Cheeky's

I wanted to find a yummy breakfast place to go to as a treat for hiking the previous day. Cheeky's had good reviews online and I was intrigued by the "flight" of bacon. We got there around 10:30 am on Sunday morning and easily had a prime outside seat. BTW, the weather is perfect in the desert right now. Water was promptly provided in a large sealed glass bottle, opened at our table and poured into iced glasses. Fancy.

Their menu changes weekly. I ordered the maple sage sausage hash, parsnip, carmelized onion, apple and poached eggs ($9.00), he ordered the Blondie's egg benedict with hash browns ($13) and a coffee and orange juice. The juice was freshly squeezed and also served out in a what looked like a lab beaker.



We split the flight of bacon. We should have had the waitress tell us which pieces of bacon were which because we weren't able to tell based on taste. Not that they weren't tasty -- they were definitely crispy (a bacon-MUST) but none had enough overwhelming flavor that we could easily determine the flavor. After looking back at the menu online, I'm surprised because none of them overwhelmingly tasted like jalapeno or espresso, and yet, that's what we had! The complete flight was:
- Nodine's Smokehouse
- Applewood
- Jalapeno
- Maple Crusted
- Espresso bacon

But like I said, I have NO idea which ones the jalapeno and espresso ones were.



I liked the hash. Carmelized onions, apple sausage, crunchy parsnips and different types of potatoes with a perfect poached egg on top. I swirled my potatoes into the egg yolk. Mmmmm.



He said he liked the eggs benedict but that the addition of the cheddar scone might have made the meal too heavy. You mean eggs benedict can be light?

Service was attentive, food was good, and we were pleased.

San Francisco Food!

Koi Palace in Daly City for dim sum. Steph said it was the best... they had a lot of usual things in addition to the typical dim sum fare. You order both from the menu and the few carts that pass by. Although not as "fun", I kind of like the idea of ordering from a menu because then you're sure to get the items you want and they're fresh.

Some favorites were the red bean paste crepes (accidentally ordered because we thought they were something else) and the Shanghai dumplings (notice how there is only one left!).



Other unusual things were tried were the pumpkin red bean mochi:



and the durian puff pastry:



No one cared for this. I thought it was okay but you probably have to like durian to like this (I do).

The place is PACKED so it's a good thing we got there right when they opened at 10 am.

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We went to The House for Jon's birthday. It's tiny so it's a good thing we had a reservation. Everything was presented beautifully and the service was great. They had 2 or 3 specials for the night but we ended up ordering off the menu.

ahi tuna tartare with roasted nori chips:



Jon had the wasabi noodles with angus flatiron steak and Kameran and Stephanie both had the grilled sea bass (no photos - they came out blurry!).

I ordered two "small" dishes, the deep fried salmon roll:



and the crab cake:



That's some crab cake! I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a pear or a volcano?

Everything was DELICIOUS. Seriously.

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For dessert, Steph took us to Chaya for chocolate croissant bread pudding:



It was like creme brulee! Caramel ice cream slowly melting on top of a sweet custard dotted with pops of chocolate. Heavenly.