Burma Superstar

The title of this post says it all: the food was Burmese, and it was super! It also happens to be a very popular restaurant in San Francisco. How popular? Popular enough to lead to a TWO-hour wait for a table for two people. On the bright side, the restaurant has complementary tea for those cold San Francisco night. If you want something even warmer, there's a coffeeshop called Blue Danube right across from the restaurant. The coffeeshop is quaint and cute, and provides a nice waiting spot.

If you survive the wait and eventually make it inside, everything will be worth it. The menu offers one enticing dish after the other. There were probably 10 different things I wanted to try. I eventually decided on the Rainbow Salad and the Traditional Burmese Noodles that the restaurant is famous for. The salad contained 22 different ingredients, including 4 types of noodles, green papaya, onions, peanuts, and many others. Despite the presence of the noodles, the Rainbow Salad reminded me of the Green Papaya Salad often seen in Vietnamese restaurants; they both had similar texture and lightness. I think the dressing is the same for both salads. I'm a huge fan of the Green Papaya Salad, so I loved the Rainbow Salad as well. One distinctive feature of the Rainbow Salad is that it's served with all ingredients separated, and they're mixed at the table. I'm sure this contributes to the freshness of the salad because the ingredients don't have any time to soak up and get heavy with oil.

My favorite part of the dinner, though, were the Burmese noodles. They were served cold, almost pasta salad-style. Consistent with the temperature difference, the noodles tasted like no other Asian noodles I have ever tried. They were light and refreshing instead of heavy and oily like things similar to Pad Thai, etc. Instead of smothered in oil, the noodles came with a salad dressing-like sauce with citrus flavors in it. If I didn't know it was served as a main dish, I would have called it a salad. Whatever it is, it is both the best noodle and best salad I have ever had. And yes, I like it more than the Green Papaya salad! Plus, it's filling enough for a main course :)

Princess Jasmine, who came with me to Burma Superstar, ordered vegetarian samusas and two types of noodle dishes. They were good, but nothing too extraordinary. I definitely made the better choices that night :)

In Seafood Paradise

I love seafood, so what better place to be than on a bay? The problem is, how do I know which seafood restaurants are good and which ones overcook it so much that you can't even taste it? My solution, which is probably not the best one, was to go to a pretty expensive restaurant and hope for the best...

Last weekend I went to Sausalito, a small town on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. When it came time for lunch, I had plenty of options. Of course, most of them were Italian restaurants that served seafood items in creamy pasta dishes. However, I did find a place called Horizons that seemed different. First, the interior of the restaurant, which featured wood-paneled columns and arches, was very pretty and elegant. In addition, the restaurant was right on the bay, so it had glass walls on three sides for great views of the ocean. The tables were set on several different levels, so pretty much each table had a good view.

Apart from the atmosphere, the food menu also looked encouraging. Pretty much all of the dishes it offered contained some sort of seafood, so I was actually having a hard time deciding what I wanted to get. I followed the waiter's suggestion and ordered the Horizons Bouillabaisse. Knowing that this meal would be a treat, I also got the Cucumber Mellonball cocktail. The meal started with complementary French bread and butter, but there was nothing special about the bread. It wasn't even warm, which was a big disappointment for me :( The cocktail wasn't that great either. It was nice and strong, but it tasted a little like grapefruit, one of the few fruits I don't like at all. Well, I drank it anyway.

Thankfully, the bouillabaisse was amazing. It contained giant scallops, mussels, clams, tuna, salmon and humongous shrimp. Basically, all the types of seafood I love in one dish :D. They were all cooked well, and they were tender without being chewy. The broth was also very tasty. It reminded me a little of pho, but with tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Another good feature of the dish was the half lemon on the side that came with a little net to catch the seeds. How cute is that! Finally, the dish came with garlic herb toasted bread. Too bad I had filled up on the plain bread earlier because the garlic bread was incredible. I couldn't finish the bread, but I ate every last drop of the broth and the seafood! I knew that good seafood must exist in the San Francisco area, and I'm so glad that I found it :) Well, I ended up spending almost $40 on lunch, but it was totally worth it.

Along the Pacific coast

California might be best known for its cities like LA and San Francisco, but the culture of the state is best experienced in the small towns dotting the coast. They can be located on either precariously steep hills or on quiet bays, but they all have the same atmosphere. Sea life and organic local food are everywhere. Even popular tourist attraction like Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea still manage to retain their original California style. However, finding a place to eat in places where tourists need a quick and rich meal can prove to be hard.

That was the case again in Monterey. If you stay in the downtown area (Canary Row), which I had to do, all of your options are Italian restaurants or places like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. So what should a person do when they want good seafood that's not slathered with Alfredo sause? The answer, surprisingly, is eat at the C Restaurant at the InterContinental hotel in downtown Monterey. It was located right at the bay, so I had a good view of the open ocean from my table. Plus, it was one of the few places where I didn't have to wait for a table. To start my meal, I was brought complementary warm rosemary bread and goat cheese butter. The bread was amazing. I love any type of warm bread, but the aroma from the rosemary made it so much better. I was also curious about the goat cheese butter. Was it supposed to taste like goat cheese? Sadly, it didn't. It tasted like regular butter to me.

For my brunch, I was trying to decide between two dishes with seafood: shrimp frittata and crab huevos rancheros. I finally decided to get the frittata, partly because it had that goat cheese that the butter made me crave. I was quite disappointed in the frittata. First, it didn't have as much shrimp as I was hoping it would. In addition, it came with a topping of chip strips. I assume they were house-made, but the strips tasted just like Lay's chips. On the bright side, the goat cheese had lemon zest in it and gave the whole dish a fresh citrus tang.

Later that day, we arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Unlike Monterey, there was a large selection of restaurants that seemed nice in terms of both food and ambiance. My problem here, though, was that we didn't have much time. I ended up eating in a French bakery because the desserts at the counter looked too enticing to resist. I again was started off with warm bread, but this time it was simple white bread. The butter was not any different than butter you can get from a grocery store. Thankfully, I gad ordered the baked Brie with red onion and balsamic vinegar marinade which I used to pair with the good bread. The marinade was sweet and acidic at the same time. It had a unique taste that I really liked and that went great with the plain bread. The Brie was also good, but I think I prefer it fresh, not baked. As I mentioned, the desserts looked great, so I got a coconut creme pie to go (not pictured). It contained a thin custard layer, a much thicker meringue layer, and a top layer of toasted coconut. It was really rich tasting, and a great indulgence at the end of my tour of the California central coast.


My goal for the day had been to get some great fresh seafood, hopefully caught close to where I was eating. At the end, I had just a few tiny shrimp in my frittata at lunch. I did enjoy what I ate, but my craving for seafood still remains to be sated.

Brunch the French way

French culture and cuisine seems to have a huge influence on San Francisco. There are countless of bakeries everywhere in town - from small neighborhood cafes to popular chains. Luckily, the majority of them serve delicious authentic food. The only bad thing is that I can't possibly try all the places I want to go to...

Well, the most obvious choice if you can go to only one bakery in San Francisco is La Boulange. It is a chain with several restaurants around the city, but the location I go to is the one in Cole Valley. This location offers typical bakery a-la-carte fare like croissants, quiches, turnovers and macarons, and it also has a made-to-order menu. I first tried La Boulange last year. On my last day there, I ordered the Fantastic French Toast. I was expecting a traditional French toast because nothing from the menu description suggests otherwise. But WOW! The French toast at La Boulange is seriously the best thing I have tasted in my life, at any restaurant, for any kind of meal. I couldn't go back there this year and taste it again.

So what makes the French toast so special? Well, it does comes in a round shape, but other than that it has a pretty much nondescript experience. But once you bite into it, you notice a flavor that's familiar, but yet it seems like it doesn't come from a traditional toast. After a little bit of thinking, you might realize that it tastes like creme brulee! Yes, that's right. And if you look carefully, you'll see that there is an egg custard layer beneath the toast itself. The combination of the creamy custard and the egg-soaked toast makes for a truly heavenly taste.

La Boulange is known for its macarons, which are supposedly the best macarons outside of France. I've tried several flavors so far, including chocolate, lemon, walnut, and raspberry mango (not pictured). They were fresh and did have just the perfect texture. However, the flavor wasn't as intense as I would have liked it to be. For example, I wish the lemon macarons were more lemony and that I could distinguish any kind of individual flavor rather than an overall fruity flavor in the mango raspberry macaron.

I'm a huge granola fan, so I also tried the granola at La Boulange (not pictured). I got mine with yogurt, which was the best part of the dish. It was very thick and sour, just like I like it. There are other items that I want to try, so I will definitely be going back there :)

Another French place that I had brunch at was La Terrasse at the Presidio park. The location of the restaurant was great. I had my brunch while looking at the Golden Gate Bridge on a sunny, warm day. I ordered the Brie, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes omelet, which was great. The cheese was perfectly melted, but not overpowering. There was a lot more spinach than I have seen in any omelet before, so I was able to get my daily serving of veggies :) My only disappointment is that the sun-dried tomatoes didn't stand out too much and were hard to find in the omelet.

You always wonder whether an international place here is as good as it would be in its country of origin. There were French people sitting close to me at both La Boulange and La Terrasse, and that to me is the best stamp of approval for a place.

Mexican in San Francisco

Wow, I've been on a roll recently with Latin American/Mexican food recently. After having some great meals in Atlanta, I came to San Francisco - one of the best places for Mexican.  Aside from quick meals I had my first few days here, my first real dinner was at Maya, a really nice place in SOMA. It had an upscale, yet non-pretentious interior and atmosphere. It was a great spot for both a date or a fun night with friends. Indeed, the table next to me and my roommate (Princess Jasmine) was taken by a small party who all wore the same shirt and carried a blow-up doll! I kept trying to read what their shirts said, but I didn't have any luck.

Princess Jasmine and I started the dinner by sharing Chiles Toreados guacamole and chips. It was served in a cute bowl that even featured a hummingbird that seemed like it wanted to eat the guacamole! The guacamole was supposed to have toasted pepita seeds. Well, it did have them, but I thought they would be incorporated into the dish a little better than simply sprinkling them on top... In addition, the guacamole was way too salty, even saltier than the chips. The chips, on the other hand, were perfect. They were very fresh and only lightly seasoned. I ended up eating most chips by themselves, without dipping them in the guacamole.

For her entree, Princess Jasmine got the beer-marinated filet mignon tacos (not pictured). I didn't try them, but she said they were amazing. I was craving some fresh seafood, so I ordered the salmon and camaron (shrimp) ceviche combo. The salmon ceviche included mango and cucumbers in a habanero broth. I think in ate a slight piece of habanero on my very first bite because my mouth started burning with the heat right away. I was afraid that the whole dish would be as spicy, but it thankfully it wasn't. I really liked it, especially the mango/cucumber combination. The shrimp ceviche contained jicama, an interesting root vegetable that's pretty popular in California. It has a fibrous texture, but very light taste. Overall, it reminds me of a sweeter (but not sweet) version of a Granny Smith apple. It's great both fresh and pickled. I loved it in the ceviche as well. I loved both types of ceviche I tried, but to me the salmon one was slightly better.

To make the night even better, we paired the dinner with some great drinks. Princess Jasmine had a pomegranate mojito, while I had the lime margarita. The margarita was quite strong, not sweet at all, and with a nice refreshing taste. It was a perfect addition to the fresh seafood dinner.

My experience in Maya proved once again that not all Mexican food is heavy, and that you can enjoy it guilt-free. I wish there were more places like Maya in Atlanta...

Gourmet Burgers

Little Richie and I met up for dinner on the 4th of July, my last night in Atlanta before leaving for San Francisco. He was smart enough to suggest celebrating the most American of holidays with the most American of foods - hamburgers. But we couldn't have any hamburgers on this nation's birthday, so we went to Flip Burger. I was really happy with the suggestion because I had wanted to try this place for a long time. It's owned by a former Top Chef contestant. I don't watch this show, but I know it's a big deal to even be selected to be on it.

While perusing the menu, I couldn't decide between two of the options: the local burger (traditional burger), and the raw tuna tartare burger. The solution was Little Richie getting the traditional burger and me getting the tuna burger. Not trying a real burger at Flip would have been like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope, as the saying goes. As expected, the burger was juicy and delicious. Plus, you knew it was a well crafted burger because all ingredients were well sized to fit on the bun. You could eat the burger without the patty or tomato or something else sliding out and the whole thing disintegrating. Little things like that make some burger places stand out. Well, creativity also helps. For example, the sweet potato tots that Little Richie got on the side seem like such an obvious thing to have at many places, but I don't think I've seen them anywhere else.

Being satisfied with the quality of traditional burgers at Flip, I can now talk about my tuna tartare creation. It contained four things I really love: tuna tartare, mango (in the form of mango spheres), avocado (as puree), and sesame (as sesame crispies). The whole thing was amazing. It was so fresh-tasting, I wouldn't have guessed I was eating at burger if I wasn't holding it. The tuna was really good, and Flip wasn't skimping on the amount they put on each burger. One minor complaint I have is that the tuna taste was overpowering the other ingredients, so I didn't even detect a hint of the mango or sesame crispies.

We ended dinner with another typically American food item - a milkshake. We shared the Nutella and burned marshmallows milkshake. It was sooo decadent and delicious. At one point I though there were real hazelnuts in the shake because the Nutella taste was so pronounced.

Well, that was a great way to say goodbye to Atlanta. Now I'm already in San Francisco, and will try to explore the food scene here. My little adventure today included more burgers. I walked 3.5 miles just to have In-N-Out burger. It was my first time there, so I couldn't wait to see what the hype was all about. I ordered a cheeseburger with onions and fries on the side (not pictured). I did love the burger, but my favorite things about it were the tomatoes and onions. The patty was delicious, but rather small, especially when compared to the amount of meat we got at Flip. Despite this, each bite that contained bun, veggies, and patty was amazing. It was really obvious that the veggies were fresh and that the burgers were assembled after ordering, which makes a huge difference. The fries were good as well, but nowhere as crispy as McDonald's fries. On the good side, they weren't as salty as McDonald's fries :)

Sun in My Belly

This is yet another place with a unique name that deserves to be the name of a post. Plus, the name exemplifies how you feel after you eat there :)

Sun in My Belly is a brunch spot in Decatur that is far away from the square and other popular spots, thus it had escaped my attention until now. I went there recently with Little Richie after he found out about my obsession with brunch food. Their menu featured all the standard brunch items, plus a good number of sandwiches. I didn’t even look at the sandwich list this time, but maybe I’ll try them some other time. My attention this time was grabbed by the omelet special: sun-dry tomato and cheddar cheese omelet. I ordered it with a side of hashed potatoes. The omelet was really good. First, it was the right size, so I was actually able to finish it. Second, there was just the right amount of gooey cheese in it. Finally, I loved the homestyle potatoes that were prepared with red and green bell peppers and onions. Plus, the potatoes held their shape well, rather than become disintegrated from overcooking which I’ve seen with other home fries.

Little Richie’s breakfast was the Kirkwood Special which included scrambled eggs, ­­­­­­­­­­a biscuit, and bacon. The scrambled eggs were infused with onion/chives flavor without any discernible pieces of onions/chives. In addition, they were quite creamy without you seeing stretchy cheese when you got a piece. Overall, they were really tasty. The bacon was much thicker than any other bacon I’ve seen. (I must admit, though, I don’t usually order bacon and don’t have much experience with it.) On the negative side, it wasn’t as crispy as I like my bacon to be. I didn’t try the biscuit, but it looked delicious as well.

The food at Sun in My Belly definitely made my belly happy. But there were other little things that put my mind in a good mood as well. First of all, I already mentioned that I love the name. In addition, each table had a little vase with a live carnation in it. Having live flowers around me always makes me happy. Finally, I liked the laid-back atmosphere of the place and that it was away from the bustle of most other brunch spots. I will definitely be going back there.