Heurism

Please find below a quick recap of food/eats from the trip bin and I took to the bay area last weekend. Yeah, I knew you’d be interested….

Sat:

Ferry Building: We arrived too late to partake of the many food trucks (sorry Tom) that are usually there on Saturday (some rather severe traffic coming in over the bridge). We did, however, hit up the Slanted Door for drinks and appetizers. The food was amazing and the drinks citrusy and well thought out. We’ll be going back here I think.

Elephant and Castle Pub: Meh. Gross.

Sunday:

Mifune Don: bin had been on the look0ut for SF okonomiyaki since visiting Japan years ago. Yelp recommend this place. Mifune Don (not to be confused with Mifune) is in the smaller portion of the Peace Plaza in Japantown. It’s a tiny little place that features some classic Japanese food. We had some delicious tempura shrimp and the amazing okonomiyaki which is a rice flower pancake topped with cabbage, seafood, crisp noodles, sauce, and more sauce served in a skillet. Wow. I was totally blown away. I’m SOLD!

Cafe Zoetrope: Francis Ford Coppola’s little cafe in the financial district. We had a prosciutto pizza which was pretty damn good (I mean…how wrong can you go with prosciutto pizza?) and some really damn lovely wine. We got to make fun of the couples next to us who came in to a wine cafe and ordered a Mai Tai. Not great, but good…and wonderful atmosphere and a place to just hang out and take in the city.

Bourbon and Branch: A speakeasy smack dab in the middle of the tenderloin district. You have to have a reservation (email only, please) and the password for the night. Otherwise, you aren’t getting in. The club is nicely decorated and the aura is interesting…but to be frank I was a bit disappointed. The service was horrible. You’d think that a place serving super high-end cocktails would be constantly coming by to refill your drink, but that wasn’t the case. The waitress really pushed the Valentine’s Day menu (I mean REALLY pushing it) so bin and I had some. Mine was really rather tasty. We finished up with a flight of Irish Whiskeys including a “peated” version which did, indeed, taste like camping. Truth be told, the Chapel does just as good a job of combining high end liquors and home made concoctions into tasty cocktails…with less pretension, lower prices, and much better service.

El Sol Taqueria: Hot damn. This is a hole in the wall a block’s stumble away from the Bourbon and Branch. We had the hugest plate of hot, delicious chicken nachos ever and a beer for 8 bucks. Easily the best Mex food I’ve ever had in SF.

bin’s Bradley Collins in our room: bin is perfecting her version of the Applejack based Bradley Collins. It’s a thing of beauty.

Monday:

Ton Kiang: All the way out Geary in Richmond is Ton Kiang…home for reasonably priced dim sum. Good lord I always walk away from this place pleasantly stuffed. Shrimp and scallop, shrimp and shrimp, shrimp and chive, pot stickers….mmmm. Highly recommended.

All in all, we were totally blissed out with food and booze. Can’t wait to go back.

Ye old Boing had a link to this the other day. This here, folks, is a trailer to the new documentary by dickhouse films (Johnny Knoxville’s production company)…and yes I said documentary. White trash observation is something of a hobby for me, and this film looks *right* up my alley. I’m stoked.

The RGJ (Reno Gazette-Journal for you non-Renoites) is a nightmare of a paper. Really, it’s a titanic joke. Regardless, I’m linking to a story on their “website.” Why am I doing this? Well, because it’s about my fave (tied for first with Corrigan’s maybe?) libation maker in Reno, The Chapel. The lads at the Chapel are just the kind that you’d like to hang out with on a lazy Friday afternoon over a few One Eyed Gooses (grey goose/rocks/whole lime squeezed in).

Link.

eMusic continues to be my source for delicious, DRM-free digital music. Now and then I’ll pick up an actual CD, or something from Amazon, but most of my needs are met by eMusic. Here is the stuff I’ve downloaded lately.

The Monks – Black Monk Time: The Monks were all GIs stationed in Germany in the early to mid 60′s. They began playing together in ’64 and by ’65 had been discharged. Black Monk Time is the only album they ever produced and it is a stone cold classic. Garage, underground, frighteningly original and ahead of it’s time, this won’t appeal to just anyone. Recently re-released this is pretty dang wonderful.

Wild Rumpus/Wild Rumpus feat. Beardyman – Purple Summersault and Rock the Joint: Juke joint swing re-mixed into funk electro? Sure. Dig that beat, baby.

The Mooney Suzuki – The Maximum Black EP: Good ol’ American Garage Rock. Check out Love Is A Gentle Whip.

The Dirtbombs – Ultraglide In Black: Detroit’s renowned punk/r&b live act.

The Oholics – Baby Blue Eyes: A delightful EP by some very very drunk Swedes. Delightful.

King Khan & The Shrines – The Supreme Genius of King Khan & the Shrines: A Berlin based garage/psych band. I listen to this all the dang time.

Since discovering Si Amigo (excellent carne asade btw) with the help of C & T, my interest in the beverage known as Michelada has only grown. bin and I have been having red beers (Pabst and tomato juice with an optional hit of Tabasco) for quite awhile. A few weeks ago Richard, our fave Reno bartender, was having what he called a Michelada. I, of course, wanted one. It was basically an advanced red beer; beer, tomato juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, celery salt, a few peppers, and soy sauce. Oddly delicious, but perhaps a little overwhelming compared to a red beer.

Now, Si Amigo also serves a Michelada. Their recipe appears to be beer, tomato juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, clamato, ice cubes, and a ton of fresh lime. It’s not a drink for the faint of heart. It’s salty, clammy, tomato-y, but refreshing in it’s own way. Oh, and you drink it with a straw. This might remind some of you of Budweiser Chelada which is basically Bud (or Bud light) with clamato, salt, and lime served in a tallboy.

Michelada research requires a strong commitment and an even stronger constitution, but I think I’m up to the task. I’m now on the quest for the /defining/ Michelada. Wish me luck. Some research assistance provided by the folks at Wikipedia.