Jack In The Box

I accidentally put my e-mail address and birthdate into a site to get free birthday treats.  Well, sorta accidentally.  I thought I was just signing up for one thing ...

Anyway, as a result, I got a bunch of birthday freebie certificates, mostly all things that need to be used this week.  I certainly won't use them all, as some are entirely unappealing (anyone want some free chicken tacos from Del Taco?  Or an appetizer at Chevy's?) and a bunch are BOGOs (if anyone wants to pay for a pretzel at Auntie Anne's or a creation at Cold Stone, let me know, I'll tag along and get the free one!)

But many have no strings attached, like the promise of a free dessert from Jack In The Box.  Now, I've never had a single thing from Jack In The Box, but it said I got my pick of desserts (cheesecake or chocolate cake), and you know I always want more dessert!

I picked the cheesecake, assuming it was easiest to get right.  It uh, was very wrong.  But the girl was friendly and wished me a Happy Birthday!  I won't be returning.

NY Style Cheesecake: "A light and creamy cheesecake with a graham cracker crust".  $1.99.

This was one of the worst slices of cheesecake I've ever had.  It had absolutely no flavor.  I didn't know it was possible to make cheesecake that didn't have even the slightest cream cheese flavor!  The consistency was nice though, very creamy.  The graham cracker crust was totally forgettable, it was there, but also didn't taste like anything.

I heated up some of my mom's strawberry jam and topped it with that, and whipped cream, but even that didn't save it.  Meh!

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Milkshake from Roxy's Cafe

It was a beautiful, sunny day in the Mission.  And I had GoPago credits burning a hole in my pocket.  What better way to celebrate than with a milkshake?

I quickly found a place a few blocks away that had milkshakes on the menu.  I cross checked with Yelp, and found a slew of positive reviews.  Sold!

I walked into Roxy's Cafe, and was greeted by a nice man behind the counter.  There were no other customers, but another woman was in there, slicing produce at one of the tables.  Along with a couple tables, there were stools along a counter.  A big menu board advertised some sandwiches and other specials, and listed smoothies and milkshakes, but gave no descriptions.  Almost as if reading my mind, the man presented me with 4 laminated menus, listing out the insane selection of choices.  Basically, any fruits, candies, etc that you could desire, mixed up into your favorite frozen concoction.  So many choices!

I took a few minutes to read over the options, weighing my choices.  Did I want a light, refreshing smoothie?  Or did I want to go all out, and get a decadent, peanut butter cheesecake oreo cookie crumble milkshake?  I settled for something in the middle.  You could also add in malt, or sub out the whole milk for soy milk, and of course top it with whipped cream.

Overall, it was a fine milk shake, but nothing different than what I'd make myself.  Still, it was perfectly satisfying on a hot sunny day, and, like all of my experiences thus far, GoPago worked perfectly!

Shamrock Milkshake, Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream,  Whole Milk, Whipped Cream.  $3.50.

Sweet, minty, with bits of chocolate chips broken up inside for some fun texture.  Pretty standard quality ice cream and milk, whipped cream from a can.  Large size (16 ounces) for $3.50, a decent deal.

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Dessert @ Tuba Restaurant and Grill

After my dessert-less meal at Udupi Palace, I was left craving something sweet.  (Then again, when do I ever NOT want dessert?)  To keep my poor sore throat happy I wanted something creamy, but I wasn't really in the mood for ice cream, as it was fairly cold out.  I pulled up GoPago to see where else nearby I could use my credits and discovered a place that sounded amazing, albeit with a rather unfortunate name: Tuba Restaurant and Grill, a Turkish restaurant.  On the dessert menu, among other fantastic sounding treats, was rice pudding and crème brûlée, both perfectly fitting for my sore throat AND things that I absolutely love.  I settled on the rice pudding, as it fit more in theme with my meal.

I quickly looked up the restaurant on Yelp before ordering, and was stunned by the reviews, all incredibly positive.  The menu sounds fantastic, from the hot and cold appetizers, to the mains, to the rest of the desserts.  I'll definitely be going back for a full meal sometime soon!

I ordered my pudding to go using GoPago when I was two blocks away, and it was ready and waiting when I got there.  Again, GoPago worked like a charm!  Maybe I'll even keep using it once my free credits expire :)

Sütlaç: oven-baked rice pudding.  $5.

This was my first encounter with Turkish rice pudding.  I didn't quite know what to expect, knowing that every culture takes a slightly different spin on rice puddings.  Some sweeter than others, the rice cooked to different doneness levels, different spicing, different amounts of cream, etc.

This was really good.  I'm not sure that I'd ever had a baked rice pudding before, which was a little strange at first.  The top layer was a bit of a film, a little off putting, but I think a result of being baked?  It also had a little scorched area, but again, I think that was intentional.

The pudding had a lot of liquid in it, fairly runny, but not in a bothersome way.  It was a rather perfect level of sweetness, enough to know you were eating a dessert, but not too much at all.  It also had a nice vanilla flavor, and some other spicing that I couldn't identify.  The rice was al dente, big whole grains, nicely crunchy.  Topped with some crushed pistachio, which added another crunch, but I didn't like as I'm not a big fan of pistachio.

I could easily see someone thinking it was too runny or that the rice wasn't cooked enough, but I thought it was quite tasty, and enjoyed the contrasting textures and consistencies.  I'd order it again, but I do want to try their other desserts too!

$5 seemed a little high when I first received it in my little togo box, but when I think about it, if I'd ordered it in a restaurant, that price would seem low, so this really was a fine price.

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After Osha

After Osha is the casual, mostly take-out, version of the popular Osha Thai chain.  Since there are three full service Oshas within a mile of my house, I don't usually venture to After Osha, but I've been fairly intrigued by it since its opening, as every time I walk by, they seem to be doing things a little differently.  I think they are trying to figure out their market, and keep changing up the format every few months to see what sticks.

Currently, when you walk in, you first encounter the appetizer and salad bar.  Here you can grab pre-made rolls, or order rolls to be made to order, or order salads (papaya, mango) to order.  Or ... you can order ice cream, in assorted Thai flavors.  Or, crepes, freshly made to order, of either savory or sweet varieties.  The savory selection includes things like tuna salad with hardboiled egg in it.  The sweet ones are your standard fruit and cream, or nutella and banana, or red bean and ice cream.

Then, you move on to the next section, where there are a bunch of pre-made dishes, ranging from classic pad thai, to pumpkin curry, to volcanic beef.  You can choose to get a box filled up with as many different things as you want.  Or you can order a specific entree made to order.

And then, there are the desserts.  The dessert selection seems different every time I visit, and includes traditional mango with sticky rice, mango pudding, and some Thai baked goods.  And then some not-so-standard items, like macarons.  Today there was a fruit trifle, with sponge cake, mascarpone, and berries.  And an incredible looking layered chocolate dessert.  Or sometimes there is crème brûlée, but sadly, they were out of it today.  The selection is rather incredible.  And then, there are the drinks, Thai iced coffee, Thai iced tea, and a few others.

Phew!  One cannot complain that there are not choices!  The staff are all eager to tell you about your different options, clearly used to people being a little confused by the layout.  There are tables to sit at, but I get the impression that most people take their food and leave.

The food is all of standard Osha quality, but at a cheaper price point, and obviously more casual setting.  If I need to just grab some rolls, or crave some Thai dessert, I'll definitely be back.  The "fill a box with pre-made dishes" option isn't very appealing, as the few things I've sampled from there seem to have been sitting for quite a while.  I'd like to try some of the crepes sometime too.

Also ... they are on GoPago, so I checked them out today, to use up a few more of my free GoPago credits.  Free dessert = win!

 Jade: Pandanus tapioca with kettle corn and coconut cream.  $3.95. 

Since they didn't have my precious crème brûlée, I settled for another dessert category I love: puddings!    One bite of this, and I was instantly transplanted back to the very first Thai restaurant I ever went to, Thai 99, in Charlottesville, VA, when I was a graduate student.  About once a month, we would splurge, and go to lunch there.  The lunch deal was a full $10 once you included tax and tip, which was very significant for us as grad students.  The meal was huge however, starting with a soup, including a crispy spring roll, your choice of entree and rice, and then it always ended with a coconut milk based pudding, with tapioca and random jelly like things we could never quite identify.

After Osha's Jade was really almost identical to that dessert, or at least, to my memory of it.  Sweet, coconut milk based cream, little tapioca balls, and some larger chunks of ... something.  This however, also contained corn kernels.  Now, I love corn.  Particularly sweet corn.  And I'm all for having fun and putting in some savory ingredients into my desserts.  But ... the corn just didn't work for me at all.  I liked the texture it added, but I just couldn't get past the flavor.

Besides the corn however, I really liked this.  The tapioca was particularly notable in how well it was prepared, not clumped together, tender, just nicely done.

Because of the corn, I'd probably opt to try something else next time, but I did like this quite a bit, particularly for the fond memories of grad school it conjured up :)  $3.95 was a fitting price.

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Notes from prior visits:

• Pad Thai: "Rice stick noodles stir-fried with egg, bean sprout, chives, tofu and ground peanut with your choice of chicken or shrimp".  Tasting notes:  Just sweet, kinda mushy noodles, had been sitting out, clearly.
• Pad See Ew: "Rice noodles pan fried with Chinese broccoli, egg, black soy sauce with chicken".  Tasting notes: This was not good.  Even though I got there at opening, and it was "fresh", the noodles were way over cooked and soggy.  There wasn't much flavor to it either.  Meh.
• Spring Roll: "Vegetarian wrapped in fresh rice paper with lettuce, mint and homemade peanut dipping sauce".  Tasting notes: Decent, fairly fresh tasting, good peanut sauce on top. [ Spring roll rice paper wrapper good, but overall not much flavor in the other ingredients.  Peanut sauce is a must. ]  [ Fairly generic spring roll, but great peanut sauce. ]
• Crab Rangoon: Tasting notes: The wonton wrapper was fried up nice and crisp, and was quite tasty.  The inside seemed to be almost all cream cheese though, I wouldn't have known there was any crab in there.  Perhaps I got a dud?
• Pumpkin Curry: "Kabocha pumpkin in red curry sauce, bell pepper and chicken".  Tasting notes: Fairly sweet curry sauce, decent flavor, mediocre chicken.  Seemed mostly white meat at least.

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Christopher Michael Chocolates

Another, not quite local, chocolatier from the SF Chocolate Salon.

• Raspberry truffle: "Fresh raspberry pate de fruit on top of a dark chocolate ganache that's blended with fresh raspberries."  Tasting notes: Smooth ganache, strange mouthfeel.
• Sizzling Bacon Bar: "41% Venezuelan milk chocolate with smoked bacon, sea salt and popping candy".  Tasting notes: Salty, strong bacon flavor.

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Udupi Palace

As you may recall, I've still yet to find an Indian restaurant in San Francisco that I really like.  But I love Indian food, so I keep on trying!  I continued my quest tonight down Valencia Street, to Udupi Palace.  I *think* they are related to much newer Gajalee, just a few blocks down, which served us some pretty decent Indian food on our last visit.

I had a handful of other reasons for picking Udupi tonight.  First, Indian food is always a good choice on Sunday nights, since fine dining really doesn't ever work on out Sundays, as most executive chefs have the (well deserved!) night off.  I also still have a sore throat, and any food that requires any real effort in swallowing is insanely unappealing.  Soft curry sounded like exactly what my throat ordered!  And finally, I had some GoPago credits burning a hole in my pocket, and Udupi was one of only a few well rated places on there.  Sunday night + sore throat + free = Udupi!

The restaurant was much busier than Aslam's Rosai, a very good sign.  By the time I left, there was a large line out the door.  Decor was simple, wooden tables and chairs.  Everything seemed clean.  Service was efficient.  Water glasses were kept refilled.

GoPago worked like a charm, although they only had the take out option on there, so I used it, but then put in the notes that I was eating there instead.  A little awkward and I wasn't convinced my order would show up at my table correctly, but it did.  They also did not have a section on GoPago listing the desserts, so I couldn't order dessert, and had to go elsewhere to get my rice pudding fix!

Overall, it was decent food, definitely better than most of the other places I've tried, but it still doesn't really leave me rushing to return.  There has to be somewhere good in this city for Indian food, and I'm determined to find it!

Paneer Makhani: Cottage cheese cubes in tomato and cream gravy, served with rice, chapati, pickle, raita and papad.  $10.95.

All curries come on a platter, with rice, chapati, pickle, raita, and papad.  I *love* this fact.  My favorite part about Indian food is mixing things together, particularly having some cooling raita to go with my curry.  And I love having bread to dip into the delicious sauces.  And rice.  Normally I'd have to order all of these components separately, and usually I just pick one of rice or bread, and usually skip the raita, so this was a very welcome presentation!

The rice was very fluffy, rather buttery.  I don't generally eat a lot of rice, but this was pretty good and I ate far more of it than I ever expected to.  It was also warm, clearly not having been plated too far in advance (which I find happens all the time with platters like this!)

The chapati was super poofy, with a nice hearty flavor from the whole wheat.  It was clearly fresh, but more oily than I cared for.  I did enjoy having something to dunk into my sauce though.

I really did not like the pickles.  They were sour with some very off putting spicing.  I'm not sure what it was, but I really, really did not like it.

The raita was really good.  Very refreshing, and complimented the rich sauce of my curry well.  It had cucumbers and onion in it, that were clearly fresh and still crispy, and hadn't been sitting around in the yogurt all day.  My favorite dish on the platter.

The paneer makhani came piping hot.  Almost too hot even.  I really appreciated that it was clearly delivered to me as soon as it was ready.  There was a generous amount of paneer in here, probably 10 cubes, each several bites each.  It wasn't particularly notable paneer though, somewhat rubbery.  The sauce was creamy, tomatoe-y, and decently spiced.  I wish it had a bit more oomph too it though.

The papad ... was missing.  I realized that it was not included almost immediately, but I didn't really want it since it would have likely just scratched my sore throat anyway, so I didn't say anything.

Overall, everything was pretty decent, and at $10.95 it was a really great value.  The other Indian restaurants we've been too lately have all been a few dollars more per entree, and were all served a la carte.  In particular, comparing to Aslam's Rosai, only a block down the street and a similar style of restaurant, the entrees were $13 there, rice an additional $3, and bread another $3, so this same platter would have been at least $19 there (not including raita, pickle, or papad).  And their entrees had far less paneer.  Udupi was much, much better, not only in value, but also in taste.

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