The Bi-Rite Creamery Sundae Contest

Hi my favorite foodies!! It has been quite an exciting week for me.
Last month, Bi-Rite Creamery announced their "Sandwich and Sundae Contest" in honor of the opening of their new Divisadero location. The prose for the contest was this: 

"If Bi-Rite Divis were a sandwich, what would it look like? What would it taste like?" 

I decided that the perfect way to open up Bi-Rite Divis would be with a sundae that was sweet and salty...something a little rough around the edges. So I came up with "The Salty Ginger Sundae". Ginger ice cream, ginger snaps, chocolate fudge, whipped cream and a sprinkle of sea salt. I submitted my idea, not expecting to win in the slightest. It was just for my own pure fun and enjoyment. But alas, I received an email about two weeks ago notifying me that I'd won! The Salty Ginger Sundae was to be featured on the Bi Rite Divis menu! Not only that, but I won myself a free sundae, and a free pass to their very first "SF Food, Farm and Film Festival" and an after party guest pass as well. 
They mentioned me in a blog post, and I was featured in my schools newsletter two weeks in a row. Truly exciting stuff! I'm practically famous!
(mkay, let's not get too cocky here...)

The day of Bi-Rite's grand opening, I convinced my ice cream-obsessed Spanish teacher to take our class to the store during our long block (it wasn't hard). We wandered in at around 11 o'clock in the morning, just as the market was starting up. We were the first to order ice cream from their new location! That in and of itself was a milestone for me. 
I went back later on that evening with my parents to pick up my free sundae, and to my shocking surprise...they were out of ginger snaps! Meaning my sundae was so popular that they sold out of one of the main components of my sundae! They had to do a riff on my sundae, and coat it with lemon cookies instead....not quite as delicious, but still bi-rite quality. 

In exchange for the mixup though, they offered me another free sundae. Guess I can't complain about that ;) 

Mock Apple Pies

This year at school I'm taking a course called "Cooking with Chemistry"....which is basically the best thing ever! In the class we learn how to cook pretty basic recipes, but we learn the chemistry behind it all, and why each food does what it does. It's super informative, and will surely help later on in life when everyone in college has no idea how to properly boil and egg, or the meaning of the term "blanche". (because i will!)

So a few weeks ago, we learned how to make a "mock" apple pie. Otherwise known as an apple pie without apples. Sounds preposterous, right?! How in the world can one possibly bake this good ol' American classic without those signature granny smith apples? 
Well, it's actually very simple. And easy. And mind-blowing.
It begins with a store bought graham cracker crust. The ingredients consist of butter (of course), sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, baking soda, cinnamon, and....get ready....RITZ CRACKERS. Crackers! Like snacking food. Somehow, these ingredients get combined, thrown in the oven, and come out tasting and looking exactly like an apple pie. 

We first began by slightly crushing up the ritz cracker into pieces. The idea behind this is that once baked, the pieces look just like apple slices. And whether you want to believe it or not folks, appearance is a big factor in the way food ends up tasting. Aesthetics is key when it comes to cooking and baking, because when you see something that looks good, you eat it. 

The melted butter, with lemon, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon were all added to the pieces, and made into a sort of mixture. Then we topped it off with a little bit more butter (obviously) and popped in the oven. 

Now, the lemon juice was another interesting ingredient. We added it to contribute the tangy, tart flavor that apple pie usually has. You wouldn't think twice about it, but it was truly an essential ingredient to this fake apple pie. 

The mass amounts of melted butter not only helped these puppies taste delicious, but it was absorbed by the ritz crackers which gave the pies that almost mushy texture that a true apple pie would have. 

And there you have it! A mock apple pie. Bring it to a party, and tell everyone it's a homemade apple pie. 
They will believe you.
It looks like apple pie,
it tastes like apple pie,
and that's all that people will care about.

Axe Restaurant

This weekend my father and I went to Los Angeles for a quick weekend getaway/college tour and obviously, we were itching to eat at some of the best hipster locations in town.
Thankfully one of my dad's coworkers had a list of about 4 or 5 restaurants stacked up, so the issue was really just deciding where to go.
I decided we should try out this super cute, simplistic restaurant called "Axe". Pronounced "ah-shey", it comes off as a pretty pretentious institution....but apparently axe (or ah-sheyyyy) is a Nigerian word meaning "good blessings", used before eating meals. So that justified the cockiness of the name. 




Now, lets get down to the real business of this post: the food.
As soon as we walked in, I looked around and just about every table was noshing on this amazing looking piece of bread, rolled up, with different dips on the side. Immediately I knew...WE ARE ORDERING THIS. It was love at first sight.
I searched for it hard on the menu and ordered it right off the bat; it was a starter of grilled flatbread and spreads- including hummus, greens marmalade, shallot yogurt, muhumara, and roasted eggplant.

As soon as it arrived, there was a maddening rush to get a picture of the dish before our mouths were able to eat it. My dad especially, was very, very hungry. It was a little bit of a stressful experience to eat it just because it was that good. Both of us wanted to eat it all, but we couldn't. So it was a quick paced race to finish the flatbread and spreads. The entire time, my dad just kept repeating "wow" every other minute. 

It was quite a scene.

Axe does most of their dishes tapa style, so we ordered a few (probably a few too many) more things. We honestly could've been fine with just this flatbread starter and the salad, but there was too much good stuff on the menu to pass up. 

(*disclaimer: please excuse the extremely crappy quality of my iPhone food photos...the flash really does these dishes no justice whatsoever)....

This was the fresh dungeness crab salad with lettuce cups, avocado, cilantro, chili and lime dressing. 

Above, we have the sake marinated, grilled all-pasture filet of beef on the left

and grilled local squid with braised beans and aioli

 This dish I'm saving for last because it was my favorite (besides the flatbread). These were roasted beets with shallot cumin yogurt, cucumber mint relish, and toasted pistachios. Oh man it was soooo good. Both the beets and our amazing flatbread starter had very Moroccan/middle eastern vibes in their flavors. I really enjoyed the way the cold creaminess of shallot cumin yogurt paired with the usually weird taste of the beets; and then the toasty crunch from the pistachios! heaven. 

To conclude, let's just take another look at the flatbread dish, from a different angle. 

You're welcome.

Portuguese Nommin'

Just a few days ago I returned from a family vacation in Portugal, where I was fortunate enough to have some of their fresh, simple, and delicious food! The Portuguese are known for a few specialties: the fish, the bread, and the pastelerias (pastry shops), where they sell the infamous pastry, "Pastel de Nata". While most nights we cooked our own food, there were a few dishes I could not get enough of... 

This simple salad was called the "Portuguese salad" and was the first meal I had in Portugal. Certainly a great way to start the trip! 

This is the gazpacho they served at our hotel. I probably had this for lunch 3 or 4 times...it was served with prawns (shrimp) and a drizzle of olive oil on top. It was simply the most delicious thing ever, especially with some of that delicious Portuguese bread dipped in!

simple chicken kabobs with a mango sauce

To the left is a dish I ordered while dining at a traditional "Fado" restaurant; whilst we ate, different Fado singers came up and sang gloomy songs for about 10 minutes. It was actually a bit annoying because all movement stopped in the restaurant in order to avert all attention to the singer. So it took a lot longer for us to be served...

But I ended up ordering the black pepper grilled pork served atop a chestnut puree (the best part!) and grilled zucchini. As you can see, they served me a lot more pork than I'd bargained for. It was certainly enough for three people! The chestnut puree was delicious; I ate all of it. The pork? I was only able to finish 1/3 of! 

Another night we ate at a very traditional seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean. To order, we had to get up and go to the butcher himself behind the counter of fish and tell him what we wanted. All the starters and entrees were on display (in their raw state), and we had to scramble to tell the impatient Portuguese man what we wanted. He was a tad snappy, but I thought it was more authentic that way. 

For a starter, I ordered the Prawn salad (top left). It was probably the most delicious thing ever. It was so incredibly simple too! It consisted of cooked prawns, sliced onion, tomato, green peppers, basil, shredded carrots, and dressed lightly with olive oil and vinegar. 

I ordered the grilled salmon for my entree, and I personally loved how simple it all was. It was served with just steamed veggies and two cooked potatoes, no extra spices or flavorings. All the focus was kept on the fish. 

The last night, we went to this amazing restaurant called "Flavours". I ordered the Cataplaina, which was served in a giant pot. The waiter brought the pot out and served you some of the stew onto a plate for you. They also brought out a plate of rice that you could help yourself to. 

The dish itself was a chicken version (traditionally it's a seafood medley), which included chicken, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and an amazing sauce. I loved it. It was like Portuguese comfort food! Once again, it was so simple, yet so satisfying and tasty. 

We've definitely been inspired by many of the dishes from Portugal! you can expect some homemade Portuguese dishes to come in the future.

Not Your Average Salad

As typical as this may seem, given the fact that I'm a teenage girl, I love salad.
This is something I am proud to admit...Not because I come off as "dainty" or "healthy" or "lady-like" when I eat them, but because they are so versatile. Salads don't have to be limited to lettuce and cucumbers!! You can put almost ANYTHING in them.
Take for example, The Blue Barn Cafe on Chestnut street. They are known for their creative and colossal salads, which defy the standards of your average salad. The menu consists of 11 different salad options, plus a seasonal one, which include anything and everything from ahi tuna, soba noodles, pita chips, blanched asparagus, crumbled egg, niman bacon or even pomegranate---and much more. 
They give you the option of ordering one of the salads on the menu or you can create your own. You can add things to your salad from each and every category (greens, crunch, sweet, salty, etc), even a "protein", which includes chicken, falafel, quinoa, steak, etc...


Two of my personal favorites from Blue Barn are the Fattoush salad and the Spicy Tuna salad. The Fattoush is a greek-style salad, and is composed of romaine, chicory chop, cherry tomatoes, red onions, cucumber, scallions, chickpeas, nicoise olives, herbs, crispy pita, feta cheese and a champagne-sumac vinaigrette. It's even better if you add avocado or grilled chicken; or both!

The Spicy Tuna salad (pictured above) includes mixed greens, chicory chop, spicy ahi tuna, avocado, mango, snow peas, cucumber, scallions, sesame seeds, soba noodles, and a miso-ginger vinaigrette. 
Blue Barn is notorious for having salads so big that people are simply unable to finish them. I've seen some pretty big guys who aren't even able to finish them! 
But let's be honest folks....the only reason they can't finish them is because people are simply shocked at how full they are from just a salad, and therefore "cannot" finish them. Pretty lame if you ask me.
Because I've never not finished one of these salads. Sure, initially it may feel as if you're really full, but that feeling immediately goes away once you remember how delicious it is. 
So please, get yourself over to Blue Barn and try one of these salads. And finish it.