastrami sandwich, which is what I always get. It never fails to deliver. It was about $6 for the sandwich, which is simply meat on a bun. The meat is great and the bun is pretty good too. The mustard and horseradish is spicy and delicious. I also got a side of spaghetti for $3. It was basically cafeteria spaghetti, but it was an entire plateful. I forgot that one of the key points of Tommy's Joynt is that it is cheap, which means that not everything tastes fantastic, but at least its cheap. Can't argue with that. The girls I went with were raving about it, so I think they liked it. The key point of Tommy's is to try their meat, otherwise don't bother going. Oh, and take cash, they don't accept plastic.

Pastrami Sandwhich

After Tommy's I took my friends over to Bi-Rite creamery, which also doesn't disappoint. After its appearance on the Food Network I had to try their Sam's Sundae. It is a chocolate Sundae with salt, olive oil, and home made whip cream. The verdict? It was good, but next time I'm going to get the Lavender Ice cream again. In fact, if you only go once, go for that first. Don't get me wrong, from the ground up Sam's Sundae was impressive. They used decent coarse salt, the olive oil had flavor (they were using the right stuff, whatever it was the were using), the whip cream was extra thick (Just how I like it!) and tasted great on its own. The Ice cream was delicious, and I was impressed with the serving size. For $5 you get a pretty decent amount and each scoop is totally and completely packed with flavor. I would say Sam's Sundae was one of those “experiences” that's fun to have, and can be left at that, unless you are the type that just really likes olive oil over everything. That really conjures up some funny images in my head, I mean, just think about it....

Sam's Sundae was one of those things you do to say you did it, or try to say you tried it, but probably isn't necessary, although isn't necessarily bad.

As for the Lavender ice cream, it feels like you are eating a smooth creamy flower. Maybe that sounds a little off, but it tastes just right...so go for it!