NYC Trip - Part II

Aburiya Kinnosuke, Jacques Torres, Little Owl, Clinton Street Baking, Kefi, Tai Pan Bakery, Caracas, Numero 28, Sushi Yasuda, OMS/B, Dousoeur de Paris, Amy's Bread, Ruby et Violette, Azuri, Kyotofu, Company, Peter Luger, Momofuku Ko lunch and dinner, Perilla, Extra Virgin, Bespoke Chocolates, Dessert Truck, Babbo, Artisanal, Szechuan Gourmet, Cho Dang Gol, Stone Home, Assi Market Food Court.


Aburiya Kinnosuke *** - Another suggestion by Grace. A solid isakaya place with a combo lunch better than your average bento. Housemade tofu soft, silky and fresh.



Jacques Torres ** - After J made the chocolate chip cookies from a Jacques Torres recipe, I was excited to try the original. Great chocolate chip cookies, though I thought that J's homemade version was better.

Little Owl ** - Good hearts of palm salad and juicy pork chop. Cute little place, though we get a lot of this style of food in SF.



Clinton Street Baking 0 - Disappointing. I'm not sure if we caught them on an off morning or maybe the second string crew, but the pancakes were very thick and cakey, my sunny side up egg whites were runny and the biscuit was dry. I would say that the food was ok bordering on bad.

Kefi ** - This place is felt like Manhattan's version of a huge suburban restaurant -- good for families, large, reasonably priced and loud enough to drown out the sound of screaming kids. With that said, a group of us had a good time here and everyone enjoyed their food. Delicious olive oil on the table, grassy and fruity -- good enough to make you fill up on bread before the meal. I particularly liked the Sheep's Milk Dumplings, Tomato, Pine Nuts, Spicy Lamb Sausage


and the Grilled Octopus starter.

The only miss was the meatball appetizer, it lacked texture and was overpowered by the sauce.

Tai Pan Bakery *** - Green Tea Custard Tarts.

Caracas ** - Venezuelan arepas. I wondered how these would differ from the Columbian arepas. They were stuff full of fillings like shredded beef, cheese, fried plantains. The arepa itself was a perfect wrapper for the fillings, toasted to a crisp and thin enough to let the fillings shine through.



Numero 28 *** Suggested by Carl. This pizza is the closest I've found to the pizza I ate in Naples. The pies I enjoyed in Naples were thin, had a minimal amount of toppings, a lightly blistered crust that was somewhat crispy on the outer edge, but a bit chewy and increasingly so toward the center of the pie. That pizza showcased its crust -- the tomato, bit of cheese and basil were more condiments than components. In my mind, it differs from the brick oven NY style pizza because it is not crispy and has far less cheese. Numero 28's is Naples style with more cheese. I think I prefer the crispier NY style, but I'd definitely come back to this place.



Sushi Yasuda **** - Omakase lunch here with two of my favorite eating companions. This is their top choice for sushi anywhere in the world and now I have to agree. Sat in front of Yasuda-San who was friendly, gracious and served up the best sushi I've ever had. His rice is delicious, each piece of sushi expertly made and perfectly proportioned to leave you wanting more. After I mentioned something about hot dog eating contests, he snapped to attention, a huge grin came across his face and he started laughing. He proceeded to crack himself (and us) up as he shared stories of other interesting shows: a sausage eating contest between a man and a grizzly bear, a long jump contest between an olympic long jumper and a frisbee dog, and a foot race between man and zebra. I love this guy. (I can only assume that Yasuda-San gets Japanese direct tv?) Thanks to J and A for an unforgettable birthday lunch.

OMS/B ** - Lunch take out shop. Rice balls, topped with good stuff. I'd grab something from here.



Dousoeur de Paris *** One of the reasons I'm not a pastry fan is that pastries are usually too sweet for my tastes. Dousoeur de Paris stands out by producing beautiful, flavorful and well balanced french pastries. Yay! I knew it could be done. My friends felt the items could have been sweeter, but I was happy. This would be my top pick for pastry for myself or for a gift. Too bad there's no space in the shop to sit and enjoy their offerings.

Amy's Bread - My dessert loving friends with sweet tooths love the cake here. I have to trust them on this because it was too sweet for me.

Ruby et Violette - Cute little cookie shop. I liked the butter pecan cookie.

Azuri *** delicious falafel pita. Fresh crispy falafel, soft pita, smooth hummus. Crunchy, nutty, spicy, creamy, tangy --good.



Kyotofu ** - Nothing to say about the non dessert food here, but the black sesame sweet tofu with hoji cha green tea syrup was worth the stop.


Company * - The pizza here is ok. The crust is California style, that is, medium thickness, a bit more on the bready side and overloaded with toppings. I can see other folks liking it. The menu reminded me of Mozza in LA, but the food is nowhere near as good.


Peter Luger *** I've never had the steak here. We went to the Brooklyn restaurant for a hamburger lunch on a Sunday. Grace's comments. The burger was around $10 and yes, make a reservation.

Momofuku Ko **** The lunch and dinner have somewhat blended together in my mind (though they are different), but this is the best place I've eaten in years. Definitely go for either lunch or dinner. The pairings are a must, they have an excellent sommalier. In addition to the 10 a.m. reservation attempt, you can check randomly during the day and might happen upon a cancellation. [Details coming soon on a separate post.]


Perilla ** - To be fair, we ate a late night dinner here after having the epic Momofuku lunch. That was an impossible act to follow. With that in mind, the food here was fine except the edamame falafel, which were just completely wrong in texture and taste. The standout was the duck. I'd be happy to return to give it a fair shake.

Extra Virgin * - Warm pistachio crusted goat cheese salad with roasted beats and a very standard eggs benedict. I wish their bloody mary's were better. Ross's baked eggs looked better than my benedict. Good neighborhood people watching spot. I'd return for a lazy breakfast, if I lived close by.



Bespoke Chocolates **** - Pretzel covered sea salt caramels, peanut butter chocolates.



Babbo *** - Cannot remember the names of all the dishes: beef cheek ravioli, mint love letters, farro in a beet sauce, Florentine tripe, greens, sweet potato lunes, porchetta/suckling pig. Good sommalier. My favorite were the lamb's brain francobolli and the lamb's tongue. We also had three desserts all of which were devoured immediately because they were so delicious. Overall the entrees were good, but the desserts absolutely stole the show.


Dessert Truck *** - Warm molten chocolate cake with olive oil ganache hazelnuts and vanilla ice cream; Chocolate bread pudding with vanilla sauce. Still a bit sweet for my tastes, but enough salt to balance out the sweet chocolate.



Artisanal ** - Cheese flights. Unusual Ones: Ibores (goat, Spain), Amarelo da beira baiza (goat/sheep, Portugal), Caerphilly Gorwydd (cow, Wales), Pairings: Guner Veltliner domaine wachau 07, Vovray Argilex Gautier Loire 06, Dolcetto d'alba ada nada Piedmont 07. Fromager's Select: Monte Enebro (goat, Spain), Pierre Robert (cow, France), Epoisses (cow, France), Pairings: Sancerre domaine la croix Loire 08, Chenin blanc mulderbosch South Africa 08, Tempranillo 'crianza' abando rioja 04. Italian Heritage: Robiola rochetta (sheep/cow), Fontima d'aosta (cow), Gorganzola cremificato (cow), Pairings: Soave 'vigneti de monteforte' santi Veneto 07, Chianti colli senesi tricciano Tuscany 07, Aglianico "donnakuna" de conciliis Salerno 06.

Szechuan Gourmet ** - Nice mapo tofu, dumplings, noodles. Not so sure about the eel hot pot, but would definitely return to try more of the menu.



Cho Dang Gol ** Tofu Doru Chige, huge enough that even Ross could not finish it! Nice panchan and fresh tofu, really enjoyed the mixed rice.


Stone Home Wine Bar *** - This is a cute little wine bar in Fort Greene. Nice flights of wine and the right food to accompany it. Good place for an evening of conversation with friends.

Assi Market Food Court * - I was meeting someone for lunch in Flushing. They parked here, so we went in. Assi is a Korean supermarket, with a hot food section in the back. It's too small to be a food court and there are only two counters. One for prepared foods and another for ordering soups and stews.

There were a few Korean families eating on the little stools there, but I'm not sure what the turnover rate is in terms of food freshness, so I stayed away from the prepared sashimi. The kalbi tang was fine.


Chickalicious Dessert Club ** - a take out place across from Chickalicious Dessert Bar. It was so hot we ate two of these green tea shave ice. It's finer than the one in the Flushing Mall, but more coarse than the ones in Oahu. The green tea was full flavored and I liked the azuki beans and ice cream -- perfect for a hot day.


Previous Post: NYC Trip Part I
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Key:
**** - Highly Recommended
*** - Recommended
** - Would Return
* - OK
0 - Would Not Return

Ice Cream Rankings

Having been banned (for spring training) from making my own ice cream for a while. I've been back at some of the shops around town. Tried Meyer Lemon and Coffee Porter at Bi-Rite. Meyer Lemon is a bit too mild and lacks the tang I like in Ici's version. I like my own Meyer Lemon Sherbet best. Coffee Porter was delicious, nice bitter beer tones with some rich coffee flavor.

At Humphry Slocombe had scoops of Kumquat Poppy Seed, Earl Grey, Guiness Ginger Bread, Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee, Bacon Pistachio, Secret Breakfast and Black Sesame. At Mission Street Food, I had a Green Tea Sesame. Out of these I liked BB Vietnamese Coffee and Guinness Ginger Bread. I loved Kumquat Poppy Seed and the Green Tea Sesame. I did not like the Bacon Pistachio or the Black Sesame I had at the shop. The sesame seeds were whole and not crushed or chopped at all which overwhelmed the taste of the ice cream. I have mixed feelings about this place, I think it's great that they are experimenting with flavors, but they shouldn't be experimenting on their customers. Some of the flavors, that I had small tastes of, proved to be better as concepts than as ice cream.

At Ici, had the Vanilla Cherry Almond and the Candied Kumquat. Both were excellent, loved the dried cherry tartness against the almond crunch. The Candied Kumquat was perfect. I think I'm developing something for kumquat ice creams, I've got to try making some. As I left Ici, I thought of how much admire the first person that solved the problem of ice cream dripping through the bottom of hand rolled cones. Put a dollop of dark chocolate at the bottom! Truly problem solving of the highest order.

Also made it to Sketch to try their soft serve style. Sesame and Earl Grey were both very good and deeply flavored and the soft serve style gives it a creamier mouth feel. At a dinner party, I happened upon Polly Ann's Lychee and Green Tea. The Green Tea had a good bitter tea flavor, though the consistency of the ice cream was more air fluffed and less creamy -- similar to Mitchell's style.

New Rankings:

Candied Kumquat - Ici
Kumquat Poppy Seed - Humphry Slocombe
BB Vietnamese Coffee - HS
Vanilla Cherry Almond - Ici
Salted Caramel (add toasted almonds) - Bi-Rite
Macapuno - Mitchell's
Coppa Mista - Gelato Classico
Sesame - Sketch
Cookies and Cream - Bi-Rite
Ube - Mitchell's
Green Tea Sesame - HS

Previous: Ice Cream Ranking in July 2007

Delessio's Tres Leches Cake

Having enjoyed the tres leches cake from Delessio's several times at parties, I was surprised to learn that they served pieces of the cake at their bakery. When I arrived I noticed that the mini cupcakes were somewhat pricier than I remembered. A mini cupcake, which is equivalent to one bite of cake, costs almost two dollars.

The individually portioned tres leches were cut from a sheet cake, each rectangular piece topped with a swirl of the sweet whipped meringue-like icing and surrounded by a combination of strawberries and bananas. The taste of the cake was similar to the one's I'd had before, but the texture and proportions were off. This individual portion was thinner and thus the whole piece was completely drenched and soggy with sweet milk to the point of mushiness. My friend compared it to mushy oatmeal.

The full tres leches cake has various layers of soaking, the top layer being moist cake, the middle having more leches and the bottom being soggy sweet, the whole cake is surrounded and topped by the fluffy whipped topping, so each bite has a bit of icing and cake. All in all, I was disappointed by the individual serving of tres leches at Delessio. Next time, I will skip it and order a whole cake from them.



Market at Gough

Berkeley Oakland Tour

G and I headed to Berkeley and Oakland for an afternoon of food. The goal was to visit some old stomping grounds, have fun, not explode, and be back to the City in time for dinner.



Vik’s – Hyderabadi Fish was the daily special, we enjoyed the fish and the mild buttery sauce. I love the pickled achar and papam that comes standard with the specials. We also had the pane puri which is the mini puris with potato, chickpea and mint. I prefer the giant puri’s and liked the look of the dosas being consumed around us, but felt that would be far too filling to start off our day. We also had the Dahi Pakori a lentil dumpling topped with yogurt, which I did not like because of its sweetness. This is not a negative reflection upon Vik’s preparation. I’ve had this dish at other restaurants and didn’t like it. I just keep forgetting that I don’t like it and for some reason the description always attracts me. Note to self no more Dahi Pakori. The last time I was at Vik’s was about six years ago and the furnishings were far different. Good to see the place doing well with real seating and nice new counters.

Acme – picked up an Epi loaf, Pain Levain and an almond croissant for later. I was disappointed by the almond croissant. The Epi loaf was good, but I still prefer the walnut bread at Tartine (as well as Tartine’s Frangipane Croissant).

Then headed to the Cheeseboard for pizza. The pizza du jour was Asparagus, Prima Donna Gouda, Mozzarella, Olive Oil, Lemon Zest, Garlic and Parsley. Beautiful pizza, thin with the right amount of cheese, the lemon and parsley really stood out. The bottom was wonderfully crisp and supported the softer layer of crust above. Hooray, a place with good crust!

Café Rouge. I wanted to buy some sausages and decided on a few of their house made Merguez and Seville sausages. The seville was made of pork, proscuitto, all spice, and Seville oranges. At home I found it very tasty, salty from the proscuitto, red and slightly citrus from the orange, the flavor profile reminded me of a milder version of Calabrese sausage. We also picked up some proscuitto for a cheese tray we were putting together. The proscuitto was excellent with the port salute cheese brought by E on Sunday; it was not as intense as the one from Lucca.

Headed to Ici. Tasted the Cardamom and Burnt Caramel. The burnt caramel had a bit too much of the bitter burnt flavor to me, I guess I’ve become accustomed to Bi-Rite’s salted caramel. The cardamom was good, but I settled on a Meyer Lemon with Gingersnap ice cream sandwich. Enjoyed the gingersnap layers very much and liked the Meyer Lemon ice cream, but it is slightly icier and more citrus than the one at Bi-Rite which I prefer. My friend had the Catalan Cream flavor and loved it. It was flavored with Anis, Vanilla and something else. She also loved the cone and commented that the flavors at Ici are fairly pure as if they should be served with something as a dessert. They are still good as stand alone ice cream (she preferred Ici to Bi-Rite), but better with the ice cream sandwich layer or their excellent cones. This made sense to me given that it was started by a former Chez Panisse pastry chef.

Off to Oakland's Chinatown where we had Har Gow at Delicious Foods. The Har Gow were particularly good, better than many of those I’ve had from the Clement take out places. Very good recommendation. A thinnish dumpling skin gently wrapping a soft shrimp filling. The wrapper was soft, not thick or gummy, and held together a substantial amount of shrimp. I will get those again.

Walked around the corner to Napoleon Bakery where we grabbed a couple of sponge cupcakes and custard tarts for later. The guy next to us was loading up on the cupcakes and said ‘these are great aren’t they, like biting into pillows.’ As I bit into one in the car, I found them soft and airy, simple and not too sweet. We consumed the tarts that night, nice egg taste, good crust - they held up well.

Then to Tao Yuen, a couple of doors down where we opted for the tofu skin rolls and a sesame ball. The tofu skin rolls were very crispy on the outside even though they had been sitting around and must have been fried a while ago. The flavorful filling had pork, shrimp, mushrooms, water chestnuts -- better than the soggy style served on Clement. The sesame ball was not good at all. Rice rolls were recommended, but both G and I agreed that we were not in the mood. I then sheepishly admitted I was not a huge fan of mantou or long rice noodles. G exclaimed “me too!” and we agreed that it was odd because many people whom we respect love them. We walked out and enjoyed our tofu skin rolls, happy with the knowledge that two people sharing the same stomach had managed to find each other in this crazy world of ours.

It was starting to rain, so we figured we better get to the taco trucks before it became too wet to eat outside. After cruising past several of them we stopped at Tacos Guadalajara. Both of us had al pastor. The al pastor had the spicy seasoning I expected, but the meat was cut a little more thickly than what I’m used to. I’m on the fence as to whether this was an improvement or not. There have been times I felt that the thin cut al pastor was too overpowering, this cut was thick and juicy and held up to the seasoning. The tortillas were slightly toasted, but still soft.

Made a short stop at Cinco de Maya Nieves shop on Int’l Boulevard where we were disappointed to find some regular ice cream bought wholesale. Of course, we were at the wrong place, not the food stall that we had intended to try. We ordered a hibiscus flavored snow cone. It was the typical kind that you get at a school fund raising carnival, but at least something to refresh us before we headed to Taqueria Sinaloa . The snow cone was too sweet and the ice was coarse (not like shaved ice in Hawaii). We would not come back here.

Finally a stop at Sinaloa where we ordered tacos de carnitas, al pastor and tripitas. The meat on the carnitas and al pastor were very tender and juicy. She particularly liked the soft juicy carnitas meat. The al pastor was tender though the sauce was slightly sweet, which I was not expecting. Tripitas were a bit of a disappointment for me, because the tripe was somewhat soft. I’m used to the Tonayense trucks where they fry the tripitas right before serving so that it gets crisped up to the consistency and taste of crisp bacon. The tortillas were crispy and a bit oily from frying. I’ll get the carnitas next time.

Thanks to the folks on Chowhound who armed us with recommendations and maps for our tour, I was happy with the food sites around Berkeley and Oakland. Even after trying eleven places in one afternoon, I was already thinking of new possibilities for further adventures.

Our day was a success, we had fun, survived without any permanent injury to internal organs and were back in time for dinner. Hopefully G will be up for Part Two on the next visit to SF.

Tastes of Hawaii

Ici**'

Ice cream in Berkeley at Ici.


Pink Peppermint, nice minty flavor with small chunks of sweet peppermint candy. Interesting color. Candied Tangerine, not a very strong citrus flavor. The candied chunks taste just like the pieces of fruit in fruit cake, but a little too small to add enough interest to this very subtle flavor of ice cream.

College near Ashby

That Takes the Cake**

Cupcakes from That Takes the Cake. The owner is a very friendly and experienced caterer. Sampled three different flavors: Sleepless in SF - chocolate buttermilk cake topped with coffee buttercream -- moist chocolate cake with chocolate chips, the coffee buttercream was a good combo, a very chocolatey and rich tasting cupcake. Bunny Bites - carrot cake with pecans and pineapple topped with cream cheese frosting was good, but the cake was not as moist as at Noe Valley Bakery and the cream cheese frosting was not as sour as I like. Orange Zinger - orange cake with orange buttercream frosting was my favorite, a zesty orange flavored cake and the citrus helped cut the cream frosting so that it was not sugary tasting.

THAI STICK*

Off to SFO to pick up someone only to find that the flight was delayed. I headed to Millbrae in search of some quick eats. The Kitchen was closing up, but Thai Stick, only a block away gladly took me in. The red curry with duck was just o.k. when I asked for them to make it extra spicy, they put jalapenos in it. It tasted fine, but nothing worth returning for. Fortunately this left a lot of room for dessert. The Sweet Crepe with Coconut Ice Cream redeemed the otherwise mediocre meal. The crisped layer of the crepe was the perfect counter point to the sweet coconut ice cream. Despite the fact that the ice cream was a little too sticky and gummy, I devoured the whole thing and confirmed that they serve the same dish at all the Thai Stick restaurants in the city. Next time I'll just go for dessert.

Harmony Frozen Yogurt

Harmony in San Carlos is yet another yogurt place to jump on the Pinkberry craze. They use Straus Organic Yogurt and you can really taste the difference in the quality. It is thick and creamy. It tastes very natural and somewhat like sweetened sour cream, but not as tangy. The toppings are similar to those at the other Pinkberry knockoffs, but I noticed that several of the fruits are fruit in a syrup rather than just chopped up fresh fruit. For example, Yogurt Bar has fresh raspberries, while Harmony has a raspberries in syrup that looks like a chunky sauce. Don't know how it tastes, because I went with the classic plain yogurt and strawberry.

Comparing Pinkberry and its local descendents, Harmony is the thickest and creamiest, but also has the most neutral yogurt flavor of the three. Next comes Yogurt Bar which is also in the neutral yogurt flavor category, but is slightly more tangy and less thick than Harmony. Finally, Pinkberry is the iciest and most tangy with a lemony yogurt flavoring. It is probably the most artificial. At the moment, Yogurt Bar is my fave because it is natural and creamy, yet has some tang.

MISSION PIE**'

I've had four different pies at Mission Pie: the Strawberry Galette, Giant Berry Galette, Walnut, and Banana Cream. All were good, with the walnut being my favorite. The strawberry is a great combo of sweet and tart with a good crust that is not too buttery and compliments the whole thing very nicely. The walnut is like a pecan pie flavor with the sweet gelatinous layer holding the walnuts to the pie crust. The crust on the walnut tartlette is a little thicker than the galette and works really well against the sweet layer. Banana cream is nice as well. Even though banana is not a fruit I particularly like, I happily finished off a slice. It is very banana tasting and has a nice thin layer of cream on top of the banana custard layer. I'm sure it would be a winner for banana fans. Personally, I think it could use a little crunch to it, perhaps adding some nuts on top -- so that it would have a similar flavor to banana nut ice cream. I wouldn't say that this is great pie, but it's good. Let's face it, SF isn't exactly brimming with pie shops. This shop is unique both for its focus on pie and for its social mission.


25th near Mission

Yogurt Bar**

Better than Pinkberry - less icy, creamier, and more generous servings. Octavia at Union, closed on Mondays.

Ginger Cake

Park Chow is the city's version of a diner, long menu with a lot of pedestrian items and the food is just o.k. The prices don't seem high, yet the bill always manages to get up there. If it weren't for the Ginger Cake with Pumpkin Ice Cream, I wouldn't eat here. Tonight's cake was great. J and I both enjoyed the salad, but it was nothing special and service was lacking. Next time: just get the cake or find out where they are getting it.

Very nice lunch today at Banana Island with E. For some reason they still won't make the food spicy even when I said 'please extra extra spicy'. Next time just get the Roti.

Ice Cream Rankings

Tried Creme Fraiche and Malted Vanilla with Peanut Brittle at Bi-Rite today. Creme Fraiche is clean with a slight yogurt tang, good as a palate cleanser, malted vanilla is decent - the peanut brittle is great the malted vanilla is a little too sweet. Ended up with a Strawberry Balsamic and Lemon combo. This is a lot better than pairing the salted caramel with the strawberry.

New Rankings:
Lacuma and Ube (tie) - Mitchell's
Salted Caramel - Bi-Rite
Macapuno - Mitchell's
Coppa Mista - Gelato Classico
Strawberry Balsamic - Bi-Rite
Pistachio - Baskin Robbins
Butter Pecan - Baskin Robbins
Lemon - Bi-Rite
Cheesecake w/mixed berries - Cold Stone

Sketch Ice Cream*

The only thing I like about Sketch's Ice Cream in Berkeley is that it is made with good Strauss Yogurt. Other than that, I was not impressed by the flavors or the incredibly high price of $4.50 for a half a cup of ice cream. I tried the burnt caramel, the hazelnut and the blueberry -- the blueberry was the only passable flavor. If forced to return, I'd go with the fruit flavors.

MITCHELL'S****

On an ice cream streak this week. Today, Mitchell's. New rankings for Mitchell's: Lacuma is tied with Ube, then, Buko, Macapuno, Langka, Caramel Praline. This weather called for Buko and Lacuma.







Rocky Road and Oreo Cookie

MI LINDO PERU *' & Ice Cream Rankings

A and I had a decent lunch today at Mi Lindo Peru, the new Peruvian place right next to Blue Plate. They had a well priced lunch menu, everything was about $8. I ordered the Aguadito de Mariscos, a broth based seafood soup with a cilantro base chock full of calamari, fish and shrimps with a little bit of rice-- tasy and filling. A had the Paella Marinera, a Spanish style saffron paella which tasted great, very yellow and full of flavor. Huge portion. Good thing we did not eat the bread on the table. Sadly, they do not have the ceviche with aji amarillo thing that I loved in Peru.

It was actually hot (in June!) so we headed to Dolores Park to enjoy the weather. A stop at Bi-Rite Creamery was in order and even at 3 pm on a weekday there was a line of 6 people. geez. I got Salted Caramel and Strawberry Balsamic. This time the Salted Caramel was more salty, I wonder if it's because I paired it with the strawberry. Next time go chocolaty or nutty with the caramel OR go lemony or creamy with the strawberry balsamic. The flavors I have now tried in order of preference are: Salted Caramel (which was too salty for A), Strawberry Balsamic, Lemon, Butter Pecan, Ginger and Roasted Banana. Next time: try to have just one scoop. Try the lavender honey and the chai chocolate; and definitely get the Lemon.

For now, overall ice cream rankings are:
Lacuma and Ube (tie) - Mitchell's
Salted Caramel - Bi-Rite
Macapuno - Mitchell's
Coppa Mista - Gelato Classico
Butter Pecan - Baskin Robbins
Pistachio - Baskin Robbins
Strawberry Balsamic - Bi-Rite
Cheesecake w/mixed berries - Cold Stone

MY TOFU HOUSE**' & BI RITE CREAMERY***'

Enjoyed some very spicy combination Soon Tofu at My Tofu House. The panchan was different than I remembered. There was a small fish which was good, but I stopped eating it as soon as I found that they hadn't gutted it. Sure, it's a small fish, but c'mon, you still gotta gut it. The rest of the panchan was good, though the kimchee is more salty than spicy. Geary @ 11th.

After the salty kimchee, I could not resist stopping at BiRite Creamery on the way home. They had a dazzling array of flavors: honey lavender, strawberry balsamic, roasted banana, ginger, chocolate chai, browned butter pecan, soy chocolate, salted caramel, blood orangebutter pecan and the soy chocolate after all the buzz I already knew I was getting the salted caramel. Of course, I overdid it and went for two scoops. I didn't think the bp was buttery enough, it was too sweet -- I prefer Baskin Robbin's butter pecan. The soy chocolate was a bit more icey, it had about the same flavor as the store bought soy ice creams. I figured I'd overdo it by having a double, but felt guilty so I got the soy as my second flavor. The salted caramel was by far my favorite of the three. I'll have to be back to try the others. Good thing I was there at 3 pm on a weekday because I passed by coming home from dinner at 9 p.m. and there was a line all the way to the corner. Next time: blood orange and ginger.

I had a great Lacuma (Peruvian fruit) flavored scoop at Mitchell's last week, it might supplant the Ube as my fave.