My Dad Makes Amazing Pizza

On a recent house-hunting marathon up to Connecticut we took a swing through Ossining, NY on the way back. My father owns a pizza place (Sal's Pizza), which makes some of the best pizza I've ever had. Their dough is to die for. 

After treating ourselves to some of the specialty flavors—including bbq chicken ranch, buffalo chicken, and their tasty original pizza—we got to watch my dad make some pies too. This is him getting started on a regular-size original pie.

Beyond Downtown San Francisco

Now that I have a little more time to spend outside of work I was able to catch up with some friends that I've been meaning to see.  I caught the correct train in the right direction and got off at the right stop without mishap and even got a seat and got in some knitting.
I was a little early so I got to people watch outside the train until Sarah walked up at the appointed time.  After a little indecision we decided to go to a place we thought would be Oaxacan, but turned out to be Salvadoran instead.  But that turned out to be ok, because after a peek at Cafe Platano's delicious sounding menu we were sold.

While waiting for Alain, Sarah and I poured over the menu and had everything picked out before he arrived.  Although we didn't even make it off the small plates menu.  We made excellent choices including: fried platanos, fried yuca, an avocado salad, pastelitos, corn tamales and of course pupusas.  Sadly as often happens with food I was to excited to remember to take and pictures of anything.  But it was great to catch up with Sarah and Alain, to get a glimpse of their neighborhood, and to help them find a tasty new place to eat. 

Creme Brulee Cart

After my successful choice yesterday, the guys were willing to take my suggestion when I wanted to look for another cart from the list Todd found in November so we went over to the Creme Brulee Cart on Market at Sutter street. 

Unlike many of the places on the list, the creme brulee is really sold from a tiny cart, not a truck so we almost missed it.  There is just one guy at this cart which is really like a cooler with wheels.  When you make your order he takes out these small foil cups, sprinkles sugar on the top, torches it, adds more sugar, torches it again and then if you're not planning to eat it right away he puts a little lid on it.

I opted for the "Yes Please" which has balsamic glazed strawberries in a nutella custard.  It was amazing.  It could have been overwhelming but the proportions were just right and the moderate serving size was just right for a post lunch snack.

Curry Up Now

In November, for my birthday (for which I have a back post queued up), Todd planned out a wonderful trip to San Francisco. I don't want to steal too much content from that post, but although the trip centered around the amazing Cavalia show, Todd came up with a number of other exciting things to do. One of which involved tracking down reportedly delicious food with mobile places of businesses based on this article.  We picked and found Curry Up Now on our very first afternoon and discovered that at least this cart was even better than the article purported. 

Fast forward to today for lunch when I suggested this to my coworkers.  We were almost frightened off by the enormous line, but it moved quickly and it was worth it.  The food was every bit as good as I hoped and remembered, particularly the fresh and perfectly fried samosas which are good enough to eat without any condiments.  To further prove my point, we all decided no to head straight into food coma so we all saved some of our food for later, but by 5pm the guys polished off their leftovers and there was serious samosa envy.  Score 1 for Olivia's lunch suggestions!

After Work Adventures in SF

This is the first post in a while that lives up to the name of this blog: I'm currently waiting to fly home on a redeye.  I've been coming to San Francisco three days a week for six out of the last seven weeks and tonight is the first time I've had time after work to do anything not work related.

Here is my cute little swatch.

My first stop was this yarn store I've been stalking for a few weeks. On my way to work each day I walk through the Union Square and Chinatown areas and one day I looked up to see a bright red sigh that read "Yarn." When I looked it up I discovered that it actually belonged to ArtFibers and that each day they stay open until 6pm.  I also perused their blog and found some of their patterns that I really liked.  As matter of fact I happen to be wearing a shawl collared sweater today when this caught my eye.  I'd nipped in right before they closed at 6, but Roxanne was nice enough to let me pet all the luscious swatches and then whip up a mini swatch of a purply maroon to see if that would be a good color for the collar and cuffs of the cropped jacket.

This is my swatch next to the sample of the body yarn. 
This picture really doesn't do justice to the rich colors of the yarn.

We thought it picked up enough of the colors in the multicolored main body that I should go ahead and use it.  The next step will be for me to go back next week when Roxanne will even adjust the pattern for my measurements and help me to figure out how much yarn I'll need.  And they are having a 15% off anniversary sale.  How nice is that!

After my fiber fix I had an nice little side trip to Victoria's Secret where I actually managed to use a couple of those coupons that turn up periodically in the mail and usually end up in the trash.  Don't think to hard about this - I bought something sensible. 

For my next stop I revisited a place Todd and I ended up at by accident during our trip in the fall: Lori's Diner.  I stopped by just to look at the menu and was lured in by the mozzarella sticks.  Then once I sat down at the table I decided to be adventurous and ordered the BBQ ranch salad too.  I turned out to be worth the gamble as it was a lightly dressed pile of crunchy (romaine) and healthy (mixed) greens with a zippy ranch/bbq dressing and nearly a whole avocado hidden under the entire chicken breast and the yummy dollop of shoestring onions.  

I know I should have had some self-restraint , but I ended up indulging and having a banana split to round things out.  The bananas, strawberries and cherries make this healthy right.  Anyway, I made a valiant effort and reduced their generous portion to this:

The nice people at Lori's even let me use their wireless internet and didn't seem to mind when I whipped out my laptop and monopolized a table for almost three hours (don't worry I left a very nice tip).  Now I just have a few more hours to kill until wheels up....

Doughnut Crawl

At Dough, our last doughnut stop, we completely lost all semblance of self-control and somehow came home with ALL of these beauties.  Nom.

On Thursday I read this article in the NY Times and came up with a brilliant idea: a doughnut crawl. I sent it to Jess and Todd just thinking that it was a funny idea. But there was considerable excitement and a plan solidified like so:

View Doughnut Crawl in a larger map
1) Doughnut Plant
2) Wonder City Coffee & Doughnuts at the Brindle Room
3) Dough
4) Fette Sau
5) Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop
6) Gulluoglu Baklava Cafe

We knew the last two might be a stretch.  As it turned out we did pretty well and even managed to sneak in some bonus stops.

Our first stop, Doughnut Plant, was a popular place to be on a rainy Sunday afternoon, although the line moved quickly and there were plenty of doughnuts available when we made it up to the tiny counter.

Under the board on the left is the doughnut display that emptied as quickly as the staff could fill it.

We had tried some of the Donut Plant's fare before since at Oren's Daily Roast in Grand Central Terminal, so we managed to restrain ourselves and stuck to one doughnut a piece.

From the left going clockwise: a pistachio cake doughnut, a blackberry jelly with vanilla bean glaze yeast doughnut, and a blackberry jelly with peanut butter glaze yeast doughnut. 

As you can tell we were so excited about the doughnuts that we started eating them before we remembered to take any pictures.  The blackberry jam with vanilla bean frosting was my favorite.  The doughnut itself was light, fluffy, tasty.  The jelly was actually reminiscent of good blackberry jam and the vanilla bean glaze was the perfect light and flavorful compliment.  The peanut butter and jam doughnut was similarly well balanced, with a surprisingly un-heavy peanut glaze with peanut chunks that didn't overwhelm the jelly or the doughnut itself.  The pistachio doughnut was good too, with lovely green flecks all the way through and a complimentary almond flavored dough.  In addition to the doughnuts we got chais and coffee. The coffee was good, but the chai was great. Todd said it was as close as he's ever had to Chaiwalla's chai.

For our next stop we nipped up to the lower east side and found a parking space around the corner from the Brindle Room (a.k.a. Wonder City).  After a bit of dithering we decided to have our second batch of doughnuts sitting down somewhere other than the car so we got a table and rounded out things with drinks, greens, and granola.

Cheers!

The delicious cocktails, an elderflower sparking and a Tokyo springtime, came in these nifty glasses that looked a little like stemless champagne glasses.  The drinks themselves were refreshing and fruity without being overly sweet.

These were the main event.  From the back: chocolate hazelnut with toasted almond, caramel, powdered sugar, and chocolate with toasted coconut.

These petite and delicious doughnuts were made from mashed potatoes, which I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out if I hadn't read it in the NY Times article.  They texture is much as they describe in the article.  They are surprisingly delicate and satisfyingly crunchy.

Doughnuts, plus tasty house-made granola, plus savory sauteed greens.

When we sat down and cheeseburgers started to appear at the table next to us, my stomach went "oohh and grilled cheese and tomato would be lovely" but my brain vetoed that and went with granola. 

Instead of waddling straight back to the car we decided to make a couple of bonus stops including a pet food store and Downtown Yarns, and as we were looking at the map it turned out that a Bahn Mi place Todd has been wanting to go to was right across the way.

The pet food store had just what we were looking for and hopefully that will make my dad and Griffin happier.  The yarn store was a bust because they had the copy of Fall 2010 edition of Vogue Knitting that I've been looking for but sadly despite having a label stating to ask for additional copies they did not actually have any additional copies and wouldn't sell me the house copy. 

Mmmmm.... Bahn Mi.....

The Bahn Mi, despite taking forever to prepare, was very good.  The meat was tasty, the bread was nice and crusty, and the veggies provided the perfect compliment to both.

After our bonus Bahn Mi we embarked on the Brooklyn leg of our adventure and made it to Dough shortly before it closed. 

Ta-da!  We made it!

Confusingly Dough is at location that used to be a chicken place called Roosters so when I looked it up on the map all I got was dated information and a dated street view that was totally wrong.  But Dough really is at 305 Franklin Avenue.

Even the logo in their boxes looks good enough to eat...

Inside we were gripped by paralyzing indecision.

Which turned into this:

Oh the choices.  So we decided not to choose.  Gentle reader, you'll be relieved to know that we escaped the shop leaving a couple of flavors for next time. 

We decided not to try to make it to Peter Pan's Donut and Pastry shop and instead decided to switch from carbs to protein for our last stop.  Sofia's explorations into Brooklyn have turned up some excellent taste experiences, including this amazing barbecue place:

In warm weather, or at least dry weather, the picnic benches are the perfect place to eat.

Fette Sau or the Happy Pig has an interesting variety of rich delicious meats that are all cooked to perfection with sides that stand right up to them.

Where to start first?

After a little bit of drooling and dithering we came home with brisket, pork shoulder, bacon, sausage, German potato salad, broccoli salad, baked beans, sauerkraut, pickles and potato rolls.  We brilliantly decided to head home with our haul from the last two stops where we were able to enjoy them at a leisurely pace.  The bacon was, hands down, the best of the dishes and the spicy broccoli salad was the most unexpectedly tasty.  The brisket had yummy charred edges and the perfect line of pink just around the outside.  The sauerkraut was delicious and crisp and the baked beans were wonderfully flavorful while being cooked just enough and still maintaining individual bean integrity.

Overall this was an excellent adventure for a rainy Sunday afternoon.