Food Adventure Team

It just so happened that everyone in attendance at this dinner was a member of FAT, and because it was quite adventurous indeed, we declared the excursion an Honorary Food Adventure.

Art’s Crab Shak is a… fine dining establishment (?) situated on Broadway and 40th St. in Oakland, near where a bunch of us live or have lived. It’s that place you always drive by and say, “What the HECK is Art’s Crab Shak anyway?!” Momentum gathered around this question and finally we found ourselves sitting in a booth around a formica table, calculating which bucket-o-crab was the most cost efficient. On a Monday night, no less; fortunately our blatant flaunting of Anthony Bourdain’s “No seafood on Monday!” edict has not caused us any gastrointestinal distress.

Legend goes, Art’s used to be a steakhouse. It sure looks it. Now it’s an odd combination of dive bar and crab “shak”. Low ceilings, dim lighting, and dated decor add to the ambiance. All beer is bottled (a fine selection of Budweiser, Cornona, and Heineken) and wine is house only. For appetizers, you get a choice between about 10 different deep fried items. Crab comes in one-person, two-person, three-person, and four-person sized buckets (the three-person size, inexplicably, will get you the most bang for your buck). And what a buck it is; this is not a cheap restaurant. A one-person bucket will set you back $27! Don’t be surprised when they hand you the bill before you receive your meal; they expect you to pay for your meal in advance. Makes you wonder about their typical clientele…

The appetizers, eh, they were alright. Bunch of fried stuff. We got the hush puppies, the fried zucchini, and the tequila lime buffalo wings. The buffalo wings were actually quite tasty; crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, flavorful, and not too greasy. They came with a great hot dipping sauce, too. Hush puppies and zucchini came with classic ranch sauce for dipping, and were tasty enough but nothing thrilling. We decided that at Art’s Crab Shak, you really should just go straight for the crab.

The crab, oh glorious crab! Granted, it wasn’t the most amazing crab EVER,but it sure was tasty, and utterly DRENCHED in melted butter, lemon, garlic, and pepper, topped with mushrooms that had been marinated in the same. Completely delicious. It came with sandwich rolls that had been sliced, buttered, and grilled — a basic garlic bread for dipping in the crab butter.

The fun of eating crab is really in the full-body, primal experience of it. We tied on our plastic bibs and dug in, butter spraying every which way, crab claws cracking, our brows furrowed in intense concentration as we struggled to get every last morsel of meat of of the legs of these delicious sea spiders. When it was over (too soon) we were buttered up to our elbows, our grins glistening and stomachs distended. Two wet-wipes apiece were not enough to clean this mess.

Final conclusion: “A totally worthwhile venture; Art’s Crab Shak met our expectations.”

Photo by Ed

More photos by Ed

Here’s my quick & dirty “I wrote this after I forgot the details” review:

What we got, from what I can remember —

• fried platanos con crema (mmmmm…)
• empanadas (yum!)
• deep fried pork (belly?) (not my favorite. too fried.)
• fried bananas stuffed with beans (was that the empanadas?) – so good!
• pupusas! – pork & cheese, chicken & cheese, etc. (delicious of course, pork & cheese was best)
• beef soup, chicken soup (extremely tasty)
• many many fried things (I lost track)
• for dessert, atol de elote (ground corn, cinnamon, milk), with a dish of candied yam & another kind of candied fruit, covered in the sweetest syrup ever. PURE SUGAR. pretty good though.

Everything was deep fried! Least healthy meal ever. Tasty though.

(Written Feburary 11, 2009.)

Team members Ed, Laurie and I found ourselves in DC for Obama’s inauguration. Ed and I had just arrived from the airport and sought sustenance. Simply Home, an upscale Thai restaurant on U St., provided a welcome respite from the freezing cold and crowds from outside. Startlingly uncrowded, the restaurant was, oddly, connected to a home decor store. Its interior was trendy, yet welcoming and unpretentious. Everything was beautiful. Their light fixtures were formed from hundreds of (empty) silkworm cocoons! And the best part was that the food was GOOD. We get good Thai food in San Francisco, so this is saying something.

We started off with a few simple yet exquisite cocktails — a mango martini for myself, and a lychee martini for Lori. Delicious. We got two appetizers as well: wontons stuffed with feta and sundried tomatoes (ehh… fusion can be hit or miss and this one was a miss), and something else that I can’t remember except that I know it was quite tasty.

Entrees were delightful. I got the chicken stir fried with asian pumpkin (asian pumpkin is my new food crush). Beautifully presented, the stir fry was served with the perfect amount of rice. Its flavors were well balanced between sweet, spicy, and savory. The pumpkin was perfectly cooked (slightly to the teeth) and so was the chicken. I was very pleased. Ed, Laurie, and Lori all got the same thing, some sort of coconut-fried chicken. I had a bite and it too was quite tasty; I wish I could remember more about it. Kim (our lovely DC hostess) gave me a bite of her pad thai and it was the best I’ve ever had.

In all, I was very impressed with Simply Home. What a great introduction to a great city! I hope to go back soon and sample more of its cuisine.

(Written February 11, 2009.)

Photo by Laurie

Like many of the places we went, I failed to write a review for Baker Street Bistro. What a wonderful little restaurant this was! Cozy, friendly service, not too crowded, great French food. I heard that it has since changed ownership and its previous owner started a new restaurant called Bistro Central Parc.

(Written December 6, 2010.)

Whoops, I never wrote a review of this one. What I remember of this shabu shabu dinner is that it was kind of crazy and a lot of fun. A huge party of us cooking a ton of delicious food at the table. The waiter brought us lots of extras, which was incredibly nice of them. The meat was delicious. Everything was fabulous! (I write this two years later, almost to the day – that’s how memorable this meal was!)

(Written December 6, 2010.)

Burmese food! A first for me. Conclusion: delicious. A little like Thai, a little like Chinese, some hints of Indian. Thoroughly Southeast Asian. Supposedly it’s like Lao food, but since I’ve never had Lao food that doesn’t mean much to me.

Overall, everything was delicious. My only gripe would be that the food wasn’t quite spicy enough. That’s saying a lot, considering Kateri and I had to fight tooth & nail with Reed to NOT ask for extra-super-no-really-I-can-handle-it-even-though-I’m-white spicy. We did agree that he could order one dish spicy–the basil prawns–but he didn’t do it emphatically enough I guess because it was the least spicy of the bunch! In fact it wasn’t spicy at all. Still very tasty though.

Appetizers:

• Samusa (with Chicken or Vegetarian) – A mixture of grounded curried meat and potatoes
  Yum. Nice and crispy with tasty innards. Pretty much the same as Indian Samosas. (Funny how the Eritreans have sambusas, the Burmese have samusas, and the Indians and Tibetans have samosas.)
• Balada – Burmese crispy pancake with curry dipping sauce
  If there’s one thing I know, it’s that I love fried food. This pancake was no exception. The curry sauce was good, if not a little bland, but when combined with the spicy red pepper sauce they put on the table at the beginning of the meal, it was divine.

Entrees:

• Rainbow Salad – Salad prepared with eight ingredients served with house special dressing

  This is the only thing I didn’t try because it didn’t look appealing to me. (No meat? Cold? Pickled things? Not my cup o’ tea.)

• Basil Prawn – Our fresh basil leaf sauce is fragrant and created in our chef’s oriental wok
  As mentioned above, not spicy enough, but delicious and very basil-y. I wish there were more shrimp; between the four of us, we each only got two shrimp. The dishes were pretty small — which is not to say we walked away hungry.
• Mango Chicken – Pan fry chicken sauteed with fresh mango, onions, and green chili
  My favorite! Tender white meat chicken with generous chunks of sweet, perfectly ripe mango. Only gripe: difficult to get a hold of mangos with chopsticks. Wait, do they use chopsticks in Myanmar, or have they switched to forks, like Thailand?
• Mandalay Beef – Fried beef slices sauteed with garlic and chef’s delicious hot sauce
  I’m pretty sure this is the beef dish we got. Unfortunately, I’m writing this a few weeks late, so I can’t remember for sure. It was very tasty, though.
• Rice – Instead of plain white rice, Mandalay gives you a selection of about four different types of rice. We got the coconut rice and the saffron rice. Both were delicious, in very different ways. The coconut was nutty and slightly sweet. The saffron rice was more savory.

Desserts:

The desserts aren’t listed on Mandalay’s website, so I’ll do my best to remember what they were.

• Little rectangles of cream of wheat, sprinkled with poppy seeds. I have no idea what these were called, but they were quite tasty indeed! A little sweet, but not too sweet. Some might call it bland, but I really enjoyed its subtle flavors. The poppy seeds added the perfect amount of crunch.

  

  Backlit confection. Photo by Josh

• Mango Sticky Rice. A classic. Delicious as always. Rich, creamy, sticky, coconut sticky rice, topped with cool, perfectly ripe mango. One of my favorite desserts of all time!

I must admit that I was a bit disappointed by the food at this place. I got there a little earlier than the rest of our team, so I had a chance to study the menu a bit. Everything looked absolutely amazing. I had a tough time trying to decide what to get! But, sadly, I felt everything fell a bit flat. It was a similar concept to the previous Food Adventrure — Maverick: fancied up comfort food. But where Maverick was divine, I felt Sauce was merely mediocre. The food was alright for sure, but didn’t exceed a decent home-cooked meal.

To start, we shared the Ham & Cheese Tater Tots. (Smoked Ham Hock & Tillamook Cheddar). Definitely tasty, but nothing terribly special. For one, I couldn’t figure out where the ham came into play. There were no chunks of it, and I didn’t notice a particularly obvious smoked flavor to the tater tots. They were basically deep fried “fingers” of mashed potatoes, served with a dipping sauce that, if I had to guess, I’d say was ketchup + mayo. In all, though, one of my favorite dishes of the evening. That’s because I’m a sucker for any sort of fried potato.

The presentation of everything was nice though. Tracey got the Pan Seared Hanger Steak (Yukon Potato Gratin, Crispy Shallots & Spinach Cremini Mushroom Demi Gloss) and it sure did look tasty. Laurie got the Prosciutto Wrapped Tilapia (Roasted Tomato Risotto, Caramelized Onion& Spinach, Toasted Black Pepper Beurre Blanc), which was my second choice and I ultimately wished I’d gotten because it looked so good. I didn’t try either of the dishes, though, except a bite of Tracey’s mushroom– which tasted like cooked barely-seasoned mushroom in its own juice.

I got the Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf (Individually Roasted Seasoned Ground Beef Wrapped in Apple Wood Smoked Bacon with Truffle Whipped Potato. French Green Beans & Mushrooms). Sounds amazing, right? Well… I was unimpressed. It looked quite nice — a heap of potatoes, bacon-wrapped meatloaf and green beans covered generously in gravy, with two long strips of… yam or sweet potato crisp (?) sticking up out of it. Well, to start, I tasted nothing of truffle in the mashed potatoes. They were perfectly creamy–which isn’t bad but also means there’s not much in the way of textural interest. They tasted pretty good, but honestly I’ve made better mashed ‘taters in my day. It’s hard to screw up mashed potatoes. The meatloaf was particularly disappointing. It was basically a ground beef patty. No seasoning other than salt, no chunks of onions, and it wasn’t even very juicy. Bland bland bland. The green beans were fine and the gravy was alright if not a bit one-dimensional. It seemed the only seasoning they had on hand that night was salt. Boring.

Dessert was good, but only the doughnuts got me super jazzed. We got the Sauce Sampler (Little bit of this and a little bit of that). As we were warned when we ordered, it was an enormous amount of dessert! It had their signature PB&J (Pan Seared Sponge Cake Layered with Homemade Strawberry Preserve and Frangelico Peanut Butter, Vanilla Ice Cream Center), Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts (Fresh and hot with Vanilla Bourbon Dipping Sauce), Ice Cream Smash (In-House Ice Cream Creations Topped with Chocolate Sauce — that day it was a chocolate ice cream with peanuts, and something else I can’t remember), and Strawberries & Cream (Fresh Strawberries, Brown Sugar and Cream).

The strawberries & cream were really simple: strawberries attractively skewered with their stems which had already been cut off, brown sugar, on a thick pile of whipped cream. Simple and delicious — strawberries and brown sugar is actually something I grew up with. But really, not a dish that’s particularly exciting.

The ice cream smash was good too. It was 3 scoops of ice cream. Yep. Probably about on par with Ben & Jerry’s. Oddly, the ice cream of the day had whole peanuts in it, which gave it a texture I wasn’t terribly fond of. Not that I’d turn my nose up at it! But it certainly wasn’t exciting in the way that, say, the fennel ice cream at Absinthe was.

The PB&J — their signature dessert. Definitely unique! Maybe it’s just that it didn’t include any of my favorite things: chocolate, caramel, toffee– but it didn’t really float my boat. The pan-seared sponge cake was odd. It really did taste like toast. Weird, sponge cake toast. The rest of it, eh, I dunno. Just wasn’t really a fan. Odd, though, because actually peanut butter IS one of my favorite things… but I didn’t even notice it in this dish.

Ok, but the doughnuts… the doughnuts were awesome. Tiny crispy poofs with doughy centers, rolled in cinnamon sugar, with an absolutely delicious vanilla bourbon sauce to dip them in. Yay!

I do have to say that the service and ambiance were great. Not a single complaint there. Everyone was really friendly, and the place had nice decor and perfect lighting for a date or a casual night out with friends. We were supposed to be a party of five, but at the last minute two cancelled, leaving us with only three. The waitress was really cool about that, for which I was grateful.

Maverick was brilliant.

When we first sat down, the waitress brought us complimentary tiny cups of house-made apple cider (the non-alcoholic, non-bubbly kind). Very spicy-sweet and tasty! There was also nice crusty bread with butter to nosh on while we waited for our appetizers.

To start, we shared:

• Roasted Monterrey Sardines (candied meyer lemon, herbs, garlic mayonnaise, toast points, watercress, malt vinaigrette) – I’m not a sardine fan so I wasn’t super thrilled by this one. Too fishy, but I think that’s just how sardines are. I could tell that if you like sardines, this would be a really nice dish.
• Roasted Persimmon Salad (sugar glazed Fuyu persimmon, spiced pecans, Little Gem lettuce, honey mustard vinaigrette) – I’m not big on persimmons either, but I really liked what they were dressed with, and the spiced pecans were awesome.
• Fried Stuffed Padron Peppers (goat and cheddar cheese stuffed spicy peppers, smoked tomato relish, savoyed cabbage, creme fraiche vinaigrette) – these were nice and hearty (if not a bit messy). Very tasty, though nothing that made me want to sing to the heavens.

Andy ordered us a bottle of red wine that was quite nice, but I don’t remember what it was. I’m not a wine connoisseur so I won’t pretend to try to review it.

Andy and I got the Grilled Liberty Duck Breast (American Fall “Five Spice” rub, sauteed rapini greens, Sunchoke and potato puree, pomegranate seeds, duck jus). This was absolutely incredible. It was one of the tastiest things I have eaten EVER. Beautifully rare duck meat enveloped in a generously seasoned crust of fat. Sunchoke and potato puree was mindblowingly savory. All flavors worked together amazingly; it was a masterful balance of salty, sweet, umami. And the portion size was so generous that I didn’t mind sharing quite a few bites with my dining partners!

Leah and Laurie got the Southern Fried Chicken (Buttermilk soaked Rocky Jr. free range chicken, collard greens with country ham, mashed sweet potatoes, brown chicken gravy). The skin was beautifully crisp and the inside was wonderfully moist. Some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Didn’t try any of the sides, so I can’t comment on them.

Josh got the Braised Long Ranch Pork Cheeks (Roasted pasilla chilies, butternut squash, Garbanzo beans, sweet cippolini onions, Ancho chili pork jus, lime creme fraiche). It was amazing to watch his head explode as he slowly devoured his meal. Eyes wide with wonder, he offered me a bite. A salty, crispy, fatty miracle.

Cricket and Tracey got the Strawberry Mountain Flat Iron Steak (Oregano and rosemary marinated steak, Brussels sprouts, truffle tater tots, parmesan peppercorn sauce, Maverick steak sauce). I didn’t try it so I can’t comment.

We all shared a couple of orders of Mac n’ Cheese. Pretty tasty, though it wasn’t as super amazing as the rest of the dishes. Luka’s mac n’ cheese is better.

For dessert we shared the Pumpkin Pie (Whipped vanilla creme fraiche, star anise caramel sauce) and the Chocolate Bread Pudding (Bi-Rite’s Malted Vanilla Peanut Brittle Milk Chocolate ice cream, spiced pecans, chocolate sauce). Wow, just wow. Best pumpkin pie I’ve ever had, and that star anise caramel sauce was otherworldly. Bread pudding was not what I would normally expect bread pudding to be like — it had more of muffin-like consistency, rather than chunks of bread soaked in batter. No matter; it was completely delcious.

Service was perfectly acceptable. Waitress mixed up our order a little (didn’t bring one of the sides we ordered, and only brought one bread pudding instead of two– though there was some confusion while we ordered, so it was understandable). It wasn’t a big deal though because we had just the right amount of food as it was. Reservation process was simple and everyone was really nice (you’d be amazed at the number of restaurants that don’t seem to want to help you give them money). Timing of food was impeccable. Ambiance was really nice: Dark, cozy and urban-rustic; modern decor accenting warm dark wood walls.

Overall, a wonderful culinary experience. High quality, well-prepared food. Fantastic drinks. Totally indulgent. We shared a bunch of appetizers, all of which were to die for, and each got our own entrees. Dessert was semi-shared because we were pretty full by then. Service was excellent. Ambiance was lovely — feels classy without being stuffy or pretentious.

We shared:

• Escargots in shell, garlic herb butter, crusty bread
  YUM. Better eaten alone, not on the bread (though the bread was good, it masked some of the yumminess of the snails).
• Antipasti plate, cured meats by Fra’Mani, Zoe’s & La Quercia, olives, pickled vegetables, crostini
  YUM. And those little red peppers are SPICY.
• 3-cheese plate
  Josh and Besha chose the cheeses so I don’t know what we got. All I know is that they were all amazingly delcious.

Besha got:

• French Onion Soup
  It looked amazing and full of gooey cheese.
• Scharffen Berger chocolate Pot de creme, creme chantilly

Josh:

• Frisee (baby leeks vinaigrette, house-smoked bacon, fried duck egg, fines herbs, caviar)
• A cocktail I can’t remember
• Pan seared black cod, sweet corn sauce, Manila clams, chorizo, wilted chard
• Fig crostini, fennel ice cream

  I tried the fennel ice cream because it sounded so weird! It was like nothing I have ever tasted. I exclaimed, “HOLY BALLS!” People laughed at me, then tried it and realized that was the only appropriate response. So, so amazingly good.

• Pillow Talk (?) cocktail (can’t remember what was in it, crazy stuff though)
  I had a tiny sip of this. It was weird. Looked super creamy and thick, but tasted light and fruity.

Heather:

• Za’taar spiced grilled scallops, black garlic farro risotto, winter squash puree, pumpkin seeds
  I actually wasn’t super impressed with this. I’m not normally one to complain about portion size because usually restaurants serve enormous portions and I think that’s stupid. But this went too far in the opposite direction. I mean come on, THREE scallops? Though I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I would be when I was done, but I was still a bit disappointed. And aside from the size of the dish, it was just kinda “eh”. Some bites of 2 of the 3 scallops had a kind of off taste– like dirt almost. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be like that or not, but it wasn’t very pleasant. The Za’taar spice wasn’t very prominent. The winter squash puree was pretty much just that (although its subtle sweetness nicely offset the scallops’ flavor), and I did enjoy the nuttiness of the risotto and pumpkin seeds. On the whole, I thought the dish was just so-so, which presented a stark contrast to the exquisiteness of the rest of the food we ate. Next time I’ll get the beef cheeks, for I know they are amazing.
• Kubler Swiss Absinthe
  YUMYUMYUM!
• Scharffen Berger chocolate Pot de creme, creme chantilly (to share)
  I basically had a heart attack from the yummy of this dessert. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Super rich and chocolatey, with a generous dollop of whipped cream on top.

Ed:

• Red wine braised beef cheeks, smashed potatoes, English peas, roasted baby vegetables, horseradish gremolata
  I tried a bite of this the previous time we went to Absinthe — it is incredible. Fork tender (really!) and flavorful. The sides it comes with are very tasty as well.
• Kubler Swiss Absinthe

Laurie:

• Red wine braised beef cheeks, smashed potatoes, English peas, roasted baby vegetables, horseradish gremolata
• “Absinthe Lemonade” – non-alcoholic, containing ginger syrup, fresh lemon-lime juice, ginger ale and a topping of cranberry juice (I think)

Absinthe at Absinthe. Photo by Ed

Pretty standard good Indian/Pakistani food. The one thing that made it stand out as different from most Indian places was the momos. Momos are a Nepalese specialty. They are best described as delicate steamed dumplings similar to potstickers. We ordered all three kinds: chicken, everest (buffalo), and vegetable. Unfortunately they brought us samosas instead of the vegetable momos and we didn’t realize at the veggie momos weren’t also coming until it was too late. Samosas were decent but nothing special. Jared got the Kathmandu fish curry; I didn’t try it so I can’t comment on it. Aaron got saag paneer, which was creamy and delicious. I love saag paneer; it’s such a subtle dish. There didn’t seem to be much different about it than the saag paneers I’ve had at other quality Indian restaurants. Laurie got the goat curry. I tried a bite and it was good, though it didn’t stand out to me. Leah got the chicken tikka masala which was of course delicious. I can’t resist this dish ever. Tracey got the chicken curry and I got the lamb curry; they were basically the same except for the difference in meat. Chicken was not dry; lamb wasn’t melt-in-your-mouth tender, but it wasn’t tough either. We got roti and paratha to eat our curries with. The paratha was awesome. The roti was pretty standard. We were way too stuffed to get dessert!