A Coke Float Made for Me

A trip to Humphry Slocombe is a pilgrimage that everyone needs to make at least once if not more. This place has the best ice cream I have ever had. (Although, I have fallen in love with the gelato at Lush lately, but that's gelato. It's different.) Even though it seems like Slocombe is hella blocks from 24th street BART, it's definitely worth the trip. It's just the right amount of distance, so that if you walk to and from there, you won't feel completely terrible about what you'll be eating. A couple Saturdays ago, I decided to make an impromptu trip to the Mission. I was greeted at Slocombe by their Bourbon Coke Float. It's like everything that I like all together (but in a good way). Secret Breakfast Ice Cream with Bourbon Caramel and Coke. The ice cream contains corn flakes and bourbon. Sounds weird, but believe me it is DELICIOUS. I think it's actually one of their most popular flavours. I thoroughly approve of Bourbon Caramel. It was just enough bourbon flavour, but not too strong so that you think you're taking a shot. And they give you "original" coke in one of those tiny glass bottles. Too cute. Too good. Go soon before they stop serving it.

Humphrey Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street, San Francisco

P.S. Right now Lush has an Earl Grey and Bourbon Gelato that's pretty good, if you're into that. Also in the past, they've had a Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato that actually tastes like a mint leaf. Best mint gelato I have ever had.

Lush Gelato
(In the Epicurious Garden)
1511 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

Treat-or-Treat?

Last month, I was really effing serious when it came to Holiday treats. On the Friday before Halloween, I decided it was time to have another baking night. After deciding against Japanese Cheesecake because it would be way too complicated for "just some Friday night baking" (it's like baking souffle and cheesecake at the same time), I decided on Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes. Might I add that I made everything from scratch! And, I bought Halloween/fall sprinkles for the occasion. I was originally going to get orange frosting to make Giants cupcakes, but the store didn't have any...and I didn't feel like going through the process of mixing food dyes, etc. The recipe was taken from Special K's Cupcakes Galore cookbook, and as usual, it called for too much frosting. Since I was on a roll, I decided to save the frosting and made chocolate-sugar-peanut butter sugar sandwich cookies that Saturday. Let me also add that we had a pumpkin carving party that night, so my labor wasn't for nothing.

(I actually started this post last month and ended it with "GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES BITCHES." But now I can say, GIANTS WON THE WORLD SERIES BITCHES!)

Cinnamon-Sugar-Butterball...I Mean Snickerdoodles

Finding a Snickerdoodle recipe without corn syrup or shortening is nearly impossible. According to some, shortening makes the cookies a bit more puffy. But oh well, I'm not dying to die from shortening any time soon. The recipe I decided to use is once again from Smitten Kitchen. She adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart and basically just took out the shortening. The cookies turned out a bit flat and didn't really crack, but they were pretty tasty nonetheless. You're supposed to use a small ice cream scoop to scoop the dough, but you can just use your hands to roll the dough into balls. Here's the recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/09/snickerdoodles/

Favourite New Place in the Ferry Building

For some reason recently, I've been frequenting Out the Door a lot. I have no idea how it started, but I admittedly head there for coffee or tea now whenever I'm near the Ferry Building. GASP. Their Hong Kong Style Milk Tea is freaking delicious. Just the right amount of bitter tea to condensed milk-sweetness ratio. Think boba milk tea, but stronger and BETTER. The Vietnamese Coffee is also quite good. Once again condensed milk is used. It tastes a bit like the Cubanos at Guerrila Cafe. Foods of Note:

Duck Porridge: OMG SO GOOD. Maybe it was because I was partially sick and hadn't had chinese porridge for awhile, but it was some of the best porridge I've had in a while. It even comes with a chinese donut! OTD is trying hard to be legit. They give you hella duck too. I was extra delighted because I ate this by the bay, and it helped to fend off the seagulls. Yeah from now on, I'm only eating poultry over there.

Curry Chicken: Also delicious, and the proportions are surprisingly good. They also give the best tupperware!

Pork Bun (Pictured with Coffee): One of the largest pork buns I have ever had! Pretty legit, but it made me miss the ones from Chinatown. However, I would still get one again as a snack whenever I'm in the area.

Out the Door (Right next to The Slanted Door)
One Ferry Building

My Theory on Noodle Theory

My Theory? I actually have no theory. Only that maybe the people who started this place sold their souls to the devil, so they could make the best asian fusion I've ever had. I used to walk by this place and shake my head because it looks like the type of place that only yuppies would go to and enjoy. K.yo and I were wandering on College one day and were super hungry. I think I wanted asian food of some sort, so we decided to give it a try. Holy crap it was good. On my most recent visit with Tob-asco I discovered that they also serve Hitachino! That made me like the place even more. And if you're a K.yo and like Le Fin de Monde, they have that as well. :) You may be shaking your head at me for hating on fusion, but I've had some BAD fusion.

Pork Dumplings: Delicious and hand wrapped! That's actually impressive.
(The edamame beans are also super good. I love the sticky soy sauce they place on it.)

Crispy Salmon Rolls: The wasabi sauce that it comes with will clear your sinuses!

Kimchee Noodles with Short Rib: Noms, but actually not my first choice.

Curry Noodles with Salmon: So far, the best noodles I've had there.

Advice: The portions are pretty huge, so be ready to take some home. Or split an appetizer and an entree with a friend!

Noodle Theory
6099 Claremont Avenue. (near Safeway and the Graduate)
Oakland (technically)

Sadly the one in the Marina closed down several months ago. :(

So Much Thai Curry!

On the Top: Green
On the Bottom: Red

Last month there was some crazy Thai Curry making at the House of Radpanda and Special K. Both Green and Red were contenders! It was admittedly not all made from scratch because I have no clue how that works and according to one of my friends who actually took a curry course in Thailand, you can't find a lot of the fresh ingredients here. Anyways, Thai Curry is actually relatively easy to make. The "Thai Kitchen" brand of pastes and sauces are sold almost everywhere. (Andronico's and Costplus for sure. I even saw it at Bi-Rite Market). These pastes have really easy to follow recipes on them! Choose your curry color of choose and grab a can of coconut milk. The rest is up to you. Tob-asco and I opted for chicken, bamboo shoots, peas, carrots, corn, and onions for the green curry. For the red curry, I think I chose chicken, tofu, bamboo shoots, peas, carrots, corn, onions, AND tomatoes. They were the most awesome tomatoes ever.

Some advice: You can substitute soy sauce for fish sauce if you don't have it on hand or want to buy it. Also, throw in a bullion cube or stock of some sort! It really makes a difference.

Scandalous Cookies

I made these 2 months ago, but thought I'd blog about them anyways. Special K., K.yo, Tob-asco, and I like to play the "if you were on a island and you could only have one _______ (insert blank; ex. type of cookie, breed of dog, form of cuisine), what would you choose?" I chose the infamous Nipple Cookies for the cookie question, which I believe are just called peanut butter kiss cookies, but my friends and I have dubbed them this name. It's the perfect amount of peanut butter cookie to chocolate kiss ratio...way better than the usual recipes, which basically tells you to plop the kiss on top of a peanut butter ball. The recipe was acquired from Special K's awesome International Cookie Book. The photo of the cookies is quite scary, since they're surrounded by a shit ton of teddy bears. But, do not be turned off by the way they look or the bears. THEY ARE THE MOST AWESOME COOKIES EVER. Don't feel like putting up the recipe at the moment. However, if anyone really wants it, just let me know!