San Francisco Treat

The wife and I headed to San Francisco for a little weekend getaway/food feast. On our trip we managed to try as much food as possible and the following highlighted our culinary itinerary:

Jai Yun - 12 Course prefix chef's selection dinner for 2 @ the $80.00/pp level. We had a restaurants.com $75 dollar voucher to make this meal a steal.

Mama's on Washington Sq - French toast sampler (amazing in-house bread), dungeness crab omlette with avocado's and Brie

R & G Lounge - Crispy salt and pepper dungeness crabs

Leland Tea Comany - Cream Tea: (organic chai) two scones, double devon cream and fruit!

The Slanted Door - Modern Vietnamese focusing on local and ecological farmed meat and produce. We had their Crispy Imperial Rolls, dungeness crab cellophane noodles, shaking beef (filet mignon), meyer lemon meringue tart and blood orange sorbet with thai basil sauce.

The Little Skillet - Fried chicken and waffles

Ferry plaza farmers market - Cow girl creamery / Boccalone Salumeria / Hog Island / Blue Bottle Coffee / Il Cane Rosso / Out the door / Acme Bread / Far west fungi /

Chez Panisse Cafe - Alice Waters famed restaurant - Pizzetta, sea bass tare tare, pork leg, chicken paillard, squid, lime sherbet, pink lady apple and sour cherry tart, and caramel cream puffs.

Check out Angie's Blog for more pics!

Philippe's and Roscoe's

While on our visit to LA, i insisted to stop at Roscoe's and Philippes

and they did not disappoint!








our trip ended with a quick lesson in mahjong

Toronto - Spadina

Beef Tendon and Wonton noodle soup. The pan fried noodles with homemade black bean sauce was great also.

Swatow Restaurant
309 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T 2E6, Canada
(416) 977-0601

Battle of the Banh Mi - Bandwagon Trend

ref: nymag article: another banh mi in the oven


ref: nytimes.com: Building on layers of tradition.

Seems like the Banh Mi bandwagon trend is now in full effect here in the East coast as many magazines and articles are popping up on the net featuring these mouthwatering subs.

A famous west coast foodie couple/bloggers called "the white on rice couple", created the site "battle of the banh mi" to educate everyone on the great delicacy of the banh mi sandwich. It seems that on the west coast the banh mi has been famous for years (seeing that most trends pass through the west before they are set in here in the east coast) as seen by the abundant Lee's sandwich shop chains have been popping up all over since 2001 with over 31 chains!

The classic banh mi is a Vietnamese-French influenced sandwich, that is on a crispy baguette(classically made with wheat and rice flour) and made up of an addicting combination of salty, crunchy, moist and hot contrasting delacacies such as pickled carrots and diakons, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos, meat fillings, headcheese, pate's, mayonaise, butter and sirracha sauce.

I am holding my own personal East Coast battle of the banh mi , as we have been recently scouring NYC for the best tasting banh mi, not necessarily the most authentic, but best overall based on price, quality and taste. Which may ruffle some purist feathers, but sometimes it is what it is~ Trend or not we enjoy ourselves a good banh mi~

We have found several variets which range from: classic, chinese-influenced, and modern/upscale banh mi's. None the less I will rate and value as many banh mi's as I can get my hands on.

So far my list is goes as follows:

Hanco's - 85 Bergan St, Brooklyn -$5.50 - Value: B-, Taste: A, Overall: A
Ba Xuyen - 4222 Eigth Ave, Brooklyn - $3.75 - Value: A+ , Taste: B, Overall: B
Baogette - 61 Lexington Ave - $5.00 - Value: B, Taste: B+, Overall: B+
Banh Mi Saigon Bakery - 138-01 Mott St - TBD
Nicky's - 150 E. 2nd St - $5.00 - Value B, Taste: C, Overall: C
An Choi's - 85 Orchard St - TBD
NhaToi's - 60 Havemeyer St, Williamsburg - TBD
Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich - 369 Broome St - TBD
Paris Sandwich's - 113 Mott St - TBD
Sau Voi Corp - 101-105 Lafayette St - TBD
Num Pang - 21 East 12th Street - TBD
Thanh Da - 6008 Seventh Ave, Brooklyn - TBD

Outside NYC:

Lee's Sandwich's - Various locations California - $$ - Value: B, Taste: B-, Overall: B-
Vietnamese Cafe - Philadelphia - $3.50 - Value: A, Taste: B, Overall: B

Huntington Beach

Being a native New Yorker / Staten Islander and now Brooklynite, I have not been able to appreciate the great state of California as I would of liked. California is a great culinary state producing amazing produce and housing many great chefs to say the least.

Recently we took a trip out to Huntington Beach to spend time with relatives, and cook a bit. The weather was a but chilly but much more comfortable then the chilly freeze of NYC, the most surprising thing for me was and the space value, it was truly amazing compared to our cramped NYC living standards.

Continue reading "Huntington Beach" >>

oh Canada

YYZ Pearson Airport

Just got back from my recent trip from Canada, that included many days and nights of good times with family and friends, ten ren, chinese food, movies, and did i mention ten ren?

Congee Wong and Pu choung Chicken


Watermelon Ti Quan Yi Slush with Tapioca
@ Ten Ren Tea Time - Hwy 7, Thornhill, Ontario Canada