Monday, March 23, 2009

Yuya's First Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Eaten Monday, 3.23.09

Yuya's visit to America (from Japan) HAD to include a trip to Ben & Jerry's, especially since it's really close to Cal, right? Yes.

He got Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (on the left) & I got ONE Cheesecake Brownie (apparently ONE is "a grassroots campaign dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable diseases around the globe," according to this). A woman from Vermont overheard me telling Yuya that Ben & Jerry's originated in Vermont. Haha.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Dinner @ Ducca

Ducca
50 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Website

After searching around the Union Square area (Friday, 3.20.09) for a good Italian restaurant, we decided to go to Ducca, the place Mina tried earlier. *Expensive, but we got a free appetizer, dessert, and coffee*


Bread + olive oil + sweet balsamic vinegar (YUM!):

We wanted to get the Arancini appetizer ("Crispy Risotto Fritter, Sottocenere"), but the waiter gave it to us before we even had a chance to tell him that we wanted an appetizer. It was basically like a koroke/croquette but made of risotto instead of potato:


The inside of those yummy risotto balls (well, and a piece of bread):

I ordered my first alcoholic beverage at a restaurant (they didn't card us though). This was the Hangar One Pear-Cosmo ("Hangar One Spiced Pear Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Fresh Lime Juice"). I didn't like it, but I drank it. I didn't taste the spiced pear or the cranberry or lime juices. It tasted like some kind of sweet medicine, which I normally wouldn't mind, but this just didn't taste good. It was strong though, which I liked (not that I like all strong drinks). I usually don't buy expensive drinks (actually, I usually just order water every time), but this was going to be my $11 Spring Break gift to myself. Haha. Sorry the picture is crooked.

We ordered another appetizer (I really don't know which one this was...but the appetizers are listed here):

W/o flash:



I ordered the Risotto Ai Carciofi ("Aged-Organic Carnaroli Rice, Artichoke Trifolati, Mascarpone:

My Risotto Ai Carciofi (those are fried artichoke bits on top of whole artichokes and risotto...rich flavor but not too salty...sooo good):


I think Yuya got the Mine strone Veneto ("Parmigiano-Pork Consomme, Acini di Pepe Pasta,
Borlotti Beans"), which he didn't know was a soup (oops):


Mina ordered the Pappardelle in Sugo ("House-made Egg-rich Pasta, Slow Braised Lamb Ragu"), which I tried and liked:

The waiter started giving us dessert menus, but I told him that we were "unfortunately" going to skip dessert (we had planned on going to Ghirardelli down the street--not the big one in Ghirardelli Square), but he asked us if we liked chocolate, we said that we love it, and then said that he'd give us a chocolate dessert for free (daang!). It was a chocolate souffle with hazelnut ice cream (topped with sea salt and hazelnuts...wonderful):

Inside view (this souffle was to die for...sorry the flash ruined it):

AND THEN the waiter gave us free coffee, which was delicious as well:


MMMm...

Koryo Jajang's Jajangmyeon

Koryo Jajang
Yelp ratings here.
4390 Telegraph Ave., Ste B (between 43rd St & 44th St)
Oakland, CA 94609

Jajangmyeon or $4.95 (Ordered 3.19.09)

A few Psi Chi members went to Koryo because we were hungry when we got to Jaguar, the karaoke place next door. Took a chance and ordered Jajangmyeon, which Amie E. really likes. It was a risky order because I don't like black bean sauce, but this ended up being different (it's black soy bean sauce). I'm glad I tried it! The sauce was a little goopy, thick, and salty, which kinda weirded me out a little (well, the goopy-ness did), but it was yummy. This one was vegetarian (onions and...I couldn't tell what else was in there).


Before mixing:

After mixing (there was a LOT of sauce--even more than what's pictured below!):

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

King of Thai Noodle House - San Francisco, CA

Pad thai (I know...typical...but I LOVE it, and Seumsack said it was good there, and it was!!):


Holy crap...that last post was my 400th one! Someone recently asked me how I have time to maintain this. I do a lot more than maintain this blog (so doing this is not a big deal), but my answer is that this really doesn't take that long. Taking pics and uploading them = fast ... and the posting process doesn't take that long. If I just have one picture, I could make a post in like 40 seconds.

Anyway, I've been meaning to post about King of Thai Noodle House since August of 2008, but I couldn't figure out its name, and then I sorta forgot about it. Mina sent me a link to food places in SF because I'm meeting her and Yuya on Friday, and that reminded me of this. So here ya go:

King of Thai Noodle House's menu and other info here.
184 O'Farrell St
reet (Between Stockton & Powell St.)
San Francisco 94102

I think this was Julie's (wait...what did Seumsack get?):


Hmm...some people were making fun of people for saying "shrimps" instead of "shrimp," and then I saw this, so I had to take a picture (I've read that both are correct, although I only say "shrimp"):

*haha - "praprika"

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Pretty Wine Bottle

You can read what it is. This is Kurtis's daily drink. jk. It's his though, and you can tell neither of us has tried it yet. Yeah...this isn't supposed to be a review. It's just a pretty design.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Senior Class Perks

They gave seniors free churros on Wednesday! Here's part of mine:

Double "Stuf" Chocolate Creme Oreos

*Hey! I just noticed that they wrote "Stuf" instead of "Stuffed"! I wonder what the reasoning behind that was (maybe it makes it seem like a friendlier, more informal product). I also really like how you can reseal Oreo bags now!! I remember not finishing bags when I was little because they got stale really fast (guess we should have put them in plastic bags or something).

It might seem weird that I've started taking pictures of and blogging about really common food products, but in the future, things might be dramatically different, and you or I might want to know someday what Oreos looked like in 2009. :) Plus, people from other countries might be curious about American products. Packaging designs are artwork are also pretty interesting to me.

Whoa...the cookies even say "Double Stuf Oreo":



At my daycare, we used to roll the creme centers into balls before eating them. Really unsanitary, considering how dirty our hands must have been.

More Cheeseboard

Yuya met Steve on Thursday (3.12.09), and this is what we ate at Cheeseboard (red pepper something something...delicious):


Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Quinoa

Another post about quinoa @ a restaurant here.

More quinoa info at quinoa.net.

The box says you pronounce it like this: "Keen-wah," and that's how Sandra Lee (from The Food Network's Semi-Homemade show) says it too. You can use this as a replacement for rice.


Directions (the camera was straight; the box's bottom was uneven):

RAW:


COOKING:

COOKED:

Yum. It's fluffy when cooked, but it's not completely smooth because each grain has a little tail. Its taste is really mild. I'd say that it's kinda like rice but a little more nutty-flavored? I don't know. I'm not a real food critic, so I can't give awesome flavor descriptions. I really like quinoa though.

Eating Right's Oats & Peanut Butter Bar


Yeah...kinda blurry. Sorry. I'll get better! I just started using this camera.





I think these are good. They're not too hard or too soft. You can taste and feel the oats, which is nice (in my opinion). The flavor isn't too overwhelmingly peanut buttery, which might actually be a bad thing because I love peanut butter. Nah...I liked this. I'd buy these bars again.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Green Tea Slush w/o Boba

Pacific East Mall
Website here
3288 Pierce Street
Richmond, CA 94804

Consumed on 3.8.09

My mom doesn't like boba (yea--she's weird), so she got a green tea slush drink without it. I missed the boba, but this was good anyway. It was like a green tea milkshake. Forgot to check the price, but my mom, dad, and I split it. Dang! I forgot to take a picture of Ryan's green milk tea drink with boba.

Costco's Almond Poppy Muffins

SO good. But sooo sugary. And 670 calories per muffin. 38 grams of fat. 42 grams of sugar. Nutrition info here.