San Francisco: La Boulange

When I first went to San Francisco a couple of years ago, a stumbled upon a bakery in the Cole Valley area called La Boulange. I was mesmerized by the desserts on display: croissants, macarons, quiches, tarts, breads... Then I tried the Fantastic French Toast and I knew I'd be eating at La Boulange again!

Skip to the present, and I have been to San Francisco two more times and I have eaten at La Boulange several more times. It turns out La Boulange is a local chain with stores all over the city. This past month I was staying only a block away from a location on Sutter Street in downtown. It was hard to resist its pull, so I went there several times over three weeks. The first time I had the French toast that I love so much. It's not a simple French toast! It somehow has a layer of custard on the bottom, and then the custard-soaked toast. It tastes like eating creme brulee in a cake form. How can you not love that? :) The toast itself is fluffy inside, but crispy on the outside. And it's served with fresh fruit. If I was ever on that show "Best Thing I Ever Ate," I would talk about this French toast :)

This year I decided to branch out and try some of the non-dessert things at La Boulange. They also make sandwiches using bread made in-house. I've had the hummus sandwich and the smoked salmon sandwich, both with a side of quinoa salad. Both of them were delicious. The hummus sandwich was topped with avocados and cucumbers, so overall it had a very refreshing taste. It would have been perfect for a warm summer day, but it tasted just as great on a cool fall morning :) The sprouts were too bitter for my taste, but I pushed them off the sandwich and ate them with the quinoa to cancel out the bitterness. As to the quinoa salad, it was too salty both times I had it :( Well, at least I got a good amount of fiber and protein from it...

The salmon sandwich came with cucumbers, creme fraiche and capers. The capers were well-washed and weren't too briny. I need to wash my capers when I cook with them that well, haha ;) Other than that, it was a solid sandwich with nothing too special about it, but I enjoyed every single bite.

My last time at La Boulange I ordered half of the goat cheese sandwich and a cup of French onion soup. The sandwich was very disappointing. It barely had any cheese on it. And it was toasted to the point where the bread was burned and the cheese was completely dried out. I hope this mispreparation is not the norm for this sandwich. Even the portobello and the roasted red peppers couldn't rescue the sandwich. The soup, on the other hand, saved the meal. This was actually my very first time having French onion soup, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I liked the one at La Boulange. The onions were caramelized well and sweet. And there was a crouton in the cup that nicely mopped up all the flavors.

I've had so many good experiences at La Boulange that I'm willing to overlook this last negative one. At the end I want to mention that all of the prepackaged desserts are also amazing. I've tried pretty much all types of shortbread cookies. Surprisingly, I'm not a huge fan of the chocolate ones, but love all the others. La Boulange is also known for their French-style macarons. They are always fresh and have the perfect texture. Now they even have a delicious pumpkin macaron :) They also sell so-call San Francisco-style macarons, which are single cookies of almond-hazelnut flour; these might be my favorites so far. Finally, the almond-chocolate croissants are a must-have. Honestly, I wish I could have every single meal at La Boulange, I love it that much!

Food Is not Everything

Sometimes we go to restaurants just for the food, to satisfy hunger. Other times we want to indulge in an experience. The latter case usually involves a sophisticated place and a high price tag, or an ethnic restaurant. However, even if we go to a fast food place or a drive through, we expect a sertain level of service and get annoyed when we don't receive it.

I recently went to Sonny's Place, a small Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurant close to where I live that also has a Scoutmob discount. Maybe the fact that it was completely empty at 6:30 pm should have been a red flag, but I decided to stay anyway. The bad experience started at the very beginning when the owner greeted me with "Do you need a menu?" in a husky voice. Of course I need a menu! He then handed it to me, but didn't specify whether I order at the counter or sit down at a table. So I ended up standing halfway between both, trying to figure out what I wanted. The special is supposedly the St. Peter's fish, but I decided to go with something more basic - the appetizer sampler platter. Then I was finally ordered to sit down. The platter came with falafel, hummus, tabuleh, babaganoush, and two salads. All items but the falafel medallions weren't bad, but they weren't memorable or distinguishable in any way either. The only positive thing about them was that I could eat them with warm pitas. The falafel, though, was inedible. It was obviously very old and re-heated. Instead of only the outside being crispy, the whole piece was a solid rock.

Well, despite the falafel, I wouldn't have minded the place too much if it wasn't for the attitude of the owner. He never smiled, and he seemed like he didn't think it was necessary to show his customers any respect. He did come to ask me how the food tasted twice, but wasn't happy of my answer of "It's good!" I don't know what he expected me to say, maybe he wanted me to tell him it was amazing, outstanding, the best things I've ever had. But for me, even saying that it was good was a stretch, haha.

A few minutes after I sat down, another party came to the restaurant. It was obvious it was their first time in there as well. They were seated before being given the menus, but they were taking a while to order. The owner kept going to them and badgering them to make up their mind. At the end, he seemed pretty disappointed that they didn't get what he suggested and that they didn't order alcohol. Again, he just seemed unhappy and intimidating, which is very offputting when you're willing to pay for a meal out.

I was really glad I had the Scoutmob deal. It did make things a little better because the whole experience was so bad, I should have been paid rather than me paying for the food. I think this is the first time I can honestly say that I'm never going there again.

Authentic Greek

There are a number of Greek restaurants and diners in Atlanta, but I hadn't found a place that I loved unconditionally. I like Taverna Plaka, but even that seems Americanized. Well, all of this changed after going to Cafe Agora.

But before I go into my ravings for the place, I want to mention Nick's to Go. Richie Bear took me there for lunch once. It's literally a shack on the side of the road in a bad part of town. But oh how great the food is! I never liked gyro meat before I tried it there. Who would have thought gyro meat can be moist without being greasy? That's pretty much all they sell, but it's well worth going there.

I was lucky enough to discover Cafe Agora from a list of 38 places in Atlanta worth trying. I was a little suspicious how authentic it could be if it was located in the very heart of Buckhead, but this all changed once we tried the food. I've already been there twice in a week: once with Cashew and once with Richie Bear. We got the same things both times: the mixed maza and the mixed grill platters. That's the best way to try all of the awesomeness that Cafe Agora offers. The maza platter contains hummus, baba ganush, tabuleh, a ground carrot salad, a bean salad, grilled eggplant salad, and tsatsiki sauce. It is served with pita pieces to soak up every last piece of each salad and clear the plate! And while you're working on these appetizers, the grilled platter is being prepared and comes out right on time. It contains chicken, kufti (ground beef), and lamb gyro meat with a side salad, rice, and spiced pita strips. The lamb here is almost as good as the one at Nick's to Go. And how authentic are the chicken and beef? They had the same flavor as grilled meats my parents used to prepare in Bulgaria! Yes, Bulgaria is not Greece, so I can't take this as a sign of authenticity, but that's the flavors I love :) The meat here is much better than anything they serve at the Greek Festival...

And if you go to Cafe Agora for lunch, they'll even give you complementary pilaf, or Greek-style rice pudding sprinkled with cinnamon on top. I didn't like it as much as the other things we had mostly because it was too sweet for me. It seemed like it was made with evaporated milk rather than the real milk which I'm used to. But despite this, I again believe in Greek food in Atlanta!

Tantric dinner

One of the things I love about Atlanta is how international it is. Well, and all the food deals available :) So one Monday night Cashew and I felt like having French food without paying exorbitant amounts of money. The solution was Amuse, a French bistro with a 50% off deal on Scoutmob. Unfortunately, on the way there, we discovered that it's closed on Mondays :( A couple of minutes of scrolling through the Scoutmob restaurant list yielded another attractive dinner option: Tantra. Granted, it's not French, but it sounded really interesting with its fusion cuisine that combined Indian, Asian and European influences.

As soon as we walked in the restaurant, we were impressed with the environment. It featured Indian-style lanterns, leather chairs and leather benches, and cute lantern-like candle holders on the tables. Adding to the good impression of the place, we were started off with complementary flatbread crackers and some kind of spread that I have never had before. The crackers were really crispy, but they were coated with a little too much sea salt. The spread, however, was incredible.  It was very grainy, so I think it contained whole grain mustard. I could also discern a little bit of the mustard taste, but most of what I tasted was olives. So, my best guess is that it was a mixture of mustard and olives :P

The menu itself was heavily influenced by Middle Eastern, lamb- or hummus-containing dishes. Case in point, original hummus with lamb and lamb tartare "pizza." We actually ordered the hummus tasting platter, but they brought out the lamb-containing hummus. I am very picky about how my lamb tastes, and I didn't care too much for the one at Tantra. Thankfully, they did bring us the other hummus options on the tasting platter: truffle and edamame (not pictured). Honestly, I loved the original chickpea flavor the best. The truffle hummus was too oily, the edamame did taste like edamame, but I found that a weird taste combination. In contrast, I did love the flavors of the lamb pizza. It was a very original dish. Instead or a regular pizza crust, it had flatbread for crust. What looks like it might be tomato sauce on the picture is actually the lamb tartare. And the white sauce is shallot yogurt.

We also ordered the crab cake based on the suggestion of our waiter, and it was worth it. It was what a crab cake should taste like: lots of crab and little other stuffing material. The salad that the cake rested on was also great. It also had an interesting yogurt sauce, this time containing orange and verjuice (type of grape juice).

After three appetizers and a complementary snack, we needed only one entree. Our first choice was the chili seared bigeye tuna, but they were out of it. We settled for the braised beef short rib with goat cheese polenta. Unfortunately, both Cashew and I were too stuffed at this point to enjoy the short rib properly. Each of us had a bite to taste it, but we ended up taking it to go. All I can remember about it is that the goat cheese taste was really strong. I do love goat cheese and can even eat it by myself, but it didn't impart a good flavor to the polenta in this case. Somehow, it made the polenta taste as if it contained lamb... The meat was very tender, and I can say that it was good even when reheated on the next day. Too bad I couldn't eat more when it was still fresh at the restaurant.

Well, despite not getting the French food we wanted, Tantra served as a great substitute for the international flare I was craving.

Opa!

My friend Ems has been insisting on trying Bulgarian food. Unfortunately, there are no Bulgarian restaurants in Atlanta, the city with the second highest Bulgarian community in the US... The best substitute for Bulgarian food you can find here is Greek food, so we had dinner at Taverna Plaka recently.  This is a sit-down restaurant as opposed to a diner like many other Greek places, and serves food that's pretty close to what my mom would make at home. On a side note, if you go there, you probably won't be sitting down the whole time as the stuff likes to start random dancing sessions as people are dining, and make everyone join in. They dance a tradition Greek/Bulgarian line dance (the Bulgarian word is horo) that I highly recommend for everybody. They also have a belly dancer that performs for part of the night. Actually, the crowd is very diverse, and the place seems to be a favorite with both families and bachelorette parties.

Ok, back to the food... One of my most favorite things about Taverna Plaka is the complementary make-your-own hummus. Yes, it is complementary, and yes, you make it at the table. They bring all the ingredients (chickpeas, garlic, oil, salt, etc.) in a wooden mortar, and you smash them together and mix them with the pestle. Aside from being really fun, this is great because you can control how chunky the chickpeas are; I tend to like hummus with more chunky pieces. The hummus comes with warm, crusty French bread with a soft interior that's really, really tasty. Plus, they do bring you more bread if you ask for it.

I wanted Ems to experience some Bulgarian flavors, so we also ordered the tzatziki sauce with pita chips as an appetizer. We have this yogurt-based sauce in Bulgaria, but usually eat it as a side salad. The one we got this time was too salty, but it's usually good and very refreshing.

For my entree, I ordered stuffed peppers and tomatoes. My mom makes stuffed peppers all the time, so I was curious to see how close the ones at the restaurant were to home-made. The verdict is that they were pretty close. The stuffing they used contained a lot more ground beef that my mom uses (her stuffing is mostly rice), but it did taste almost the same. The tomato was stuffed with the same beef/rice mixture. On the side, I had lemon-roasted potatoes that I really love.

I recommended to Ems the lamb stew because lamb can be considered the national meat in Bulgaria. I expected the dish to be more like a stew - chunks of meat with veggies. Instead, it was a large piece of meat in the middle of a bowl of orzo pasta. The lamb was fresh, tender and flavorful. I think Taverna Plaka is the only place in Atlanta that can cook lamb the way I like it.

Well, maybe it wasn't authentic Bulgarian, but Ems really liked the food, making the night a success.