Maya was supposed to go camping with her girl scout troop this weekend, leaving Friday and returning on Sunday. They were going to hike and ride horses and cook their own food, sleep in tents in a regional park, that kind of thing. She was looking forward to it. Sort of. Eventually, she decided she didn't want to go. I know several of the other girls were also somewhat apprehensive. So she bailed, and is staying home this weekend. Which is perfectly fine and wonderful, except we had taken the opportunity to plan a grown-up dinner in San Francisco, sort of a celebration of Ted's birthday, sort of a date. But it all turned out fine, becuase Ted's sister stayed with Maya while we went to dinner. Nice.
Ted's friend, Theo, was visiting CA from his home in Hawaii (He has island fever...), so Ted went into the city at noon and they had dim sum at Ton Kiang for lunch. I was working, so after work, I came home and got ready, and then I took BART in to meet him at the restaurant. I had forgotten how interesting BART can be. I had my book and my iPod, so I didn't pay a LOT of attention to those around me,but the guy sitting across from me was making chocolate milk by pouring chocolate protein powder into his Milk Chug. It was somewhat messy, and the powder was on the seat and on his clothes. Now I can see why they don't allow eating on BART. I wonder how they feel about cooking on BART? So I ended up about 2 blocks from the restaurant, at the 24th/Mission station...when I lived in San Francisco, we didn't go into the Mission very often, and it was fun. With shops like "Happy Pork Market" and "Latin Bride", how can you lose? There were TWO Payless Shoe Sources between BART and the restaurant, and no Starbucks. There were people on the street selling tamales and flowers and one shop had a ride in front where you put a quarter in and you get to ride in a little car with Spiderman. I loved it. Boy, the 'burbs sure are boring sometimes. So I arrived at the restaurant a little bit early, and decided to wait in the bar. There, I enjoyed my first Mojito, and watched the mating rituals of assholes. Now, the really cool people are NOT at the bar/restaurant at 6pm. That's a given. But I didn't expect someone to be laughing so hard at his own dumb jokes as the guy next to me, who was doing the old "Can you hear this? Maybe I should turn it up" with his middle finger. (You know, like John Bender in The Breakfas Club...how weird that I know his WHOLE name...) And no, the asshole wasn't 15. He was about 45, which made it even dumber. One of the women in the party went outside to smoke, and the others started asking asshole man if he liked her, and he said, she was nice, but he didn't like her in a sexual way. Boy, nice to be happily married sometimes, I'll tell you. Speaking of which, that's about when said happy husband arrived, and we went to our table.
The restaurant was Foreign Cinema, which is a pretty cool place...they show films on one wall in the courtyard...last night would be La Dolce Vita, but we were too early for that...like a drivein, they don't start the show until dark, and we were the geeks who get there early. So we ate inside, and as we had a corner table, we could watch the entire restaurant. Fun. They also have a pretty cool room which is a little art gallary, but I think they save that for private functions...very pretty in there, though.
We started with a dozen raw oysters, becuase food is nothing if not fun and dangerous. I decided to follow that up with some carpaccio... mmmm, very yummy, with arugula and parmesan cheese. Ted had a salad of endive, roquefort, pear, and 'pear essence'. Somewhat safer than the raw meat and shellfish. :) Then our dinner came...mine was a wonderful salmon, with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus, and Ted's was quail, with something on the side, I don't know what. We finished with huckleberry crisp (Ted) and a lovely pineapple/lemon/something else sorbet trio for me. Very nice evening, indeed. If you're ever in San Francisco, looking for a very yummy, pretty cool place to dine, check out Foreign Cinema. And for ambiance, nothing beats the guy mixing his choclate milk on BART. Remember that.
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