San Francisco - Miller's East Coast West Delicatessen

Miller's East Coast West Delicatessen in San Francisco is probably one of the closest thing you can get to a New York deli on this side of the coast. Having just been to NYC, I thought it would be fun to do a deli showdown! Are you ready to rumble?!?!?!?! East vs. West! Who makes the best bagels? The best pastrami sandwich? Matzo soup? Who will prevail? Read on and you will find out.

If you ask me, I will always root for the West coast cause I'm a California girl, but in this case East Coast wins hands down all the way because Miller's deli IS an east coast deli! The peppery, herby pastrami they have was flown in from the Bronx, and the bagels were partially boiled and baked in New York City before there were shipped to California to be finished off in Miller's oven. You can't get any more authentic than this short of flying across the country and eat it at the source like we did.

We have been to Miller's deli 3 times now and enjoyed the food each and every time. I know some of you guys who are the real deal New Yorkers might go there and think that it sucks, but to my west coast taste buds, this place is a great substitute. Beggars can't be choosers, right?

Left: Millers Right: Ess-a-Bagel

"Tender and fluffy on the inside and has a nice crispy texture on the outside" was what I read and expected from a NYC bagel but sadly did not receive during my New York trip, (read about it here) however, that line describes the bagels at Miller's exactly to the tee.

I took the photo after I took a bite out of the bagel so you can see the texture of it. It is so soft, so airy, and had a nice crunch to it. If this was the kind of bagel I got when I was in New York, I, too, would've became a believer right there and then. Miller's bagels surely redeemed NYC bagels in my eyes; now I just need to find out where they got them!

Bagel round goes to......... Miller's!

Left: Miller's Right: Katz's

Both of the hot pastrami sandwiches were great! I think it just depends on what kind of pastrami mood you're in that particular day. Miller's pastrami were thinly sliced and has a more robust pepper and herb flavor. Katz's meat are a little milder on taste, but they are thick, juicy and a little fattier.

What my boyfriend liked about Miller's is that you can choose what kind of bread you want for your sandwich, as opposed to Katz's where they only serve it on rye, which is probably the more authentic route.

Hot Pastrami round is a tie!

Left: Miller's Right: Katz's

Miller's popped both of our cherry for matzo ball soup. I didn't really know what to expect when I ordered the Chicken noodle soup with matzo ball, and when the soup came I kind of had doubts that it would taste good. Well, if you don't know what I mean, just look at it! The soup looks so clear and kind of bland. How was I suppose to know that it was full of flavor and a joy to eat? Even my boyfriend who is a super soup snob liked it, he liked it so much that I had to spoon fight him so I can get another taste.

As for the matzo ball soup at Katz's, it was decent, but not as flavorful, plus I like it that Miller's had a lot of chicken and noodles in their soup.

Matzo ball soup round goes to.......Miller's!

Miller's has a very extensive menu and serves up soup, sandwiches, salads, burgers, hot plate meals, and more. I especially like their beer battered onion rings; they are sweet and seasoned with a little bit of salt, and as you can see from the picture on the right, there is actually an onion ring inside the batter! (unlike the fast food ones)

And lastly, I just have to mention the new favorite sandwich of all time: The day after. It is roast turkey, stuffing, melted Swiss cheese, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy on toasted rye bread. This sandwich is so good! You can't be afraid to get your hands dirty if you want to eat this sandwich cause the bottom of the bread is a little wet with the sauce and gravy. Plus, you have to try and eat everything in one bite, or two if you have to, because it's the contrast of the savory and sweet, crunchy and soft that makes this sandwich so brilliant and wonderful.

As for the service, it is a little inconsistent; we always seem to arrive at the deli after their rush and it kind of puzzles me how service can be very slow when there are only 5 tables to take care of. The empty cup was sitting at our table for 20 minutes before it got refilled. However, when the deli started to fill up a little at our last trip, we actually got very decent service, hmm... shouldn't it be the other way around? Oh, our server also remembered us from our first visit and what we ordered, which was very nice.

It seems like Miller's came out on top of my comparison test, but I'm sort of partial to it, too, since I only need to drive 60 miles north to get to it, and not have to fly across the country. If and when you can, eat at the source, but if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and you feel homesick, go try out Miller's east coast west deli and it just might make you feel a little better.

Chinese BBQ Pork - First attempt

On my most recent trip to my Safeway, I noticed that they started to carry already cooked Chinese BBQ pork near the meat section, and my first reaction was " >_< " (that's the face I made, in case you're wondering.) It looked very artificial, however, I have not tasted it so I cannot comment on how it taste. It is very possible that it tastes decent or maybe it'll be the best Chinese BBQ pork I'll ever have, but for some reason, I doubt that. If someone has already tried it, feel free to set the record straight. I'm going to try to get a photo when I go there next time.

This prompted me to ponder how hard/easy it is to make Chinese BBQ pork at home, and having my boyfriend bugging me every so often to re-create the best Chinese BBQ pork he had when we were in Beijing earlier this year helped, too. So after a little research, I've prepared myself to go into the kitchen for my first attempt at Chinese BBQ pork (aka Cha Xiu).

I got a bottle of Lee Kum Kee Chinese BBQ Sauce, which you can get at any Asian supermarket. You might be able to get it in the normal supermarkets, but I will need to confirm that since I never look for Asian ingredients in Safeway. Below is a picture of what the bottle looks like.

Here is the recipe that I used:

2 pounds Pork loin
8 tablespoon Lee Kum Kee Chinese BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon sugar ( I used brown sugar)
1 tablespoon water

Mix all the ingredients together and marinade the pork loin for 3 days.

Now the marinade has penetrated deep into the pork loin, the wait is finally over! We can start the roasting process! Preheat oven to 350F.

What I did was I took a couple big paper clips and bent them so they will have double hooks, one on each end. I hooked one end through the meat and hanged the other side on the heating coil and I put a roasting pan with water on the bottom to catch the drippings like the picture below. Please be extremely careful if you attempt to do this, as the oven is hot, and if you're accident prone, I would suggest you just roast the meat on a oven roasting pan.

I roast it for 20 minutes, took them out and brushed the pork loin with some Chinese BBQ sauce that I mixed with a little water and a drop of red food coloring I found in the pantry. Turned the heat to broil, put the pork loin back into the oven for another 10 minutes. And below is what I got.

The meat was definitely very flavorful, and the final glaze gave it a shiny and sticky look, which also added to the flavor. It was a little tougher than what I would like, but I found out it was because of my own stupidity; apparently during the last 10 minutes of broiling the meat, I was suppose to leave the oven slightly open, plus I roasted it a tad bit longer. I don't think the flavor is spot on, but it's decent. And for the first try, I think I'll cut myself some slack.

I have bought some pork shoulder loin from Costco already that has a bit more marbling and I think it will be more tender and juicier. I'm also thinking about testing out a few other recipes to see which one produces the most authentic flavor. So look out for Chinese BBQ Pork - part II later!

4th of July L.A. trip - Gordon Ramsey at The London

After much anticipation, Gordon Ramsey's restaurant has finally opened its doors in West Hollywood. Yay!!! I will no longer need to fly across the globe or the U.S. to be able to eat in his restaurant and that is wonderful news.

We got slightly lost on our way to restaurant, which is situated inside The London hotel. The hotel is located right next to the Sunset strip, but the entrance is on a side street, San Vicente Blvd, which we missed cause we did not see the hotel, so we went down the next street and made 3 right turns, even then the entrance was still a little hard to see. Parking was valet only and there were different prices depending on if you're staying in the hotel or visiting the restaurant; I think we paid $10.00 for restaurant valet parking.

We were a little worried before we walked into the restaurant because we read that more than a few people had trouble or confusion with their reservation. We never received a confirmation call from the restaurant, either, but the host had all of our information correctly and seated the two of us right away. Maybe they worked out the kinks, or maybe because it was 4th of July so there were not as busy to confuse themselves. Whatever it is, it was good for us!

The service was what I would expect from a fine dining restaurant: wonderful and courteous. Our server was very helpful and knowledgeable of the menu. Our passion fruit ice tea were never empty and tasty I might add. After each dish were served, there was always someone to come check up on us after a few minutes.

You can order from two menus, there's the a la carte menu and a 6 course chef tasting menu; I read from other people's review (after we dined there) that the whole table should all have the chef tasting menu or all should order from the a la carte menu, and they needed the chef's approval to deviate from that rule, but that was not our experience. We were interested in having the chef's menu, but there were so many other dishes that I had my mind set on, so when our server came to take our order, we told him that my boyfriend was going to have the chef's menu and I will order a few plates a la carte. He told us that is not a problem and advised us that he would recommend us to order 4 dishes as the plates are quite small.

So here is what we had that day, I took pictures of all the dishes we had. The pictures on the top is from the tasting menu, and the bottom side is what I ordered from the a la carte menu. The kitchen paced out our dishes and arranged my a la carte plates to come out from light to heavy.


Our first unofficial course, the amuse buse is a cold chawanmushi with edamame and crispy duck tongue. For those of you we are not familiar with chawanmushi, it is a Japanese egg custard dish steamed in a tea cup. It was very flavorful and the crispy texture and flavor of the duck tongue is very reminiscence of bacon, which makes everything taste good, everything maybe except dessert.

Here's comes our first course. On the top is the Tuna with pickled daikon with sesame soy dressing. I believe the little dot on the third slice of tuna from the left is the crab beignet which is barely noticeable. The tuna was very fresh and with the daikon and soy on the bottom make it taste almost sashimi like.

On the bottom is my chilled almond soup. I am an almond nut (heehee.. get it? almond nut, cause you know, almond is a nut and I'm nuts for almonds. yes.. yes.. I'm a big dork, I know.) So you see why I have to order this soup when I saw it on the menu. The texture of the soup is a little grainy, probably from the ground almonds. The almond flavor was there but light, it was savory and a little tangy. The prawns were sweet and tender. Very interesting flavors and was definitely something new to me.

Top: fresh mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes, cape gooseberries, basil pesto.

A very refreshing second course and a palate cleanser. I love how sweet the cape gooseberries was and it goes so well with the cheese and tomatoes. It was a perfect pair with my duck breast, which is a much heavier dish in comparison. I am very big into balance, for instance, when my boyfriend orders a decadent chocolate cake, I would order a fruit tart to balance it out so we won't get tired of a richness of the cake. So after I had a few bites of my dish, it was nice to to sample this dish, in fact, I think I enjoyed it more than mine.

Bottom: Apple-cured duck breast and crispy tongue and foie gras.

As I said before, it is a much heavier dish and was beautifully presented. It looked like a work of art! The square with striped pattern on the bottom is the duck breasts. It was sliced paper thin and if it was not sliced by a machine, the chef certainly is extremely skillful with the knife. The foie gras is rich, smooth and creamy And of course when you eat each components together the crispy duck tongue gives it a nice crunch and adds another dimension to the dish.

Top: Hand-dived sea scallops

We were looking very forward to the scallops, especially because it is my favorite shell fish and we always watch people say how great the scallops are on Hell's Kitchen. The scallops are perfectly cooked; lightly seasoned, seared, very delicate and sweet. I just wish there were more of them.

Bottom: Smoked pork belly with roasted Scottish langoustine

Aww... the star of the evening! I ordered this dish because of the langoustine, but fell in love with the pork belly, and obviously so did my boyfriend, because I gave him a little taste and he pretty much jacked my dish and devoured it. We almost ordered a second one and he has demanded that I re-create this dish at home or go buy Gordon Ramsey's cook books for the recipe.

The pork belly was smoky, sweet, tender, and has a crispy skin. You can pull it apart with just your fork! This was one of those dish that when you take your first bite, it is so good that you will roll your eyes to the back of your head, and let out a tiny moan, much like another feeling that people experience sometimes, well except the moan part might not be tiny. :P

Top: Beef fillet and Kobe short rib

A very juicy piece of steak and the short rib was extremely tender as you would expect from a Kobe class beef. The only part that I was disappointed was that the short rib was so small. Somehow I expected it to be larger and to be more of the main part of the dish, rather than an accompaniment to the fillet, but then.... the beef fillet is listed first on the menu, isn't it?

Bottom: Honey and soy roasted quail, sautéed foie gras with pear chutney

Not to say that this dish was not good, but I wish I had the pork belly as my last dish. It was very tasty and well cooked, but I guess I was expecting something more refined from a fine dining restaurant. The quail was a little bit on the dry side and the sauce was quite heavy. I did enjoy the sauteed foie gras very much though, it was one of the best that I ever had. (My favorite is from La Foret in San Jose, CA)

My favorite part of the meal has come: DESSERT! This is part one of the two desserts that comes with the tasting menu. It is a olive oil gelato with confit Meyer lemon and basil gelée and sable breton on the bottom. I have never had olive oil gelato before so this was an experience; the gelato was light with a little nutty and grassy taste, and the gelee really adds something to the overall taste.

The last two course of desserts.

Top: Pineapple soufflé with Thai curry ice cream.

So the server brings the souffle and right afterwards they plop this little ball of Thai curry ice cream in the middle of the souffle. I've had plenty of souffles before, but never had one with this flavor before. The souffle was cooked very well, no complaints with the texture, however, the flavor just was not to our taste, and to be honest, I could not taste the pineapple flavor because it was either too subtle or it was being overpowered by the curry flavor.

Bottom: Rose water sabayon, mandarin orange four ways and cinnamon ice cream

I knew I wanted this dessert before I made reservation, and it did not disappoint. The rose water sabayon was a delightful treat, and I especially loved the mandarin orange sorbet on the bottom, it was sweet, sour and refreshing. If you have read my previous post on Vivoli Cafe then you would understand what I mean when I say after I finished this dessert, my dish looked like my gnocchi dish.

Overall, I am very pleased with my experience at Gordon Ramsey at the London. I know some people commented on how small the portions are and they are like tapas style, but in my opinion, I think the portion is comparable with other fine dining restaurants; I have been to other restaurants that serves even smaller portions. One in particular comes to mind is Chez TJ in Mountain View, CA, which has a two star Michilin star rating, and after twelve courses of food, we were still hungry and we paid more money. At least in Gordon's restaurant, we left with our tummy full and content. This restaurant is definitely on our return list, and we might stay at the hotel next time, too.