Late Summer in NYC Part 1

Lingon has conferences this week and next, so here I am again, tagging along and getting stuff done.  I'm trying to write more current posts, so let's see how it goe.

Tuesday September 8
We get upgraded on our flight yesterday from SFO to JFK, which is nice because I always feel so special when I get layflat seats.  The flight shockingly left on time and arrived early, and we made it to the Big Apple in the early evening.  We checked into our hotel, the Chatwal, probably the last of the Starwood hotels that I am curious about.  It is situated near Times Square, which is awful, but at least it is east of Times Square so for the most part we can avoid it.  We booked the most basic room, the superior queen room, and requested for an upgrade with our Starwood Platinum upgrade nights.  Unfortunately, our request was denied, and we did not get a complimentary upgrade, so here we are in a tiny shoebox room.

The room itself is nicely appointed, with dark grey furniture, clean looking, some kind of paint splotched walls that looks intentional.  The cabinetry is all lined with leather, nice touch to give it an old school kind of feel.  Sadly our view is to some space in between a building that is maybe 10ft away, so it is dark and miserable when the room lights are not turned on.  They provide Voss brand water as the free water, which amuses me, but I guess I should be thankful for free water and not complain.  Turn down service disappointed me.  We had some water, and they laid out slippers, but NO FREE CHOCOLATES?!?!  I always look forward to the free chocolates, even though really I should not be eating anymore chocolates.  Grrr.

After washing up, we went to dinner at the newest branch of Ootoya on 11th Street, because apparently according to our friends it typically does not have a wait.  The restaurant serves mainly rice bowls, noodles, simple Japanese fare.  We were told the tonkatsu there was really good.  I got the katsu toji set - breaded and deep fried silky pork loin and onion, topped with layer of custard like egg, served in a soy sauce infused broth, with rice, miso soup (pork and vegetables, homemade pickles and steamed egg custard.  Great value at only $22, but I think I could have done without the set in terms of quantity.  Lingon got some salmon special thing with udon, but I did not love it, maybe because it was over brown rice and the flavour of the brown rice overtook the salmon thinggy.  Our friends got a kaisen don, which pretty much seemed like a chirashi, and a regular tonkatsu don, and both looked fabulous.  Since my tonkatsu had a broth over it, it was not crispy, but I tried my friend's and it was super nice and lightly breaded and crunchy.  I would definitely go back here again to try the different bowls.  Nice comfort food.

After dinner, we went to Van Leeuwen, an artisanal ice cream place with a truck.  Lingon and I tried got 3 flavours - pistachio, ginger (my favourite by far with the sharp taste of the candied ginger accentuating every bite) and espresso (guess whose pick).  The truck ran out of regular pistachio, so there was only vegan, which instead of regular milk was made with almond milk that I loved.  Overall great experience!

So that ended our first night in New York.

This morning, we got our free breakfast at the Lambs Club in our hotel.  I think my favourite Starwood Platinum breakfasts are where they give me a dollar amount that goes towards my meal, since it generally prevents me from overeating, and I like the hot food better anyway.  This one was just a continental, valued at $34, which seemed silly to me because the a la carte items were a lot cheaper.  So this one.  You get coffee/tea, juice, granola/cornflakes/muesli (I got granola, Lingon got muesli, and his was better), a giant pastry basket each with 5 pastries in it (we asked to only get one), and a berry granola parfait topped with honey.  So I guess that's a lot of food, but not my preference.  The food was really good though.  The pastry basket had a regular croissant (boring, did not eat), chocolate croissant (yummy), scone (super yummy, I swear it had a stick of butter in it), berry muffin (yummy, with amazing crumbly thinggy on top) and a cannelé bordelais (SUPER YUMMY, the outside was perfectly crunch outside, and perfectly moist and custardy gooey like inside).  How anyone can eat 1 of these pastry baskets perplexes me.  I saw one other table get what we got, and the lady's eyes opened wide as the waiter plonked the 2 pastry baskets down.  Please stop wasting.

In the afternoon, I went to lunch at Ayada Thai in Queens, NY.  I'm not sure I have ever been to Queens, aside from the airport.  I ran there, across the Queensboro Bridge, and it was my first time on that bridge.  I have now done Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Queensboro, looks like I have the Manhattan to do, and then I would have done them all, maybe?  Anyway, it was hot as hell, probably 90 degrees and super humid, and me being not very fit and all did not contribute to the slow 6.8 miles I had to go.  Eventually I made it there.  Why there?  Well, Queens is supposed to be known for Thai food - I did see a lot of Asian signs and people out there.  But more importantly, my Travel and Leisure Thai food list.  I got one of the items on the list, which was the kang som sour curry (bottom left picture).  It came with 3 sad pieces of shrimp and this broccoli omelette which was interesting.  I guess it's only $10, so I should not complain about the shrimp.  The broth itself was yummy, but I did not love the omelette which was kind of airy.  I also got the pad see ew, which was nice and sweet and had a few bits of char burnt noodles, YUM.  This was part of the lunch special, which was very inexpensive and came with tom yum soup/salad (I chose tom yum soup) and an egg roll which sucked as the dough was super thick and the filling was tasteless (see second picture for gross egg roll).  Lastly I got the duck panang curry, which was one of the items I was really interested in but what really tipped me in that direction was a little sign on the menu saying "recommended by the New York Times".  Sucker.  The curry sauce was really good, but the duck was just good.  The skin was not crispy as I had anticipated, and was really fat, which was disappointing.  Duck was also $20, almost twice the cost of any other protein, but I guess the NY Times said I had to try it.  I'm glad I went, and worked out for my meal.  Queens is a really long ways to go for that, but I felt fulfilled and glad I got to check out somewhere new.

As I was sitting at the restaurant, hot and sweaty and mopping my face and my legs off with paper towels, I noted that on my left, there was a Thai girl with a Caucasian or maybe Latino man (presumably the boyfriend) looking at Yelp picture to decide what to eat.  They did not seem to communicate very well, so that was interesting.  On my right were 2 Chinese aunties speaking some kind of Chinese dialect, and they definitely seemed to have read reviews and knew what they wanted.  They took photos of their food, and asked to take photos of my duck, and I tried to offer them some duck but they declined.  Oh well.

So before visiting Ayada, I tried to study the lunch specials menu, but had a hard time finding it online.  So I took a picture and am sharing it in this picture below.  Everything else can be found in their fairly substandard website here.

I took the train back after lunch which was super convenient.  However, when I got back to the hotel, housekeeping was in my room, despite my privacy sign.  She even changed my sign to say "service".  WTF.  She said she thought I forgot to change the sign.  They really should not do that, it's not appropriate.  I'm still deciding what to do but I'm definitely going to complain.  I just don't want to get someone in big trouble.

Wednesday September 9
I ate too much for dinner last night, which is what has happened every meal (and in between) since we got back to NYC on Monday evening.  For dinner, I went back to Ootoya, but this time on 41st Street because it was close to where we were staying.  I arrived at 7.12pm, and was told I had about a 25 minute wait, and lo and behold at 7.37pm I got seated!  I had studied the menu very hard, and thought I knew what I wanted, but when I went to the restaurant I got distracted by their special, which was a hanabi soba bowl with minced blue fin tuna, tempura flakes, okura (okra/ladies fingers), natto (smelly fermented bean), tororo (wiki says "a sticky food made from grating a yam") and poached egg.  So shame on me, I saw blue fin tuna, and immediately said OK.  I did not know what okura, natto or tororo was.  When it came and I realized there were these mystery things in my bowl, I was pretty mortified, and took the latter two out (I actually love okra), and had a hard time doing so because they were so sticky and stringy bits kept sticking to my cutlery and mouth and bowl.  Thankfully it did not leave much of a residual taste.  Aside from that, the dish was lovely.  I also got a salmon sushi, which was pressed salmon into a rectangle piece of rice, done 3 ways.  The first time I saw a rectangle sushi was at Kusakabe in SF, and I remember really liking it or at least thinking it was cool.  One was just raw salmon, and then just seared, and seared with mayo and basil sauce.  I really liked them, all very distinct flavours.  Even the lattermost which was a bit heavy was super delicious.  The mushroom accompaniment was very soft and tasty too.

After dinner, I walked around trying to digest my food, and met up with Lingon outside the Rockefeller Center, where Ellen was hosting Bieber.  I only saw Ellen (from a distance), and Bieber was due to come out and maybe he did, but I did not care much for him.  You can see Ellen in my picture on the stage, and also on the TV screen - photo strategically taken!

We went to some bar with a friend.  I had water.  Thus ended my night.

This morning, when I woke up, I was debating getting my free breakfast, but the other option was going to Wafels & Dinges, which Lingon encouraged me to do.  This is a Belgian waffle chain, with a cafe in Alphabet City, stand (by Bryant Park which I went to) and some carts around the city.  I've wanted to visit this place, at least for a year, if not more, but there are always so many (too many) places to eat in NYC.  I actually did want to try both the Liège and Brussels waffle (2 cities in Belgium), but just as well I was told that only the one in Alphabet City has the Brussels waffle, so I did not overeat too much for breakfast.  I ordered"de throwdown wafel" which had speculoos spread, whipped cream and speculoos cookie crumble on a Liège waffle.  Speculoos is "a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before St Nicholas' feast in the Netherlands (December 5), Belgium (December 6), and around Christmas in the western and southern parts of Germany. Speculoos are thin, very crunchy, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure (often from the traditional stories about St. Nicholas) stamped on the front side before baking; the back is flat."  Well thanks for that, Wiki!  Liege waffle is supposed to have little sugar pearls in there that gives it a slight crunch.  I don't know why I'm spending so much time writing about waffles here, but I am, and I will continue.  There is this waffle guy in SF that I like using called Gerald, and his company is called b. street waffles.  He only makes Liège style waffles and I love his waffles.  Both these Liège waffles are kind of different though.  W&D was a bit darker, more crispy, and Gerald's are on the lighter side, so when he is less busy I try to tell him I prefer mine more toasty.  Both taste good, but different.  Gerald's usually has some interesting flavour, like I think apple cinnamon the last time, though his plain ones are bomb too (like I said his batter is good).  I liked the speculoos on my W&D waffle, but like a Belgian friend of mine who says they need to be eaten plain, I agree that the plain waffle brings out the flavour of the batter, which is amazing when the batter quality is amazing.  So there it is, I have rambled on and on, and I will just say, this is great, but a bit pricey, and I wish I could feel/taste the sugar pearls a little more acutely.  I wish they had an option for plain, because the free topping made me feel like I wanted something (and I chose speculoos because it is Dutch/Belgian), and got the special since it had the cookie crumbs and I thought that was cool, so by that point the combination waffle was the most worthwhile for my $.  Kind of expensive on its own, probably a little under $7 for just the waffle with one topping which is the cheapest you can get, but it was a fun little waffly adventure.

For lunch, our NY friends had told us about Soba Totto (whose cuisine is similar to Ootoya where I've been to twice this trip in 2 days), which is related to all the Totto restaurants in midtown Manhattan.  I had planned to go there last night for dinner, but I saw they had a $10 Bara Chirashi Set lunch special - dice cut sashimi (tuna, salmon, mackerel, shrimp, eel, eea urchin & flying fish roe) over sushi rice bowl, soba (hot/cold), small appetizer, salad, & pickles.  What a deal, right??  So I decided to go there for lunch instead.  I thought, for some reason, the restaurant opened at 11.30am, so I went there at 11am, even though I read a thousand Yelp reviews that said it opened at 11.45am, and felt silly.  However, first in line, I was reminded of my kiasu-ness, and was somewhat proud.  By the time the doors opened at 11.45am, there was most definitely more than 20 people in line and I was pleased.  I sat down and the lady almost immediately asked if I wanted the bara chirashi, and then we proceeded from there.  You get a salad with some crunchy thing, maybe soba, in it.  Not bad.  Then the main arrived.  A generous serving of soba, and a very high seafood to rice ratio for the rice.  But, no uni!!!  I asked, and then checked the menu, and it said it was seasonal.  Oh well.  Still, really really good.  I especially loved the sharp mackerel taste (is that how one would describe mackerel?).  After enjoying my meal, I looked up high on the wall, and saw a painting with what I think is my name in Chinese and took a picture of it. It must have been fate!  What a steal, a simple meal but definitely amazing quality fish, and the fact that the whole deal cost $10 just totally made my day.

Not quite related to the food or the dining experience per se, some lady was seated next to me at the counter, and then like 2 mins later she asked to be moved.  Did I smell or something?  :-(  Well the answer to that question is no, but I'm curious.  Maybe it was cold by where we were sitting (I was freezing), or maybe she's racist haha.  JK, I think.

I took a walk home through Grand Central Station.  What a pretty interior, I loved it.  I love train stations, gives me the travel bug.

Thursday September 10
Last night for dinner we ate the Thai leftovers.  I must say, cold noodles does not taste very good.  Cold rice though, is a different matter.  Anyhow, that was not enough.  So we went for Thai take 2 (does this expression exist?!) at Pam Real Thai, one of my favourites for years.  We decided to share our favourite item there, the anchovy fried rice.  Normally the rice is very fragrant, and mixed in with the mango, egg, pork and cilantro, the taste is impeccable.  I am crushed to say that the rice this time round was not very fragrant.  The pork was still nicely cooked with the sweet dark sauce, but my favourite part was the rice, and I just could not get over it.  :-(  I saw Pam the proprietor sitting down and not cooking, maybe that's why it was not good.  I will give it one more shot next time I visit, but if it sucks again I will not go back.  Ayada Thai supposedly had a shrimp paste fried rice (a reviewer on Yelp talked about it), and I'm sure I will find another something paste fried rice.  Oh the passing of an era.

This morning for breakfast, we decided to get our breakfast to go.  They did not give us our granola or muesli, which was disappointing, but we got 2 yoghurt parfaits and 2 sets of pastries.  I guess we will take this on the road, because I will be sad to waste these.  I had the parfait, cannelé bordelais and scone, and was happy.

Then, I went on a quest.  So on our previous road trip in NYC, we used the toll tag of the rental car.  The problem with that was that they charge you a per day use fee, and then on top of that the ENTIRE (not discounted for using the toll tag) toll fee, which I think is BOGUS.  At least I think this was the case, or maybe confusing it with FL, but anywayz.  So apparently if one wants to buy the E-ZPass® On-the-Go tag in downstate New York from a shop, one has to either have some account thing or live here or something, which was too complicated for me, OR, go to the traveling Metrocard Center!  So this is a bus or a van that travels and can provide certain services.  I walked 30 mins or so to the morning session in the rain, thankfully so because when I arrived with my credit card in tow, I found out it was CASH ONLY!  It would have been nice to say that on the website.  So I had to go back to the hotel, and then go to the later session van, and purchased the damned thing.  At least the people were friendly and helpful enough.  Mission accomplished.

Lunch took me back to Ootoya near our hotel on 41st again.  I did not have a very great experience this time.  First of all, maybe it is just a function of what I ordered, which was the grilled mackerel.  I love fishy fish, so I was looking forward to this.  The taste of the fish was not bad, but there were like a gazillion bones (even after I removed the spine of the fish, the meat itself had SO MANY other bones, large and small), and it was just a tad dry.  But worse than that, my napkin had soy sauce on it, as did the napkin of the place setting next to me.  I requested for it to be changed.  Then, I asked for water, and lo and behold my glass had some leftover food on it.  Again, requested for another, and still had some leftover food.  I just didn't drink water.  Left the restaurant a bit sad.

Some other interesting sights.  I have no idea what these women were doing.  But they were all dressed up in the middle of Times Square.

And then this.  Not sure if you can see the numbers, but it reads $26.5mm for the bottom picture.

And then a sight familiar to me, people eating at Halal Guys.  Braving the nasty weather.  On both sides of the street, both Halal Guys had lines, which was crazy to me.  Just checked their website and it seems they are taking over NYC with a ton of carts.  Madness.  Someone also said they are fundraising to open a brick and mortar in SF.  Interesting...

Lastly, for dinner, we went to Sushi Seki on the Upper East Side.  2 people independently told us to get the Seki Special, which was 9 pieces of nigiri and a roll.  So we got that for 3, plus siew mai and soba, and ended with a tempura ice cream.  Pretty good place, and not crazy expensive for good quality unique sushi.  For me, the eggplant stood out because it was unique and was actually really sweet and delicious.  I could never make eggplant taste that good.  They also had a cooked white fish that was really amazing.   The siew mai (after boiling it they did not fully drain the water so the plate had some residual water which I think is not cool), soba and green tea tempura were ok, but unremarkable.  I might go back again for the decent value, but probably if in the area.

Tomorrow, we begin our road trip to VT, QC and ON, and back for round 2 of NYC next week!  Pretty stoked for that!  Now off to do some packing!
xoxo

PS I am really proud of myself for not lagging on this post!  :-D

One small update...  The next morning, we got a Bergamot Jam and Earl Grey Ganache cronut from Dominique Ansel.  Lingon described it as a giant frosted fruit loop.  What a fancy name.  Basically it was a giant fried croissant donut, tasted deep fried, sugared on the outside, with bergamot jam (did not know this existed before I had this cronut), stuffed with earl grey ganache.  The taste of the topping and stuffing flavours were great, and intrigued me more than the creation itself.  I really enjoyed it, after waiting for so long.  Lingon and I should have shared one, but I was greedy and ordered 2, so we stuffed these down.  Yum.

Wakuriya, San Mateo

I scored an elusive reservation at Wakuriya for a friend and his wife, but unfortunately they could not make it.  A one-star Michelin restaurant with possibly only 20 covers a day, and at a reasonable price tag of $98, this place is IMPOSSIBLE to make a reservation at.  One has to wait till midnight, give them a call (or many calls, a number of which lead to a dial tone), leave a voicemail, and hope to get a call back the next day.  There were only 3 people working in the restaurant as far as we could see - the married Japanese couple who own the restaurant, and another younger gentlemen who was maybe the apprentice and helped with some food prep, bussing and cleaning.  We had been here before a couple of years with some friends, and had a fabulous experience there, and we were really looking forward to the repeat.

Here was our multi-course dinner, exquisitely presented  We started with a glass of refreshing soju-ish drink, some seafood courses, then a duck, their usual Snake River Farm beef, and dessert.  I have the menu at home, but unfortunately do not remember most of it.

I thought the meal tasted really good, but somehow remember it being more delicious the last time.  I do find that when I hype up somewhere previously attended in my mind, I usually get disappointed.  Still a great place, at a steal, with amazing Japanese service (and food), with a Michelin star.  Please go, and make a reservation, and enjoy this fabulous meal.

Kabuto Sushi, SF

This post is almost 6 months ago, wow.  We decided to go to Kabuto Sushi in the Richmond one February weekend, and lo and behold they had their Valentine's Day menu.  OK, it really was not that surprising, since it was the weekend after Valentine's Day, but still, big yay!  I had been here eons ago, and had always wanted to come back, but Lingon and I are so lazy that we rarely get out of our immediate neighbourhood to get some good grub.  The dishes were not served in the same order as the menu, so I reorganized the photos and made them match the menu, but I thought that was really weird.  I thought the food was very innovative and delish.  I would DEFINITELY go back, but if only it was not so far away...  I want to say this cost about $80ish/person before tax (just the food, we didn't get anything to drink except maybe tea), really good price for so much food.  So innovative, and the ingredients were pretty amazing!

Boston, MA

A perfect few days in May in Boston.  Food, history, exercise.

We stayed at the Liberty Hotel, which is part of the Starwood Luxury Collection.  The building used to be the old jail, and in the lobby they had photos of the extensive renovations and modifications they had undertaken when trying to change this building from a defunct jail to a modern luxurious hotel.  The lobby hotel was like an interior "courtyard" with hallways/balconies on the higher floors overlooking the central courtyard.  All along the hallways/balconies were doors to event and conference spaces and a bar.  Really cool use of space, kept the lobby very open, especially with the cupola up top letting light in.  The hotel had a couple of restaurants, with a jail theme, cool touch to remember what it used to be, but not at all creepy like what a jail would have been like.  Our room was nothing to cry home about, but we did get a really nice view of Boston from the hotel room.  We chose the free continental breakfast at one of the restaurants, Clink, as our Platinum amenity, which was very nice, and had a value of $25 attached to it.  Coffee/tea, juice, and a choice of two of fresh fruit, steel cut oats, dry cereal, 2 eggs, toast, yoghurt, bacon, sausage or a pastry.  I tried a number of the items, all fairly standard, but with healthy enough options, and they were pretty good.  I think I really like the texture of steel cut oats, but just seems like a pain to cook at home.

We had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants, Scampo, which apparently is very well known and highly regarded in Boston, as a number of people had said we had to eat there.  The bread came with some green dipping sauce (sorry, this was really so long ago that I don't remember much), and then we ordered calamari, foie gras, ravioli and maybe a halibut?  I remember thinking everything was kind of nice, but not particularly fantabulous.

One night we tried to go to Neptune's Oyster, but we were too late and they were not seating anymore people (run out of seafood I guess, sad face), so we went to Rabia's, just a few doors down, in the North End, which is Boston's oldest residential district.  We got the lobster roll and lobster risotto, which were both decent, considering probably all the drop outs from Neptune's Oyster go here.

The last dinner place we tried was o ya in Boston for sushi/Japanese.  Again, the food was not bad, but kind of expensive.  We were thinking of doing the omakase, but I decided it was too expensive, so we got a la carte instead.  The fish was all pretty good in quality and taste, but I thought the quantity was measly.  The menu was extensive, so we made some notes on our menu on what to order.

I have always loved walking around European towns, and parts of Boston certainly felt like that.  One day I decided to take the Freedom Trail, "a 2.5-mile, red-lined route that leads you to 16 historically significant sites — each one an authentic treasure".  A lot of the path is or looks like red brick, which is kind of cool, but I learnt that it may have been mostly just brick facade as opposed to a real brick slab.  I had done this before, but it's always fun doing history stuff in Boston.  I sort of started at Quincy Market because I have an affinity for markets and wanted to eat there.  Nothing particularly special or Bostonian called to me, so I decided to have some clam chowder - as Bostonian as I would get, I suppose.  Onto the trail, which you can read about here, I remember trying to get into the Paul Revere House, but they took cash only and I had $0 on me.  A few other tourists were turned away too.  Sad times.  They really should take credit card.  Think of the loss of customers!!  I also climbed the Bunker Hill Monument, lots of great views up there, and would have been better if not for the dirty glass or metal grates.  Loved the parks too - Boston Common, which is part of the trail, and Boston Public Garden, which isn't, but also very pretty.  Parks really add an element of beauty to a city.

Saw a funny truck on my walk around Boston.

And ice cream from JP Licks.

For anyone who loves history and old European looking towns, Boston is a great place for that.  Walking without a purpose, observing the old architecture, checking out cool shops, relaxing in the park.  Summer only, though.  ;-)  Enjoy your 9 months of cold, Boston, and I'll see you next when the weather is good!  xoxo

Las Vegas - Raku, High Roller (Ferris Wheel) and Tableau

Las Vegas is not really my kind of city.  I don't gamble, do drugs, drink or party.  Not really, anyway.  Plus, there is so much static that often times when I touch anything metallic like doors, I get electric shocked, which I truly truly hate.  (I do love the shows though.)  So, when Lingon asked me to go to Vegas with him on his business trip, I was initially hesitant, but I had been in the middle of something super busy and stressful, and I thought, why not.

So off we went.  We stayed at the Encore Hotel, which I was a little excited about because I had heard that it was nice.  And nice it was.  Until I started discovering little awful things around the room.  Like random pieces of hair in the bed covers and the bath tub, and the unemptied trash can.  I called room service in the hope of getting a complimentary night or an upgrade or something, but all they offered was a waiver of one night of resort fee.  Well, something is better than nothing, but I still felt rather disgruntled.  Oh well.  Guess that is what happens when you are not VIP or have any kind of status.

We had gone out for dinner one evening with some friends to Raku, which was an off-strip Japanese Yakitori place.  (Seems like a lot of these very good restaurants in Las Vegas are off-strip.  And in Chinatown or something.  Heh heh love the Chinese.)  What a feast we had!  Tofu, sashimi, uni in broth with soft boiled egg, yakitori, foie gras... OK, the only reason I'm remembering this is because it is in the pictures and you can see the pictures yourself.  But the food was really good.  The boys drank quite a bit too, and I want to say for 3 boys and a girl who were completely stuffed to the brim with really amazing quality food by the time we rolled out of the restaurant, the bill, which I think was less than $300, was seriously inexpensive.  GO HERE.  Take a taxi or whatever.  So good.  Make reservations.

After rolling out of Raku as complete fatsos, we went to Raku Sweets.  Same strip mall, same restaurant.  Fatsos.  Very good innovative dessert, made in front of us as we sat at the counter.  The menu was edible, probably just sugar, not particularly tasty, and that was the most disappointing dessert.  Other than that, everything was great.  I loved watching the dessert chef create the intricate dessert in front of our eyes, ever so meticulously, everything timed to a T.  Loved the glass lighted oven in which we could see what was going on.  We definitely ordered way too much, but it was fun.  Added a picture of the sink in the bathroom since LAGangsta really loved it - I thought the bathroom itself was cool and zen, but not particularly impressed.  Again, really good food, very cool vibe, GO!

After this shenanigans, off we went to the High Roller at the Linq, which may be the tallest ferris wheel in the world.  Expensive (I think almost $50), but I love ferris wheels and this just seemed like a good opportunity.  We got all-you-can-drink tickets, which the boys took advantage of, and I just laughed and took photos.  At the apex, we got a spectacular view of the amazing hotels and the Bellagio Fountain had was dancing.  The Linq entertainment and shopping area was pretty cool, with sprinkles, among other shops and restaurants.  I don't know how they did it, but the boys ordered more food after their drunken turn in the ferris wheel at Haute Doggery.  Yup, you guessed it, hot dogs.  Lingon ordered this one with foie gras.  I think I tried it but at this point was going to throw up and also super sleepy.  Well, good times, I must say.  That was the end of our night out.

I also met up with my friend Tutu at Tableau for breakfast, which was at the Wynn.  We got donut gifts.  I got the French toast and Tutu got the duck hash and eggs, and in true us fashion we split half and half.  It was just not bad but not special.

Lingon and I also had lunch at Tableau, which was also not bad but not special.  I remember the seafood being quite fresh, maybe a crab dish?

This was also the trip we went to Lotus of Siam, which I wrote about in a separate post.  Still figuring out how I want to organize my posts.  Or maybe they will just be what they are.  (Deep.)

I did not do much else in Vegas - took a short run and found a Kid Robot store.  I love all the weird things they have in that store.

Vegas really surprised me to the upside this time.  I think it could be fun with the right bunch, and my Lingon of course.  Definitely looking forward to going back!

Kiss Seafood, SF

Kiss Seafood is a tiny little sushi joint in Japantown, with a counter seating 5 (maybe 6) people, and a couple of other small tables.  So, if you want to try this place, make a reservation in advance.  We saw a couple being turned away and felt sad for them.  The restaurant had a decent menu.

We decided to go with the chef's special omakase.

The food was good, and at a very reasonable price too.  I wouldn't say it blew me away, but I enjoyed their sashimi and nigiri might go back for their sashimi or sushi platters.  The husband and wife team were adorable and super nice.  I wish I stayed nearer to Japantown, so many Japanese restaurants to explore.

Maruya, SF

A friend brought up Maruya a few months ago, which I had never heard of before.  After that, though, I started reading about it left, right and center.  Finally made it out there last night!

We took the BART since it's the best way to get to 16th and Mission without dealing with creepy people standing around the streets, worrying about whether they will smash your windows in with a hammer.  Also fastest, maybe 10 minute BART ride from Embarcadero to 16th and Mission.  Walked on 16th to find the restaurant, which was mostly unmarked but looked Japanese.  We were unsure but then I saw the small paper menu posted right outside the restaurant, confirmed that was it, and then went in.

The restaurant itself was simply furnished.  A bar that seated maybe 12, and a few small tables in the dining room.  I heard the bathroom sink seems like a spa, with some kind of scented steam coming out when one washes one's hands, but my aversion to public-ish restrooms prevented me from visiting.

At Maruya, one can get the Maruya omakase for $85, which is a combination of cooked food, sushi and sashimi, or the chef omakase for A.Q. (gotta love this), which is mainly nigiri, or the sashimi moriawase (choice of $50, 80 or 120), which is mainly sashimi.  For the latter 2, you can tell them if you want more or less pieces, compromising or promoting the quality of fish, but otherwise it is about 10 pieces of nigiri and I counted about 15 pieces of sashimi on my other dining friends' plate(s).  One can also get an a la carte sushi menu with a minimum spend of $80/person, which no one at my table of 4 opted for.

We each started with a persimmon and pear appetizer, with cinnamon and lime salt.  The salts were great!  The persimmon was not as sweet and juicy as I had expected/hoped for, but the salt made up for me.

On to the Maruya omakase, which is what I got.  I had some trio of vegetable dish (so so and the thick dip whose consistency resembled hummus was fairly tasteless), prawn (amazing) and truffle tofu (not bad).  Then I had a fried eggplant topped with some greens and tiny little fish-looking things, I enjoyed this.  The cooked fish was rather dry, I would pass on this.  The sashimi was mixed - tuna was really great and super fresh, salmon was good, and the last fish, not sure what it was, tasted like wet socks (yucks).  Then I had 8 pieces of nigiri, for me the most memorable being the last 2 of 8 - chu toro which was fatty enough without grossing one out, and the uni (of Santa Barbara) which was the most creamy decadent uni I think I've ever had which grossed me out thinking about it but was really SUPER yummy.

2 people of the 4 at our table ordered the chef omakase, at A.Q..  They had an oyster with uni and roe, which they liked.  Then there was some vegetable wrapped in some pickled cucumber/vegetable of some sort, which I got to try a bit of, and it was very meh.  The next raw fish dish was so so, it's a fish whose consistency I do not love anyway, a bit chewy and springy, so that's just a biased opinion.  They had a few nigiri courses which Lingon enjoyed.  The second nigiri in this picture was mine, they had something that looked similar but I think I forgot to take a picture.  However, their uni was from Japan, which initially pissed me off because I felt I was getting inferior uni.  Upon eating mine though, nothing mattered, because I just went to uni heaven.  I'm sure theirs tasted good too, but without trying theirs, I would never have known.  So, the one thing about this was that when the bill came, there was an additional $50 (for 2 people, so $25 each).  I wanted to know what on earth this was for, and apparently it was the cost of the first 3 cold dishes.  Totally not worth it since it was nothing special or particularly delicious, so I would recommend to specifically request NOT to get this.  Waste of money, though not a fortune, can still buy you 3 cheap meals in the Financial District.

The last member at our table got the sashimi, requesting no mackerel and shellfish.  She had a cold dish or two, and then her sashimi bowl came.  Beautifully presented, the fish looked very bright and of high quality, and she enjoyed it.

We all then had a clam miso soup.  The clams were fat (that's a good thing) and I thought they were rather fresh tasting, but then I detected a strange after taste which told me either they were not super fresh, or I was being hyper sensitive.

We ended with a yuzu lemonade which was a nice surprise, well appreciated, and frankly really good.  I love yuzu, and this was a refreshing end to the meal and was even a bit fizzy!

I doubt I will be visiting Maruya again.  For some reason cooked fish has not been all that great lately in restaurants for me, and we can get great raw fish at Akiko's which is a walk vs a BART ride away.  As usual, I'm glad I visited, and some of the food was good, but it was not consistent enough for me to make the trek (yes, I'm lazy) out to the Mission.  Oh, but if you visit, don't forget, do NOT get that cold dish stuff if it is extra $!