Yank Sing @ San Francisco

Can we say over priced? Yes!!! Yank Sing is definitely a tourist trap. While the dim sum is good, $10 for a plate that would normally cost no more than $5 is insane. Oh yea for a peking duck sandwich, one piece of bread and one slice of ducl, it will cost you $5...and it's not a huge portion, it's the same size you would get if you ordered it at a restaurant. I do have to say that I was absolutely amazed at the manners there! I've never been to a dim sum restaurant where the servers (the one's pushing the little carts of food) are so well mannered, so well spoken, and softly spoken! They come up to you, telling you what's there (they tell you in English first, because the default is that you don't speak Chinese, but once you start talking to them, they realize that you do speak Chinese, and that's the choice of language for the rest of the stay), and if they don't have what you want, they speak into their walkie-talkie, but it's like a headset, and communicate with whoever! In a manner of seconds it VOLIA here's the siu mai you wanted! Also, they give you a fresh plate whenever they realize that your plate is dirty, which is a plus and minus. The plus is when you're eating chicken feet, the bones don't have to stay on your plate for the rest of your meal, the minus is that well I have to keep adding hot sauce to my plate! When they realize that you've stopped eating, they polietly come over and ask if there's anything else they can get you. What service!! Ok so between my mother, panda and I we ate about $100, and this is everything we ate. So you can imagine how much things cost. Good thing my mom has tons of gift certifcates, who wants to visit me in SF to eat! YAY!

Chrysanthmum Tea
every time you go "yum cha" you gotta get some "cha" - tea. but look at how beautiful the tea pot is. they place the actual tea leaves in the middle, and so when you drink tea, you don't get any leaves. very good tea.

voila!

Siu Mai
very juicy...nom nom nom. this is my fav at dim sum

Scallop Dumpling
fresh scallops!

Fun Gor
[mixutre of pork, mushroom, veggies]
this was really good! it doesn't look good, but my favorite part was the skin, it was so chewy! loves it!

Steamed Pork Spare Ribs
panda loved it!

Fried Shrimp & Crab Claw
yummmooo!!! can you see how delish this is? can you imagine the amazingness? and then you dip it into sweet and sour sauce...and after you get through the shrimp that's around the crab claw, you get the meat of the crab claw. oh yea this was $10 - $5 per claw


Steamed Chicken Feet
ok so this is one of the things where you've either grown up eating it, like me, or if you haven't, then you ate it. But it's not really as gross as it sounds...it's tasty! and yes salami they don't have the nails attached. this is a fancy dim sum place!

Xiao Long Bao
this was my mom's fav, so much that she ate 3 and i one, panda had 2. so what makes this so good? besides it being cooked to perfection? well....the skin was the perfect thickness, and well there was a pocket ouf soup inside! no drippage! no breakage! only yummy goodness in your mouth! this was $11

Foil Wrapped Chicken
Yank Sing is very famous for this dish...and honestly they do make the best! hence why i'm not allowed to order it at any other restaurant haha...wait for it...

juicy! and all that juicyness cost $8

Pan Fried Turnip Cake

Fried Sweet Dumpling

the skin is sweet...but inside it's savory! a mixture of pork and shitake mushrooms

Rice Noodle wrapped around Beef
ok so this was $10....yes can you believe it? crazyy!! and honestly i didn't like it too much. the beef inside had too much scallions and cilantro...and i'm not a fan of cilantro

Mango Pudding
could have been better...if they added fresh mangos inside before they made it into a pudding

Coconuts Carribean @ Palo Alto

Jamaican food at Coconuts Carribean. I've never been a fan of jerk chicken, and I didn't become a fan after eating here either because I didn't order jerk chicken, hehehe. But, apparently the jerk chicken is great here from looking at all the reviews. The ox tail stew however was GREAT! reallll tasssty.

New York Steak w. Coconut Shrimp and Mashed Potatoes
steak had good flavor but it was over cooked, panda requested medium rare, and there was no pink sadness. obviously this isn't a place that you order steak. but the coconut shrimp was really good, and i hate coconut. it wasn't too coconutty so it wasn't overpowered, and the shrimp was cooked perfectly

Ox Tail Stew w. plaintains, rice and beans, and veggies
this oxtail was GREAT! seriously....i could have eaten a lot more if they gave me more. the menu said that the meat falls off the bone, there is definitely no false advertisement there. i didn't have to pick up the bone and gnaw at it, i just used my fork and it fell off. yum yum...i would go back just to eat this!

Plantains
i love plaintains...something about banana's being pan fried til carmelized..sounds good no?

Sweet Potato Pie
ok definitely was not a fan of this. it was the consistency...mushy. i tasted too much rum and i didn't like it. but you see the little raisins on the sides? if you took a bite of the pie and ate a raisin with it, then it tasted good. but still no repeater for me.

S & T Hong Kong Seafood @ San Francisco

So many dim sum places in SF...where to go...where to go! Well if you ask any good asian, you'll know that all the BEST dim sum places are outside of the city, like in Burlingame, Milbrae and San Bruno. When I say "best" I mean best considering the food and the price you pay. However, if you're in the city already and you don't want to travel outside of it S&T Hong Kong Seafood does the job as well. The dim sum plates are pretty tasty and the prices are a little higher than the other places, probably around 30 cents to 50 cents more. This place is always busy though...and be aggressive when you go! Don't let the asians push you around. hehehehe. we ate more than there are pictures...I was just consumed with eating and forgot to take more pics!

Beef wrapped around Rice Noodles
nomnomnom

Fried Taro Dumpling
yummmo! loves taro

Portuguese Egg Tart
think egg tart...but like creme brulee!

Crispy Noodles topped w. chicken, mushrooms, baby bok choy, squid, shrimp and pork
crispy noodles are the best part!

Pan Fried Turnip Cake
panda's favorite

Fried Shrimp Balls
penguin's favorite! hmmmmm delicious!

Mission Beach Cafe @ San Francisco

BRUNCHH!!!! It was allll "whoooaaaa" while eating at Mission Beach Cafe. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving, so who would be out to brunch right? Wrong...a lot of people! Apparently eating all day Thursday doesn't deter from eating the next day, and I guess why would there be such a deterrence when the brunch items here are just that good. Panda and I were starved because we just went to bikram, and like always I'm ready to eat immediately afterwards. Bad news was this place was PACKED! good news was that we got to sit immediately though there were people in front of us! yayyy!!!

Prather Ranch Beef Brisket, seasoned fried eggs, brussel sprouts & creme fraiche
whoooaaaa!! ok the beef brisket! oh so tender, juicy and full of flavor! they were nice and bite size. my eggs were cooked perfectly - over easy. the brussel sprouts weren't that bad either! just tasted like cabbage to me. everything was tasy and matched very well, my only complaint is that there wasn't enough meat!

Dungeness Crab Benedict w. roasted peppers, tomatoes and holandiase sauce & roasted potatotes
yummmyyyy...panda didn't like the crab very much because there wasn't much crab flavor, but you know crab isn't very robust. the hollandise was very nice though. roasted potatoes were great..love love carbs

Prather Ranch Beef Burger w. carmelized onions, mushrooms, lettuce and tomato

Thanksgiving 2009

Food galore!!! So all of this was only during lunch time...I was starved when dinner came after watching Ninja Assassins (ick) and forgot to take pictures. But meh...it was chinese food...and some of the things might scare some of my viewers. hehehe

Bun Cuon (sp)
layers of rice noodle topped with a mixture of pork, carrots, and mushroom. my popo's specialty.

no idea what it's called but i really like it! it's a healthy snack! a piece of char grilled pork, lettuce, and mint leaves wrapped with rice noodle and you dip it in a peanut sauce!



Rice Krispy Treats

Pigs in a Blanket
['lil smokes wrapped in crescent rolls]
so addicting!

Salad
so green and healthy...haha

Trio of Sides...

Chinese Sticky Rice

Corn

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy


TURKEY!
i don't eat turkey...

more turkey...

My First Plate
[corn, mashed potatoes w. gravy, pigs in blanket and sticky rice]
yea no turkey...heheh

Blood Orange Soda w. Absolut Vodka

In N Out

Yes I know...many of you know what in-n-out is, but this is directed to my nyc reader...bacchus of nyc who has not had in-n-out yet, right? anyways my panda loves in-n-out and each time he touches down to california this is a must! immediately! asap! it's always the cheese burger with grilled onions and animal style fries.

yummmo?

Animal Style Fries
[french fries, grilled onions, melted cheese and special sauce]

The Counter @ Roseville

Custom made hamburgers! Yes I know, this isn't something new, but you have to understand how difficult it is to find unique restaurants in Roseville, which is a suburbia for Sacramento. So Counter Burger it is. The concept isn't unique, but neither is the restaurant since it appears to be a chain within California and very similar to Custom Burger in SF. While visiting Watermelon the other weekend this is where we settled on eating because someone didn't like Johnny Garlic's, but I'm still determined to go one day! We sat at the counter and service was UBER slow...seriously no energy? Food overall was good...not the greatest burger I've had...and of course my comparison is always the mushroom burger <3

Menu - Ordering Pad
you build your burger by picking out your patty, bun, sauce, vegetables, cheese, special fixins etc. and if you're lazy like me you can just order off the menu that has 5 burgers. but i wasn't lazy per se, just that the Custom Burger had everything I would have added anyways :P

Coke Float
this was actually really good...and yum yum yum. it had to do with the ice cream, i don't think it's non-fat...but more like uber-rich-creamy-ness...maybe from kobe beef cows? haha yea right

Half Sweet Potato Fries & Onion Strings w. dipping sauces
nomnomnomom...yayyy!! ok so the sweet potato fries really good! and fresh! not too creasy...the onion strings were good at first, but then ended up being a teaser because i then wanted onion rings. haha

Counter Burger
[all-natural ground beef, provolne, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, fried onion w. garlic aioli spread]

so the first bite was really good...but most things are right? the ground beef was good, but i think i've had better. i loved the mushrooms, but i always liked mushrooms. the bun was too soft for me...i think it needed to be toasted more...i needed more tomatoes too!!! ok so far mel's diner and burgers & brew have the best mushroom burgers...who wants to go to either one with me later this week :P