mission beach cafe

Last night we had a little GNO with Heather's mom! (my mom would've gone too, but she was out seeing a Prince concert...ha!) The three of us decided that we were in the mood for a gourmet burger, and Heather's mom suggested a restaurant in the Mission district called Mission Beach Cafe (http://www.missionbeachcafesf.com/). The restaurant was cute and welcoming, and we got a table right next to the desserts! 
After drooling over the large dessert selection and debating on what we were going to get, we were handed the dinner menus. It was a jam-packed menu! And by that, I mean that each dish was obviously very well thought out. From the appetizers, to the sides, to the entrees, we knew that between the three of us, we had to try as much food as possible. 
Appetizers:
First, we ordered a flavorful salad and their soup of the day. We were deciding between either the soup or the brussels sprouts, and then decided to just order it all. The salad's ingredients worked AMAZINGLY together. The super vinaigrette-y dressing on the lettuce was super good when eaten with the super sweet radishes/parsnips/...?, and the crunchy things on top. It was the combination of bitter, sweet, salty, cruncy, tangy that made it all work together. The best part was that we couldn't really identify what these colorful, sweet, radish-type things were and we actually ended up asking the waiter. But I don't really remember what it ended up being! Must be the food coma I went into a few hours later. The soup was "jerusalem artichoke", and tasted JUST like artichoke hearts! I believe there was truffle oil to add a little kick too. 
 The brussels sprouts were brussels sprouts, and they always will be. But Mission Beach managed to incorporate ingredients such as garlic and lemon to make at least the outsides taste amazing! Heather's mom graciously offered to eat the centers, while our taste buds are still a little to immature to appreciate the bitter taste of a brussel sprout.
Entrees:
Oh man. Since we were in a burger mood, me and Heather both had to order the burger. It came complete with garlic aioli, sauteed mushrooms and aged gouda cheese. The wait between the brussels sprouts and the burger coming to our table was a little long...and since we were hungry, it felt UNBEARABLY long. But once it came, it was a delicious, juicy, salty burger. IT WAS SO FLAVORFUL. I can't get over  how much heaven my taste buds were in. 

look at how well that bun soaked up the burger juices!

Instead of the default kennebec fries, we ordered the burgers with their parmesan TRUFFLE FRIES! This was my first time having truffle fries, and this was an excellent place to start. Just as the burger, these fries had MASSIVE FLAVOR. THEY WERE DELICIOUS, and really, really salty. Maybe a little too salty to order with the burger, though (which is probably why the burger is normally served with the kennebec fries). Sadly enough, I couldn't even finish the burger OR the fries because 1) I was really, really full, and 2) I had to save room for dessert. If this place didn't have dessert, I would've definitely finished the burger because it was too good to stop eating. 

Dessert:

YAY time for the best part of all meals! dessert! This is where deciding what to order got really stressful. We knew we had to order the chocolate cake because it was sitting there, staring at us throughout our dinner. They are known for their pies, so we decided we had to order a pie as well. And they had cream pies! But there was also an angel food cake covered in chocolate! We decided that the best way to do this between the three of us was to order a cake, a fruity pie, and a cream pie. But the angel food cake was calling our name as well. The final decision was that we would order the angel food cake afterwards if there was still room--let's just say that we're gonna have to go back to try the angel food cake another time.

we got the brooklyn blackout cake (of course), the cherry pie, and the chocolate cream pie (which, compared to the chocolate cake, tasted like chocolate milk! the chocolate flavor wasn't super overbearing. in a good way). Each was served with a dollop of whipped cream, and let me tell you--THESE DESSERTS WERE SO GOOD. but even us sweet-toothed monsters WEREN'T ABLE TO FINISH. by this time our food babies were forming, and you have no idea how badly i wanted to finish the chocolate cake. 

This was man versus food, and today folks, food won.

clement street (part II)

For lunch one fine thursday afternoon, it occured to us to have some DIM SUM. We bus-ed it al the way out to clement street where my lovely friends jenna 
(who deserves a photo because she was our wonderful photographer -->), 
and hana (who is here right outside this <-- wonderful eating establishment)took me to Good Luck Dim Sum. Which was lucky for me (see the pun there?) becasue it was DELISH. This was definatley the kind of place the locals eat at and it was just absolutley wonderful. 

Now I am not a huge fan of pork or of shrimp, which i should really get over because here jenna-the-expert ordered us the best selection of dim sum, including pork and shrimp filled things.I dont REALLy remember what everything was called but i know there was siu mai and cha siu bao--MY FAVORITES. 
Siu mai is this pork meatball type thing in some sort of yummy wrapped and cha siu bao is STEAMED PORK BUNS, aka heavan on earth. We had a giganitic plate of dim sum, and then we ate it. ALL OF IT, it was amazing.
And to top it all off, the meal of dim sum-y awesomeness was completed by, what else, dessert. We had this little hollow rolls of mochi like stuff all covered in sesame seeds and filled with red bean paste, SO GOOD. Why haven't I been here before?

clement street adventure

After a luxurious half day at school, my chemistry partners in crime Jenna and Hana took me to their wonderful neighborhood-- CLEMENT STREET.
woot woot.

It was here that we had food adventures. Great food adventures, the first of which is bubble tea (milk tea with tapioca) and honey dew slush. These wondertastic beverages were purchased at the coolest store ever. 
There were rows and rows of candy--asian specialty candy right along side your basics, so delish.

yes, those are lychee, durian, red bean and taro flavored ice cream

And then right across from this plethora of candy...there was even more variety, with tropical ice cream flavors and a bilingual menu, this place had it all.

 This menu right here was actually really overwhelmingly delicious and made it extremely difficult to decide on our beverages, Jenna was set on tapioca...but that didnt narrow it down at all because tapioca could be added to EVERY BEVERAGE.
After about five minutes of looking at ever option, we finally setteled for one PIÑA COLADA bubble tea and one HONEY DEW SLUSH. The slush was icy and cold and tasted JUST like honey dew and we got to watch the lady make it, shaving down the ice and mixing it up. The pina colada one was just as refreshing, and although tapioca's not my thing, it was delicious and tropical and really it the spot. These yummy beverages were just really, really, reaaaaally good.

★ more clement street food adventuring to come...