Dinner @ Uncle Yu's in Livermore, CA

Uncle Yu's is a nicer American style Chinese restaurant in Livermore, CA.  What do I mean by this?  You'll see white table cloths to go along with your kung pao chicken.  The restaurant advertises their attempt to purchase higher quality ingredients for all their dishes, which does come out when you taste them.  The restaurant also does wine pairings, although I've personally never partaken in it.

As far as American style Chinese restaurants go it's pretty good.  You're not going to find much here that's authentic Chinese except for maybe the peking duck.  It's a bit pricier than most, lunch combos are $12-$14 instead of the typical $7-$8 I get at other places.  Dinner entrees are priced up too.

I've been here a number of times for lunch and dinner over the years.  It's outside of the Michelin star, super hyped, or higher end fine dining type of restaurants that I normally blog about.  However, we were here for a friend's birthday and decided to try the 5 course tasting menu.  So I thought I'd write up about it for anyone who may be thinking of getting it and got here to my blog via Google trying to find out about it.

1) salmon puff w/ avocado spread

First up was these two salmon puffs.  Pretty good, although I wish there was a bit more avocado sauce.

2) "happy soup" w/ scallop, shrimp, lobster & fried bao

Next up was this "happy soup", which was a bit sour and spicy.  I didn't expect to like this when reading the description, but it was quite good.   I think tom yum soup from Thai restaurants came to mind, which I do not like.  However, this flavor was much better.  It came with some fried bao to dip into the soup.  I actually don't think I've ever had these bao fried before, only steamed before.  It being fried worked out much better for dipping.  Steamed bao probably would have fallen apart for dipping.

3) tea duck

Next up was tea duck wrapped in pancakes with (what I believe was) some hoisin sauce on the side.  The tea duck was pretty good and not too dry.  A solid classic dish.

4) beef tenderloin

Next up was this stir fried beef tenderloin with mushrooms.  Also pretty good.

5) chocolate cake

Finally some chocolate cake at the end.  At first I thought, "chocolate cake?", I thought they could have atleast given us a red-bean cake of some sort.  Oh well, this is an American style Chinese place.

Overall, a pretty good meal.  Obviously, I'm not going to try and compare this to other restaurants I've reviewed like Benu.  They are just not in the same category.  You aren't going to find any dishes here that are going to challenge your palate.

However, I probably would not recommend this for the price.  I can't recall the exact price, but I believe it was $60 a person before tax & tip.  As a comparison, the tasting at Al's Place is $60, the one at Kin Khao is $55, and the four course price fixe at Aster is $59.  The wine pairings at those restaurants are also cheaper.

So unless this is specifically what you're looking for, I would probably pass on the tasting menu.

Dinner @ Mourad in San Francisco, CA

I recently was able to hit up Mourad in San Francisco.  It's a relatively new restaurant from the folks that are behind Aziza.  It was given a debut of 3 out of 4 stars from the San Francisco Chronicle (very good for a restaurant that is just starting) and got a Michelin Star in 2016.

We were out to celebrate a friend's birthday and were intrigued by Mourad.  While it has a pricier a la carte menu (appetizers around $20, entrees around $35, and desserts at $12) and a tasting menu for $120, they also had something they call "la'acha".  It's a family style meal for the table.  They have several options such as lamb, short rib, and chicken.  The portions serve anywhere from two to six people.  Each also comes with several sides.

We decided to go for the duck family style option which they said served 2-3 people.  The family style meals take atleast 30 minutes to prepare, with the duck taking 45 minutes, so we got some appetizers first.  Since we got duck for our main entree, we got two seafood appetizers to share.

1) OCTOPUS, chickpea, artichoke, olive, merguez

First up was an octopus appetizer.  You can see the little bits of artichoke beneath the octopus, bits of orange on top, and the chickpea spread in the front.  The waiter then poured a liquid which I believe he said was a lamb based broth.  I don't recall seeing merguez (which according to Google is a sausage).  Perhaps that was part of the broth.  Overall, this dish was delicious.  Been awhile since I had octopus that good.

2) SALMON, kumquat, soubise, radish, lentil, z'hug

Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of salmon, however this salmon was delicious.  Smoked perfectly so it was still soft in the middle.  I had to look up what z'hug is, and it's apparently a spicy sauce originated from Yemen.  I assume that's what this was marinated in.  The lentils were toasted and on the bottom and gave this some texture differences.

3A) DUCK, date, smoke, mandarin

Finally, the main course.  When this first came out, my first thought was, "This is for 2-3 people?  It looks like a lot."  However, I think the portions were perfect for three people.  The duck was already de-boned and stuffed with sausage (I believe they said duck sausage) before it was roasted.  You can see some dates near the bottom in a date reduction sauce and some of the mandarin oranges on top.  It came with the following sauces.  Overall, I think the dish was really good.

I remember the one in the upper left being a harissa sauce, the upper right being tomato based, but can't remember the bottom one, although it's clearly an herb based sauce.  I though all three were good, but I think the duck and the date reduction sauce was delicious by itself.

The following were the four sides that came with the duck.  Although I took close ups of the dishes, I hope they do not come across looking larger than they really are.  They were all relatively small, in probably "cereal bowl" size dishes.  Hopefully the utensils in the picture give an idea of the size of the bowls.  While they are tiny, they were perfect for three people.

3B) KALE, olive, citrus

I'm actually not a big fan of kale, but this was really good.  The citrus I believe was lemon and I believe the chunks of yellow above were lemon rinds.

3C) HEIRLOOM BEANS, tomato, feta, za’atar crumble

The beans were underneath the feta and bread crumbs in the this picture.  I had to look up za'atar, and it's is apparently some type of herb.  I guess it was in the beans.

3D) POTATO, buttermilk, onion

I think the waiter said there was chicken skin on the potatoes, which I couldn't quite pick up.

3E) COUSCOUS, brown butter

The waiter said this was cooked with preserved lemon.  This was really good.

My friend commented on the sides with something like, "These are really plain ingredients, but they are just tastier here."  I completely concur.  For some reason they were all tastier.

With the main course out of the way, we now work our way to dessert.  We didn't really share these so I can only really comment on the first of these three.

4A) BLACK CURRANT, lavender sponge, coconut

Overall really good.  You should be able to see the black currant red sauce throughout this dish and the coconut ice cream at the bottom.  There are some pomegranate sprinkled throughout too.  I'm not a fan of coconut flavor, however the ice cream was really good.  Not too strong overall.  The lavendar cake was really good, although I think there was too much black currant sauce overall and may have overpowered things a bit.

4B) APPLE, chocolate, caramel, cardamom

This dessert looked really pretty and the bit of apple sorbet on the right I tried was really good.  Unsure of what all of the components on the left were, but I believe there was marshmallow, wafers, and compressed apples along with the chocolate branch.

4C) HONEY & ALMOND, beeswax, orange blossom

I tried a small bite of this but can't remember much, sorry.  There was some softer creamier stuff on the bottom, some crunchier stuff on top, and then what I assume was the honey-ish/beeswax-ish item on the top.

5) mignardise - pistachio cake w/ chocolate

Overall a really good meal.  I would highly recommend for a group outing as the family style meal is a great deal and makes the meal not quite that pricey per person.

Could Justice League Members be President of the United States?

Recently, I've been watching some animated films from the DC Universe.

With the 2016 Presidential election going on and the debate over Ted Cruz's candidacy given his Canadian birth, a funny thought popped in my head.  What members of the Justice League could be President of the United States?  In either their superhero or alter ego forms.

In order to be President you must meet three conditions:

• be 35 years of age
• be a resident in the US for 14 years
• be a natural born citizen

Obviously there are various continuities and origin stories as well as different people playing the roles in the below.  The below is imperfectly based on the various origin stories told through the animated DC Universe.  In addition, ages of characters and how long they've been living in the US are somewhat unknown.

Superman - Born on Krypton, definitely not a natural born citizen.  However, as Clark Kent, he probably qualifies.  He's been working for awhile, so we'll say he's old enough.

Batman - AFAICT Bruce Wayne qualifies, he's gotta be old enough after years of running Wayne Enterprises.

Wonder Woman/Princess Diana - Born in Themiscyra, definitely not a natural born citizen.

Flash - AFAICT Barry Allen would qualify, assuming he's old enough.  He's often portrayed as "younger" though.

Martian Manhunter - Born on Mars, definitely not a natural born citizen.  Alter ego of J'onn J'onzz probably couldn't prove he's been living in the US for 14 years though.

Aquaman - Born in Atlantis, definitely not a natural born citizen.

Shazam -  Billy Batson is 12 years old, so he's out.

Green Lantern - AFAICT qualifies regardless if it's John Stewart or Hal Jordan, and assuming both are old enough and they haven't wandered off planet for extended periods of time.

Hawkman or Hawkwoman - Ugh, different continuities.  I believe in the animated series Hawkpeople are born on Thanagar, so definitely not a natural born citizens.  Other continuities have them as Earth born, so they'd probably qualify in that case.

Cyborg - Unlike some of the above, Cyborg has always been portrayed as very young, running around with the Teen Titans for a long time and is a highschooler in Justice League: War.  I think he's out due to age.

Atom - Ray Palmer has always been portrayed as a Professor, he's gotta be old enough to qualify.

Black Canary - AFAICT qualifies, assuming she's old enough.

Green Arrow - Typically portrayed old, Oliver Queen should qualify.

What Is a Chinese Banquet Meal?

A few days ago I had a friend ask me about what goes on at a Chinese Banquet meal.  I thought I'd write up a short description.

A Chinese Banquet meal is almost always served family style.  The number of courses of food will vary depending on portion size and number of people seated at your table, but 10 courses is pretty common.  In my experience Chinese Banquet meals typically have the following structure

Cold Plate - The first dish that typically comes out is a cold plate of various appetizers.  The items on this dish will vary, but slices of pork, chicken, and jellyfish are the most common items I've seen.  I've also seen wakame salad (seawood salad you usually see in Japanese restaurants), octopus, and duck wings.

Soup - The soup comes next.  I think seafood soup is the most common type offered although this may differ by restaurant.

Vegetable dish - Atleast one vegetable dish is served.  A common one is bok choy with mushrooms.  If the meal is fancier, this might be billed as a seafood dish with vegetables (e.g. scallops with vegetables).
 
Fowl dish - In my experience it's duck more often than chicken.  Peking duck or some variant is quite common.  Poached chicken with ginger sauce is common too.

Crustacean dish - There will typically be a lobster or crab dish.  I think lobster is more common.  Unlike most Western restaurants, these are typically cut up and stir fried (or possibly baked) so you get tiny chunks to dig meat out of.

Fish dish - Typically steamed fresh fish.

Carb Dish - Either noodles or fried rice.  For those not too familiar with Chinese Banquet meals, you don't get rice with any of the prior courses.  I was told its because rice and carbs are cheap and a host wants you to fill up on the good stuff first.

Dessert - Of course varies by restaurant, but a sweet bean or rice based dessert is common.

If your party is a little on the large size, a few more dishes will be sprinkled in the middle to make sure there is enough food for everyone.

So as an example, here's a sample banquet menu from Mayflower Restaurant in Dublin, CA.  It follows my description nearly perfectly.

Deluxe Combination Platter
Great Wealth Crab Meat & Bird's Nest Soup
Sauteed Mince Squab with Egg White & Green
Sauteed Scallop & Calimari in XO Sauce
Whole Abalone with Sea Cucumber & Green
Crispy Chicken with Garlic
Lobster with Garlic & Butter in Supreme Broth
Smoked Sea Bass
E-Fu Noodles with Dried Scallop & Yellow Chives
Dessert

Dinner @ Aster in San Francisco, CA

My girlfriend and I needed someplace to eat Saturday night and saw that Aster had a spot open.  It's a relatively casual restaurant that got a Michelin star last year.  While we were there, we were perusing the restaurant's website and saw that the head chef's resume was very impressive.  He was the sous chef at Rubicon (precursor to State Bird Provisions), then was sous chef at Coi, and then later chef de cuisine at Saison.  Quite impressive.

The restaurant is quite casual as far as Michelin stars go.  There are both private tables for 2-4 people and there's a large communal table in the center of the restaurant.  So as an FYI there's a chance you'll be seated with strangers, especially if you're a walk in.  We got a table off to the side for just two, which is what I'd personally prefer.

The menu is divided into four sections, cold dishes, warm dishes, entree dishes, and desserts.  You can order dishes a la carte, but they offer a four-course selection (1 from each section) for $59 dollars.  Bread is extra for $5 if you want it.  We both went with the four-course menu, each ordering four different items.

1) SOURDOUGH, house cultured butter

First up, the bread.  I really liked this bread.  It wasn't a tough/hard that a lot of sourdough breads can be.  It was definitely a bit more sour than most sourdoughs I have but not too sour.

On to the cold dishes we got.

2A) SMOKED ALBACORE, blood orange, fennel, sourdough

 

2B) CHICORIES, buttermilk-miso, asian pear, watermelon radish, olive

My first course was the smoked albacore on top.  I assume the sourdough was the crunchy carb-like things on top, the blood orange was the reddish sauce on the bottom, and the fennel was the greenish sauce on top.  Overall, quite tasty with some contrasting textures.
 
The chicories salad was my +1's first course, which as far as I could tell was a normal looking salad.  I can't really comment b/c I only took one bite.  I think I only forked 1-2 leafy greens and didn't get any of the other flavors in there, so can't say much about this dish.

3A) HOKKAIDO SQUASH SOUP, persimmon, pepita, marrow

3B) SOFT-COOKED EGG, crispy potato, salmon roe, bacon vinaigrette

I got the squash soup above, which was very hearty and delicious.  I wish I took a "before" picture before the soup was poured on, because there were a healthy dose of persimmons and crunchy grain-like things in it, which I assume were the pepita (had to look it up, it's pumpkin seed) and marrow.  Overall, contrasting textures and lots of flavors.  I really liked this dish.

My +1 got the soft cooked egg.  I think the waiter said there was puffed rice in here too, but I could be mis-remembering.  The waiter recommended breaking up the egg and using it as a sauce for the rest of the ingredients.  I grabbed one bite of this and thought it was delicious.  Lots of crunchiness and flavor along with the egg.  I'm probably going to grab this course next time.

Now onto the entrees.

4A) MILK-FED LAMB, cabbage, quince, sunchoke, hibiscus

4B) PORK SHOULDER, carrot, kishu, shiitake furikake

I had the lamb above, which was served three ways.  Two chops which can be easily seen, a roulade of some part of the lamb which is that spiral-ish looking thing at the top, and some "ragu" of lamb which was at the bottom and can't be seen.  There was a quince sauce on the bottom, some cabbage, and some chunks of quince.  Overall, a good dish.  I especially liked the quince.

My +1 had the pork shoulder, which I would describe more like a pulled pork shoulder and then re-shaped into that block of meat you see above.  Not criticizing, it's fine that way.  The sauce was apparently some yuzu+carrot sauce and the carrots above were pickled.  I tried one bite of pork and sauce and thought it was quite good.  However, I don't know if I'd get this if I went back.  It's a pretty sizable amount of pork and there's not much besides it.  I'd definitely recommend the lamb as you'll get three different preparations of it so it's a bit mixed up.

And finally the desserts

5A) PUMPKIN PARFAIT, pecan, coriander

5B) HAZELNUT GÂTEAU, kumquat, spiced bavarois

I got the pumpkin parfait, which I guess was sort of deconstructed because it doesn't look anything like a parfait (lets say compared to the one I got at Keiko a Nob Hill).  However, it was quite delicious.  The main "ice cream"-ish part on the left was quite light and not too savory.  Along with the crunch stuff on top, the sauce, and the pecan puree to the right, overall delicious.

My +1 got the gateau on the bottom, which I had to ask what that was.  It's a cake of sorts.  I had to look up bavarois, which is a cream.  Tried one bite and was quite tasty.  I could maybe get this next time I go.

Overall a good meal.  The meal took about 1.5 hours from being seated to finishing the dessert.  It's a fair amount of food for 1.5 hours and I was quite full at the end, although not crazy stuffed.

Dinner @ Keiko à Nob Hill in San Francisco, CA

I had a chance to eat at Keiko à Nob Hill recently.  The restaurant has been on my list to try for quite some time when I saw it on the Michelin starred restaurant list for the San Francisco bay area.  For some reason, the menu with its mix of French and Japanese flavors appealed to me.

The restaurant is a little interesting.  There is a single 12 course tasting menu only and there is only one seating an evening.  Every table gets served the same course at the same time (+/- a few minutes as the servers come in with them to tables).  I'm not sure what happens if you show up really late.

Here's an overview of the meal.

1) Single Hook caught wild Canadian Salmon - w/ cream, cucumber dill, ikura

Before the picture above was taken, this dish came incased in a glass dome filled with smoke, so there was a definite smokiness to this salmon.  Overall, quite good.

2) Golden Osetra Caviar and Hokkaido Uni - w/ cauliflower mousse, nori, spinach puree, dashi gelee, gold flake, chive

My girlfriend said this was the single most delicious thing she'd eaten at any of the places we've been.  I wouldn't go quite that far with that assessment, but it was quite delicious, with a lot of different flavors going on.  It's a little hard to see all the layers in this dish in this picture, but you can hopefully see it a bit in the picture below.

3) Honmaguro Bluefin from Aomori - w/ dehyrdated soy sauce, seaweed, and …

Next up was some sashimi.  Apparently this is amongst the best bluefin you can get in Japan.  It was paired with some seaweed and some other accompaniments that I can't remember.  The coolest part of this dish was they grated dehydrated soy sauce over the blue fin right before serving, so no soy sauce to dip. Very good.

4) Zuwaigani Snow Crab - w/ Avocado soup, trout roe

I thought an avocado soup with crab was an interesting combination.  Overall pretty good.

5) Hotate Scallop - w/ potato puree, potato, truffle, curry, porcini mushroom, parmesan foam

Probably my least favorite dish of the night, I think there was too much going on in this dish.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but underneath the parmesan foam was some slices of scallop intermixed with slices of potato, potato puree, and mushrooms.  The scallops themselves were good, but I guess with the texture of potatoes I don't think it worked out.  The curry sauces were quite tasty.

6) Foie Gras Espresso - w/ artichoke heart & yam puree and brioche

We were told that this was the chef's specialty.  I've only had pan seared foie gras once in my life, and I felt it was just a bit too soft & fatty for my taste.  While good, this was the same feeling as before. I loved the brioche to soak up all of the espresso sauce though.

7) Amadai Snapper - w/ turnip puree, turnip leaf puree, tokyo turnip

This course was pretty awesome, one of the reasons I love to go to fine dining establishments.  The fish is in the snapper family and is apparently one of the few fish where the scales are thin enough that they can be eaten.  So the fish is lightly fried and the scales give it this crispiness when eating the fish.  Really good.

8) Muscovy Duck Roti - w/ apricot suace, wine reduction w/ duck jus sauce, garlic snape, and dukkah spice

This duck was amazing.  Probably my favorite course of the night and much better than the duck from La Folie.  It was cooked medium-ish whereas the duck from La Folie was cooked rare-ish, so it was probably just more to my liking.  The wine reduction sauce at the bottom of the picture was amazing.  The apricot sauce at the top was also good, but not my preferred amongst the two.

You can see the dukkah spice mixed into the middle of the duck.  I had to look up what dukkah spice is, which is apparently a middle eastern spice typically including sesame, cumin, coriander, and maybe a few other things.  I don't recall ever having it before, but it gave the duck that little extra kick.

9) A5 Wagyu - w/ Yuzu Soy Foam, Honwasabi, Kale chip

This wagyu was good.  The soy-yuzu foam was a good addition, although the steak was so good I ate a number of bites plain or with just the wasabi (you can see the green mound of it in the bottom).  I felt this wagyu wasn't quite as fatty as the one from Alexander's Steakhouse, so I'm not sure what cut it was.  This isn't a criticism, as the Alexander's steak was so rich I'm not sure how much of it I could have eaten.  This was a steak I could have eaten much more of.

10) Triple Cream Cheese - over Apple tart, w/ candied walnuts

Any interesting cheese course, underneath the triple cream cheese was an apple tart.  The cheese was really rich, reminding us of the cheese course from Ad Hoc.  I was able to finish all of it, but my +1 couldn't quite finish the really rich cheese.

11) Le Parfait - Chocolate, caramel, orange marmalade, coffee mousse, orange zest, poached pear, red currant

I was a little disappointed we didn't get one of the fruit parfaits I saw on Yelp, but this was quite good with a lot of different flavors going on.  Overall really good.  I'm used to parfaits with some crunch somewhere in it.  If they would have added a bit of crunch somewhere in this parfait, perhaps cookie crumbles or something similar, it would have been even better.

12)  Mignardises

When the mignardise course came out, my immediate thought was that this was the largest mignardise I could recall ever getting.  Definitely more than La Folie, Sons and Daughters, and Commis.  In the above there was a chocolate truffle, a macaron, fruit tart, and a mini-cupcake.  The chocolate truffle was probably the most normal sized mignardise, and you can see the macaron and fruit tart are bigger.  Then the mini-cupcake towers over the rest.  All of them were delicious.  Keiko offered to box these up if you were stuffed, which my +1 and many other guests nearby also did.

While I wasn't crazy stuffed, I was quite full by the end of the meal.  I was a little surprised as Keiko doesn't offer any bread service (discounting the small brioche with the foie gras course).  Normally at a lot of other restaurants you need some bread to fill up with.  But here you didn't.  This isn't a criticism, it's actually a good thing that they don't fill you up on bread.  Virtually every course before dessert involved a protein, a reasonably high priced one at that, so it makes this dining experience a pretty good value compared to many other nice tasting menus in the bay area.

The meal took just about 3 hours total, so those who might be worried about the food quantity shouldn't have to worry too much.  I will mention that the middle portion of dishes of foie gras, duck and wagyu can get a bit heavy, so you may be a tad full once you eat all of that red meat (but this shouldn't be considered unusual in any way, the same thing happened to me at French Laundry after eating the pork & lamb).  My girlfriend was particularly full after the duck course and I had to eat some of her Wagyu for her (poor me).

Overall a delicious meal.  One tiny nit with the restaurant is that they don't really have any non-alcoholic drink options.  They really concentrate on wine pairings.  I don't imagine this will bother most.

The NBA Turning Into A 3-Point League

Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are off to an amazing 38-4 start to the 2015-2016 season.  Stephen Curry is undoubtedly been the NBA's MVP during the first half of the season. 

The statistic I find most fascinating about Stephen Curry's run this year is the number of three pointers he's shooting.  As of this writing, he's got 193 three pointers on the year.  That's good for a pace of 376 over 82 games.  Keep in mind, he missed a couple of games due to an injury earlier in the year.  For a good part of the year prior to that injury he was on pace for over 400.

Regardless, any of these numbers will completely shatter the NBA record for three pointers in a season, which Curry already owns.  He had 286 three pointers last year to set the record.  That beat his prior record of 272 which he accomplished in 2012-2013.  With 261 in 2013-2014, he owns three of the top five three point shooting seasons in NBA history.

While Curry is going to annihilate this record, it's really an indication of how much the NBA has changed in terms of the three pointer being used as a weapon.  The NBA changed three point line distances several times starting in 1994 before settling into what it is today in the 1996-1997 season.  Ever since then three point shooting has gone up and up.  From 1997-2001 teams averaged 4.6 three pointers per game.  Then from 2001 to 2005, NBA teams averaged over 5 per game.  Then from 2006 to 2012 it grew to over 6 per game.  From 2012 to 2015 it jumped to over 7 per game.  And now in the 2015-2016 season, teams are currently averaging 8.3 three pointers per game.

The change in the game can be perhaps be illustrated best by looking at Michael Jordan's early career.  Debated as the best basketball player of all time, but minimally the best shooting guard of all time, some of Jordan's pre-1994 three point statistics can look comical by modern day measurements.

For example, Jordan lead the league in scoring each year from 1986 to 1989.  However, he made an phenomenally unimpressive 46 three pointers in those three seasons.  Yes, that's 46 three pointers in THREE SEASONS.  As a comparison, Stephen Curry has made 47 in his last eight games.  In the 1987-1988 season, Jordan made a comical 7 three pointers total and had a horrible 13.2% shooting percentage on three pointers.  Even during a championship year in the 1991-1992 season, Jordan made only 27 three pointers on 27% shooting (the league average was 33.1%).

Later, Jordan's three point shooting grew just as it did for the rest of the NBA, but it's comical looking at some of those early numbers.