tartine+woodhouse

Spent the past month working on...who knows what! Must I take photos of nothing but food! /cry

Despite many burnt croissants, I quite like Tartine.


Brioche bread pudding topped with fruit ^o^


The morning bun. Really jealous of my friend, Stella, who lives nearby. I would be tempted to buy this morning bun or that bread pudding with some coffee every morning. Yummmmm~!


Croque monsieur with spicy pickled carrots.

Funny thing about Tartine. Not a lot of people seem to know that tartine means open faced sandwich in French. It's no surprise that the tartines are good at Tartine.


Thirsty.


The banana creme pie we took home :x &Brian's fancy new shun paring knife.

Some time after, we went to Woodhouse on Fillmore. Our usual place :) I bumped into Leslie at Fraiche! Not quite bumped but more rushed into Fraiche upon realizing that it was her that I saw there. The dog next to her barked at me, lol.


Our usual order of oysters. It goes by so quickly. It's actually quite saddening.


Yum, SLURP!


Got around to trying the crab roll. Really looks like a taco. They stuff the crab in a slice of bread and topped it with cheese and crab. Pretty generous. I got some greens so I wouldn't feel so bad.


SO MUCH CRAB.


Brian got cioppino. He's wanted it since the end of his summer job 2 months ago.



I planned to buy Nikon's Series E lenses but failed. I give up. I'm going to buy a 35mm af-s f/1.8 lens after all. I've been hunting for the Nikon series e lens for a week or so (I know, not long but my patience is waning) and have not been able to win any bids at all. I think my chances will be better with the AF lenses. :(

Ferry Building today and everyday!!!

I am sooo fortunate to have a big sis and bro in law that will 1: wake me up early in the morning to, 2: take me to the ferry building and buy me TWO COFFEES at blue bottle ^o^~ wibble~ (you want me to do TWO things?? -bender) If there were two Margarets, I would not be so hyped up on coffee, bbq darling, bbq.


caffe latte on left, half finished new orleans on right


sweet baguette from acme ^o^~ (random passerby while Margaret was taking photo: "that's a long baguette!")

We went to Chinatown after since it was right up the street from the Ferry Building :) Parked right next to the Panaeng Garden where they served Durian Chicken soup! My grandma loveddd the Durian Chicken soup here...everyday I miss her.


Random dog we passed by while walking up Washinton. He was so fat and cute I had to snap a picture ...albeit a bit blurry.


Inconceivably inexpensive blueberries! I had some last night and they were soo yummy. We bought 4 boxes. (Sign says 2 for $1.50) I think more than 50% are too ripe now :( but it's okay, will make really good blueberry muffins ~ :)


Acme cinnamon black currant toast. Cheirie berry says that it's too sweet but it's going to be soo good with English Breakfast! I had wanted to go to KW's today for tea and toast but she's a little busy bee.

I have not been doing anything but lazing around since classes ended. I'm not even playing WoW. Way. Too. Lazy. I'm pretty happy that I got to go out for a little bit to snap a few photos. Classes are starting soon and I still have not gotten the DAI fundraising shenanigans started. Once I get some work done, I'll feel better. I think I should take my time. I already talked to one of my very trusted (and loved!) instructors so I can't lose confidence now! がんばれ, がんばれ, がんばれ!!! 無論如可, 一定要加油 ^o^~

723

Happy birthday :)

This is the tres leche cake from Tartine. Oh boy. I did not expect Tartine lines to be so unnecessarily long. I had a bite of their croissant as well. I have not yet had a really delicious croissant before but this is probably as good as it gets in S.F. Nice sound when you break the bread apart and kind of a crunch when you bite into it. Brian (Happy Birthday!!) says that a croissant is suppose to be flaky? How do you attain that type of perfection?

She's home from France

I'm still trying to figure out a blog style. Do I even have time to be thinking about blogging? Helvetica (it's actually arial!) +default blog with giant photos will do for now. Cheirie bugged me the very next morning to go to the Ferry Building so we could grab Blue Bottle Coffee and Acme bread for some apparently, super excellent butter she got while she was hanging out in France.


Yay, coffee!

I also got a waffle. It was good but not as good as the waffles I have off the So Good Belgium Waffle truck at school! He sometimes in Golden Gate Park. I hear that he's also at other Farmers' Markets too.


My sister was talking to some out of towners and I selfishly complained that the waffle isn't as good. I'm kind of a dolt sometimes.


Cheirie ready to attack the ridiculously delicious butter she brought home.


Honey stick samples :) don't remember the names, doh!


The ridiculously delicious butter.


You would think, it's just normal butter with seaweed but in it's actually hand made butter! I don't know if I will taste anything as luscious for a while.


Also sampled some chocolate. Om nom nom.


You licked it!!! Oops! :P


Lol, my hair. I really like this room. Book shelf above bed but it's constructed into the wall.


I like this sweater a lot. I got it at UO back when they still sold Lux. They probably still do, I dunno.

Brunch at Zazie.

I regret not coming to Zazie with my other friends the week before this. I had to cancel the morning of! I'm felt so awful but I'm glad everything is good at home! I originally opted to go somewhere in the city but was too lazy to go out there to find parking. I found parking immediately at Zazie even though it usually is rather difficult. The joy!

Photo with Angela since she hates taking photographs, muwahah.



I shared the gingerbread pancakes (with some pear compote which was mediocre and apple sauce. I've had better pear compote elsewhere!) Also shared the crab benedict (a little stingy there aren't ya?). I think I rather go to Mama's if I ever want crab benedict again.









I had a tartine the last time I was here. I was not blown away. When will San Francisco offer me a unique tartine that doesn't have salmon and cream cheese? Sigh.

Renegade Craft Fair 2011

It's ridiculous that I did not take any photos of the actual fair but I was definitely there. I was helping out Janine and Glenn at Uppercase Publications with Catherine and my friend Annie. I will be sure to take more photos next time.





Annie (Curbside Treasure and a gifted vintage typewriter. Ah, I just saw her photos. They're much better than mine. I should shrink mine to oblivion!

On to the food! I had some southern fried chicken, a pie pop and Jamaican tea. I always forget to think about my health when purchasing meals.







I'm much happier with the way I post now. All I need to do is go to my Picasa gallery and right click for the drop down menu and "copy image URL." So much better than using the blogger tool!

slanted door/woodhouse

Went to Slanted Door (express) today and Woodhouse. Yum.

Grainy photos =o= this is what happens when it's too dark and you don't want to use flash.

Tsukiji Fish Market

Oh Japan :( my heart goes out to you in this time of difficulty!

Anyway, I wanted to continue my posts for Tokyo even though I started blogging about local places again :)

I had wanted to go to Tsukiji Fish Market since my first time in Tokyo but I never woke up early enough. If I had, I would be able to see the tuna auctions! The tuna auctions were closed in January. So sad! Speaking of Tsukiji Fish Market...and tuna auctions, I heard Sushi Ran in Sausalito have fish from Tsukiji. Curious! How do they participate in the tuna auctions? Are they silent???

This time around, I still didn't wake up early as intended but my sister and I still went.

The trooper :D can't even tell she was suffering from a fever!

There was a crazy line at Sushi Dai and the other sushi places but it was about 4k yen per omakase box so sister and I opted to go to this chirashi zushi place. It was about 1.5k-3k yen per bowl and it came with some kind marinated squid and seaweed miso soup.

The mysteriously stuffed squid. So delicious. My sister initially said they were some kind of female part of a fish. Thinking about it now, that doesn't even make any sense!!! I asked the chef what it was and all I heard was "ika" and the lady next to me confirmed that it was ika but still, what the hell was inside??

The miso soup was also really tasty. Seaweed was fresh and a little crunchy :3

Didn't get good shots because I was in a rush to eat! Hahah. We got otoro and maguro over sushi rice. I was also feeling sick so I'm unsure, but I think there was too much vinegar in the rice. Oh brother.

Now that I've visited Tsukiji, I would not recommend going and that the restaurants are a sure tourist trap. They have nice lunch sets for ~2k-3k yen in Shibuya in Mark City. I say, you can probably get a few good snaps the wholesale market is open~! Though, as B says, "at least you can say that you went." :)

Food wise, rather than sushi or sashimi, I think Tsukiji is more famous for their tamagoyaki! I was being a fail and didn't get any photos of the millions of tamagoyaki and kitsune places. Although tamagoyaki is easy to make, I would pick one up as you're walking around the market. They are as cheap as 100 yen for tamagoyaki on a stick. It shouldn't be more since eggs are cheap. There were also quite a few donburi places. If they had oden with mochi kinchyaku, I would revisit for sure.

Chez Maman (brunch)

I came here on a nice Saturday afternoon with someone that has been pretty amazing. Brunch was just alright. I thought my poached egg with salmon and goat cheese was a little salty. Gargh, I really need to stop ordering salmon at brunch. I usually order it "just to be safe" or if there is nothing on the menu that seems appealing. The company said that the garlic aioli was overpowering but that's how I like my garlic so when I'm craving a giant burger on a roll with too much garlic, I will be coming to Chez Maman. Chez Maman has been my favorite place for the past few months but I think I'm happier slurping oysters while sharing fish and chips with a sparkling sauvignon blanc from New Zealand at Woodhouse. Yeah, that night was perfect.

the popular burger topped with brie.

salmon, goat cheese cocotte.

cappuccino :)

and finally! my favorite pain perdu drizzled with an apple chantilly with berries and cream.

Ryogoku nabemono @ Edosawa!

Our last night in Tokyo (must have been a couple weeks ago already TT___TT), Auntie brought us to a nabemono place in Ryogoku (sumo wrestler town). Big sister Cheirie caught a cold and stayed in with a fever so she didn't get to experience the yummy food. ;-; oh my dear sister. We also went into Roppongi Hills for a stroll and there was a GREAT~ taiyaki place right above the station (photos later =o= for now, just Ryogoku). Mum and auntie later shopped in Shinjuku where mom landed a deal on an LV.

On right is my Auntie. She handles cheap room and board for girls travelling to Tokyo. Contact me for information! She can speak Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin.
Anyway~ we went to Edosawa for nabemono, meal for CHAMPIONS~~! Edosawa is a fairly popular place at night especially for business men (it seems!) They have at least two locations in Ryogoku.

Four portions of seafood including SQUID and SCALLOPS mm, favorite :)

Of course nothing beats the mochi kinchaku. You can find mochi kinchaku in the conbini oden but it it not offered in a single restaurant in S.F. Bay Area. There is, however, one izakaya in LA that serves it. Mochi kinchaku is really good because it doesn't soak up soup like tofu so it won't burn your tongue and warm mochi is heaven. It's why I usually really like tong yuan during the winter. :)

Oh yes, and they also had sumo style dessert. So cute~! We were too full so we didn't order it...although we should have :(

Ah, at the end of dinner, there was an infamous struggle for the check between my mother and auntie. Being Chinese is so comical in the way we always fight for the check. If only I had thought to pay for dinner when I went to the bathroom. It was an after thought. My sister, Marie pushed me to get up and get the tab so even though I had already gone to the bathroom I tried to excuse myself saying "...chotto toirei..." but auntie was like "TOI MEH REI AH!"
I mean to point out the cultural clash here with my auntie! She used a Chinese exclamation between the syllables of a Japanese word! I don't know when I'll come across that again so this tiny memory is special to me.

Well, more food posts for Tokyo later.

edit: oops the last two photos were poorly cropped due to idiocy. :D I'll fix it later.