Malik

Actually, I just remembered, the preparation that I really like at R&G is the ginger and scallion stir fried crab, not the salt and pepper deep fried one.

I haven't been there myself, but for what it's worth most of the reports I've heard on Crustacean say that it's overrated and overpriced. However, Thanh Luong is supposed to be good, as is PPQ also out in the Sunset. Personally, my favorite way to have dungeness crab is in the Chinese salt and pepper deep fried style, and R&G Lounge on Kearny at the edge of Chinatown is the best I've had. Can't wait to go back there now that crab season is back...

If by more interesting you mean grosser and more disgusting, I could not agree with you more. I live a block away and have given them a few tries, but I won't go back. You may not have noticed the smell of burning rancid fat/oil that emanates from that place, but that might only be because you don't walk by it every day trying not to gag. (Oh, and actually it's between 14th and Church. Mecca is between 14th and Dolores and is a horse of an entirely different color.) ← Hmmm, I get the feeling you don't like World Sausage Grill very much... I've only eaten there once, and thought the dog I had was pretty good. By interesting, I meant that they have more choices than Rosamunde, and sometimes better sausages. For example, they had Marcel & Henri merguez when they started, though unfortunately they had switched to the standard Fabrique Delices ones by the time I went there. On this we are in perfect accord. Mmmmmmm.... Top Dog!Top Dog (especially the original one on Durant) is definitely better than either place, and I think is also significantly better than Pink's on La Brea that was mentioned above on this thread.

I think Rivoli is in the same league as the other places, and if you're excluding Chez Panisse Cafe, it would be my top choice among the places you've listed.

Rosamunde is good, but I think World Sausage Grill on Market between 14th and Dolores is more interesting. And of course the king of hot dogs in the Bay Area in my opinion is Top Dog in Berkeley.

I've been meaning to try Home and Metro Cafe. Have you tried the Metro Cafe's $12.50 early bird special? Watercress, Chapeau both have great early bird deals, but they're around $20. Haven't tried Watercress, but the Chapeau early bird dinner deal is a great value I think. ← I have not tried Metro Cafe's early bird special, but I did eat there and it was reasonably good standard bistro fare though not very memorable. Watercress' $20 prix fixe is not an early dinner special, it's all night long. Not terribly high end food, but they have some pretty good stuff (and some not so good dishes). Chapeau is definitely a great early bird deal. But neither is at the $10 level you originally asked for...

There's also some good early bird deals to be had, though they tend to be a tad over $10. Alamo Square Grill has an early bird three course meal for something like $11.50 if you order before 7pm I believe. Even cheaper is Home restaurant on Market St near Church St, which has an early bird special from 5pm to 6pm of $10.99 for a three course meal with a glass of wine.

Shalimar can indeed be done for $10, but to get the full experience (meat curries, grilled meats, vegetable curries, naan, rice) you have to budget at least $15. One place I haven't been to, but that's on my to try list is Miya's Place, which serves St. Louis Soul Food at very cheap prices. All menu items are under $10, and they come with two sides, two muffins and a beverage.

Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae (at the corner of El Camino) is my favorite dim sum place in the Bay Area, they would definitely be worth a try. Nearby Fook Yuen is also quite good. Sakae in Burlingame is reputed to have good sushi, but I haven't tried it yet. Little Sichuan in San Mateo (3rd Ave exit, not too far from the airport) has pretty good Sichuan food, especially if you order from the Sichuan specialties (which are translated in English).

My favorites, based in large part on how often I go to these restaurants compared to others in their category: 1) Shalimar 2) Delfina 3) Gary Danko 4) Tartine (for breakfast) 5) Mochica/Limon (too close to choose a favorite in this genre) 6) Taco trucks (East or North Bay, not SF) Other places that I really like, but don't seem to make it to often enough: 1) Quince 2) 1550 Hyde 3) Ino Sushi 4) Chapeau 5) Bocadillos/Iluna Basque 6) R&G Lounge (in crab season) Places to avoid: 1) Frisson

Is Rigolo in the former La Table space? What type of cuisine? I'm one behind on Pascal Rigo restaurants, as I have not tried Cortez yet, but I have not been very impressed with the ones that came after Chez Nous. I'm actually running low on new (to me) restaurants that I'd like to try for the first time, but the following are up there (in no particular order): -That other Tunisian couscous in the Tenderloin -China Village (Albany) -Hyde Street Bistro -Nectar Wine Lounge (more for the wine) -Thahn Long and PPQ (for roasted crab and garlic noodles) -Palatino -Fish (Sausalito) -Sakae (Burlingame) -Cafe Rouge (Berkeley) As for places I'd like to revisit: -Bacco (I really like this place but do not seem to get there often enough) -Chapeau (ditto) -1550 Hyde, Iluna Basque, Bocadillos (I've only been to each of these once and liked them, I need to go back and explore more of the menu) -Limon, Mochica, Fresca (I really like modern Peruvian)

I went out of town for part of the weekend so I ended up eating at a couple of restaurants in Sacramento (Aioli and Rubicon). But not including those, my last three meals in the Bay Area were: -Sushi Groove (SF) -Cesar (Berkeley) -Jeanty at Jack's (SF) I remember that when they first opened, they were called Chez Papa and Cafe Chez Maman. I don't know if they've dropped "Cafe" from the name since.

Note that dosa's are indeed South Indian, but chaat is North Indian. Punjab is a state in the Northwest of India, near the Pakistan border, so I would presume that Punjabi Kitchen that you mention serves North Indian food. As far as the Bay Area is concerned, the best South Indian food is indeed in the South Bay, in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. Dasaprakash is often mentioned as the best place, and Udipi Palace (with outlets throughout the Bay Area, including Berkeley) is also up there. For chaat, I think Berkeley is your best bet, with Vik's Chaat House being the best (Chaat Cafe and India Chaat and Sweets are two other good spots). Try to go to Vik's on the weekend, when they have specials in addition the the chaat (some non-vegetarian items plus some South Indian specialties including dosa). You mentioned samosa chaat, and their samosa chole is really good, but my favorites are the dahi batata puri and the chicken kati kabab. San Francisco has very good Indian food, but it specializes much more on Pakistani/North Indian Mughlai food, with restaurants like Shalimar, Pakwan and Naan-n-Curry being some of the better examples. The only place in the city that I can think of for chaat would be Chaat Cafe, which also has outlets in Berkeley, Fremont (the original), San Jose, Roseville, Sunnyvale and Dallas, Texas!

One restaurant I recommend in Walnut Creek is Ephesus Kebab Lounge, which serves modern Turkish food in a beautiful decor. The cold and hot appetizers are particularly good, order a few for the table to share.

I like most of the stuff on the Cesar menu, but would recommend staying away from the bocadillos (sandwiches). They've been rather boring and a bit stale whenever I've ordered them. The menu changes daily, if they have the fried potatoes with herbs when you go, make sure to order them. And the cheese plate is a good value if you like cheese.

I've heard good things about Iluna Basque so far, and am planning to eat there next Sunday, I'll try to report back. I ate at Alegrias a couple of months ago and was not overly impressed. For Spanish tapas, I think Zarzuela in Russian Hill or Cesar in Berkeley are better choices. Frisson is not open yet, but the website already has a menu posted, so I suspect it's only days away from opening. It certainly looks intriguing, both for the food and the decor, expect it to become a scene very quickly. Bocadillos was originally supposed to open around now, but it seems to still be a couple of months away: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...FDGMH675DL1.DTL. But Piperade Cafe has opened, though the menu does not look very interesting.

The Banh Mi are very good at Saigon Sandwich; similar to the best at Tully Road in San Jose. Wrap Delight at 426 Larkin, half a block down from Saigon Sandwich, is quite a bit better than Saigon Sandwich in my opinion. The lady who owns and operates Wrap Delight used to make the sandwiches at Saigon Sandwich before she opened her own place. I haven't tried Bahn Mi at any of the San Jose places, but hers are the best ones I've had yet.

Here's an option from International Wine Accessories website. They have four different models to choose from. I recently got a catalog from them that had these items on sale at half price, if you call them up and for a large purchase I'd imagine they'd give you at least the same discount.

I use something similar to this gadget and I have never since had a problem opening a jar. I can always find a size of the jaws to fit any jar (though I haven't tried those Costco monster jars), and then opening it is just child play (squeeze the handles and turn the jar). The little jaws at the end can be used for things like the 2 litre Coke bottles. The only issue now is that I can't open jars without my little gadget, so if I'm at somebody's house I have to ask for help

I don't think there's quite the market in California for steakhouses, locals just don't seem to be into it. I find it very difficult just to get a steak properly cooked medium rare in a restaurant out here, even in steakhouses. I end up cooking at home to satisfy my steak cravings, and then pigging out on steakhouses when I find myself in Texas...

I like Phelps a lot, I think that they do have one of the best tasting programs. I usually try to start off the day with either Domaine Carneros or Domaine Chandon when I have out of town visitors, as they have beautiful domaines and the methode champenoise vinification makes for an interesting tour. I've heard good things about Artesa and Pride, especially for the views, but haven't had a chance to make it out to either yet.

From what I saw briefly yesterday, it appeared that the non-flash pictures has slightly better color rendition, and the flash ones captured the details a lot better. Since you were taking pictures at such close range, the ones with the flash on were probably a bit overexposed. Next time, try to experiment with exposure compensation (the +/- EV setting in the manual setting menu in your camera). It's a bit of pain in the ass to use, but you can get better results that way. I'd try +1.0 without the flash and -1.0 with the flash for example and compare the results. For example, the food picture on this Canon site was taken with the flash off and the exposure compensation set to +1.

The pictures turned out really well Pim, I think you may have a knack for food photography. My favorite dish of the night was the first course (Melkor, you missed out), followed by the sashimi and the nigiri. By the way, the sashimi course also included a couple of slices of kampachi.

The Boulangerie on Pine (also known as Bay Bread) is indeed related to the one on Polk, it's part of the Pascal Rigo collection of boulangeries and restaurants: http://cortezrestaurant.com/lepanissimo.html.

Actually, it looks like the CitySearch page is wrong, Silver is still open, albeit with a new phone number (415-434-4998) and hours (they now close at midnight every day).