Either home-cooked or from restaurants. I haven’t visited many restaurants this year.
The Cali Alley burger at Cali Alli
Ham and cheese sandwich on Acme walnut bread, Oceanview Diner
Pollara pizza, especially the meatball and the cacio e pepe
Homemade yorvarlakia, reviving my love of avgolemono
Ash Reshteh soup from Middle East Market
I mostly go back to old favorites, but here are a handful of new to me favorites in 2022:
Ramen Hajime (Santa Clara): Meat meat meat ramen and chicken kaarage
Beyond Cafe: Beef brisket noodle soup with the thin egg noodles
Mazra (San Bruno): Chicken and beef kofta kebabs with sides of hummus and baba ganoush
Garden Creamery: Mango pudding ice cream in collaboration with Dumpling Time (not currently on the menu)
And, I hope you don’t mind, a few from outside the SFBA:
Wallflour Bakery (Honolulu): Lilikoi sticky bun and mango sticky rice Parisian flan (seasonal)
Republique (Los Angeles): Mango pie (seasonal)
Sidecar Doughnuts (Los Angeles): Strawberry doughnut (seasonal)
Some first thoughts from restaurant dishes
World Famous Hotboys fried chicken wings extra hot. Oakland. prob also went there 10+ times in 2022 including 3x in one week.
had a lovely carne asada pura burrito extra asada from pancho villa in dolores park. that was something special.
the banana split at fentons in oakland is best in class for the whole world so far as i’m concerned too. i’m good for that once or twice a year.
cheers !
We ate home a lot, some takeout , the highlights…
xmas gumbo with shrimp and crab ( fam is from New Orleans)
homemade mini basque cheesecakes with home grown passionfruit
Tacos El Toucan…tacos, burritos…everything!!! (the shrimp quesotaco is my fave)
baked salmon with Shared Cultures morel miso and butter…( shared cultures miso is amazing, if you havent tried it)
Sweet Adeline Hazelnut cake ( birthday)
Hella Bagels…
I made a copycat eggslut fairfax sandwich…it is amazing…recipe on youtube.
Raymonds Pizza Square pie…customized! always delicious
Egg and Chinese sausage Vietnamese sandwich at Cali Sandwiches (San Jose)
Dark roux gumbo at Creola Bistro (San Carlos)
Detroit style pepperoni at Square Pie Guys (SF)
Chocolate buche noel at Maison Alyzee (Burlingame)
Hot chocolate at Maison Alyzee (Burlingame)
Fennel maple ice cream at Salt and Straw (Burlingame)
Bourbon vanilla ice cream from Goon with a Spoon at Piazza Fine foods supermarket (San Mateo)
Honeycomb ice cream from Van Leewens at Safeway
Peking Duck at Palette Tea Garden (San Mateo)
Kimino brand Yuzu sparking drink at Whole Foods
White Christmas tea at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble
Top two were in the city of Napa in December. We preferred to eat outside, instead of in the crowded restaurants and despite the heat-lamps it was chilly, so not surprisingly we got food that warmed us up.
Halloumi Cheese accompanied with Truffle Honey, Chardonnay Poached Turkish Apricots, Raisins and flamed with Brandy at Tarla. Spectacular and delicious. Their meatballs were also very good.
Lobster bisque at the Waterfront Seafood Grill, also in the city of Napa. Nice view of the river, too.
Number three, Clams Casino at Sam’s Anchor Cafe in Tiburon: little neck clams, bacon, spinach, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs.
For takeout, Comal Next Door’s burritos a couple times. Always good.
Don’t suppose you have a picture of the buche de noel? My husband makes it every year and is always curious to see other examples.
Looks tasty! Not the traditional Swiss roll, I think.
This year, we discovered Fiorella in the Sunset. Wonderful, neighborhood spot with freshmade pasta. Love the radiatore alla vodka & cacio e pepe!
The cheeseburger at SJ’s Jazz Bar, Mama Kin, was also awesome.
