San Francisco walkabout - 8/13-8/24 (Part 1)

Ellie and I kind of went crazy when I visited SF in August. Below are the highlights and occasional mishaps of our eating adventures.

Included: B Star, Blue Wing Saloon, Ferry Building

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Kuau: 08/13/09 - Dinner: Burger Joint at the airport. Ellie and I both got cheeseburgers and both thought they were disgusting and ridiculously overpriced. The airport may explain the price, but the flimsy patty is probably the same at the real restaurant. This may have been the worst non fast food burger I’ve ever had.

08/14/09-08/15/09 - Clear Lake. Decent hole in the wall breakfast place, and pretty good reasonably priced dinner spot in Upper Clear Lake called Blue Wing Saloon. We went to a farmer's market for breakfast on Saturday. It was local and tiny but it had some good fruit, as is generally the case in August in the central valley.

Returned for dinner on Saturday night. We tried to eat at Burma Superstar, but the wait was two hours so we went to the sister restaurant B Star instead. It was basically the same price with ever so slightly smaller portions than Burma Superstar. Ellie’s parents were with us so we split five meals. Three were amazing, one was pretty good, and one was okay.

We ordered a taco duo with one cod taco and one pork belly taco. I was very skeptical to eat a taco from a Burmese fusion restaurant that was the sister of a very highly recommended authentic restaurant, but when it came, my fears were completely removed. It did have a Southern Asian flair to the taco, which was delightful, even if Ellie does think that delightful is a stupid adjective in this case.

We also ordered the miso cod. It was cooked wonderfully and had a great sauce I believe. Ellie can add more if she wants. This was one of her choices so maybe she remembers extra details. I was very happy with the dish though.

Ellie: I actually thought it was kind of boring, and I think it was my dad’s choice, but I forget. The cod was cooked well, but other than that I thought it was kind of like any other miso cod I’ve ever had. Of which there have been approximately ... 2.

Kuau: We also ordered the braised lamb curry. This dish was amazing. I think it was my favorite dish of the night. It had a great curry flavor, but was also clean tasting. And it came on top of a coconut rice (although I don’t recall the coconut flavor at all) and some other stuff that mixed very well with the curry. I actually want this curry right now. As I’m at work, I’ll have to suffice with a PB&J.

As for the last two dishes, they either aren’t on the menu or they weren’t good enough for me to remember what they were. Oh, I do see a beer fed pork and bean on the menu now. That sounds like an amazing dish, but the pork was bland and even the beans had no flavor. This was the worst dish we had. It was my top choice when we were initially deciding on dishes.

Ellie: I do think we got a “pork and beans”-type meal, but I don’t remember it being “beer-fed.” Actually I don’t know where you got the beer-fed at all because on my computer the B Star menu says the following: “Pork and white beans – tender pork belly braised until heavenly, jasmine rice, white beans, bok choy.” And I think that’s what we got. Anyway, I agree, it wasn’t a particularly interesting dish, but it was cute to put an “Asian spin” on an American concept (although if I remember correctly my parents actually said it was a pretty typical Asian dish without the beans).

Kuau: Clearly Ellie and I were looking at different websites that showed the B Star menu, because the menu that I looked at said it was beer fed. But her interjection above is correct.

Ellie: The last dish we got was my favorite, and Kuau liked it a lot too, so I don’t know what kind of crack he’s on that he’s saying it must’ve been worthless since he forgot it. It was a salmon curry puff pastry, basically an awesome yellow curry -- better than the lamb curry, although the lamb meat was better than the salmon meat. On top of it was a big piece of puff pastry, which was a nice way of adding a faux French touch to the dish, but wasn’t enough to soak up the delicious curry sauce. Luckily (? it was a ton of food) we had a lot of extra rice from the pork and beans.

Kuau: 08/16/09 - Breakfast: nibbled food from the ferry building on our way to Angel Island. I believe we got some bread from Acme Bread, which I think is overrated. We got a sandwich that was maybe salami. I know the pesto one looked good but was sold out at 10:45am on a Sunday morning. The sandwich was boring.

Ellie: Well, the bread is pretty good and cheap. At least compared to other Ferry Building restaurants. But I suppose it hasn’t stood out to us compared to other bread companies in San Francisco. I totally agree about the sandwich. I’d be willing to give them one more chance though, on one that actually sounds interesting, if they’re ever not sold out. I feel like they must always be sold out for a reason ... right?

Kuau: We also got an egg salad sandwich that was really good. I think it was from Lulu Petite. At this point, I think we’ve actually eaten a little something from about half of the ferry building stalls. Most of the stuff is fine, but I’m starting to wonder why it seems to be the hip and upscale spot to stop by. I suppose I appreciate the ability to get a cooked bite from a local farm, but a below average hot dog for $5 just isn’t worth it. I don’t care if it was delivered on a truck that only traveled for 50 miles. For that kind of gas savings, I want a $1.50 hot dog. For that matter, I’d want a medium drink as well. And I can still go to Costco for that. And my dog would taste better and be bigger from Costco.

Anyway, so the hot dog is the worst thing I remember from the building, and the egg salad sandwich the best. All in all, it’s a nice place to get really good if overpriced produce during farmer's markets (I’m still coming to terms with the concept of overpriced and farmer's market co-existing, as farmer's markets traditionally are extremely cheap because it’s being delivered directly to the consumer).

I’d much rather have equally good nectarines at three for a dollar than a biodynamic one at $3/lb, which ends up being $1.75 each. Or even worse, $3.75/lb because a local fair gave out a best in class award. Needless to say, the nectarines and pluots are amazing either way and I’m really just needlessly counting pennies. So the farmer's market is still the highlight of the ferry building and worth the trip. Especially for someone who calls New Jersey their home during the peak fruit season.

Dinner: We went to Japantown for sushi. Our first choice had a bit of a wait, and it basically just served sushi, so we went to a different place so where people could order hot food if desired. I have no idea where we ended up eating, but maybe if one of us goes there in the near future, we can scope out the name. It was fine. Average Japanese food for below average Japanese food prices. That is all.

Ellie: I was just pleased that hand rolls were only like $2 at this place. At least it stands out among the other 6 (an estimate) Japanese places in that mall since it’s cheap.