All that glitters is good.....

All that glitters is good.....

Friday, September 30, 2011

Tasty stuff across the bridge- Snacking in Sausalito

While I live in San Francisco, I work in Sausalito, a small town right across the bay. I get to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge every morning and through the Marin Headlands, so I think I may have one of the most beautiful work commutes in the world. Sausalito is an interesting place. It's only a 15 minute drive from San Francisco, yet it feels so different. The weather is always sunny and the temperature's about 10 degrees warmer. It's got a small town feel you would expect to find in a rural city. For example, the police do undercover sting operations to make sure vehicles are stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks.

There's a lot of good restaurants in Sausalito (see my previous reviews for Sushi Ran and Horizon's). This week I’ve experience two other eateries that should be added to the list of places to visit when you find yourself hungry in Sausalito. The first is Bar Bocce. This is a fairly new establishment right on the water off of Bayview. While the name automatically makes you think of bocce, there’s only one playing area. But there’s a large patio with wonderful views of the bay and the food is surprisingly avant garde for a “bar.” We started out sharing a couple of salads and an appetizer. I was excited for the shaved artichoke salad, with fennel, celery and pecorino. Sadly, the artichoke flavor wasn’t there at all. The salad seemed to be 80% fennel. The second salad was better thankfully. The wild arugula with balsamic and shaved parmesan was well-balanced and surprisingly flavorful. The appetizer we got actually could be considered another salad. We tried the heirloom tomatoes, topped with tarragon, pecorino and toasted pistachios, which were fresh and also flavorful. The toasted pistachios added a nice crunchy texture. They’re known for their pizzas, so we tried the margherita and the squash blossom with tomato and burrata cheese. Usually I’m not too wild about cheese but I have to say creamy burrata is quite delicious. It’s almost like sour cream without the sour. The margherita pizza was fine but nothing mind-blowing.



The other place I went is the much-raved about FISH. It may be cash only with picnic table style seating, but the prices are pretty expensive. Luckily the flavor and quality of food makes it worth the money. We started out with a large plate of oysters, which were phenomenal. It tasted like they had just been pulled out of the water, they were so fresh. We tried the ceviche, which had giants chunks of different types of fish and avocado. We also had the tuna tartare, which was served with potato chips. It sounds a little random but the saltiness of the chips with the fresh tuna and marinade was perfectly balanced. For my actual meal I had the crab roll. The sandwich was stuffed with crab and dripping with butter, so yes, it was amazing. If it’s a sunny day in Sausalito (which it is 90% of the time) and you’re looking to sit outside on the water and enjoy fresh seafood, this is the place to go. Just remember to bring cash and don’t get sticker shock from the prices.



Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Movies from last weekend

Last weekend I went to see "Moneyball" in the theater. Now, usually I have a weakness for inspiration sports movies that I can't explain. I don't like watching sports and overly inspirational things annoy me, but things like "Miracle" and "Remember the Titans" bring me to tears. So, I went in expecting another great movie. I have to say, it was just okay. The overall story was interested but there were parts that dragged. Brad Pitt is starting to look quite old (could all those kids finally be wearing on him?) but he did a good job in the role. I thought the best was Jonah Hill as the "moneyball" number-crunching whiz. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone, but the ending wasn't inspirational at all. Minnesota Twins fans will like the ending though. And you will leave the theater with "The Show" by Lenka stuck in your head.


I rented "Country Strong." I guess I can't really explain this either. I love music, but I hate country. I would listen to classical over country any day of the week. And I don't like Gwyneth Paltrow. But I love Leighton Meester, who plays Blair on Gossip Girl, so I had to rent it. The male lead is played by Garrett Hedlund (a MN boy, woohoo!). Hedlund was decent and had a good singing voice. However, he didn't have anything on Tim McGraw, who played Paltrow's husband. In both this and "The Blind Side," McGraw does amazing acting that's full of emotion. I'm super impressed, as singers turned actors are not usually that good. Back to the actual movie; it looked at least like I was in for a good love story. However, the movie starts out with the Hedlund's character hooking up with Gwyneth, who's married, in rehab and has a whole other mess of problems. Both characters are initially mean to Meester's naive character. Overall, the plot was fairly predictable. And I fast forwarded through all the long singing scenes, as it was just too much country music for me. I'd say wait to see it until it reaches cable, you're not missing out on anything special if you miss seeing it all together. I'll probably forget about this movie as soon as I'm done writing this post.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

The best peanut sauce I've ever had.

Yesterday I finally made it to My Father's Kitchen (1655 Divisadero) for lunch. I'd heard good things about it and been wanting to check it out for awhile now. The problem is that it's only open until 7p everyday, so unless you eat dinner at early bird special times, it's hard to make it there. I feel like they're missing out on a huge potential dinner crowd. Oh well, it's definitely one of my new favorite lunch spots in the neighborhood. The inside is clean and simple with dark wood undertones and a little rose on every table.The service is very helpful and friendly.


They tout Vietnamese comfort food. Whatever you do, make sure you start out with the fresh spring rolls small plate. Wrapped in vermicelli noodles, it's stuffed with shrimp, sliced pork, cilantro and mint. The thing that makes these the best spring rolls I've ever had is the peanut sauce they're served with. It's creamy perfection and they give you a giant serving to smother your rolls in. I've never had such a creamy, smooth peanut sauce. I would love to know how they make it. 


I've been all about the pho lately. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese rice noodle soup. It's an amazingly flavorful soup, with many different possible combinations. At My Father's Kitchen, I got the beef rice noodle soup special. Along with the noodles, green onions and cilantro, it has round steak, brisket and flank. It's usually served with a side of jalapeno and lemon, which you can choose to add. I like to add both, with a couple splashes of sriracha to add a little spice. 


My boyfriend got the bun, another traditional Vietnamese dish with vermicelli noodles. Vermicelli noodles are thin white noodles, made from rice, and are a staple in Vietnamese cooking. The bun he got came with marinated grilled pork and meatballs, served with fresh herbs and fish sauce. It also comes with a side of lettuce and cilantro. Our server said there's really no right way to eat it, so he made it into mini lettuce wraps.

They also served Blue Bottle coffee here, which people are wild about in San Francisco. It's an organic microroast brewed and poured with a slow drip style. Their headquarters are in Oakland. I'm not a huge coffee drinker but everyone raves about how fresh and flavorful this coffee is. You can read their interesting backstory here. Long story short, the food is delicious and the prices are more than fair. I will definitely be back to My Father's Kitchen and will be eating those spring rolls every single time.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Peruvian Perfection

In the foodie world these days, Peruvian restaurants are the newest hot spots. I love Argentinian food (to all you Chicagoans, hit up one of my favorite restaurants of all time on Southport, Tango Sur) and Peruvian is similar but with more of an emphasis on seafood. Last week I went to La Mar, an upscale Peruvian restaurant on the Embarcadero at Pier 1 1/2.

To start out, I recommend trying the traditional drink from Peru, the pisco sour. Pisco is a strong, colorless grape brandy produced in Chile and Peru. The drink is pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, a dash of egg white and a drop of regional bitters. It sounds strange but tastes delicious. I also tried the sangria, which is made with red wine and pisco, and that was quite tasty as well.

Now onto the food! Right away they give each table a basket of plantain chips, which three different dipping sauces. We had a tasting menu created for our group, so we got to try a bunch of their dishes. Their specialty is ceviche, which in Peru is spelled "cebiche." The first one we tried was the cebiche mixto, which is the fish catch of the day, with cilantro, red onion, habanero, Peruvian corn and yam. The next one was cebiche clasico, which is the catch of the day, calamari, red onion, habanero, Peruvian corn and yam. My favorite was the cebiche nikei, which has tombo tuna, red onion, avadcado and Japanese cucumber in tamarind leche de tigre. It was a tad sweet and a tad savory, which made for the perfect balance.


For the next course, we sampled some of the especiales. There was the ensalada limena, which is a salad with arugula and spinach, cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm, choclo (Andean corn), queso fresco and a vinaigrette. It was light and fresh. We tried the arroz norteno, which is North Peruvian seafood combination (mussels, shrimp, calamari) with fried rice, cilantro, Huancaina sauce (made from peppers) and salsa criolla. My favorite was the quinoa chaufa. Quinoa is a grain that's gained a lot of popularity for it's ability to adsorb flavors, while being extremely healthy and gluten free. This dish was wok fried quinoa with bell peppers, scallions, egg, soy sauce, bean sprouts, sesame oil and fried egg noodles.

After this, I'm already full but there's two more courses to go and who am I to pass up good food? Next up was the lomo saltado, which is a traditional Peruvian style stir-fry of beef tenderloin, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, soy sauce, garlic, aji amarillo (hot yellow chile pepper) and fried potatoes. We had another quinoa dish, solterito de quinoa. It's a quinoa salad with olives, lima beans, cilantro, bell peppers, queso fresco and red onion, tossed in an olive oil dressing. It was a nice light dish to finish off the meal. I think I'm going to be attempting to make some quinoa dishes of my own soon! 

Last but not least, we had dessert. They have the shotglass sized desserts, which are the perfect size. I tried the creamy rice pudding one, which fresh berries layered in. I also tried a lemon meringue, which was the perfect level of sour and sweet. La Mar is a great place to go if you're willing to spend a fair amount of money but are looking for those amazing Peruvian flavors.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Some shameless self-promotion

Being from Minnesota, I had a pair of SOREL boots growing up. They were a little clunky but super warm and comfy. These days I have the pleasure of working on SOREL advertising and those boots have changed! They're much more fashionable and versatile than they use to be. I can't decide which pair I want to get... maybe the Lux Leather Wedge. It would be great to own a pair of functional boots that actually have a heel!



Anyway, getting back to the shameless self promotion, the SOREL Fall/Winter campaign just launched. My new agency, Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, did the creative and it is absolutely goooorgeous. If you check out our Print or Online ads that are running now, here's the "mini-story" behind the creative that really brings it to life! View here: SOREL Video