The Bistro at the Cliff House SF

Zenn finally got a flight to SF! I've been hoping she'd get to come here soon as I found out she starting working for SQ. I haven't seen her in soooooo many years, and I'm glad to find that she's as crappy as ever. haha...

First stop of the day, the cliff house. I decided not to go to regular touristy areas but to take Zenn and her coworkers to places I love in SF. So first stop was brunch at the Cliff House. As always, the popovers didn't disappoint. I had clam chowder and she had scrambled eggs. The food's always very yummy at the Cliff House's Bistro. There's a restaurant there called Sutro's which I have yet to try cos it's ridiculously expensive.

Zenn with her popover.


My clam chowder. Very yummy...

Zenn's breakfast. Srambled eggs with ground beef, mushrooms and spinach.

Me and Zenn

Rum + pear = yummy

Bartlett pears are so yummy but I thought that I'd try to add a little more flavor to it...

First, melt some brown sugar and butter.

Add sliced up bartlett pears...

Splash in some mango rum and light it up. There were flames but the pic doesn't show them!

The captain (Captain Morgan Mango Rum)

Pasta night

I haven't made pasta in such a long time even though it is one of my favorite foods. I guess I have been eating lesser and lesser carbs. However, I do use whole wheat pasta instead of regular pasta, so there's more fibre and thus healthier.

Anyway, pasta is one of the ways I can "hide" vegetables cos Bob will NOT eat any cooked green at all.

Look at this pic. It looks like I'm getting ready to feed a rabbit or some pet. But I actually have to cut up the vegetables (in this case, spinach and broccoli) into tiny little pieces so that they are undetectable when cooked and won't get picked out by Bob.

Mix in the veggies with ground beef, italian sausage, onions, and mushroom. Then add pasta sauce. I also add tomato paste and diced tomato cos that gives the sauce more body.

Mix with pasta (penne and rotini) and topped with jalepeno cheddar, pop into the oven and broil for 2 mins to melt the cheese and for a bit of burnt crust.

The finish product.

Cheesecake factory San Francisco

Rachel and I went up to SF and since we were at Union Square, we decided to go to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. The food is pretty good, and lunch portions and specials available.

I love the bread that came before the meal. It's super yummy. I try not to fill up on too much bread before my food comes but it's so hard!

I got the bistro shrimp pasta - lunch portion. (Still can't finish it) Here's the description on the menu: BISTRO SHRIMP PASTA Crispy Battered Shrimp, Fresh Mushrooms, Fresh Tomato and Arugula Tossed with Spaghettini and a Delicious Basil-Garlic-Lemon Cream Sauce.

Rachel got the omelette. ASPARAGUS, PORTABELLA AND ARTICHOKE OMELETTE Filled with Fontina Cheese and Topped with Asparagus,Portabella Mushroom, Artichoke and Tomato.

We really enjoyed our lunch... looking forward to another visit to the cheesecake factory. Luckily there's one in San Jose!

Udon

I cook udon and ramen for breakfast or lunch very often. Eating out costs more than cooking! :) Usually I add whatever's leftover from dinner the previous night... The above is regular udon but I added salmon, asparugus, some Dodo brand fishcakes and fishballs.

Yummy burgers at St. John's Bar & Grill

This is one of our favorite places to go for burgers. They have different specials everyday, but Wednesdays and Saturdays are our fave because all burgers are half price. I got mushroom swiss burger and Bob got a double cheeseburger with bacon. Add a basket of fresh cut fries, a draft of Budweiser and a soda, and our total came up to $18. Great deal! Bob's burger is so big that it'd make Billy Bombers in Singapore blush. We still have so much leftover we can munch on it while we watch the NBA playoffs later.

Half of my mushroom swiss burger (burp!)

Basket of fries

31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins!

It's 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins tonight! Guess who's going?

The email:

You are invited to 31 Cent* Scoop Night in honor of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. A donation of $100,000 will be made by Baskin-Robbins (R) to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. At select local stores throughout the country, you may also have a chance to donate to your local fire station.

Wednesday, May 2nd 5PM to 10PM

Learn More: http://links.baskinrobbins.com/rts/go.aspx?t=2796&cr=128&mg=284725

Current fave snack

Been really busy the past week... packing and moving into my new apartment. A lot of stuff is still in boxes, but one of the first things I unpacked were boxes labeled "kitchen". heh. Busy as I am, I need snacks which will take care of hunger as well as provide good nutrition. The Quaker's instant oatmeal in the "fruit and ceam" variety pack is my current favorite. There are 4 flavors: Strawberries 'n Cream, Blueberries 'n Cream, Peaches 'n Cream, and Bananas 'n Cream.

Dinner tonight... Salmon and risotto

Got some wild salmon at Whole Foods Market today... Didn't know what to do with it except that I wanted tons of garlic and onions. So that's what I did: chopped up a whole onion and 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, put the lot into the food processor, add soy sauce, honey, salt, pepper, and olive oil and then blend. Covered the skinless part of the salmon with the mixture and baked at 375 degs F for 30 mins, then turn on the broiler to brown the outside for another 3 mins or so.

As for the risotto, I had some beer bratwurst leftover from BBQ last night and didn't feel like eating that today. So I chopped up some asparagus and garlic, sauteed the bratwurst, asparagus and garlic with butter before adding some basmati rice and chicken stock. It's my first attempt at making risotto so I'd added too much stock/water and the dish is a little too wet. But I'll remember not to add so much moisture the next time I attempt this dish. :)

Ikea food... YUCK

Didn't quite expect another "YUCK" post so soon... haha... but last week my friend Monica and I went to Ikea to buy racks we needed for our garage sale, and we decided to try the "cafeteria" instead of our regular hotdog and soda routine. Monica had the poached salmon with veggies and I had the Swedish meatballs with potato. The salmon was overdone and the meatballs just yucky. The only yummy thing on our trays was the fruit soda. She had peach while I had pear. I guess I'm reverting back to hotdogs and soda the next time I go back to Ikea.

Hawaii's Macdonald's breakfast

This pic was taken when we were at a Mac drive-thru in Hawaii last year. I thought that it's pretty cool that Mac caters to local tastes and offers Portuguese sausage and rice, SPAM eggs and rice, and the local deluxe breakfast which was a combination of the Portuguese sausage, SPAM, eggs, and rice.

I got a Mcmuffin instead.

Apple pie

That was my first attempt at making an apple pie. Doesn't look too great but tasted ok. Actually, I barely put any sugar in it so it was barely ok to Bob. haha... I liked it more than he did. I don't like those store bought apple pies which are full of sugar anyway.

P.S. I'm allergic to apples so I can't have fresh apples too often. They just irritate my throat and make me cough for hours. Sometimes fresh squeezed apple juice makes my throat hurt. But I love the taste and smell of apples. I even have a "Macintosh Apple" car freshener from Yankee Candles!

Current favorite beverage

I'm like an old lady... I love drinking hot beverages. But recently the weather's starting to warm up a little and I have to look for a cold drink which doesn't have a ton of sugar and calories in every serving. Found this in the local grocery store Safeway, and it's the store's generic brand of flavored carbonated water. Pretty yummy! Best part of it is that there aren't any calories at all! :)

Leftover from Italian restaurant

I seldom eat out at restaurants simply because they are expensive and then there's the tax and mandatory tip. I feel bad when I don't tip too... because those people really don't earn very much per hour. But when I have friends in town, I like going out for nice dinners with them and eat stuff that Bob doesn't usually eat.

This little hole-in-the-wall seafood/italian place is simply called "By-th'-bucket". People used to drop by and pick up seafood (namely, clams) by the bucket on their way home from work. It gradually turned into a restaurant, though you can still purchase fresh seafood from their display.

Pictured is the tiger prawn and ravioli. It's one of my fave dishes there. It has sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, tiger prawns, and huge cheese raviolis. Like every other food place here, the portions are pretty substantial and more than enough for a second (or third) meal

Best place for wonton noodles

Even though it's name is "Wonton House", wontons aren't the only thing on it's menu. There is a wide variety of Hongkong cuisine and this includes claypot rice, porridge, all kinds of roast meat, several different types of fried rice and noodles (wet and dry). I always get the dry noodles. It doesn't have the ketchup-y sauce that most wonton noodles have in Singapore, and the noodles are done just right, with a light "Q" texture when you bite into them. YUM!

They are very generous with the portions. We'll usually have enough for dinner and leftovers for breakfast or lunch the next day (that's about 4 servings for what you pay for 2 people!)

Best Buffalo Wings EVAH!

It took me a while to develop a taste for buffalo wings. It's just fried chicken wings doused in a tabasco based hot sauce. I never liked tabasco much before I came to California, but now I can't eat breakfast at Denny's without it. It's spicy and rather sour. Probably cos of the huge amount of vinegar in it.

Anyway, our fave place to get buffalo wings has got to be University Chicken. This place used to be called "Cluck-U Chicken" but has since changed it's name (maybe new owners?). University Chicken can be found within blocks of most (you guessed it) Universities. Beer guzzling, junk food popping students are the crowd.

You get to choose how hot you want your wings to be. Even though I'm a Singaporean who grew up in a family who has fresh cut chili-padi at the dining table every meal, I could never eat food that's too spicy. I usually order the "traditional" level of hotness.

YUCK!

I was craving for something sweet and saw this in an Asian grocery store. I thought that it sounded pretty good but oh man... it's horrible. I'm gonna make my own almond jelly next time.

Beef Rendang

One of Bob's favorite dishes... He's a total "meatarian", having grown up on a diet of burgers, pizzas and fried chicken. Since the Atkins diet is such an advocate of more protein less carbohydrates, I guess as long as I keep his carb intake low, he should be ok.

Brownies or cupcakes?

My brownies in the oven. I decided to use a cupcake pan so that it's easier to serve... yes, my oven door is dirty...


Browines done! Bob can't wait to get his hands on them but I'm making him wait till they've cooled down.

Bob loves chocolate... ganache, truffles, milkshakes, cupcakes, brownies, etc. Surprisingly, I'm not much of a chocolate fan. Sure, I'll nibble a bit of dark chocolate every now and then, but I can live without it. When I bake cupcakes or brownies, it's usually for his sake. He loves both... what's YOUR preferance?

Thanks to Chris, now I'm craving for Alaskan King Crab...

My darling Chris left me a message on her blog, telling me that upon seeing the pic of Alaskan King Crab legs on my blog (an old post from last year), her bf now wants to visit. Well COME ON AND VISIT!!! I can never finish a crab leg anyway. :)

Clams clams clams...

I love shellfish... it's probably not the healthiest since they supposed to contain high cholesterol and there is a history of high cholesterol in my family. But I absolutely cannot resist clams. Linguine with clams, clam chowder, steamed clams... *drool* My favorite has got to be plain simple steamed clams. Though technically, it's more like boiled clams...

Ingredients:

-Fresh clams (make sure they are alive. If you can't tell, just toss out the unopened ones after you're done cooking. The dead ones usually don't open.)

-White wine or beer

-Garlic

-Parsley

-Salt and pepper to taste

Popovers

As requested by YJ...

Very simple to make... you can also add different things to the recipe depending on what your mood is. Sometimes I drizzle a bit of honey and brown or cinnamon sugar to make them sweet, or a bit if garlic salt and grated parmigiano reggiano (real parmesan cheese, not out of a can) to make savory ones.

Recipe:

-1.5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

-1.5 cups of all-purpose flour

-0.75 teaspoons of salt

-3 eggs at room temperature

-1.5 cups of milk at room temperature

1) Set oven at 425 degrees F. (or 218 degrees C)

2) Whisk flour, salt, eggs, milk, & melted butter until smooth

3) Place (empty) muffin pan in oven for 2 minutes to preheat pan

4) Remove pan from oven, fill each cup half full

5) Place pan back in oven and bake for 30 mins

I can eat these plain... they are super yummy. For a low fat version, use low fat milk. Don't replace butter with margarine though. It tastes really different.

卤肉 for dinner

Decided to make some 卤肉 for dinner tonight... haven't been cooking as much as I'd like since I've been pretty sick for more than 2 weeks. I believe that each chinese family probably have their own version of what goes into the 卤, and my recipe is mostly based on what I've learnt from my Grandma. I've added my own touch here and there since it's seemingly impossible to recreate ANYTHING that my darling Grandma makes.

Ingredients:
Baby pork ribs
Lean pork tenderloin (since I don't like the fatty pork ribs too much. But the fat in the ribs is very flavorful for the 卤)
Boiled and peeled eggs
Firm Tofu (aka Dou Gan) -The fried ones maintain their shape much better throughout the cooking process than the fresh ones do, but I use the fresh ones cos there's less fat.
Dark Soy Sauce
Star Anise
Cinnamon
Peppercorns
Fresh Garlic
A Teaspoon or so of Brown Sugar (brightens up the flavor a little, contrasts the saltiness of the soy sauce)

Star Anise and Cinnamon sticks



Peppercorns


I use a lot of pepper in my cooking. Pepper and garlic. My kitchen is always stocked with several different types of pepper and never without garlic.

Bob calls the 卤肉 dish "Soy Sauce pork with the eggs". I'm glad he eats pork. A lot of Americans don't eat pork other than bacon and sausages. Some people even keep pot-bellied pigs as pets. Do they not eat bacon for breakfast then? Wouldn't that also be kinda awkward if your pet pig begs for scraps from your breakfast? *ROFL*