Easy Peasy Tomato Sauce

When I'm extremely lazy and want to make something that will last me a couple meals, I resort to this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a blog that Special K and I follow adamantly. This woman has the most amazing recipes and photographs. Go check out her blog! This sauce is seriously the easiest to make, and it's quite delicious. Here's her recipe (I simplified and added things in some cases):

Serves 4-5

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes or tomato puree from a can (She likes San Marzano, but you can really use any brand)
5 tablespoons (70 grams or 3/4 a stick) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste (maybe)

Throw the tomatoes or puree, butter, and onion in a sauce pan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. If you are using whole tomatoes, CRUSHCRUSHCRUSH. Otherwise, your sauce will be less saucy and more tomato chunky. Remove from heat. She prefers to discard the onion, but I'm a fan of leaving it in. Add salt to taste if you please. However, most tomatoes came salted, so you don’t really need to add more. Keep sauce warm while you prepare the pasta.

Serve with spaghetti or your choice of pasta. It tastes good with or without parmesan cheese, so it's up to you what you prefer. Bon appetite. :)

More Namu Nom-ness

Getting the Gamja Fries is basically ordering everything that's in Namu's Korean Tacos, but on fries. Think: Carne Asada Fries, but Namu style. Here's their description: hand cut potatoes with kimchee relish, gochujang, kewpie mayo, teriyaki, chopped short ribs, and green onions. Now that I've established what these fries contain, I will go on to say that they were amazing. As with the tacos, Namu does not disappoint. The short ribs are seasoned well, and all of the other ingredients compliment them along with the fries quite nicely. If you like the tacos, you will most likely like this. However, I probably wouldn't order this too often because it is slightly a heart attack waiting to happen or an item that might make the "this is why you're fat" list. Also, I tried them a while back, so I can't quite remember every detail...but I have a feeling that they may have leaned on the salty side. Hint: Opt for the tacos...

Namu Stand
Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building

"Third Wave" of Coffee Hits College Ave.: Bica

Apparently people think we're going through the third wave of coffee, and that College Ave. is slowly becoming one of the homes of said wave. I didn't realize there were waves...but I guess I have a vague idea of what the first and second might be. Anyways, Bica opened recently. Go there for coffee from Ritual, De La Paz, and other Bay Area/Northern California Roasters. Also, try their pastries. The Morning Bun was delicious! :)

5701 College Ave (near Rockridge Bart and Trader Joe's)
Oakland

Egg Salad Sandwich Saturday

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Way too hot to eat something warm, I decided to venture into something more refreshing/afternoon tea-y. Tob-asco had actually suggested Egg Salad Sandwiches the previous day for a picnic. Too hot for a picnic (for us), but we decided to make the sandwiches anyways. We basically did a variation of one of Martha's recipes. Egg Salad is pretty simple, and you can really just experiment and mix shit together until you like it, but Martha's recipe had curry in it, which was pretty exciting. (Wow, that was a long sentence. I blame Tob-asco for reading Kant to me while we were cooking/eating.) Anyways, here's the tweeked recipe:

(serves 2)
4 Eggs
1/6 cup (half of a 1/3) of Mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Relish
1/2 teaspoon Mustard
Dash of Curry Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
Bread (obviously)
Salad/Greens of some sort (I used spinach.)

Boil eggs for about 10 minutes. Mix together mayonnaise, relish, mustard, curry powder, and salt and pepper. Eggs should probably be cooled, but it really depends on how warm/cold you want the salad. To quicken the process, we put the eggs in the freezer for a few minutes. You can cut the eggs with an egg cutter or just mash them into the aforementioned concoction. Toast bread and slap on the egg stuff. Salad can be in or out of the sandwich. It's up to you! Man, Tob-asco and I have been making a lot of egg-y things lately...

Vote for Vo's? Kind of a No...

K.yo won a certificate to Vo's in the land of Oaks about half a year ago, so we decided to finally use it for our pre-xx at the Fox fix. I'm going to try to say this as nicely as I can, but extremely fancy Asian food is usually a miss. And, I am not the only one who thinks so! We ordered Crisp Tofu and Eggplant sautéed with scallions and garlic sauce. It was tasty, but I could have either gotten the same thing from Chinatown or made it for a lot cheaper. Also, I can't approve of having to pay extra for rice. Why would anyone ever order an entree at a Chinese restaurant without rice or noodles?! Or any asian restaurant for that matter?! No, I do not plan on eating a plate of sweet-and-sour pork or green curry by itself!

Now that I'm done bitching, I'll move onto the pluses. The drink selection looked pretty good. It sucked that they were out of La Fin du Monde, which K.yo really wanted to try. However, the Hitachino Red Rice Ale was pretty good. For dessert, we ordered a Sunday Basket (Vanilla Ice Cream served in a Waffle Basket and topped with Creme de Menthe). It was also pretty tasty, but also something that we could have made on our own. To be honest, K.yo and I probably would not have gone to this place without a certificate, and we probably won't go again unless we have one. Oh, and did I mention that this place also claims to be a blend of "Chinese, Vietnamese, and French" cuisine that is a "combination of contemporary and traditional styles," i.e. FUSION.

Vo's Oakland
59 Grand Ave. (b/w Broadway and Webster)

Freitag Frittata

My Comp. Lit. advisor is the most amazing person ever. Not only does she give me awesome advice, but she always makes me feel better when I think I'm sucking at life. She's like the mother of the Comp. Lit. department. For one of the recent major gatherings, she made us all frittata! Delicious yet simple, the frittatas were winners, and I stole the recipes from her. Tob-asco and I decided to recreate the Artichoke Parmesan Frittata Nom-ness. Here's the recipe:

8 eggs
1 can of Artichokes in water (quartered)
1 Red Onion
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup Half and Half or Creme
Salt and Pepper to taste

Grease or spray a 9x9 baking pan or a pie pan with pam. Set oven to 350 degrees. Chop up the onions and saute until translucent. Let cool. Rinse artichokes and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Whisk eggs, cheese, half and half, and salt and pepper together. Layer onions and artichockes on the bottom of the pan. Pour egg concoction over the onions and artichokes. Bake for about 25 minutes. The frittata will be brown along the bottom and pretty firm to the touch. SO FREAKING EASY. Love it! Serve it up with a bit o' salad. Tob-asco threw together some spinach, apples, and a balsamic-olive oil vinaigrette. And since we're hella classy, we paired our meal with some Asahi. ;)

Mission: Eat and Study

Bay weather has been insane for the past few months and can't decide whether it's spring or fall. A couple Saturdays ago, I was awoken by the wonderful rays of the sun. My mission that day: to drag my fellow German-studying friend Le-asco into the Mission in order to eat and study. Were we successful at studying? Not quite. There are too many distractions in Dolores Park. But here are our Mission Food Chronicles:

First Up: Los Coyotes
So, here's a slightly embarrassing confession: prior to this trip I had only had Mexican food once in the Mission. FAIL. Le-asco and I have been planning a burrito trip for ages, but for some reason have never gotten to it. Unable to find the joint we originally wanted to go to, we decided to try Los Coyotes, #4 on a recent list of best burritos in the Mission. We decided to split a Wet Burrito, since there's no way either of us could finish an entire one ourselves. Said burrito was pretty delicious. The pork was amazing. Probably because it was roasted on one of those mini-spits. The only issue we encountered was splitting the thing...one side had more meat and the other vegetables. It's okay though, we are used to dealing with such sharing situations. :)

Second Up: Spiderman Popsicle
Like I said before, it was a hot day, so the line at Bi-Rite was out the door and around the corner. Way too lazy to wait in the line, Le-asco and I headed to the Park, where I purchased a lovely Spiderman Popsicle from a cart. Yay, nostalgia! The strawberry-lemonaid-ness was amazing. More Cartoon Character Popsicles will be consumed in the near future. Oh, and I forgot to mention it came with gumball eyes!

Third Up: Mission Chinese
I like to call this the time I ate fire because that is what I did. This place has been on nearly every food blog I read, so I thought I'd see what all the fuss is about. Mission Chinese actually operates out of Lung Shan. Expect to see a janky place with bars. I say that in the best sense too. As K.yo and I said while we were in Europe (about Chinese places), "the jankier, the more legit." The Ma Po Tofu is one of the most buzzed about items, so I thought I'd go for it. BAD IDEA. (Unless you can actually take the heat.) When they put two fire signs on the menu, THEY MEAN TWO FIRE SIGNS. Szechuan Peppercorn and Flaming Chili Oil are mentioned, but they forget to mention that there are also a bajillion little skinny red peppers, green peppers, and ginger. Oh, and there was a bit of tofu and pork mixed in too. It was tasty from what I could taste through the fire. Pleasepleaseplease, take my advice and only order this if you can TAKE THE HEAT. I'm not exactly a wuss, but this seriously became a chore to eat. I had to take bites of Le-asco's Chicken Chow Mein in between the fire. (But yes, I'd probably go back. I just wouldn't order this again.)

Los Coyotes
3036 16th St. (near Mission/the Bart station)

Dolores Park
On Dolores Street b/w 18th and 20th

Mission Chinese (Lung Shan)
2234 Mission St.

This be a new blog.

Enjoy!

Hitachino Nest While Ale @ Public House in AT&T Park

Public House
AT&T Park
24 Willie Mays Plaza
San Francisco

(I have included posts from a previous blog that I co-administrated with a friend.)

Coffee Fiend: Kyoto Style

Oh-so-clean. :)

Have I mentioned that I like coffee? It's starting to become so much of a problem that I'm pretty sure K.yo and Special K were trying to arrange an intervention for me. Well, their wish semi-came true when I got sick last week. I was off the beans for over a week; a record that was broken by the discovery of Blue Bottle's Kyoto Iced Coffee through K.yo and 7x7. Apparently, Kyoto style means long-ass dripping process. According to the mag, each drop of water trickles ever so slowly, one at a time, in order to "[bring] out delicate flavors you might miss in a piping hot cup." Riiiiight. I love coffee, but sometimes even I get tired of coffee culture. Anyways, the coffee was good...as is all Blue Bottle. Think of it as Blue Bottle's New Orleans Style iced coffee but without the cream and sugahhh. Oh, almost forgot to mention that it's only served at the Mint Plaza locale.

Blue Bottle
66 Mint Street, San Francisco
(Across from the Westfield Mall in Downtown. Walk down fifth street, and you'll see a sign for the Plaza.)

Slocombe-sicles: Yay or Nay?

I think that K.yo will agree with me when I say that we're kind of Slocombe fan girls. Case in point: We actually follow the Mission ice cream parlor on Twitter. It's the only way you know what their flavours are for the day...other than calling the parlor, but there's always a line out the door, so they probably wouldn't be to keen on reading the entire menu to you. Oh, and they also update twitter followers on when and where other local restaurants/food stands will be serving their products. As of late, I have ventured into the world of the Slocombe Pops that are served at the 4505 Meats stand at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market.

First Pop Consumed: Coconut Cardamom Pluot Pop. Hmm...If you really like Coconut and Cardamom, you will love this. It was just okay to me because I prefer a more fruit-y pop. You will also love it if you enjoy eating frozen Thai Curry because that's basically what it tasted like. (Hey, some people might actually enjoy this, so who am I to tell you not to try it?)

Second Pop Consumed: Strawberry Margarita Pop. Exactly what it sounds like. Strawberry Margarita, but in popsicle form. I was quite delighted that it tasted like/was made with actual strawberries and not syrup. The legit strawberriness balanced well with the tangy margarita-ness.

Analysis of Slocombe Pops: Like everything Slocombe, the Pops are definitely unique. Be ready for that. But to be honest, I actually like their ice cream more. If you're at the Ferry Building on a Market day and feel Slocombe-y, then definitely give the pops a try. If you're actually at Slocombe, you might want to just go for the ice.

4505 Meats
Ferry Building Marketplace
One Ferry Building

Or

Humphrey Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street, San Francisco
(Cross-street is 24th)

(I'm labeling this Ice Cream because it's related to Slocombe.)

Cha-Ya, Ch-yeah!

I've lived two blocks from this place for over two years, and only recently tried it for the first time. It's weird because I feel like living close to some good eats doesn't necessarily mean you go there all the time. The desire to go to Cha-Ya has increased in past months due to a multiplicity of reasons: there's always a hella long line for dinner, nearly half of my close-friends are vegetarians or veggie-inclined, and I also keep passing by the one in the Mission. Sweet-ole K.yo's b-day was a week ago, so the friends and I decided to finally give the place a try. I ordered the Vege-Tofu Curry with Udon. First of all, I lovelovelove Japanese curry, so I was already pretty stoked before even entering the restaurant. The soup was flavourful, and there were so many veggies! Kabocha, pearl onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms, and sugar snap peas to be exact! I finished my entire bowl and was surprised at how incredibly stuffed I was. Although Japanese Veggie Food sounds weird, this is really a must-try. The menu was cute and explained how the restaurant is inspired by vegetarian food consumed at Japanese temples. So yeah, it's actually legit even though most people think of either fish or katsu when it comes to Japanese cuisine. Other delicious items consumed that night include veggie tempura. Itadakimasu!

Cha-Ya Vegetarian Japanese Restaurant
1686 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
(In between Virginia and Lincoln)

Eat Real: Food Carts Are How We Roll

A little late, but here's my rundown of Eat Real, the three-day food fest that went down in the land of Oaks last weekend. As mentioned in my previous post, one should and must plan out food fests. This time, I was eager to hit Homeroom, Chairman Bao, and the Crème Brûlée Cart. Mission accomplished! Here's my account of said success:

Homeroom: Yet to open, this place is already getting a lotta buzz in the food blog circuits. Apparently, they got sued by McDonalds for including "Mac" in their original name (Little Mac). Companies really need to stop suing others for the use of words because if this continues, language will probably die. Anyways, after a contest that asked locals to come up with cute new names, "Homeroom" was chosen. Macs devoured on this glorious day: Trailer Mac and Spicy Mac. Trailer Mac was filled with hot dog goodness and topped with POTATO CHIPS. Spicy Mac was as the title would suggest: spicy. Which do I prefer? Hard to say, but probably the Spicy Mac because it was seasoned quite tastily.

Chairman Bao: Speaking of places that are getting sued, Chairman Bao has also had it's share in ridiculous lawsuits. Some NY chef is suing the cart for taking the name of his best-selling item. Word has it, that said chef finally trademarked his precious Bao. In the words of Christian Bale, "Well, good for you!" Bao devoured: Tender Pork Belly with Pickled Daikon. A very tasty bao indeed! It's a little different from your usual dim sum bao, since it's wrapped the same way as Peking Duck. The Pork Belly was flavorful and the daikon balanced it well.

The Crème Brûlée Cart: By the time I was done with the other two, I was pretty damn full. But there's always room for dessert, right? Well, there has to be at a food fest! K.yo, Special K, and I missed out on the Cart at SF Food Fest cuz we opted for funnel cake, so I was determined to hit it this time around. Crème Brûlée devoured: Mexican Chocolate. Because I'm a nerd, I will admit that I love cracking the tops of Brûlées like Amelie. Analysis of top: good amount of crackily-crunchy-ness. Analysis of stuff underneath: noms, but a bit of pot-de-crème-y. Not a bad thing, but I feel like I should have tried the vanilla bean one, since the chocolate distracted me a bit...but that's my own fault. :)