My favorite places to eat in San Francisco

Many San Franciscans claim that there are more seats in our restaurants than there are residents in the city. Weather that is true or not is not something I cannot verify. I can confirm that there are many great places to eat here. I have mostly been restricted to restaurants within my finances and near places I've lived or worked so those are the places I am suggesting here.

#1 Chin's Sushi Bar
4406 California St.
(near 6th Avenue)


This is my very favorite Sushi bar. The fish selection is seasonal. In general everything is toothsome and well balanced. The rice, the miso, the maki, and the prepared fish dishes are all delicate and flavorful.
I recommend the stuffed shrimp.
**near Green Apple Books

#2Nagano Sushi
3727 Geary Blvd.
(near Arguello and 2nd Ave)



The rice and the miso at this place are very commonplace. If you want maki, this is not the best place. However if you want to cut to the chase and just eat fish this sushi bar has the most variety of fresh sashimi I have found. They have a variety of Japanese beers and several desserts (I usually don't order dessert at sushi bars but they are on the menu). The atmosphere is pretty good, the customers are usually mostly Japanese and Koreans and the music is usually top 40 hits.

#3 Gordo's (Mexican)
1239 9th Ave.
Between Lincoln and Judah
This is a local chain. Very popular.
I love the Chicken Quesadillas. The menu is only; burritos, tacos, and quesadillas. Basic and well done.

#4 Taqueria San Jose
2830 Mission St
(between Valencia and 16th st, a quick walk from the Mission and 16th st BART station)
I find I get better service if I order in Spanish... it's all good, I heap a lot of their green salsa on everything.

#5 The Stinking Rose
325 Columbus Ave.
(between Vallejo and Broadway)


This place is expensive, I've been here twice. The first time my bill was covered and the second time I spent about $35 on my plate including wine, it's easy to spend more if you order appetizers and dessert (or lobster). Like the name implies, Everything in the restaurant has garlic in it. It is heavenly Italian-American fare that should be enjoyed with a dry glass of red wine. You can order a garlic martini, a garlic-vodka shooter and garlic ice cream but really the main dishes and appetizers had plenty of garlic for me, I found no need to venture into novelty.
**near City Lights Books

#6 My final reccomendation I don't know the name of the place
It's a Korean Hot Pot Restaurant
On the corner of 10th Ave and Clement St.



Here you pay a buffet price for a huge bowl that you fill with meat,vegetables, noodles and sauces... then you take it all back to your table and cook it there either on a sautee surface or in a big hot pot of broth. It is very filling, a great place to sate a large appetite.
**also near Green Apple Books

I have found that downtown by the courthouse and opera food choices are poor except for on days when the farmer's market is in the plaza. Also Japan town has good sushi but generally it is priced more than it is worth.

This blog is especially for the Blaschkos who are celebrating Sarah's marriage this week. Congrats to the happy family. If any of you need anything while you're in town give me a call.

the newer old homestead

So after the family (John Wallace's desendants) left Castle Craigie to disintegrate they got a new castle that they named Newton Castle. I can't find much info on Newton castle except that it doesn't even have ruins anymore... perhaps it was burnt down like a few of great-grandpa's kitchens (Hey Mom, was that great-grandpa a Wallace?) Then the family moved into a much bigger and posh place; Cragie House.


It looks like the heating is probably a little better than the old place. How is it we are related to people who had/have a castle like this? Where's my castle? Trust fund anybody? Ach! There are a ton of Wallace's we'd probably end up with about ten pounds sterling each... Sigh.

the old homestead

Hey Ma,
Look at what I found. We Wallaces had a castle and this is what's left of it. Because it is in ruins it's hard to find much information on it... It sounds like it's out in the middle of the countryside near a tiny village... I think I'm actually more interested in the place since it's in ruins than if I had discovered it were in perfect condition. We'll see if I can't dig up more info from the library. ooh ruins are cool!

Quote of the Week

"I feel like the Pope at a strip club"
--Michael Kors

Painting the dank out of dark and dank

Well I'm not quite done with painting my work space, but since I'm not going to get that chance for another few weeks I thought I would at least post my progress for proof that my "dungeon" is looking more like a real room every day.

Before;
Bare drywall, bare wood, messy and dark


After;
Painted walls, painted shelves, less messy, better organized (trust me on this)
I don't think these pics fully show how much better the room feels to be in, but before I could only work in this room for about an hour before I'd had it and needed to get out. Now I can put in enough time to accomplish something.


Sigh! I love fresh paint.

Eating like a hippie

When I embarked on this no-dairy experiment I did so with a great internal sigh. Picky eaters are so terrible. When I worked at a restaurant I was always irritated by the people who would order something like penne primavera; "but could you take out the zucchini, and use manicotti instead of penne?". Even worse are the people who go to some place like McDonalds and ask for "a hamburger happy meal, but make one of the hamburgers a cheeseburger,only three pickle slices, and give me extra fries with no salt and an extra toy". I'm not exaggerating, I've met these people, they are the ones who hold up the line in the grocery store telling the baggers how to bag their milk "in plastic and then in paper but not with the ice cream!". That is a little how I imagined a diet with a major restriction to turn out. Not eating dairy for a month (and still going) has reinforced the fact that Those People are just difficult and disagreeable and it has nothing to do with any kind of dietary restriction. It's pretty easy to just say "hold the cheese" and not make it into a theatrical production.
What is hard, but will probably get easier, is grocery shopping. Shopping is slowed significantly because of the necessity of reading through ingredients trying to spot "whey" "casiene" "vanilin" and other code words for "Milk". Today I finally just went to the Berkeley Bowl (a mega-hippie supermarket with the most amazing produce section ever). I bought soy milk, soy butter, soy creamer, a few products labeled "vegan" and a ton of veggies.

The new diet has forced me to think harder about my food choices. Just look at how many veggies I ate tonight;

I also bought a book called "The Joy of Vegan Baking" which I love. The recipes are fairly simple and explain how to "veganize" any baking recipe. I tried using these recipes with eggs instead of egg substitutes but they weren't as good. The most surprising egg substitute that I loved was in the muffins I made today. Instead of two eggs you whip together 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of water, e voila!

For a dozen muffins I used a half cup of sugar and a third cup oil. Those were the only not-so-good-for-you ingredients, everything else was flour, flax, seasoning, fruit and nuts... actually they're really tasty. You'd never know that they're made with twigs and dirt.

So I'm accepting that I'm not becoming a terrible picky eater, I'm just being a more conscientious eater. Thank God I don't have to do this in Ohio.

I doth affect a liking for this Shakespeare fellow

The guy vlogging is John Green, he and his brother did a vlog project last year that was pretty fabulous.

Emeryville Grafitti

You may recall "Berkeley grafitti" from where I work. Here's some graffiti from my neighborhood. Does anyone know what "nie srag tutag" means?

Cheese; It's what's Not for dinner

Think about all of the yummiest and quickest meals you love. There are grilled cheese sandwiches, Mac and Cheese, Enchiladas, quesadillas, cheesy mashed potatoes, cheddar perogies, nachos, fettucini alfredo and how about cream of broccoli soup. It's an easy list to make.
I can't eat any of them. Since I read about how dairy intolerance can cause acne, depression, lethargy and insomnia (all problems I've had) I've decided to try living "dairy free". So far my "before" and "after" photos aren't exactly a miraculous transformation, but I do have more energy and have been sleeping better, so those are good signs.
Going without milk and butter was a surprisingly easy transition because of good soy substitutes. Unfortunately there is no good non-dairy cheese (Vegans claim that there is but that's only because they have forgotten what cheese is supposed to taste like).
Even if this dairy experiment proves to be inconclusive I have at least learned how dependent on cheese my snacks and dinners have been. I am guaranteed to cut calories from my lack of cheese and butter. Breakfast has been fine. I've used soy milk and soy butter and even found an Amazing vegan pancake recipe. Lunch is ok, mostly I have sandwiches,or soups or rice with vegetables anyway, so that wasn't a big adjustment. Dinner is the hard part of the day. I have to think really hard to avoid the entire list from the start of this post, plus a rather shocking amount of other dairy filled foods. I am fortunate to live in Berkeley where we have at least seventeen restaurants (that I counted) that are vegetarian and four of those are exclusively vegan. Since I cannot afford to dine out every night, I find myself staring at my veggie bin thinking "these would all taste great covered with cheddar cheese." Despite the cheesy longing in my heart, I must admit this is much easier than trying to give up bread. When the Low-carb craze hit I tried to cut out pasta and bread for three miserable days. Every single day I thought about bread all day. By the third day I could smell it everywhere, that was torture. This lack of cheese is sad but really only distressing when I have no idea of what I should eat. The no bread thing was a diet (which I haven't done before or since) if this no dairy thing works out it will be a lifestyle change which I think will be much better for me.

Still, right now cheese would be the Easy thing to make for dinner. I need to add more recipes to my repertoire.

cheese and crackers... quiche... cheesecake... baked brie... Limburger on Rye... cheddarwurst... patty melts... ranch dressing... Oh sigh.

Reason #416

Why Shaggy is my best friend:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked "where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him" (Matthew 2:1-2)

They arrived with Darth Vader but low the Darth did not see him for he was stuck in a great black helmet and was deep in ponderance of the tragic disapointment Episodes 1 through 3 had been...(Hammel 12:5-6)

All we like sheep have gone astray... even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no At-At (Lucas 4:16)

ok, not yet

no new news today but look here's a pic of my "sleeping" sister... te he he