Ever since we moved to our current neighborhood in San Francisco, we’ve seen this Eritrean restaurant near our house and always thought we’ll go here “soon” but never really got about to it. Well, last weekend, I was in no mood to cook, and we were not even sure what we really wanted to eat. I suggested to Rahul that we go try out the Eritrean place and see what it has in store for us!

So we trekked down the hill to Assab Eritrean and the first thing we noticed was this giant banner on the wall – Voted the 10 best vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco (or something to that effect!). Hmm! This could really turn out to be a treat!

The Restaurant: The place is large enough so you feel comfortable in the room. The walls are adorned with paintings about Eritrea. Otherwise, the decor is simple and nothing else to write about.

The food: This is what we go to new places for, right! Well the menu did have a lot of meat options but had a separate section for vegetarians as well! And it was enough to make us happy.

We started off with a sambusa as appetizers, one for each of us. While the name sounds similar to the Indian samosa, it was similar just in the name and the deep frying. The sambusa did not have potatoes, but had peas and cabbage and some spices. It was not shaped like a prism, but was flatter and rectangular.

For the main course, we chose the Shiro, a mash of ground chickpeas (like a gravy) with some spices, and the vegetable combination which brought us a tasting of Alicha (mixed vegetables: potatoes, carrots etc spiced up), Zucchini (which Rahul did not even touch), and Okra.

We got an injera each as well. Injera is a traditional Eritrean (and Ethiopean as well, if I’m not mistaken) break. It almost feels and tastes like a not-so-crisp-but-thick-dosa.

The Injera

The food was served on a large platter and we were not given any forks or spoons. Scoop it up with the injera were the eating instructions! We’re not at all new at this (that’s how Indian food is eaten anyway) and so we simply dug in! The food was very tasty – especially the Shiro. The okra was well made (judging by the fact that Rahul ate it). Along with each order, also came some lentils that were cooked in spices and were divine! It was all slightly on the spicy side and we loved that!

The food served on a family style platter

Service: Service was very good and the gentleman serving us was jovial.

Cost: $$ ($8-10 per dish, $2 per sambusa).

Assab Eritrean: 2845 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA. Phone: (415) 441 7083

Looks like I am on a chef-meeting-roll these days! I met Pyzano’s Pizzeria’s co-owner Tony Gemignani yesterday.

We were out to meet our friends in Dublin, CA and they insisted that we try the pizza at this place. They have been raving about it forever and since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to give it a shot! When we went to pick up the pizza, I saw that there were lots of pictures on the wall of the owner with many celebrities. While we were looking at his picture, he came out with our pizzas. Our friends who have been there many times had never seen him at the restaurant. We were all very excited to meet him, had a little chat and took a few photos together. When I mentioned to him that I have a food blog, he gave me a recipe for his pizza, which I’ll try out pretty soon and post the results here.

For a pizza tossing world champion (many times in a row), he was very down to earth and friendly! When we first saw him he was busy working in the kitchen, baking pizza’s and serving them!

We ordered the following pizza’s: The veggie, The SF (vegetarian), BBQ chicken and The Manhattan (with pepperoni).

The veggie: The crust was nice, thick and chewy – but not overly chewy, with just the right amount of pizza sauce, red onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, zucchini and fresh uncooked tomato. It was not at all greasy – which really makes or breaks a pizza for me. Too much grease makes it a very unpleasant experience.

The S.F: The crust was nice and chewy with a hint of pizza sauce and a layer of fresh spinach, then a sprinkle of garlic, feta cheese, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella and drizzle of olive oil. All in all, it was very very good.

Our meat-eating friends loved their bbq chicken and pepperoni pizza as well!

Pyzano’s Pizzeria: http://www.pyzanospizzeria.com/

Address: 3835 East Castro Valley Blvd.
Castro Valley, CA 94522

A few nights ago, we found ourselves in Marin County to have dinner with our friends. Since our friends liked the food of Om South India cuisine, we thought of giving it a try.

The Restaurant: It is a family owned restaurant in downtown San Rafael. Although a substantial portion of the menu is dedicated to the standard dosa/uttapams, the owner has also added some of her own recipe’s to the menu (for example: Kaddapa Idli).

The ambiance is nothing to write home about, but it’s not bad either.

The Food: Since we’re vegetarians, we only sampled the veggie stuff, however, our friend raves about the meat dishes as well. As soon as we entered the resturant we were served with “Bhungras”(a type of crispy Indian snack, that reminded me how much we used to eat it as kids). Wow! All four of us finished that basket within few mins. For starters, we ordered the Kadappa mini idli’s. These mini idli’s were made from rice and “urad flour” (a type of lentil flour) and the curry was a subtle lemon color, made of lentils and cashews puree, which was out of this world. For the main course, we ordered a Ghee Rava Masala Dosa, Mysore Dosa, Onion Uttapan and Idli Sambhar, to share between the four of us.

The dosa’s were not too thick, or too thin (you know the ones, which turn to powder upon touch??) – but just right! All the entrees were served with sambhar, coconut chutney and tomato chutney. The food was very good and had an authentic south Indian flavor to it.

The service: The service was polite, but we felt they were always in a bit of a hurry although the place was far from packed.

Cost: $$ ($8-10 for a dosa)

I would highly recommend to visit this place if you are in San Rafael downtown, craving some South Indian food!

Website: http://www.omcuisine.com/

I was born and brought up in Gujarat, where daal and rice is a must along with at least one meal a day. Gujarati Daal has a balance of sweet and sour flavors, is easy to digest, nutritious and tastes delicious! I thought I’d share this with you to enjoy as well.

This recipe requires a lot of ingredients (to bring about many flavors), but is quite simple to make. I’m changing the format of the recipe a little bit to make it simpler to follow the steps. Instead of the standard: Ingredients list, then preparation methods, I’m making this recipe a two step process, with the ingredients and preparation for each step.

Ingredients and Directions

Step 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup toor daal (yellow lentil daal)
• 2 ½ cups water
• 10-12 raw peanuts
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• ¼ cup chopped tomatoes (or lemon as per taste)
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Directions:

• Soak the daal for half an hour in water.
• Add the rest of the above ingredients and pressure cook until soft (it takes about 2-3 whistles in the pressure cooker).

Step 2

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar or jaggery (optional)
• 1 small green chilly, cut into small pieces (spicy as per preference)
• 1 tablespoon cilantro
• 1/2 tea spoon of mustard seeds
• 1 table spoon oil
• A pinch of asafoetida (hing powder optional)
• ¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi daana)
• 2 cloves
• ½ inch cinnamon stick
• 2-3 curry leaves
• 1/2 tea spoon red chilly powder (if using paparika you can add 1 tea spoon)
• ½ teaspoon coriander powder (dhana powder)
• Salt, as per taste

Directions:

1. Add 2 more cups of water and let it boil on low heat.
2. As it boils, add curry leaves, sugar (or jaggrey but its optional), salt, coriander powder, the cinnamon stick and green chillies.
3. In a separate small pot or pan, heat the oil.
4. Add the cloves and fenugreek seeds.
5. Once the seeds start to become slightly brownish in color, add the mustard seeds.
6. When mustard seeds start popping switch of the flame and add asoafoetida, and red chilly powder and then pour the whole mixture into the boiling daal (ensure that chilli powder do not turn black and be careful that the oil does not splatter).
7. Let the daal cook for 20-25 mins to get a nice consistency.
8. Sprinkle some cilantro on top, and serve with hot cooked rice.

Note: For those who do not like sweet flavor should not add jaggery/sugar.