Rating restaurants by food/service? Been there, done that. Rating clubs by music/ambiance? Boring! Rating every place by the number of cute guys there? YES!! I gotta watch out for my girlfriends right?! It also makes my adventures much more interesting! Please join me in my musings about food, men, and random things...
Staircase leading to the Pyramid entrance at the Louvre
My Current Favorite Things
Gaudi in Barcelona
Zanin in Venice
Air Conditioned Restaurants
Statue of David
Orange Juice in Marrakech
Naked Lunch at Foodbuzz Open House
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Kat was visiting for the weekend and it just happened that Foodbuzz (where she is a featured publisher) was having an Open House on Friday, so we decided to stop by and meet some of the folks at Foodbuzz as well as other bloggers. I saw from the invitation that they were going to bring in sandwiches from Naked Lunch, which I've never been to before, but I figured that Foodbuzz people must know their food. Sure enough, neither disappointed. We met a lot of fun people who are true foodies, and we chatted about our favorite restaurants over delicious sandwiches. Kat and I split two different sandwiches so we could sample both - one was the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwich and the other was a Chorizo Sandwich. We tried the Grilled Cheese first. The sandwich didn't quite look like a typical grilled cheese, i.e. with melted cheese oozing out, but it was very flavorful and light. I was surprised to find that it was filled with chevre cheese, which is a type of goat cheese so it gave the sandwich a stronger flavor. Combined with oven roasted tomato, pesto, and spinach, the sandwich was refreshing and I probably could have eaten another one!
Then we moved onto the Chorize Sandwich. The Chorizo Sandwich was good but it paled in comparison to the Grilled Cheese. I was expecting the chorizo to be a little spicy but it didn't really have the kick I was looking for. Nonetheless, based on the quality of the sandwiches, Kat and I figured that it would be worth it to check out Naked Lunch, which is not too far from the Foodbuzz offices. We had heard that Naked Lunch has this foie gras sandwich that is finger-lickin'-good, and we can never say no to foie gras. Unfortunately though, we were having so much fun chatting with the people at Foodbuzz that by the time we left their offices, Naked Lunch had run out of the foie gras sandwich. Oh well, I'll try again next time.
Thanks Foodbuzz for a fun open house and introducing me to a delicious lunch spot!
When I heard that Michael Minna opened a new wine bar and restaurant in SOMA, I thought that it would be fun to go check it out. The name RN74 refers to a national road ("Route Nationale") in France and the restaurant is located at the Millenium Tower (301 Mission St). It was a Tuesday night, and it was completely packed when we arrived. Fortunately we had reservations and got seated immediately.
I started off with the Foie Gras Terrine with grilled peaches and toasted brioche. I usually prefer seared foie gras than terrine, but it seems to be harder and harder to find "real" foie gras in SF these days so any foie gras is better than no foie gras! The terrine was actually quite good and very smooth. The fatiness of the terrine was nicely complemented by the grilled peaches.
For entree, I got the Grilled Prime Beef, which came with fingerling potatoes, bacon, haricots verts, and black truffle. The beef was cooked nicely, but it didn't really stand out and you can probably find more flavorful beef/steak elsewhere. And for $28, the portion was quite small (only two pieces of beef). We got Warm Beignets for dessert because I've been in love with beignets ever since going to New Orleans. The were nice and crispy, but it's always hard to find beignets as good as Cafe du Monde in New Orleans...
Of course since this place is a wine bar, we had to try some wine. RN74 has a nice selection of wines by the glass, and I started with a glass of riesling to go with the foie gras terrine and a glass of cab with the beef. The bar was very happening all throughout the night and there were plenty of good-looking professionals getting their fill of after-work stress relievers (aka alcohol). Since it has been a while since I found a good place worthy of a "Q," I'll have to come back soon to enjoy some glasses of wine at the bar!
