Bay Wolf

February 6, 2011

On Sunday, we came back from Tahoe in the early afternoon, in time to take care of some life stuff and take in some of the Superbowl (good game!).

For dinner, Will and I headed over to East Bay for dinner with my aunt and uncle to celebrate Chinese New Year's and my aunt's birthday (phew, lots of birthdays lately!).  We went to Bay Wolf, a long-standing East Bay restaurant (since 1975!) and a resident of the SF Chronicle Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants list every year since 2001.

I had the shaved fennel, marinated beet and tangerine salad with tapenade toast, which was super good:

Will started with the oyster po' boy sliders with confetti coleslaw:

My uncle had the walnut-crusted baked goat cheese with shaved apples, butter lettuce and celery:

For dinner, I had the Liberty Ranch duck aranciera with braised endive, blood oranges and lentils:

Will had the pan-seared black cod with hopping John, slow-cooked green beans and creole remoulade:

My aunt had the grilled sardines with warm spinach salad, raisins, pine nuts and saffron:

My uncle had the bomba di polenta (polenta layered with smoked pork and roasted mushrooms):

For dessert, the butterscotch brioche bread pudding with salted caramel sauce was shared:

Happy Birthday to my aunt Joanne!

Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit! Gung Hay Fat Choy! Sun Leen Fi Lok! Bo Bo Go Sing!

Wendy's Birthday @ Squaw Extravaganza

February 5, 2011

Will and I headed up to Tahoe with Ashley and Paul on Thursday night, which is my new favorite thing to do (e.g. avoid Friday traffic to Tahoe). We all worked on Friday morning, and then strapped on our gear for some turns under the exquisite sun on Friday afternoon at Squaw.

On Friday night, a bunch of the crew showed up. Of note, it's Wendy Tribbey's birthday on Saturday, so Abe had planned a big extravaganza. On Saturday, we had a nice sleep-in and got on the mountain around 11:30 AM and skiied straight through 3:30 (big day!).

Heading to apre-ski at Sandy's Pub in Squaw Creek:

Off to the Village for pre-dinner drinks at Blue Coyote and dinner at Mamasake:

We did some post-dinner drinks at the Auld Dubliner and then hit the sack after a long but super-fun day.

Happy Birthday, Wendy!

Nombe

February 2, 2011

On Wednesday night, I went for dinner with a friend from work (Katherine) at Nombe, a Japanese izakaya restaurant (also referred to as Japanese gastropub fare) in the Mission. Nombe is in this wacky diner-ish locale with a menu recently revamped by new chef Vincent Schofield.

Agedashi dofu with katsuobushi:

Amazing brussel sprouts with carrot, mint and ginger:

Grilled pork belly with schihimi:

Black cod with spiniach, fennel, leek and miso (OMG-worthy):

The chicken wings with honey and serrano chili sauce (definitely worth the extra wait):

Wow, Nombe was fantastic, and they were speedy. I think they get folks churning through there and they are also open late on the weekends. I'll be back.

Gail-eo's Pre-Move-Girl's-Night

February 1, 2011

It's finally come to the time when Gail is shoving off for colder temperatures and the love of a good man in Denver. Before she took off, we had a last girls' night dinner for her at Wendy's new digs in the Richmond.

We miss you already, Gail!

Half-Friday

January 30, 2011

On Friday, I worked in the morning and took the rest of the day off to take care of the whole life part of work-life balance, something I haven't been doing so well in the last year or so.

I headed down to Sushirrito, the hot, shiny-new joint on New Montgomery street in SOMA that opened a couple weeks ago, serving up "made-to-order, hand-held sushi burritos stuffed with savory Asian and Latin-infused ingredients and flavors". It's a super-tiny place with a ridonkulous line. It took me one hour from getting in line to heading out the door with sushirritos in hand. For real. I blame all the a-holes in the line that kept letting their friends in or taking orders for "just 5 other people". Seriously, people.

I had the "Three Amigos", with tuna, salmon, hiramasa, yuzu tobiko, avocado, asparagus, cucumber, shaved red radish, green onion with wasabi mayo:

It was to...die...for. This was like the best and worst discovery for me. A perfect lunch that I would probably stand in that stupid line again for. Good thing I don't work downtown. I'd never be at work, I'd be in that line.

Will had the "Mamacita", with tuna, japanese gourd, shiitake mushroom, avocado, cucumber, green onion, daikon radish, tobiko, crumbled rice chips with Mexican kabayaki:

After lunch, I convinced Will to go to the Cal Academy of Sciences with me so I could finally go to the Planetarium (every single time I go there, there are no tix left for the Planetarium shows!). Mid-afternoon was perfect time to go, we missed the school-kid groups and it was quiet before they closed up.

Later that night, we headed down to the Orbit Room for happy hour with a bunch of folks:

Happy Friday!