March Digested

I've been meaning to update my blog for a while, but somehow mid-March became late-March became early-April. I'm going to lazily make up for my laziness by writing up 2 of my March dining experiences.

We went to Squaw to celebrate Aren's birthday. Aren is a fantastic skiier, and I'm not even what one could call a skiier. Somehow, however, Aren managed to be patient enough and I self-willed enough to ski together for one day. I was pretty proud of myself by the end of the day and was happy to have dinner at Plumpjack reserved. We started off the evening with drinks in Plumpjack's bar. A rustic fire/candle pit was featured in the middle of the bar. I almost wanted to skip dinner in favor of staying near this heat source! Aren and I both agreed that we want some sort of fireplace in our kitchen in our dream home. We were really surprised by the quality of the food at Plumpjack. Tahoe isn't really a dining destination, but Plumpjack rivaled SF's best. I started with a simple salad, moving on to a delicately prepared white fish that came with lobster-shrimp pot stickers, sesame bok choy, and spiced coconut broth. Desserts were so-so. It astounds me that good restaurants that lack pastry chefs often have tasteless desserts. It's really not that hard to make a good, simple dessert. Moreover, these dessert-deficient restaurants often try to make up for their deficiency with gimmicky desserts. I'd much rather have a solid creme brulee than a "Warm caramelized apple and beignet with creme fraiche ice cream" (a dessert I recently had at the Slanted Door).

I thought I'd also write about the Market Bar located in SF's Ferry Building. When we picked it, Aren and I were looking for a casual spot where we could enjoy the outdoors on a warm SF evening. The food and service were very mediocre (our shared appetizer arrived with our entrees), but we enjoyed dining outside for once. Plus, the Ferry Building is such a pleasant walk from our place. I think the lesson here is about expectations. We picked location over food quality, got what we expected, and went home totally satisfied.

Guess where we have reservations next Friday?