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Tong Soon Garden’s Hot and Sour Soup

Discovered Tong Soon Garden over 15 years ago when a co-worker from Applied brought me there for lunch.  Located in the “Little Seoul  section of Santa Clara along El Camino Real, the owners are Korean Chinese, and serve up spicy Chinese food.  Their home made noodles make their noodle soups and chow mein very tasty. One of their signature dishes, in my mind, is the Hot and Sour soup.  Normally a soup that is little more than broth laced with some vinegar, pepper, and soy sauce at other Chinese restaurants and something that I don’t even consider ordering, Tong Soon’s version is well stocked with pork, shrimp, tofu, wood ear fungus, bamboo, and “egg flowers” with the right balance of sourness and heat from lots of pepper.

Everyone that I have introduced Tong Soon to has loved it. If ordering for just yourself, like for lunch, order the hot and sour noodle soup, which is just the soup with their homemade noodles added.  If you are doing family style, order some other dishes and perhaps a chow mein. Most everything is good there, but definitely don’t skip the soup.

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Ice Cream Nostalgia – Foster’s Freeze and Rite-Aid

Taking a trip of nostalgia recently. Ice cream cones served up “old style”

As a kid, there was nothing better than an ice cream cone after dinner, especially when your parents took you out to a place that had ice cream treats.  While I enjoy places that serve up “premium” ice creams and fancy fro-yo, sometimes I hearken back  to “old school” ice cream.   We have a Foster’s Freeze fairly close to our house, and not having grown up in the Bay Area,  I would describe it as a local version of a Dairy Queen. They offer soft serve ice milk which can be made into shakes or dispensed into cones.  They also offer a chocolate dipped version which coats the ice cream in a semi-hard chocolate shell.  And it’s ice milk, so it’s not as bad as other soft serve ice cream, right?

Theresa has tried to get me to try ice cream by the scoop from Rite-Aid, which she has had since her childhood. I’m thinking, it’s probably just ice cream made on contract by a company like Dreyers that someone digs out of a large container in a store freezer case, What’s so special about that? She finally convinced me to try it tonight. While I was somewhat right about the ice cream itself, (tasted like something I could get out of a Dreyer’s or Breyer’s ice cream box), what stood out is the way the ice cream is put atop the cake cone.  Rite-Aid has a proprietary ice cream scooper contraption that reminds me of a caulk gun or extruder except without the narrow applicator tip, similar to the tool that scientists use to take core samples of ice,. snow, or soil, but without the jagged teeth.  The form that the ice cream takes upon extrusion is that of the cake cone, except inverted. What this means in practice is it eliminates the variability between different employees, effectively packs the ice cream so you don’t have any air pockets,  and results in  a single “scoop” that equates to 2 scoops at your local Baskin Robbins or Swensons (for those of you from the South). At under $2, you definitely get your money’s worth.

 We opted for Cookies and Cream and Malted Chocolate Crunch.  They have about 10 flavors in total when we went there, but they were out of Theresa’s favorite, Mocha Almond Fudge.  Who knew Rite-Aid Ice Cream was so popular? Great value and they carry on the tradition of drug store ice cream.  Reminds me of the old K&Bs in New Orleans.

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Little Lucca, South San Francisco

On our way up to San Francisco, we decided to stop by the Little Lucca Sandwich Shop and Deli, which was recommended by one of Theresa’s co-workers.  The shop looks like a tiny converted house.

2-3 sandwich makers man the service counter, which is just inside the door. Coolers with drinks and racks of chips line the tiny room, with specials posted on the wall. Sandwiches come in only one size and you can choose the type of bread along with the filling.

When I saw the prices, they seemed high to me, but Theresa mentioned that based on all the reviews on Yelp, the size of the sandwiches are large.  We opted for the rotisserie chicken bacon provolone ranch sandwich on dutch crunch and is served hot. Additional options included lettuce, tomato, mayo, Little Lucca’s Original Garlic Sauce,  hot sauce, pickles, and mustard.

Constructed and layered properly, it comes wrapped tight in deli paper.  This sandwich is large and substantial. Definitely share, or expect to take about half of it home. Meat portions are fairly generous. making the sandwich rather thick  and it’s pretty difficult to put all the layers in your mouth, unless you have Dagwood’s jaw.  What separates Little Lucca sandwiches are the 2 sauces/spreads that they use.  Makes for a nice Italian twist on whatever sandwich you decide to get.  The bread is fresh and holds up well to our very “juicy” sandwich by not falling apart, being too spongy nor so chewy as to require violently yanking at the sandwich with your teeth coupled with a violent jerk and pull with your hands.

There is no indoor seating, but there are tables set up in the “alley” along the side, which opens up to a small back yard with more tables.  The day we went was very sunny, relatively warm, and not that windy, which is unusual for the area. On a typical bay area day or a rainy day, I would advise taking the sandwich to go or eating in your vehicle. Also, the shop only gets a set number of bread loaves each day, and because of the popularity, your choice might run out if you get there later in the day.

Verdict:
While the sandwiches are very tasty, a good value, and judging by the fairly long line, even during the mid afternoon when we went, extremely popular, I think not living close to the shop would deter us from going up to South San Francisco just for the sandwich. However,  I would put this on the top of my list for a hearty lunch if we happen to be in the area. Just remember that these sandwiches are for sharing.

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Anchor Oyster Bar, San Francisco

inspired by our friends, Irene and Ray, who went here last week for Ray’s b-day, Theresa and I  decided to try out Anchor Oyster Bar in the Castro to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.

The place is very small, with only 5 tables (3 four toppers and 2 two/three toppers) plus 8 stools at the bar.

It was a  Friday (we both took time off of work)  and arrived around noon for lunch.  We were lucky in that we grabbed the last available table, else we would have to put our name up on the board.


The specialty of the house is, of course, oysters. A white board behind the bar listed oysters available that day as well as daily specials.  We opted for the “Anchor Special” on the menu that offered a dozen oysters on the half shell (you can mix and match based on what is available that day), 8 steamed clams and 4 chilled, boiled shrimp.   Kumamotos, Sweetwaters, and Effinghams were available that day, but we decided to skip the Kumamatos and got 6 each of the Sweetwaters and Effinghams.  The chowder also got good reviews on Yelp, so we opted to share a bowl.  After ordering, Theresa did further research on her phone and found out that Anchor also has cioppino available, but you have to ask for it since it is not listed on the menu, and comes in full and half orders. We opted for the half order since we already got the Anchor Special.

Bread was served and then chowder came shortly after .  Creamy, not too thick, and not overly chunky with the right amount of clammy goodness.  While it is not the best chowder I have had, it’s defintely above average.

 

The Anchor Special came next. Oysters freshly shucked accompanied by lemon wedges and minuet. Briny and fresh with a hint of the sea. The Sweetwaters (from Hogg Island)were, as the name suggests, slightly more sweet than the Effinghams (from near Vancouver).  Four boiled, shelled, de-veined jumbo shrimp  and some cocktail sauce with fresh horseradish were in the center of the platter.  The steamed clams came in a separate bowl and were bathed in a  garlic laden broth perfect for sopping up with the complementary bread. My conservative estimate is the bowl had 1/2 a bulb of garlic in it, and was not overly salty nor heavily seasoned with white wine like the French or Belgian method of steaming clams.

The cioppino arrived next. Wonderfully garlic-y and not overly salty or tomato-y (e.g. over acidic).  The half portion was very generous, with PEI mussels, dungeness crab, shrimp, clams, and white fish (not sure what type, but could have been trout or cod). Two pieces of parmesan topped garlic bread and more lemon wedges accompanied the large bowl. Unless you are a big eater, I would recommend sharing the half portion with a friend after a round of oysters.  My guess is the full order alone could easily feed 2 large eaters and perhaps up to 4 lighter eaters.

All in all a great culinary experience. I would describe Anchor like going to an amusement park. If forced to wait, will do so because there is a good payoff at the end. But not something that I would go do again and again in a short period of time.  I can see why Zagat and Michellin both recommend this place.

Recommendations:
– if you don’t like waiting, I would go during off peak hours like we did or plan accordingly. According to Yelp, hour plus waits are common.  They do not take reservations or seat incomplete parties. Make sure you are there when they call your name, else they move onto the next person. Bring a warm jacket if you are going in the evenings, as SF nights tend to be cold.
-Service was decent, although if you are expecting to get in and out in a hurry, this is not the place. There was a single waiter covering all the tables with three busboy/runner types in support and all were scrambling the entire time we were there. I don’t fault the staff, as it’s not because of lack of effort, just so much to do all within a tight space. Not sure if adding staff would help, as the place is so small and more people would probably just get in the way.  Probably explains why wait times are long during busy hours.
– Parking can be an issue as with most places in San Francisco. Metered parking on  Castro helps turnover during the day. Parking is tight in the surrounding neighborhood and limited to 2 hrs during biz hours if you don’t have a permit. Evenings are probably worse as more residents return from work and others come in for dining and nightlife, so expect to circle a few times before snagging a space
– This is not a place for large parties. I would recommend no more than 4 people at a time, else you will probably have to wait a long long time for a table.
– For first timers, the Anchor Special is probably a good way to sample both the hot and cold dishes of the restaurant. But I think on our next visit I would just order oysters and the cioppino or oysters and steamed clams and skip the shrimp and chowder. Finishing off all the food we ordered this time was quite challenging, although we managed to do it.

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Legion of Honor and Land’s End

The great thing about the Bay Area is that you constantly discover new things at places you have been to. We took advantage of the warmer, and more importantly clear weather to visit “the city”.

Legion of Honor

What a difference clear weather makes. Last time I came here is was semi-foggy and the main goal was to visit the museum. Had a chance to walk around the surrounding grounds.  There was a powerful memorial to the Holocaust victims.

The main parking area in front of the LOH is large circular shaped parking lot with a sculpture in the center. I noticed a contrail left by some airplane or another, which provided for a nice juxtaposition photo opportunity

A stone sculpture commemorating the establishment of diplomatic ties between the US and Japan, a gift from SF’s sister city of Osaka.

Lands End

It had been a while since I’ve been to the Sutro Heights and Cliff House area of San Francisco, and decided to check it out after visiting the Legion of Honor.  The US Park Service really spruced up the Lands End area (which I learned on this trip was the name of that area). The Lookout area off Point Lobos Blvd near the Cliff House has a new visitors center, parking lot, and maintained trails that run along the coast to the Presidio. .

View of the Sutro Bath ruins and the Pacific from the lookout.

On a clear day, the views of the Marin coast, Pacific, and the Golden Gate Bridge are spectacular.The panoramic below was stitched together with several photos taken from the USS San Francisco memorial, which is perched above the trail that leads to the Presidio and was the former route of a railroad/trolley Sutro built to ferry passengers from SF to the beach areas on the west side of the city.

Pic of USS San Francisco Memorial taken through a hole in the hull that was transported and place at its current location

My only regret is not having my SLR with me so I could take higher quality pictures, as clear days like this on my days off don’t happen that often.  I am also finding that the iPhone4’s camera to be ok for casual pics, but still can not replace even a point and shoot camera,to say nothing of an SLR’s capability.  Differences are noticeable with Theresa’s iPhone 4S camera, so the 5’s camera must be even better.

 

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Bristol Farms Cupcakes and City Target in the Metreon

Went to San Francisco Centre to drop off a watch for repair and decided to walk around the SOMA/Union Square Area and take advantage of the rare 60 degree F weather.

Dropped by Bristiol Farms market in the basement of the SF Centre.  They had a large selection of gourmet foods. Saw the soda below in their cold drinks and soda section called “China Cola”. Hmm… not sure what “Asian herbs” are. Read the ingredients and I imagine it would taste like carbonated Chinese medicine.  The only thing it had going for it was it used sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup.  I was not willing to pay the $2.29 to try a bottle though.

Walked by the bakery cases and saw some cupcakes.  Theresa wanted to try one, but we ended up getting 2 – Tiramisu and Chocolate Banana – bringing it home for dessert. The choco-banana one has real bits of banana in the cake part and icing. Very tasty, and we finished that one off.

Also had some time to check out City Target in the Metreon, the small format store sibling of the Target and Super Targets that dot our fair land.

While the store is smaller, it had all the essentials stocked.  I would say it contains probably half the selection of a regular Target, and a lack of the larger, jumbo, family size packages.  Perfect for city dwellers, especially in the SOMA area where grocery and sundry selection is limited.  They even have smaller carts.

When we stepped out the door, there was even a Target employee helping a couple try and hail a cab because their purchases were too much to carry on the streets of SF. Always tempting to overbuy at Target.   This format is perfect for dense urban areas like SF, DC, NYC, and Chicago.

 

 

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Loco Moco, My Style

My take on the classic Hawaiian dish of Loco Moco, which is hamburger patty over rices with gravy.

LocoMoco – NK Style
Hamburger patty of organic ground beef over a bed of steamed Japanese medium grain rice, topped with garlic sauteed pea sprouts, salt and pepper soft set egg, garlic infused “gravy”, and accompanied by butter sauteed mushrooms

 

 

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Palo Alto – Microsoft Store, Signola’s Farmer’s Market, Schaub’s Meat Market, The Melt

Took a stroll in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto

The Microsoft Store

Decided to check out the rather new-ish Microsoft Store, the 2nd one to open here in the Bay Area, after the one in Valley Fair.

There were really promoting it as at the various entry points to the mall.

What struck me is the foot traffic was very light, which matched my experience with the Valley Fair store, while the Apple store two doors down seemed pack (although to be fair, the Apple store was probably 1/3 the size of the MSFT store, so it could be lack of space).  Played around with the new Surface Pro, which sports the “full” version of Windows 8.  I had played with the Surface RT during one of our trips to Vegas, both departing San Jose and also in Vegas airport.  My impression of RT was that while cool, it seemed a bit more “choppy” compared to the iPad. Performance was so so when compared to an ultrabook, but adequate for a tablet. The only catch was RT had its own set of software apps, which precluded me from wanting an RT, as I might as well stick with my iPad.  Fast forward to the release of Surface Pro, and I was interested to see if it would be enough to make it my next tech purchase.

Impressions of Surface Pro


The Surface Pro is much heavier and feels denser than the RT.  Using the attached cover/keyboard combo was intuitive, as it felt just like a laptop interface all of us are used to.  There was a slight lag when typing and using the touchpad, which bothered me a bit. Again, not as “snappy” as the iPad user experience.  For pointing and clicking, I found myself touching the screen more often, which I guess is the whole point of a touch interface.  Touch typing on the keyboard/cover was plagued by the same lag, so if you make an error, then you won’t see your mistake for a bit an then have to tap tap tap on the backspace to correct it.  The Pro model I played with came with a Stylus that can be used as a pointing device, which functioned well as a third point device. I can see this being useful for drawing applications.. The stylus can also be used in conjunction with the handwriting recognition capabilities to input text into your apps.  I tested it within Word and Excel and it did a decent job of recognizing my handwriting, even successive words written in cursive (well my version of it anyway). There is some lag in the conversion, so I would not use it for entering long strings of letters and numbers (think taking handwritten notes during a meeting, class, or seminar).

Applications seemed to load fairly fast and were smooth, although I would be interested to see how it operates under the strain of “corporate” strength files (e.g. heavy duty Excel spreadsheets and graphics laden Powerpoint presentations”.  Did not get a chance to test wireless performance or Internet apps, but my assumption is that the experience would be the same as RT, which is to say adequate for most net surfing. Graphics and screen were not as impressive as Apple’s iPad and MacBooks, but if your aim is to just do business apps, then it is adequate. As far as aesthetics,  I don’t get that warm and fuzzy + “woo it’s so pretty” feeling with Surface. It’s not offensive, and it feels solid, but it seems like something you would throw on the corner of your desk rather than on its own shiny stand (although with the built in kickstand, I guess that would be a moot point for many). But the point is that it does not appeal to the “fashionable” side of me, even with the different colored keycboard/covers that are available.

As a laptop or ultrabook replacement, I think Surface has a way to go. If you are always on the run and don’t require a lot of content creation capabilities  then I can see Surface fitting that use case. It is fairly pricey at $899, and for the same amount of $$, I would just settle for an touch ultrabook with better performance or an iPad and bluetooth keyboard.

Sigona’s Farmer’s Market and Schaub’s Meat Market

This market always seems to have a good variety of fruit, but what stands out is their variety of dried fruit.  They have the typical dried apricots, peaches, raisins, etc, but they also carry some more exotic dried fruits like persimmons, plucots, cantelope, and kiwi to name a few.They also have a wide variety of nuts, all available in bulk. More variety than Whole Foods.  Now I know where to go for my dried fruit needs.

 

Dried Persimmons

We also popped into Schaub’s Meats next door. Lots of fresh meats and seafood. Click on thumbnails below to see the huge Tiger Prawns they have for sale there.

The Melt

This place looks intriguing .  A hi-tech restaurant that serves grilled cheese and soup.  Did not try the actual food, but did notice custom made equipment for the sandwiches that I could only describe as high tech panini presses.  They also have an “order board”, where you can see where your order is in the queue. It was started by Jonathan Kaplan, who started and then sold Pure Digital, marker of the Flip cameras to Cisco.  Sometimes the simplest things require the most innovation.

Will do another blog entry when we do finally decide to eat there.

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Cocola – Santana Row

Had afternoon coffee at Cocola on Santana Row, which is a French style cafe and patiserrie.    We tried three pastries and the house mocha.

The pastries were not overly sweet as is typical of American style bakeries. The strudel was filled with custard cream filling with the “shell” having a nice  buttery and airy mouth feel, similar to a croissant.    The cake in the background had a caramelized, semi crispy topping with embedded almonds. The chocolate mousse cake on the left consisted of hemisphere of chocolate banana mousse atop a sliver of chocolate layer cake, which was then encased in a thin chocolate coating, which was then dusted in cocoa powder.  While I expected it to be heavy, it was quite light, as the coating was super thin, the mousse nicely whipped, and the layer cake resembling more of a sponge cake in consistency. The mocha was smooth and a notch above what you would typically get at Starbucks. A great compliment to their pastries.  Cocola is also a great place to just sit, have coffee, and people watch on Santana Row.

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Christmas Dinner 2012

Cooked Christmas dinner with Theresa and my Mom.

Braised spicy beef shank with braised eggs, Thousand Year old egg with tofu, braised daikon, steamed striped black bass with ginger and green onion, black bean and garlic spare ribs with taro, spicy cucumber salad, sweet and sour cucumber salad, napa cabbaga stir fried with dried shrimp.

Our friends Albert and Clarrisa brought over Chinese meatballs with glutinous rice and a very nice David Bruce Pinot Noir..