Anthony's Cookies

1417 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 655-9834
http://www.anthonyscookies.com/

My friend Victor and I both craved for something sweet one night. So he decided to get cookies so that we can finish another thing off the 2010 7x7.com SF Big Eat List. He then told me he bought 6! And without knowing or ever seeing how an Anthony’s cookie looks like, I was like, “wow, that’s a lot for the two of us!”

So it turned out Anthony’s cookies are small in size, like 2.5 inches in diameter or so. It is also a thinner type of cookie. So the item to get from the Big Eat List was the Cookies ‘N Cream cookie. I never had a cookies ‘n cream cookie before, so I was excited.

Anthony’s Cookies ‘N Cream cookie looks like a chocolate chip cookie but instead of chocolate chip, it contains crushed oreo-liked cookies. One bite into it and I was in love! I thought since it is a bit thinner so it probably won’t be chewy…man I was wrong! It was chewy and moist! But I should have known when I pull it in half…very gooey and chewy. I could definitely taste the cookies ‘n cream cookie in there. I was also surprise that it was not that sweet! I mean an oreo is super duper sweet to me but Anthony’s wasn’t.
I also tried the other cookies they have, like the white chocolate—which was pretty sweet! I also tried the semi-sweet chocolate with walnuts, which was just okay, but it was memorable because the chocolate was still very gooey and creamy even though the cookie wasn’t warm anymore.

Paul K

199 Gough St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 552-7132

http://www.paulkrestaurant.com/

Came here on a Tuesday night with the boyfriend for our anniversary. We are both foursquare.com user. So right after we were seated, my boyfriend checked into foursquare. He found that if you're a foursquare user and is a first timer at Paul K, you get half off on your entree. Yeah yea! Immediately we figured we have extra money for appetizers!

Paul K is a Greek and North American inspired restaurants. The ambiance was very modern and dim. The walls were hanged with paintings by artists and Paul himself. It was very quiet that night, with only about 3-4 tables including us. The service was great! Our waiter was very helpful and attentive.

Shortly after given our menus, our waiter put down a basket of warm housemade flat bread with hummus. The pita smelled very different and tasted different from the ones I usually see at Greek restaurant. It was much thinner. The hummus was thick and lumpy. I like it because the hummus was not overly salty like most I had.

Ahi Tuna Tartare with Lemon Oil, Pickled Radish and Sweet Potato Chips

I love appetizers made with tuna! So I knew we had to order Tuna Tartare. The tuna was very firm and finely diced. It was not mushy at all. The pickled radish along with lemon oil added some tanginess to the fishy tuna. Pretty good, but nothing to wow for. The sweet potato chips were very crisp and did not taste like sweet potato at all...I just thought it was regular potato.

Batter Fried Green Beans with Lemon Aioli

The Batter Fried Green Beans definitely reminded me of the ones from Coco500. But of course, they were both good in their own ways. Paul K's battered fried beans uses tempura-liked batter, whereas Coco500's uses the kind of flour batter you can find in taro croquette.I like it. It was crispy, oily and very aromatic. Oh and you have to eat it with the aioli..yum!

Seafood Stew with Fennel, Merquez Sausage, White Beans, Chili, Harissa Tomato Broth

I love cioppino! So when I saw seafood stew on the menu, I just order it without any thoughts. The seafood stew contains two type of clams, mussels, fish and shrimps. One type of clam is Manila, and I have no idea what the other one is. The other kind was so mushy and fishy; it was barf-inducing. The broth was watery, and lack tomato flavor. The beans were interesting; I never had beans in a seafood stew. I wish the bean would soak up the favor of the broth more though. The sausage was not very good, it tasted gamey, like lamb. Ehh, I don't think I'll order this again.

Grilled Hanger Steak with White Beans and Salsa Verde

The hanger steak was made nicely as ordered--medium rare. It was topped on a bed of the same white beans I found in the seafood stew. The beef was tender, and the salsa added some sweetness and tanginess ot it. It's good!

The food at Paul K seemed pretty ordinary. I like the atmosphere, the services, but I think I'll come back only if they have deals or I am happened to be in the neighbor. Otherwise, I don't think I'll pay the money for it.

American Cupcake

1919 Union St, San Francisco, CA
http://www.americancupcake.com/

When I first heard about American Cupcake through , they did not even have a store front yet. So when I found out the store finally opened, I was excited!

I have been in a wine and cupcake phrase lately. I love how wine tastes differently when pair with something else and I love how cupcakes are small in sizes but bring such big joy when looking at them and big flavor when eating them. When I saw how there was alcohol pairing with cupcakes at American Cupcake, I knew I had to try it because pairing wine or beer with cupcakes sounds super strange...a white wine maybe, but red wine and beer too?

One super cool thing about this cupcakery is that it serves alcohol and it opens until midnight toward end of the week. I cannot think of any other cupcakery that opens pass 8pm or so. On top of that, American Cupcakes serve other sweets like whoopie pies, puddings, peanut butter sandwiches, candies as well as savory food like cheese, fries, nachos, sliders, etc.

The Tunnel of Love -- Red Hot Cupcake with Cabernet Sauvignon, Mexican Chocolate with Sonoma Brut and Chocolate Cupcake with Vin Gris Rose

It was super hard to choose one out of the five different flights they offer. Since I love wines more than cupcakes, so I chose the flight based on the wines. The flight is $16, which seemed pretty worth it considering wine usually cost around $6 a glass at the cheapest, and mini cupcakes are usually $1.50 or so. The mini cupcakes are a bit dry and the buttercream was very creamy and sweet. I took a sip of wine before and after I take a bite of cupcake, and seriously, the wine tastes better without the cupcakes. The cupcakes were so overpowering that, I could not taste the wine at all. The wine did not enhance the cupcake flavor either. I was a little disappointed with the pairings, but at the very least, I did enjoy eating and drinking them separately.

In addition to the 3 mini wine pairing cupcakes, I also tried the regular size strawberry cupcake. The regular size cupcake is more moist and the frosting is just sweet enough, it was delicious! The frosting looked dense but it was actually pretty fluffy and light. I was expecting the regular size cupcake to be more moist since smaller cupcakes are harder to control sometimes because they get overbaked easily. The strawberry cupcake definitely make me want to go back and try others.  

The decor of American Cupcake is very modern and bright. The interior are all white with colorful lightings on the ceiling and jars of candies filled the wall. There are also booth as well as bar seating...a very trendy and fun hang out place. I would definitely go back for the atmosphere.

Just Koi

4288 Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA 94568

(925) 833-3938

http://www.koipalace.com/

Growing up in Hong Kong, I get really happy whenever my mom takes me to a wonton noodle house. Just the comfort of the wonton wrapper, the taste of the white pepper that was used to marinate the prawns, the crunchiness of the prawns, the juicy-ness of the pork--they all go really well together with a hot bowl of egg noodle...and oh yes, and some Chinese chili sauce.

There are only a couple of places that have nice wontons or should I say, wontons that taste like the ones I had in Hong Kong. One of these places is Just Koi in Dublin, CA. This restaurant or more like a cafe is in association with Koi Palace and Koi Garden, the tea houses. But instead of serving all dim sum, it serves noodles, fried rice. porridge and such.

The service at Just Koi is just okay. They rarely come and fill your water or tea and come really shortly before you even have a chance to look through the selective menu.

Wonton Noodle -- Egg noodles with prawn and pork wontons and vegetables

Just Koi's wontons are perfect! I love my wontons with prawns, not shrimps and white pepper! The white pepper is a must in marinating the prawns and in adding flavors to the wontons. The pork needs to be a little fatty in order for the wontons to be juicy. Delicious!

Salt and Pepper Tofu -- Deep fried tofu coated with salt and peppers

The Salt and Pepper Tofu was light battered and fried. The batter was very thin and crispy, which added just enough contrast to the soft steamy tofu inside. The fried garlic and chili added extra flavors with the salt and pepper as well.

I hardly order anything else here besides wonton noodles and maybe like other appetizers like the soya tofu. Other than that, the wontons are just too comforting for me to change and order something else.

Blueberry Peach Pop

Going down the fruit aisle in the supermarket, you will see a lot of peaches and berries. One of the reason I love summer is because of the fruits available to us in the summer! So a couple weeks ago, I decided to make popsicles after feeling inspired by this book I saw at the bookstore. I forgot what it's called...something like "pop" or something. I bought peaches from the farmer's market and blueberries from Safeway the very same week, so I decided to make popsicles with them.

It's super duper easy. All you need is a blender, fruits, fruit juice, yogurt and caster sugar if you want extra density and sweetness. Blend your favorite fruits together by itself or with yogurt or with sugar and then layer them out in a popsicle mold. Try putting heavier ones at the bottom because it will sink down if you pour it at the top.

Tatah! Peaches with blueberry yogurt popsicle!