Author Archives: Renate Valencia

One Market in SF for lunch

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Ate lunch at One Market in San Francisco because we had to go to UCSF for some medical stuff and felt we deserved a good thing.  Now, I had heretofore not been bowled over by One Market (1 Market Street (duh), SF), but it was the fanciest thing close to BART and we wanted to see if the lunch was any good anyway.  Since we had no reservation, they seated us at the chef’s counter, where you get to watch the cooks while perched on a comfy bar seat.  I highly recommend this location.  If you are at the front counter you are almost on top of the sauté station, which should be interesting to most people since it’s an active part of the kitchen with lots of fire and pans and ingredients flying around.  Matthew ordered the Dungeness crab cakes and the ahi tuna burger.  I chose the roast chicken and chick pea fries.  The crab cakes were delicious and had ample crab, but they were so tiny they were lost on their large plate and just not worth the $16.50 price tag.  The rest of the meal was perfection.  My organic roast chicken – a split half – was served with natural jus and was moist and flavorful from skin to bone.  The chick pea fries, served with a terrific harissa aioli, were light and crisp and not at all mushy or greasy;  I was easily able to handle them like potato fries.  Matthew’s tuna burger was made with a generous, rounded piece of solid ahi, cooked rare.  It’s normally served with salad but Matt substituted what they call ‘big fries,’ which was a great decision, since those fries came off like a cross between roasted potatoes and steak fries.  Everything was well seasoned, particularly the chicken, which they coaxed great things from, but, honestly, next time I may just make a meal of the two sides and forgo the rest, which should be no problem since they seem to keep the Acme pain epi coming.  $65.59 before a generous tip for superior service.

McCartney new album not very good

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Paul McCartney’s new CD, Memory Almost Full, first things first, is terrible.  No one likes Sir Paul more than Matthew and I and we are willing to give him a break when he releases questionable material, like Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.  This one, though, is beyond the beyonds.  Paul needs to be told, badly and soon, that he needs to decrease quantity in order to increase quality.  Paul, you may be an artist, but even an artist needs to cull! 

Let’s go back, way back, to Wings, an unfortunate span of about 10 years starting in the early 1970’s.  I can tolerate At the Speed of Sound because I was 15 then and thought it was cool and, to be honest, “Silly Love Songs” is kind of nice.  The rest of Wings’ oeuvre, other than “Let me Roll it,” “My Love” and “London Town,” is of little interest to me.  The remainder of the 1980’s was unremarkable, too, other than a couple songs with a decent hook, like “No More Lonely Nights.” 

Things started looking up in 1989 with the release of Flowers in the Dirt, with the more-than-nice “My Brave Face.”  In 1993 came Off the Ground, an altogether good album with a strong band.  Yes, boys and girls, they are all albums to me.  1997’s Flaming Pie continued the trend of likable, thoughtful melodies with decent lyrics, quality arrangements and musicians who played well together.  “Beautiful Night” (with Ringo!) and “The World Tonight” are two from the latter I  enjoy.  Even the title track is fun without seeming ridiculous. 

I know now that 2001’s Driving Rain was the beginning of the end.  While there were a few songs that worked, like “From a Lover to a Friend,” they in no way forgive the crimes that are “Freedom” and “Driving Rain,” whose masters should be utterly destroyed.  I’ll bet that Paul thought “Freedom” would become the international anthem for 9/11 as he, ironically, halted the production of Driving Rain for it.  Bad idea, but then again maybe I’m the only person who cringes in embarrassment when it’s played.  Steven won’t put the CD on because he’s afraid he might accidentally hear “Driving Rain,” which goes, “One, two, three, four, five, lets go for a drive.”  Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, 2005, was worse yet and the trend culminates in this dog (sorry, Berry, nothing intended), Memory Almost Full. 

Driving Rain and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard enjoyed some level of critical acclaim, but I think of them as “not good” and “bad,” respectively.  Play either one of these increasingly mediocre collections against Flaming Pie and see what I mean.  Memory Almost Full brings me to the point of no longer being able to argue in defense of Paul and actually angers me.  The songs are nothing more than simplistic, rhymed poetry set to forgettable musical lines.  That is not to say you can’t craft a great song using a simple lyric and/or melody — you can, but it requires a high level of talent that is not evident here.  “Gratitude” will have you running and hiding under tables.  “Nod Your Head,” which starts out sounding like it might be alright, winds up falling flat, leaving you to focus on that that bad, bad lyric.  I thought “Vintage Clothes” was OK when I thought the line was, “We are vintage clothes, ” until Matt told me it’s “We wear vintage clothes.”  Sort of like how “Beth,” the Kiss ballad, took a beating in my head when I learned the line was not, “Death, I hear you calling.”  Here’s a sample from “See Your Sunshine:” 

She makes me feel glad
I want her so bad
My heart is beating madly for her

If you ask me why
I’m not going to lie
I’ll have to say that I adore her

I will promptly rip the only song worth saving, “Ever Present Past,” and see if Amoeba is crazy enough to buy this CD from me.  My parting words to Paul McCartney:  Get out of the studio and put together a decent band.  Write songs and then edit them.  Practice, record and mix with said band.  Play the songs for a decent cross-section of people, including a statistically significant portion who won’t kiss your ass.  If this group tells you a song sucks, don’t release it.  Don’t believe that everything you do is great simply because it’s you.  Paul, let’s get back on track so I can believe in you again.

Little Hong Kong in El Cerrito

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Little Hong Kong in El Cerrito rocks.  Who knew?  Certainly not we two.  Little Hong Kong (10443 San Pablo Avenue) sits on a stretch of San Pablo in El Cerrito with some terrible Chinese restaurants and we assumed the worst.   When I say “terrible” I mean dinosaur American-Cantonese terrible.  And, no, I did not steal the expression “dinosaur X” from Anthony Bourdain.  I have been saying and writing this for years.  Anyhoo, LHK was packed, and we were crammed into a nice little corner and brought a menu.  The lunch special here is listed at three friggin’ ninety five!  While they have some Americanized selections, they have lots of the real deal.  This is not one of those bad places like the monstrosity up the avenue with all the dragons outside — where the Albany bowling league ladies eat.  Forgive me for ragging on my mother’s bowling companions, but know that I held back so many times I deserve to use them as a negative example just once.  What turned the tide for me was one woman recently telling my Mom that Matthew would have a hard time finding anything good to eat in Hong Kong.  Sorry, but that took me over the top.  Oh, yes, Little Hong Kong, sorry.  This is a solid place to have a meal, though the service could have been a little better, but then again they deserved a pass because of the lunchaday throngs.  We got more than enough food for $3.95 and $4.95, respectively, and it was hot and fresh.  I had the curry chicken, but should not have because I never like any curry chicken as much as I do at Macau Cafe or even Daimo, but I felt like something hot.  It was tasty but had no potatoes, and I like potatoes.  Matt had the beef chow fun, which was excellent.  I am sorry it took us so long to figure this place out.  It’s solid for lunch.

Hunan Villa in Pinole

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We finally made it to Hunan Villa in Pinole for lunch.  We figured it should be good since it’s owned by the same people who own the Pear Street Bistro.  It’s in one of those yucky strip malls and looks kind of dead from the outside, but once you step in you know right away it’s connected to Pear Street what with the stained concrete with circular design and funky loft ceiling.  The menu is not overly long and we quickly selected one chicken with black bean sauce lunch special, one lettuce wraps with chicken and the sampler plate.  The served us tea in an iron tea pot, which was a nice touch.  The sampler plate had some chicken skewers, cigar shrimp, BBQ pork and spring rolls.  I find that this kind of appetizer plate is usually a blight upon the earth, but it was very, very good at Hunan Villa.  What a pleasant surprise!  The chicken skewers had large, moist chicken chunks that were crispy on the outside.  The shrimp were wrapped in a bit of phyllo and deep fried, and the roast pork was the kind with the red edges — but moist and flavorful and not dry and gray like it often is.  The spring rolls were tasty little suckers, too.  The sampler was served with a quartet of sauces:  hot mustard, sweet sauce, hot sauce, hot and sweet sauce.  Sweet.  My lettuce wraps dish was a mixture of chicken, mushrooms and other veggies served with a stack of romaine lettuce leaves and a dipping sauce akin to hoisin.  The chicken mixture was moist, which I liked because it stayed in the lettuce, though my guess is that most people would prefer it to be a little dryer.  My eating companion, Matthew, said the black bean sauce chicken was good and that he was able to detect the pungency of the beans.  Service was friendly and prompt.  We will return, even if it means driving miles up San Pablo Avenue.  $31 before tip.

Wassup with the fish moguls?

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We are losing all the big-time fish guys.  What’s going on here?  First, we have Rubin Caslow, the chairman of the largest producer of smoked fish in the country, Acme Fish Corporation, who died in April.  This is a major loss.  Ever try their smoked whitefish salad?  Acme’s site is listed in our “places to visit” section.  Then, this month, Mark Sneed, president of Phillips, passed on.  Phillips is a Baltimore-based restaurant chain and seafood products manufacturer.  For some time Costco carried their canned lump crabmeat, which, when used as an ingredient in the crab cake recipe on the side of the can, results in good eats.  You have to follow the recipe exactly!  Matthew and I went to a Phillips Seafood Restaurant when we visited Baltimore.  It was an all-you-can-eat affair and we were issued hammers and buckets.