Q.Bel

Q. Bel is a small company that produces treats without the use of HFCS, artificial ingredients, etc.  They offer several varieties, but all involve wafers and chocolate, either as rolls or bars.  I've tried some of the rolls, but lost my tasting notes on them, so below I have notes only on the wafer bars.

I really loved the sound of these products, but I didn't like them very much.  I appreciate the healthier spin on things, the use of quality ingredients and whole grain wafers, but the taste wasn't there for me.

Peanut Buttery Whole Grain Crispy Wafers.

Enrobed with 36% milk chocolate   These were sadly only ok.  I like chocolate and peanut butter, but these didn't totally do it for me.   It was kinda crappy chocolate, there was not enough peanut butter, and the wafer was boring.

Double Dark Chocolate Wafer Bars.

Enrobed with 70% dark chocolate. The wafer was again just a boring wafer.  The filling inside was creamy chocolate.  The entire thing was enrobed in dark chocolate.  This was ok, but not as good as it sounds.

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Blissful Brownies

A co-worker received a shipment of Blissful Brownies.  They are mail order brownies, but fancy ones.  All made to order and then shipped out immediately.  Made from quality Guittard chocolate.

I tried several varieties, but didn't really love any of them.  Clearly steps above store bough packaged brownies, but for me, nothing really compares to a fresh out of the oven brownie, so I can't imagine ever really wanting them.

Individual Brownies, $4 each.

The brownies are all huge, 5 ounces each, wrapped up in individual bags, and tied with a string.  I tried several varieties:

• Chocolate Peanut Butter: "A layer of creamy all natural peanut butter runs through the middle of this rich chocolate creation. "  Tasting notes: This was the first one I tried.  It had a very generous peanut butter ribbon inside, not just a little swirl.  I give it credit for delivering on the peanut butter, but it wasn't particularly creamy.  The brownie itself wasn't all that moist, fairly unremarkable, although I liked the chocolate chips in it.  I heated a second piece up in the toaster oven, and enjoyed it much more that way, as it got gooier, and I paired it with some ice cream.  Brownie sundae time!  Favorite of those I tried, and the only one Ojan liked.
• German Chocolate: "Classic Chocolate brownies, topped with a rich, caramel crust that’s loaded with fresh coconut and pecans".  Tasting notes: I hated the topping.  It was crusty and strange.  I love coconut and pecans so I expected to love this, but I really really disliked it.  Least favorite by far.  Ojan wouldn't even take a second bite.
• Peppermint Candy: Tasting notes: I liked the bits of peppermint, but these brownies just don't do it for me, particularly when cold.  I liked it more when I warmed it with ice cream of course.  Second favorite, but not notable.

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Modern Thai

I've posted many times about GoPago, an application that allows you to order food in advance via your phone.  Since you do it before you arrive, you skip the lines and dealing with payment, and just get your food and go (go-pay-go, get it?).  They've run a number of campaigns with free credits in the system, and I've used these as inspiration to try out places I've never been before.  Between GoPago and LevelUp (a payment via phone app), I've discovered a bunch of new places in San Francisco.

Anyway, after living in Sydney for a few months, one cuisine I'm always craving, and still haven't found a good place for in San Francisco, is Thai.  I've had some decent enough meals, but still haven't found a place that really makes me want to go back.  I've kinda stopped trying new places, but I found that I'm willing to be more risky when there is less actual "cost" associated with trying a place.  If I hate it, and I haven't spent money on it, it somehow feels less bad.  And if I love it, awesome, I can add another place to my go-to list!  So, armed with Ojan and his GoPago credits, we set out to try a new Thai restaurant.  I researched every single Thai place listed in the app, and settled on Modern Thai.

We placed our order via Ojan's phone when we were about 10 minutes away, thinking that would be about the right amount of time for them to prepare the order.  I got nervous when we didn't get back the "Your order has been received" message.  Were they actually open?  It was New Year's Eve day after all, and many places were closed, and I'd run into problems in the past on holidays when GoPago systems were online, but businesses were closed.  By the time we reached the restaurant, we still hadn't received a confirmation, but their open sign was illuminated.  We walked in, and I said we'd placed an order via GoPago.  The cashier/bartender/server then went over to a machine, which was covered up.  It wasn't making the customary dinging noise.  She said she hadn't noticed the order come in.  Hmm, perhaps they don't get many GoPago orders?  This rather defeated the purpose of using GoPago, since we now had to wait.  She also had us sign a receipt, which I've never had to do before.  I'm glad this wasn't my first time using GoPago, as this experience turned out to be more annoying than beneficial.  I promised Ojan this wasn't normal.

Since we had to wait, I took the opportunity to take in the restaurant.  It was brightly decorated with lime green walls.  The bathroom and tables seemed clean enough.  Tables had little vases of fresh flowers, a surprising touch.  There were cloth tablecloths, but they were covered with plastic covers.  A paper napkin and lightweight fork were laid out for each place setting.  It was fairly empty, and the single server was running the entire place.  They also seemed to do a decent takeout business.

My favorite part was the music playing lightly in the background: piano versions of pop songs.  They had me with a classical version of "My Heart Will Go On".  I spent my entire wait looking forward to hearing what would come on next.

I'm glad I tried another Thai restaurant in San Francisco, but sadly, Modern Thai is going to go the way of pretty much everywhere else I've tried, filed away in the list of places I've been, and would go back to if someone really wanted to, but isn't remarkable enough to really warrant a return visit.  Still searching for good thai ...

Pad Se Ew, chicken: Stir fried flat rice noodles, egg, garlic, broccoli,  Chinese broccoli, carrots, and black bean sauce.  $9.

Since I was sharing with Ojan, and he can't have spicy food, we went for something that can be good even when not spicy: Pad Se Ew.  And since it was his credits we were using, I had him pick the protein.  We had the choice of chicken, beef, pork, or tofu (or shrimp for $2 more).  I'm not crazy about any of these, and he picked chicken.

I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but sometime in the past year, I've kinda started hating chicken.  I know, I know, chicken is so inoffensive, what is there to hate?  Sure, no one is crazy about chicken, but who hates it? Me.  I just can't stand its chicken-y taste.  Anyway, this chicken was good enough for chicken, tender white meat, but ugh, it was chicken.  I can't blame Modern Thai for this though.

For veggies there were unremarkable ripple cut carrots, broccoli chunks with longish stems, and a few tiny bits of Chinese broccoli.  I would have preferred no American broccoli and more Chinese brocoli, and perhaps some cabbage as well, but the veggies were decent enough, well cooked with the American broccoli and carrots being slightly al dente, and the Chinese broccoli nicely wilted.

The noodles were also decently executed, not too fried, not too mushy, not clumped together.  Not remarkable, but not bad.  There was also a bit of fried egg, which I liked, it wasn't too tough.

The sauce was on the weak side, without much flavor.  It was also a bit greasy.

It did arrive piping hot, clearly freshly made.  Bonus points for that.

Overall, this was fine, nothing to really complain about, but not great either.  The portion was quite sizable, and two of us couldn't even finish it.  For $9, it was a very generous serving.

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La Mar Cebicheria

I recently decided I wanted to explore more Peruvian food, as I've been in the mood for raw (or, raw-ish) light seafood dishes.  I started my journey at the closest place to my house with decent reviews: La Mar.

It is a beautiful space, right on the Embarcadero.  Prices are high, and unfortunately, not because they are serving quality food.  I think it falls in the category of expensive waterfront dining due to location alone.  Overall, probably not worth going back to.

The service was pretty horrible. We were seated a very long time (10 mins+?) and had no one pay any attention to us, even though waiters (different ones) came multiple times to the tables on either side.  In the end, we had to actually flag down someone, who wasn't our server, to finally pay attention to us.  At the end, once we had already asked for the check, another 10 mins or so went by, and then our waiter came by to ask if we wanted more food or dessert.  On the plus side, our water glasses were always refilled immediately.

Overall, I thought the seafood was pretty horrible, but the chips and sauces were good enough that I'd go back if others wanted to.  Perhaps just for drinks and chips.

"Chips and Salsa" . Complimentary.

After you order, you get their take on "chips and salsa".  This was all pretty tasty, and I do love chips and dip!

The chips were a mix of plantain, sweet potato, kennebec potato.   The sweet potato chips were definitely the highlight, with a really good sweet potato flavor.  The plantain ones were nice and crispy but lacking much flavor.  The potato chips were just decent fresh potato chips.

But the highlight was definitely the dipping sauces, housemade huancaina and rocoto sauces.  The rocoto sauce is the red one, made from rocoto peppers, onion, tomato, garlic, oil, and soda crackers.  It had a nice spicy kick to it and was pretty addicting.  The huancaina is a creamy yellow sauce made from ají amarillo, queso fresco, milk, and oil.  It was a little boring in comparison  but it quickly grew on me.  I couldn't stop eating these!

I almost want to go back, just for more of this! :)

Causa Tasting Platter.  $24.

These were interesting.  I'd never had causas before.  The bottom is a potato cake made from compressed mashed potatoes, oil, and peppers. It may look fairly solid, but it breaks down into mashed potato very easily.  They are then topped with assorted seafood fillings, and sauces.  The toppings weren't all that great, but again, the sauces were fantastic.

These sounded like something I would love: mashed potatoes, seafood, and great sauces? But I originally didn't really care for them.  I liked the mashed potato and the sauces obviously, but they just weren't coming together for me until I had a stroke of genius: use the appetizer chips as a scoop and these as a dip!  I'm sure I offended tons of Peruvians, but I really enjoyed it this way.  Yes, potato chips covered in mashed potato and dipping sauce with a little bit of seafood topping ... delicious!

I still wouldn't go out of my way for these again, and $24 seemed pretty pricy considering the fairly low quality of the seafood and the fact that we were mostly eating mashed potatoes ...

(From top left, clockwise)

Causa Limeña: "Dungeness crab on top of a yellow potato causa with avocado purée, quail egg, cherry tomatoes, ají amarillo Huancaína sauce and basil cilantro oil."  This was decent, but had too much mayo-like sauce mixed in with the crab that made it pretty impossible to even taste the crab.  I wanted to enjoy the crab!

Causa Camarón: "Sweet and spicy poached shrimp and fried onions on top of Rocoto potato with leche de tigre aioli."  Again, too much mixer stuff, so I didn't really taste the shrimp, or get shrimp consistency, or really notice it there at all.  The aoili was delicious though!

Causa Casera: "Yellow potato causa, artichokes, asparagus, avocado and tomato confit with basil cilantro oil."  The veggie mix was flavorful, and this one worked very, very well as a chip topping! The sauce was absolutely delicious.  My favorite of all of the causas.

Causa Nikei: "Tuna tartar and avocado purée, on top of Rocoto potato, with creamy rocoto Huancaína sauce topped with Japanese nori."  I could sorta taste the tuna, but it wasn't very good.

[ Not Pictured ]

Cebiche Mixto.  $15.

I have no idea what happened to the photo of this.  Whoops.

They offer a variety of cebiches, as it is the national dish of Peru, and their signature dish.

We picked the mixto, a mix of yellowtail from Mexico, calamari, and shrimp in ají amarillo leche de tigre with cilantro, red onion, habanero, with Peruvian corn and yam.  It was really bad.  The yellowtail was incredibly fishy and mealy, the calamari was rubbery, and the shrimp was chewy and fishy.  Ojan claims that he had some good bites and that the real issue here was just inconsistency.  I guess I'm just spoiled with sushi grade seafood regularly?  This was just not good at all!

I did like the yam in it, as it was very flavorful.  And the peruvian corn was interesting, I like it more than American corn.  But the quality of the seafood was so low, that I would never get this again, and can't believe it was $15 for a fairly small portion.  This dish alone made me not want to really go back.

[ Originally posted Jan 2, 2012 ]

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Plantain Chips from Turbana

I'm sitting on an airplane right now, snacking away.  What else is there to do?  Thus it seems fitting to post about one of my more recent snack food finds these days, plantain chips, from Turbana.

I think this is the only product they make, available in a slew of flavors.  They are all fairly starchy like a potato chip, but have a slightly more interesting texture and flavor.

• Chili Lime: The lime flavor is interesting, but I don’t particularly like it.  I don’t really get much chili flavor, and I wonder how they compare to the plain lime or plain chili flavors they also make.  I want to like these, but don’t due to the strange lime.  Perhaps I needed a margarita or guac with these …
• Lightly salted: Salty, starchy.  Not particularly great, but an interesting cross between a potato chip and a banana chip. ] [ More interesting than a standard potato chip, good when craving some salt. ] [ Not that salty, not that interesting, good dipped in stuff … like salsa or peanut butter ] [ I really like these dipped in peanut butter, sorta like the classic combo of bananas and peanut butter, in an easy snackable format ]
• Sweet: Definitely sweet.  Almost too sweet.  You can taste the plantain though. [ Sweetness definitely strange, not a huge fan ] [ Very sweet, also good with peanut butter, but the salty ones were a better match with that ] [ Very sweet, seems strange to think of them as a chip since they are so sweet,  but I enjoy them more as a dessert. ]

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Donuts from Henry's Cafe and Deli

Whenever GoPago runs a promotion, I tend to wind up with ~$1 in remaining credits after my main purchase.  I have a new favorite way to spend them: donuts!

You may recall that I indulged in these a few months ago when Ojan had some leftover credits, and I got a donut from Rolling Pin.  I wasn't very satisfied with that donut, but mostly because I picked a kind I didn't want, due to limited availability.  I was determined to set out earlier in the day this time, for better selection.  Unfortunately, I didn't go early enough.  What time do you donut-eaters get up, anyway?

This time I went to Henry's Cafe and Deli, as their donuts get very good reviews.  I'm not sure where they source them from, I asked, but the woman did not know.  I had only three choices: a cruller, which after the Rolling Pin cruller didn't sound all that appealing, a chocolate covered donut, and a glazed donut.  Hmm, still not really my top choices.

Again, I loved using GoPago.  I walked in the door and was greeted by a friendly smile and by name.  I can't get over how great it feels to be warmly welcomed like this at a business I've never been to before.    So personal, and I got to feel like a regular!  I'll definitely go back another time, hopefully when the selection is larger.

Glazed Donut.  $1.

This was a pretty classic glazed donut.  It was big, puffy, fairly light.  It was perfectly glazed, a ridiculous sugar bomb.  Basically, exactly what you'd expect for a decent simple glazed donut.  It tasted too much like oil for my taste though.

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Tres

A few weeks ago, I went to an event at Tres, a casual "Tequila Lounge & Mexican Kitchen" in SOMA.  We sat in the bar area, and ordered off the bar menu for food and drinks (and, of course, since I was there, some desserts!).  I haven't been to many casual bars lately, so I don't have a lot of comparison points, but this was not a good experience.  My opinion may be also slightly skewed by the fact that they served me watermelon, which I'm deathly allergic to, and when questioned, told me it was persimmon.  Yikes! We weren't provided with any serving utensils, nor an adequate number of small plates.  The food was pretty bad, had no flavor, and was all very oily and fried.  On the upside, the bathroom was nice.  I see no reason to ever return.

I was there as part of a large group, and didn't feel like I could hold everyone back in order to take photos, so I apologize in advance for the poor photos.

Chips and salsa,  complimentary.

We were provided with a continuous stream of chips and salsa.  The chips were very generic, thin style, not warm, not salted.

The red salsa had a slight amount of heat to it, but not much.  The green was watery and not very flavorful.  This was all very unremarkable, but at least better than Nick's Crispy Tacos.

Calamares: Chile jalapeño, crispy onions, roasted jalapeño aioli.  $10.

Fried, battered calamari, red onion, and jalapeño, served in a iceberg lettuce leaf.  The calamari was mostly rings, with a few tentacles   It was pretty tender, and not fishy.  Better than most.  I liked the addition of the onion and jalapeño as well, basicallly fried onion strings and a tiny bit spicy jalapeños.  The best part was of course the jalapeño aioli.  Creamy, slightly spicy, pretty good.  My best bites of the night were the crispy onions dunked in the aioli.

No serving utensils were provided, which made for awkward grabbing of bits of calamari.  The serving vessel was an iceberg lettuce leaf.  For reals?  They still make that stuff?  I kinda doubt we were expected to eat it.

This was by far my favorite of the dishes of the night, and the only one I remotely enjoyed.  I'm not sure I'd order it again, and $10 seemed a tiny bit pricy given the portion size, but it wasn't bad.

Taquitoes Vegetarianos: Potato-filled & topped with chile poblano crema, lettuce & queso fresco.  $6.

Fried shells filled with mushy potato.  The filling had no flavor, and the shells were overly oily.

Also on the plate was some forgettable shredded iceberg lettuce, mild flavorless queso fresco, and the chile poblano creme, that was completely flavorless.  No idea where the chile poblano was!  The pico de gallo, not listed on the menu, was the best part.  Fairly fresh tasting tomato, with a bit of flavor.  And again, more iceberg.

I like fried, and I love mashed potatoes, but this just did nothing for me.  Meh.  My least favorite of the dishes.

I only got a photo of the edge of the dish, but I think there were 5? on the plate originally.  $6 was a good price for so many tacquitoes.

Papas Rellanas: potato croquettes filled with house chorizo, criolla salsa.  $8.50.

These were fried mashed potato balls, filled with chorizo.  The outside was crispy, but like the tacquitoes, overly oily, in a way that took over the flavor.  The potato, again like the tacquitoes, was just mushy and flavorless.  Even the chorizo was really lacking any flavor.  And what was with all the red onion on the plate?  Would anyone really just eat that much raw red onion?

Of the 5 savory dishes, this one ranked third for me.  I would not get it again.

There were two of these on the plate, but someone grabbed one before I could snap a photo.  $8.50 for two of these seemed pretty pricy.

Empanadas: epazote & cheese. $8.50.

These were perhaps the least flavorful dish of the night.  The dough was flavorless, at least this time, it didn't taste like oil like the rest of the shells.  The filling seemed to just be generic cheese, I didn't find any epazote.  There was seriously just nothing going on with these.  And again, a bunch more red onion garnish.

They also don't win any presentation points, although they were clearly trying.  The sauce was in the middle, the empanadas faned out, but they were totally off center.  If you are going to try to make things look good, please follow through!

Second to least favorite, would not get again.  $8.50 price for 3 seemed about fitting.

Queso fundido: red chorizo, chile anaheim, roasted corn.  $13.

Cheese with some slices of anaheim chile and corn kernels embedded in it.  There is normally chorizo, but I didn't find any, and I think we might have ordered this vegetarian to accomodate some vegetarians in the group.

It was hot and fresh, the cheese was enjoyable in the way that molton cheese is.  I found the very small amount of corn and chili annoying, and wished there was more of those components.  Maybe when it has chorizo in it that completes it better?

It was served with a side of tortillas, which I didn't get a photo of.  There were only a few tortillas, not nearly enough for all of the queso.  This was ok, as we had chips we could dip in it instead, but the ratio was definitely off.  The tortillas was warm, but unremarkable.

This was my second favorite dish, and was almost decent, but I would not get again. $13 seemed pretty pricy.

Churros con Chocolate: homemade churros, calle 23 reposado caramel sauce, mexican hot chocolate.  $7.

The churros were hot and fresh, but very doughy inside.  Coated with a decent amount of cinnamon and sugar.  The caramel dipping sauce was entirely flavorless.  It didn't taste like tequila or caramel or anything.  Maybe a little bit sweet.

On the side was a mug of mexican hot chocolate.  It had some slight cinnamon flavor, but was very watery, and not very chocolately.

$7 was a fine price for a dessert, but this wasn't very good, and I wouldn't get again.

Flan de Elote: caramel, blackberry, mexican wedding cookie.  $7.

You may notice that the description said "blackberry", as that is what the menu said, but there is no blackberry in this photo.  Instead, there is WATERMELON.  You may recall that I have a severe watermelon allergy.  Epi pen carrying severe.

Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always read the menus online first, to make sure there is no watermelon.  If there is any, I let them know when I make my reservations, and again when I'm seated, about my allergy.  I also scan the entire menu when I arrive to double check, and usually mention my allergy even if I don't see watermelon on the menu.  My allergy is severe to the point where using the same knife and cutting board would send me into anaphylaxis.

As always, I read the online menus.  I read the menus at the restaurant.  No watermelon.  And since it was a big group event, and in a bar area, I decided not to bother them with telling them about my allergy, it didn't seem worth the complication.

When this arrived, I had forgotten what the description said came on the side with the flan, besides the cookie.  I took a bite of the flan, and then skewered a piece of the fruit with my fork.  I couldn't quite tell what it was, as it was dark in the room, but it seemed very melon like.  Sirens went off in my head.  I pulled out the menu, and saw "blackberry" listed.  Clearly this was not blackberry.  More sirens went off.  I quickly called over our server, and she said "oh, yeah, they were out of berries, I think it is persimmon".  Persimmon would make sense, as it is peak persimmon season right now.  And it almost looked like persimmon, but even in the dim lighting, the color seemed off.  I told her about my allergy, and asked her to double check.  She came rushing back out a few minutes later, telling me that yes, it was watermelon.

AHHH!  This is the closest encounter I have had in years.  I even had a bite of flan off of this plate.  My throat did feel funny, but it never closed up.  I blame myself for not mentioning my allergy, but I was also pretty annoyed that they made that substitution, and that she told me it was persimmon when I asked.  I understand running out of ingredients and switching something else in, so I don't really blame the restaurant, but this was pretty scary.  She brought out a replacement without the melon.

The cookie was dry and flavorless.  The flan was pretty unremarkable, the caramel not very strong.  Meh.  Definitely not worth an ER visit.  $7 price was again decent for a dessert.

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