Iceland Day 2 - Reykjavik

I think I finally know how to pronounce the name of this city.  :-)

Here are some random photos from walking around today.  I've also decided that Nordic food is not for me.  After Noma during our trip to Denmark, and this place called Sjávargrillið that we tried today (recommended by a friend), I have thrown in the towel.  Bæjarins beztu pylsur for hot dogs was OK.

Sjávargrillið - supposed to be resto #4 on Tripadvisor.  Did not like it at all.  Tried whale, puffin and shag in picture 1, which was super weird and salty.  Picture 2 shows we barely ate any of it.   Ordered grilled salmon and fish of the day, which were just weird too.  A bit too salty, with weird flavours I know not how to describe.  Smelled like it was washed by smelly water.

Bæjarins beztu pylsur (English: The best hot dog in town) - according to their website, the majority of Icelanders have eaten here.  The dog was not particularly special, and we really did not like the brown sauce, and I normally don't like mustard, so we scraped off all the sauce to render it edible.  There were some bomb crispy onions.  380ISK makes for a cheap meal.

Interior of the largest church in Iceland, Hallgrímskirkja.

Random energy drink.  So cute!

Random street art.

Solfar (Sun Voyager) Sculpture

How could I resist penguins and ducks.

Iceland Day 1 - Information about Arriving and Reykjavik

I arrived at Keflavik airport early, around 8.30am, after a most uneventful flight on Delta.  Did not eat much plane food as the plane smelled like puke and the food smelled like... well plane food, but I did manage to get a yoghurt in the morning which tasted edible and smelled normal.  The airport has free wifi, and it was pretty easy to sign in by just providing your email address and place of residence.  Yay for hassle free!  The wait at immigration was short and there were no forms to be filled up.  The immigration officer seemed to ask everyone how long they were there for, stamp them and wave them through, and that was it.  Then I walked to find some shops to purchase a SIM card.  The walk was VERY long.  At first I went to the duty-free shop on the same level as the walkway and immigration, but was flagged to go downstairs to the duty-free shop there to get it instead.  Purchased Alterna, which was relatively cheap, about 2500ISKwhich is slightly less than USD$20.  I wanted a nano and a micro since I had a friend who needed one too, and then guy at the shop told me that this one with the "nano" sticker on it had all 3 sizes of SIM card inside, but this was not the case.  So folks, don't get tricked.  I had to walk 30 mins to the actual Alterna store in Reykjavik to switch this out.  :-(  Thankfully I had time today so it wasn't quite the biggest deal in the world.

I took the Flybus Plus which dropped me right outside my hotel.  The bus leaves after every flight, so you will always have a bus to take!  It has free wifi, and depending on which hotel one is staying at, one might need to switch to a smaller bus for the transfer, but it is relatively hassle free.  The whole ordeal took a little over an hour.  It really was a good experience but after the 2 plane rides, a 6+ hour layover, and my kid girl neighbour on the flight from New York to Reykjavik sticking her head and legs halfway into my tiny last row economy seat, it just seemed like unnecessary torture.  So just kidding, and I really do recommend FlyBus.

We chose to stay at CenterHotel Plaza for a  decent (and mind you, decent is all relative, especially in the summer) price and very central location.  It is on a plaza or square which is adjacent to the main shopping street, and also very close to the water.  The wifi network here is very good.  The bed is a bit soft and lumpy.  The shower is my biggest complaint so far - it is designed poorly and after my shower there was a giant pool of water on the bathroom floor.  But no real big complaints.  Breakfast is included, and is at 7-10am.  I'm a big breakfast person, so I'm excited to check it out, though trying not to be too excited.  I hope it is healthy, since my goal is to lose some weight in Iceland due to expensive and probably not-so-exciting-or-good food.  I do hope to be proven wrong, especially on the latter, but weight loss is always a good thing, right?  ;-)

My first meal today was at Sea Baron/Sægreifinn, which is famous for their lobster chowder.  I got that, and it came with a loaf of bread.  I thought it was just OK, the lobster meat was sweet but a bit mushy.  The ambience was nice and relaxed.  They had some fish and vegetable skewers, and whale meat which I wanted to try, but I thought I would wait for my friend the Hog who was arriving tonight.

The other "meal" I had was rice pudding.  Part of the "diet" and also because I've been a bit crazy about trying to find supermarket rice pudding since going to Sweden in April and finding Risifrutti rice pudding in the grocery store.  This one was 134ISK in one store, but I had to buy it at the expensive store closer to town because the store was closed by the time I woke up from my lazy ass nap and got my lazy ass over to the cheaper and further supermarket, it was closed.  I just keep telling myself, good exercise.  When I opened it, the consistency of the white stuff looked like yoghurt, but I fluffed it and it indeed had rice in it.  The choices of topping were caramel and some berry thing which I believe to be raspberry.  The topping was a bit too sweet and tart for me at the same time, so I ended up eating very little of it but I finished the rice pudding which was not bad but does not hold a candle to Risifrutti.  In case anyone is wondering, the diet did not go so well.  I ended up eating a small bag of (healthy) chips and a granola bar, but at least that's probably still healthier and a ton cheaper than eating out.  I'm saving the eating out for tomorrow anyway, and I have places on my list, so I am SUPER excited about that!

Other random sightings today.  MOTUS which is a nickname I recently acquired since I can't be POTUS but I'm bossy (M for Mushroom) and Lee which is my real last name, Iceland is really rooting for me.  Random band performing on the street.  Random people and random giants watching random band performing on the street.  Largest church in Iceland (but the bus driver made sure to tell us it was not THE cathedral of Reykjavik).  View of the water as I walked to the phone company - check out them blue skies.  Chuck Norris grill, isn't he famous in the US?  People painting colour blocks on the street, it's like going to the MOMA but with no entrance fee!

chiaroscuro SF

We went to Chiaroscuro for dinner one day with the neighbours.  Nice little fine Italian neighbourhood joint in Jackson Square, Lingon had been before, and I always had been a little curious.  Decently well rated on Yelp, a bit pricey but not over the top.  Here is what we ordered.

burrata: burrata cheese, smoked bell pepper foam, olive crackers, roasted eggplant, heirloom tomato, semi dry cherry tomato - not bad, cheese was yummy but just go to Cowgirl Creamery and buy some good quality burrata and it will be hard to mess up.
trio di pesci: chick peas flour batter salted cod puffs, oven baked fresh anchovies lasagna, fish of the day tartar - this was OK, the anchovies stood out but again who can really mess up anchovies as long as you buy good ones.  I really bought it for the salted cod puffs, but they were tiny with not much fish and the batter was a bit too thick for me.
gnocchi al pepe nero e pancetta: pancetta stuffed-black pepper potato gnocchi, baby zucchini, patty pan squash, lemon zest, fresh ricotta - very blah tasting.  Did not taste like much.
fettuccine al ragu’ bianco: duck egg fettuccine, braised oxtail ragu’, smoked carrot puree, onion soubis, micro celery - really really really good.  This was the one absolute stand out dish.  So full of flavour.  Actually I'm not sure that is what we ordered, but it was a pasta dish with meat as shown in the picture.
bisteccadi manzo: kobe beef bavette steak, broccoli quenelle, parmigiano sauce, spring onion chutney, demi-glace - Good.
pesce del giorno - I think it was a trout and it was pink.  Forgot to take a photo, and of course this has to be the fish of the day that changes everyday.  Pfft.  Good.
profiteroles alle tre creme: house made cream puffs, pistachio cream,chantilly cream, choccolate cream - Good.
trio di mousse: trio of three mousse, chocolate chip, white choccolate-pink peppercorn, bittersweet-orange zest, hazelnut crumble, italian sea salt - Good.

One member in our party tried to order a Caesar salad, but the service staff told us that was too simple for them.  Was not impressed with the response, trying to figure out if it I found it insulting or not.

The trio of pasta tasting was highly recommended.  Maybe next time, if there is a next time.  Overall I don't like the idea of an Italian restaurant forcing us to order a certain number of courses.  Would have preferred perhaps 3 or 4 pastas to share.

Overall, good food, but nothing to write home about.

Home Cooking

The other day I decided to cook okonomiyaki and hanpen cheese.  Okonomiyaki is a real Japanese dish, a savoury pancake usually with seafood, or bacon-like things, smeared with Japanese mayo, okonomiyaki sauce (whatever that is) and fish flakes on top.  I bought the flour from the Japanese supermarket Nijiya, and all I had to do was to add cabbage, egg and water and mix it together and fry it!  Not bad, quite delicious!  I'm not sure if hanpen cheese is a real Japanese dish, but they have it at my favourite joint in LA, Furaibo.  Hanpen is a mix of fish and tofu, like a tofu fishcake.  You slice the hanpen, take a slice of cheese and insert it in the cavity, wrap with seaweed, batter with panko, and VOILA!  Hanpen cheese!  Furaibo's was much better, though Lingon said he liked mine better, but I think that is because it was not as deep fried.  Haha!

Izakaya Mai, San Mateo

So it turns out all the ramen places in San Mateo area closed on Tuesdays.  We tried to go to Santa Ramen, but when I arrived it looked strangely quiet.  Googled Dojo and Ramen Parlor, all closed.  So off to downtown San Mateo we went.

I chose Izakaya Mai as I felt like having a don.  Unagi, I initially thought, but I could just go to Nijiya to pick up an unagi, drizzle a ton of sauce all over it, and make my own rice.  Ended up getting the salmon and tuna don, no idea why because I could do the same thing.  The raw fish was decent, nothing special.  There was this weird gooey thing with a quail egg in it.  I think it made me sick.  I did some Googling and found that it was probably mountain radish.  It was disgusting.  Well, that serves me right for not doing proper Yelp research because someone else complained about that weird goo thing too!  I would not come back here unless I had to, it's cheap-ish enough for raw fish that I would go, but I could get the same at the Japanese supermarket.

Ice Cream Bar, SF

This is my second time at Ice Cream Bar.  We decided to go for a late night date, and this has got to be my favourite ice cream place in the city.  Last time we were there, we got a strawberry shortcake with basil ice cream (I think), and a brownie sundae.  So amazing.  This time I wanted something different (typical me), and Yelp really recommended the KELLER’S FARM (Cornmeal shortbread, creme fraiche and morello cherry ice creams, cherry sauce and rosemary syrup), so that is what I got!  Well, I really loved the cornmeal shortbread, the creme fraiche ice cream was great, but I wouldn't say I loved cherry though for cherry ice cream it was good. Overall very pleased.

Lingon got the SUMMER IN SIAM (Cold-brewed Bicycle coffee, sweetened condensed milk, egg, salt) which tasted just like a coffee drink.  Super boring yawn but he liked it.

I would go back here anytime.  My favourite is the basil ice cream.  I think their flavours are very unique.  I suppose some would say that about Humphry Slocombe, for which I have about $130 of store credit, but for some reason the Ice Cream Bar flavours appeal more to me.  Please visit!

PayPal App Discount, SF

I should have probably written this when I found out about it, but I was lazy.  Two weeks ago when Lingon and I went for Free Waffle Wednesdays, which by the way is amazing, Lingon picked up a flyer from someone about downloading the PayPal app.  From now till (sadly) Wednesday (which is in 2 days time) one can get discounts from various merchants, between $5 and 10, by paying using the PayPal app.

I feel like since I have benefited greatly from this, I should really write a short thing about the app.  It's not bad, I've asked the various merchants if they liked it, and everyone seems positive to somewhat positive on it.  One merchant said that customers seemed to have difficulty at times locating their venue.  There are a couple of ways to use it.  You can either log-in or check-in to the venue when you are there, and after you have ordered tell them you will pay by PayPal.  As long as you are logged in to that venue properly, they will be able to find you and charge your PayPal account, which is either linked to your PayPal balance or credit card.  The other way is to order beforehand, which only works for some venues with their menu online.  I think they use Eat24 to populate and order.  Once you have ordered, they will charge your method of payment and let you know the time frame to pick your food up.  I think you can also order delivery using this method.

Pros of the app - say I'm going running, which is not an infrequent occurrence, I don't have to bring my credit card or cash with me.  Or if I get robbed and the robber lets me keep my phone, I won't go hungry.  Cons - sometimes I can't find certain merchants, like that one merchant griped about above.  Also, I'm sort of a bit anti-apps/technology, so I think this just adds another layer of confusion and complication to life.  I recommend it for people who like technology, but otherwise find pulling my credit card out of my wallet a rather simple task and personally prefer doing it.

I spent the past week or so trying out different places, using my discount.  Here are quick sort of reviews or discussions (sorry no pictures).
1)  Delica - this is one of my favourite casual eateries, though a bit expensive.  Located in the Ferry Building, very convenient.  I usually get some kind of Japanese curry, the roast beef sushi or agedashi tofu, and I like all of these.  Recently I discovered the ginger beef bowl and crab croquette, and those are yummy too.  They also have noodles, but last time I got tempura soba I found it rather unimpressive.
2)  Fuel Cafe - this is the cafe located inside the Equinox gym on Pine Street in the financial district.  We got the salmon burrito, twice.  It was a large burrito, both Lingon and I shared it, and it was delicious.
3)  Dinosaurs - funny name for a Vietnamese sandwich place.  We first found this place through Groupon and it sells cheap yummy Vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches (we have tried the meatball sandwich and the special sandwich with pork and pate) and shrimp and pork spring rolls.  Good and cheap.  The vegetables in the sandwich are super fresh.  The spring rolls are really fat, and they give you three and it costs $6.25.  The peanut sauce that comes with the spring rolls is one of the best.  The only other peanut sauce that might be able to compare is Out the Door, but those spring rolls are expensive, I think around $10 after tax and healthy SF charge, and only 2 spring rolls.
4)  Creperie Saint-Germain - I've been to the 2nd Street location a long time ago where I enjoyed a savoury crepe.  This time I went to the newer one in 555 California.  Got me a bechamel chicken crepe (Sauteed Mushrooms, Tomato, Spinach, Swiss Cheese).  Delicious.  The crepe was a bit dry, but I attributed it to being buckwheat.  I still have one more coupon and am contemplating a sweet one some time...
5)  CREAM - got lucky and passed here in San Mateo.  Salted caramel ice cream was yummy, and had an oatmeal cookie and white chocolate chip macademia cookie, though did not make into an ice cream sandwich because I wanted to eat in a civilized fashion.  The cookies were good, but I think I was spoiled by Diddy Riese in LA, so maybe B+.  Also, they were kind of soft cookies, which makes me wonder how on earth one would make an ice cream sandwich out of that.  Wouldn't everything just flop over and leak?  Yucks.
6)  Thrive  and Project Juice - I really like juices but they are so expensive.  Even with the discount they were between $4-5.50.  Glad we got this coupon and got to try the yummy juices, but would probably not buy at full price.
7)  Sunrise Deli - went to the one on Belden and Pine, and ordered the vegetarian plate (Tabouli, Babaghanuj, Hummus, Tahini, Tomato and Cucumber Salad, with Falafel and Dolma, served with pita bread).  Everything was actually pretty good when fresh, but had leftovers and wasn't so good.
8)  Onigilly - love onigiri and this is really innovative.  Glad they opened up a brick and mortar store.  I got the spicy cod roe and beef, and they were both really good.  However, kind of expensive for what they are.  Around $3-4 each after tax depending on the filling.  I actually have a picture of this!

9)  Muracci's - I LOVE Muracci's!  Normally I get some kind of katsu curry, but since Lingon was eating this with me we got the beef and the beef itself was just so so, but the curry was as usual spot on!
10)  Bun Mee - after my Dinosaurs (see above) spring roll binge, I felt like having some spring rolls without having to drive.  Got the summer rolls from Bun Mee, which after tax cost $8.25, a whopping $2 more for only 2 rolls and mediocre peanut sauce.  Worst buy.  Place was crowded though, so maybe I had ordered the wrong thing.
11)  Chubby Noodle - read an article about the new joint in the Marina, so it had already been on my radar.  Preferred the menu at the old joint which was inside the pub, super random location.  We ordered the garlic noodles, steamed chicken buns and kung pao chicken wings.  Noodles were very very good, I would do this again with or without a coupon.  Steamed chicken buns were more like pan fried dumplings, the skin was very thick, the filling was not very good, this was a bust.  Chicken wings were pretty good.

So that concludes my PayPal escapade for the week.  I have 2.5 more days, we shall see what will come!

Pabu, SF

Let me be very upfront, I'm not a fan of Michael Mina restaurants.  I actually really like his lobster pot pie, but that ridiculous price tag just does not warrant a second try.  Everything else is just so so or not good.  Sadly we live in the building above one of his restaurants RN74 and I would say avoid it if possible.

His Japanese restaurants at 101 California, Pabu (izakaya) and Ramen Bar ('nuff said) just opened earlier this week.  We managed to get a reservation at Pabu on the official opening night, so that was kind of exciting.  Off we went.

Here is what we ordered and my takes:
1)  Happy Spoon - uni, ikura, tobiko, ponzu crème fraîche.  Decadent and heart-attack worthy, loved it, ingredients were good, combination was great.
2)  Yuzu Kanpachi - yuzukosho ponzu, pine nuts, fried shallots.  Not bad, didn't taste the yuzu too much though.
3)  Robatayaki - we got meatballs, chicken tail and pork belly.  The table loved the meatballs, not me though.  The rest were so so.
4)  Shabu shabu Japanese A5 beef - miyazaki prefecture, enoki, mizuna, ponzu.  At $32/oz, and we ordered 3oz, we got 6 small pieces of beef wrapped enoki.  It was good, not phenomenal, but for the price tag, I'd rather go to Nijiya and get my own beef and wrap it myself and create a shabu pot.  This was a total bust.  The shabu broth was not very flavourful, some of the ingredients were unique but by no means spectacular, and the pot itself was just cumbersome and felt like it was going to fall off the burner.  I give this a negative 10 out of 10 for poor value, annoying, and lack of fabulousness.  We did get a bowl of noodles in broth with the ponzu and peanut shabu sauce doused in it and that was delicious.  But that probably cost the kitchen all of $2 max.
5)  Negitoro roll - bluefin fatty tuna, scallion.  Waste of money, not that great.
6)  Crispy flounder - gomoku gohan, ponzu, lemon.  Kind of tempura style with shaved daikon provided for the dipping sauce.  Didn't think the breading was particularly yummy, but at least it wasn't a thick gross coat of it.  Nicely battered and fried and with the sauce it was OK.

We passed on dessert for lack of innovation or excitement.

Overall will say Michael Mina to me is still a bust.  Food was good, but not special, and the price tag is largely due to is big famous name.

I had blazed through probably the past 5 reviews so I could write this one on time, coz I was actually rather excited about a Michael Mina Japanese restaurant, so that was good motivation, but I'm sad I could not give a happier review.

Lime Tree, SF

To satisfy a craving for Singapore food, off the three musketeers went to Lime Tree.  These are our stories.

We ordered the murtabak and satay for starters.  Not that it was fabulous or anything, but the murtabak was probably the best murtabak I've had in the Bay Area.  I guess that's me assessing the quality of Bay Area Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine...  The satay was inedible.  The meat had some weird sour taste.  Lingon and the Dawg said it was fine to them though.  I guess I have a preconceived motion of what these foods are supposed to taste like, and when they are different, it is simply unacceptable.  :-(

For starters, we got the nasi goreng, laksa and mie tek tek.  Strangely enough I was the one who ordered the mie tek tek.  It's not something I have ever heard of before I went to some Indonesian in Berkeley with my friend the Penguin.  But the menu seemed rather limited, the Dawg was going to order laksa, and somehow I felt like that was the only thing I could order.  They all tasted fine, and I would rank in order of best to least best, laksa (I can't personally order this anywhere in the US because I can make it out of a packet), nasi goreng and mie tek tek.  The mie tek tek chicken had that same weird sour taste, so I could not eat that.  None of the dishes were stellar, and sadly I will not be coming back.

Starbelly Patio Picnic Pig Dinner, SF

Last month (wow, I can't believe it is already July!) we went to StarBelly's Patio Picnic Tuesday with the pig dinner.  They do this patio picnic every summer on a Tuesday out in their picnic.  This year they had people buy tickets on Sosh at $39 a piece.  It's not the prepayment that bothered me, but Sosh itself.  It is an app that forces you to log in with your Facebook, so they have all this information about you.  Thankfully Tutu had this app, so I used his!  :-)

This year, the pig looked very small.  Upon further inspection of the menu, it said "piglet".  Shouldn't the event be called "roasted piglet" instead of pig then?  Anyhow, I don't think there was a shortage of food, but I remember when we went 2 years ago the pig was much larger.  The sides they had were elote asado, grilled summer squash, apple and celery slaw and sweet bread rolls.  The dessert was apricot and black berry cobbler.

So here's my assessment.

1)  The pig - the crispy skin and fatty bits were super delicious.  The meat I did not find quite as tasty.  Overall I was very disappointed.  Maybe I was romanticizing the previous experience, but the pig then was perfect.  Ah my mouth is watering thinking about that pig from 2 years ago.  How sad.  Lol.
2)  I really liked a couple of the sides, mainly the elote and slaw.  The squash was just squash, and there was a pasta salad which again was just a pasta salad.  The bread rolls were amazing but they tasted just like Hawaiian rolls, and one can get them at any supermarket.
3)  The cobbler was extremely disappointing.  A watery gooey mess.  And the crust of the cobbler (is it called crust?) was like eating rocks.

I think this concept is really fun.  However I would try something else - the fried chicken maybe?  But $39 for fried chicken is really too much.  The other option is ribs which I don't love.  So, maybe a pass.  Sigh.  I will miss that patio.