Hi friends! Today I'm going to try something new...a food diary! I LOVE food and want to share that on Steemit. I am currently based in San Francisco, so will be introducing different restaurants, food trucks, cafes, ect from the Bay Area. However, I do travel around a lot and will incorporate some international food diaries :-) I hope you enjoy, bottoms up!
Beretta - An Italian Restaurant
Location - 1199 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110
The Atmosphere
Beretta is the place to be for dinner on Valencia. I had tried to grab a table a week before and was put on an hour waitlist. This time, my boyfriend and I arrived at 6pm (they open at 5:30pm and do not take reservations). My boyfriend dropped me off so that I could get a table while he parked. Unfortunately, I found out that they will not seat you unless every person from your party is physically present. 15 minutes passed while waiting for my boyfriend to park and arrive. In that time, I saw at least 10 parties be seated and the restaurant fill up. I was worried that we would be waitlisted again, but he arrived right in time. We were seated at a long, communal table in the middle of the restaurant. By 6:30 Beretta was completely at capacity. The atmosphere was loud. It is not that spacious of a restaurant, therefore the noise level is bound to skyrocket when it is at maximum capacity. Regardless, we enjoyed the upbeat energy and the communal seating which allowed us to talk to a couple sitting on our side.
"Wind Up Bird" - Japanese whisky, curacao, bianco vermouth, salted cacao - $12
We began the evening with a cocktail to share. While the glass was small, it packed a punch! I'm not the biggest fan of whisky, but this drink went down smoothly and had a wonderful during and after-taste. The taste didn't go well with our pizza though, so we saved the rest to drink with our tiramisu.
Eggplant caponatina with burrata cheese - $10
The appetizer was my favorite dish of the meal. It was eggplant caponatina with burrata cheese. The roasted eggplant was mixed with cherry tomatoes, capers, green olives, green grapes, peppers, garlic, pine nuts, and topped with creamy burrata cheese. My boyfriend doesn't usually like eggplant, and he agreed that it was one of the best eggplant dishes he's had.
Pizza with funghi misti, tomato, fontina, and thyme - $16
The pizza came out of their oven with a crispy crust and juicy mushrooms. I was a bit underwhelmed from the pizza after our 100 flavor appetizer. However, it was good nonetheless. The pizza was thin crust, crispy, and fresh. I felt clean (AKA not like a grease-ball) eating half of a pizza, which is rare. The ingredients were extremely fresh and the pizza accentuated the mushrooms and tomatoes with just enough cheese to satisfy.
Tiramisù with rum-mascarpone - $7
Yum! Dessert is always my favorite part of the evening, but I have high standards for tiramisu. I spent a month in Florence a few years back for a dance intensive, and ate tiramisu every single day, each time trying it from a different place. While this tiramisu did not top the tiramisu from my favorite place in Florence, it set the bar high for San Francisco. My biggest pet peeve with tiramisu is when it has been sitting out too long and has become soggy. Berreta managed to keep this tiramisu fresh, with the ladyfingers staying firm and just spongy enough to hold the liquid.
New Eritrea Restaurant & Bar
Location - 907 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA 94122
The Atmosphere
Honestly, the biggest thumbs down that I will give this restaurant is its atmosphere. While the first section of the restaurant is pleasant, we were sat the the back room. The back room seems to be a quick add-on that used to be a back patio area. There is little decoration, which lends to a mundane visual environment. However, it is perfect for a get in, get out meal without an hour of conversation that my boyfriend and I often enjoy.
The Find
We had just come from the de Young museum's free Friday evening event and were looking for a restaurant in the area. Our criteria? Something new, vegetarian, clean (not too oily), and on the cheaper side. Within a few minutes on Yelp, we found New Eritrea Restaurant & Bar. The restaurant is in the Inner Sunset district, a block away from Golden Gate Park. Irving Street is full of delicious, budget friendly eats, so if you are in the neighborhood you can't go wrong.
The Food
We were given the menu and immediately knew what we wanted - the vegetarian platter for two. It is $24 and consists of 6 different vegetarian dishes all on one platter over injera. Injera is an East African sourdough flatbread that has a spongy texture. It is used to pick up the other food. This is one of my favorite parts of eating Eritrean food - you get to eat with your fingers! Here is a list of the 6 vegetarian dishes on the injera platter:
Tumtumo - lentil beans pureed and simmered with Eritrean spices, tomatoes, onion and herbs.
Hamli - collard greens and spinach simmered in authentic Eritrean spices.
Vegetarian Allicha - mildly seasoned mixture of potatoes, carrots, cabbage and garlic in authentic Eritrean spices.
Alicha-ater - chickpea pureed and simmered in onion, garlic and authentic Eritrean spices.
Okra - okra cooked lightly and flavored with fresh tomatoes, onions and Eritrean spices.
Shiro - a traditional Eritrean dish prepared with split peas, tomatoes and onions.
It was delicious and exactly what we were looking for - unique, healthy, filling, vegetarian food. I loved that the six dishes were arranged together on the one platter, which allowed me to tear off some injera and pick up a little bit of shiro and then pick up a little bit of hamli in the same bite. The texture of all of the dishes was fairly mushy, which was contrasted by the spongy injera that wrapped around each bite. Each dish also had different mixes of Eritrean spices, some of them more smokey, some more spicy, some more subtle.
And as my boyfriend very non-politically correct said, "Wow, this is some of the best Ethiopian food I've ever had! Oh shit...I meant Eritrean. I'm so glad no one else heard me..." If you are reading this and wondering why he was so glad no one heard him, Eritrea fought a 30 year war against Ethiopia for its independence, and from 1998 to 2000 the Eritrean-Ethiopian War occurred.
That's all for this week - keep posted for some more food diaries from San Francisco coming your way :-)