Tag Archives: thai
September 25, 2012 Food Adventures in SF – Neighborhood Gems
Wow, this post is way overdue! Since we’ve moved to SF, Yufei and I have not had a shortage of food outings. On weeknights when I work late and have no time to cook dinner, we usually just go to one of the neighborhood restaurants a few blocks away. We sure are glad that we live in the Lower Haight, with a ton of restaurants and bars within walking distance. Some of our favorites include Sushi Raw for Japanese, Wonderland for Chinese, Axum Cafe for Ethiopian, Tandoor on Haight for Indian, Chilli Cha Cha for Thai, Greenburger’s for burgers, and Danny Coyles for drinks. There are still a few places around we have yet to try, but we’re definitely happy with the amount and variety of food options near our apartment!
One of the fancier but still close to us restaurants that I really love is L’Ardoise. It’s a cute and cozy little French bistro that has great food, excellent service, and wonderful ambiance. We’ve been there twice now and have an awesome time both times. Not sure if you can tell from this photo, but it’s quite a small restaurant, with lots of rich, red decor, resulting in a very French, very intimate atmosphere.
Now the food. The first time we went, we ordered their appetizer special, which was a delicious salad with spinach, green beans, goat cheese, walnuts, and I forget what else.
Yufei got the filet mignon and I got the duck confit for our main courses, and both were really good. The only thing was that my duck was a little bit too salty, and I wasn’t sure if it was just that one night or not.
We also had the creme brulee for dessert and it was one of the best I’ve ever had! I had to resist the temptation to lick the dish.
Last time we went we shared a butter lettuce salad, and ordered the hanger steak (for Yufei) and coq au vin (for me). Again the food was wonderful! And of course we had to get dessert again. Yufei opted for the flourless chocolate cake and I was intrigued by the floating island. I’d never heard of it before, but the waitress told me it was made of meringue floating on creme anglaise served with caramel sauce and fresh strawberries. Sold! It was so light and sweet, and beautifully presented too.
Another great thing about L’Ardoise is their bread. I swear they have some kind of bread monitor, and every time our bread basket is even half empty, a server would sweep by and replace it with a fresh, full one. And they do this throughout the meal!
I have a few more restaurants around SF I want to review, and I thought about lumping them all into one post, but I think they deserve their own posts. So look forward to more of our food adventures!
Tags: burger, chinese, dessert, drinks, ethiopian, food, french, indian, japanese, san francisco, steak, thai
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- Posted under Food, San Francisco
March 28, 2011 Random tidbits from the last of Spring Break
It makes me sad to post these because Spring Break is all but a distant memory now. *Sniff* On the bright side: 42 days left until my summer officially begins!
Ahh, the Snooki, we all need one once in a while, right?
More food! Beef pineapple fried rice and red chicken curry from Aceluck. A little disappointed that they took away noodle dishes and the choice of appetizers from their lunch special.
The Love Sculpture was surrounded by scaffolding. And some random guy totally photobombed our picture. *Sulk*
Caught a bit of the St. Patrick’s Day parade!
Found these cuties at FAO Schwarz!
Even more food?! Yes! Takoyaki from Otafuku in East Village. I had been craving takoyaki since winter break, possible due to this video:
Craving satisfied! Now I just need to go back regularly and it will be all good :)
Tags: food, japanese, lunch, nyc, sea food, snacks, thai, videos
November 1, 2009 This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Yesterday was quite a good day :) For lunch, my boyfriend and I went to one of my favourite restaurants in NYC, Aceluck, a tiny Thai restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. So why do I like it so much? First off, I love the decor. The walls are painted in exactly my favourite shade of green, and everything is just so welcoming and fresh. The food is delicious with a generous portions that aren’t too much (I hate super sizing dishes), always fresh and tasty. Everything is also very reasonably priced, unlike a lot of other Thai restaurant. And the presentation of the food is nice too (sorry, I’m an aesthetic person). The service is really good as well, the servers are super nice and yesterday, since it was Halloween, our server brought over a trick or treat jar in which there were pieces of paper we drew from, and we got for free whatever was written on the paper. How cute is that? We got free Thai ice tea! And apparently they also have cheap happy hour drinks, but being under the US drinking age, we haven’t yet tried out that option.
Our yummy ice tea :)
Duck spring rolls. Hot and crispy.
Chicken pad kee mao. Fresh and delicious with just the right amount of spiciness for me.
Fried vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce. The perfect way to finish off a meal!
If you’re ever in the area, this restaurant is highly recommended! One caveat though, I’ve only been there during the late lunch hours, so I have no idea how everything is during lunch or dinner rush, but I don’t expect it to be too different (perhaps a bit more crowded).
After lunch we went for a little walk in the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market, which is right across from Aceluck. I really enjoy flea markets and second hand stores, they’re always like a treasure hunt for me. It’s fun to think about the homes and the people that once held these objects and imagine what they were like. When I was still living in Quebec, my family used to go to this flea market every weekend, and my parents would allow me to get like a dollar or two’s worth of stuff there every time :) It was quite a difficult time for us back then, and a lot of our things in our home was bought from the market. In fact, it’s where half of our dinnerware came from even now. Sigh… good memories.
Me trying on a hat!
Ok, on to more Halloween related things. I was really broke this year and had to cut back on my costume spendings, so I just wore a dress I already owned, bought a headband from Etsy, threw on some seashell jewelry, and tada! I’m an ocean princess :)
Oh and you probably can’t tell from the picture, but I also wore blue contact lenses to match my dress. (A note on the contacts. The color they give is amazing, even on my dark dark brown eyes. Perhaps a bit too much though, for every day wear. Maybe I’ll go with grey or honey next time. But I’m note sure if there will be a next time since they’re not the most comfortable lenses and they kind of affect my peripheral vision. What a shame. Maybe I just need to find a better brand).
As we left to go to the NYC Halloween Parade, it started to rain. I was quite miserable in the beginning, since being in a very crowded area in the rain with no umbrella is not very pleasant. But after a while we found a nice little spot under the awning of a Japanese restaurant from where we could see the parade (me with the help of standing on the ledge against their window… I’m surprised the restaurant people didn’t come out and yell at me for giving their customers a nice view of my behind), and things picked up from there.
Some photos from the parade:
By the way, I want that yellow umbrella in the last picture. (How I Met Your Mother? Anyone?)
P.S.: Best costume I saw last night: a guy dressed as Russell (the little boy) from UP :) He even had a bunch of helium balloons attached to him. It made me smile.
Tags: costumes, dessert, etsy, food, halloween, lunch, movies, nyc, thai, thrifting
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- Posted under Entertainment, Etsy, Fashion, Food, New York
