Cinnaholic Sweets / “Blueberry Dragon Fruit Chocolate Ganache Cakes”
I make no secret of my disdain for cupcakes. They are the most overrated thing since, well, take your pick – the Lakers (self-explanatory), Apple (doesn’t make you cool), fixed gear bikes (there are hills in San Francisco), Entourage (you’re not Ari Gold), and froyo (it’s fucking froyo). However, that doesn’t mean cupcakes aren’t good. In fact, they can be quite tasty. Local food and travel blogger Caitlin from Roaming Tales may have put it best:
They look pretty but they generally taste rather boring – dull and dry with excessive amounts of icing to compensate. I have had cupcakes from these famous bakeries and I have had well made homemade cupcakes and my attitude is the same. Give me real cake any time.
Proper cakes are far more interesting – they are usually much moister and have greater complexity of flavour and texture. Cupcakes have their uses – they’re great if you are catering for a fifth birthday party – and I’m not saying they actually taste bad (if I had to pick a favourite flavour it would be red velvet). However, there isn’t a cupcake on the planet that wouldn’t taste better as a full-size cake.
Now with that out of the way – I love eating cupcakes. They’re cute and tasty, most of the time. At SF Food Wars’ Mini Cupcake Clash event, they gave 22 teams the opportunity to showcase their best confectionery creations. I skipped breakfast and lunch, and set out to Stable Cafe where a horde of hungry cupcake lovers were anxiously waiting in line.
Awaiting the treasure trove of treats that are about to greet us
Once the event was underway, I took my time visiting every table, examining and enjoying each cupcake.
Continue reading ‘SF Food Wars Mini Cupcake Clash; Only the cute and adorable survive’
Filed under: Events, Feature, Reviews, The Mission | 5 Comments
Tags: cupcake, dessert, Events, sf food wars, stable cafe
Following a Hall of Fame-size career in the NBA, Golden State Warriors legend Nate Thurmond opened Big Nate’s Barbeque in SOMA more than a decade ago, serving up a simple menu of Southern barbecue that hasn’t really changed since then. The meat selection is straightforward: Memphis pork, beef links, beef brisket, chicken, and pork ribs. Side dishes include greens, country beans, potato salad, and coleslaw.
Filed under: Restaurants, Reviews, SOMA, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: barbecue, bbq, golden state warriors, nate thurmond
Potrero Hill’s Axis Café calls itself “the neighborhood living room,” which is immediately evident when you walk in and see the roaring fireplace — even in the middle of the afternoon. But unlike, say, our living room, the décor here is industrial chic: huge windows, vaulted ceilings, and concrete walls. Comfy couches and armchairs take up space between the tables, and it’s perennially breezy thanks to the large outdoor patio. The California-style food (soups, salads, and sandwiches) is fairly sophisticated, at least for a coffee shop. Everything’s fresh and presented well, though it’s relatively pricey.
Continue ‘Axis Café is Just Like Your Living Room. Only a Hell of a Lot Nicer’
Filed under: Potrero Hill, Restaurants, Reviews, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: axis cafe, cafe, coffee house, coffee shop
The Bread Basket is a longtime staple in Daly City, a well-loved source of fresh-baked Filipino breads, pastries, and desserts. The signature item here? Pan de sal, traditional Filipino rolls, usually eaten for breakfast but scarfable any time of day. They’re similar to American dinner rolls, only fluffier and sweeter. The ones here ($2 for 15) are pillow-soft — they melt in your mouth, especially when just out of the oven. They’re good enough to devour on their own, but split and spread with a little butter, the rolls’ subtle sweetness really comes out.
Continue reading ‘The Bread Basket, Your DC Hookup for Filipino Pan de Sal and Ensaymada’
Filed under: Daly City, Reviews, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: bread, bread basket, Daly City, dessert, ensaymada, Filipino, pan de sal, pandesal, pastries
A gelato craving might make you think of heading straight to North Beach this weekend, but Marco Polo Italian Ice Cream in Parkside provides authentic, homemade gelato with an array of unique flavors, minus the trek across town. The tiny, no-frills shop serves gelato made daily in its kitchen with fresh ingredients. You won’t find shiny displays, cute cups, and uniformed employees, but you will have some of the best gelato available in San Francisco.
Continue reading ‘Sweet Beat: Italian Gelato (in Some Very Un-Italian Flavors) at Marco Polo’
Filed under: Outer Sunset, Restaurants, Reviews, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: gelato, dessert, ice cream, marco polo, italian ice cream, sesame, durian, red bean, vanilla bean
A unique alternative for late-night cravings in the Outer Sunset, Golden Island Café serves a variety of traditional Hong Kong-style desserts. The specialty here is sago, tiny translucent tapioca pearls served with shaved ice and fresh fruit. There’s a variety of options — strawberry, mango, kiwi, lychee, cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew — and you can order with our without coconut milk. We suggest ordering with, since the taste can be fairly bland otherwise (sago’s pretty neutral on its own). The version with shaved ice, fresh fruit, and coconut milk is light, fresh, and sweet — mango’s our personal favorite. If you can’t decide, a sampler platter comes with sago with coconut milk, mango sago, ice cream, and mixed fruit, all for $5. There are other tasty desserts here, too, like red bean or sesame paste with sweet tofu, and black rice with coconut milk. Nothing’s overly sweet the way ice cream can be, just an appealing sweetness that leaves you feeling satisfied rather than regretful. Cash only, but most items can be had for under $5. The place stays open daily till midnight.
Original article: Golden Island Cafe: Hong Kong-Style Sago Sweets in the Outer Sunset
Filed under: Outer Sunset, Restaurants, Reviews, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: dessert, golden island cafe, hong kong, sago, tapioca
Long before Kung Fu Tacosbegan selling Asian-fusion tacos out of a truck in the Financial District, John fromJohn’s Snack and Deli was serving Korean fusion from an unassuming convenience store in the same ‘hood. At first glance, John’s looks like a tiny market with little more to offer beyond Lotto tickets, gum, and cigarettes, but behind the counter lies a small kitchen that serves mom-inspired Korean dishes. Some days, John’s mom is actuallybehind the counter, preparing food for the lunch lines that form daily.
Continue reading ‘John’s Snack and Deli, the FiDi’s Original Mom-Style Taco Fusion’
Filed under: Financial District, Reviews, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: @kungfutacos, john's snack and deli, kimchi, kimchi burritos, Korean
When you have local favorite Burma Superstar down the street from your restaurant serving similarly-influenced cuisine, it would be easy to get lost amidst all the buzz. For family-owned Java Restaurant, they’ve managed to do just fine. So fine, in fact, that they have been in business in the same location in the Inner Richmond since 1977. That’s 32 years, which is probably older than many of my readers. It also means they must be doing something right to stay in business for so long, no small feat in the city with the highest number of restaurants per capita in the U.S.
Though it bears the name “Java,” it isn’t a coffee shop. Java is actually an island of Indonesia, which is the style of cuisine served at Java Restaurant. Indonesian food is essentially fusion food, taking influence from India, China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Popular Indonesian dishes that have become assimilated across Asia include satay and rendang, which are especially prevalent in Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine.
At Java Restaurant, they serve a wide variety of Indonesian dishes that aren’t only good, but affordable. At my most recent visit, I tried a bit of everything and came away very satisfied.
Filed under: Inner Richmond, Restaurants, Reviews | 1 Comment
Tags: burma superstar, curry, indonesian cuisine, java restaurant, malaysian, rendang, satay
Last night, about 1,200 partiers gathered on the Metreon’s fourth-floor City View terrace to sample food and drink from several San Francisco restaurants and local wineries. The second annual charity event, Dish, was presented by SF Weekly and Park Merced. Partial proceeds benefitted One World Children’s Fund, which supports community-based organizations around the world serving vulnerable children and their caregivers.
Filling the expansive hall were 30 restaurants sampling items from their menus, including Fish & Farm, Circolo, Out the Door, Papalote, XYZ, Tres Agaves, Coda, Pacific Catch, and many more. We did our best to navigate the crowd and sample as many good eats as we could.
Continue reading ‘Sashimi, Sangiovese, and It’s-Its: SF Weekly’s Dish Party Was a Blowout’
Filed under: Events, Financial District, SOMA, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: charity, city view, dish, metreon, one world, park merced, sf weekly
As Tamara Palmer pointed out Wednesday at SFoodie, newly opened Minamoto Kitchoan (648 Market at New Montgomery) specializes in the traditional Japanese sweets known as wagashi, which take on multiple shapes and sizes: animals, fruit, plants, even generic balls of dough. Tamara loved the vanilla cream cookies and yuzu- and white peach-flavored jellies. We swung by to explore further — easy to do, since there’s a wide assortment of sweets to choose from, most of which consist of rice flour, beans, fruit, and sugar.
Continue reading ‘Further Exploration at Japanese Sweet Shop Minamoto Kitchoan’
Filed under: Financial District, Reviews, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: japanese, manjyu, minamoto kitchoan, mochi, wagashi
Every year, San Francisco plays host to the German tradition that is Oktoberfest. It’s a sixteen day festival held in Munich, Germany, that brings millions of people together to celebrate the history and tradition of Bavarian culture. In San Francisco, it is another reason to get thousands of people together to drink their brains out for three days.
As a seasoned veteran of Oktoberfest, I have been through the trenches and have my fair share of battle stories. For the uninitiated, surviving your first Oktoberfest is a rite of passage and I’d like to share some knowledge collected over the years to ensure a successful (read:wasted but still make it out alive, barely) time.
- Purchase your tickets ahead of time. It usually sells out and there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to purchase tickets at the door, plus it saves you a few bucks.
- Take MUNI, hail a cab, hitchhike, ride a bike, or find any other method to get there without driving yourself. You would think this is a no-brainer, but it’s not. Plus, parking is a bitch near AT&T Park.
- Arrive early with your group so you can secure a table. If you show up halfway through the night, all the tables will be packed with drunkards protecting their real estate like it’s the last plot of fertile soil on earth. Having a table allows you to regroup and refocus when you’re not sure whether to keep drinking (option #1), hit the dance floor, mack on hotties, or eat more brats and pretzels.
- Bring cash to turn into tokens. You can only exchange tokens for food and beer. The ATM machines on site rape you with fees, so bring as much cash as you think you’ll need (or would like to spend), plus $20 more. If you wait to restock on tokens after you’ve had a few steins of beer, you may end up buying $100 worth of tokens so you “won’t have to worry about it later.” Unused tokens can’t be sold back, by the way.
- Try and order beer from the same person EVERY SINGLE TIME. Do whatever you can to become their best friend. They are the bridge between you and beer. After a couple trips and some friendly (or flirty) banter, they will usually hook you up in the form of more beer or taking less tokens. If you really turn up the charm you can usually score free beers, so kiss their ass!
- Do the chicken dance, every time. Run to the dance floor as soon as you hear the tune. Don’t worry about how stupid you look, someone else will always look more stupid than you.
- Bring your own glass, make it a stein if you want to keep it German. Most of the servers will fill your glass for the cost of one beer, so bigger definitely means better. No one took this advice to heart more than my friend, Derrick, with his infamous and ridiculously large fishbowl glass. Not only did he get hooked up with tons of free beer, beautiful women flocked to him just to touch his ass glass ass.
- If you’re coming from out of town, book a nearby hotel room or crash at a friend’s place. You won’t make it home and you won’t be able to drive, I don’t care how sober you think you are.
Oktoberfest by the Bay will be at Pier 48 this year, right next to AT&T Park. It was previously held at Fort Mason in the Marina, but Pier 48 provides them with a bigger venue, and it’s more centrally located to public transportation. Plus, the amount of douchebags will probably shrink while the amount of cougars will likely remain unaffected.
For more info: http://oktoberfestbythebay.com
Filed under: Embarcadero, Events, Feature, South Beach | 3 Comments
Tags: beer, beerfest, fort mason, german, germany, oktoberfest, pier 48
Local booze lifestyle magazineDrink Me is celebrating the launch of its fourth issue tonight at Coda Jazz Supper Club in the Mission. The magazine covers the art and culture of drink and drinking — tonight’s launch celebrates whatDrink Me calls its MacGyver issue.
Tonight’s party features $4 specialty cocktails and $3 beers and wine from drink sponsors.
Continue reading ‘Drink Therapy: Coda Slings Cheap Booze Tonight for Magazine Launch Party’
Filed under: Events, The Mission, sfoodie | Leave a Comment
Tags: coda, drink me magazine, sf weekly, sfoodie
Shōchū is a popular Japanese liquor distilled from rice and other grains. It’s very similar to the Korean drink soju — the two are often used interchangeably. Both have become increasingly popular, especially in San Francisco. Many bars and restaurants with only beer and wine licenses have been stocking sake and soju, and crafting complex cocktails such as the soju mojito we tried at Limónlast week.
At a recent party at New People in Japantown the other night, we got to try Haamonii Smooth, an ultra-premium shōchū imported from Japan by a husband-and-wife team based in San Francisco. Haamonii has been around for a while, but when we tasted it the other night we were pretty impressed.
Continue reading ‘Shochu Turning Up in Cocktails All Over the City; We Found Our Favorite’
Filed under: Japantown, Reviews, sfoodie | 1 Comment
Tags: cocktails, haamonii, haamonii smooth, new people, sake, shochu, soju
Eeg, egg, who cares? It's $3!
Stuck right between a produce market and a check cashing store along Mission St. in Excelsior, you’ll find Superstar Restaurant. Though not exactly a “superstar” but San Francisco dining standards, it’s definitely a star among cheap eats. They serve Chinese and Filipino food from this family-owned hole in the wall, and you can choose to dine-in on one of their few small tables or grab it to go.
Continue reading ‘Cheap Flipino breakfast from Superstar Restaurant in Excelsior’
Filed under: Excelsior, Restaurants, Reviews, SF Cheap Eats Examiner | Leave a Comment
Tags: bangsilog, breakfast, cheap eats, longsilog, superstar, superstar restaurant, tocilog
Item: #36 Dry-fried chicken wings, $8.00
Where: San Tung, a no-frills casual Chinese restaurant at 11th and Irving St. in the Inner Sunset.
The dry-fried chicken wings from San Tung represent everything that is right in this world. Battered and deep fried to perfection, they are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. They are tossed in a glossy sauce made with garlic, ginger, and roasted red peppers. The resulting glaze is a sticky, crisp coating that’s sweet, spicy, tangy, and awesome (which is now officially a flavor). With each bite into the moist chicken, the hot juices flow into your mouth with the intense sweet and savory flavors of the sauce.
A bit of advice for San Tung newbies out there, getting a table requires a little know-how. The line can be out the door and waits can be well over an hour any day of the week. If you don’t have a reservation, write your name on the board next to the door and be prepared to wait. Personally, I prefer to call ahead and order a few servings of wings to pick up and take home. Serve them over a bed of steaming white rice and enjoy the party.
Does it belong on the list? Absolutely, yes. It’s one of the things 7×7 editors have actually gotten right.
The full list: The Big Eat SF: 100 Things to Try Before You Die
Also check out:
7×7 List: Angels On Horseback from Anchor & Hope
7×7 List: Apple Fritter At Bob’s Donuts
7×7 List: Chips and Salsa at Papalote
Filed under: 7x7 100 Things to Try Before You Die, Inner Sunset, Restaurants, Reviews | 2 Comments
Tags: 7x7, dry fried chicken wings, san tung
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Recent Entries
- SF Food Wars Mini Cupcake Clash; Only the cute and adorable survive
- Big Nate Serves Up So-So ‘Cue, But at Least You Don’t Have to Leave the Couch on Weekends
- Axis Café is Just Like Your Living Room. Only a Hell of a Lot Nicer
- The Bread Basket, Your DC Hookup for Filipino Pan de Sal and Ensaymada
- Sweet Beat: Italian Gelato (in Some Very Un-Italian Flavors) at Marco Polo
- Golden Island Cafe: Hong Kong-Style Sago Sweets in the Outer Sunset
- John’s Snack and Deli, the FiDi’s Original Mom-Style Taco Fusion
- Java Restaurant in the Inner Richmond; Serving Indonesian Comfort Food for Over 30 Years
- Sashimi, Sangiovese, and It’s-Its: SF Weekly’s Dish Party Was a Blowout
- Further Exploration at Japanese Sweet Shop Minamoto Kitchoan
- Oktoberfest by the Bay 2009 at Pier 48 – A Survival Guide
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