SaLitre

September 2008

Wine and liquor bar in Leblon that we stopped in after shopping. Super cute with upstairs porch that we sat at. Wonderful bottle of CATENA 2006 Chardonnay from Mendoza (for about 60R)

Av General San Martin 857, Leblon
3205 6977

Fellini

September 2008

Fantastic “per kilo” buffet restaurant, with great selection of vegetables, meats, pastas and dessert. You go through the line, weigh your food and get a price sticker on this paper you keep until the end of the meal. Roughly 40R for a kilo, but that is 2.2 pounds.

http://www.fellini.com.br/

Rua General Urquiza 104, Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2511 3600

Bibi Sucos

September 2008

I stopped at this corner juice stand on my first day walking around Leblon in Rio. They had an overwhelming menu board, so I just fixed on the “açai” section and ordered a copa. I got a super thick glass filled over the brim with dark brownish-red slushie that I ate with a spoon until I had an ice cream head ache. I have no idea how to describe the fruit taste, but it’s good. I had them pour the rest into a cup to go though, a lot of slushie for one sitting.

Avenida Ataulfo de Paiva 591, Rio de Janeiro, 22440-032, Brazil
2259 4298

Brothers Restaurant

August 2008
Dinner

Great Korean food in Inner Richmond.

4128 Geary Blvd (between 5th Ave & 6th Ave), San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 387-7991

21st Amendment

August 2008
Drinks

Interesting watermelon wheat beer

www.21st-Amendment.com

563 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 369-0900

Lingba

August 2008
Sunday brunch

Interesting Asian fusion-y menu at this cute place in Richmond (maybe? I have no idea where this really is).

Really yummy bloody mary's with an entire stick of bacon in it, pretty amazing. They had some great appetizers that we split - a corn fritatta kind of thing, fried egg rolls with risotto inside, taro chips with mango and tuna tartar, and ribs. My meal was kurobuta pork hash with roasted potatoes, kabocha pumpkin and poached eggs.

http://www.lingba.com/

1469 18th Street (and Connecticut), San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 355-0001

Sushi Yoshi

August 2008
Dinner

Fantastic authentic Japanese place in Newark, right on the other side of the Dumbarton from the Peninsula. The restaurant is in a strip mall by Arby's and kind of a hole in a wall, but Yoshi-san and his mother have a great izakaya menu on the wall. Unfortunately for many, it is in Japanese, though they'll give you an English menu, and will answer questions from behind the bar.

Yoshi-san has a decent selection of sake and will let you taste before pouring it into a "masu", or wooden box. He also has shochu, all "imo" or potato base.

We started with edamame, ika geso (fried squid legs), and a grilled whole mackerel. I had to order ankimo (monkfish liver), which is "foie gras of the sea" per Kenneth. Yum. Off menu, they also have home made shiokara, a salty-spicy squid 'pickle.' They also make a good home made gyoza (dumpling).

For sushi, we had some ikura (salmon roe), uni (sea urchin), and really amazing toro. Also worth getting the California roll with real crab meat.

Yoshi-san gave us ice cream to finish - green tea, azuki (red bean) or vanilla are the choices.

Not the speediest so I would expect to take some time there. But worth it!

On Yelp

39261 Cedar Blvd (between Magazine & Mowry Ave), Newark, CA 94560
(510) 797-3835

Lemongrass

August 2008
Dinner

Great Thai place near Lizzie's on Polk between Green and Union. Their Tom Yum Gai soup was fantastic, spicy enough but not too much with chicken and mushrooms. Got quite full off the chicken and spinach with peanut sauce and even brought some home. Quite reasonably priced for dinner and bottle of wine, about $35 each.

www.lemongrassSF.com

2348 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 346-1818

Palo Alto Sol

August 2008
Dinner

Popular Mexican place on California Ave with great and potent margaritas. I love the food, though I always go back to the carne asada plate or fajitas. Everyone is always happy with their choice though.

www.paloaltosol.net

408 S California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 328-8840

Ristorante Parma

August 2008
Dinner

Standard Italian on Steiner between Chestnut and Lombard. Gerri and I went there at 6pm the night before our half marathon for our "pasta dinner," as was the rest of the customers for the restaurant to be packed at such a geriatric hour. Good authentic, though not super exciting Italian food.

3314 Steiner Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 467-0500

La Bodequita Del Medio

August 2008
Dinner

Yummy though pricey Cuban restaurant on California Ave. Great drinks and pretty amazing food.

www.labodeguita.com

463 California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 326-7762

Maru Ichi

July 2008
Lunch

Pretty good ramen place in the Asian Fast Food Mall (Ranch 99 shopping center in Milpitas). It gets super crowded at lunch time so try before 11:45pm. After that they put your name down and you wait outside. I actually like their traditional ramen (miso, shoyu, etc) rather than their specialty black ramen.

Looks like they have another location in Mountain View on Castro as well.

530 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 434-5991

Homma's Brown Rice Sushi

July 2008
Take-out dinner

Total hole-in-a-wall sushi place off of California (take a left on Birch coming from El Camino, and it's on your right, but in a little alleyway). It's family run I think and just has a few tables inside and out. We ordered about 5 different rolls to go, and they told us about 35 minutes. So not speedy. But it was good. Brown rice in sushi is a first for me but was ok. Fairly reasonable too, $22 for five rolls and ikura.

*Cash only

*Per Yelp - Hours: Mon-Thu 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Tue 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Wed-Thu 12:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 12:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

2363 Birch St Ste B, Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 327-6118

Pampas

Marie's Going Away Dinner
June 2008

Great new Brazilian churrascaria across the street from the train station at Alma and Hamilton. Pretty big and trendy venue, with a lounge/bar space up front and several dining areas. They have pretty good caipirinhas and other fresh mixed drinks.

Like many churrascarias, there is a phenomenal salad bar buffet ($27 I think), which would be worth it by itself. Add $20 and you get all you can eat meat too. Yum. Not the cheapest place, but fun and you definitely get full.

http://www.pampaspaloalto.com/

529 Alma St, Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 327-1323

Assab Eritrean Restaurant

Dinner
July 2008

For those of you now familiar with African geography (I am guilty also), Eritrea is next to Ethiopia in northeastern Africa. The food is like Ethiopian, with flatbread you eat by hand.

Assab is in what yelp says is Western Addition/NOPA. The food was good -- when we finally got it. We had an 8:30pm reservation for 11 people, but I think our appetizers didn't come out until 9:45 and dinner about half hour later. I was pretty cranky and hungry to say the least, then overcompensated and felt gross, but that's my problem. Sambusas are good, liked the meat better than veggie. Assab is known for vegetarian food, though I liked the meat dishes too.

Apparently the honey wine is one of their specialities - made from honey and hops, it was syrupy and sweet, not quite what I wanted for the night though others seemed to like it.

2845 Geary Blvd (between Collins St & Wood St), San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 441-7083

Tomales Bay Oyster Company

July 2008
Picnic with Take, Carolyn and James

Wonderful trip to Tomales Bay up Route 1 about an hour north of San Francisco. There is a parking lot, picnic tables and a counter to buy oysters, but you can make a fantastic day of it if you bring up the right stuff. Mainly several bottles of champagne and white wine (we brought 5 and ended up taking a trip to get a few more), tons of picnic food, and good company.

Bring shucking tools if you have them (gloves and knife), though they will sell them to you for $15.

The oysters come by dozen in different sizes. To be honest, the "large" oysters were a bit too much. We settled on the medium size ones, and then the special which was these "doubles", two of them stuck together. I think like $10-$15 per dozen, great deal.

I love raw oysters (bring cocktail sauce, highly recommend lots of horseradish and lemon), but they do have little grills that you can use, if you bring your own charcoal and brickettes. Some other tables were kind enough to let us use theirs and the grilled oysters are pretty phenomenal.

They don't take reservations, so go early, particularly on nice weekend days in the summer. Closes at 5pm, and they will kick you out, so make sure someone can drive home by then.

http://www.tomalesbayoysters.com/

15479 Highway 1, Marshall, CA 94940
(415) 663-1242

Tortilla Heights

Dinner
July 2008

Just like Tortilla Flats in NYC, good Mexican, pitchers of margaritas and generally a good time.

www.tortillaheights.com

1750 Divisadero Street (between Bush St & Sutter St), San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-4531

The Melting Pot

Dinner
July 2008

Interesting fondue place in downtown San Jose. They have varying levels of gluttony from single entree to four courses for two. We got the plain deep fry in olive oil with one entree of Cajun meats and shrimp and one of filet medallions. Comes with veggies too. Not so cheap.

http://www.meltingpot.com/

72 S First Street, San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 293-6020

Los Cubanos Restaurant

Dinner
February 2008

Yummy family owned Cuban place. Not particularly cheap, but home style hearty food.

www.loscubanosrestaurant.com

22 N Almaden Ave, San Jose, CA 95110
(408) 279-0134

Mango Caribbean

Dinner
June 2008

www.mangocaribbean.com

435 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, CA
94301 (650) 324-9443