TrelayneNYC

B and I prefer non-alcoholic drinks whenever possible, although there are times when I'll drink wine. This was ok - turmeric grapefruit soda with cardamom. Interesting on paper and nothing to write home about. On the other hand, it wasn't very sweet which I did appreciate.

Toast points, warn goat cheese with raspberries and plums

Way too much toast and it shows a stunning lack of imagination for $16.

Baked butter beans, feta, oregano pesto and breadcrumbs

Seared duck breast, fried wing, shelling beans, arugula, shishito peppers

Rotisserie chicken, smashed cucumbers, figs and croutons

Very good. The red sauce is romesco which provided just enough piquancy without being overbearing. I would not have thought of the combination of fruit and croutons, which worked to my surprise.

Grilled broccoli with anchovy, breadcrumbs and lemon

On the other hand, the vegetable side ($10) was not as successful. These spears were basically raw minimally cooked and I don't know about you but I am over "tender crisp". Would not order again.

Peach cobbler, candied pecans, corn ice cream

The dessert was probably the best thing we ate and forgave the sin of being enveloped in a cocoon of sound. 

We ate here on Saturday night, and I'll upload the pix when I get home later tonight.

Great food and service but the room is a cocoon of sound and as much as I loved the experience, I'm not keen on returning. I don't like straining just to be able to hear my tablemate.

In the interim, here are some reviews you can read:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/nopa-san-francisco

https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Nopa-at-10-The-restaurant-that-built-a-6892082.php

https://www.timeout.com/san-francisco/restaurants/nopa

Nopa
560 Divisadero Street (Hayes Street)

Probably a week, maybe two.

I'd be interested to know for sure since canning isn't one thing I'm familiar with and I'd like to branch out into that territory.

We had dim sum in Chinatown on Saturday, then stuff from a Chinese bakery along Grant Street. 

Besides the usual siu mai, potstickers and noodles, there were also these:

Beef tripe with ginger, chile and scallion

Fried taro balls, stuffed with shrimp and pork

Shrimp and chive dumplings

Roast duck, soybeans

Black sesame paste rolls

Caesar's salad
Cioppino

Hot fudge sundae

(there were other things not shown here, and the first two were at Anchor Oyster Bar and the last at The Castro Fountain, both on Castro Street between 18th and 19th Streets in SF)

Pan-seared shishito peppers, Maldon sea salt
Braised French breakfast radishes, slow-roasted cherry tomato confit
Cranberry beans with garlic, herbs and prosciutto di San Daniele

2 kg lamb shanks marinated in a mixture of olive oil, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and turmeric for 36 hours

Thursday dinner for four:

Moroccan braised lamb shanks with saffron, preserved Meyer lemons and potatoes
Mixed greens (scarola, bietola e spinaci) with anchovy and garlic
Apricot, plum and pluot galette

Tomato salad sandwich

1/2 kg heirloom tomatoes, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
15 ml red wine vinegar
60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
5 imported Italian anchovies
20 g capers
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt
black pepper
Italian parsley sprigs
basil leaves
French bread

Spaghetti alle capesante

60 ml olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
pinch of red chile pepper flakes
30 g minced Italian parsley
1/2 kg sea scallops (or you can sub bay scallops instead)
salt
black pepper

We went to Nari on Saturday. It's Pim Techamuanvivit's new restaurant.

Pluots with pork, shrimp, peanuts, garlic, coriander roots and coconut sugar

Watermelon with sweet and salty crispy trout and shallots

Haricots verts, torn chicken, peanuts and sesame, coconut-tamarind dressing

Spicy squid, sticky pork jowl, spicy chili-lime vinaigrette and peanuts

Ribeye, prickly ash relish, grilled scallions, grilled sticky rice, served with herbs and vegetables

Massaman curry - lamb shank, grilled onions and nectarines

Rice dumplings, raspberries, coconut milk syrup, pandan oil, rice tuile

Makrut lime curd, strawberries, sweet crisp rice

Total bill was $330 for two people with tax and a 20% tip. There were some wines, a cocktail, tea and coffee.

We'll be back, of that you can be sure.

Nari
1625 Post Street (Laguna Street)
Japantown

Highly recommended.

Pot roast

1 1/2 kg boneless chuck
2 onions, quartered
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 celery stalks, sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and sliced
2 large turnips, peeled and cut into wedges
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1 head of garlic, top sliced off to expose most of the cloves underneath
50 g unsalted butter
15 ml sunflower or canola oil
salt
black pepper
50 g tomato paste
1 rosemary sprig
2 bay leaves
350 ml pinot noir or merlot
900 ml beef stock
 

Don't be this guy:

"Almost Everyone Sucks in this Tale of a Man who Tipped 74 Cents on a $119 Meal" by Jenny G. Zhang on eater.com

CF has historically been one of the worst restaurants to work for.

It earned a spot on a list of establishments with zero ratings in 2012 according to ROC United.

https://rocunited.org/2012/06/yahoo-news-the-worst-restaurants-to-work-for/

So the next time you go to a place like CF, consider that the $ you spend impacts a great deal more than just the restaurant's bottom line.

---

I have a cousin who lives in the middle of *gag* Kansas who thinks The Cheesecake Factory is manna from heaven. (We're no longer on speaking terms, for reasons I probably can't get into due to board rules.)

There's no accounting for taste, is there?

4 hours ago, Rovers2000 said:

Thanks - I wasn't sure what the tolerance of the drivers in the area would be to the trip there and back.  I'm out in SF speaking at a conference and tend to always err on the side of not driving if I don't need to so was debating the "driver" vs. "uber / lyft".  Appreciate the perspective

 

I'm sure my driver was glad for the chance to make some real money instead of the usual $8-$20 fare that's typical of most Uber rides in SF (based on personal experience with the service).

12 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I'm not sure where you're leaving from, but consider the ferry from Vallejo to San Francisco Pier 41 - I've done it once, and it's a perfectly fine experience - you need to park your car in the Vallejo lot, but it was worth it to me - you're also not burdened with a car in San Francisco.

PS - Feel free to thank me here

I don't drive nor do I have a driver's license so this tip isn't terribly helpful to me, plus it doesn't get me to my residence directly

I prefer Uber as much as I loathe them. I would take a yellow cab from the SV office if I could but I don't think those are nearly as convenient.

10 hours ago, Rovers2000 said:

Anyone have any car service's that they've used to get from SF to Napa?  Its a day trip and I suppose I can also just grab an uber / Lyft as well - but figured I'd at least ask.

I'm sure you can use the usual Uber/Lyft

I once took an  Uber from my firm's office in Silicon Valley back to our apartment in SF. It cost about $50 and took roughly a little over an hour. Shouldn't be too difficult to get to/from Napa.

- 78% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck

- 48% of older Americans have no retirement savings

- 42% of Americans make less than $15/hr

- 40% of Americans hold a second job

- 45 million Americans hold $1.65 trillion in student debt

and I personally have doubts as to whether we'll exist as a country in the next decade or so

so while I think a meat tax would do wonders for the well being of the planet, there are other considerations in the queue

I copied those stats from the Twitter feed of https://www.citizen.org/  - so it's a good bet they're not made up.

1/2 kg cranberry beans, shelled
2 crushed garlic cloves
Italian parsley sprigs
water
salt
black pepper
olive oil

Beans were simmered for 40 minutes, then combined with 30 g diced prosciutto di San Daniele and seasoned with more olive oil.

For breakfast on Sunday, I made a batch of caponata:

3 eggplants, cubed
olive oil
4 celery stalks, diced
1 red onion, sliced into wedges
20 g capers
5-6 tomatoes, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
100 ml red wine vinegar
30 g sugar
salt
black pepper

This was a hit with hubby and we served it with toasted pita and some soft-boiled eggs. I think I'll make it again next weekend...and double the recipe.

Adapted from Polpo, page 246.

We had meatballs on Saturday.

This time there was no bread or milk in the meatball mix - which consisted of 150 g ground pork and 75 g ground chuck along with the usual herbs (parsley/mint), cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Sunday was minestrone (sorry, no pic) which had no tomatoes and featured the following ingredient list:

onion
carrot
celery
Italian parsley
olive oil
zucchini
butternut squash
green beans
Swiss chard
escarole
cranberry beans
prosciutto
water
salt
black pepper
elbow macaroni

This was garnished with generous spoonfuls of garlic-herb breadcrumbs (250 g stale bread, diced, combined with olive oil, salt and black pepper, then baked to a crisp and whizzed in a food processor along with some minced garlic and a few sprigs of Italian parsley).

Privacy depends on people keeping things off limits - if you never say X about Y, how is Z going to know?

As of today, 99% of my content on Facebook is gone. Disappeared, eliminated, obliterated, etc. They really make it hard for you to leave but I managed and it's been extremely liberating.

Had dinner here on Sunday, celebrating my partner's birthday (which technically occurred in June):

Octopus with lemon-oregano vinaigrette

Fried smelts with garlic-potato skordalia

Bacon chop with pork chicarron, potatoes and lemon

Grilled lamb chops, lemon-oregano vinaigrette, roasted potatoes

Bread pudding with berries and whipped cream

Greek yogurt with nuts and honey

We concluded that the things to eat at Kokkari are lamb and fish which makes sense since those are the dishes that Greek restaurants usually do well. The chop was not as successful as the server had made it sound (too rich, not flavorful enough). With a couple of glasses of rose wine, coffee and tea, this dinner came out to $255 with 20% tip.

Crostini di prosciutto e fichi, served with melon

4 slices toasted bread
1 garlic clove, crushed
60 g ricotta cheese
100 g prosciutto di San Daniele
200 g figs
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
black pepper

Insalata di zucchine

200 g stale bread
olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
pinch of peperoncino flakes
salt
black pepper
3 zucchini, sliced into ribbons
150 g mesclun
Meyer lemon juice

This was dinner last weekend -

Green beans braised in tomato sauce
Braised chicken with wine, olives and tomato

My partner had to spend most of July moving his parents from their assisted living spaces in Texas to a new assisted living space/nursing home in New Jersey, then he had to go back to Texas along with his sister to help sell the house. While he was away, I basically spent the intervening time living on takeout since I lost all motivation to cook. Not sure how I survived when I was single...