Yesterday's Eats

My sister, her husband, and I met up with some out of town relatives over in San Francisco yesterday and went to Postrio's just for a light bite to eat since the said relatives were staying in the hotel directly next door and were soon going to be on their way to a large banquet dinner. First, we were offered a lovely plate of bread. It was studded with walnuts and had an interesting hue of a purpley color. Perhaps colored by some red wine as it didn't taste like olives? We then went on to graze on a pizza of heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and basil. It was amazing how sweet the yellow tomatoes were. It was lovely, especially how one side of the pizza had the red tomatoes, while the other side had the yellow. It allowed you to appreciate and taste the difference of each fruit. And we had a salad of mesculun, blue cheese, cherry tomatoes, and candied walnuts in a balsamic vinegrette. It was okay. You could taste each element distinctly, however, I wanted more balsamic. What was extremely tasty was the merlot my mom ordered. It was a Joseph Phelps merlot. Glorious!

As the relatives headed to their banquet, we headed for Suppenkuche in Hayes Valley. My sister Amee had the Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein mit Bratkartoffeln und grünem Salat $16.00 (Breaded and Sauteed Porkloin with Roasted Potatoes and Green Salad), which was extremely good. Tender and crisp, and not greasy at all. The portions are generous. She barely touched her perfect looking potatoes and concentrated on the heavenly main portion of her meal. Brother-in-law Phil had his usual of Kräuterquark mit geschmolzener Butter und Petersilienkartoffeln $10.50 (Herbed Fresh Cheese (Quark) with Melted Butter and Bouillon Potatoes) since he is a vegetarian. It comes with a plate of various veggies, red cabbage sauerkraut, grated carrots dressed in a sweet vinegrette, pickled beets, and crisp butter lettuce. Mine came with a similar salad, albeit in a smaller form. I had the Käsespätzle mit Zwiebel-Buttersoße und gemischtem Salat $12.00 (Cheese Spätzle in Onion Butter Sauce served with a small Mixed Salad). This dish was the epitome of Rich! This is not one to have if you're counting calories. But it is a comfort food must.

As for beer, I had the Doppelbock, my sister and her husband both had the Hefeweizen, and Phil also had Dunkelweizen. Not being a big beer drinker, I could hardly keep these names straight. Especially after having finished my Doppelbock, which I later found the definition to: A stronger bock beer (up to 12%), though not necessarily double the strength. The original of the style was brewed by the Italian monks of the order of St. Francis of Paula, in Bavaria. It is a dark and sweet beer. And I'm a sucker for any dark beers. The Hefeweizen, which is an unfiltered wheat beer also brewed by monks, had a very unique herbal quality. And the Dunkelweizen is a dark wheat beer. It has the look of a dark, but the taste of a light. As if the Doppelbock married the Hefeweizen and had a child, that child would be the Dunkelweizen. At least, this is the story my mind has decided to fabricate to facilitate my elementary understanding of what I imbibed last night. And after a bit of internet sleuthing, I found out that the people at the Suppenkuche have another restaurant in the East Bay! Hurrah! It's in Alameda and it's called Spiesekammer. Now you don't have to put up with the trials of finding parking in the city. Whoo-hoo!