From the category archives:

Travel

Rosamunde Sausage Grill

by KimHo on December 8, 2010 · 0 comments under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Rosamunde Sausage Grill
2832 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
Rosamunde Sausage Grill on Urbanspoon

OK, OK, final stretch of San Francisco post. Aside from this one, for Friday’s post, I have Boccalone located in the Ferry Building (more details on that one when time comes) so, until I have another trip to San Francisco… :)

As for today’s post, so far, almost all posts I have had for San Francisco have had a companion/partner-in-crime component. Once again, I have to give Sherman thanks for being a good sport and tagging along. From taking the ferry for Hamburgers to going to a dim sum dive-y place to agreeing to go to Incanto (located not necessarily in a main street) rather than some more popular restaurant. Of course, there were things that I wanted to do by myself and, in those cases, I chose to break apart from the main group. So, on the Sunday after dim sum at Dol Ho, Sherman had plans with his cousins at Foreign Cinema and I had plans to visit Boccalone (again, Friday’s post). After that, I was planning to do some sightseeing, walking around. One of those places was the Castro District – the equivalent of Davie Village in Vancouver. A very dear friend of mine made mention about it so I decided to drop by. Of course, crappy weather slowed me down a little bit but, still, I managed to drop by. On my way back, I decided to stop by one of the BART stations to get some food. The interesting thing is that, near the Mission BART stations, there is a certain level of Latin food but, oddly, I chose not to go that route. Instead, I went for something more… Mundane? Basic? Something that “normal” people can identify? Namely, meat in a tube? (OK, that sounded strange…). That’s how, I ended up going to Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

Rosamunde Sausage Grill, sausage, Mission, Street, San Francisco, California, buns, wiener, currywurst, red, pepper, onion, curry, catsup, ketcup, beef, pork, sauerkraut, beer, drinking hole, cheese, pub

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San Francisco Random Photo Essay

by KimHo on December 5, 2010 · 1 comment under: Photo Essay,Travel

While it is true that I take a lot pictures of food, probably way too many, once in a while, I would like to remind people I also take pictures of “other things”. So, for my trip to San Francisco, here are some “random” pictures I took. Enjoy this photo essay!

San Francisco, Ferry, Building, Japanese, Tea, Garden, photo, essay, random, skate, board, Castro, District, Lombard, Street, Love, sign

San Francisco Ferry Building


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Katana-Ya

by KimHo on December 3, 2010 · 2 comments under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Katana-Ya
430 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA
Katana-Ya on Urbanspoon

On our first night in San Francisco, after the FoodBuzz welcome reception street food fare, we were driven back to a hotel near Union Square. While everybody was walking back their to the hotel, I noticed a restaurant that I thought “just for kicks, this might be interesting for us to try!” The following night, while waiting for the gala dinner and seemingly seemed to be taking forever, I was telling the “gang” (as in TS/JS, Mijune and Sherman) that if dinner didn’t star by 8:00 p.m. (officially the invite was for 7:00 p.m.), I might as well go back to the hotel as I was tired already, a bit grumpy (OK, grumpier than usual). Wait! What about the food? Hey, food is always in the radar and Katana-Ya, that said restaurant, was on the way back to the hotel! Given I wrote about the dinner, that means we were let in before 8:00 p.m. which means we had to see if there was space/time to go there. And, actually we did! Since our flight back to Vancouver was in the late afternoon, I agreed with Sherman to meet way past the lunch rush crowd for a last lunch before taking the BART (hence, to the airport) and back to Vancouver…

Katanaya, katana-ya, San Francisco, sushi, Japanese, Ramen, rice, curry, donburi, bowl, rice, katsu, don, kari, seafood, tuna, salmon, octopus, squid, hamachi, shrimp, ebi, tako, cha siu, BBQ, fried, corn, seaweed, chicken, gyoza, tempura, rolls, unagi, salad

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Brenda’s French Soul Food

by KimHo on December 1, 2010 · 1 comment under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA
Brenda's French Soul Food on Urbanspoon

So, now into the final stretch of the trip! (Well, sort of!). So, after our Vancouver food blogger dinner at Incanto with TS/JS, Mijune and Sherman, we were making some final plans in San Francisco. However, despite they were good sports in some things I wanted to do, on this last half day before our flight back to Vancouver, I was a bit selfish and went to do some things by myself, agreeing on meeting before our flight. But, in the usual family Chinese way, “breakfast first”!

Actually, we didn’t have a real breakfast plan considering Sherman and I already had dim sum in Dol Ho (and our initial plan was Yank Sing). So, instead, we agreed to meet and go from there. At first, we wanted to give Dottie’s another chance (the original attempt failed and we ended up going to Taylor Street Coffee Shop) and when we arrived, another 1 hour queue. Seriously??? ARGH!!! So, we started wandering around, going back and forth, including some places closer to Union Square. However, all of those had extremely safe breakfast menu (read: omelette, pancake, hash, sausage, bacon, etc.; basically the same stuff you would be able to get at Denny’s). Then we went to the opposite way and ran into more interesting options, including pho for breakfast (interestingly, with a help wanted sign… In Spanish?!). When we were walking near Polk Street, Sherman’s previous experience in San Fran kicked in: Brenda’s French Soul Food which he had visited previously but was still good for a revisit. Considering this wasn’t the “usual suspect” dishes, I was more than eager to give it a try!

Brenda's French Soul Food, Brenda's, French, Soul, Food, San Francisco, California, Polk, Street, beignet, grits, shrimp, crawfish, cajun, New Orleans, andouille, granny, smith, apple, chocolate, plain, pot, pie, salad,  cheese, dairy, milk, creole

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Incanto

by KimHo on November 29, 2010 · 10 comments under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Incanto
1550 Church Street
San Francisco, CA
Incanto on Urbanspoon

Earlier this year, fellow blogger Chris of Eating is the Hard Part visited San Francisco and wrote of Incanto, the restaurant of celebrity chef Chris Cosentino. To those who do not know, Chris Cosentino’s, aside form rustic Italian cooking, has also participated in different TV shows, including his won Chef vs. City. However, what I care more is about *what* he cooks: in his menu, he includes offal dishes. Yes, cooking from head to tail and almost everything in between! So, when the FoodBuzz Food Festival was announced, restaurants plans were flying going back and forth. While JS/TS and Sherman had quite an extensive list, I had only two places in mind: Hamburgers (Sausalito) and, you guessed it, Incanto!

Incanto, San Franciso, Chris, Cosentino, Church Street, offal, restaurant, haute cuisine, squid, salad, seafood, boccalone, cold meat, platter, rapini, baccala, sardines, cod, milt, duck, egg, piglet, antipasto, yellowtail, crudo blood, pappardelle, paccheri, sweetbreads, chicken, risotto, pork, mushroom, offal, bollito, misto, pasta, yellowtail, pumpkin, pork belly, belly, pomegranate, poussin, douglas, fir, panna cotta, pear, bread, pudding, celery, root, cake

Update: Sherman’s post is here; Mijune’s post is here.

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San Francisco Ferry Building Farmer’s Market

by KimHo on November 28, 2010 · 1 comment under: Food,Travel

Last week, I wrote about my second day in my trip to San Francisco to attend FoodBuzz’s Food Blogger Festival (welcome reception and gala dinner). On that day, Sherman was good sports and was along for some places, starting with breakfast at Taylor Street Coffee Shop, followed by lunch at Hamburgers (Sausalito), then a “snack” at Saigon Sandwich Shop. In my Hamburgers’ post, I mentioned about their farmer’s market:) So, enjoy this photo essay!

San Francisco, Ferry, Building, Farmer's, Market, restaurant, Roli, Roti, produce, vegetable, tomato, onion, leek, bread, sourdough, greens, seafood, street, food, food, stand, mushroom, greens, Sausalito

San Francisco Ferry Building

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Dol Ho

by KimHo on November 26, 2010 · 8 comments under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Dol Ho
808 Pacific Ave
San Francisco, CA
Dol Ho on Urbanspoon

A lot of times, plans get shift around because things do not happens as we wished it would. In this trip to San Francisco, originally we were planning to go to Yank Sing on Monday before flying back to Vancouver for some dim sum comparison. However, on Sunday, plans ended up being shuffled because of weather: It was “raining”. So, Sherman and I were in the situation of wondering where to go for breakfast. After some brainstorming, we decided to switch that visit from Monday to Sunday. However, that wasn’t the only change: Given that Yank Sing, from the outside, had the looks of Sun Sui Wah or Kirin, we thought we could give it a try but… But.. Why not make it more “interesting”. That’s how we ended up going to Chinatown where we found Dol Ho.

(And, yes, old school Cantonese dim sum is served as early as 6:00 a.m. for breakfast, not brunch/lunch as done here in Vancouver! :P )

Dol Ho, San Francisco, dim sum, Chinatown, old school, dive, Pacific Avenue, siu mai, har gao, beef balls, spareribs, chicken, feet, phoenix, talon, shrimp, pork, mushroom, bun, dumpling
Did I say… Old!


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