All-in-on Sandwiches

Ina tempted us with a new lunch destination, Giordano Bros. in North Beach and their Pittsburg style all-in-one sandwiches. While the trek is a little far for us FiDi-ers, after reviewing the website, we thought it might be worth the additional effort. The sandwiches are stuffed with meat, melted provolone cheese, along with coleslaw and fries. Ina tried the pastrami with fried egg, Ruby had the sausage, and I had the capicola. The meat is grilled with the provolone cheese, served on a soft white bread with a crust with some chew, topped with a vinegary cabbage slaw with some cracked black pepper, and French fries. Apparently this is following in the tradition of Pittsburg’s Primanti Bros. It was a satisfying meal, the sandwiches were awesome, the only thing missing was a nice cold beer, but since we had to go back to work, I didn’t think it would hebe condusive to getting anything done. I also gave their all-in-one cookie a try, it’s a chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter (chunky) and rice crispies. Tasty, but I would have been happier without peanut butter…but that’s just me.
Giordano Bros. is a sports bar with live music in the evenings, a little divey, but definitely worth a return trip.

Yank Sing - Dim Sum

We have a group of friends at work that is kind of our birthday lunch group and on Tuesday, we celebrated Mia’s birthday today at Yank Sing.

I’ve only been introduced to dim sum since I moved to San Francisco, and as things go, I think its been a grand place to be introduced to the wonders of dim sum. Yank Sing is probably my second favorite dim sum place, the food is excellent, but its second because its quite pricey. My all time favorite place is Ton Kiang in the Richmond District (On Geary between 22nd and 23rd).
At Yank Sing, as soon as we sat down, they started bringing all sorts of dumplings to the table. And of course, they have a good char siu bao, which is always a must for me (even though I just had some on Saturday night). My favorite dish at Yank Sing is their Shanghai dumplings; pork, mixed with scallion and ginger wrapped and steamed in broth. These little bundles of joy explode with flavor and juices in your mouth. Of course since Ruby was with us, we had a couple of orders of her favorite, ha gua, the shrimp dumplings, which had great flavor. The Peking duck was excellent, the skin was nice and crispy and the buns were sweet and soft. Their potstickers were only okay for me. The skin was perfectly cooked, steamed yet at least one side was nicely browned, but I thought the flavor was a little bland. There were many other dishes at out table that others really enjoyed but I just didn’t have any room to try, pork siu mai, some chicken with chili peppers, stuffed mushrooms, deep fried taro. Its hard to steer away from my favorites to try new items. Of course we ended our meal with their mango pudding and fried sesame balls. I would be very disappointed with any dim sum meal if it didn't end with fried sesame balls with its sticky rice cake and sweet bean insides.

Trying to work after this lunch is a challenge!

Shanghai dumplings, Peking duck : 10/10
Ha gau, sesame balls: 9/10
Char siu bao: 8/10
Potstickers: 6/10
Service: 7/10

Lunch at the Slanted Door

One of the bosses at work took me to lunch at the Slanted Door at the Ferry Building. I’ve been wanting to go there for a while, but just hadn’t made it there.
We didn’t have reservations, but were fortunate enough to get a couple of seats at the bar fairly quickly. My one complaint, they don’t have diet coke. What, no diet coke?! I managed to find a suitable substitute and enjoyed a glass of zinfandel instead, it was a 2008 Dashe, "l'enfant terrible", Mcfadden Farms, Potter Valley. (Hey if the boss is having a glass, its only good manners to do the same.) The wine was a slightly lighter style zin, with only a hint of spice and a touch of mineral in the nose with some bright red fruit on the front palate.
For our meal, we shared the Niman Ranch Shaking Beef, Grilled Range Brothers' Berkshire Pork Chop and Rice Noodle Stir-fry with chicken, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, bean sprouts and egg. The pork chop was outstanding, it was served with crispy potatoes and the sauce was excellent. I was sorely tempted to gnaw on the bone. The shaking beef had an excellent flavor, but was not quite as tender as I would expect from filet mignon. The stir fried noodles we only okay. The noodles were fine, the flavor was mild which complemented our flavorful meat dishes, however there was very little broccoli or shiitake mushrooms in there. The zin went very nicely with the food selections, however a slightly bolder red might have faired better.
The service was quite satisfactory, everyone was attentive to our needs, our empty plates and glasses.

I would definitely return and would love to try other menu items, I would also love to return for the pork chops alone.

Out of 10 (10 being the best), my ratings are as follows:
Atmosphere: 7
Service: 7
Pork Chops: 10
Shaking Beef: 8
Rice Noodle Stir Fry: 6
Wine: 6
Overall: 8

Happy New Years and Happy to be Home

Happy New Years! I can’t believe its 2009 already! I am so happy to be home relaxing after a fun, yet tiring 2 weeks of holiday.

I had great Christmas with the family in Sunnyvale. Mom, dad and my sister came up to celebrate at my brother’s house, with his wife and kids. We had lots of fun playing with the kids’ new toys, the favorites among all of us appears to be Bananagrams and the Nerf target thing, although the bubble toy for Kyle and the remote control helicopters were quite popular too.

I am happy to come home to Cricket & Sebastian, we spent the evening cuddling on the couch with one of my great Christmas presents, an electric blanket (Thanks Patti!) Actually, I don’t have much of a choice regarding the cuddling; I can’t seem to remove Cricket from the blanket! She is like a yo-yo, every time I try and throw her off, she comes right back. I highly recommend the blanket for anyone who gets cold and has a hard time getting their body temperature up. It is so cozy.

Then I ordered Chinese food from one of my favorite delivery place in the area, Ton Kiang. They also have wonderful dim sum, however if you don’t get there by 10:00 a.m, be prepared to wait for a table. My upstairs neighbors introduced me to their vegetable chow mein, which I love. I also ordered the Peking duck and the salt and pepper spare ribs which were both really good! I ordered their BBQ Pork fried rice, which was not the best I’ve had, but it is still good.

I received many other wonderful presents, however, I'll post about those as I get the opportunity to use them.

Happy 2009!