37 Degrees

Shaved snow. YUM! Shaved snow is definitely one of my new favorite cold desserts. So lets start off first with, what is shaved snow? Shaved snow is similar to shaved ice, however, shaved snow is literally shaved, it's not chunky and crunch like shaved ice, and the texture is smoother. Second question, why is it green? It is green because this is flavored shaved snow, in this case, it is green for green tea flavored shaved snow. Third question, what's that stuff on it? When eating shaved snow, it tastes best with toppings like, fruit, coconut jelly, and most importantly condensed milk. Fourth question, where can I find this stuff? Well, shaved snow is slowly becoming popular here Bay Area. There are several places that serve it that you can locate easily with the help of tools like Yelp. But as for where I get my shaved snow, I get it at 37 Degrees in San Francisco.

Now with that aside, let's talk a little more about this delicious-ness. As I mentioned, this is green tea flavored shaved snow. There are other flavors too depending on where you go. This specific place has flavors like mango, chocolate, and some other ones that I can't remember off the top of my head. You get to choose a flavor, and I think up to 3 toppings and a "sauce" all for around $4.50 It is perfect for sharing with one or two friends, but hey, if you want to eat the entire plate all by yourself, go right ahead. Also, the amount you get really depends on the person whose making it. There have been instances where my friends and I received a giant pile of shaved snow, and there are times when we receive a smaller pile of shaved snow.

The other dessert that I love from here is the sweet tofu. It's basically super super soft tofu, softer than the kind you get in soon du bu, in a simple syrup. It comes out piping hot and oh so delicious. And if you like it super sweet, just ask them for more of the sugar water.

As for the other items, I wouldn't order anything else from here. Mainly because when I do, I am highly disappointed. The other items don't even fit in the category of mediocre. I remember ordering eggettes and they were still half raw inside. This place is one of those hit or miss places food wise. Service wise, expect to either be rushed when there are a lot of people, or totally ignored when there aren't a lot of customers. But you just need good company to ignore the rude servers.

If you guys would like to check this place out, here is the info:
37 Degrees
1155 Taraval St
(between 21st Ave & 22nd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94116
(415) 566-3887

Barracuda Japanese Restaurant

So, who out there doesn't love cheap eats? I sure do. But there's nothing I love more than something that is affordable and delicious. That is exactly what you'll find here at Barracuda Japanese Restaurant during their happy hour.

In the picture above are the Ceviche Tacos which is around $4/$5 for 3 delicious tacos. If you're unfamiliar with ceviche, it's basically raw fish. The fish is stuffed in a crunchy taco shell along with bits of mango, guacamole and onions with a side of the spicy mayo that is seen on top of sushi rolls. The taco is delicious on it's on but the spicy mayo gives it this extra kick that will have you coming back for more. And the best part is of course, the price. For $4/$5 you would get like one taco from the taco trucks at Off the Grid. Instead here, you get 3!

They have other items on their happy hour menu as well. There are simple rolls like spicy tuna. There is also hot food like gyozas, which is not as worth it, katsu and plain udon. These are just the items that I can remember off the top of my head. Most items are around if not under $5.

Some of you might be wondering, when's happy hour? Happy hour is every weekday I believe, Monday - Friday, from 4pm - 6pm.

As for the other food not on the happy hour menu, it's alright. Not anything to rave about. I think I had their Barracuda roll, and it was decent, no complaints. Service is good, the waitresses that I've had in the past were super nice and attentive.

They have several locations, but if you would like to visit the one I went to, here is the restaurants info:
Barracuda Japanese Restaurant
127 H Serramonte Ctr
Daly City, CA 94015
(650) 757-6833

PPQ Dungeness Island

Just because you're looking at me with those beady eyes does not mean I won't eat you!

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I was going to visit a restaurant called PPQ. This place is famous for their garlic noodles and the way they prepare their crab. So having heard so much about the infamous garlic noodles and crabs, my friends and I decided, it was time to go try it for ourselves and see what all the hype was about.

For four people, we ordered the 2 people set dinner which included: egg rolls, chicken salad, garlic noodles, roasted crab and fried bananas with mango ice cream. Since none of us really wanted a salad, we substituted the salad for a crab fried rice which we had to pay extra for since there was a slight price difference. Which is fine since it's better than ordering something that we all knew we probably wouldn't enjoy.


Here is a look at the bowl of garlic noodles and in the background is the plate of crab fried rice. And of course, the picture above is of our roasted crab. The bowl is about your average average bowl. Think about those giant bowls with and handle to look like a giant coffee cup, that but a tiny little bit bigger.

Now to talk about the food. Lets start with our appetizer, egg rolls, they were your standard Vietnamese fried egg rolls. The plate came with four egg rolls and dipping sauce. It was quite delicious. Then we got our garlic noodles and crab fried rice. The garlic noodles were alright, it had a hint of garlic. Not enough garlic for it to be called garlic noodles if you ask me. The crab fried rice was definitely not anything special. But I guess they did use real crab meat which is always a plus. However, the rice was too hard and tasted kind of like the cooked rice that sits at the bottom of the rice cooker that no body wanted. The roasted crab was disappointing. I was expecting like a nice pan roasted crab but out came a crab sitting in a puddle of sauce. What a deceiving name. Usually crab just has this delicious sweet seafoody flavor all by itself, but this one needed help quite some from the sauce that it was drowned in. As for dessert, fried bananas and mango ice cream. Mango ice cream was yummy, not sure about fried bananas cause personally I'm not a fan of fruit that is warm.

Overall, for the price, around $60 split between 4 people it was alright. Didn't leave the place stuffed to the brim, but I guess a meal is a meal. Would I come back again? Probably not unless I was forced to. I'm guessing I was expecting it to be super good cause of all the hype on yelp and from friends.

Let me know what you think of the place if you decide to visit it for yourselves. Or if you've already been, let me know what you thought of it. =D

If you guys would like to visit this restaurant, here is the info:
PPQ Dungeness Island
2332 Clement St
San Francisco, CA
(415) 386-8266