Haecceity.nu

I’m back from my just-over-a-week-long visit to New York and have realized that San Francisco is indeed growing on me, I actually missed quite a few things about it! But I will still always miss certain things about NYC, too. As a given, missing family & friends is assumed in this list post. :P
(more…)

In all my life living in the borough of the Bronx in the “biggest, baddest” city of them all—I’ve never seen such an impoverished area as the Tenderloin here in San Francisco.

On our way to SoMA from Nob Hill, Louie and I walked the path provided to us by Google Maps without thinking too much about what neighborhood we were walking through. It didn’t take long to notice it was Tenderloin.

I’ve never seen so many homeless & crazy people concentrated into one, smelly neighborhood like that before. Not even the South Bronx is that bad, and it makes Harlem look like Upper West in comparison. I was anxious the entire time we were walking through it. I’ve never felt that uncomfortable in a city before.

Needless to say, I will be staying as far away from this neighborhood as possible from now on. It’s just weird that it’s situated right in the middle of all the nice parts of SF—SoMA, Union Square, Financial District, Nob Hill, etc.

This time it was for Quyn‘s birthday, not Louie’s. We went to a restaurant called The Stinking Rose, where they “season [their] garlic with food.” I got to meet some of Louie’s other friends (Hi, Mary!) and had a good time.

Firstly I’d like to point out that this place had the most amazing garlic bread I’ve ever had in my life. Oh. My. God. It was SO GOOD. I think I ate like 3 or 4 rolls of it, dipped in their garlic olive oil (which is equally as delicious, I wanted to buy some).

For dinner I ordered the 40 Clove Garlic Chicken, which came with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. The chicken was on the bone which is not my favorite thing (I have this thing against eating any meat off bones) but it was still good, not dried out at all. The mashed potatoes were really smooth and creamy, and of course garlic-y. LOVED them. I’d probably order the potatoes again as a side dish.

Louie got the “Neon” Ravioli, which we were trying to figure out why they were called neon. (Was it the sauce or are the raviolis neon colored or what?) When he got the plate, nothing was so brightly colored as to be labeled “neon” but the pasta was different colors, so we assume that was what they meant. (I think it could have just been called “Rainbow” or “Three-color” Ravioli.) Besides the debate on the name and the fact that I didn’t get to taste the ravioli for myself (Louie ate it all before I could even think about asking for a bite) I’m told it was very tasty. (The ravioli there is stuffed with potatoes, by the way, not cheese or meat! Mmmm.)

We didn’t try the dessert, but I can see us going back there again and I intend to try it then.

Happy birthday, Quyhn! Hope you enjoyed it.

(This is also posted on Yelp as a review.)

So last Friday was Louie‘s 22nd birthday—we’re finally the same age! (Well, at least we are for the next 6 months. Then I go back to “robbing the cradle.”)

To celebrate I bought him a nice chocolate cake (which is now half eaten) and we went to an Italian restaurant in North Beach, E’ Tutto Qua, for dinner. The experience was quite entertaining.

My first encounter with this restaurant was just standing outside it, waiting for my Louie’s friends to meet us a few days before. The owner came out to persuade us to come in, and he was hilarious. Very stereotypical Italian and very friendly. We learned he was from Brooklyn, NY (which hit home for me since I’m from NY, too) and has a PhD in eating (to which he proved by pointing to his rather large belly). Since we didn’t eat there that night, we decided to go back and give it a chance for Louie’s birthday.

The atmosphere was welcoming, the staff was very friendly and entertaining. Our waiter winked a lot and asked us if we were ready to order in a sing-songy voice with an exaggerated Italian accent. The bread was good, and when the food came it was exceptional.

The waitstaff & owners were attentive, and the owner himself came over to our table several times and addressed Louie by name (and even called me “princess” once). For his birthday they gave us a free dessert, which was not something I would normally order (it was something coffee-flavored) but it was very light and surprisingly good for something that tasted like coffee. (I’m not a fan of coffee, you see.) The entire restaurant also sang us happy birthday, and Louie got to blow out a candle.

All-in-all, we really enjoyed this restaurant and would definitely go back again. In fact, I could see us being regulars.

Also, Louie wanted to let you know that the only bad thing about this restaurant that night was that there were 4 other brithdays besides his own being celebrated there. (We heard them sing the birthday song 5x!)

(FYI, this is also posted on Yelp as a restaurant review.)