CONFESSIONS OF A                                                                  
     
RESTAURANT WHORE
A San Francisco Girl's Down and Dirty Adventures in the Culinary Playground

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

So Much Eating, So Little Time

I know, I don't call, I don't write...

I'm on a deadline for Mesh right now. Additionally, my dance card is all full up. This week alone I have/had dining engagements at Neiman Marcus, Ame, Mamacita, Modern Tea and Chez Panisse. And that is all before I leave on Thursday to celebrate our nation's *cough* independence in the humid and bug infested countryside of Minnesota.

I'd like to promise another restaurant review before the holiday but it ain't lookin' good. I'll see what I can do.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Survey Says?

My ever tolerant husband has given me the tentative go ahead to plan a trip to NYC for our anniversary in August. As Per Se will be closed for the duration of our trip, I'm trying to decide where to eat the anniversary meal (and all the other meals). My thought is that we can time it to eat dinner twice a day since everything is open so late. This is all still up in the air, based on Jon's work schedule, but I figure I should get some reservations on the books just in case, no?

On my must list? Le Bernadin, Babbo, perhaps Jean-Georges and a Colicchio establishment or two.

Now where do YOU think I should go?

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

Monday, June 19, 2006

Ladies Who Lunch

Well, well, well, looky here! Guess who has the entire fucking summer off? Me! Hooray and Yee Haw and Whatnot! The fact that I'm posting two days in a row is probably a good indicator of my newfound free time.

Technically, the last day of school was last Tuesday, but as I had a conference Wed-Fri, and TWO school related events on Saturday, I just didn't feel like I was off until today (Sunday felt just like a regular Sunday filled with gluttony and naps).

And what did I do? Well I spent myself a bit of time at the Ferry Building. I went to Far West Funghi to buy some mushrooms for tomorrow night's dinner (yes, we cook sometimes) and ended up with a $24 jar of truffle salt. I got three of the miraculous fleur de sel caramels from Recchiuti and shared with no one. I bought myself a new Scharffen Berger t-shirt. I moseyed over to Acme and got some bread and some more bread. I can get used to this.

The highlight of my Ferry Building foray, however, was my delightful lunch with the equally delightful Jennifer of the Hungry Hedonist. I originally found Jennifer when doing a search for myself ("restaurant whore" -- yes, I am an egomaniac) and discovered we had quite a bit in common. Top three reasons why Jennifer is the raddest?

1. She eats like a pro (peep her blog if you don't believe me).

2. She goes to my alma mater, which made me feel all proud and maternal and shit.

3. She is super adorable.

Check her out. I bet you'll love her as much as I do.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Hip Hip Hooray (Nihon - San Francisco, CA)

I live in a non-neighborhood. If I had to say where I'm located, it would be the armpit where the Mission and SOMA become one. Now I loves me my digs, and I do have the luxury of being able to walk to Zuni, but for the most part the "local" (ie, walkable) restaurant options are on the lame side. It is for this reason that I wanted to kick myself once I finally got my ass to Nihon, eight months after they opened.

Nihon is definitely walkable from my place, but for the longest time Jon and I had no clue what the hell kind of place it was. Bar? Restaurant? Yes.

Jon and I both had a craving for sushi, but we were looking for something new and exciting. We hopped on the web to do a little search for something different but close-ish. Lo and behold, up popped Nihon. OK, we'll give this bitch a shot. (Side note: Nihon is a sister restaurant to Tsunami).

It was a beautiful night for the short walk. We paused to admire the discarded syringes and human waste products as we strolled toward our destination. It was on the early side when we arrived, and I'd say the place got about 2/3 full while we were there.

The decor is painfully hip. If I were choosing a restaurant on decor alone, you would not find me here. I don't want to have to pretend to be cool when I eat, and I certainly don't want to be surrounded by other people who are pretending to be cool. Fortunately, in spite of the decor, the restaurant was good enough to warrant a repeat visit three days later.

I'll start with drinks. I had a ginger cocktail and Jon tried several items over the two visits. Nihon has a fairly impressive whisky selection and both of us enjoyed our beverages. On our second visit, the bartender poured taste after taste of whisky for Jon until he found something he liked. Very cool.

Service was friendly and efficient. Our first server was sweet and offered some solid recommendations. The bartenders were also rocktastic.

Really, though, the whole point of being there was for some food. My favorite thing about Nihon is that their cuisine follows the creative/funky sushi doctrine (because sometimes you just want that) but without the shitty service of Deep.

The Goma Ae is fast becoming our favorite Japanese salad. It's like your traditional spinach with sesame dressing salad but this one adds asparagus. Add to that the freaking GENIUS idea of having three different kinds of sesame paste (regular, with ponzu and spicy) and you've got yourself a deal. Jon and I went nuts for the spicy dressing, but to be honest I don't know how they can get away with serving it without a warning. I adore spicy food, but I could see a lot of people freaking the fuck out over that spicy dressing. Let's face it, lots of folks are pussies when it comes to heat. I applaud Nihon for their risk taking and I will happily eat as much of their spicy spice that I can get.

Speaking of, they have a sushi roll that was designed for me. Reading the description on the menu, I couldn't help but feel like I was reading porn. The Samurai A has spicy tuna with jalepeno and daikon sprouts rolled in habenero tobiko and topped with avocado and spicy sesame seeds. It is also about twice as long as a regular roll, which is good, because after one bite, I was reluctant to share. It would be easy to hide some shitty fish amongst all that spice but they did not. Oh no, this fish was nice and fresh.

We were similarly enamored with the 1974 roll (spicy scallops topped with salmon) and the tai snapper robata we tried (grilled to perfection). The shitake mushrooms stuffed with hamachi and tempura fried gets a big thumbs up as did the local salmon sashimi. The sashimi was even better than we expected it to be and we were quite pleasantly surprised.

A big miss on the menu is the tuna carpaccio. The tuna was fresh, but the dish includes ponzu, hawaiian sea salt and white truffle oil. The ponzu completely overpowers the truffle oil and the whole situation is just a little bit too salty (we're talking hypertension inducing salty here if I'm saying that).

Nihon is by no means the best sushi in the city, but it's a super option for some interesting variations on your standard menu and it's a nice addition to the local dining scene here in crack town. I know that my lazy ass is grateful that it's here.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Mother Fucker

They are going to be closed.

NOT. FAIR.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

I Have a Sickness

It is 6:48 on a Sunday morning. Why am I awake?

I'll tell you why.

I'm trying to get a reservation at Per Se for my anniversary.

How completely fucked up is that?

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Almost There

I officially have three and a half days left of work. I'm sure you can hear me weeping with joy. While I adore my students, I am ecstatic about my impending summer of gluttony.

Bear with me...I doubt it will be before the weekend when I finally get a new review up here. The up side to that? I'll have plenty of time this summer to bang out those posts.

I'll also have plenty of time to go out to lunch. Yeeeeeeeeee Haw!

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Restaurant Behavior 202

This is the follow up course to Restaurant Behavior 101. It seems to be sorely needed these days. I've said it before and I'll say it again: No one needs to cook and/or serve you dinner unless you are a child or an invalid (and in some very sad situations even that is not always the case) so you better show some respect. Now I know that none of my lovely readers would ever behave poorly in a dining establishment, so I encourage you to pass this on to your less aware friends/lovers/fuck buddies.

1. When you make a reservation, show up. Or call to cancel. If you show up 45 minutes late without calling, and then proceed to yell at the GM for not holding your table, then you are a delusional entitled jackass. We actually witnessed someone doing this at a very busy, very popular restaurant. On a Friday night. Riiiiiiight...so the restaurant is supposed to hold the table for you regardless? I don't think so. A phone call is not that difficult, unless your fingers are broken and your tongue has been cut out (in which case you probably won't be dining out that evening anyway).

2. This one is for the servers (especially the ones here). Don't argue with one another when the patrons can see and/or hear you. It's a serious buzzkill.

3. A friend's dilemma brought this next one to my attention. Look at the menu before you sit down. If there is not one in the window, ask the host/hostess if you can peruse one prior to sitting down. If you sit down, look at the menu and THEN leave? Well then I propose a rule that says that the restaurateur can slap you silly.

4. Say "thank you." Often. Someone fills up your water glass? Thank you. Clears your plates? Thank you. Shows you where the bathroom is? Thank you. You will reap what you sow, I guarantee you (I will be happy to elaborate on this in a later post).

Let's hope that it's a long time before I need to put up Restaurant Behavior 303.

xoxo
Joy

"To eat is a necessity. To eat intelligently is an art."
-- La Rochefoucauld