Blackwood

I went to Blackwood in the Marina for my friend's birthday dinner last weekend.

Rating: ★★★★

Type: American/Thai Fusion

Serves: Breakfast/Brunch, Lunch, Dinner

I ordered: One Percenter's Burger ($18) which includes a Wagyu patty, millionaire's bacon, Vermont white cheddar, arugula, cilantro aioli, and potato wedges.

I had the patty cooked medium rare, that's how I always eat beef. The burger had solid flavor. The millionaire's bacon was particularly delicious with a maple syrup taste to it. It was thick sliced and fatty. I wouldn't eat the garnishes toothpicked on top of the burger - my friend tried, then made a funny face. Salad was standard, dressing was not overpowering. I do not like potatoes or fries so I didn't eat those.

The presentation of the dishes is nice. One of my friend's plates was flaming. Sorry, didn't get a pic!

Overall: I want to try their breakfast items, since that's my favorite meal of the day. The burger is good but not amazing. Solid 4 stars.

Blackwood
2150 Chestnut St.
San Francisco, CA 94123

La Fusion Part 2

Took my friend to La Fusion yesterday. Had the rotisserie chicken. So so yummy. I ate the quarter of white meat by myself. I don't know why, and I don't know if I felt this way last time I ate there too. But I was super bloated afterwards. Maybe that's too much information. But I think it's a good FYI cause maybe you're like me and you don't like feeling bloated when you gotta walk around the city. Anyways, my friend got the pollo con arroz which is just basically the rotisserie chicken with rice instead of the bread salad. For dessert we had the flourless chocolate cake which was quite delicious. It was super soft and melt in your mouth goodness.

Sand Angel Cookie

Sand Angel Cookie from Batter Bakery Kiosk in FiDi. Tastes like a ginger snap but puffier. When I bought this I was craving something chocolatey so it wasn't that satisfying. But now I mysteriously find myself craving one.

Thomas Keller's Bouchon

My Vegas trip this past weekend was absolutely amazing. I had a ton of fun and it was super cool to spend time with my friends from SoCal. Being with everyone made me realize how much I miss them! And how much I just miss being around people in general. Honestly, being from a big family and then living alone now can make me a little sad. But it is nice to finally have my own space!

Anyways, the restaurant is cute inside but kind of loud. We went for brunch at around 12pm and only waited 5 minutes. Tuong ordered a salmon dish. I think he was surprised with his smoked salmon. He was expecting a fillet like baked salmon or something. But I think this is the kind that you'd typically put on bagels. I ordered the chicken and waffles which were absolutely delicious. The chicken was nice and juicy. The waffles were light, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They had bacon bits and chives in them which upped the flavor. Along with some sweet maple syrup, it was a good mix of sweet and salty.

However, I didn't like the beignets. They were way to oily and hard. I feel like they were overcooked. The outside was super crunchy! And they just didn't taste good even when they were covered in Nutella.

Bonne Sante

Bonne Sante is a sandwich shop in Burlingame, CA. The portion sizes are huge. Nat and I shared one gigantic sandwich. We got the Sante Smoker which has beef, steak sauce, cheese, and some other ingredients that I forgot about. But yeah. Super tasty! The price is good for the size of the food. It's about $10 a sandwich.

Boiling Crab, San Jose

Boiling crab was one of my favorite places to eat back in OC. I was excited to find out that they had two locations in San Jose. Justin, Nat, and I went there at about 4pm. The wait was only 20-35 minutes which is very good for BC. Typically the wait during peak times can be 1.5-2+ hours.

I always get a pound of crawfish, the whole shebang, medium. Never get frozen crawfish though! It's absolutely disgusting.

Olea

Small restaurant. I recommend coming in 2s. Bigger parties are hard to seat. There's a bunch of two person tables and one long communal table. The challah custard French toast was delicious. It's a huge portion but so good. It's light and fluffy and not greasy like how most French toast is.

Del Popolo Pizza

The dough is quite yummy but the pizzas need more cheese. Got the margherita and bianca pizzas.

Blue Bottle Coffee

My sister got the cafe at lait. And I really wanted to try their saffron vanilla Snickerdoodles. I made them myself back when I was living in OC with all my baking things. Honestly, I did a better job. I didn't like the ones from the store. They tasted store bought... So now I know. Next time I'm just going to make them myself.

Rooftop Bar

These pics were taken at the Rooftop Bar in Newport Beach. I went before I moved. Just forgot to upload the pictures. They have awesome mojitos. My favorite being the champagne mojito. Go for happy hour to get half off drinks (which admittedly is still pretty pricey). But they have a spectacular view. My friend and I got to see the sunset.

La Fusion

Went here for a belated Valentine's Day dinner. The food is pretty good. We had the mixed ceviche and half a roasted chicken. For dessert: caramel apple empanadas. Super small and cramped restaurant but I think most places in SF are like that. I still think it's uncomfortable being so close to the next table, they can hear your entire conversation even if they don't want to.

Feasting with Justin

Peeps! For Easter. My dad usually gets me the chocolate dipped peeps and some Cadbury eggs for Easter. This will be my first Easter away from my family. It'll also be the first time I missed my family's birthdays. My sister just turned 18 on Saturday and she got accepted into UCSD. I'm super proud of her :) I'm glad my siblings are doing so well in school.

Justin and I went to an all you can eat sushi restaurant. That also happened to have dim sum. So much dim sum these past few weeks! I think I've had it every weekend for 3 weeks straight. And twice this weekend. I'm all dim summed out. Anyways, super duper stuffed today. Justin and I had to practically inhale our food since he had to hurry home to his family. We were supposed to eat at boiling crab but the wait was 2 hours... So we decided to just rain check it.

Those 60th anniversary vanilla creme peeps were disgusting though. They tasted like artificial vanilla. I'd just stick with the chocolate dipped ones.

Cherimoyas

Found some cherimoyas in Chinatown on Saturday! Been looking for these babies for a few months and they taste awesome! Kind of creamy texture and this bubblegum taste! They are on the sweet side. Avoid the seeds.

They are ripe when they are a little soft to the touch if you gently squeeze them. They should give a little under pressure.

Sushi Sam's

This place has good sushi. I went there a long time ago and now I'm finally updating this post so I have no idea what I ordered. I just remember that my favorite thing was something called Blue Shrimp. Or some version of that name. It's like sweet shrimp (amaebi) on crack. Like a thousand times better. So delicious!

Ramen Dojo

This is a small ramen shop in San Mateo. Pretty good quality. The noodles were the appropriate texture, not too squishy not too firm. The waiting line is horrendous however. I definitely recommend getting there early!

I got the spicy garlic ramen? Not that spicy. But I find Japanese restaurants in general just aren't that spicy.

Kincaid

Pricey yet subpar food. That's all I can really say.

Carrot Juice

Took a whole bag of carrots to make a small cup of juice. Not worth it in my opinion. Especially since I had to clean out the pulp from the juice maker and the particular model I used is how to assemble and disassemble.

Delfina

Good Italian food. Liked the pasta more than anything since it had a nice texture. They also have a good rabbit appetizer that you spread on crackers. Parking is heinous and made me a half hour late for dinner. By the way, I left to get to the restaurant an hour before dinner was supposed to start.

Hayashi Rice (from the packet)

Made this hayashi rice using premade mix and microwavable brown rice. Overall, it was tasty. I even had seconds. The one thing I didn't like: the sauce mix had monosodium glutamate. Sad. It was on sale for $1.69 at the Japanese market, which is why I bought it. I'm going to try and find a different brand without MSG. I also want to try making hayashi rice from scratch. I hope it's not too difficult. Anyways, the directions for this particular one is on the box. This is how I did it:

Hayashi Rice (premade mix)
Serves 4

1 medium yellow onion
1 lb. beef for stew (I cut the pieces into smaller pieces, I know at some Asian markets they also sell beef for curry which you can buy)
1 2/3 cup water
4 squares hayashi premade mix
2 packs microwave brown rice

1. Heat some oil in a pot. Add the onion and beef. Cook until browned.
2. Add the water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Add hayashi mix. Stir until dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Microwave rice according to package instructions.
5. Serve in bowls.

La Boulange de Burlingame

They have really good almond croissants here. Macarons are ehhhh. I prefer 'Lette macarons. Or the ones I've had in Paris.