Fleur de Lys (San Francisco) - Q

Woohoo! Today is the first official day of my sabbatical and it's time to celebrate! I can't think of a better way to toast my trip to Europe with a leisurely dinner at Fleur de Lys. J and I debated the menu for a long time - we had wanted to go with the 5-course but decided that it may be too much. And when our server told us that it would be okay for us to share the 4-course and then just share the dessert, that's what we went for, along with the wine pairing of course. Both J and I are big foie gras fans so we basically went for whatever items that had foie gras in it. We both started off with the Duo of Hudson Valley foie gras, which consisted of a baeckeoffe (we had no idea of what it was) of foie gras, truffles, and fingerling potatoes, and "a seared duck burger and foie gras on a brioche bun." The foie gras burger was delicious, the foie gras was juicy and tender, which offsets the texture of the duck burger which reminded me a bit of a fish cake. The baeckeoffe was tasty but for some reason it was a bit cold and it barely had a thin sliver of foie gras in there.

For our fish course, I had the hazelnut-crusted scallops while J got the sea bass. Both were pretty good but we decided they didn't blow us away. For the meat course, I chose the filet mignon topped with seared foie gras (of course), while J decided to have stuffed quail with foie gras (on the side). The filet mignon was perfectly cooked and the foie gras was a perfect complement. My only complaint was that I wish the foie gras could have been bigger but that is always my wish. Then J and I split a course of 5-cheeses and a chocolate souffle. Of course at the end both of us were stuffed too full to walk but when we managed to push ourselves out the door, we were greeted by Hubert Keller himself. He was very friendly and when I told him that I was leaving for Paris in a couple days, he gave me a number of recommendations of his favorite bistros in Paris. He even told me that he was jealous that I get to spend a month in Paris! Imagine that!

Again, I got carried away by the food but I did take a good look around the dining room. It was mostly couples except for a few tables of small groups. I guess it's a romantic place and it was packed for a Tuesday night, which surprised me a bit. A number of the guys were pretty good-looking, but I always wonder if it is because it's a more dressed-up place (and guys who look more put together do have some advantage). Either way, this was a great way to jumpstart my trip. I'll be reporting from Paris soon. A bientot!

I Heart SF

A friend was visiting so I spent the weekend busy playing tour guide. Of course, a tour of San Francisco would not be complete without great food! M loves seafood so I made sure that we hit some of my favorite seafood places. Our weekend adventure included roasted crabs at Crab House (I know it's a bit touristy but their crab is pretty tasty), fresh oysters, clam chowder, and grilled cheese sandwich at Hog Island (always a perfect lunch spot after strolling through the Farmer's Market on a Saturday), wine-tasting in Napa, garlic fries at Giants vs. Rockies game (bummer that we lost), Sushi Ran (see post below), crab ravioli at Steps of Rome (okay but I wasn't expecting much), and roasted suckling pig at Zibbibo (tender and juicy). Of all those places, Steps of Rome probably would have scored the highest in Q ratings but lowest in any food scores. The weekend was so packed though so I really didn't have time to look out for cute guys around but honestly, none of those places had any guys that caught my eye. Again, I am getting really worried that I haven't found good representation of SF men and I only have two days left before I head to Paris... Hopefully Giants' losing streak with the Rockies this weekend isn't a foreshadowing of SF men losing...

Sushi Ran Wine Bar (Sausalito) - Q

(Yes, I know I just complained that I had too much sushi, but this is Sushi Ran!) After an afternoon of wine-tasting in Napa Valley, we opted to have dinner in Sausalito rather than stay in the Napa/St Helena area. I tried to make reservations at Sushi Ran the night before, but I knew there was no way I could get in. Instead, we had to just put our name on the waitlist for the wine bar area. They told us 45 minutes so we venutred downtown to walk around, but they called us within 20 minutes so we rushed back. They seated us pretty quickly even though the restaurant was packed full of people. We proceeded to order some miso soup (clam miso and miso with shiitake mushroom), the seafood trio, a negitoro roll, a spider roll, some nigiri sushi, and hiyayako (cold tofu). I wanted to order some toro but was told that it was only available on the other side (that is, if we had the foresight to call days ahead to book a table). Nonetheless, the meal definitely met, if not exceeded, my expectations - and I had some pretty high expectations given the reputation of this restaurant. The seafood trio of shrimp tempura, ahi tuna tartare, and crab wrapped in smoked salmon perfectly complemented each other. The negitoro roll melted in your mouth (I'm still disappointed that they wouldn't let me order toro on this side though) and the miso soups were very fragrant. The spider roll was just okay and I've had better hiyayako elsewhere. We wrapped the meal up with a "tempura tower" with chocolate chip ice cream (we really wanted green tea but they ran out already), and that also hit the sweet spot. All in all, the food did not disappoint and the servers were very friendly. I can now understand why sushi ran is so highly-rated and next time I must get a reservation at the restaurant side!

Oops, I got too into talking about the food that I almost forgot my real purpose... Unfortunately, in the cute guy department, Sushi Ran Wine Bar can only get 1 Q. The clientele was mostly families and a few couples here and there, none really the attractive type. There was also a group of people (looked like college students) that talked really loudly near our table (granted, the wine bar area is quite small). That was probably the only group (men and women) that were semi-attractive (our table excluded of course). Maybe the restaurant side had better-looking people, but from where I was sitting, I may be too generous with even a 1 Q...