i want to eat something delicious

location: Truly Mediterranean (San Francisco, CA)

3109 16th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

After having disappointing falafels in Paris at what was supposed to be a popular place, I have been wanting to come back here for a while. This place makes the best falafels, that I’ve eaten at least. They are so crispy on the outside, fresh and flavorful. Can’t be beat.

One thing different from last time is that they put sauce over the falafels now… I would kind of prefer they didn’t, so the crispiness of the falafel can stay as long as possible. But even with the sauce, the falafels were crisp, a testament to just how crispy they are. They are warm and fluffy inside, flavorful, delicious..

We also got some baba ghannouj, which comes with warmed pita bread.

And we can’t forget hummus! 

Each order of dip comes with three halves of pita bread.

taste: 8/10

overall quality: 8.5/10

desire to return: 8.5/10

location: Izakaya Sozai (San Francisco, CA)

1500 Irving Street
San Francisco, CA 94122

This is a small little Japanese restaurant that is only open for dinner. It gets quite busy, so it’s good to make a reservation. They hardly pick up their phone though, so be prepared to call more than once and leave messages. This is like a tapas restaurant, so you can order from a variety of small plates. We also got their lychee sake, pictured above. It looks like water, but it was quite good. Not too strong and really tasted of lychee. 

For some small plates, we got the grilled whole squid and fried oysters.

The grilled oyster had nice texture inside (wasn’t tough, but was tender with a bit of elasticity), but I would have liked more of a grilled/seared exterior. The outside of the squid here was almost as if it had been boiled.

The fried oysters had a really nice, crisp exterior, but the inside of the oyster was a bit disappointing. I like it when you can bite into a nice, hot, juicy oyster, but in this case, the oyster was pretty dense and dry.

We also got this bacon wrapped mochi, which my friend recommended. I was skeptical, but it actually turned out to be one of the tastiest items of the night.

The bacon is nicely charred (so it’s crisp and doesn’t have a fatty feeling). The mochi is also crisped up towards the edges, and is chewy in the center. The bacon fills the whole thing with delicious, salty, pork flavor.

We also got the ramen with two orders of fried pork belly. The ramen was nice and the broth was tasty. The fried pork belly was okay, pretty tender, but could have been juicier and moister. The outside had some crispness.

taste: 7.5/10

overall quality: 7/10

desire to return: 7.5/10

location: Suzu Noodle House (San Francisco, CA)

1825 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

I had a lot of pho while in Paris, at least during the couple months before I left, but this day back in San Francisco, I had ramen twice in one day. Here for lunch, and then for dinner again later that day. This place in Japantown was pretty busy during lunch, and we had to wait a bit before being seated. As a starter, we got the takoyaki. It was alright, but I’ve had better. 

For the ramen, all of us ordered the same ramen with fried chicken. It comes with a very generous portion of chicken, half a hard boiled egg, some vegetables and bamboo.

The chicken is moist and tender, though placing the fried chicken in the soup takes away from the crispness I would desire. The noodles had a nice bite, though the broth was pretty ordinary. It was quite salty and felt like a soy sauce broth (just add soy sauce rather than making a very tasty, rich broth). It’s still a nice, filling meal though.

taste: 6.5/10

overall quality: 6/10

desire to return: 6/10

location: San Tung (San Francisco, CA)

1031 Irving Street
San Francisco, CA 94122

When I go out to eat, I usually like to try new places, but since I’m only back in the Bay for a short amount of time, there were some places (like dim sum) that I wanted to go back to again. I came here once before, but because I had a really good memory of their famous fried chicken wings, I just had to come again. Besides their fried chicken wings, they also make a really delicious complimentary kimchee! It’s so spicy and wonderfully delicious.

You can order their fried chicken in either wing form or in the form of chicken pieces/bits. I had only had the chicken wings, but my friend said she also liked the chicken bits. Since we were conflicted between the two, we tried to ask if we could order it half half. Unfortunately, they are really strict about that! They absolutely don’t allow it. But why..? With no other choice, we just ordered two plates of chicken, one of the wings, and one of the chicken bits. 

I like the chicken wings because they have a delicious, sweet and sticky sauce covering the wings, and yet the wings can still remain crisp on the outside and stay moist and juicy inside. These chicken wings are quite large - very meaty.

An alternative to chicken wings are these chicken bits. Due to their increased surface area, these bits have an added crunch factor, but I think I still prefer the feeling of biting into a juicy, meaty chicken wing. I had also wanted to order their black bean noodles (which I liked last time), but we came here after dim sum (I know, food overload!) and I was much too full.

taste: 8.5/10

overall quality: 8/10

desire to return: 8.5/10

location: Hong Kong Lounge (San Francisco, CA)

5322 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94121

One of the things I absolutely had to eat while back in the Bay - dim sum! I’ve been here once before, and I think this time confirms once again, this is a dim sum place I want to keep coming back to. 

Dim sum is best eaten with a larger group, so we can get more variety. Although there were just three of us, we could still order a good selection. These here, their shrimp dumplings. They are filled with a lot of shrimp, with some slivers of ginger.

Another must get - their baked pork buns. They are filled with delicious bbq pork, but the best part is their bun. It has a thin, crispy layer over top, and is nice and fluffy beneath. I originally wanted their steamed pork buns, but these are something special.

My friend’s favorite dim sum item is the fried shrimp ball with the fried noodles coming off of it. We ordered what we thought was that, but was instead presented with this fried shrimp dumpling. Apparently this restaurant does not offer that item. This was still okay though.

My favorite dim sum item is the fried taro puff. This was crisp and flaky on the outside and filled with delicious taro. It is a pretty rich and slightly heavy dim sum item though.

For something sweet, some tofu dessert. They serve the tofu in a bowl with sugar syrup on the side. 

The tofu was nice and tender, and the sugar syrup was infused with ginger. 

Next, some sticky rice. These were neatly wrapped up and filled with a nice meat and vegetable mixture. The rice was nicely cooked.

Here, some turnip cake. I only had a bit of this, as I was getting very full towards the end.

I also really like these fried sesame balls, but I could only eat about half of one since I was so full. These were nice and crisp on the outside and chewy and elastic on the inside.

We also got these pork dumplings, which were quite good. I liked how you could decipher the ingredients in the filling, as they were kept in slightly larger chunks. There’s a lot of dim sum in SF, but I think this is a pretty good place to go.

taste: 9/10

overall quality: 8.5/10

desire to return: 9/10

location: Sotto Mare (San Francisco, CA)

552 Green Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

Thanks to my dear friend for organizing, I could spend two great days with her in SF area and have dinner here with several friends I hadn’t seen in over a year. This is an Italian seafood restaurant that may not look so big from the outside, but is actually quite large. We were taken downstairs where they have even more seating in addition to those on the ground level. At the table they gave us this bread, which I thought looked kind of soft on the outside, but actually had an unexpected crispness from the crust.

Because so many reviews mentioned their seafood cioppino, we decided to get it. It comes in a pot like such and is enough for two, though we shared all dishes among all of us. 

The seafood cioppino is filled with seafood - shrimp, calamari, mussels, clams, and lots of crab. The broth was nice and filled with seafood flavor. It was more tomato based, which I sometimes don’t like, but the tomato was not overpowering in this case. The seafood was fresh. It was nice to use the bread to dip into and soak up the broth.

Reviews also mentioned these grilled sand dabs, so we gave them a try. They were kind of disappointing though. The fish was a little dry and not super flavorful. I wouldn’t order it again.

Next, some seafood risotto, which I really wanted to get, since I love risotto. The rice had good texture (a slight bite), though I feel it was slightly dry overall. Risotto shouldn’t be liquidy, but it should have a sauce coating over the rice, which I would have liked more of. The flavor was delicious, full of seafood.

We also got a pasta dish - fettuccine with cream sauce and scallops. I wasn’t expecting the use of these small bay scallops. It would be fine, except the scallops here (and also where they were used in other dishes) were pretty tough and gummy, rather than tender and moist. The pasta was cooked well - it had a nice al dente bite. The sauce was creamy and had a good mouth feel, but was overall pretty bland - could have used more seasoning.

They also give us bibs to put on during the meal. How fun. But they can be of good use, as evidenced by the splatters of sauce.

taste: 7.5/10

overall quality: 7/10

desire to return: 7.5/10

location: The House (San Francisco, CA)

1230 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133

This place has over 2500 reviews on yelp. With so many positive, enthusiastic reviews, I was anticipating a very delicious meal. I think my expectations were higher than the food we received, but it’s not bad. 

At the table, they give these complimentary pickles with toasted sesame seeds.

As a starter, we got oysters on the half shell with spicy cilantro mignonette. When my friend first ate this, she thought the oyster would be more attached to the shell, so she slurped a bit too hard and choked on the spicy sauce. Luckily, I came second and took heed to her warning. 

These oysters were quite good, very fresh. The sauce was a bit spicy and sour (like tabasco sauce).

For the mains, we got their sea bass (left) and wasabi noodles (right).

The sea bass comes with your choice of rice or garlic noodles, vegetables and a garlic ginger soy sauce. The fish was pretty well grilled. It had a nice, seared exterior and was mostly tender inside (though I would have liked it a bit juicier). The sauce was on the sweet side, but had some good flavor and I liked the thin slices of ginger. We decided to get the garlic noodles, since they seemed more interesting than plain rice. They tasted fine, but they really didn’t taste much of garlic at all.

We also got the warm wasabi house noodles with angus flatiron steak, since it seemed like one of their most popular dishes. Again, it tasted fine, but similarly to how the garlic noodles did not taste of garlic, these wasabi noodles did not taste of wasabi. It was extremely mild to the point of non-existent. The sauce was more of a sweet and sour chili sauce, which again doesn’t taste bad, but is just not what you expect. The steak was okay - some pieces were very tough and chewy, while others were more decent. Flavor was not anything special. 

For dessert, we got the coconut crême brûlée with passion fruit sauce. For the third time in a row, this did not taste of what it was advertised as. The crême brûlée had very, very, very minute coconut flavor. I tasted a bit in one spoonful because I was really looking for it. Especially if you combine it with the passion fruit sauce, the coconut flavor is non-existent.

It’s fine with me if the coconut flavor is minimal, as I’m not particularly fond of it anyway, but for those who are expecting it in this dessert, it is difficult to find. The sugar on top was nice and crisp, and you could just crack into it with a spoon, but several areas were over-caramelized and burnt, making it bitter. The cream portion of the dessert was smooth and creamy, but a little too liquid/pudding like for my taste. I would have liked it set just a bit firmer.

taste: 6.5/10

overall quality: 7/10

desire to return: 6/10

location: Smitten (San Francisco, CA)

432 Octavia Street 
San Francisco, CA 94102

On a very hot day, ice cream is especially appropriate. This place makes ice cream using liquid nitrogen, which is supposed to avoid ice crystal formation to make a very smooth and creamy ice cream. They make the ice cream to order. 

They only had two flavors to choose from (I suppose maybe they have more variety on other days?). I got the salted caramel with TCHO chocolate crisps. The ice cream was indeed very silky smooth and soft. You can just swirl your spoon through it effortlessly. It also has an element of fluffiness. It does seem susceptible to melting however, so you should eat it quickly.

taste: 8.5/10

overall quality: 8/10

desire to return: 8.5/10

location: Morucci’s Si Mangia Bene (Walnut Creek, CA)

1218 Boulevard Way
Walnut Creek, CA 94595

Coming back to the US, I was fortunate to spend the day with my good friend. After doing some long hiking under the hot, hot sun, we came here for lunch. This is a pretty popular deli (there was quite a long line), and for good reason - their sandwiches are delicious. My friend got the Italian sub, which comes with various meats, peppers, dressing and pesto. You can also choose the type of bread you want, like ciabatta, focaccia, baguette, or dutch crunch.

I got the sandwich with popeye & olive oil sandwich, which comes with turkey, artichokes, baby spinach, pesto, tomatoes and cheese (though I got it without cheese). Like my friend, I also chose dutch crunch. What a great bread.

You can ask for the sandwich/bread toasted, which I did. The outside was nice and toasty, and the inside did not get too soggy or wet from the filling or pesto. 

They gave a generous portion of turkey, and I liked the pesto, which was fresh and flavorful. The arugula and artichokes were not seasoned much (could be viewed as slightly bland), but lent some light, natural flavors. 

taste: 8.5/10

overall quality: 8.5/10

desire to return: 8.5/10

The last few days I was in Paris, I definitely felt sad to leave.. my last time riding the métro, my last time seeing and eating in the city, my last time living in a place where people speak French around me, my last time seeing many good friends I have met here. My time in Paris has had ups and downs, but overall, it has been a wonderful experience, and one I will never forget. Au revoir Paris…