Spice

Sunday was Easter, and I was hard-pressed to find somewhere open for lunch. I tried three restaurants before finding one that was open: Spice.

I ordered quite a lot, but hey, it's a holiday. My first course was lemongrass tom yum with tofu (you can choose from various proteins for many of the dishes, including chicken, shrimp, and beef). It was nice; clear broth and really flavorful. However, the tofu was the horrible Western kind; crumbly, dry, and chewy. Americans need to learn that soy curd is not the same as tofu.

Next were the curry puffs. Man, these were some nasty curry puffs. Let's start with the pastry. It's very thick, and was fried at a very high temperature for, frankly, not enough time. The outermost part of the pastry was flaky and crumbly and completely fell apart when I pierced it with my fork--the crumbs flew all over the table and I felt like a four-year-old. The inside of the crust, on the other hand, was raw. It was translucent and chewy and impossible to cut with my fork. And then there's the filling. It was brown, but so bland and devoid of any curry flavor. And it had this odd, bitter saltiness that I could only taste in the back of my throat. It's also a lot worse plated than it looks in the picture. The little dish of sauce/juice is propped on top of the curry puffs, and as soon as you move one of the curry puffs, the tiny dish tips over, giving you no choice but to try the sauce. P.S., not good either.

My main course was chicken pad kee mao (rice noodles in a spicy sauce with egg and various vegetables). This is one of the better dishes here; it has a lot of flavor and all the components were well cooked. My problem with this dish is that it, like the curry puffs, is oddly plated. The noodles sit in a bronze-looking bowl that has a rounded, not flat, bottom, so it tips and wobbles whenever you try to pick up any food. And the metal handles are directly attached to the bowl, and are way too hot to hold to stabilize the bowl.

To drink, I got the Thai iced tea. It was not bad, but I would've preferred to save my money. But I will say, the glass towered well over my mouth; the straw was actually eye-level. Now, I know I am 5'1", but this glass is built for giants; you would need to have a very long torso to drink from the straw without holding the glass in your lap.

Spice is very popular, and I'm sure they have great dishes, but I didn't get to try many of them. However, one thing they really need to reconsider is plating. My meal was an example of a restaurant whose plating was so overthought that it interfered with my dining experience. And if a restaurant is making it hard for me to eat, and almost like they don't want me to eat their food, I would be more than happy to save $30 on a mediocre meal.

I just wanted to announce here that Thai people don't use chopsticks! People make the mistake of thinking that every Asian uses chopsticks, but one of the King Ramas switched the nation to using forks and spoons after dining with westerners and finding those utensils elegant. A guy at the next table (let's just say he's not Asian) decided to impress his friends by using chopsticks to eat his Thai fried rice. The Chopstick Rice Shovel is quite challenging for even very Chinese people to perform, and I watched him eat his rice grain by grain. Around twenty minutes after his friends had finished eating, he was still not even halfway done. He finally became too embarrassed and switched back to his fork.

After lunch, he started picking his teeth with his finger.

http://www.spicethainyc.com/spice/home/index.html

Various locations

The Boiling Crab

The Boiling Crab is really a no-nonsense place; there are no dishes or utensils. You get a bag filled with your seafood of choice, sauce, and various add-ins. Everything you order, except fries, goes into the bag so it's all drenched in that wonderful, flavorful sauce.

Since seafood is charged by weight, I recommend getting shrimp--you get more meat for the price because the shell is lighter than that of crab or lobster. You have a choice between four sauces: cajun, garlic, lemon butter, or all three mixed together ("The Whole Sha-Bang"). We all got the latter, because why pick between three great things when you can get all of them? I highly recommend getting the sausage and corn, which come in the bag. The sausage seems like an odd addition, but it's moist and not too salty, and goes really great with the sauce. The corn, on the other hand, I wish I got more of. It's just the best corn on the cob you'll have, soaked in cajun butter garlic sauce.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures; once you get your hands
dirty, there's no going back.

The key to being dignified here is to realize that this is not the time nor place to be pretty. You have to wear machine-washable, dark-colored clothes. You must tie your hair into a tight bun--use as many bobby pins as you need; it should not be able to move. And you should probably not wear makeup, because juices and sauce will most definitely fly into your face. I made the mistake of wearing a full face of makeup and a red sundress, and I walked out with sauce on my arms and cheeks.

I love that this place doesn't just have great food, but is also an eating experience; there's nothing more memorable than eating with your hands and getting shrimp juice in your eye. The Boiling Crab is best when you go with a small-ish group of people with a good sense of humor; do not go with high-maintenance girls. Guys should only bring a girl who will peel her own shrimp.

The Boiling Crab
http://www.theboilingcrab.com/
Various locations

Isa

My boyfriend came here for Dine About Town (San Francisco's Restaurant Week), and I've been dreaming about coming here since he told me about it. Isa is described as "Cal French" and is served tapas-style, which is a great excuse to order many, many courses.

Our first course was the yellowtail tuna with avocado and seaweed. The tuna is incredibly fresh--pretty comparable to Sushi Sams's--and the seaweed (with white sesame, vinegar, and some soy sauce) and the avocado (just a simple guacamole, really) complement it really well. 

Next was seared scallops with corn, sugar snap peas, orzo (rice-shaped pasta), and truffle sauce. The scallops were just perfect; great sear and slightly translucent center. However, I would've liked both sides to be seared (only the top/presentation side is), just so it has more of that slight "crust" and caramelized flavor. The orzo was a great choice--it gives the dish really nice texture--but I think the sugar snap peas were a little too much; they were just barely blanched, so their fresh, "green" flavor overpowered the truffle aroma of the sauce.

My favorite dish of the night was the mushroom and truffle risotto. The risotto itself wasn't as al dente as I would've liked, but it wasn't mushy. I love that it was almost equal parts rice and mushrooms--I find that a lot of restaurants often will only add a little bit of whatever featured ingredient is supposed to be the highlight of the risotto. However, I do not like the big clump of cheese as garnish--by the time we got it, it was somewhat melted and very hard to mix into the risotto, and lucky me, I got the big mouthful of cheese. I think they definitely could've grated it a little finer or at least just spread it out a little more!

Next, we got the flank steak with zucchini and yucca. Although we asked for medium rare, the steak was definitely a medium, bordering on medium well, which was really disappointing. However, the center was still quite moist--it was just the edges that were dry and really tough to bite into. The zucchini was, like most vegetables served with steak are, steamed and not seasoned, but the edges were still crunchy and and not overcooked at all. I loved the yucca fries; I find that a lot of yucca fries can be dry and starchy and have a really mealy mouth feel  but these were nice and flavorful and moist. They aren't particularly crisp though, because they're kind of swimming in the steak's sauce/juice.

We got two desserts, the grapefruit granita (although it says granite on the menu) and amaretto semifreddo. The grapefruit granite had a great, true grapefruit flavor, with bitterness and all (which I actually like). The ice chunks were a bit too large for my taste; I would've liked it to be a slightly finer texture, so you don't actually have to chew through it. And check out that big sprig of mint! Mint and grapefruit go together so well, I don't know why they wouldn't chop up the mint and incorporate it into the ice.

The amaretto semifreddo, I think, was a glorified cookies and cream ice cream. The amaretto flavor is not for everyone; it's a really pungent almond milk-type flavor that people either hate or are neutral toward. The amaretto cookies on the side are nice--they're a hard, hard biscotti kind of texture, and the same almond milky flavor. The flavor is definitely not as strong as that of the "semifreddo," but if you have a strong aversion to that kind of almond essence, do not get this.

I think I would've liked Isa a lot better if I hadn't built it up so much in my head. Of course there were great dishes--the risotto and scallops--but I was quite disappointed with the steak and desserts. Come here for a fancy date with someone who will pay for you!

Isa
http://www.isarestaurant.com/
3324 Steiner Street

Sushi Sam's Edomata

I don't have a lot to say about Sushi Sam's, other than that it is amazing and definitely the freshest sushi I've had in America. On a college budget, it's not cheap, but if you love fancy sushi, then you're going to love that it's a bargain.

We got the eight-piece sushi omakase (they also have a sashimi omakase), which is the chef's selection of nigiri (a small lump of rice with a topping). Ours included shrimp, salmon, lobster, and fatty tuna. For $40, you get eight pieces of expensive cuts of fish on rice and a dessert, which is really an amazing deal, considering bad sweet shrimp can go for $8 a piece on the east coast (boo). The way omakase works is that they do everything for you--they season it where it's necessary--so all you have to do is take pictures and eat. I love that they do everything for you, so you don't run the risk of ruining a quality piece of fish with too much wasabi or soy sauce. Depending on the fish, they'll also put extra toppings and flavorings; for example, the fatty fish go with yuzu sushi rice, which really cuts greasiness, which can be really noticeable when you eat it on rice. They're all great combinations and super fresh, so it's really just a matter of preference. But you'll most likely love all of them.

For dessert, we got the green tea tiramisu and the sakura panna cotta and rice ball (the latter is a daily special, so ask if they have it). The tiramisu was so good--the cake part was moist but not soggy, which is the case with a lot of tiramisus that sit around for a long time. On top they have frozen raspberries (real unsweetened frozen raspberries, not the horrible grocery store kind), which is so good. They add a bit of sweetness and freshness to an otherwise creamy dessert. The sakura rice ball (not mochi) is a glob of sakura-flavored glutinous rice with red bean paste in the middle. It's also wrapped with a sakura leaf, which your server will tell you to eat. It sounds a bit off-putting, the leaf adds a nice woodsy flavor and depth. The panna cotta is nice and milky, just a really basic panna cotta. With both of these desserts, I love how subtle and true the flavorings are. A lot of time, green tea is enhanced to be too bitter, and sakura too sweet. These desserts are as mild and fragrant as green tea and cherry blossoms really are.

There's really not much to say about Sushi Sam's. It's great and fresh and everyone should try it.

218 E 3rd Ave.
http://www.sushisams.com/index.html

Sweet Maple

This week I'm in San Francisco for spring break! Well, technically Foster City, but no one knows where that is. Hence a review of a restaurant in California.

My boyfriend and I each got eggs Benedict, and fried French toast to share. I was pretty disappointed that they don't make their own English muffins (the menu says they use Thomas' English muffins), so thumbs down for that. I got the Asparagus Blackstone Benedict, with asparagus (obvi), tomato, candied bacon, and Meyer hollandaise. I was overly happy with the asparagus and tomato, because they are so fresh and I haven't had really nice fresh produce in months, thanks to East Coast weather. The candied bacon had a nice texture--it had enough bite without being crunchy or hard, but it can be a bit tricky to cut into. It's sticky and sweet and savory, but it can be quite heavy, especially next to all the lighter components of the dish (it reminds me of bakkwa, which is Chinese jerky). The hollandaise sauce was just fine; it's mildly citrusy without being acidic, but it's not as rich or flavorful as I would've liked.

My boyfriend got the Southern Benedict, with chorizo, cherry peppers, tomato, and chipotle hollandaise. Well, I've given up on asking him for descriptions of food, because asking him to elaborate on "good" will only illicit "It's good. That's it." Anyway, this dish is very, very hot, since they don't deseed the raw cherry peppers. I wish they would've deseeded them or blanched them, so it would take away some of the heat while preserving the flavor. The chipotle hollandaise, on the other hand, is so incredibly heavy and savory. It didn't really have that smokey chipotle flavor, but it's a nice twist to a classic sauce. The eggs on both our plates were perfectly poached--firm whites and runny yolks--without being sour like the ones at Peels in New York. The fried potatoes were just okay--nothing special, really nothing to say about them.

The best part of the meal was definitely the fried French toast (called the "Big Hip" on the menu). It's fried so golden and crunchy, and the inside was moist without being goopy or overly doughy, the way some restaurants seem to like to make their French toast. I love how they give a tiny amount of fruit, almost as a consolation for eating a day's worth of calories in ten minutes ("You can eat fried French toast and still be healthy, because you get five blueberries too"). However, the garnish really, really annoyed me--again, nonfunctional garnish. A branch of curly parsley on French toast? Really? And that stick lying across the middle? It's a very long fried wonton wrapper--weird.

Sweet Maple offers some really great food, but the wait is so incredibly long--we waited a good half hour for our meal. They are also the king of nonfunctional garnish. The table next to us was a family with two kids, and three of their plates had the fried wonton wrapper stuck into their food, towering a full six inches above the edible part of their dishes.

I love Line Camera. Check out the wonton wrapper stuck
into those pancakes. Also, I'm embarrassing.

Sweet Maple
2101 Sutter Street
www.sweetmaplesf.com