Cheese Cake Burger & Sandwich

No, I did not eat a Cheese Cake Burger 🙂 Despite the thought of many people who have not been to a Cheese Cake Factory – they also serve a lot of other stuff than Cheese Cake.

Its a really touristic thing to go there, but I took the chance to go there while a friend from germany came to visit. (Actually I have been there before to try the Cheese Cake but not the other food).

Located on top of Macy´s at Union Square, meaning its always crowded, we were lucky to get a seat outside in the sun. If you sit outside, be prepared to visitors that will distract you from eating 🙂 but I actually enjoyed it, as you can see.

My friend ordered a smoked house burger and her words were exactly this: ” I did not expect that, but this is the best burger I have ever eaten, and believe me, I tried a lot”. I was laughing and I tried it, it was really good. Me instead I had a sandwich (been eating to many burgers in the past, I need some “variety” ;). I am a big avocado fan, so I ordered a chicken avocado sandwich with fries. The fries were really good and the sandwich was too. For my mouth it was kind of too large to eat, but I managed it while I got scared so many times from the bird.

Our was really considerate, he took care of us very well and came often to refill our drinks. Because of the high demand, it is not a place were you can sit after eating and enjoy the view… in a very nice manner they made it clear that they need our table for the next guests.

Overall I liked the food and the service, but for me it is to hectic, because I am an enjoyer 🙂

Hangover Brunch

I don´t know how you feel, but me, after a long night with friends, dancing and maybe drinking too much, I wake up and I really need some unhealthy food.

After a night like this, I am not going to cook myself. That is what brought us to the Mission District again.

We ended up in a Breakfast and Brunch place called Boogaloo that was as extraordinary as its name.

As at every good brunch place we had to write our names on the waiting list, but I can tell, it definitely was worth it. We were seated and served from a bunch of tattooed, long-haired guys that gave the rustically furnished small place a great atmosphere. They fed us regularly with coffee and water – all you need hangovered.

The menu sounded like a standard menu that you can find everywhere else, but what I saw on the plates while waiting was definitely not regular. I decided not to look in the menu, but to tell one of the tattooed guys that I want exactly the same as my neighbor.

The result was this:

“EGGS BARRIO with Bacon and Avocado”

It looks kind of pervert, but hangovered thats exactly what I needed. 2 poached eggs on an english muffin with Avocado, Bacon and homemade fries. Even though the meaning of fries confused me here because those were roasted potatoes, this was amazing!

The plate was huge and for $12 definitely worth it.

 

I can highly recommend this place, check it out yourself 🙂

And if you are looking for more meat, you can do the Boogaloo and add all your favorites to your “playlist” 🙂

3296 22nd Street (22nd and Valencia Street)

San Francisco

 

Glühwein aka. Mulled Wine

Hello New Friends and Hello Returners 🙂

As I announced on my Facebook Site I am going to tell you how to make “real” German Glühwein. In Germany we have Christmas Markets in every city, from small to huge ones. In every city and region of Germany we serve different traditional food. Where I come from we usually eat “Bratwurst hit Pommes” which is a sausage with french fries, “Reibekuchen mit Apfelmus oder Knoblauchsoße”, similar to hash browns with an apple or Garlic sauce. But what is the same in every region is the traditional drink, the “Glühwein”. Glühwein is a mulled wine with different spices, very easy to do at home.

There is still more than a month to go until christmas but the lights and the atmosphere an San Francisco already give us this holiday feeling. If you are ready to smell christmas in your house and have a delicious mulled wine, this is what you need:

• Any bottle of red wine
• Brandy
• 1 Oranges and 1 Lemons
• Cinnamon Sticks
• Cinnamon powder
• Whole Cloves

Cut the Orange and Lemon in Slices and layer them in a pot.

Add about 1.5 ounces Brandy to the pot.

Add the whole bottle of red wine.

Augment all the listed spices.

Last but not least simmer the pot for about 1 to 2 hours until the wine got the taste of Christmas. Enjoy your mulled wine and the scent that is going to be in your whole apartment.

 

Christmas is near 🙂

Sai´s Vietnamese Restaurant

After our midterm ending at 8pm… you can imagine how exhausted me and my friends were… we just wanted some good food. One of my friends proposed a Vietnamese Restaurant not far from our school, which made it attractive on the one side but on the other side I was not sure if I should go. The reason for this: I always… really always pick the wrong food in any kind of Asian Restaurants.

Thanks to my friends, we ended up going there. The place is called Sai´s Vietnamese Restaurant at 505 Washington St, 94111 San Francisco. My friends helped me to order something I could like and this is what I got:

 

On the menu this is choice number 1. Fried prawns, beef, chicken, veggies (Broccoli & Carrots) a salad and rice. For the first time (at least in San Francisco) I enjoyed my Asian Food!! For me the best part was the beef, it was really tasty and cooked perfectly. It may does not look that big, but the plate was huge – I took half of it home – and this for $12.

My friend ordered Vietnamese Dumplings. They looked totally different then the ones I know but I told myself to try everything AND it was worth it. Even though they looked like little urchins, their taste was amazing. I don’t even know what they are made of but it definitely had some beef inside and rice at the outside.

 

I can highly recommend this place, not only because of the food, price and the FREE TEA we got, but also because of the service. I think that night we got served by the owner – he was really mindful and took good care of us. One of my friends ordered Vietnamese tea and he came to ask if he likes it sweeter and if the tea is good in general or if they can change something about it. This shows that they are really caring and want to satisfy their customers needs.

Check Sai out at Yelp!

Composite Photography: Across the Great Divided

Hello Followers,
have a look at this awesome picture of the Skyline and the funny feature 🙂

West of Pecos Brunch in the Mission

After a great Party Weekend me and my roommates were longing for some good food. We took the BART to Castro to have a good Brunch (because we heard it is good there) but we finally ended up in the Mission at a place called “West of Pecos” http://westofpecos.com/index.html. Every Restaurant was crowded with a line of approximately 30 Min.

We found this place at 550 Valencia Street between 16th and 17th Street. The location was pretty amazing: one the walls there were Skulls and some dried herbs which gave it a very authentic atmosphere for a Southwestern inspired restaurant.

Welcomed by a really funny waiter (I think he was still drunk or simply in a good mood) we ordered different plates, from “Chucky Guacamole Chips”, to a “Woodhouse Grilled Artichoke” and a “Hatch Green Chile Cheese Burger”.

 

Summarized, the service was amazing as well as the freshly made Guacamole and the Artichoke was not made as expected but still good. The Burger buns were not the regular ones you normally get, they were made of sourdough and if they would not have been that burnt, the composition would have been really great. The sauce on the Burger was called “Chipotle Aioli” and I expected it to be a bit spicy which it  was not. Also I did not taste any Aioli but besides that the patty was medium like I ordered and the veggies were fresh – so I cannot complain. The Stake fries that were served with the Burger tasted good and I am sure that they were freshly prepared.

Overall it satisfied our needs but I think this was a one time Brunch there because there was not a lot variety to choose from (at least not for what I was looking for).

Week 2: Happiness is the appreciation of things you have in life.

Thank you Thuong for sharing this great post about happiness.

The Kaleidoscope of Happiness

Durhamism #1081: “Never blame anyone in your life. The good people give you happiness. The bad people give you experience. The worst people give you a lesson. The best people give you memories. (amen!!!)” – John Durham

I think a lot about whom I will interview for this blog. Sometimes I want someone who I know well – so it would be easier for me to understand his view about happiness and do the write-up; while sometimes I think it would be much more interesting to get out of my comfort zone and get to know a completely new perspective of someone I don’t know.

Last week, it was totally unexpected to talk to Frederic. It is never easy for me to start a conversation with a stranger with the most random reason I could ever have: “Can I ask you few questions about happiness?” But once that question was…

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Persian Dinner with Friends

Thanks to the internationality of my school I will be able to taste a lot of dishes I probably never would have tried. This weekend I was invited to Maykadeh Persian Cuisine on 470 Green Street. Our persian friend was very engaged to satisfy all our needs. He ordered  appetizers to share for everyone (about 20 people). Those appetizers included warm bread, hummus, cheese, some veggie salad and incredible good eggplant creme topped with chopped crunchy bacon (if you like eggplant you have to try this!!).

As a main course he ordered some saffron rice with a plate of meat – perfect for me, I love meat. As you can see here at the picture we had some chicken, lamb and filet mignon. The chicken was good but the filet was more my taste. It was really juicy and perfectly cooked. Unfortunately I cannot tell you about the lamb – I did not try since I am not a big fan of lamb. The taste for me is too strong.

Some people enjoyed there dinner with wine and others with beer. I instead ordered a Persian Martini. I was kind of wondering about the description and the name because the Martini was made with Vodka :). Besides this it had some juices and fresh mint in it.  I can really recommend it.

At the end it was a bit pricey for about $35 per person but totally worth it. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the waitress very patient and caring. Even at the end when she had to handle 17 different credit cards.

Soma Street Food Park

Soma Street Food Park

By accident we passed by this SOMA Street Food Park in 428 11th Street (http://somastreatfoodpark.com) and decided to buy some food there. Immediately we were attracted by this truck called “Bacon & Bacon” without knowing what will expect us. We ordered a Bacon Burger, a Pork Belly Burger, Fries with pulled pork and last but not least a Slice of crispy Bacon dipped in chocolate. The fries were amazing! The Bacon Burger consisted only of the buns, a patty, bacon and cheese. I was missing some lettuce and veggies but overall it was a good burger if you added some ketchup and mustard yourself. Now the extraordinary part (at least for me) – bacon with chocolate. I expected the taste to be very  strange because of the salty bacon and the sweet of the chocolate but actually it blended well. They neutralized each others taste and made it to something indescribable but good. The only negative point is that we paid over $30 for this meal without any drinks.