food day with the great ANDY

for some reason, when i met up with roland and andy i decided to wear the same exact outfit i always wore at tsuru. time warp big time. fit in with the alice in wonderland theme.

at any rate...


GUESS WHAT I DID THIS WEEKEND!


7X7 magazine put out a list of 100 things to try before you die on FOOD, and since andy lives near/in the mission district, we went to two of the places there on the list.

the first one on the left is at margherita pizza at pizzeria delfina. yay andy!

i couldn't have found a better place to completely 180 my horrible clam chowder experience on thursday. the sauce was salty and fresh, which worked with the mozzarella, which i always find to be a somewhat bland cheese. the crust was crispy on the bottom, but still had a layer of soft and chewy dough just above that. the perfect way to suck up the tomato juice. and it just made it more interesting to eat than a single layer of cracker crust..which just makes me think i'm eating a very expensive tortilla chip. only thing is, wish there had been more basil. i love basil.

next up was ice cream at the bi-rite creamery! the line was out the door, and was curving around the corner by the time we'd gotten our fix. the recommended one was salty caramel, which was delicious. the white one was ginger, which i liked even more. they have really offbeat flavors there...first one that comes to mind is roasted banana, which someone in the line said was really good.

the reason it's in a bowl is cuz i originally only asked for a cone, but when i tried to pay for my ice cream the ice cream tipped over onto the counter. i wailed and picked it up and stuck it back on. the lady asked me if i wanted a new one, but i figured it was still good. she gave me a bowl though, just in case.

god san francisco is full of hippies. the ice cream store used sustainable ingredients, and all of the bowls and stuff were made out of recycled materials. that meant the counter was probably cleaned with something non-toxic. right? RIGHT? whatever it's three days later and i'm still fine.

yay for hippie thinking.

after...went to market street for some shopping. everything i like is way out of my unemployed price range, so all i did was look. andy succeeded in buying a pair of pants that actually manages to make his ass look flat..wonder of wonders.

ended our day with none other than happy hour at bar norcini. lucia with a beer. who knew?


















well, our ending thought was this:

"sex in a public bathroom?

yeah..that's exactly what beer smells like."

god, the party is just about to begin.

WHERE NOT TO GO IN SF FOR CLAM CHOWDER

NEVER HAVE I RANTED ONLINE ABOUT A PLACE OF BUSINESS, BUT ALIOTO'S CLAM CHOWDER IN SAN FRANCISCO HAS RAGED ME INTO ACTION.

honestly. i have never been so pissed off at a dish before. because this wasn't a question of differing tastes, it was simply a result of carelessness and lack of integrity.

ok the soup itself was flavorless as well, but whatever maybe i like heavily flavored things.

my friend and i went to the pier to get some soup to end our day in san francisco. we decided not to go to boudin, and to try some of the smaller shops on the side.

and i don't know if i had set my expectations too high, but this soup put me off clam chowders forever.

it was flavorless, lukewarm, sandy, and LUMPY.

ok, maybe when i say lumpy it doesnt sound too bad. but i mean, when i put it on my spoon and then to my mouth, it sat on my spoon like oatmeal. when i tasted it, i almost thought they had pre-breaded my soup, but soon realized that all those lumps where lumps of flour they had used for the roux in the beginning of the cooking process.

EXCUUUUUUUUUSE ME!?!?!?!

is that not the FIRST STEP USED WHEN MAKING THIS SOUP?!?!?

HOW COULD YOU FUCK UP THE FIRST STEP, THE BASIS OF THE WHOLE DISH?

ALL YOU HAVE TO FUCKING DO IS STIR! STIR!

upon reflection i realized maybe it was because our timing was off...going near the end of the day would probably result in us getting leftovers.

but wait...hold it...think about it....

WHY THE HELL WERE WE GETTING LEFTOVERS

you know what'll happen if you serve leftovers? you'll get someone fucking angry like me ranting about it and telling all patrons NOT TO GO THERE.

chefs who serve food, and ask people to pay for the preparation of it, have a responsibility to the people who eat it. that's the bottom line. that's your fucking job. your livelihood is to make other people happy through your food. don't you take any pride in that?

you think it's not the rush hour, so only a few people will get your shitty chowder and that you can get away with it.

DEFINITELY NOT THE CASE.

3.

find some sheep in the pasture!