FOOD TRUCK QUICK BITE: SEOUL OF TAIPEI...I'M GUESSING IT'S FUSION?

Holiday weekends are odd--Saturdays feel like Friday, Sundays seem amiss and Mondays feel like Sunday. That was the case a few weeks ago when me and the SO were out and about and starting to feel the need for food. We hit upon jaunting by SOMA StrEatFood Park to see what was going on. Turns out, not a lot. There were maybe five trucks operating and at first it seemed a little weird then I was like, oh yeah, it's a Monday night, not the weekend. Since the choices were few and I'd been to most of them already, me and the SO actually were able to agree on trying a new we hadn't seen called Seoul of Taipei, I think it was the fries covered in stuff that caught both our attentions on the menu.

OUTERLANDS....ALL THE WAY OUT TO OCEAN BEACH FOR A MEAL?

San Francisco is a city of only 49 or so square miles, though when you are thinking of going out for a bite to eat, you have a tendency to stick relatively close to home because driving and parking in this town suck and riding MUNI most anywhere really sucks. Every now and then however, me and the SO manage to pull it all together and make actual reservations to try a place that's gotten raves and is quite literally on the other side of the city from where we live. In this instance I mean Outerlands. While many folks know this as a go to brunch spot for the Sunset set, they have recently expanded the restaurant and are doing the full on dinner service. So on a recent Sunday night we made our 30 minute way across town to give them a try.

YOUR WEEKLY DIGESTION OF FOOD NEWS TO CONSUME..LOADED WITH SUGAR AND BUTTER

Neighbor Bakehouse just opened up a store front recently in the Dogpatch neighborhood and of course I was all over that. The seem to run out of things so depending on when you get there the choices could be more or less. On my recent foray they were starting to run low but I managed to zero in on what would normally be called a kouign amain, though when I said that, the girl behind the counter would call it that directly, she said it was more a variation on it and different from that other famous one you can get here in town. At $3.50 a pop my first thought was it's a little on the pricey side but once I got it, I completely changed my mind. It's a very heavy, dense, fried-like pastry bun full of caramelized sugar. It kind of reminded me of those apple fritter things you find at Happy Donuts and for me, that's a good thing. You can peel off flaky bits that are sweet, buttery and yummy to the tongue. While there is a possibility it was next to or baked with something that had rosemary ginger in it, I was almost sure I could taste hints of that in the dough. Again, for me, not really a bad thing. It was very light and and seemed to compliment the sweetness of the bun. Who knows? Maybe my taste buds were just imagining it, either way, I did like the small notes of whatever it was. The only small thing was some of the sugar had hardened so much around parts of the bottom that it was a little too sticky, crunchy and hard to chew. Other than that I really liked this sweet bun and it could become one of my favorite go to desserts whenever I'm in the Dogpatch hood. Though seems like I'd have to go early to make sure I get one and sometimes laziness can prevent that. But if I'm near and I can then I will. 

• It's a bad week for vegan restaurants both high end and low end. 
• Coffee Review--it's some guy in Rockridge of all places. 
• The $40 main course entree is the new new thing in SF. Maybe everything doesn't have to be organic people.
• Ike's has the sandwiches, now they are thinking about having the burgers. Plus he seems to think $8-$10 burgers are affordable for that part of the Mission? 
• Here's that Market thing in that Twitter building.
• LihoLiho Yacht Club is almost at its final brick and mortar destination. 
• Ugh Lazy Bear. It's just so pricey, but if SFWeekly likes it, I probably need to suck it up and spend the dough. 
•  So long to another McD's, though it was time for this one to go.
• Coffee, coffee, coffee--get 'yer coffee! At these7! new places in town.  
• Here's where to get your bibimbap fill in the Bay Area. If you don't know what that is--you really should try it. 
• French Laundry's wines were found 3,000 miles away. They just needed a vacation. 

DOUGHBIES COOKIES ON DEMAND...BECAUSE I WANT THEM NOW! NOW! NOW!

Cookies on demand, delivered to my door within 20 minutes because I want them right now? Seems kind of like a joke and a little preposterous, but that is exactly what Doughbies sets out to be for the I want it now generation. Yes, just like Veruca Salt. Seemed like an odd thing to be as a start-up, in addition to a limited selection and a strange business model. Being the consummate cookie fiend I am I was totally game to give them a try and see if my cookie dreams would come true.

YOUR WEEKLY DIGESTION OF FOOD NEWS TO CONSUME...AND MORE VEGAN DESSERTS!

I continued my tour of Peeples vegan pastry choices by going all in on the biggest thing I saw--this sweet potato bun/roll thing ($3.25). It was quite heavy. When I got it home I sliced it open (see below) and you can almost tell how dense it is. On my first bite I tried to get half bun half iced topping to get the full on effect. My initial reaction, it was a little dry. Beyond that it was sweet, the texture was okay and not "different" like last weeks donut. I took another bite, yep, still a little dry, though I can just taste the sweet potato. I do think that flavor needed to be kicked up some. The icing on top was also supposed to be sweet potato but really just tasted like plain powdered sugar icing. Eh, I didn't hate but did feel like something was missing. That's when I had the brilliant idea to heat it up just a touch in the microwave. A little 30 second blip and voila- it did taste a little better warm, still dry and still feeling like it was missing something. Of course me next reaction just pointed up the total Southern in as, yes, I reached for the butter. You are right, suddenly that little smear makes it no longer vegan, but it also brought an extra flavor and life to the bun that it was sorely missing. Without it, the bun is okay and cooking a little less could help the dryness, but really even just the smallest bit of butter took this to another level. Enough so that I would actually get it again, heat it up, spread on the butter love and enjoy away. Vegan diss? No, more my personal taste profile than to being totally opposed to anything vegan. I did try the vegan thing for a full year in college (isn't that when we all try new things?) but ultimately I did miss, not meat, but butter and cheese. Final thought--sweet potato bun/roll thing is worth a try to see what you think--butter not included. 

• So long Supperclub. Another institution bites the dust. 
• Smitten Ice Cream gets in the beer ice cream game and swears it'll make you drunk.
• Time to eat healthy for the New Year!  That'll last about a week.
• It's Tikka Masala & Pizza! Can't be any worse than Chinese Food & Donuts.
• Neighbor Bakehouse opens storefront in Dogpatch. Calories be damned!
• It's VeganBurg--and it's coming to San Francisco.
• Pop-up beer garden and (really?!) 4505 Meats (ugh..why) coming to AT&T parking lot. They've already removed all the handicapped parking signs to make way for it.  
• The Manufactory will be the name of Tartine's new Potrero Hill place. Hmmm....
• Chef at that new "upscale Mexican" place in the Mission tells us why, why, why!
• Some new place called Charin has the most pompous, overblown restaurant description I seen in some time. No wonder people hate foodies like this. Can't someone just say "we're gonna make good food" and let it go. 
• The holidays are over and these things opened during that time, in case you missed it. 

BUSTER'S SOUTHERN BARBECUE IN CALISTOGA...THEY'VE GOT YOU SMOKED

When you are wine tasting (drinking heavily) in Napa, it's always good to stay fed in order to have something to soak up all that sweet alcohol. Of course, if you are going to be paying for tastings, you don't necessarily want to be be dropping a wad for food at every meal. It's best to find some affordable place that has some decent food and will fill you up heartily so you can get back onto the wine trail. In searching out places to eat I'm always drawn to barbecued meats and if I see smoke coming from a grill I'm gonna wanna stop and try. Such was the case with Buster's Southern Barbecue in Calistoga.

ARCHETYPE IN ST HELENA...MAYBE I JUST NEEDED MORE WINE

Napa Valley, these days it's where tourists go when they want to experience "wine country". For those of us who've lived in SF awhile, you find yourself expanding to other areas with wineries and vineyards like Sonoma, Paso Robles and even Livermore (I know but look it up). Recently, the SO and I decided to get away for a few days and go old-school kitschy tourists and see what was up in Napa/St. Helena/Calistoga these and maybe hit up some populist wineries like Beringer and Sutter Home (ooo...pink zinfandel!). Besides some silly winery fun and drink it was also an opportunity to try some new eating places, though sadly no French Laundry as they are currently closed for a remodel, oh well. That still left plenty of other places to try, the first of which was a sort of revamped place. It was originally called French Blue, but new management has rechristened it Archetype and revamped the menu. They've had 8 months to work out the kinks so seemed like a good time to go.

YOUR WEEKLY DIGESTION OF FOOD NEWS TO CONSUME

Vegan, it conjures up so many images where food is concerned, sometimes not in a good way. Particularly for me where desserts are concerned. I want my eggs, butter and what not to make things all yummy, tasty, creamy, whatever. There are a few places in town that cater to all things vegan and several do dessert foods, though I usually just roll the eyes and think if I'm gonna eat sweets I'm gonna go all in. One such place that has a location in the Ferry Building is Peeples Donuts. I've walked by it on numerous occasions but just kept on going. I couldn't bring myself to try them. Then one day I find myself in Rainbow Grocery (don't ask) and see they have a selection of things from Peeples. I shrug and think WTF, why not get some and try it. At $2.25 a pop (kind of expensive for a donut to me) I survey the goods and try to get the biggest one they have (that doesn't have coconut on it) and zero in on what appears to be a lemon poppy seed as the labeling at the store was a bit off. It feels pretty heavy and dense and the bright yellow you see in the pic is exactly the day-glow color it was to the eye. I cut it open (see below) and it is a very dense, cakey donut. The lemon poppy seed flavor is only found in the icing on top, which immediately comes off when you bite into it. The lemon flavor is tangy but not very lemony, almost tastes fake, and the poppy seeds add nothing at all as they are too few to make a difference. As for the the donut itself, it had a nice crunchy outside, but the inside borders slightly on the dry side. Plus for some reason, when I first bit into it, the first flavor that came to my taste buds minds was cornbread. Can't tell you why, but that is the flavor profile I got. Not unpleasant mind you, just unexpected in a donut. Texture wise it was denser than an old fashioned, which is about as dense a donut as you'll find. It wasn't terrible, just a bit off. It was more like I was eating a biscuit as opposed to a donut and I would need a touch of a mind re-set to enjoy it. Maybe if the flavors had been infused through the thing I might feel differently, as is, not sure this would be something I'd get again since for the cost it didn't knock my dessert socks off. Alas, I was undaunted though as I did get another of Peeples treats to try and I'll review it in next weeks food news. 

• Combating the problem of noisy Bay Area restaurants--the East Bay way.
• Because burgers in this city don't cost enough, here's a foie gras one.
• Sprig is expanding to the peninsula and it seems they are becoming like all San Francisco restaurants as they are now offering---brunch! Will we still have to wait in line?
• Le Bauer says these are 5 ways to improve restaurants. I would think serving really good food would be the first step. 
• Foie Gras is legal again in California! Grab some hard toast and get it before another judge changes their mind.
• And these new laws loosely associated with food are now legal in California.
• Parts of Blue Bottle Coffee at Ferry Building are closing for remodeling. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
• There's an app for rating your server in a kinder, gentler way. It's called Grate. (as in grating?)
• Zagat says to be on the lookout for these new places in 2015.
• Something called Californios opened in the Mission. They have no menus, it's kind of Mexican "inspired", it's tasting menu only, there's $40 reservation cancellation fee, the front windows are frosted over so you can't see in or out and the chef is said to be avant garde. It all means you'll drop a load of dough and still leave hungry and confused about what you ate. 
• What some are calling the 'NorCal Eataly' is finally opening this month on Market Street. 

THE MELT IS SERVING BURGERS NOW BECAUSE......

The Melt came on the scene in a bright flash. Founded by a techie who made a lot of cash by selling his company, they set out to be The Chipotle of grilled cheese sandwiches. You know, because that is what the people were clamoring for, right? Well, here we are a few years on, and most of the locations have "temporarily" closed while they reconfigure their menu, operations, brand, whatever, and relaunch touting both their previous grilled cheese and now their addition of burgers to the menu. While many of the restaurants are not up and running yet, the original spot, which I visited way back when, has reopened with the burger menu available. So, of course, I found time to stop by and see if there was any fuss to be made of yet another burger joint in San Francisco.

TAP (415) BRINGS HIGH END BEER JOINT TO THE MALL

I'm still in that mall mode to start the new year. This time I'm hanging out at The Westfield. Well, not really hanging out, more like me and the SO just saw a movie, we are hungry, it's raining outside and we don't want to go far to get some grub. Yeah, we are lazy like that. Instead of heading down to the basement to eat I vaguely remember that some new places opened up on the top level of the place right under the dome. Of the new joints there, I wasn't in a Chinese food mood so instead we hit up this place called Tap (415).