RN74

December 20, 2009

The eating weekend ended with yet another early birthday celebration (maybe I should do work travel every year on my birthday...I'm getting lots of early birthday love!...nah, I'd still rather not travel for work on my birthday...).

This time, Will, Wendy, Kat, Key and Gail took me out for dinner at the new Michael Mina restaurant in SOMA, called RN74 (so named for the national road in France that goes through Beaune to Dijon).

Let me just pre-empt the food pics with an overall comment that all the food was phenomenal, and we tasted quite a few things.
Will and I shared the Hamachi Sashimi, with Hawaiian hearts of palm, asian pear, toasted pine nuts and shiso. Katharine started with the same dish.

Wendy (for her second helping of pork belly in one day) had the sauteed pork belly with manila clams, spring onions, smoked paprika and parsley.

Gail had the roasted beets salad with salt-baked shallots, snow peas, marcona almond, yuzu honey and mizuna.

The server recommended the Maitake mushroom tempura with yuzu salt, and green onion mousseline. This did go well with all the appetizers, so we attacked this side with the appropriate amount of zest.

Key and I had the Grilled Prime Beef with red wine-braised short rib, brussel sprouts, salsify, bacon and chestnuts.

Will and Wendy had the Grilled Loup de Mer with mussels, artichokes, chorizo, confit potatoes and Sicilian lemon oil.

Gail had the herb-roasted sturgeon, with french green lentils, celery root, broccolini and pistachio. I didn't get a pic of Kat's entree, which was the bacon-wrapped pork loin with buckwheat financier, cipollini onions, spinach, kumquats, and green peppercorn.

Some desserts to share across the table....
White sesame pot de creme with chocolate glaze, cherries, and Bugnes Lyonnais pastry.

Persimmon bread pudding with pomegranate, pistachio and yogurt sherbet.

Creme fraiche panna cotta with candied apples, graham cracker, and cinnamon ice cream.

Warm beignets with nutmeg, whipped creme anglaise, and brandy caramel.

Thanks to my buds for an amazing early birthday meal, it was a fantastic meal! RN74 is pretty amazing, go check it out!

Jojo's Birthday Brunch

December 20, 2009

The weekend of eating continued with a ladies' brunch for JoJo, whose birthday was on Saturday. We met up at Maverick for their awesome brunch. I had a pretty amazing pork belly hash (crispy pork belly, sweet and russet potatotes, sunny side up eggs, creamy mustard sauce and wild arugula).

The blooming flower pose, coming to an Asian near you:

Happy Birthday JoJo!!!

Gitane

December 19, 2009

My birthday is coming up, but I was going to be traveling for work on the actual day (ew...), so I got some more early birthday celebrations.

Will took me out on an early birthday hot date dinner at Gitane, located in charming little Claude Lane in the financial district of SF. I had been wanting to try Gitane for quite some time, so I was very excited.

To start, I had the Saumon Tartare (Maine Royal Salmon with harissa, garlic chips, toasted pinenuts, mint, cilantro, lemon zest and endive leaves). It was pretty amazing...

Will had the Chipirones (grilled monterey squid, stuffed with hot chorizo, garlic, thyme, onion, rice, olives, lemon dressing and fried bell pepper).

For my entree, I had the St. Jacques pan-seared royal sweet scallops with parsnip puree, sautted brussel sprout leaves and chorizo vierge sauce. This is one of the best entrees that I've had in quite some time. Pretty amazing, a definite recommendation.

Will had one of the wood-fire pizzas, the Savoyarde, with raclette cheese, smoked bacon, fingerling potatoes, house made mozzarella and parmesan.
For dessert, we shared the beignets with three dipping sauces, the honey was my favorite.

It was a pretty amazing meal in an incredible setting. A great place to go for a nice hot date!

Gingerbread Houses

December 19, 2009

I went to South Bay on Friday to hang out with my sister's family, who I hadn't seen since before Thanksgiving! Angie made me dinner for an early birthday celebration, and we did the annual gingerbread craziness with the kids and Andrea's family as well.


Olivia's little Christmas tree...

















Hooray for the holidays!

San Antonio

December 14, 2009

I headed to San Antonio for five days for work meetings, in conjunction with the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. I flew in on a Wednesday afternoon, and checked into the Westin Riverwalk.

I met up with some co-workers for happy hour at the bar at the Hotel Contessa next door. We then headed out for dinner on the Riverwalk, and as we're in Texas, we might as well start with barbeque....right? So, no better than to head to The County Line.

The Riverwalk at night:
I had meetings on Thursday and Friday, with lots of drinks and dinners as well. I also went running on the Riverwalk with some of the team and checked out the nice extension to the Riverwalk. And, we went clubbing on Friday night to the famous Bonham Exchange, which was a blast. I hadn't gone dancing in quite some time!

On Saturday, I tried to spend most of the day NOT working, and did some touring around San Antonio. That included checking out the Alamo.


It didn't take very much time to check out the Alamo, so I headed back to the Riverwalk via a couple more sights...










On Saturday night, I joined some other coworkers for dinner at Biga on the Banks, the famous flagship restaurant of James Beard award-winning chef Bruce Auden.

You know you're in Texas when...
I started with one of Biga's trademark appetizers, the Bibb and radiccho game packets with Asian chili sauces. Delicious!
My coworker had the other trademark appetizer, the Chicken fried Gulf oysters with squid ink linguini, Swiss chard, pancetta and mustard hollandaise.

For dinner, I had the seared duck breast and braised leg with egg noodles, baby bok choy and shitake master sauce. It was so yummy that I had forgotten to take a pic, so here's a pic during the meal...

For dessert, we shared the souffle of the day, which was an orange brandy flavor, and divine it was.

On Sunday, I had meetings for most of the day (boo!), but they were productive.

I went for another run along the Riverwalk, and for the first time all week, it was sunny and nice out. Which was good, considering the meals and drinks all week, I needed that second run.

For a team dinner, we headed to the Little Rhein Steakhouse on the Riverwalk.

Some black-eyed peas to help start the meal...

I enjoyed some pretty tasty steaks while I was in San Antonio, reminded me of the quality meat back home...

I had an early flight home on Monday morning, which was painful, especially as I headed right to work. But alas, it was a good and productive week, and I had some great food.

So long San Antonio, and thanks for all the meat!