Baby Blues BBQ

3149 Mission Street

San Francisco, CA 94110

Occasion: Belated Bday Dinner with bAbiE Tiff/ catch up session=] I wanted to try everything, so we got the BLUE DEVIL PLATTER!! YUMMO!

In our platter the meats we ordered were: Texas style beef ribs, pulled pork, 1/4 chicken and baby back ribs. 

Since Tiff doesn't eat beef we only ordered one beef item.  Everything from texas is really bigger, hence the name "TEXAS STYLE" beef ribs.  The meat was full of flavor and very tender. It was delicious and addicting.  Too bad meat itself is really filling other wise I could have eaten more.  The pulled pork was a bit dissappointing, as it was on the blander side in taste and it wasn't as tender as I'd thought it to be.  I got to try the chicken and thought it was decent, but nothing special.  Baby back ribs were decent, but the corn bread was memorable. I love cornbread!

Corn

This ws one of the three of our sides.  I love corn so I had to order it.  Originally I thought they only give half a cob, but they give a whole cob. That's a generous portion!

Mashed Potatoes

Love my spuds, so I had to order that as well!  I thought it was good, but not the best I've ever had.  There were just so much food on the table...it's hard to really appreciate everything.

Mac and Cheese

Tiff wanted it and it was one of the highlights on yelp, so we just had to get it.  I tried it, but was quite dissappointed.  It wasn't cheesy enough, nor was it too tasty.  It was just mediocre.

All the different sauces in order from least spicy to the spiciest

I'm SASSY!!! LOL! That's the sauce that I used most of the night. I tried the BBQ too...a bit more spicy and less sweet with a smokier flavor.

Jardiniere Restaurant

300 Grove Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

Occasion: Trying to catch a quick bite before Final Fantasy performance at the symphony with the boyfriend Ella! The waiter was kind enough to rush our food out and split everything into two so that we can try everything!*Food pictured is not the correct portion size, just double the amount because they split it into twos for us besides the dessert*

Maine Diver Scallops, Matsutake Mushrooms, Leeks and Savoy Spinach, Herb

Tender, juicy and flavorful.  It was amazing!!  The outsides were seared to a perfect golden brown crisp.  Natural sweetness of the mushrooms complimented very well with the scallops. There were sweet kernels of corn, which definitely added to the flavor of the dish.  Absolutely amazing and left us wanting more.  Got us excited for the rest of the dishes to come.

Alaskan Halibut

This was served with beans and a variety of diced veggies.  I thought the veggies were delicious.  It had a mediterranean taste to it.  The flavors of the veggies and the fish complimented each other very well. 

Duck Breast

Excellent! The meat was tender and cooked perfectly.  It was full of flavor and very filling. I would definitely recommend this dish for all those meat lovers out there.

Cappucino with Black Forest Cake with Vanilla bean ice cream

After our meal we still had a little bit of time to spare before the performance so we stuck around a little longer.  After a long day at work we both needed some caffeine before the symphony so we each got a cup of cappucino and decided to compliment it with some dessert!  I love chocolate candy, but I've never been a big fan of chocolate cake per say.  I thought it was just too rich in flavor by itself, so thank goodness for the cappucino to balance out the sweetness of the dessert.  I would definitely try something different next time.

The Stinking Rose

325 Columbus Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94133

Occasion: Dinner date with Anne Kay Lee 07.12.10

Lasagna

with wild mushrooms, roasted egglplants, garlic, pepper, onions, swiss lard, mozzeralla and tomato cream sauce

Even without the meat it was still a bit heavy. I've never been a big fan of lasagna, but all the ingredients in it were all things I really enjoy eating. This dish definitely did not stand out for me.

Zuppa Di Pesce

with Mussels, crab, fresh fish, calamari and shrimp in a spicy tomato brodetto

This soup was addicting.  I really do have a thing for tomato soup especially those with seafood.  I have to admit that this was my favorite thing we ordered. If you like tomato based soup and seafood, I would definitely recommend this!

Arugula Salad with gorgonzola, red onions, pinenuts in a garlic vinaigrette

The health conscious part of me thought that it would be a good idea to order some greens.  Out of everything listed this sounded the most appealing.  Loved the smoky, yet buttery taste of the arugula that was sprinkled with gorgonzola, onions and pine-nuts.  Pine-nuts made a difference in the salad, as it added not only aroma but also great flavor to the salad.  All the ingredients in the salad are very flavorful ingredients, that when mixed together made a very tasty salad.

Baby back ribs

served with garlic yukon gold mashed potatoes

The meat was a bit on the dry side and it dissappointed as the meat did not fall off the bones, but the mashed potatoes made up for it. The potato person I am really liked the garlic flavor of it, honestly I could have done with more garlic, but I probably would have hated myself a bit more the next morning with my kicking ass breath=]

Little Star Pizza

846 Divisadero Street

San Franisco, CA 94117

Occasion: Pizza for 4 after the movies!

Little Star Deep Dish

Spinach blended with ricotta and feta, mushrooms, onions and garlic

We decided on ordering one deep dish and one thin crust. This was our choice of deep dish and I loved it.  I've heard about this place before and a couple of my friends actually did not think too highly of it because of their cornmeal crust, but I actually did not mind it at all.  The only other times I've had deep dish pizza was once when I went to Chicago about 3 years ago.  I don't remember having that good of an experience.  From what I can recall, it was just too rich for my liking. Not enough cheese, too much tomato sauce and it made my stomach feel a bit queezy.  I've also had it at Patxi's in the city, which I thought was pretty good. Some of the ones with meat, were very filling and rich.  This was the first time I've had cornmeal crust and I thought it was amazing.  In my opinion I thought it tasted better than Patxis because it doesn't leave you feeling too gross after you've had it, where as at Patxi's your stomach feels 10 pounds heavier.  I now realize that I like my deep dish pizzas with no meat! This is also #60. The Little Star at Little Star Pizza on the SF BIG EAT 2010.

Mixed Salad

with organic mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, red bells, red onions, gorgonzola cheese and chopped walnuts, tossed with a housemade vinaigrette dressing

Nice healthy refreshing appetizer before we dig in to some not so healthy pizzas! I loved this salad and all the ingredients it included, though I do wish there were more chunks of chopped walnuts! It was amazing!

White Pie

with garlic olive oil base, mozzarella, roasted zucchini, fresh tomatoes, feta

It was good and I really enjoyed the cornmeal crust as I enjoyed on the Little Star Deep Dish, but I thought the pizza was just a little bit on the salty side. It must have been the garlic olive base.  The combination of the ingredients on the pizza are definitely amazing and delightful for my tastebuds.  The pizza was so rich already, I'm glad there wasn't any meat to make it even heavier than it already was.

Tanuki

4419 California Street

San Francisco,CA 94118

Occasion: Dinner with Dave!

Tanuki Roll (Eel, avocado with shrimp tempura)

Crab Avocado Roll

Both rolls were recommended by Dr. Wong. Thanks for the recommendations they were super fresh and delicious.  Out of the two rolls, my favorite was the Tanuki Roll, but of course the other roll was very good as well.  This is actually one of the few Japanese restaurants in San Francisco that I have been to where they actually have Japanese chefs rolling up your sushi. That's how you know it's LEGIT! Though, I didn't have much of an appetite, the Tanuki roll stands out to me til this day.  Sad that I haven't been back since, but I shall make a visit soon!

Clam Miso Soup

I've always had plain miso soup with tofu, but I've never had it with clams.  The soup was perfect for the chilly weather. Again, very good.  It didn't have the tangy flavor that most miso soups had, in fact it was a bit sweet, probably due to the natural sweetness of the clams.

Spinach Gomae

I don't usually order anything that is not a roll, sashimi, bento box or hamachi kama, but this was recommeded and I wanted to give it a try.  AMAZING!! It's a refreshing little appetizer.  I'm not sure what type of paste is placed on top but it compliments the bland taste of what seemed to be blanched spinach very well.  I really enjoyed this little treat!

Hamachi Kama

I'd usually be all over this piece of scrumptious meat,but I had gone to dinner with my stomach half full so I wasn't able to fully enjoy much of everything.  From what I can recall, it was decent, but I've definitely had better where the meat was juicier and more tender.