The Joy of KitKats

I've always loved KitKat. Not just because it's got my name in it, but because the mixture of chocolate and wafers is just delicious. Then when I found out they made different flavors, my love for KitKat grew even more. Most of the different flavors seem to come from Japan. Here are the latest flavors that I've been lucky enough to try: Wasabi & Miso flavored KitKat.

The wasabi one was pretty interesting, but I really love it. At first, the wasabi flavor really hit me, and I was just waiting for it to get hot, but it never did. It's like being able to enjoy lots of wasabi without feeling the pain. It almost tasted like it had a hint of mint too.

When I tried the miso flavored KitKat, I actually couldn't taste much of the miso. Nevertheless, it was still good to me. My husband could taste a lot of the miso. Maybe my taste buds were off that day...

Can't wait to get my hands on more.

Grilled Tofu with Chili Sauce

Coming home from our honeymoon, my husband and I were greeted with a bunch of plants on our doorstep. My dad had decided to unload some of his plants. Lucky for us, he gave us 2 pepper plants. It's very pretty too, since some of the peppers are purple and orange. Not your typical red or green peppers. 

New Zealand and Australia were pretty healthy, so we wanted to keep up our health kick and start cooking better. I decided to make Grilled Tofu with a Chili sauce, since we had enough chili's to spare. I've never actually cooked tofu, so it was quite interesting. I didn't go completely by the recipe, but it would have been nice to read it a little better. I ended up soaking the tofu and asparagus twice with the chili sauce. I should have never underestimated those chili peppers either. Man did the dish have a kick. I put way too many peppers into the sauce. Nevertheless, the dish turned out quite well. In fact, it cleared my stuffy nose that night.

A few nights later I tried making the dish again, except the correct way. I did not soak it in chili sauce twice. Practice definitely makes perfect. The second try was a lot better. I was able to understand how to grill the tofu a little better without burning it.

Dungeness Crab Fest

I love how my family and friends love to eat. Upon hearing that it may be great weather to go fishing, I got this email from family saying my cousins husband was going to go fishing the next morning for crab if the news announces that the weather is great. That meant, last minute dungeness crab fest. He would go fishing the next morning and everyone else would plan dinner that same night.

Seriously, the crabs were huge! They barely fit on the plate and it took everyone about an hour just to finish one. Because they were so fresh, the shell was pretty easy to crack. It tasted so good, I barely needed the melted butter to dip it in.

You know everyone is happy when there is little talking, and more shell cracking. The only thing that would've made that night better was if my husband was able to make it that night.

Avocado, Tuna & Tomato Salad

For our first homemade dinner after our long vacation, I decided to make something simple and healthy. The sea salt really brought out the flavor of each ingredient.

Ajisen Ramen

Every so often, we crave authentic ramen. So far we found some good ramen houses, but they're over the bay and not as close to us as we'd like. A few months back we found out about Ajisen Ramen. It turns out that Ajisen is a pretty large chain in Japan. We figured since it's a chain, maybe it would taste more authentic than the other restaurants we've been to. So far, we really like this place. Their bowls are pretty large, and it's almost always packed when we go.

 Spicy Pork Ramen. They are not kidding when they say spicy. That pile you see of orange/red is all spice! It's very flavorful if you can handle the heat. I could only handle one spoonful, but my husband finished it all. Just be prepared to have a runny nose.

 Karage. Seriously, this appetizer was humongous, but very delicious.

Ajisen Ramen. This is one of my favorites.

Daiso

A great place to get some Japanese snacks are at Daiso. Daiso is a Japanese "Dollar Store". They have great snacks, paper, pens, dishes, all for less than $5.00 each. I don't think I've seen anything over $5.00 yet in that store.

 There are so many different Hi-Chew flavors. If I get a chance, I love to stock my purse on hi-chews for my snacking moods. Although that doesn't really last long. Once they're in my purse, they don't last very long.

 I have yet to try all these drinks. I need to ask an employee on what types of drinks they are. Although I sometimes like to just pick one without knowing what it is. Surprises are always nice. =)

Light My Fire Spork

This is the best invention ever. A Light My Fire Spork. I keep this in my desk at work so that I don't have to waste a plastic spoon or fork. You just have to be careful when you use it as a fork since the knife portion is right there. It's a little sharper than you'd think. It can be easy to cut your lip when you're very excited about what you're eating. You tend to forget there's a knife section there.

I plan to get another one so that I can keep in my purse. Yea, that's pretty dorky, but I'll always be prepared. Christmas is coming up soon. This also is a great stocking stuffer.

Banana Bread Beer

World Market has a fabulous food and drink area. I was walking through the aisle and a banana bread beer caught my eye. Now, I love banana bread, but as a beer I wasn't sure if that would be good. So of course, curiosity killed the cat. I had to buy it.

Results: It tasted exactly how it sounds. It tasted like banana bread, with just a small hint of alcohol. Despite my love for banana bread, I don't really like it as an alcoholic beverage.

Babybel Love

I love cheese. I'm still a little hesitant on the real stinky ones, but I still love cheese. Mini Babybel is the perfect cheese snack. Yum!

Kee Wah Bakery

Mmmm...I found this asian bakery next to work. I'm on a slow search for anything asian and ethnic in the city I work at. You don't really see them, but lately I've been seeing more ethnic restaurants pop up.

When I'm not too hungry but want a good lunch that will get me full, my go-to spot is this bakery, Kee Wah Bakery. Their food is priced very well, the portions are pretty large, and there is a wide range of options for you. The bakery is also next to a Quickly, so I usually pick up a pearl tea while I'm there.

 That green tea pound cake and the red bean bun (bottom right) was awesome!

 They have these cute lunch trays, tongs and to-go bags that you use to pick out your lunch. As you can see, there are many options to choose from.

 Dessert snacks! The ones I want to try next are their mocha rolls and green tea rolls. (Shown above.)

Above was my latest Kee Wah lunch. A bacon and cheese bun, which I thought looked pretty dirty, (left) and a red bean seasame seed bun (right). Of course, I had to top it off with some pearl tea from Quickly. Just this alone made me pretty content and full. All under $5.00!

Foodspotting

I found out about Foodspotting at the SF Street Food Fest a few weeks ago. I can't believe I haven't heard about this website sooner. I love taking pictures of food and finding out more about food places. This is the best because you actually see pictures of the food rather than go just by reviews. Plus, this is worldwide, versus Yelp, which is only here in America.

Oh Foodspotting, how I am slowly becoming addicted to you.

Tasting 1-2-3...Philz Coffee

Philz Coffee is such a cute place and has some of the best coffee I've ever tasted. I've been told about Philz for quite some time, but there just isn't one close to me. Finally my cousins decided to bring me there for my birthday after taking me to lunch. I love their atmosphere too. A small place, but has so much character. 

I tried their iced mint mojito. It's pretty good actually. I was nervous because I normally don't like mojito's, but the mix of the coffee and mint tasted very yummy. To take home, I decided I wanted some sort of dark coffee. So that's exactly what I told the barista. She was quick to suggest "Red Sea", so I said sure. Great suggestion! The coffee is pretty dark but it's got a lot of flavor. Not too bitter, at least to me.

Can't wait to be in the area again to get more beans and try something else.

Tasting 1-2-3: Val's Burgers

Our dinner at Val's Burgers. Val's is a cute diner that's been around for over 50 years. Cash only, basic menu, great pricing, great service. A must visit when you're in Hayward.

Rootbeer float. It came with a mini Andes mint too.

 Strawberry Milkshake. It came with more in the tumbler. Very impressive if you can finish this during your visit there.

 Baby burger. They have the baby burger, mama burger, and papa burger. We asked for grilled onions. $0.75 more, but they give you basically a whole grilled onion. Tastes great with it too.

 Chili Cheese Fries. Seriously, this plate is huge.

 Onion Rings. One of the best I've ever tasted. Some restaurants will cook it a little too long that the onion is too soft, so that when you bite into it, you pull the whole onion out, leaving just the fried batter. Val's cooks it just right so that the onions are still crunchy, making it easier to bite off.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Baked Chicken

A few days ago, I decided to make some baked chicken wings. Something simple and easy. I found this rub in one of our recipe books, but we didn't have all the ingredients. The recipe called for paprika, all spice, garlic, and some other ingredients. Surprisingly, the rub even had some spices that I wanted to experiment with and thought it might make the wings taste delicious. (That ingredient will stay secret. muahaha.) So I did some substitutions of my own and hoped it wouldn't ruin a good batch of chicken wings.

The outcome was super delicious. I baked it in 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. The crunch was just right to me. Next time, my husband wants me to try and fry the wings for a bigger crunch. Although I think I did a pretty good job in coating the chicken, I also want to try and do a better job. Possibly just double the amount so I have more to coat the chicken with.

Can't wait for the next time to test out this rub again.

SF Street Food Fest 2010

Okay, so last weekend was the SF Street Food Fest. It was hosted by La Cocina. The food fest was basically to help advocate mobile food vending companies, otherwise known as the "Taco Trucks". Which is pretty odd, because not all mobile food trucks sell tacos. Not all the tents were mobile food companies, but there was a good chunk. Because of all the food that people were going to eat, who better to sponsor the event than Pepto Bismol?

Now, I usually try and avoid San Francisco as much as possible because I hate driving there, because the traffic and the roads suck. It's just so stressful getting there. However, for a Street Food Fest that happens to be walking distance from bart, I had to take the trip up there.

This was worth the trip. I'm also glad that we decided to get there when the food fest started. Within 2 hours, it was packed! I don't know how people with strollers did it. We could barely get through by ourselves. Complete chaos.

Before...

After...

I seriously couldn't see my way through! We found out later that they have a deal where you can buy VIP passports that will allow you to just cut in line. Wish we knew about that earlier because the lines were insane after an hour. 

If you wanted to drink alcohol, you were confined into these "Beer & Spirits Garden" areas that were scattered around the place.

Global Soul had some great food. We tried all 3 of what they had to offer. The basil citrus cooler was very refreshing. You was mixed very well between basil and citrus.

The suicide sticks were basically grilled Serrano peppers. I didn't try it, but my husband did. At first he was fine, until a few minutes after he had eaten the whole thing. Apparently the taste lingers. Especially when you have lots of seeds in your pepper.

 The Mojo Cuban Tri-Tip was delicious. Very soft and tasty. I'm not sure what that sauce was, but it complimented the tri-tip just right.

Endless Summer Sweets was were he had the funnel cake. Mmmm.

They sold kettle corn too, but we didn't try any.

 The funnel cake was surprisingly not so sweet for me. The whip cream was slightly different too because it wasn't as fluffy, but it did the job.

 It was also pretty fascinating to watch the guy make the funnel cake.

Namu had my favorite of the day and the worst of the day. Namu is actually a restaurant in SF. Well, let's start with the worst. Their Green Tea Lemonade did not taste like Green Tea at all. It was just a plain lemonade. It wasn't even good lemonade because it was a little too watered down. 

The best of the day was the Korean "tacos" Namu had. Their tacos had rice, kalbi short ribs, daikon, kimchee and some other stuff inside some toasted seaweeds.

My next favorite was the fried chicken with harissa from Aziza.

The seasoning on that chicken was great. Plus, the skin was fried just right to have a good crunch to it. The corn was just, okay to me. Not bad. I was more into the fried chicken though. It definitely had more flavor than the corn.

We had this curry dish from Azalina's Malaysian. Spicy star anise curry. This actually had a little kick to it after awhile. Not too bad.

I didn't try anything from Purple Hibiscus, but someone from our group did. Apparently they had one of the best items in there. A Scottish Egg. This was basically a huge hard-boiled egg covered in a sausage. It looks like it would make a fabulous to-go breakfast. Seconds were contemplated.

For dessert, we had some Bi-Rite Creamery popsicles. They make organic popsicles. The peach one was pretty good.

Funky Monkey had a great van. They gave out their dried fruit. I have yet to try the packet I took from them. I'm waiting for just the right time to eat it.

The two things I forgot to take a picture of was our Mexican Chocolate Creme Brulee from the Creme Brulee Cart. My cousin ditched us and went straight for that cart. We were glad she did because once it was an hour into the festival, that line was insane! We wouldn't have been able to taste the goodness that was the Creme Brulee Cart. I now follow his tweets to find out where they will be next. Hopefully they don't just stick to SF locations.

The other one with no picture was the empanada I had from Sabores del Sur. The meat was so tender and the outside stayed crunchy the whole time. I never liked it when I would get empanadas that would get slightly soggy because of all the juice that just sits in the empanada. Sabores' empanada stayed warm the whole time I had it too. It never got cool towards the end of it.

There were a few places that we wanted to try but did not have any time or the line was consistently too long. There was Roli Roti, basically a rotisserie truck. Check out all the meat just rotating in their truck!

 There was also Curry Up Now. An Indian truck. I wanted to taste their curry. Next time.

Kung Fu Tacos was a food truck that one of my friends has been wanting to try but the line was way too long when we got to it.

Someone in our group came back with this bacon covered hotdog and I have no idea what place this was from. This was supposedly their "mini" version. We thought it was just going to be half a hotdog. We were obviously wrong. He came out with a bargain. Must find out where this came from.

Overall, this was a great 2nd Annual SF Street Food Fest. Can't wait for next years. We may consider the VIP passports for next year too.