3/8 - Clam Pasta
Got frozen clams and pasta with clam sauce from Trader Joe's. They actually work really well together. I would definitely recommend this as a stand-alone meal if you're feeling lazy. We drank some wine and promptly fell asleep. I didn't realize how much of a tranquilizer wine is in a warm environment with a hot, heavy meal and my cutie around my arms.
3/9 - Ike's, Dolores Park, Cioppino (chee-oh-pee-no) at Anchor Oyster Bar
Happy 17 months love!
Happy 17 months love!
So apparently we fell asleep last night without having brushed our teeth or showered or anything. That wine was that potent~ We woke up and went to get Ike's sandwiches (Lincecum and [Girl-that-you're-currently-dating]) and sat around Dolores Park. Either there was some festival there or the park is always that popular on Saturday. Regardless we had a good time just people watching and making fun of high people tripping on the hills. The Lincecum sandwich was really really good. The avocado and bacon mixed really well with the Dutch Crunch bread so it was really easy to eat. The latter sandwich was not bad, but the chicken just tasted like chicken salad. Afterwards, we chilled on the kid's side and watched some Mexican kid enjoy twirling in his seat. We left after helping some programmer with his questions for his beta app.
We headed towards Anchor Oyster Bar because Yelp said their garlic bread and their Cioppino was the best in the city. After putting our names down, we walked around and window-shopped in the expensively niche stores. There was a Rock Hard store that we passed by that Bonbon was super excited to go into, before realizing Rock Hard was only catered towards one gender... An hour passed by before we were seated, and then another 30 minutes before our clam chowder and Cioppino arrived. The clam chowder was passable: thin soup with little to no clams. I was not impressed, and I silently thought that the Costco clam chowder is at least five times better. The old lady to the left of us ordered the Cioppino, and after some small chit-chat she said that she searches around for the best Cioppino and that this place had the best. Our main dish finally arrived, and for those who don't know, Cioppino (to my eyes) seems to be a seafood medley containing crab, codfish, clams, and mussels, simmered in tomato sauce with wine. Light garnishes include garlic, lemon, and the usual Italian herbs. I can agree that the seafood used was very fresh, and the tomato sauce tasted authentic and intense. However I can say that this is not a favorite dish of mine. I wasn't sure how to use the sauce. If it was a soup then it was too thick to scoop and the seafood definitely got in the way. If it was a sauce then it was too thin and it didn't work with the seafood at all. Overall a very expensive experience and one that I would probably do a little bit more research on before trying.
3/10 - Embarcadero and SF
It was a huge bike day in SF so we hurried back there to further explore the city. A lot of the main roads near the piers were closed, and were instead filled by the flutter of bikes racing back and forth. Bonbon took me to the Cowgirl Creamery place and got that delicious cheese with bread thingamajig. I remembered about my love for cheese and how I should probably get back into brie tasting. Mmmm. We were planning on taking the free rowing lessons, but that was at Pier 52. Apparently the Pier organizes it self from 50 from the far left, 1 in the middle, and 50+ on the far right. Totally disorganized and my engineer inside died a little. We ditched the rowing lessons and instead headed towards the Codmother Fish and Chips on Pier 49. The weather was sunny and perfect as everyone was having such a nice day. There were tons of little circus acts on the sidewalk, but one that stood out was this creepy fat man that was balancing jugs on his face. I wanted to get away as fast as possible but at the same time I wanted to see him drop the jug.
Finally we reached the Codmother Fish and Chip place and ordered the standard fish and chips. The order arrived 30 minutes later and was piping hot. Everything was as expected: super hot chips (french fries) and crispy deep-fried cod fish. The fish exterior was hard but not too hard, and the breading was soft enough so that it was like biting into a hot marshmallow. I would definitely recommend this place.
