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Leena Eats: Flour + Water in SF Photo Essay

Leena Eats: Flour + Water in SF Photo Essay

Pork charcuterie, I believe it was rillettes, from Flour + Water in SF.

Flour + Water is a modern Italian pasta and pizza place in San Francisco’s Mission district, and since I’ve moved to the Bay area, it’s been recommended to me constantly. I figured it was time to see what all the fuss is about.

If you like food, food or food, I think you might like this post. If you don’t, you probably found this page by searching “big ass hoes”, the most commonly used search term that leads to my blog (no joke). Welcome. I knew my love of swearing would come back to bite me in the ass eventually, but hey, while you’re here, how about some food porn?

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July 14th, 2010
Posted in Leena Eats, San Francisco | 1 Comment »

Leena Eats: Food Trend- Upscale NoCal BBQ

Leena Eats: Food Trend Upscale NoCal BBQ

The Scotch Egg at Wexler's. A lightly poached egg rolled in the burnt, smoked ends of beef short rib, breaded, fried, and served with a homemade hot sauce and a sweet tea gastrique

When it comes to upscale barbecue, there are a lot of different ways a restaurant could go. Some simply serve traditional American barbecue with high quality, sustainable ingredients. Some restaurants apply haute cuisine cooking methods to traditional American barbecue recipes. And others, like Wexler’s, use barbecue in the loosest term possible.

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of experiencing Wexler’s, a modern American restaurant with barbecue inspirations in San Francisco’s Financial district. What does that mean, exactly? According to head chef Charlie Kleinman (former co-chef at Fish and Farm), this means working with traditional barbecue flavors in new forms, rather than the concept of barbecue as a whole.

More words and food porn after the jump.

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July 7th, 2010
Posted in barbecue, Leena Eats, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

Leena Eats: Chez Spencer (photo essay)

Leena Eats: Chez Spencer (photo essay)

Butter poached lobster with artichoke bisque at Chez Spencer ($25 USD). This was ok...the lobster was a bit chewy, and the flavors a bit muddled.

Chez Spencer is as French as it gets in San Francisco. Pros- I liked their foie. Cons– Seemed to have the exact same menu for two years running.

More food porn after the jump.

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June 30th, 2010
Posted in Leena Eats, San Francisco | Comments Off

Leena Eats: Frascati in San Francisco

Leena Eats: Frascati in San Francisco

The duck liver pate at Frascati in San Francisco

Tucked away in the trendy Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco (and right around the corner from a rice pudding shop, no less) is the Mediterranean-style bistro called Frascati, open since 1987. I had the pleasure of dining there a few months back (did I mentioned I moved across the country six months ago? And that I am moving to my second apartment in 6 months this weekend? Okay, good), and I was impressed enough to want to share it with you a few months later.

The basics are: it is a cozy restaurant, friendly, helpful servers (some who like to take photos of you with your own camera), and seriously delicious food. More food porn after the jump.

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June 23rd, 2010
Posted in Leena Eats, San Francisco | Comments Off

Leena Eats: Dynamo Donuts, where bacon lives in doughnut form!

Leena Eats: Dynamo Donuts, where bacon lives in doughnut form!

Ohmygodtheymakeaneffingbacondooughnut!

Gourmet doughnuts, doughnuts for your dog, and yes, even bacon in doughnut form. Can I get a hell ya from the crowd?! More food porn after the jump!

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March 31st, 2010
Posted in Food Porn, Leena Eats, San Francisco | 4 Comments »

Leena Cooks: Gujarati Vedimi (sweet lentil-stuffed bread)

My family vedimi recipe (sweet lentil, nut and coconut-stuffed flat bread).

Growing up, it took FOREVER for me to like Indian food, even though my father is from India. The spices typically used in dishes, like cumin or cardamom, were intensely flavored and overwhelming to my young palate, so when it came to eating, I stuck to breads. Breads seemed safe enough.

My Indian aunts would always make stacks and stacks of various flatbreads they would brush with ghee (clarified butter Indians use to cook) and store in stainless steel containers. Typically I found softly, slightly oily fried puri bread. Occasionally I’d stumble across spicy tepla, or fenugreek-stuffed roti bread. Sometimes it was a crap shoot and I’d land upon a stack of dry as cardboard roti bread, which I still loathe to this day.

But sometimes, sometimes I’d hit the kid jackpot and find vedimi bread. It was always a shock to my young tastebuds, the rush of sugar, the sweet shredded coconut and hauntingly fragrant cardamom pods…it took me years to learn their name and even longer to discover what was in that the magical sweet mix in the center of the bread.

Leena Cooks: Gujarati Vedimi (sweet lentil stuffed bread)

The beautiful, sweet innards of my vedimi.

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March 1st, 2010
Posted in Berkeley, Leena Eats, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

Gastro Friday: Feeding the U.S. to some Australians

Gastro Friday: Feeding the U.S. to some Australians

My mini pumpkin pies in tart form with shortcrust pastry.

I am lucky enough to be friends with some folks from the land down under, Australia, and a few visited me not too long ago in my new SF home. I am even luckier that one of these Aussies was able to smuggle over not one but TWO bottles of Stone’s, my favorite alcoholic ginger beer. I rewarded the Aussie with a treat rare to an Australian: root beer.

Gastro Friday: Feeding the U.S. to some Australians

Me with the smuggled ginger beer. Bec (a real live Aussie) with her mug of American root beer. Yay life.

This begs the question, what does one feed to an Aussie? Especially to give them a sense of what America is known for, culinarily speaking? Well, it helps to have some knowledge of Australian cuisine, a fusion of sorts created from British, Asian and native influences. Do you know that they have thing they call “bacon”, but it is NOTHING like the proper, smoked American pork belly we call BACON? A sad fact, indeed, but true. What to feed an Aussie: 1. Bacon (unless they do not consume pork. Then, just cry for their souls.) Read the rest of this entry »

January 29th, 2010
Posted in Gastro Fridays, Leena Cooks, Leena Eats, Leena Lives Life, San Francisco, The Gastronomical Leena, With Friends | Comments Off

Leena Eats: Chaya Brasserie Photo Essay

Leena Eats: Chaya Brasserie Photo Essay
Chaya Brasserie: where French meets Japanese meets Bay Area.

More food porn after the jump!

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January 27th, 2010
Posted in Leena Eats, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

Leena Eats: SF–Day three, part three: Japanese Sweets and The Slanted Door

Cari and I played hooky during BlogHer Food ’09 for a bit and stumbled upon a Japanese sweet shop…

Leena Eats: SF Day three, part three: Japanese Sweets and The Slanted Door
Japanese Sweet Shop in downtown SF.
Leena Eats: SF Day three, part three: Japanese Sweets and The Slanted Door
Sweets that look delicious and most likely filled with sweet bean paste.

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November 12th, 2009
Posted in Leena Eats, Leena Travels, Nebraska, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

Leena Eats: SF–Day three, part two: BlogHer Food Conference

Leena Eats: SF Day three, part two: BlogHer Food Conference
Rolling up to the conference with my food blog bitches: myself, Amanda and Cari! We know. We look hot.

Not many photos from day three, as I was busy conferencing, networking, eating Pixy Sticks and slowly but surely, getting the worse flu of my life. BlogHerFood was a giant conference held in San Francisco for food bloggers from around the country. The conference had three different tracks of interest to pick classes from, a visual track focusing on food photography, a vocation track focusing on food blogging as a career, and a values track focusing on the ethics and politics of food. You could hop back and forth between tracks, which is pretty much what I did. Read the rest of this entry »

November 11th, 2009
Posted in Leena Eats, Leena Travels, Nebraska, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

Leena Eats: SF, day two, part two–Dinner @ Fish & Farm!

*********************************************************** This is the second part of my second day in San Francisco. To read about day one, go here. To read part one of my second day, go here. *********************************************************** For dinner, we hit up Fish & Farm, a relatively new restaurant in the city (opened June 2009 near the Civic Center/ Tenderloin, according to Yelp) that focuses on sourcing local, sustainable seafood and artisan meats in a upscale yet casual atmosphere. FYI, this restaurant was named to have the best burger in the entire city. Reason enough to dine here. Read the rest of this entry »

November 6th, 2009
Posted in Leena Eats, Leena Travels, Nebraska, San Francisco | Comments Off

Leena Eats: SF, day one- Chouchou

Leena Eats: SF, day one Chouchou
French onion soup @ Chouchou (USD $7). Like a warm hug from a bucket full of kittens.

Back in September, I had the joy of visiting San Francisco for the second time in my life. A good friend from grad school lives in the area, so she picked out a cute little spot to meet up and eat some food, Chouchou French Bistro in the Forest Hill neighborhood of the city. Just a slip of a restaurant, Chouchou was set up with romantic mood lighting and a live music duet in the corner of the restaurant. It was a slightly chilly evening in SF, and a fog was rolling over the hill the little bistro sat atop of. If you are anything like me, you know this is the perfect get chunky weather, so I had to go for my favorite starter of all time, a mother-freaking delicious bowl of French onion soup, covered in gooey, melty and slightly crisp Swiss cheese. Ain’t no messing around here, cuz when that winter chunk hits, you just gotta ride it each cheese-filled bite at a time. That’s just how I roll, you know. Read the rest of this entry »

November 4th, 2009
Posted in Leena Eats, Leena Travels, Nebraska, San Francisco | Comments Off
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