A couple weeks ago, Babes and I attended one of his friend’s wedding in San Jose. While we were up there, we decided to make a San Francisco getaway out of that weekend.
Obligatory Golden Gate Picture
Before we left for our trip, Babe made a list of potential restaurants we could visit. My strategy to figuring out which I want to visit: Yelp > Most Reviewed > Stars > Images. San Tung Restaurant was pretty high up there on the rating system. Visiting their image gallery, I noticed that of the 400 some pictures that were posted, at least 75% were of their Original Dry Fried Chicken Wings. SOLD!
On their menu, there’s an “Original Dry Fried Chicken Wing (Dry)” and a “Dry Fried Chicken Wing (Wet)”. Get the former. Don’t be confused when it comes out sauce. I have yet to figure out what the “Wet” one is like and I don’t really plan to because the Dry Wings were SO GOOD! Though slathered with a sweet, spicy, sticky sauce (quadrupal S) the wings remain crispy as you sink your teeth into it. Aaaah, memories… *drool*.
Dericiousness
After checking in to our hotel, we headed down to the SF Museum of Modern Art. The occasional stroll through museums is quite nice even though there are some things that I will never understand about art. They had a Picasso exhibit showing the progression of his art throughout his life and I learned that he used to make traditional art. His decision to evolve his work into the abstract work that we are familiar with today had actually severed his friendship with another artist. Darn crazy art people. Walking through that exhibit and reading all the descriptions was like watching a Korean drama.
Uhm...I think it was a mirror clock?
One of those art pieces I'll never understand. This is what I think of your art! *Pee pee*
This was actually pretty cool.
I heart the photographer.
Immersed in art.
For our fancy schmancy dinner, I chose The House. It’s a very small asian fusion restaurant. Our waitress came over to tell us the day’s specials. Everything sounded like a blurb until I heard KOBE and TRUFFLE in the same sentence. SOLD again!
First up was the complimentary pickled cucumbers
Mmmmm oysters.
Fried Salmon Rolls
Kobe Beef Steak with Truffle sauce
Seared Ahi Tuna
Chocolate Bread Pudding
Tea
The next day, we walked over to the Ferry Building. I will never get bored of this place. One of my favorite stores, lies within these walls…Boccalone. The salted pig parts haven. The last time I was here, I had lonza and was hooked. It was so good, that we had to bring a chunk back to San Diego. This time I tried lardo and pancetta. They totally knocked lonza out of the #1 spot. I’ve been so inspired by the taste of these cured meats, that I bought the book Charcuterie in order to learn about the art. I just need to make a meat chamber… I’m an engineer, I can do it right?… Meh, I’ll just have Babes make it for me 
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Salumi Platter from Boccalone
We probably went to 4 different bakeries that carried macarons. Miete had the best ones.
Macarons from Miete
The week before our trip, I watched an episode of Iron Chef America that had Charles Phan competing against Cat Cora in an almond battle. Charles Phan is the owner and executive chef of The Slanted Door in the Ferry Building. It’s in the Michelin Guide for the Bib Gourmand rating (in Babe’s terms best “taste to price ratio”). I was not impressed by his dishes on Iron Chef and so I had no desire to go to The Slanted Door. Waiting in line at the Hog Island Oyster bar, we thought well, since we’re here anyways, we might as well go to The Slanted Door and have oysters there just to say we went there. What was supposed to be a light snack of oysters turned into a full blown lunch.
Babe ordered the Duck Confit Salad and I had the Hanoi Halibut. The Duck Confit Salad was, I admit, really good. The duck was crispy and the light dressing had a really nice flavor. I Hanoi Halibut, unfortunately, wasn’t that good. I chose that dish because my favorite dish in Vietnam was Cha Ca. The fish was overcooked and there wasn’t that much flavor. We also got the spring rolls because I could not imagine how a $10 spring roll could be that much better than the $2 ones you get at the pho shop. To their credit, the ingredients were organic and tasted really fresh. I wouldn’t get it again though. At least not the normal spring rolls (there were others).
The Slanted Door
More oysters.
Duck Confit Frisee Salad
Hanoi Halibut
Slanted Door Spring Rolls
Weak Vietnamese Iced Coffee 
On the way back to San Jose, we stopped by Pamplemousse cafe so I could try out their macarons. I really should have read the reviews on this place because their macarons were the most horrible macarons EVAR! They were not mediocre, they were not just ok, they were not ugly but taste good, they were just plain bad. Bad enough to not finish them and throw away. Even my first attempt at making macarons were better than these and I am by no means a professional baker. Skirted feet, hollow shell, the bad kind of chewy, they had no attribute that defined a good macaron. Well, they were smooth in appearance, I will give them that…
The most horrible macaron I've ever had.
We also went to Pizza My Heart with a friend. Yummy pizza!
Pizza my <3
And not shown is the falafel sammich that we got at Falafel Drive-In before going to the airport. It’s definitely a must have if ever in the area. I’ve never really liked Falafels until I had it at this place. The flavor, the texture, the sauce, everything about it is good.
This was another successful trip to Norcal. There is always something different and fun to do, but revisiting places we’ve been to before doesn’t get old either. Can’t wait for the next trip!
. Challenge accepted!
