Hosive

we will get back to nyc places very soon…….

we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town.

this is one of our favorite places in sf…but its completely changed!

this is on the west coast….literally! twice! it is on the west coast of san francisco….as far west as you can go in the city. just south of robin william’s home…so the rumor goes.

my friend wilbur has a family home on geary, a main artery in sf…we would visit quite often in the late 90’s before my friends and i were married…..and when we took the bus east, we would easily get into the heart of downtown. but when we went west, we would hit the coast and just a little bit south was this gem of a brunch place.  it used be more rustic but now looks all shiny. i bet my boy q is thinking: what the heck is this???

the food is good but the main attraction for us was being able to eat with views of the water and the horizon. a little gray on this day but that’s sf….the weather vacillates and varies throughout the day. there are still two places to eat at the cliffhouse….a swankier joint with a more expensive menu and the regular people place with regular prices. they seemed to have expanded both dining areas so there is not that mad morning dash nor the long lines if you slept in. we lucked out and got a table by the water.

for brunch, theresa went with this shrimp salad open faced sandwich. we usually do seafood here though eggs and pankcakes and the usual brunch fare are also excellent. but west coast means more seafood for us. i think another selling point was the guac for theresa….she’s a sucker for fresh and fresher guac.

i went with the fish sandwhich….which i am a sucker for….i think this is mahi or was this halibut? i forget. what does this look like?

to me, it just looks hearty and delicious.

just ask our hosts, ricky and angela! they got some yummy eggs and breakfast foods.

they live in sf but had yet to come here so when we found out how close they were to the restaurant, we insisted on having them join us. i think they’ll be back….we love introducing friends to places in their current home town……sometimes, in towners don’t have the time or luxury of finding these places. but as tourists, often we are hunting them down!

we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town.

i do realize that this is a bit of a tourist trap, and a little gimmicky but we love garlic…..we love the smell of garlic and we love smelling like garlic! yay! garlic!

this is a garlic restaurant. they joke that they flavor their garlic with food as opposed to the other way around. they even have garlic ice cream which we tried once but probably never again. garlic desserts are only eh.

we always start with the bagna calda….cloves and cloves of garlic stewing in its own juices to go with bread. its pretty easy to fill up on bread at this stage if you don’t remember that more food is on the way.

i started with the filet mignon chili while caleb had the squishy rubber toy. in the foreground, garlic bread to go with the bagna calda

dan and jess treated us to this feast…..seafood grill with you know what sauce…..the 40 clove chicken…..sea bass with you know what rissotto….and of course, sides of garlic. the chicken is one of their featured specialties and takes 30-40 minutes to prepare. i’ve also had their pork chop which is also very good.

stuffed and smelling like garlic…..a strangely guilty pleasure. not as good as duartes but worth a visit every few years. we will be back!

back on the road! or back to the road……..

we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town.

we love supporting local joints especially when the food is yummy. there are big box chains in the area that serve fish tacos and other cali-mex fare but when we are in valencia in the la area, we come here for tasty mexican food. i think that they only have a few of these in the area.

you can see in the way back that their slogan is ugly is cool. i think they are referring to the lizard that they are named after but they’ve managed to make their version pretty cute. i declined on the t-shirt that boasted that ugly is cool though. didn’t want anyone affirming me.

what’s better than fish tacos? fish burritos! though i like the yummy crispness of hard tacos, i really like the mix of fresh fish and spices, rice and beans…in larger amounts. at wana iguana, there are a few seafood options including two fish choices for tacos and other wraps. i like the hearty mahi burrito. and i always decline on cilantro since it makes the burrito….ok, it ruins it for me. cilantro is my krytonite…..for my taste buds.

theresa opts for a loaded pork burrito with peppers and hot sauce. and a shrimp cocktail though she swears she ordered a shrimp taco.

but i realize that these pictures don’t do the food justice. like many hole in the wall joints, the selling point is that their food that tastes like it came out of someone’s kitchen. the portions are bigger and service is friendlier. and my money goes to mom and pop….and not the man. the man’s got enough of my dough.

viva la hole in the wall!

we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town.

this is for leonard, who happens to be in my town today:

when we are in la, we ask theresa’s aunt and uncle to take us here……..

i only knew this as the vietnamese place…i don’t even know what town it is in but i manage to get a shot of the cross streets(see below)if you are interested in going. what’s the big deal? cheap good food, a latino waiter who picks up chinese  and the only vietnamese place i know of that actually has an a rating. in la, they grade their restaurants on cleanliness. there maybe others but usually asian places garner b or even c ratings. we eat at those places anyway…..we know that the more ghetto, the more realistic the food is! but this place is tasty…..and clean! a good sell for koreans!

theresa would recommend the rice paper wraps, pho with everything. i like the bun, the cold(room temperature)noodles with roast pork and fried rolls…at saigon grill in nyc, they only give you the option of one or the other so i wind up getting charged 2 entrees to get what i want. here….its set up nicely for me.

pride used to prevent me from saying that asian food is better on the west coast but i am a believer now. from taiwanese to korean to chinese and now vietnamese. look up mission and las tunas and check it out.

also…..as a programming note…upcoming this week as we enter into a few somber days when new yorkers reflect on their connection to the city…some very new york-y posts…rapid fire and abundant. this city inspires in multiple directions.

we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town. however, in this case….this is one of the best places in the bay area.

without a doubt, one of our most favorite places to visit…not just in the sf area…but in the world….is duarte’s in pescadero. its about 45 minutes south of the city along the coast by half moon bay.

first, there’s a romantic, scenic drive to and fro…close to sunset is magic. heaven.

second is an outstanding one of kind menu. stuff we’ve only had here…and that we looked forward to each time we go. my boy q and i used to go here when we did our california tours in the 90’s. i introduced it to my sweet t and it was an instant hit. look how happy she is to be here!  its a tsang tradition to go every time we’re in town.

we’ve been calling it dwaar-tay’s all this time to be, y’know…politically correct…it looks latino! but we saw on the food network, that it’s actually pronounced doo-arts…which is disappointing. but that’s ok….we’re not here to be pc…we’re here to eat!!!

the soups are a must….either cream of green chile or cream of artichoke or what my sweet t got: half and half. only locals know about the half and half. its like the secret menu at in and out(burgers). then theresa normally gets the Crab Cioppino: Dungeness Crab with Prawns, and Clams in a tomato-based sauce with onion, garlic and cumin. One of the house specialties.

i got the spicy catfish sandwich. i’m a sucker for fish sandwiches and stews. looking forward to some fish tacos as well on this trip.

finally we got the pie….there’s a lot of choices but the specialty here is Olallieberry. it is a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry, each of which is itself a cross between blackberry and another berry (raspberry and dewberry, respectively). The season is very short and some pie restaurants do not advertise having fresh olallieberry pie available, as the entire stock sells out via word of mouth. The best times, if not the only times, to order an olallieberry pie in these restaurants are the first two to three weeks of June. In coastal areas of Northern California, the olallieberry season lasts from mid-June to mid-July. More recently, olallieberries have become available frozen, making them buyable most of the year. duartes seems to have them all year round as i think they grow their own. anyway…..get any pie you like. ala mode, of course.

highest recommendations!

we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town. this little neighborhood joint is in the ‘hood of germantown in philly so you better know where you are going if you look for it. almost everytime we visit our friends the lees: q, christe, amoz and now theo(dore).

its local food cooked by locals for locals. a fubu vibe. they sell mostly caribbean food with some soul food selections. they also have drink flavors that i rarely find elsewhere like pineapple and peanut. i was going to try peanut but it was too thick; like a yogurt…i stuck with the pineapple soda

when q and i go to dine, we are the usually definitely the only asians in the house. but we are welcomed just the same! the girl at the counter almost always recognizes us and sometimes even gives us a discount because q brings so many folks to the place. or maybe she gets a kick out of us being there.

we got a sampler buffet feast after our atlantic city killers trip: curry goat, bbq chicken, oxtail stew and of course jerk chicken(one regular and one extra spicy). the sides are potato salad, collard greens, plantains, cabbage, mac and cheese and rice and beans. i usually go for the jerk chicken…its my favorite but oxtail comes second which i would order more but i don’t want to pay and get all that bone.

but you can’t really go wrong with any of the selections….its all super yummy….just ask the lees!

eating in their home is a treat. its one of the few houses that is actually a home. maybe its all the cool little niches. maybe its because they are not just there for the house to appreciate and make a killing. maybe because so much life is lived and made there. maybe its just them. it feels like home.

there’s a theory that you can only nap in a place you feel safe(falling asleep drunk does not qualify as a nap)…but places you choose to rest are places you call home. then as for me and my house, this is home.