Desires fulfilled

My wife and I cleared our weekend calendar and decided to do everything on a whim. It started Friday night and ended Monday night. This is what we ended up doing:

Friday

We headed to San Francisco and had dinner in R & G Lounge. We ordered:

• Salmon Avocado Egg Roll
• Salt and Pepper Crab
• Sliced Squab with Lily Bulbs
  
• Steamed Fish Filets with Ham and Vegetables.

The food at this restaurant is basically what I would described as fusion Cantonese. The core concepts are based on Cantonese cooking styles, but they incorporate a lot of different influences. The Salmon Avocado Egg Roll is a great example of this - mixing Japanese and Californian elements in a Cantonese based dish. I don't even like egg rolls, but I really enjoyed this appetizer. The Salt and Pepper Crab is their famous dish. First-timers should order this. Use your hands. Forgo utensils. It will be a sexier and more sensual experience this way - I promise. It is messy, it will get all over you hands, and it will be worth it. Eating this dish with utensils is like having sex with clothes on. We had one of our first dates here so this place is a sentimental favorite - a pretty good start to weekend.

Saturday

A phone call wakes us up around noon and we're in the mood for some Dim Sum so we head to East Ocean in Alameda. This is one of our favorite Dim Sum spots. We used to go there pretty often, but since our weekends are usually booked we don't get to go as often as we'd like. Pretty much everything is good there, particularly the classics - siu mai and shrimp dumpling. Ahhhh...Saturday afternoon at a Dim Sum joint, can't get much better than that.

Next stop - the South Bay. We hit Santana Row and Valley Fair. I talked up how good Consuelo Mexican Bistro is while wander around these malls for a few hours. We bought nothing and found our way to downtown Los Gatos for dinner at Dio Deka. We got out of the car and immediately changed our mind. Apparently my sales pitch for Consuelo Mexican Bistro worked so well that we decided to headed back there for dinner. This is what we ordered:

• Sopes surtidos
• Sopas de tortilla
• Chamorro de cordero
• Carnitas

The food reminded me of the food we had in Mexico City. The Sopas de tortilla (tortilla soup) was very good - one of the rare places where they didn't overdo it with the salt. Their Sopes are good as well. In fact I don't think I ever had bad Sopes. I'm glad Consuelo didn't break that trend. The carnitas was awesome. If you are having an uber carnivorous urge this is the meat orgy that you need. It felt like there was a whole damn pig in the bowl. The Chamoor de cordero is a lamb shank lathered in a spice muscat paste. What the hell is spice muscat paste? It tasted like mole sauce. So I asked the waiter, "Is it mole sauce?". He said "Not really." I replied, "It sure tastes like it, I can taste the chocolate." He said, "There is chocolate." So it finally clicked and I realized the experience I was just exposed to; The king of red meat (lamb) + The king of dessert (chocolate). Oh my god, that's like jumping between two really really hot babes getting it on. Needless to say I ate so much that I felt sick for about an hour after we were done and it was worth it.

Sunday

We are back in the city. We wander around Union Square until dinner time and we head to Old Shanghai Restaurant in the Richmond district. This is what we ordered:

• Soy sauce Duck
• Meat Pastry
  
• Winter Melon soup
• Wine Braised Fish Filet with Black Fungus
• Shrimp Roe, Sea Cucumber, and Pork Tendon Claypot Stew

This place is one of our favorite restaurants. We go there all the time. Everything is good. If you enjoy Shanghai food - no, if you enjoy food - you'll love this place. The "Shrimp Roe, Sea Cucumber, and Pork Tendon Claypot Stew" sounds a bit weird, but I never had it before so I thought I'd give it a try. I would definitely order it again, but I don't know if I would recommend it to everyone. The shrimp roe gives it quite a unique flavor that I'm not sure everyone can appreciate. Nevertheless, stick with the classic Shanghai dishes, like Wine Braised Fish Filet with Black Fungus, and you will be impressed.

This time we left room for dessert so we went to Steps of Rome in North Beach. The unique thing about this place is the music is always too loud, the waiters try to dance with all the female customers, and they speak Italian to you whether you understand it or not. We shared a tiramisu and soaked in the fun and feistive atmosphere before calling it a night.

Monday

Both of us left work on time (for once) and headed to Ephesus in Walnut Creek for dinner. First time we've tried the place and this is what we ordered:

• Circassian Chicken
• Bulgur Lettuce Wraps
• Lamb Kebab
• Pistachio Kofte Entree

The Lamb and Kofte were good, but the Circassan Chicken and Bulgur Lettuce Wraps appetizers were the most memorable. The Circassan Chicken looked like Hummus - it is mixture of a chicken and walnut paste. Very interesting and very good. The Pistachio Kofte was interesting as well. It is grounded lamb and beef packed together. Conceptually it sounds like the meat in the Greek gyro, but it actually looks more like a hamburger patty that has a lot of pistachio bits embedded in it. Overall the food was enjoyable, but I thought it was a bit pricey.

The last stop of our Tour De Food was Le Bistro for dessert. This French restaurant completely blew us away the first time we ate there. I don't have much experience with French food so I couldn't tell you if it was authentic or not, but I know what I ate felt like "sexy-time" in my mouth. We ordered the Fresh Strawberry Flambe with Balsamic Vinegar and the Peach Delight. Both of the desserts were extraordinary. The strawberry flambe was sweet, sour, cold, and hot all at once creating a very interesting contrast of flavor and sensation in your mouth. The Peach Delight was a peach mousse cake with pumpkin sauce. Who would have thought peach and pumpkin could be so good together? Le Bistro, it never fails to impress!

That's it. It's the end of ride. Our tastebuds traveled the culinary worlds of Canton, Zhe Jiang, Turkey, Italy, Mexico, and France all in one weekend and all I can say is "Yum"!

Here are the restaurants I talked about:

• R & G Lounge


• East Ocean Seafood Restaurant: 1713 Webster St, Alameda, CA 94501 (510) 865-3381


• Consuelo Mexican Bistro


• Old Shanghai Restaurant: 5145 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94118 (415) 752-0120


• Steps of Rome: 348 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 397-0435


• Ephesus


• Le Bistro