Sunday, October 26, 2008

Lime Sable

the baking of last week was Lime sable, same recipe as the one i used for mango sable way back.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Lavender macarons

By popular requests (from work), i baked the Lavender macarons this weekend.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

brunch at Fresca

met up with my friend on sunday for brunch, we decided to try Fresca since it was recommended. Fresca offers modern Peruvian cuisine. the place is nice and clean, nothing special about the interior. the crowd was mixed, the staff were friendly and fast. the menu looked good and actually the food (we peeked around at all the tables next to us) looked really good.

my friend ordered the seafood gratin, which is ok she said.

i had the seafood omelette which was ok, not my fav. i don't think seafood, cheese, tomato sauce and eggs are good mix... it was rather salty as well... there's dark molases in the fruits which could be a peruvian thing (???), i didn't like. the molases did not elevate the taste of the fruits, i think it did the opposite.

next time i would try the appetizers and sandwiches. and also request the plain fruits (without the molases).
http://www.frescasf.com/

Yield

A colleague's birthday, we took her the South ( i reccommended, yes) for lunch and to Yield for after work drinks. a tiny bar in the dogpatch neighborhood, acrross the street from Serpentine. no camera, no pic, here's a pic from the bar site

The interior in industrial rustic, i like very much! the wine menu has many selections from Spain so we ordered a bottle of brut (from Spain). it was not too dry nor fruity, perfect. the bar tender was friendly and it was not crowded yet at 6pm. on Thursday night. so it was rather relaxing.
we had the artichoke dip and the sauteed oyster mushrooms for munching. both were good but the choke dip was my fav. we ordered the second bottle of the same since everyone was enjoying it...:)
http://www.yieldsf.com/

Kayaking at Point Reyes

after dimsum at Canton, we headed to Point Reyes for sunset kayaking. i had my camera but didn't take it with me on the Kayak because there's always a chance of the kayak flipping! so one pic was taken on shore before we headed down to the kayaks.

we left shore around 6pm. the water was shallow most of the way, about 2-3 feet. the water is crystal clear and we could see the bottom of the bay - covered in eel grass. a couple of leopard sharks bumped into my kayak on the way which was kind of fun but can be scary if you don't know what it is... a bit further out to deeper water, there were tons of jelly fishes floating along. egrets and other wild birds tried to get their dinner before returning to their nests. we got to the other side of the bay when it was complete dark. cookies and pastries from a fancy french bakery in the northbay were served. then we headed back after a short break. this is the best time to see the bio lumenescence, it was like buckets of diamonds in the dark water everytime the paddles hit the water. we stopped for 5 minutes at Hog Island to listen to the night birds sounds - i felt like i was in a jungle, the sound can be scarry if you don't know what it is... and in the distance, coyotes were howling...
Back on shore around 10pm and we made it back to the city before mid night. that was fun! and the weather was perfect not too warm nor cold and the sky was clear, we could see the milky way... will do it again!
http://www.pointreyesoutdoors.com/?gclid=CICv6tKClpYCFQINgQodRzAMFw

Canton dimsum

Trying a new dimsum place again, i had my camera but forgot to take photos, what was wrong with me???... so here's a pic from the restaurant site

the place is big, we didn't have to wait. for some reason i feel like the same carts kept coming to our table so we didn't get enough variety. i didn't even have the shu mai...
the dumplings were good enough but nothing outstanding and the price is good, good enough for me!
http://www.cantonsf.com/

Serpentine

A new restaurant by the Slow Club, it's on 3rd street corridor in a neighborhood call dogpatch??? i love the industrial warehouse interior with high ceiling. the restaurant was booked so we sat at the bar. the waitstaff/bar tender were casual and friendly. the crowd was casual and mixed (but no children nor family oriented).
i didn't have my camera with me so i only have 1 pic that was downloaded form the restaurant site....

we both had cocktails with vodka with elderberry liqueur and some other things that i forgot, they were good and strong, especially when i was dead tired from a long day of work..
i had the toast with tuna confit, bean and cherry tomatoes. and the second appetizer was pork rillet, it's kind of like pate put not quite. both dishes were good enough but nothing really outstanding.
my friend had the steak and she liked it.
overall it was good, i love the decor. the restaurant is still new so give it a few months, i'll come back and try again.
http://serpentinesf.com/index.html

South - some photos finally

i went back to South again - just love the food here - and took some photo finally...
the interior

the tasty rose

yummy pork sandwich

and my friend had the chicken salad, she loved it.

and the grilled watermelon with lychee sorbet dessert, so light fresh and pleasant!