Dyanmo Donuts

Chocolate Spice and Candied Orange Blossom Donuts

~

The Yet Unnamed Peanut Butter, Honey, and Banana Donut

Donuts and beer.

The beauty and simplicity of such a combination is probably equal to wine and cheese or Diet Coke and cheeseburger in Rosie's estimation. Dynamo was offering both for free one drizzly Friday in order to invite customers to sample and name their new concotion. So of course we had to go, despite Cheney's distaste for the liquid portion of the offerings. Standing among throngs of Dynamo-admirers in the wet but charming garden out back, we devoured the newborn donuts in two or three bites. The classic combination of flavors was as perfect a mixture of sweetnesses: rich peanut butter, intense honey, and fresh banana. But in donut form, its texture was perfectly melt-in-your-mouth fluffy instead of the usual cloying, dripping, and sticky sandwich. While we were admittedly mooches in not trying very hard to come up with names to christen this treat with, it was because eating it only stoked the fires of donut-craving. We were too distracted by the need to buy more donuts immediately to be very inventive. In line however, we watched the last of the day's batch of donuts dwindle perilously before our eyes as the woman in front of us snagged the final Lemon Thyme. Cheney chose the Candied Orange Blossom, and Rosie went for Chocolate Spice. The Chocolate Spice was definitely denser than the PBHB donut, and not quite as magical, though Rosie couldn't say whether that was due to the particular choice Dynamo had made with this flavor or because it was simply not as freshly made.
She vows to catch them earlier next time, preferably on a day when they're offering Strawberry Earl Grey.

El Farolito

Tacos Al Pastor and Carne Asada

~

Super Quesadilla Suiza with Lengua

After nigh half a year of coaxing and wheedling, Rosie finally managed to get Cheney "I-only-like-Chipotle-and-also-the-Mission-is-too-trendy-for-me" Chen to stop putting off trying El Farolito. So on St. Patrick's Day, rather than eating some traditional black pudding or soda bread, we headed to 24th and Mission. The first picture is from Rosie and Caitlin's previous excursion, where we had opted for the smaller portioned tacos for obvious post-Sycamore pork belly donut reasons. This time, however, Cheney's inauguration would have to contain her favorite beef tongue, encased in Rosie's favorite thing on the menu three years running - the quesadilla. Cheney's doubts at of the prospect of sharing dissolved when we were handed the mammoth mass, brimming with delicious contents. As a delicious soup of meaty juices, sour cream, and the more liquid portions of the salsa ran down our fingers with each bite through the crispy tortilla, Cheney declared that she liked it. She was further won over by the neighborhood in general when she found a fancifully impractical blue sequin dress at Buffalo Exchange that she is now searching for an occasion to wear.

Blu Jam Cafe

Crunchy French Toast: egg brioche dipped in batter, rolled in crunchy corn flakes, topped with banana and berries, served with vanilla bean sauce

~

Norwegian Benedict: toasted croissant, Norwegian smoked salmon, poached eggs, sautéed spinach, grilled tomato and dill hollandaise, served with potatoes

~

Iced and Hot Mochas

Waiting for a table at Blu Jam, Rosie exhibited typically poor impulse control when faced with the vintage shops on Melrose. While Victoria patiently hovered within earshot of the hostess, Rosie was drawn like a magnet to various furry sweaters and impractical dresses. Despite this shameful (for her) start, Rosie's last brunch with Victoria was a glorious conglomeration of old favorites, split and shared. Helpless as always before the prospect of eggs benedict, especially with smoked salmon (as documented here and here), Rosie loved the Norweigan benedict's inclusion of spinach and use of croissant for the biscuit. While Victoria had a chai latte, Rosie somehow ended up with two drinks due to a misentered order and her abhorrence of wasting food.  Though we both prefer something savory to something sweet to start off the day, the promise of soft, fluffy french toast encrusted with crispy cornflakes was irresistible. The deliciously fresh fruit crowning the egg sopped bread was the perfect touch, making it seem deceptively light. The leftovers also made for a perfect snack that night, before falling victim to Villain's Tavern's attractive mix-and-match beer and whiskey menu.

Bottega Louie

Portobello Fries with Aioli

~

Tomato Bruschetta

~

Lasagna: Traditional Bolognese meat ragù, béchamel, 

buffalo mozzarella, ricotta & granna parmesan

~

Desserts Galore

Before setting off on a day of urban exploration in San Pedro's "Sunken City" Rosie and Victoria set out to fortify themselves. More accurately, we were incapacitated by blissful fullness when the time came to squeeze through fences, scramble over graffitied concrete slabs, and avoid the disintegrating asphalt. Knowing what a sucker Rosie is for cuteness, Victoria brought her to these airy-ceilinged, open-kitchened, and pastel-dessert laden environs, where she promptly became overcome by the charming miniature macarons that festooned a rainbow of cupcakes. By the time we were done eating their main course, however, any dessert was out of the question. We started off with portobello fries, a ingenious combination of succulent mushroom and crispy batter that made Rosie wish for a deep frier. The sweet, juicy crunch of bruschetta was a welcoming interlude to the lasagna, which Victoria declared to be the best that she'd ever eaten. While we had eaten lasagna for breakfast in days of yore, they were of the massive, frozen, and overwhelmingly heavy variety. The layers of pasta this one were thin, chewy, and delicately stacked.  Rosie bought a couple of macarons, but had to stash them in her purse to await the return of our appetites, and while they were tragically flattened into pancakes after the day's activities, they nonetheless made a delicious late night snack. 

Rokuan

Seared Albacore

~

Salmon Roll

~

Rainbow Roll

~

Maguro Nigiri

Alright, another sushi post coming so close on the heels of our singing the praises of Ryoko's may seem excessive, but Rokuan specializes in excess. Purists may argue that the thick slices of raw fish they heap upon each serving of maki or nigiri violate standards of elegance and proportion. But when the fish is as creamy and deliquescent as Rokuan's, more can only be better. Rosie and Victoria were roommates throughout all four years of college, which means they had plenty of time to enable each other's poor eating habits. Burrito at 2 A.M.? Why not? Third slice of corn and key lime pizza at Cheeseboard? But of course! When Rosie visited Victoria's hometown of Diamond Bar for three days, they were able to continue this tradition in full and then some, kicking off with this fantastic array. Rosie was amazed, and then intimidated as the rolls emerged with mammoth hunks of fish layered one over another and protruding well abreast of their nori and rice wrappings. The nigiri was even more wonderfully ridiculous, with the mounds of rice completely obscured by a generous blanket of the freshest tuna. Everything was so good that Rosie even liked the onions, her most detested food, in the albacore dish. Towards the end, as a kind server offered us another generous portion of salmon on the house, our eyes widened in horror as the plate neared our table. Victoria managed to exclaim, "No, we really can't! I'm about to throw up," and then commented that she probably should have mentioned that it was from overenthusiastic eating, not inferior food. It was perhaps the only time we've turned down complimentary food, much less complimentary sashimi. Rosie's only disappointment was that they were completely out of uni that day, and judging by the quality and quantity of their other offerings, (along with the awe and saliva- inspiring photos on Yelp), she missed out indeed.

The Sycamore

Pork Belly Donuts with Maple Makers Mark Glaze 

~

Beer Battered Rock Cod with Sriracha Aioli and House Made Pickles

~

Birite Brown Sugar and Earl Grey ice cream

Back when they both still lived in Berkeley, Caitlin and Rosie vowed to catch Ici Ice Cream on a day they were serving maple bacon. Sadly, a confluence of conflicting schedules, lapsed vigilance with regards to the flavors-of-the-day phone line, and scarcity of maple bacon itself meant that this plan went unrealized. Our second chance at tasting pork-product-as-dessert came when Caitlin discovered that a pub in the Mission was serving intrepidly unhealthy pork belly donuts. Upon actually biting into the with the crispy spheres on The Sycamore's patio, we realized that deep frying something that is already is mostly pure animal fat is probably too much of a good thing. Crossing the line from delicious decadence to grossness, the donuts were so oily and cloying that half of one was more than enough. Luckily, we also had sliders, which, while also containing lipid-heavy aioli and beer batter, were juicy rather that greasy. Also helping salvage the experience was the fact that The Sycamore had Connect Four to amuse us while we waited to recover. Resigning ourselves to a day of blatantly disregarding our health, we topped it all off with ice cream cones at BiRite and felt mostly great.

Ryoko's

White Tuna Toro Nigiri 

~

Edamame

~

Salmon Skin Roll: grilled salmon skin, shiso, cucumber, burdock root, flying fish roe 

~

Big Mama Roll - spicy bbq eel, egg, shiso, cucumber, flying fish roe

~

Tahoe Roll: tuna, avocado, flying fish roll

Our favorite haunt serves two of our most pressing needs: (1) Fresh, buttery raw fish and (2) Maximal laziness. In fact, we're not sure how its even possible that we've gone so long without posting about this fantastic sushi place literally around the corner from our apartment. With a staff that shout enthusiastic salutations as you enter and exit, a skull full of candy, a soundtrack of 90's R&B, 2:00 AM closing time, and complimentary edamame, what's not to love? We haven't managed to find a place that has sushi rolls that come anywhere close to Ryoko's, though we tend to order the Big Mama and Tahoe Roll over and over again, because why fix what isn't broken? They're generous with the wonderfully aromatic shiso leaf in the Big Mama roll, which nicely melds the sweet tamago with the savory unagi. The tuna in Tahoe Roll is simply creamy and perfect. We usually end up pathetically trying to salvage the last grains of tobiko from our dishes of soy sauce. The Salmon Skin roll is a bit salty, but the White Tuna Toro Nigiri simply melts in your mouth. Every time we come here, we wish they had some sort of frequent customer buy-ten-rolls-get-one-free stamp card, because we'd fill a pile of those up in no time.

Red Crawfish

Cajun Specialty Shrimp 

~

Stir-fry Garlic Noodles 

~ 

Honeydew Smoothie and Watermelon Juice

Rosie and Cheney's plans to eat Indian food on a drizzly Sunday were foiled when it turned out that Lahore Karahi was closed for the next month. Red Crawfish, our backup option, is the San Francisco version of Boiling Crab, a staple of our San Jose hometown. The concept behind both is offering bib-clad customers seafood sold by the pound, a-swim in cajun-style spicy sauce in a utilitarian set-up. Cheney insisted on mild seasoning, to the dismay of Rosie's Sichuan-trained palate, though the real shortfall of the resulting sauce was that it was nowhere near as concentrated and savory as Boiling Crab's. Disappointingly the shrimp stuck stubbornly to their shells, and were likely not as fresh as they could have been. Though the seafood may have been a barely serviceable replacement for B.C., the garlic noodles and drinks were a surprising standouts. The noodles had the particular delicious chewiness associated with being cooked at high heat in a large wok with noisy sizzling. Cheney's watermelon juice was a refreshing complement to the salty shrimp and Rosie's honeydew smoothie tasted exactly like a liquid version of those obscenely good Melona Creamsicles you can find at Asian grocery stores. Afterwards, we wandered over to the Asian Art Museum and were stunned by the marble grandeur of its interior. Being our usual high-brow selves, Rosie was completely transfixed by a Thai theatrical deer headdress, while Cheney occupied herself with taking pictures of particularly plump looking guardian spirit statues. With perfect timing, the rain stopped as we stepped out of the museum, capping off our afternoon of small unexpected pleasures.

Tony's Pizza Napoletana

Pinot Noir, Honeybuck, and Champagne Cocktail

~

Bread and Olive Oils 

~

Rosemary, White Rose Potato, & Chorizo: rustic medium crust with mozzarella, white rose potatoes, rosemary, calabrese peppers, cowgirl creamery's fromage blanc, lavender sea salt, two quail eggs  

~

White Anchovy: rustic medium crust with mozzarella, arugula, italian white anchovy, piave, calabrese peppers, fresh lemon

The eponymous owner of Tony's apparently shamed Italians, Chicagoans, and New Yorkers alike by being the first American to win the Pizza World Cup with his margherita pie. Besides wondering how we could snag seats as judges at such a tournament, Cheney, Rosie, and Victoria were keen on going, but too greedy to order something as classic and elegant as a margherita pizza. The walk to North Beach was  torture as we were all ravenous and had to pass a slew of tempting dim sum places and delis in Chinatown, all with wonderful aromas wafting out their doors. Our seat in the sun, included a table that insisted on leaning sharply to the left, though Victoria managed to fix its wobble (Hence the tilt present in all pictures and liquids above). We chose two pizzas fired in the 900 degree wood oven and stared hopefully and hungrily as the waiters brought other patrons their food.  The spicy chorizo was Victoria's favorite, with its paper thin potatoes and dollops of mozarella, while Rosie and Cheney loved the sharp tang of the anchovies matched with the acidic lemon juice. Both pizzas dripped with spicy orange chili oil, which led to lots of poised and dignified mopping, and then the eventual familiar feelings of sleepy contentment that signal the conclusion of another overindulgence.