And Then I Got Pie....

I love me some pie. Particularly apple and berry pie. So when I heard about Chile Pies & Ice Cream on one of the food channels, I put it on my "to eat" list.  Some people have "to do" lists or bucket lists- this girl has a "to eat" list. Because this place is a little bit off the beaten path, it took me awhile to get to this item on my prized list.

Thanks to my roomie renting a car for the weekend, I finally got a chance to try this place...and it was worth the wait.

Here are the deets: this place is known for putting unique ingredients in otherwise traditional flavors of pie.  For example, they put green chili and cheddar cheese in the crust of their apple pie.  Might sound weird, but these unique ingredients really compliment the traditional flavors of the pie.

Here's the apple pie with a scoop of Three Twins Organic Vanilla Ice Cream.  Fabulous- absolutely exceeded my expectations.  Great crumble topping, nice flaky crust with a pit of a kick of spice from the chili (not spicy by any means, just a little bite of flavor).

The ice cream was super tasty.  You can tell they make the ice cream from real vanilla beans.  Super creamy.  I have heard rave reviews of Three Twins before, but have never had a chance to actually try them.  Added them to my "to eat" list.  A little pricey at $8, but the portion size is very generous, so you can split with a friend and still walk away happy.

Chile Pies has both sweet and savory pies.  I figured I had to try both varieties...you know, for my blog.  

Somewhat blindly, I ordered the frito chili pie.  There was a bit of a crowd in the store at the time, everyone seemed a bit confused and there was no clear line.  Caught up in the chaos, I started to panic that I wasn't going to get food.  When I finally caught the staff member's eye, I desperately pointed to the frito pie on the menu without really knowing what I was ordering, afraid that if I didn't order now, I was never going to eat.  Ever.  I'm a bit over-dramatic, but hey, I was super excited about this pie adventure and didn't want anything to screw it up.  

Back to the frito pie...

  

The ingredients were pretty simple.  They simply opened up a bag of frito chips, poured some vegetarian chili on top (they have meat chili available too), topped it will yummy ingredients and you are good to go.  Simple but very good.  My only complaint is that it was pretty pricey for what it is.  At $6 a pop, I expected something more (organic, locally sourced corn chips...I don't know).  

One of my friends ordered a chicken pot pie...

She cleaned her plate, so I am guessing that it was good.  Again, great crust, yummy insides and a nice serving of gravy on the side.  Perfect for a cool fall afternoon. 

In addition to pie, they had two varieties chili and stew available by the cup or the bowl.  If you order by the bowl, you get a yummy looking corn muffin.  Looked and smelled good, so I plan to order this next time. 

You can order a whole pie or by the slice.  Each day, the selection of pie changes, but I think they always have their signature green chile apple pie.  

Overall, definitely worth checking out.  Two chubby thumbs up from this fat kid.  

FK Lunch Adventures: Rico's Diner

Rico's Diner, a photo by bbarneclo on Flickr.

Although I am proud of my gastronomic identity, it sometimes takes me a little while to come out.  You never know how a person might react.  Case in point: it took me eight weeks out of my ten week summer internship to disclose that I was a Fat Kid to my fellow interns.  They were deeply offended by my lack of trust, but were immediately supportive of my lifestyle.  I suspect that a few also identify as a Fat Kid, but aren't quite ready to come out publicly.  Some seem a bit nervous about using the label Fat Kid in particular and, out of an abundance of caution, avoid this seemingly pejorative term and instead refer to our joint lunch-time food adventures as FK outings.

For our first official FK outing, we ventured a few blocks over to Rico's Diner.  The place is your typical greasy spoon diner, but with a unique twist.  They offer a substantial vegan/vegetarian menu with a wide variety of traditional diner dishes.

They are probably most known for their vegan pulled pork.  Honestly, if I didn't know it was vegan, I would have thought it was regular pulled pork.  Pretty tasty and incredibly convincing.

I went the opposite direction and had a bacon cheeseburger.  Substituted the beef burger for a turkey one instead.  In the moment, I felt like this decision made dish slightly more healthy.  It's all relative, right? Good bacon, nice and crispy.  Turkey burger was also good- flavorful and moist.  Sometimes turkey burgers are dry and have no taste, but Rico's seemed to get it right.  I just wish they offered blue cheese instead of cheddar- goes better with bacon.  On the bottom right hand corner of the picture, you see the hit of the whole lunch- SWEET POTATO TATER TOTS!!!!! A-maz-ing.  Seriously, it was worth going there just for these.  Dipped in a little bit of ranch dressing- fat kid heaven.

Last dish, traditional burger with sweet potato fries.  I didn't try this dish, but my coworker gave the thumbs up.  Sweet potato fries were a hit.  (If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for sweet potato fried goodness.)

Rico's also has legendary milkshakes.  We didn't try them, but I plan on going back for dessert (and tater tots) sometimes soon.  Will update when I do.

Not my pictures (grabbed it from flickr) but you can see what you might expect.  Similar to the food menu, they offer both regular and vegan shakes.  When we were there, I saw a blueberry shake offered- must try.

In addition to lunch options, Rico's also offers traditional diner breakfast dishes.

Country fried stake and eggs.

Biscuits and gravy.


French toast sticks, ham, potatoes and fried eggs.


Tofu scramble.

In addition to the food, the place is super cute.






Love the cartoons on the windows.








If you are in Downtown Oakland and/or are vegan/vegetarian, this place is definitely worth a try.

When One Door Closes, Another One Opens: B*Star

(UPDATE: My pictures were pretty crappy, so I linked a few I found from flickr.)



This week, I got together with a few fellow fat kids for dinner in the Inner Richmond.  My (future) roomie, A, and I were out hunting for apartments and decided to call a few other friends to join us for dinner in the area.  We decided to try Burma Superstar, which is supposed to be excellent.  However, I don't think we were the only person to hear that it is good.  The place was backed and a sizable crowd was milling outside.  The hostess confirmed our fears- we would have to wait at least an hour.  Seeing disappointment wash over our faces, she suggested that we try their sister restaurant, B*Star, which was just a few blocks down the street.  She called ahead to let them know we were coming.  Once we arrived, the host was waiting for us and walked us immediately to our table.

B*Star is an Asian Fusion restaurant.  They have a few of the signature dishes from Burma Superstar, including the Tea Leaf Salad.  

First up, yummy cocktails and appetizers. 

Orange Basil Soju Mojito, Chimay and Mango Mint Soju Mojito.  I had the mango mojito- so tasty! Would go back for this cocktail by itself.  

We shared the Spicy Tuna Cerviche as an appetizer- pepper crusted tuna tataki with jalapeño, avocado and wakame.  Gobbled it down.  One of the waiters tried to take the plate when we were done, but A almost bit his hand off.  Slurped up the remnants of wakame and avocado that were left before handing it over.  

We also shared the Tea Leaf Salad.

Romaine lettuce ginger, garlic, peanuts, sunflower and sesame seeds, tomato and fermented tea leaves.  Not gonna lie, the fermented tea leaves made me pause.  But mixed together, it was so good.  Crunchy, crisp, spicy, tangy. We split it, but I could have eaten buckets of this dish.  So good. A must try if you go.

Check out a better picture here.

We shared two entrees family style- first up, Basil Chili Tofu.

Pressed tofu, eggplant, red bell peppers, asparagus, red onions over coconut rice. Not the biggest tofu fan, but this was great.  Great combination of flavors.  Had a bit of a kick, but not overwhelming.  The coconut rice balanced it out perfectly.  Here's a better picture.

We also shared Grilled Trout with Mango and Citrus Salad.  

Grilled trout, tomatoes, papaya, mango, jalapenos and coconut rice.  Had crunchy little things in the rice, don't know what they were called.  All around great meal.  Spicy and sweet, crispy and soft. My only complaint is that the portion size was a bit skimpy for the price ($15). 

Finally, we finished off our meal with banana coconut egg rolls.  Served with chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream.  This dish didn't last long enough for me to take a picture.  So flippin' good.  

For four people, drinks, appetizers, dinner, and dessert totaled $100 before tip.  A good investment for good food and a good time with great friends.  The place was packed by the time we left (9pm), so I would recommend reservations if you are arriving after 7:30p and have a big party.  

On the Hunt for Brunch: Caffe DeLucchi

I love brunch.  Nothing better than sleeping in on a lazy weekend, rolling out of bed and heading out for this meal that counts for both breakfast and lunch.  I have my favorites- Brenda's, Dottie's True Blue Cafe and Stacks are all great places to grab some grub around the Civic Center.  However, I am always on the hunt for new restaurants to try.  A few months ago, I headed out to find a new breakfast/brunch place.

Our original target was Mama's.  Got great reviews on Yelp.  I had the genius idea of walking to the restaurant to work off in advance the considerable caloric intake that I knew I would soon consume.  Taking the scenic route, we arrived about an hour later, walking roughly three miles up and down the hills of San Francisco.  By the time we got to Mama's, there was at least 30 people lined up outside the restaurant.

Starving, we decided to try another place.  We stumbled into Caffe DeLucchi, a few blocks down from Mama's.  No wait, seated right away.  Menu looked promising, a tad pricey ($10-$15), but not unreasonably or surprising for SF.

First up....bucket sized cups of coffee.

Yum! Service was great and we never got down to half a cup before a refill was offered.

I ordered crab cakes benedict:

I love eggs benedict- I use it to test a new breakfast place.  If they can nail this dish, I know it is good.  This was very solid.  The crab went great with the runny yolk.  Not the greatest hollandaise sauce I've tried, but decent.  Breakfast potatoes were good- not too greasy.

M had the winner dish: polenta with melted gorgonzola, honey, thick cut smoked applewood bacon and poached egg.

Pictures don't do it justice.  F*mazing.  Thinking about it makes my mouth water now.  All of the flavors paired very well together.  The honey was a great balance on the salty bacon.  Polenta was perfectly creamy and the gorgonzola gave it a nice tang.  So good.

I am convinced that this is a bit of an undiscovered gem.  Although the restaurant is pretty big, there were several open table tops when we were there.  I would have guessed that it would be packed based on what we ate.  I definitely would go back- would love to try the polenta with pulled pork.

Plan on going back soon....

Fat Kids in the Foothills: Standard Pour

I recently took a trip back to my hometown of Sonora, CA.  Although the selection is somewhat slim relative to what is available in the Bay Area, there are a few restaurants in town that get the fat kid stamp of approval.  One of my all time favorites is Diamondback Grill- cannot go wrong with the grilled chicken salad or the sweet potato fries.  Diamondback's owner has opened a few restaurants over the years, including Blue Collar Pizza and Coyote Cafe.  All were great, so I was super excited to hear that they were opening a new restaurant called Standard Pour.

For those that know Sonora, they opened up in the old Snowshoe Brewery location, which I absolutely love. They did a great job at renovating it.  For those that don't know Sonora, the building is located in a historic company town for the Standard Lumber Company and I think it might have served as a train station at some point.  The building was well preserved and is one of my favorite historic architectural landmarks in Tuolumne County.

From what I can gather, Standard Pour is a beer drinkers version of a wine bar.  All of the meals can be paired with a beer.  They have a great selection of beers, mostly domestic microbreweries, but also some great imports as well.  They offer beer tasting flights throughout the week, but on Wednesday nights, the flights are only $4 with the purchase of a meal.

  Although the beer was good, the food was great.  Much like Diamondback, Standard Pour's menu features salads, burgers and sandwiches.  Most of the ingredients are locally sourced or at least California based.  Reasonably priced- everything is between $6-$12.  We started out with the bacon cheddar hush puppies with maple sour cream.  Absolutely fat kid approved.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but wanted to show what the insides looked like.  The hush puppies were very well done- crispy outside, soft and moist inside with bits of yummy bacon mixed in.  I can acknowledge that this California girl might have a limited palate for hush puppies, but I am willing to bet that these would pass the test among Southerners.

I had the Spicy Indian Eggplant Sandwich with Jalapeño, Cilantro, Ginger, and Peanut Spread, Cumin Yogurt Raita, and Pickled Cucumber.  I chose salad with roasted tomato vinaigrette.  Overall, it was great.  The eggplant was great and I loved the jalapeno spread.  My only complaint is that the bun was too bulky.  Absolutely impossible to take a bite with both side together, so I ended up eating it as an open faced sandwich.  Not a big deal.  I think this is a great choice for vegetarians and could easily be adapted for vegans as well.

M had the half pound kobe beef burger with Point Reyes blue cheese and homemade pesto.  He chose the sweet potato fries with significant urging on my point to make this selection.  This was AMAZING!

The burger had just the right amount of blue cheese.  Most times, restaurants put either way too much or way too little.  Not here.  The pairing with pesto just sealed the deal.  M loved it so much I barely got a few bites in before it was gone.  We would recommend it to anyone.

Oh sweet potato fries, I love you so very much.  You are the near perfect fat kid food- I can justify eating you because you are so nutrient rich and pretend that I am being healthy, even though deep down I know that you are just fried goodness.  The Standard Pour uses the same recipe as Diamondback, which is great.  I am a fan of shoestring rather than wedge fries.  In my experience, most places don't do shoestring sweet potato fries, but Diamond and Standard Pour can deliver.  They provide a great ratio of crispy outside and soft sweet inside.

I'm definitely planning on going back.  The Standard Pour has special tasting events and I think they even host a trivia night.  I just wish this stuff was going on when I was living in Sonora....

Dynamo Donuts, the Fat Kid Crack House

Dynamo Donuts ranks right up there with Mitchell's as my favorite places to score my sugar hits in San Francisco.  They specialize in gourmet donuts and use fabulous fresh ingredients.  Their menu rotates daily depending on what is fresh, but they almost always have a few standard flavors, including their famous bacon apple maple donut.  Check the website and the twitter feed for the daily menu.

Unfortunately, Dynamo is one of those places where if you try once, you can never stop.  Although I have no personal knowledge, I imagine it is a similar experience to crack, except you get fat instead of skinny when you abuse this substance.  Small details.  So my new rule is that I can only eat their donuts if I walk to the shop, which is 2.3 miles away from my apartment.  Yes, I know the exact distance.

Here are some pictures collected over my multiple visits to Dynamo.  No, I didn't order all of these donuts in one sitting...but I can't say that I haven't been tempted.

Meyer Lemon Huckleberry.  This is what I got on the most recent trip.  Berry was the dominant flavor, but the lemon added a bit of a kick.  Yummy.

Bacon apple maple donut.  So flippin' good.  This is their local claim to fame and Dynamo absolutely lives up to the hype.  The picture isn't great- I am always so excited to eat this donut that I forget to take a picture before I have nearly demolished it.

I think this is the vanilla bean donut, but I'm not 100% sure.  Very good.  They actually use real vanilla bean in the batter and you can see chunks of it in the donut.

Caramel del Sel (bottom left) and spicy chocolate (top right).  Both are solid.  The caramel has hints of orange zest in it.  Simple, but really, really good.  Goes great with coffee.  The spicy chocolate is super rich, dense and cake-like.  I think they put chipotle powder in the sugar, making it a tad hot.  I think it is a sleeper hit and is one of my favorites.  A great choice if you want something to dunk in your coffee without getting your fingers all sticky with icing.

Chocolate rose.  Same batter as the spicy chocolate, but infused with rose water.  Very good.

Lemon thyme (left) and strawberry something (right).  I can't remember what other flavor the strawberry was paired with- on the website, it lists strawberry early grey, but I don't think this is what it was.  My bf, M, loves lemon flavors, so the lemon thyme was a big hit, but we both thought it could use a stronger lemon flavor.  The strawberry was very good- you could taste that the strawberries were fresh.

One of my all time favorites isn't included in my pictures, but it is on the website- banana de leche.  At first, M and I hesitated to get this because we were afraid that the banana flavor would overpower the donut.  We absolutely underestimated the talents of the Dynamo baking staff.  Everything was perfectly balanced, so amazing.

Looking over their website, it seems like they are adding a new batch of recipes into the rotation.  A must try: Monte Cristo.  Ham, gruyere cheese and homemade jam.  It looks like it has been deep fried (ok, I realize that they all have, but this especially looks deep fried).  Are you kidding me?!?!  Another one: Molasses Guinness Pear.  Come on now.

I think another Fat Kid Reunion is in order- who wants to join?

Fat Kid Mecca: Mitchell's Ice Cream

I love Mitchell's Ice Cream.  No, seriously.  I love this place.  So much that I am planning on naming one of my children Mitchell.  It helps that its a family name- I can at least pretend like this is my reason.  It will be served at my wedding and my funeral.

For those who haven't had the honor of trying this place, here's the low down.  It's claim to fame is its original tropical flavors.  These flavors include Ube (Purple Yam), Avocado, Green Tea, Mango and others.  Sounds strange, but I promise you, it works.  They also have a stellar traditional flavor menu.  Some of my favorites are Kahlua Mocha Cream, Peanut Butter Indulgence, Thin Mint, Grasshopper Pie and Espresso Toffee.  You really can't go wrong with any flavor at this place though.  They have a set of seasonal flavors as well.  During the summer months, they have Peach and Cantaloupe.  Around the Winter Holidays, Eggnog and Pumpkin are pretty solid.

In addition to the variety of flavors, Mitchell's also has tons of options for customizing your ice cream.  Cup, regular cone, sugar cone, waffle cone and waffle bowl.  Ice cream cookie sandwiches.  Milkshakes.  Sundaes.  Chocolate dip.  Chocolate dip with sprinkles.  Tons of toppings.  All pretty reasonably priced.  I always go with waffle cone and chocolate dip.

Jay rocked the Ube on a waffle cone.  The tip broke, so she accessorized her ice cream.

Ube was a big hit this visit.  

Not sure what flavor Suzan got, but she was keeping a watchful eye on Chou.  You can never be too careful when it comes to Mitchell's.