Bavarian Burger - RAM Restaurant & Brewery

Every quarter year, my brother, two high school friends and I get together for a birthday lunch.  Each of our birthdays just happen to be about a quarter year apart.  So to celebrate, we do a lunch together.

Our usual place for the past several years has been RAM Restaurant & Brewery.  It's a convenient location between all of our locations for work or home.

Today, we celebrated another birthday and while I usually order the Reuben sandwich, I decided to try their limited time burger special, the Bavarian Burger and fries.  Not bad!  A bit greasy, but some might call that juicy (I call it greasy).  By the way, I always like the pretzel buns on burgers!

Per their menu:

BAVARIAN BURGER

Seasoned & grilled fresh USDA all-natural burger patty, basted with stone ground garlic butter, topped with “eye of the round” sliced corned beef, Wisconsin creamy havarti, bacon’d red onion sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, pretzel bun. 12.95

Ginger / Scallion Blue Crabs - Salt & Pepper Squid - Shrimp Egg Rolls

Blue crabs with ginger and scallions! I had turned down the flame a little too much before adding the crabs, but the wok heated back up really quickly right after this video ended. With 65,000 BTU's, the outdoor wok can heat up really fast!  (By the way, the video has higher resolution if you click the YouTube link on the video.)

I made Ginger / Scallion Blue Crabs for dinner!  I also made Salt & Pepper Squid and my wife made Shrimp Egg Rolls!

The crabs were on sale for $2.99/lb, so I bought 10 crabs (3.3 lbs).  Interestingly, they were all female crabs.  You can tell by turning the crab over and looking at the "apron" of the crab which is wider than a male's apron.  Also, female blue crabs have red tips on their claws.

The raw squid was pre-cut and packaged and only had the bodies, but we were ok with that.  We dipped them in a raw egg and then coated them with corn starch that was mixed with salt and pepper.  Not bad!  We hoped it would be crunchier, but it did have a modest crunch.

The egg rolls were made the standard way with shrimp added.  Always good.

6.5 lb Pork Butt and a Rack of Pork Back Ribs

I decided to smoke a 6.5 lb pork butt and also a rack of pork back ribs.

The rub was from a modified Pork Barrel BBQ All American Seasoning & Rub that contained more salt and paprika.  The water pan has water in it at 3/4 full.  The pan was lined with aluminum foil to make it easier to clean afterwards.

I started the butt for pulled pork at 8:15 AM this morning and placed the ribs on the grate at 11:15 AM.  I wrapped the butt at 153 degrees, about 5 hours 45 minutes into the cook.  I wrapped the ribs after 2 hours on the grate.  The second photo shows the ribs with the Sweet Baby Ray's sauce just applied before wrapping.

The ribs will not be monitored with a temperature probe, but rather by time.  I'm doing a 2-2-0.5 cook on the ribs today (2 hours unwrapped, 2 hours wrapped with sauce, 1/2 hour unwrapped on the grate again.)

The pork butt is being monitored by temperature and will stay wrapped until it hits 198 degrees and then it will be removed from the grate.

The grate temperature has been staying rather high this time at 290 degrees on average during most of the cook.  The wood added for the smoke was cherry wood at the beginning of the butt cook but it had burnt out by the time the ribs were added to the cook.  Not a big deal.

I used the 18.5" smoker's charcoal ring in the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker.  Additional Kingsford Original charcoal was added after 5 hours of cooking time.

Total cook time for the butt was 7.5 hours.  Total cook time for the ribs was 4.5 hours.

Interestingly, the ribs had pull-back on the meat area of the ribs rather than at the end of the bones!  Haven't had that happen before.  These are called "shiners".  It happens when the butcher trims too much meat off the ribs.

For the pulled pork, when the bone comes out cleanly... you know you are done!

Kevin's Noodle House - Pho Huynh Hiep 2 - San Francisco

I went to Kevin's Noodle House (Pho Huynh Hiep 2) in San Francisco.  It's a Vietnamese restaurant.  I ordered  beef with rice and shrimp / tofu skin (shrimp toast).  The beef was a bit dry, but the shrimp toast was very good.  Personally, I wouldn't call it shrimp toast since it is actually ground shrimp wrapped in a tofu skin.

My sister ordered an individual plate of the shrimp toast and also a bowl of vermicelli with shrimp, lettuce and real pork (Bun Tom Thit Nuong) - see the bottom photo.

This was my second time visiting this restaurant.  The restaurant seems to be always busy, making it a popular place to go for Vietnamese food!

Hospital Breakfast at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center

I had breakfast at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center.  Total cost was only $4.85!

Scrambled eggs, 3 slices of bacon, two hashbrowns and a chocolate covered donut.

The price was right, but the eggs were a bit runny and the hash browns were cold and hard.  Bacon was nice and crispy though!  Donut was as good as a donut can be.

Overall, for the money, you can't beat it.  You scoop your own eggs and pick your own food onto your plate.  Not a bad deal for a quick breakfast for a low cost.

Bacco Ristorante Italiano - San Francisco

My sister's family and I went to Bacco Ristorante Italiano in San Francisco yesterday for dinner.  Terrible photos, but I wanted to take a quick shot of each dish.  I think the dishes would have looked better had I shot them on an angle rather than straight up and down from the dish and they would have been better had they been shot before the waiter added the parmesan cheese!

Even so, the food was really good!  Pictured in order from top to bottom:

LASAGNA -  Homemade Bolognese lasagna, bechamel

$18

BRASATO -  Braised beef short rib, potato gnocchi

$28

TONNARELLI -  Homemade squid ink pasta, spicy calamari, tomato

$19

RAVIOLI -  Homemade pasta filled with Swiss chard, pine-nuts, and ricotta cheese in a walnut cream sauce

$18

I had the lasagna, my brother-in-law had the Brasato, my nephew had the Tonnarelli and my sister had the Ravioli.

The restaurant had a very nice neighborhood restaurant feel to it and we were greeted nicely by the waiter with an Italian accent.  Service was good and the food was really good!  We also had an appetizer of calamari and meatballs.  

Well worth going if you want an authentic Italian dinner!

Roast Duck Soup and Moon Cakes from Clement BBQ - San Francisco

My brother-in-law made this delicious roast duck soup for dinner.  The duck was purchased from Clement BBQ which offers roast ducks, chickens and roasted pork.  Roast duck is one of my favorite foods and having it in this soup was really special.

In addition to the ducks, Clement BBQ also bakes Moon Cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Moon Festival).  You can see a whole rack of newly baked moon cakes for sale!

Xiaolongbao and Noodles - Dumpling Kitchen - San Francisco

I had these Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and noodles for lunch at Dumpling Kitchen in San Francisco.

Noodles were tasty but a bit oily.  It seems many Chinese dishes that are cooked in a wok turn out a bit more oily than desired, but it was still good.  Cabbage and pork pieces rounded out the dish.

The Xiaolongbao were good, but the soup was a bit lacking.  While moist, I think most of the soup was absorbed by the dumpling skin before I had a chance to eat the dumplings.  Still good though!

iPot - San Francisco "Hot Pot" Restaurant

This was my second visit to iPot in San Francisco.  It's an "all you can eat" Chinese Hot Pot restaurant which offers both hot pot and hot plates for diners to enjoy.

Both times I've been here, the quality was great and service was good as well.  You order the soup base you prefer and then check off all the various ingredients you'd like.  Beef, lamb, wagu, rib-eye... it's all here.  Straw mushrooms, various greens, shell-on shrimp, mussels, squid... you have lots of choices.  We seem to like the "grilling" part more than the hot pot part though!

I think the fun of these places is that you constantly have something to do besides just eating.  Just be aware you will likely get splattered with oil when grilling and that your clothes will smell like you've been grilling too.

Worth going to if you are ever in the San Francisco area!

Zante Pizza and Indian Cuisine - San Francisco

After watching a YouTube video about Zante Pizza and Indian Cuisine in San Francisco, I decided to go there with my sister.  I ordered online and got a phone call from the business to confirm I had placed my order.  I told them I did place it and also mentioned that we would be dining in the restaurant.

When we arrived, the owner handed me the pizza in a cardboard box.  When I told him we wanted to eat in the restaurant, he said, "It's closed."  Well the tables were all set up, but nobody was in there, so perhaps he didn't want to deal with us messing up the tables?  Who knows.  Disappointed, I took the pizza back the my sister's home to eat it.

Obviously, it was no longer hot by the time we got home and while the pizza wasn't bad, it wasn't spectacular either.  It just tasted like Indian food served up on a pizza crust.

We ordered the "The Best Indian Pizza" - Per the menu: "Topped with Spinach, Egg Plant, Cauliflower, Ginger, Garlic, Green Onions, Cilantro, Lamb, Tandoori Chicken & Prawns. Choice of small, medium, large, or x-large."

Shrimp was really small.  All I could really taste was the cauliflower and the Indian spices.  I really could not taste the lamb at all.  The tandoori chicken was dry (as I find most tandoori chicken.)

Will I go back?  Probably not.  I think for the $23 with tax, I'd rather just go to an Indian buffet.

5.5 lb Beef Brisket on the 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker

BRISKET!!

I am smoking a 5.5 lb flat today.  I will add photos as the cook progresses.  The cook started by lighting the coals in the chimney starter at 6:30 AM.  The brisket was placed "fat side up" on the grate at 7:15 AM.

The seasoning this time is primarily salt and pepper with a very light touch of the modified Pork Barrel BBQ All American Seasoning & Rub that contained a little more salt and paprika.  The wood used for smoking was three pieces of pecan and one piece of cherry.

I decided to use my "real camera" this time instead of my iPhone which I usually use for cooks because its convenient and the fact that my DSLR usually stays at my photography school. The images were taken with a Nikon D4 and Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens.

"Creosote Smoke" - not good for smoking.  Wait until the smoke is like the photo below.

"Thin Blue Smoke" - ideal for smoking.

One hour into the cook.

3.5 hours into the cook. The internal temp is at 155 degrees. The temp at the grate level is at 250 degrees. I have been spritzing the brisket with Swanson's Beef Broth starting at around 10:30 AM.

It's 12:15 PM and it's been 5 hours into the cook and the meat has stalled at 147 degrees.  The brisket will now be placed it into an aluminum foil pan and covered the top with foil.

I also put in some Swanson's Beef Broth in the foil pan.  Now I'm just waiting until the internal temperature hits 201 degrees.

The finished product.  It took a total of 9.5 hours.  While it was tender, it was a bit dry.  Thinking more about it, I believe the fact that I poured the entire can of the beef broth into the aluminum pan was a huge mistake.  Essentially, there was so much liquid in there that I essentially boiled the meat for hours in the broth!  Others use the liquid very sparingly just to keep the meat damp. But with a whole can of liquid and the meat sitting in it for hours in the smoker, it just boiled the meat!!  This is a contributing factor as to why the meat was dry after resting.  I won't do that again!

My first brisket was a lot better and looking back, I didn't put a lot of liquid in there.  I had wrapped that brisket in aluminum foil and so there was no way to put a lot of liquid in there.  But having an aluminum foil pan, it was easy to just pour all of the can's contents in there without fear of it leaking out.  Big mistake!  I'll do better next time.

Even though the brisket was a bit dry, the slices did pull apart easily and doing the "bend test", the slices did bend over when held in the middle too... so tenderness was not an issue.

Edit note:  A bit of advice from Jim Minion from the "Fans of the Weber Smokey Mountain" Facebook group: "...pull the brisket off the pit at 185 to 190 internal, wrap in HD Foil and place in a small dry cooler, the intenal will continue to rise 10 to 15 degrees. If you pull at 201 internal you are going to get the same bump in internal temp but that will get you over 210 and the flat has started to dry out. You can add a little moisture in the foil before going into the cooler but you won't need much."  Very good suggestion!  I will do that next time as well as limiting my liquids.  Beef is not as forgiving as a pork butt on the smoker!