#14 Beef Brisket at Memphis Minnie's

Last weekend me, Scott, Adam, and Andrew decided to hit up some of the Big Eat SF locations in the Haight and Hayes. First up was Memphis Minnie's for Beef Brisket. I decided to go for my brisket in sandwich form with a side of mac and cheese. Since I forgot to snap a photo of my sandwich, here is an after shot:

The brisket was good but I'm not jumping to go back to Memphis Minnie's. I've had better BBQ and better brisket. It was tasty but nothing special in my opinion. Also I wish the BBQ sauce was of a thicker consistency. Maybe it was because I hyped myself up for the experience but overall the experience was underwhelming. A resounding meh.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Spotted in the Mission:


Sure. OK. Here's a question - who buys an old meter maid car?

Easter in Dolores Park

This post will demonstrate some of the people watching I mentioned in yesterday's post about Dolores Park. On Easter Sunday Scott, my parents, my sister, and I decided to walk from Noe to Bi-Rite. Had to earn that ice cream! On the way we decided to check out the madness that is Dolores Park on Easter. Apparently every Easter the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence throw a party in Dolores Park. Read more about it here. "It's a politically incorrect cavalcade of drag queens, public nudity and hunky Jesus lookalikes." Basically San Francisco at it's absolute finest.







I know where I'm spending next Easter!

Odds and Ends

Bus spotted parked next to Bi-Rite on Easter:

Afternoon Surprise

I've decided few things will make me as happy at 3pm on a work day as walking into the kitchen to find cupcakes leftover from an event:

This little beauty was clearly from a super market but I'm not sure which one. Probably Safeway. I thought the flowers were really cute. Also surprising - this was a pretty damn good cupcake, for a super market. Those in house bakeries are stepping up their game to compete with the big boys.

Teacake Bakeshop - Take 2

While running errands recently I had the pleasure of taking another trip to the Teacake Bake Shop in Emeryville. I had the pleasure of my first Teacake experience last October. This time I was determined to try their cookies but I also couldn't pass up another cupcake:

This peanut butter cupcake was the perfect indulgence - deliciously rich and peanut buttery. The ample chocolate chips on top gave the peanut butter frosting an excellent chocolate kick. So far they are 2 for 2 with cupcakes!

As promised we did try 3 of their cookies: Oatmeal Coconut, Classic Cookie Sandwich, and Mint Chocolate Cookie Sandwich. If it is at all possible, the cookies are even more delicious than the cupcakes! I'm having trouble picking a favorite between the classic cookie sandwich and the oatmeal coconut. Both were everything you could want in a cookie and more.

(picture from Teacake's website as I ate my cookie in the darkness of a movie theater)

Teacake Bake Shop's amazing baked goods can be mail ordered and I highly recommend them for anyone who doesn't live close enough to have a taste in person!

#100 Cheese Course at Gary Danko

Scott and I recently had our 7 year anniversary and were looking for a nice restaurant to celebrate. We'd been hearing wonderful things about Gary Danko so I made a reservation. The earliest I could get was 9pm. We got there and I was amazed at how crowded it was! Recession, what recession? Unfortunately, because it was so crowded, we weren't seated until almost 9:45pm. I absolutely hate waiting on a reservation. Apparently they had had a couple of tables that had lingered far beyond what the restaurant anticipated and thus the wait. As we were led to our table, though, the host apologized profusely and said we would receive 50% off of our bill! We couldn't believe it!

Even without the discount our entire Gary Danko experience was over the top amazing. We've already decided to make it our yearly anniversary tradition. When we were first seated we were brought a few amous bouche - I believe one was a carrot ginger soup that was incredible and I can't remember now what the other one was. That's what I get for blogging more than a month after the fact! Our servers (yes, there were more than 1) were extremely attentive without hovering. Our waters and bread basket were never empty, our silverware was replaced with each course, and everyone was just genuinely nice. Every once in awhile it's really nice to be pampered at dinner :).

Scott and I both decided to go with the 3 courses of our choice option. Each course was quite a bit of food. First we both had a goat cheese tart, followed by duck for me (it practically melted in my mouth it was so moist) and beef for Scott (cooked to perfection - crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside), and finally the amazing cheese course.

Our waiter rolled this delicious assortment of cheeses our way and we each got to select 4 after he described each one. Then our selections were plated with some grapes and walnut bread. I can't remember now which cheeses we chose but we enjoyed them all. The cheese course at Gary Danko is an experience in and of itself and clearly belongs on the list.

Post cheese course we received a sampling of desserts on a plate with Happy Anniversary written on it in chocolate. By this point we were stuffed to the gills, but satisfied. We couldn't stop talking about our experience for days afterwards and have recommended the restaurant to our friends and family. We can't wait to return.

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

After reading about several cookie dough cupcakes I decided to attempt some myself. Most of the recipes I read were all about eggless cookie dough but I figure how sick can you really get from 1.5 tsp of raw cookie dough? I mean, I eat more than that every time I make cookies! I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and just plop the cookie dough in the center. Because I though making cupcakes + frosting + cookie dough all from scratch would be a pain, I used store bought cookie dough. The trick is the freeze the cookie dough before putting it in the center of the cupcakes so that it doesn't cook. I also baked small cookies to use on top.

My friends all claimed to love these but I was underwhelmed. It's not that there was anything particularly wrong with them, I just felt the textures did not quite go together. You have an extra fluffy moist cupcake with a dense cookie dough ball in the middle. To me the idea of the cookie dough cupcake did not live up to the execution. I just found them strange to eat.

I used the leftover cookie dough (having a half full tub of Costco cookie dough in your fridge is not waist line friendly :)) to make one of my favorites - caramel cupcookies: line mini cupcake tin with liners, fill with cookie dough, bake at 375 for about 9 minutes, press Rolo candies into the tops, bake for another 2-3 minutes, try not to eat them all in one sitting. These are always popular in my office!

Miette Cupcakes

Before moving out of the Marina I figured I should try Miette cupcakes while they were convenient to home. I bought a box of 4 flavors.

Old fashioned (chocolate with marshmallow icing), gingerbread, chocolate with vanilla icing, and vanilla with vanilla icing

I had a hunch from the sheen these bad boys were giving off that I wasn't going to like them. I did like the gingerbread cake - incredibly moist and flavorful, but the rest were just eh. Frosting was too much butter and not enough sugar. Cake tasted like it might have been a day old. Overall, disappointing. Doesn't exactly inspire me to want to spend $50 (!) on an 8" cake version.

Dolores Park

Scott and I moved to a new apartment and a new neighborhood at the beginning of last month. Now that we're unpacked and settled, we're really loving Noe Valley. One of our new favorite activities is visiting Dolores Park.

the view from the top of the park

The park is just a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. A sunny day + a good book = perfection. And the people watching cannot be beat!

Odds and Ends

Side walk art that tells a story...or at least the lyrics to an '80s classic!

I love the Mission.

#54 Spiced-chocolate doughnut at Dynamo Donut with a Four Barrel coffee - FAIL

After our trip to Yank Sing, we tried to cross another item off the list at Dynamo Donut. Unfortunately when we got there, we realized they didn't have what we came for - the spiced-chocolate donut. FAIL. They did have a few other interesting flavors which we tried instead.

This beauty was a apple maple bacon donut and it was DELICIOUS. Not as heavy as your typical donut, and definitely not your typical donut flavor. I could have eaten 3. Andrew bought a flavor that was equally delicious, I think it was the Meyer Lemon Huckleberry, but I'm not sure now.

The shop is really out of the way and I wish they had a place to sit and enjoy our coffee and donut. But given how delicious they are, we will definitely back to try for the spiced-chocolate...even if it takes a few tries ;-).

Vanilla Bakeshop

The second bakery I visited on my last trip to LA was Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. Vanilla Bake Shop has been recommended to me by quite a few different people and their cupcakes were actually featured in a Honda CR-V ad a few months back.

Vanilla Bake Shop is a small-ish shop with a counter and case with a few small tables. Given my usual MO of going from shop to shop, I appreciate it when they have a spot for me to stop and enjoy my cupcakes before moving on. As is becoming the trend, they also have merchandise:

Hilarious merchandise. I didn't get one, though.

Another thing I liked about Vanilla Bake Shop was that they have all of their cupcake flavors in regular AND mini sizes. Most places, if they sell mini sized cupcakes, only have a few flavors. Minis means you get to try more flavors!! My mom and I selected 3:

Banana Chocolate Chip: Banana Chocolate Chip Cake, Cream Cheese Frosting

Meyer Lemon Raspberry: Yellow Butter Cake, Lemon Curd Center, Vanilla Bean Frosting & Raspberries

Bittersweet Dark Chocolate: Dark Chocolate Cake, Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting, Chocolate Sprinkles

All of our cupcakes were divine. My mom and I are both a sucker for lemon curd so that was definitely tops for us. Besides, fruit flavors are always my favorite :). The bittersweet chocolate was also good. Not many cupcake shops do cake and frosting in a dark chocolate so being dark chocolate fans, we really enjoyed that. It was perfectly rich and delicious.

While enjoying our cupcakes, we were also eyeing these cuties:

Icebox Dessert Shots: Key Lime Pie, Meyer Lemon Tarts, Triple Berry Short Cake, Dirt Cake, Southern Banana Pudding

For next time :). Vanilla Bake Shop is now another one of my LA favorites. All of the hype was totally deserved!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

While in Vegas last month I spotted this stand selling Mardi Gras beads - including some of the largest beads I have ever seen (on the right). The name of the booth was incredibly subtle, don't you think?

Only in Vegas. I think the small child is a nice touch.

Williams Sonoma Flower Cupcakes

I saw this in the window at Williams Sonoma last month and couldn't resist snapping a photo:


A few days later Scott's sister sent me an e-mail about a new Williams Sonoma product.



Unfortunately I just checked and it looks like this adorable pan is no longer available :(. Seems silly given that it's still spring. Maybe they'll bring it back.

#44 Cannelé at Boulangerie Bay Bread

After multiple attempts at acquiring a cannelé from Boulangerie, we finally had success last month while on an errand in the Polk Gulch.

I have had them prior to the publishing on the list and needed a refresher. These little cakes are amazing. Ronner describes them as self-contained creme brulee. They are incredibly moist, almost under cooked, in the center. Yet another reason to love La Boulange!!

Edible Arrangements

Last month for Davidson's birthday, Anna had an Edible Arrangement delivered instead of cake. I had heard about Edible Arrangements before but never seen or tasted one before. They are gorgeous!


The fruit was all very tasty and fresh. And they didn't just fill up the arrangement with cheap fruit like melon - most of it was strawberries. The black and white pieces are chocolate covered bananas which were my favorite part :).

Ronner had a little fun putting one of the pineapple flowers behind Davidson's ear.

I highly recommend Edible Arrangements. It's a nice, healthy alternative to cake and way more fun than flowers.

Pie for Pi Day

March 14 was Pi Day and to celebrate I decided to make a pie. I've only made 2 pies in my life and both were pumpkin. I remember pie crust being a pain in the ass to make, but having just acquired the amazing Martha Stewart's Cooking School, I decided to make an apple pie, the Martha way. I bought myself a few pre-made crusts just in case, but I didn't end up needing them. Martha led me well and my crust turned out almost perfect. I also learned a few things along the way:

Lesson #1 - read your recipe! I didn't realized when I set out to make the pie how long it was going to take. Luckily before I started I read through the whole recipe, as Martha recommends. Once the crust is made it has to sit in the fridge for a couple hours, the pie has to cook for over an hour, and once out, it takes 4 to cool!

Lesson #2- Don't make apple pie without an apple corer. I wasted far to much apple cutting the core off.


Lesson #3 - use regular size apples. I bought little ones from Trader Joe's which means even more peeling!

Scott made little pi symbols for the crust + an E because Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday.

The final product. It was really delicious. Personally I'm a bigger fan of the crust than the filling. I'm more of a cake fan, what can I say. But Scott, who loves pie, loved it. While it was cooling I whipped up a batch of cinnamon ice cream in my ice cream maker which was delicious. It was just regular vanilla but I added a few tablespoons of cinnamon.

I'm really proud of my success with the apple pie. I feel like pie is one of those things that a good baker needs to master and I'm thrilled to be expanding my repertoire beyond cupcakes :).

#97 Sesame Balls at Yank Sing

I have a confession to make. Prior to 2 weekends ago I had never had Dim Sum. I know, I know. Crisis now solved. And another item crossed off the list along the way! Two birds, etc.

Dim Sum is an amazing experience. People wheel food around to you on carts and you get to choose what you want! I love it. I can't wait to go again. Yank Sing was really delicious, but a bit on the expensive side. Next time I'd like to try some place in Chinatown. As delicious as all of the food was, I've determined that I would be completely satisfied with a dim sum meal of nothing but steamed pork buns and these beauties:

Sesame balls. Words cannot describe. Words other than delicious and amazing. I am drooling just looking at them...

Violet's Cakes

While on my most recent trip to LA my mom and I had a crazy day in and around Los Angeles. While out and about on various errands we were able to fit in two more LA cupcakeries. First up was Violet's Cakes in Pasadena. We were supposed to go to Violet's on the LA Cupcake Crawl, but it was closed. Violet's is an adorable shop with one table and a huge kitchen that you can see right behind the counter.

Their cupcakes are adorable and they had all of the usual flavors plus a few new ones to me. My mom and I settled on a Berry Delicious and a Brownie Bomb.

The white chocolate raspberry was also calling our name but we resisted. We need a reason to come back :). We settled in at the table and my mom was patient while I photographed and then we dug in. We had intended not to eat it all but we failed. They were amazing. The berry cupcake had amazing flavor and clearly used fresh fruit - no extracts! The brownie bomb was exactly as described, a brownie, but a damn good brownie. Violet's is definitely on the list as a possible cupcakery for my wedding cupcakes and is definitely one of my favorite LA cupcake spots.

Life @ Google Now Complete

This week Google released Cupcake, an update to the Android OS. To celebrate, the Android sculpture at Google got a new friend.

When I found out about this I naturally needed to go see it immediately. Words can not express how excited I am about this new development. A giant cupcake! Right here at Google!!!

Bryan couldn't resist a taste.

This was even more exciting than the goats we acquired this week:

They are here to clear brush and help us prevent a fire.

Just another week at the 'plex.