Kate's Kitchen (San Francisco, CA)

Kate's Kitchen was a memorable mark on our trip to San Francisco. Thrown off by the cool days (and cold mornings) we kept gravitating towards hearty stick-to-your-ribs food. This is why we gained five pounds after three days.

Kate's did not disappoint. It's a small restaurant with mostly two tops and 1 or 2 four-tops with a open view of the kitchen in the back where a fully-kitchen was busy over the stove and juicing carrots and apples. Colorful and warm with a family and a young baby to our left and some couples to our left, we're struck by the giant mural of the United States on the main wall. 

We start with the hush puppies (which, if you remember, I had just introduced Chris to earlier this summer). Delicious, deep-fried cornmeal goodness was presented to us with homemade (crazy delicious) jam and "pooh butter" to dip- (honey butter). Dense, with a generous portion size, I could imagine myself coming to this place once a week just to eat these.

My entree was their biscuits with veggie gravy. I have to say that they were [almost] perfect. If there was just a dash more salt to bring out the flavors that had been developed, I think it would have been amazing, but I find that over-salting is a common fear of most restaurant these days. The biscuits texturally were between that of a typical biscuit and a scone (think hard edges and crumbly bits). With cheese and green onion inside, it was pleasant to eat on its own, but definitely improved by the veggie gravy underneath. I have no idea how they made the gravy, except to say that they must have used some type of wheat/flour with some stock, herbs, etc. Delicious- and something I wish that they bottled and sold so I could take it back home to the East Coast to eat with all of my meals. THIS is how you do a vegetarian breakfast. It wasn't just a non-meat version of something, but a legitimate menu item of itself.

I must say even as a meat eater I am impressed with how the west coast does vegetarian. It actually brings me down a little when there are no items on a menu tailored to my girlfriend's lifestyle. It's not like being a vegetarian is a new concept; the Mid-Atlantic corridor seems to vegetarians will be OK with asking for the same item on a menu, but with no meat, and paying the same price. Kate's Kitchen shows more than acceptance with a unique menu with variety of items, they also show creativity and an ability to cook. They do a pretty good job too.

With all of that said, I decided to appease my carnivore side. I ordered the Big Guys Breakfast, which unfortunately didn't make me feel like a "big guy" ordering it out loud. Eventually two plates were brought to me that consisted of two cornmeal buttermilk pancakes, two eggs, two slices of bacon, one sausage patty, and a side of homefries! Talk about using quality products. Kate's Kitchen nailed it with their eggs and bacon. The over medium eggs were super rich with velvety yolks and the bacon was the thick cut stuff. The strips had awesome marbleization, they were packed with flavor and had the perfect amount of salt. The sausage, which was a chicken sausage, was even delicious. It feel flat from a lack of fat leaving it a little dry, but it was still very delicious. The homefries had the low mark of the day. Even though their potato flavor was never in question (still clearly using top shelf ingredients) they were a little burned and I'm not sure anyone through some salt on them leaving them very under seasoned.



Back to the good stuff. The cornmeal buttermilk pancakes were pretty special. The extra sweetness from the cornmeal plus the texture will probably ruin other pancakes for the rest of my life. I might even swear off of pancakes that don't have cornmeal as an ingredient. They were that good.





P.S. Coffee in San Francisco is delicious. Does everybody use Peet's or do they just have extra-spectacular coffee presses? Also, Kate's Kitchen gives you a generous pitcher of (non-individually packaged, and actually containing dairy) cream.

Thai Basil

Chris and I feel very fortunate to live so close to good food in Collingswood and Haddonfield, NJ.  People have been mentioning Thai Basil to us for years, but we’ve never gone. I’m always a bit skeptical when it comes to Asian-American or Asian fusion restaurants, just because I feel as if I have a high standard due to my upbringing. I imagine it’s the way Italians feel about Italian-American food. It’s indicative of the correct region, but yet, not true in spirit.

Something about the word "Thai" and this kind of sign display just seems...incorrect.

Regardless, we visited Thai Basil for a Saturday late lunch. We arrived around 2:15 to an almost empty and very low-lit restaurant. (Throughout the course of our meal, only one other couple showed up to eat). The vibe is very chill, very relaxed, with large comfy booths sectioned off to create privacy. The music is lounge-y, with every other song in French.

Right off the bat, from looking at the menu, you can tell that the focus of this food is “flavor”. They have two of their specials engraved into the mirrors in the room to showcase the range of ingredients they use for staples such as tom yum and drunken noodles. They also proudly boast four types of curry- red, green, panang, and massaman.

I ordered the drunken noodles with mock duck after reading a favorable review of it on Yelp. It was priced at around $12 which seemed perfectly reasonable. On the menu, it has two stars indicating its spiciness. I ask for it to be reduced in spice, to which the server said “We can’t make it completely spice less, but we can make it mild”. “Great,” I said, “let’s make it mild”.

Our appetizers came out before our meals. We ordered the veggie curry puff- a whimsical dish reminiscent of an Asian-style Jamacian spicy beef patty or an empanada. Flaky and doughy at the same time with rich aromas, it was filled with potatoes, curry, and onion. It came with a sweet chili sauce that tasted like Vietnamese nuoc mam ngoc with a bit of duck sauce to thicken it up. Delicious, and left us craving more.

The best way I can express my main meal is: a labor of love. Presented well in an avant-garde tilted bowl, it smelled delicious with aromas of fish sauce, chili, garlic, and all other things that make life great. My ‘duck’ was pretty good imitation, although some pieces of the ‘skin’ fell short. I don’t really see how you could imitate the high level of fat (and eventual crispiness) that you would get from an animal. Noodles were delish, just the right amount of stickiness and starchiness.  This being said, I could not eat more than two bites in a row without taking a huge sip of water. The spice level was ridiculous almost to the point of being intolerable. This was better once the dish had some time to cool. I know that one shouldn’t go into a Thai restaurant and tell the kitchen that the food is too spicy, but when you’re told that something is coming to you “mild”, you expect a certain threshold to not be breached. The only other customers there actually were comped because their food ended up being too spicy to eat.

As for me, I was mostly happy with the entire meal. I ordered the Laad Na off of their "Meal in a Hot Pot" page of their menu. The Laad Na's description was simple enough. I had the choice of beef, chicken, or shrimp in a pot of sauteed vegetables and seared rice noodles with gravy poured on top. I went with the beef because I was curious to see if the beef would be prepared similarly to Pho that I've had in the past. When the meal came out I was immediately pleased with what I saw. The beef was front in center, the bowl was big and deep, and the vegetables had their color. It was beautiful. Sadly the beef was a tad over cooked and not as tender as I was hoping. However, it did bring in a lot of the flavor of the sauce. My favorite part of the dish was the broad, flat, rice noodles that were soaking up the gravy at the bottom of the pot. They were extremely tender and rich. The gravy reminded me of a Vietnamese oyster sauce. It was very savory, but it definitely had some sweet element to deepen its flavor profile. The worst part of the experience was that we were seated at a table that was next to an area of the carpet that looks as though it hasn't been washed in a few years. Hopefully by the time I go back they will have already shampoo'd their carpet.

I felt very conflicted about the food because it was delicious, but for the majority of it my tongue was maxed out and the spice detracted from the layers of salty, sweet, and sour.   

Such an awful experience, but over so soon! We’re gonna have to do this one over again. Perhaps it was a fluke?

Dark, moody, and minimalistic

Extra notes:

Free soursop hard candies when you leave and it looks like they  might own a new place called Fusion Bay next door that offers similar taste profiles but in a casual dining atmosphere.