Weekend Re-Cap: Open Houses and Poleng

March 26, 2007

Some blog readers (Kenny and Robert) have heckled me recently for blogging an average of ONLY1x/week and naming those blog updates "weekend re-cap". Tough. It's pretty much what you're going to get and you'll have to be satisfied with it.

So, here goes the re-cap of last weekend...

FRIDAY

I was toast on Friday night from the week, so I ran some errands, got a pedicure, and headed home for some quality couch time and dinner. I also applied rash judgement to my closet and organized the Goodwill pile and the "try to sell" pile. All in all, a really quite boring Friday night. I also intended to have a stellar-ly productive Saturday, so that was my "excuse" for staying in...

SATURDAY

And I did, indeed, have a superbly productive day. I headed to the gym at 9 am, attacked the elliptical machine, showered, and then tackled my massive list of rental open houses. Will and I are looking for a new place for May, as an era is ending and we're disbanding the 512 house. Coco is headed for Berkeley, and we're looking to stay in the city.

So, my sweeps of Craigslist over the last couple weeks produced a list of seven open houses on Saturday for me to check out. The itinerary was tight, and would depend on my ability to get to neighborhoods in a timely manner, criss-crossing to and fro, from Upper Market, to Potrero, back to Castro/Upper Market, and so on. By the fourth open house, I had a headache and I realized that Will and I have a lot of stuff. Our must-haves were: 2 bedrooms, at least one car parking, laundry, storage. There are a lot of places out there that have some but not all of the factors. Storage is a huge factor for us. There's no way in h@#* that I'm going to let Will store his hockey gear in the house.

Anyway, I may have found a potential place, will keep you updated...

After the open house list was discarded, I headed over to Crossroads Trading Co. on Fillmore to try and peddle my wares...or at least my unwanted clothes. Crossroads is very strict on what they'll buy, it has to be in season (they're buying for Spring right now), good name brands, clean, ironed, etc. etc. I only managed to sell 9 pieces, but it's always hit or miss.

In the late afternoon, I went to Therapeaia Spa for 90 minutes of goodness. My massage therapist, Jeannelle, is one of the strongest I've ever been to. So I asked her to tone down the pressure from "hard" to "firm" and it was one of the best I've had. It was a great way to wind down the hectic day.

For dinner, I met up with Abe, Kenny and Robert at Poleng Lounge. Poleng is located on Fulton at Masonic, in the old Storyville & 1751 Social Club location. I had recently read about Poleng in San Francisco Magazine , which touted this spot as "new" & notable, specifically in reference to the rising trend of restaurant lounges with good food, cocktails and music. Chef Tim Luym was voted one of SF Chronicle Rising Star Chefs 2007, and his food is called "Southeast Asian Street Food", a fusion of Thai/Chinese/Malaysian/ The main room is influenced by Balinese culture and is very funky and warm at the same time.

Abe and I got there a bit earlier and grabbed a drink at the bar. As typical with other SF restaurants, cocktails aren't cheap. I went for the Laotian Lychee Love (a tropical sensation made from fresh lychee juice, passion fruit juice, black tea and Stoli vodka). We were sat at a low table in the center of the main room, in front of the cozy fireplace. Great location for taking in all the action, but the table was a little awkward.

Poleng has a large selection of teas on its beverage menu (over 30 loose leaf teas), and Kenny opted to try one. The tea tray was lovely and it came with an interesting little sand hourglass timer that tells you when the tea is ready depending on how long the tea needs to steep...

Abe and I were having dinner, as the other boys had already eaten, so here's what we enjoyed:

Half Moon Ahi Poke (Spicy Yellowfin Tuna tossed with seaweed and tobiko, served with crispy gyoza half moons). I find it very hard to resist tuna poke on any menu, and Abe always wants to order it. The ahi was cut in good-sized cubes and was very tasty, if not a little too spicy, with the spice almost overwhelming the fish.

Buddha's Treasures (Pan fried homemade dumplings filled with minced vegetables, dusted with matcha green tea powder and served with a sesame ponzu sauce). The dumplings were filled with fresh water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, bok choy, coriander and green onions and they were delicious!

Emperor's Bok Choy (Steamed baby bok choy with shi-itake and garlic in a mushroom sauce).
I'm a sucker for baby bok choy these days, I make it a lot at home, and these are some of the best I've ever had. The thinly sliced and fried onions sprinkled on top were a great compliment to the shitake mushrooms and bok choy. This dish was almost perfect, except for the fact that you wreaked of garlic when you had taken a bite.

Crispy Adobo Wings (Succulent deep-fried wings with a sweet adobo garlic glaze). these may have been my favorite of the night. The sweet adobo garlic glaze was magic. That's all I need to say.

Garlic Crab Noodles (Pan fried egg noodles with garlic and fresh crabmeat). The crab noodles were also delicious, but we were pretty full by this point. I was pretty surprised how quickly we had filled up on the "small" plates.

Poleng only offers one dessert each night, and Kenny was craving dessert, so he went for it. It was a tapioca pudding with a warm and sweet bread pudding. Yum!

The restaurant goes into full bar/nightclub mode after 10 pm, so we stuck around for some more drinks and I could not keep still in my chair with all the sweet hip hop that the DJs were playing. There's also a large room in the back where a second DJ is spinning and there were some hardcore breakdancing circles breaking out back there.

SUNDAY

On Sunday morning, I went down to San Jose to hang out with my sister's family. We did the Campbell Farmer's Market again, and I had to buy these amazing oranges again. And the really good toffee from R&J.

Charlotte and Simon are 9 months old now, and their hair is finally coming in. In fact, Charlotte has a little mohawk...she's so punk.