gastronomic endeavors, 6/21/10

today was quite the food-filled day. i woke up and my friend made some chocolate chip pancakes (i had twice the amount of chocolate chips as everyone else) and some fresh squeezed oj. my friend who made them's secret was to put half a mashed up banana in the batter. it was yummy because you could taste just a hint of banana flavor, which went well with the chocolate. no pictures.

for lunch i was supposed to go eat with the same friends, but around 2 i give him a call and as he picks up, i hear "oh shit i forgot we were supposed to call nicole.. hey what's up?" nice. so instead, i went to the city with another friend with the mission of grabbing some lunch, then making our way to an ice cream place called humphry slocombe. little did i know, this would be the start of an epic food adventure, perhaps the most epic food adventure of my entire life.

i suggested ike's place, which is a sandwich place i've heard a lot about. but then i realized i also wanted to go to pizzeria delfina, another place i've been meaning to go to. DILEMMA! the mission has an overwhelming amount of fantastic sources of food—so what were two hungry youths like us to do? compromise: split one sandwich at ike's, and split one pizza at delfina. problem solved.

the line was 4-5 times longer than this.

i only had my phone today, so sorry for the crappy quality of pictures.

as we pulled up to ike's place (primo parking spot snagged right across the street, btw) there was a huge line out the door. this place is effin' popular. and for good reason; i recently saw two of their sandwiches featured on grub street's the san francisco sandwich register (a follow-up to their previous review of the 101 best sandwiches in new york), among many other accolades. after deciding on a sandwich and waiting about 15 minutes to order, then maybe another 15 minutes to get our sandwich, we made our way to dolores park to devour said creation.

the peg bundy before: breaded eggplant, french dressing, avocado, smoked gouda, + all the basics every sando comes with ("dirty sauce," lettuce, tomato, red onions, pickles, banana peppers)

the peg bundy after (they even give you a lollipop!)

we digested for a bit in the park, then went to delfina. on the way we passed bi-rite creamery, and it felt wrong to be so close and not get any ice cream there, though i knew we were going to ice cream after delfina. but a roadblock in our plans came when we found out that delfina wasn't open yet for dinner, as it was that awkward limbo time between lunch and dinner. so, we stopped in at bi-rite market, where i picked up some ginger beer that i had been craving and two types of cheeses: one from pt. reyes, and one handmade by nuns in france, called secret du convent ("which means 'secret of the convent' in french," it read. no shit!).

since we had some time to kill.. i thought, why not get a bit of post-lunch, pre-linner ice cream (before our planned post-linner ice cream)? this certainly wouldn't be the first time i've had ice cream more than once in a day. bi-rite creamery's ricanelas (cinnamon ice cream with snickerdoodles) and brown butter pecan are my favorites.

counter-clockwise, from top left: ricanelas, brown butter pecan, and balsamic strawberry

finally, to pizzeria delfina. we got the last outside table, perfect for people-/hipster- watching. i was craving artichoke hearts, and luckily one of the special pizzas of the day had sauteéd artichokes on it.

capricciosa pizza: proscuitto cotto, artichokes, nepitella, panna, & mozzarella

humphry slocombe is in the southeastern part of the mission, so we had a bit of a walk to get there. perfect for walking off a bit of my growing food baby. when we got there, i was greeted with such ice cream flavors such as balsamic caramel and secret breakfast, and sorbets like cucumber ice milk, hibiscus beet, or thai chili lime. what? wait, what?! check out their full list of the flavors here. we sampled literally every one, except for maybe vanilla and chocolate.

between the two of us, we ended up getting balsamic caramel, mcevoy olive oil, peanut butter curry, and cucumber ice milk.

the balsamic caramel was really intense. they definitely captured the strong balsamic flavor (unlike bi-rite's balsamic strawberry, where you can't really taste the balsamic) but by the end it was a bit overwhelming. the olive oil was flavored with a bit of citrus, which you could taste at the beginning and then shifted to an olive oil aftertaste. it was nice until i realized that between the citrus flavor and the olive oil flavor, it tasted kinda soapy. hmm. and together the two were interesting (à la olive oil & balsamic vinegar).

the peanut butter curry was my favorite; it tasted just like peanut butter at first, but you were left with a delicious curry aftertaste. together with the cucumber ice milk, the combo reminded me of eating the cucumbers that come as a garnish for chicken satay, dipped in peanut sauce.

lastly, as we walked back to the car, we stopped at ritual roasters, a mission staple. yes the number of pretentious hipsters that inhabit the trendy café is unmatched, but the coffee is also pretty tasty. also, my friend is obsessed and demanded we stop in.

we got lattes.

LASTLY, seeing some saffron threads at bi-rite market gave me the idea to make paella for dinner. so when i got home i started cooking some paella, switching recipes three times before settling upon a recipe for express paella using a pressure cooker (best invention ever), mostly because my family was hungry and it was already 9:30. i added all the spices that were listed in all the other recipes though, which i think made it a lot better. it came out a bit liquidy, but tasted yummy.

phew.