Rockridge Cafe: Part I

I ordered the "Ric Special," according to this menu, although I don't think that's what it was called on the hard copy. Best sausage ever. The ricotta pancakes were good too. Just like the Yelp users said, they really do melt in your mouth. I used a little syrup, but I think they were good even without anything on them. Definitely didn't add butter.


The sausage was wayy greasy and fatty...but still good! This one was a turkey...something...with red pepper and asiago I think:


Also took a scone home. Seems as though they only sell currant ones cuz they didn't ask me what kind I wanted. I was disappointed. I'm a scone freak cuz my mom is...so I can usually tell when they use real cream and stuff. This scone had so many freaking currants in it that I couldn't even tell if I liked the scone itself. I don't think they used cream. Definitely not worth $2.05 or whatever it was, which was disappointing because I had read that they run out of scones quickly (which usually implies that they're good, right?). I always try to do some research before I try new places...but sometimes other raters don't have the same tastes as me.


Uh...just in case you wanted a different angle? ::shrugs::


SEE! So many currants! Gross! I've realized that I don't like raisins or currants in my scones. I only like chocolate chips, blueberries, and sometimes nuts.


Next time I wanna try their pumpkin waffle. Or the cornmeal waffle...or the challah french toast...or maybe something else. Haha. I'm curious about the chicken apple sausage too.

SUMMARY/General Review:
The goods:
+ Awesome sausage
+ Awesome, melt-in-your-mouth ricotta pancakes
+ Good service
+ Nice little neighborly cafe
+ Cheri said her burger was good
+ Gary has said the migas and the shakes are good
The bads:
- Some expensive items. A small glass of juice is $2.75, and Cheri and I weren't sure if refills were included in that price. Cappuccinos are $2.60.
- Not the healthiest, but it's good to know where the good splurging places are!
Would I go back (that is the ultimate question): YES!

Gregoire's Crispy Potato Puffs 6/20/08

Here's their website.

Tried their crispy potato puffs because The Daily Cal (sorry...I lost the link to that article) recommended them. I always try to try the foods their columnists recommend. This time I was disappointed. I was imagining something more like fried baked potato balls with cheese or something. The columnist made them too big of a deal. They're just...fried balls of mushed potatoes (POH-TAY-TOH! lol smeagol). I don't like the salt they have on the outsides, and the balls needed something on them, but I didn't like that ranch-ish sauce they gave me. I do have to say that several people have ranted & raved about how good they think these are, so you might as well try them if you think you'll like them.


They look like cream puffs or some kinda sweet balls with sugar on the outside.

Experimenting With Sweet Couscous

Hmm...just realized these pics are kinda dark. My bad.


Sarah told me that she eats sweet couscous with powdered sugar, butter, and cinnamon (at least I think those are the ingredients she listed in the car!)...and ever since then I'd wanted to try it.

I didn't know how much of each ingredient I should add...so I just experimented. Couscous by itself is easy to make...so I wasn't afraid of that part at least. Oh! I actually found a really easy way to make it on this couscous blog. I watched this video from that site and followed the directions. Easy!

Raw:

Haha! My bowl-ish plates worked perfectly for one cup of couscous!! Just barely, actually. According to that video linked above, you just put 1 cup of raw couscous in a bowl that can take heat and then add boiled water to about 1/4 inch above the couscous and let it sit for about 5 minutes while covered...and then it's done!



Fluff it up!


Cinnamon, powdered sugar, and butter:


Cinnamon, powdered sugar (without butter):



I think this is the one with the butter. I liked that one better:


Added some chocolate chips to the no-butter one. Maybe I just need to get used to it or something...it was just okay. I'd be willing to try other ingredients though! For now I'll stick to eating it with salmon and savory things. Yum.

I also want to try other typically-salty things with sweet ingredients. Liiike pasta. Chocolate noodles sound good. I've tried it before, but it was just me adding melted choc chips to spaghetti or something, and that's not very fun. Wanna try to bake noodles w/ chocolate or something. If rice can be good in rice pudding, I'm sure noodles will be good in some kinda sweet dish.

HOME FOOD: Part III

My favorite Costco food. It's so simple but sooooo good. It's best w/ some red sauce.

Anzu - Again! 6/15/08

{ These gyoza are good! }

My dad wanted to try it because I had recommended it based on my first visit. I love their cute little dishes. And their food is yummy.


Daddy's order (chirashi):


OOO i like their oyako donburi!!! wayyy better than Nanayiro's!

Momma's meal (I think there was too little food...but she liked the teriyaki sauce, and both Mom & Dad concluded it's real and that it must be owned by actual Japanese (I heard it is). Plus, look at those beans (not the edamame--the good luck beans).:

Parents said they'd go back again. Didn't take a pic of my brother's curry cuz I didn't wanna reach over. He said he liked it though. So did my dad.

HOME FOOD: Part I

Went home last weekend. More people thought I was crazy for taking pics of my food.

Hooome sushi:


Central Fish food:

Tempura-ed stuff (looks kinda bad):


Chicken katsu:


Gramma's famous chicken katsu (a billion times better than Central Fish's)....my favorite fried chicken:

Tuk Tuk Thai

Had their food two times last week, which I think made me have that dream about being in Thailand.

PAD THAI:




I liked the tofu they had in there:


CHICKEN RAD/LAD NA:

For some reason I was thinking this had thin noodles. Turned out to be like pad see-ew but with a LOT more gravy/sauce. I don't think it was worth the $7.00 I paid, but at least it wasn't awful...and at least I didn't have to tip.


Hmmm...they're 'spensive. Not sure if I'd go back. I still prefer Thai House, even though the last time I went there I didn't like what I got (it was some kinda beef with cabbage and peanut sauce).

All-Star Sports Cafe

Tried another of their sandwiches. Their smoked turkey is better than their grilled chicken or chicken (I can't remember what it's listed as). I love their bread! It's slightly sweet. Their pesto pasta thing is good too. They're located at Shattuck and Center near the Downtown Berkeley BART station.

Cheeseboard

This place has yet to disappoint me, I haven't heard anyone say anything negative about it, and there are always a lot of people in both the pizza section and the cheese/bakery area. Everything I've had (including their pizza) has been really, really good. I've had their chocolate/almond scone, currant scone, cheese scone, brioche, bran muffin, cheese bun, and a bite of their chocolate cookie. I really want to try their bread pudding and challah. I don't like sourdough so I'm hesitant to try a lot of their breads...although I think their cheese buns are made out of sourdough. Hm. Maybe it's a bad thing that our new apartment management office is near Cheeseboard.

Anyways, today I went a little piggy and tried a bran muffin, which was good! Not too sweet, nice texture, moist, and good flavor. Only downside is that if you're allergic to walnuts, you can't eat this. I know those aren't very specific descriptions, but oh well. It's hard to describe texture and stuff specifically. Maybe pictures will help. I'm sorry they're not that clear. At least one girl was giving me a weird look while I was taking these...so maybe my nervous state made me move around more. I also had this on my lap...so these are the products of a shaky lap and shaky hands.


...and a cheese scone, which was disappointing at first, but then I realized it had a good corny texture. It only disappointed me at first because that was my first savory scone, and I like sweet scones better. Now I wanna try their corn-and-cherry scone. Oh...and I think if you want something cheesy, you should go for a cheese bun (or are they called rolls?), which is really cheesy. The cheese scone is good for when you don't want an overpowering cheesy taste.

La Mediterranee

This is my favorite Mediterranean restaurant (here's their website), although I can't say I've tried many.

Sorry these pictures are so dark. They didn't come out when I used a flash, and I'm just an amateur photographer...so instead of figuring out how to take a nice picture, I just took these.

This is the Chicken Cilicia w/ some kind of lemon chicken soup (I thought the soup was better than their Armenian potato salad, which is weird because I usually love potato things). Chicken cilia (according to Kurtis, the European language expert, it's pronounced "Suh-lih-shuh,") is chicken, almonds, raisins, chickpeas, and cinnamon wrapped in fillo dough. It came with cheese, fruit, and hummus (hummos? why do different places spell it differently?). SOO GOOD.

Dessert: Kurtis and I shared a baklava, which was huge and had too much whipped cream on the side:


I also had (not on the same night, of course!) their Middle Eastern plate and their Chicken Pomegranite, and both were delicious.

More DC food

Yes...my ancestors would have been horrified:





Hey...I liked DC food...even though I gained about 10 pounds freshman year. :o/