Crab at Crustacean

Update 2022: We went to Crustacean for SF Restaurant Week and were sorely disappointed in the experience. Crustacean now adds a required 20% tip to All checks. This is in addition to the SF "Mandate" percentage that they also pass on to customers (isn't it interesting how the local taqueria just sucks up the mandate, but high end restaurants pass the buck to the customer?!) So that our $65 prie fixe meal turned out to be almost $100 per person. 

Of course part of that was the extra $14 that they charged us for sales tax. Yes, that's right, Crustacean over changed us for sales tax! Why? No clue, there was no excuse (and no apology either!!) given to Tea Time when the error was pointed out. We were given a refund... Eventually.

We both had the shrimp with garlic noodles which was 4 butterflied shrimps with a giant pile of noodles. Certainly you can't say you're still hungry because the mountain of noodles never ends. How about a piece of broccoli?! The appetizers were the best part of the meal. J.K.'s molten lava cake looked like it came from Costco and Angela's Fried Banana had so much batter you couldn't even find the paltry banana! 

Needless to say... We won't be back. 

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J.K.'s favorite neighbor moved out of the building, and left her a parting gift of a very generous gift card to Crustacean. So we headed over there to enjoy the famous Roast Crab. Angela had never been, but J.K. has enjoyed their cooking several times, so she knew exactly what we should order.

Of course, we're still on the hunt for Pokemon and since this dinner happened during the holidays there were a few fun updates to the game in keeping with the spirit of the season. So we kept our phones open and just as we were leaving the apartment building, this guy appeared:

  

 

   Fancy Place Setting, lovely dishware

The restaurant was pretty quiet when we arrived, but that means we didn't have to wait even though we hadn't booked a reservation. There wasn't much need to look at the menu, but we did decide on an appetizer which we ordered with our drinks and the Crab with a side of noodles. Then we were free to look around at the decor which was a mix of modern and rustic. A very welcoming space.

Tea Time was fascinated by this light fixture!

J.K.'s usual tequila gimlet

Angela chose pear cider

Appetizer- seafood cakes with asian veggies

Of course we had to have an order of Garlic Noodles along with our crab. If you order these noodles for lunch from the An The Go truck, there will be meat with them.  

Here's Looking at You Kid.

Roast Crab!

We really enjoyed our meal at Crustacean. The crab was sweet, the noodles a perfect match with the sauce from the crab. We didn't make too much of a mess, and even if we had they gave us bibs to protect our tops. If anyone else wants to pass on some gift cards for local SF restaurants, Tea Time will be happy to take them for a spin. Thank you for the treat ex-neighbor!

Eat Real Festival 2016

I volunteered with setup for Eat Real Festival 2016 but this time I stuffed vendor badges instead of goodie bags. This was much easier and didn't end with washing and drying all the cookware for the chef demos.

I returned for lunch on Friday. I usually case the whole festival first, but couldn't resist a crab cake near the entry. It was served on a bun, with slaw.

  

Mozzeria was there, with their fancy pizza truck, but Tea Time occasionally eats at their brick-and-mortar location in the Mission.

After checking out the rest of the offerings, I decided on a poke bowl. This looked so good that I forgot to take a picture of the truck.

And for dessert, I again had a chocolate fudge popsicle from Fat Face Popsicles.

The Eat Real Festival is on for the whole weekend, and there are more vendors on Saturday and Sunday. More Festival-goers, too, which is why I go on Friday, but if you don't mind crowds, you will be rewarded with a wider choice. There are also exhibits and free samples, which vary from year to year. This year Clover was giving away yoghurt and Toyota was giving away plants in pots that could be decorated on the spot, among other swag.

Eataly-NYC

Eataly was another highlight of the New York trip. We had been looking for soft shell crab, and the seafood restaurant there had them, so we stayed for lunch.

As soon as we sat down, our waiter brought us some bread.

The crab was an appetizer, so we each got one and ordered a salad to share.

Dessert  was milk chocolate Baci, courtesy of Perugina, who were sampling their new treat. I'm not going to tell you how many I ate.

The book department has some interesting titles.

  

And there was some interesting produce as well.

While we were waiting for our table, we took a walk around the block and discovered the Lego store.

My childhood friend being menaced by the Lego dragon

The two of us with Lady Liberty's torch, executed in Lego

There are always so many things to do when you visit NYC. It's best to just pick a few must-see/must-eats and then if you can squeeze in anything else it's a bonus. One lovely walk after eating around town is to visit the High Line Park. Let us know your favorite spots in the Big Apple, especially give us some tips on tea shops to visit.

Crab Splurge With Gina

Gina nabbed a Groupon for Fisherman's Grotto and invited me for a crab dinner. Her friend Louie was in town and came with us, but he didn't indulge in crab.

As soon as we sat down, our waiter brought us a platter of sourdough bread. Delicious on its own, it was perfect for sopping up all the garlic butter that came with the crab.

 Gina and Louie started with New England-style clam chowder. I had the salad.

  

We had a choice of roasted crab with garlic butter, steamed crab, or cold crab. It wasn't a difficult decision for us! The crabs were cracked for us, and so easy to pull apart that we didn't need the provided tools.

Crab swimming in garlic butter

 Louie opted for the parmesan-crusted halibut, which was covered in a tasty orange sauce that he couldn't quite identify.

Louie came along, just for the halibut.

 Our Groupon included a tiramisu to share, and we supplemented it with spumoni.

The restaurant's theme carpet

We were fascinated by the giant, fancy Applebee's across the street. Fortunately, no birds had defaced Gina's window and I got a good picture. If you're visiting SF, please check out a local resto, it will most likely be delicious and maybe even cheaper than Applebee's. We can give you lots of ideas if you're not sure where to eat in this town!

Lunch With Beth: Yet Another Crab Splurge at Z&Y Restaurant

Crab is in season, the harvest is plentiful, prices are reasonable and we just can't resist! We had been wanting to try Z&Y Restaurant for a while and this seemed like the perfect time.

We ordered the crab with ginger and scallions, which is a traditional Chinese presentation. The presentation, while different from others we've had, was equally impressive.

The crab came with a few baby bok choy, but we got an order of green beans to make sure we had enough veggies.

We ordered everything mild, but it all came at the limit of my tolerance. We couldn't decided whether the chef doesn't like modifications, or we were really lucky that we ordered it mild!

Here are some more pictures of the crab.

Beth photo bombing the crab

The crab from another angle

Lunch With Beth–Crab Splurge

Beth and I were at Garden Restaurant at Kearny and Merchant (between Clay and Washington), where we usually order the Roast Duck and Barbecue Pork plate and an order of Duck Chow Fun, but when we learned that the Salt and Pepper Crab was only $28, we decided to splurge. Our waiter gave us a hard sell on a bowl of rice, but we opted for Deluxe Mixed Vegetables instead.

The vegetables arrived first, which gave us a change to appreciate them, and also kept us from being too hungry to truly appreciate the crab, which was amazing. And gorgeous. The vegetables were so inviting, and so good, that we almost forgot to take a picture before they were gone.

 

We expect to be splurging on more crab before the season is done. What's your favorite place to eat crab?

The Feast of Scoma

imotiv, an amazing iPhone app (formerly known as NuffnangX) that works like an RSS feed (only better and with more features, collecting all your blogs in one app to read on your iPhone), invited a group of us food bloggers to Scoma's for a Seafood Extravaganza on March 23. It was the night before a busy day at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, but we just couldn't turn down such a generous invitation from such wonderful people! Angela and J.K. signed up for this event  and wrangled our new blog partner Mel into attending as well.

Picture perfect weather!

Their mural on the fish processing building. That's right, they own a boat!

Valet available.

Your portal to seafood heaven!

The Tea Time Adventurers (nickname coined by Ezen of imotiv) arrived early and decided to walk around the area behind the restaurant. It was a good decision. The sun was out, the bay was beautiful and we witnessed a marriage proposal, which was accepted. Attending the dinner with us were Jo of mahal to the macs, Ngoc of San Jose Food Blog,  and Melissa of Serving Seconds. Jerome, who blogs over at A Spy in the House of Food and is the organizer of the Bay Area Food Bloggers group, had a previous engagement, but made time to drop by and have a glass of wine with us before dinner.

Scoma's provided us with bottomless glasses of  a light, crisp chardonnay that paired well with all of our food from seafood dishes to dessert. While our dinner was being prepared, we sipped our wine and nibbled on breadsticks and sourdough bread. Scoma picked our appetizers, while Ezen and Gabriel from Nuffnangx conferred with the restaurant staff to decide upon our main courses and sides. We shared everything family style which was perfect since we could eat more! The portions (as you'll see) are ample for one person as a main course, so try to get a group together in order to taste as much as possible. Of course once you sample some items on the menu you'll have to go to Scoma again and bring Different friends.

Sticks of bread, butter.

Good wine, great company.

Our first appetizer was scallops, sauteed in a saffron cream sauce, with fried leeks on top.Our introduction to the seafood at this resto was a perfect example of the delights to come out during our meal. Verdict? Delicious. Next we had  two platters full of crab cakes and fried calamari with plenty of lemons to squeeze over our seafood. Plus three dipping sauces including remoulade, tartar and seafood sauce. The calamari was sweet and well-cooked, while the crab cakes were all crab baby!

You like scallops? Order this one.

Tender calamari and no-filler crab cakes, yum!

This was the tip of the seafood iceberg. But this group is full of professional eaters, some even tackling the 7x7 top 100 restos (and completing it, wow Melissa!) Scoma's brought out the bibs and we were ready to crack the crab. Our group was blessed with two kinds, sweet fresh crab (amazing with lemon squeezed on it!) and a garlicky, buttery crab. Silence descended. Perhaps we heard the bells of the boat that brought the crabs in from the bay, but either way the whole table was too busy savoring the crab to make idle chit chat.

So happy with our bibs!

Fresh Sweet Crab!

Garlic Crab, ah memories.

Ready to dig in!

After the triumph of fresh crab, how could it be topped by any other seafood dish? Bring out the lobster and scallops and shrimps and maybe we're even missing some other fishy goodness...because this was all in one dish. In fact we'll give two views of these tempting morsels, just so you can see the variety. Scoma's famous mixed shellfish saute, served with penne pasta, rice and tasty veggies has an amazing sauce as well. What's the secret, chef?

Starchy goodness to soak up the sauce.

More seafood and more lemons please.

We also got in some more veg and pasta before dessert. Of course we couldn't do it all justice. The grumblings of, "I'm getting full," started turning into, "I can just take one bite, sorry." One more reason we love Nuffnangx and their blogger outreach is that they aren't shy about taking home leftovers. (All the bloggers declined, most saying they were too full to carry anything home.)

Pasta Pesto

Pasta Pomodoro

Steamed spinach "action" shot.

Overall this meal lived up to its name of 'Feast'! Especially the camaraderie of new friends around the table. Tea Time is doubly excited about how this event turned out because not only do we now have a local "know" on where to go to eat local fresh crab, but we have a new group of bloggers to share resources and conversation with, possibly even blog collaborations for future posts.

We were all convinced that we were far too full to eat dessert, but one look at the platters changed our minds. Each group of four shared a plate that showed off the 'best of' Scoma's desserts, including Raspberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Torte, Spumoni Ice Cream and Black Cherry Sorbet. This many days later, we're all still chattering about the house made Black Cherry Sorbet. Angela thinks she'll just go sit at the bar, order some wine and a huge helping of this scrumptious flavorful dessert.

Dessert Platter

Scoma's was rocking with diners by the time our feast was winding down, but the wait staff was attentive and thorough, cleaning our detritus and refilling wine and water glasses almost as soon as you set them back down on the table. If you're looking for a local resto with fresh seafood and great service, Scoma's is it!

Crab shells were flying!

No leftovers here!

Plus! After all that, there were mints. Angela did take one to go.

After-Dinner Mints