Camp BBQ

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Camp BBQ is owned by the same owners as Genki Crepes and Genki Ramen, which is located down the street.  Its similar to Japanese style bbq restaurants, aka yakiniku, but actually has both Japanese and Korean flavors.  Since its indoor bbq, be warned that your clothes will smell so I suggest pulling out those clothes dedicated to eating at those spots.

Not sure how long the happy hour prices are going to last here since the restaurant just opened, but take advantage of it - especially the after 10p price specials since the restaurant is open till 1a on the weekends! 

The restaurant doesn't have many tables, but there are larger tables with two grills for larger parties.  Plus the tables are picnic style tables so they can seat more people.

Free pickled daikon, beansprout and cucumber salad with just a hint of spiciness for some premeal nibbling.  One of the few vegetable dishes of the night.

Dipping sauces from left to right: ponzu, vinegar, and gochujang (Korean spicy sauce).  Majority of the meat was well seasoned so the sauces aren't really necessary, but it was fun to mix the flavors, especially the vinegar.

The first meat of the night was the kobe style ox tongue.  Sprinkled with some garlic and green onions, the ox tongue was chewy and delicious.  They don't really give you any hints to how long to cook anything so there is a trial and error process of 1). questioning if its cooked, 2). taking a small bite, 3).  looking at the inside color, 4).  if its not cooked, throw it back on the grill and repeat step 1, otherwise continue to chomp away happily.  This seemed to be the pattern with every new meat plate that appeared on the table.  

The ox tail was probably one of my favorite meats of the night.  Once the edges starting curling up then flip over.  

Chicken with bits of garlic and garlic butter dipping sauce.  Originally I thought this would be the meat I would for sure overcook, but I'm pretty proud to say that even though the chicken was thinly sliced, every piece was juicy and tender.  It was recommended to dip the chicken in the melted garlic butter sauce, but I found it to be too greasy and preferred to dip it in the gochujang sauce.

The rib eye steak was cut a little too thick for my taste and hard to tell if the meat was cooked. 

Most of the vegetables were served in packets of foil to be barbecued on the grill.  The corn was actually kernels mixed with butter.  Nothing special here.

The spicy pork depending on how long you cooked it was pretty tender and juicy with a sweet and spicy sauce. 

The steamed buns are similar to the steamed buns for Peking duck.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but its a nice option to stuff different meats into the sweet bun.

 

Left to right: Pork belly with house made miso, salt and green onion pork cheek.  Two choices of sauces for the pork were: salt and green onion and house made miso sauce.  Both meats were juicy with fatty, mouthwatering flavors, especially the pork cheek (my #1 favorite meat of the night), which had the best fat marbling for full intense flavor.  Although the house made miso had a nice sweet, salty flavor, I think simplicity (salt and green onion) is best with these meats.  

I chose to save my bun for the pork belly.  The sweet bun was a nice compliment to the fatty pork belly.

The chip and dip was a nice filler and in between munchies between meats.  Deep fried pita bread are used as chips.  The dip is made of kim chee, pork, green onions, and mayo, but was more on the sweet side.

Beware when cooking the pork cheek and pork belly.  It seems as though all the fat from the pork causes the flame go crazy.  Its so bad that the servers quickly rushed to the table and pushed the meat to the side to subside the flames.  Apparently they really do have a close eye on the flames so you don't burn the place down.

Hawaiian pizza lovers take note  - one of the desserts here is grilled pineapple.  I'm not a fan of hot pineapple, but thought I would grill one for fun.

 

Grilling the pineapple seals in all the sweet juices so when you bite into the hot fruit all the juice just spills out. 

Whats a "camp bbq" without s'mores?  One dish is really only good for two portions so plan accordingly. 

 

Yum! S'mores.  Its been a while since I've eaten s'mores so I forgot how sticky melted marshmallow is, but still a perfectly sweet ending to a meal.

Address:                     Camp BBQ
                                    4014 Geary Blvd.
                                    San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                           Japanese/Korean/BBQ

Popular chomps:         pork belly
                                    pork cheek
                                    chip and dip
                                    grilled pineapple
                                    s'mores
                                    spicy pork
                                    kalbi
                                    garlic chicken
                                    kobe style ox tongue                                  

Chomp worthy:           pork belly
                                    pork cheek
                                    spicy pork
                                    kobe style ox tongue

Pig & Pie

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I almost walked pass Pig & Pie.  It looks like it used to be an old record store so look for the orange walls.  This made from scratch pie and sausage place that just opened up in the Mission.  Bonus points because on Friday and Saturdays it opens till 1a.  Many a night I've wished Rosamunde opened late like Top Dog (see post HERE).  Even though Rosamunde (see post HERE) is only a couple minutes, the Pig & Pie options are a different twist on a hot dog.  

So how else can you make hot dogs or sausages different?  Well, Pig & Pie actually makes their own buns.  Trays of hot dog bun molds are displayed around the shop.

There are four house made condiments to decorate your sausages with (from left to right): yellow mustard, spicy beer mustard, sriacha, and ketchup.  For sriacha lovers, their housemade sriacha is considerably tamer than commonly known rooster sriacha.

How genius to put a runny egg on a hot dog.  A runny egg always seem to make any dish in my book better.  The dog here is made with sage, ginger, and bacon pork sausage then topped with a fried runny egg and drizzled with their housemade sriacha.  The sausage is juicy and full of flavor.  I would have preferred the sriacha to be spicier though.  The homemade bun takes a while to get used to.  It has more of a crunchy, firmer texture versus the normal soft hot dog buns.  The bun does hold up well to the last bite, which is more than I can say for Rosamunde's dogs.

 

Mmm..runny egg.  Perfection.

The banh mi dog piqued my curiosity.  It smelled exactly as if I was opening up the wrapped of a banh mi.  The sausage is made with black pepper, garlic, pork, and pork skin.  Its topped with pickled daikon, carrot, jalapeno, cucumbers, cilantro, sriacha, and chicken liver pate.  Not exactly like a banh mi, but a pretty close homage to it.   

I've never been to Chicago so I can't tell how authentic it comes to a real Chicago dog, but it did have that sweet relish along with tomatoes, white onions, yellow mustard, and celery salt.  The sausage was juicy and flavorful, but out of all three sausages this was my least favorite. 

Not only does Pig & Pie make their own sausages and buns, but they make their own pies as well.  Its almost as if they were single handedly trying to take out both Mission Pie and Rosamunde (both within a couple minutes from Pig & Pie).  Thin slices of lemon were in every bite of the pie.  I loved how the lemon slices were slightly sweet, but still kept their pucker.  The crust was buttery, but not as flaky as I like.  I think I still prefer Mission Pie for the crust, but the filling at Pig & Pie shows some serious pie making skills.   

Address:                 Pie & Pie
                                2962 24th St.
                                San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                       desserts/hot dogs

Popular chomps:     banh mi hot dog
                                Chicago dog
                                 breakfast sausage
                                 bratwurst
                                 lemon shaker pie

Chomp worthy:       banh mi dog
                                 lemon shaker pie         

The Farmer's Wife

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The Marin Farmers market is located in the Civic Center area every Thursdays and Sundays 8a-1p.  Definitely a lot of familiar booths from previous farmer's markets I've visited like Roli Roti, but a lot of new discoveries for me as well.  The Farmer's Wife was a new one for me.  Its farm to table sandwiches made with everything from farm fresh eggs to organic sourdough.

Originally I had my eye on the fromage and pnk lady apple sandwich, but was swayed by the "best in show"sandwich.

Its made of farm fried egg, bacon, & blue, and Lyonnaise cheese grilled on organic sourdough.  A fried egg and grilled cheese on sourdough is hard to resist.  It came with a side of forgettable greens that was topped with cracked pepper.  The sandwich was also disappointing.  The bread wasn't toasted enough and lacked that grilled crunch so combined with the fried egg it just ended up being a soggy mess.        

Address:                     The Farmer's Wife
                                    Marin Farmer's Market 
                                    San Rafael, CA
  

Type:                           sandwiches

Popular chomps:         Triple T Egg
 

Chomp worthy:            none

AT&T park - ballpark food

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The Giants vs. Dodgers at the Giants ballpark is probably one of the more popular games of the season.  I'm not a super huge sports fan, but I am a fan of ballpark food. 

 

The view from the Clubhouse level.

You can't go to the Giants ballpark and not get garlic fries.  I've actually had garlic fries at other places including the Gilroy garlic festival and I think the garlic fries at the ballpark are the best.

The garlic fries are crispy at the ends and soft in the middle with a generous amount of minced garlic.  Super garlicy and addictive.

I almost missed this spot (its hiding in the corner in the Clubhouse level of the park). 

The nachos here are probably the best ballpark nachos Ive ever had.  Usually the nachos consist of just cheese, jalapenos, and salsa at best, but these came in a huge bowl with jalapenos, sour cream, olives, guacamole, and salsa.  The portion of grilled meat was generous and surprisingly really good.  It was cooked at a perfect medium rare and full of smokey flavor.

One of the most popular items at AT&T park is the cha cha bowl at Orlando's Caribbean BBQ.  Its located in the outside food court behind the bleachers.

The cha cha bowl is made of jerk chicken, rice, beans, shredded zucchini, and pineapple salsa.  Its not really spicy and has more of a sweet flavor.  You can add different sauces on top to spice up the bowl, like habanero and chipotle.  I've had the bowl before and I really liked it, but this time around I felt like the meat was a little dry.

Wing Lee Bakery

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When you don't feel like lining up early in the morning with the Chinese grandmas for a table at Hong Kong Flower Lounge or Koi Palace, you can pick up to go dim sum at Wing Lee Bakery.  This place has been here forever and its one of the most popular to go dim sum spots in the city.

I love how the English menu matches the Chinese menu exactly.   Most Chinese places have a special Chinese menu and neglect to give the English version.

Best thing about dim sum is that you can always just point at whatever looks good.  Left to right:  steamed combination chicken bun, shrimp dumplings (hai gow).

Left to right: pork dumplings (siu mai), shrimp dumplings (hai gow).  The dumplings here are big and juicy and the quick turnover ensures the freshest dim sum available.  The hai gow does have a thicker skin than the average hai gow.

Besides the dim sum, the preserved egg jook is quite popular.  It usually sells out early in the day, but this time I got lucky and was able to pick some up around noon.  The gelatinous, salty preserved egg is mixed throughout the thick rice porridge.  Little bits of pork also give the jook some flavor.

One of my favorite things to eat here is the combination chicken bun.  Its not a common item in dim sum and can be hard to find in Chinese dim sum bakeries.  Its a little larger than a steamed bbq pork bun because literally everything is stuffed inside.  Encased in the fluffy bun is ginger marinated chicken, an egg, and shittake mushrooms.

I love chicken with sticky rice.  Sticky rice mixed with pieces of juicy chicken are steamed inside a lotus leaf which give it an earthy smell.  Disclaimer:  You cannot eat the leaf! (I've actually seen people try to eat it before!)

Address:               Wing Lee Bakery
                               503 Clement St.
                               San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                      Chinese/bakery

Popular chomps:     preserved egg jook
                                 chicken with sticky rice
                                 shrimp dumplings (hai gow)
                                 pork dumplings (siu mai)
                                 combination chicken bun

Chomp worthy:       chicken with sticky rice
                                 preserved egg jook
                                 combination chicken bun
                                 

Random facts:

Pläj Scandinavian Restaurant and Bar

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Up until this point the only taste of Scandinavian food I had was Ikea and honestly, I'm a big fan of their meatball platter.  I was pretty intrigued when Pläj opened up in the city so I could experience more Scandinavian food.  In a city that seems like a new upscale pizza joint and nouvelle American spot (not that I'm complaining) opens up every week, it was nice to see another cuisine added to the mix.  That and I was curious to see how Ikea food compared to other sources of Scandinavian food.

Even though Pläj has only been open a little more than a week, the restaurant was bustling.

,

An "IPA", but in this case, Icelandic Pale Ale.   

The rye bread was presented in a little brown bag with a dish of butter topped with fennel powder.  The fennel powder offered a little licorice and nutty flavor to the bread.

Potato dumpling kumla, onion ragout, lingonberry, brown butter, and lardon.  The two large potato dumplings lacked much flavor by itself and needed to be eaten with the salty lardon (cubed pork fat) so the dumpling could absorb the savory flavors.  I noticed that many of these dishes seemed to be more of a modern take on this cuisine rather than traditional.  Also, the singular ingredients on the dish were very distinct.  

White asparagus, morel mushrooms, fennel confit, 63 degree egg, and hollandaise sauce, and fried sourdough.  I usually associate white asparagus with Spanish food so I was surprised to see the white spears on the menu.  Apparently white asparagus are a common item on Scandinavian seasonal menus, in this case it was served with a 63 degree poached egg and a dollap of hollandaise sauce.  Each of these components stood out more individually than together on the plate.  There was sweetness from the white asparagus, then tartness from the sourdough croutons all mixed with richness of the hollandaise sauce.  It was a well done dish, but not sure about rave worthy.  

I absolutely had to have Swedish meatballs in a restaurant setting so I can compare to my only Scandinavian experience, which somewhat sadly to say is the cafeteria at Ikea.  It was served almost similar to that of Ikea, which is nice to know Ikea wasn't serving fake Swedish food.  So its not exactly the 15 meatball plate at Ikea, but it is five much larger meatier meatballs served in a similar style with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce and gravy.  The meatballs here are hearty and soak up the gravy well.  The mashed potatoes are ultra creamy with a rich buttery flavor.  The lingonberry sauce was delicious here.  The taste of the berry sauce just oozed fresh fruity flavor.  One difference between this plate and Ikea's is the slices of pickled cucumbers, which gave a punchy tang to each bite.  So which is better - Ikea or Pläj?  Its hard to say because they are made differently and I have a special love for the prepackage Ikea meatballs. 

Porter braised ox cheek, roasted beet root, fried onions, horseradish.  The beef cheek was rich in flavor and tender, but not as tender as I've known beef cheek dishes to be.  The crayola colored beet root, while scarily bright for a food, was quite mild and starchy in taste.  Usually I shy away from horseradish because I find the taste to be too strong and overpowering, but I was in amazement with the fried onion topping that had hints of horseradish.  It was just enough horseradish to make your nose prickle up, but curious enough to take another spoonful.  I loved the surprising bits of spicy radish flavor.

I decided on just one dessert this evening and chose the cardamon creme brulee with lime-mint marinated strawberries, but the runner up, chocolate tarte with cloudberry sorbet, was a hard choice to pass up.  The lime-mint strawberries were fresh and sweet and reminded me of summer.  The cardamon creme brulee was good, but nothing special.

Address:                Pläj Scandinavian Restaurant & Bar
                               333 Fulton St.
                               San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                      Scandinavian

Popular chomps:    meatballs
                                braised ox cheek
                                potato dumpling
                                white asparagus and poached egg
                                cardamon creme brulee
                                chocolate tarte with cloudberry sorbet

Chomp worthy:       meatballs       

Men Oh Tokushima Ramen

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There's always a huge stir about ramen spots in the city.  The Richmond district seems to be a breeding ground for ramen these days.  Having been spoiled by delicious ramen in the South Bay, I've never found one in the city that comes close to my beloved Santouka (see post HERE).  I have yet to be wowed by any ramen in the city.  The Men Oh Tokushima Ramen is a chain from Japan whose second branch has made a appropriate presence in the Richmond district of San Francisco.  The first being in Union City, where a lot of other ramen spots seem to sprout up.  Truth be told, I did hear of this ramen spot opening in Union City, but there were no raves so I assumed it was another bogus ramen spot (ahem...Ajisen Ramen see post HERE).  For some reason, Men Oh Tokushima opened to rave reviews in SF, so I had to check it out for myself.     

I didn't plan it, but I happened to show up on grand opening weekend and their first lunch.  Good thing that ramen was half off that weekend because the service had major kinks.  Not only that the layout has two extremely large communal tables that take up most of the space and is odd for a ramen joint. 

The Tokushima don reminds me of the shredded pork bowl at Daikokuya (see post HERE), but doesn't quite make the cut.  Its still probably the best pork and rice bowl in the bay area.  The tokushima don has both the chasu and the butabura topping the short grain rice drizzled with a sweet-salty sauce.  The size is a little bigger than most don options at ramen restaurants, but this simple bowl of pork and rice made a pleasantly surprising starter to the ramen meal.

The tokushima ramen has a rich, but light flavor.  It's not even close to the complexity of Santouka's broth.  Its quite clear with a salty flavor.  Topped with bamboo shoots, sliced of the signature thinly ribbon cut pork as well as the fatty pork slices, this ramen tastes distinctly different than other ramens I've had before.  Overall, its one of the better bowls of ramen I've had in the city, but nothing that would make me declare that my search for good ramen in SF is over.  One noticeable difference in this ramen is that the noodles are straight and somewhat softer.  They lack the chewiness and bounce of standard ramen noodles.  They remind me of thin Chinese noodles that have soaked up too much sauce.  In other words, not a good thing in my book when slurping up ramen.

The murky, fatty broth indicates one thing:  fatty, porky broth that is synonymous with tonkatsu ramen.  There were no globules of fat in this tonkatsu ramen, which worried me a little.  Fears affirmed when I took the first sip,  the broth that lacked the richness and depth of the familiar tonkatsu ramen.  Again, not a fan of the noodles, especially in a rich broth.

 

The Tonkushima comes with a raw egg, which is probably not for the faint of heart, but definitely heightened the taste.  Stirring the raw egg into the soup creates a thicknesss to the broth that helps to coat the noodles with more flavor.  I highly recommend it with the egg.  Don't worry, the egg is stamped with a "P" to indicate pasteurization.  

Address:                Men Oh Tokushima Ramen
                               5120 Geary Blvd.
                               San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                      Japanese/ramen

Popular chomps:    Tokushima ramen
                                tonkatsu ramen
                                spicy tonkatsu ramen
                                tokushima don

Chomp worthy:       Tokushima don        

Smitten Ice Cream

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This shipping container probably houses one of the most futuristic ice cream that the Bay Area has to offer.  Its like a Marty McFly meet Harry Potter ice cream concoction.   

Usually the line can get quite long and the wait can be lengthy, especially in the summer, since each order is made to order.  Only four flavors are made daily, one per machine.  All the ingredients for the ice cream are locally grown and sourced vendors.  

Kinda like a witches brew, this machine aka Kelvin, is Robyn Sue Goldman's one of a kind ice cream invention.  Its purpose is to make the smoothest, creamiest ice cream by using liquid nitrogen in 60 seconds. 

Almost every ice cream parlor in the city seems to do their own take on salted caramel.  Smitten's salted caramel ice cream is creamy and smooth with small flavor bursts of salty flecks that make your mouth salivate.  Bi-Rite's salted caramel is still my favorite, but Smitten's gets points for not being sickly sweet like others I've tasted.  I was expecting the ice cream to be extremely cold since its made with liquid nitrogen, but it didn't bring on any sudden ice cream headaches.    

#20- Kelvin-made ice cream at Smitten Ice Cream - 7x7's 2012 Top 100

The TCHO chocolate flavor is made by local vendor TCHO chocolate.  The chocolate is velvety smooth on your tongue with a deep rich chocolate flavor.  Almost as chocolately as Mitchell's chocolate flavor (see post HERE). 

updated - Working my way through the 2012 7x7's SF big eat 100 things

updated - Working my way through SF Foodie's 2012 50 dishes 

Address:                 Smitten Ice Cream
                                432 Octavia St.
                                Ste 1A
                                San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                       ice cream/dessert

Popular chomps:     TCHO chocolate
                                 salted caramel

Chomp worthy:        TCHO chocolate
                                  salted caramel        

Costco

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Costco is known to have almost everything from rotisserie chicken to fresh crab and seafood, but now they can add whole lamb to that list.  The oddest thing is that I saw this in the Costco in San Francisco, so where are people cooking a whole lamb in a city where most people don't even have a washer/dryer in their building.