Random Food

I've been hella lazy with posting recipes. As a consolation prize, have a looksie at the random things I've eaten over the past month.

Featured Restaurants (in order of appearance):

Han Il Kwan

1802 Balboa St
(between 19th Ave & 20th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 752-4447

Tartine Bakery

600 Guerrero St
(between 18th St & 19th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 487-2600

Vietnamese Noodle House

726 Clement St
(between 8th Ave & 9th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 668-8896

Golden River

5827 Geary Blvd
(between 22nd Ave & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 668-5105

Delfina

3621 18th St
(between Guerrero St & Oakwood St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 552-4055

Layaly

2435 Clement St
(between 25th Ave & 26th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 668-1676

Luna Park

694 Valencia St
(between 18th St & Sycamore St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 553-8584

Tanpopo

1740 Buchanan Street
(between Post St & Sutter St)
San Francisco, CA 94115

Dragon River

5045 Geary Boulevard
(between 14th Ave & 15th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118

Ton Kiang

5821 Geary Blvd
(between 22nd Ave & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 752-4440

Swan Oyster Depot

1517 Polk St
(between California St & Sacramento St)
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-1101

The Cheese Steak Shop

1716 Divisadero Street
(between Bush St & Sutter St)
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-3712

Although I love my Chinese food, I'm having an affair with Italian.  I checked out A16, Delfina and Oliveto Cafe.  With more to come.

Panda Country Kitchen...my favorite Chinese restaurant in San Francisco.

4737 Geary Blvd
(between 11th Ave & 12th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 221-4278
 

Anyone?

Do any of you have experience with re-teaching yourself to play a musical instrument? I am looking for a three month plan with about 5 hours of practice per week. My goal is to get to a decent enough level to join some other amateurs for a public performance night at a local coffee shop. My background: 20 years of violin lessons, attended a prestigious music conservatory where I studied with, his-eminence, Victor Danchenko. I was playing at a fairly high level when I quit but went cold turkey for 7 years. There is significant rust.

I am thinking scales and arpeggios (played against a drone to check intonation), double stops (thirds, fourths and sixths), and slow bow exercises for the first month. With a metronome, of course.

After the first month, let's hit up some Kreutzer etudes! With rhythms and bowings.

For the third month, I think I'll play it by ear (no pun intended).

I also need to buy new strings and get my bow re-haired.

Wakakusa Nabe

I am currently testing hot pot recipes for an upcoming cookbook which is slated for an October 2009 release.  Although I am not able to post recipes, I thought I'd post a few pics.  This first hot pot featured pork and  a whole mess of greens...napa cabbage, mizuna, spinach, shungiku and watercress.  The broth is mirin/dashi/soy.  Really, really terrific.  I will definitely make this again. 

Help Needed

Hi gang. Sorry for not posting for nearly a month but, aside from a notable exception, I've not cooked anything worth mentioning for quite some time.

Anyhow, I'm here to see if any of you want to help out in my kitchen and be a taste-tester! I'm doing some recipe testing for an upcoming cookbook on Japanese hot pot dishes and have three recipes I need to create and taste. Given that the recipes make far too much food for one person, I need mouths to food! So, you help out in the kitchen and, in return, get fed!

If you are interested, drop me a line at mikeczyz@gmail.com