A Glimpse into Ayesha Curry's Potential Future Restaurant

It has been, and will continue to be, a busy year for Ayesha Curry and her brand. She has been appearing on various Food Network shows, and has planned releases for a cookbook in September and a cooking show in the fall. All while collaborating with chef Michael Mina on International Smoke, a pop-up restaurant at The Mina Test Kitchen in San Francisco, which is what I believe is a step toward Ayesha opening her own restaurant later down the road.

After weeks of battling to get a reservation, I was thrilled when it finally happened. When I say battle, I mean battled. At International Smoke, there's no walk-ins or waiting in line. Rather, you make an online reservation and pre-pay for your meal. Every single slot was booked when I first checked a couple of weeks after the announcement. The rest of us hopefuls had to be the quickest one to check out as soon as you get notified about any open spots from cancellations. For tips on how to secure your reservation to one of the hottest dining spots in the city right now, keep reading!

For the Standard meal (more on that later), it costs approximately $100 for two people, not including any supplemental options and/or drinks. For this price, I was pleased with the quality and amount of food. Although I went in fairly hungry, I was already starting to get full during the second course and came home with leftovers. And of course, it's worth checking out given that it's the first time the public really gets a chance to try Ayesha's food.

As a bonus, you may see Ayesha at The Mina Test Kitchen if the stars align, as she's there when her schedule allows. Sadly, it just wasn't my night, but that's OK.

Now onto the food!

SNACKS FOR ALL: To start, we get a Jar of Pickles -- chef's selection of garden vegetables and soy pickles. Soon after, we get the Spicy Corn Nuts with ancho chili and lime, aka corn nuts like I've never had before. Yum!

COURSE ONE: The Thai-Style Barbecue Shrimp Chili, which had a young coconut red curry base topped with toasted peanuts, smelled delicious when it came to the table next to us. When it was our turn, oh my! It somewhat reminded me of Tom Kha soup, but thicker, less sour, and had more in it (it is a chili, after all). This was one of my favorites of the night. This course also came with jalapeño corn bread on the side.

COURSE TWO: Up next was the International Pork Ribs with the flavors of Al Pastor paired with jicama-green apple slaw, St. Louis paired with chili-spiced watermelon, and Korean paired with cucumber kimchi. My favorite out of the three was sweet taste of St. Louis. When the ribs came to the other table next to us, who arrived later than we did, they had pineapple salsa smeared on top of the Al Pastor ribs. Unfortunately, this was missed in our dish -- would've loved to try with the salsa!

COURSE THREE: Binchö-Tan Grilled Lobster for Two on Singapore street noodles with black pepper glaze was supplemental, and costs $17.00 per person. We opted out of this, and partly glad we did because there was no way would've finished it given that we were already getting full with the ribs. On the other hand, we had some post-regret when the table next to us ordered it and realized we could've definitely save the rest as leftovers.

COURSE FOUR: When you make a reservation, you have the option of choosing the Standard meal or the Deluxe Meal. With the Standard, we were able to choose three out the four meats for the Royal Barbecue Platter. We chose Pollo a la Brasa, Slow-Cooked Char Siu Pork Shoulder and Sobel Bros. Pastrami, and skipped the Spicy Merguez Sausage. Our favorite here was the Pollo a la Brasa.

This course also came with Moroccan Street Corn, which had chermoula and halloumi. I love corn, so this was right up my alley!

As another supplemental option for $8.00 per order, we had the Tokyo Hash Browns with soy caramel, spicy kewpie, scallions, and toasted nori.

COURSE FIVE: While we waited for dessert to arrive, we had shots of Cherry-Lime Slush as a refresher -- very refreshing and good.

And finally, the dessert was Pudding Cake & Ice Cream, which had lemongrass-vanilla cupcake, tenbrink peaches, buttermilk pudding, berries -- the perfect ending to this meal.

Was it worth it? Yes. Should you try to get a reservation while you still can? Yes!

For the best chances of getting a reservation, here are my tips:

1. Download Resy, the app/service the restaurant uses for reservations.
2. Pre-fill your credit card number in your Resy profile.
3. Set up to get notifications for all dinner slots between Wednesdays and Saturdays (there is no International Smoke service on Sundays) and turn on your notifications.
4. Act FAST as soon as you get the notification. As you're pondering about whether that specific date or time works for you, there is a 99.9% chance that someone already booked it. There has been numerous times where I swiped as soon as I saw it, and POOF! It was already gone. I've also seen it where I'm looking to check out and the app tells me there's 20+ people viewing the reservation at the same time.
5. Get the reservation while you can, and if there's a better time slot that opens up later, you can always get a full refund as long as you cancel before 24 hours to your reservation. I was fortunate enough to go from a 10:00pm time slot, which is the latest I believe, to a 7:45pm slot, a much more desirable time to eat dinner. ;) Of course, confirm your new reservation before canceling your old one.

International Smoke is happening throughout the rest of the month, with a few dates in August. Good luck!

When A Croissant Meets A Muffin

What happens when a croissant meets and falls in love with a muffin? They get baked in San Francisco by Mr. Holmes Bakehouse and have some absolute DELISH babies called cruffins. This is essentially a spinoff from the cronut that was all the craze last year (if you didn't already know: croissant x donut). I have still yet to try the original cronut from Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York (yet), but I'm very content with having cruffins within driving distance.

Behold...

This, my friends, is the CRUFFIN. My first bite of this Cookies & Cream cruffin already had me head over heels. With every bite, I kept thinking and literally saying out loud, "THIS IS SO GOOD!"

Let's start with the pastry itself - soft, flaky, covered in sugar. They are baked perfectly and won't harden over time, as I've experienced with other cronuts. The part that makes it the BEST is the custard. My oh my, I can probably eat the custard all day long - creamy, not overly sweet, true to the flavors described.

The moment I realized how much I really love Mr. Holmes's custard (really, this is like a relationship!) is when I tried the caramel popcorn flavor. I know I'm in the minority here when I say this: I'm not a big fan of caramel (including salted caramel). I'm not completely against it where I avoid it at all costs, but I wouldn't want big glop of caramel on anything. With that said, I'll admit I was a tad worried when I saw this flavor. Plus, caramel popcorn as a custard? What?

Um, yeah. Mind. Blown. Again, "THIS IS SO GOOD!" There wasn't so much caramel flavor where non-caramel fans would hate it, and there wasn't too little caramel where fans would hate it (I'd assume!) - it was just a happy medium. As you bite into the custard, there's a good hint of popcorn taste, and of course, it is topped off with actual caramel popcorn. Yum!

The most recent flavor I tried was banana chocolate. I love all things banana, with the exception of artificial banana flavors. (You know those Bananarama candies? Who in the world taste tested them and thought, "Exactly how banana tastes like! Let's do it!") 

My thoughts on Mr. Holmes' banana chocolate? "THIS IS SO..." ...Yeah, I'm sure you get the picture. I do have to say I was a little thrown off because the flavor update said it was going to be banana cream, which I would've LOVED to try, but banana chocolate did not disappoint!

I also want to share that Mr. Holmes puts in the just the right amount of custard in each cruffin. With a pastry this size (I can't wrap my whole hand around it), it would've been rather disappointing if was just a small squirt of this heavenly custard inside. On the other hand, it isn't too overloaded with custard. (Although, would that really be a bad thing...? Just saying.)

If you're in the Bay Area and are now convinced that you HAVE to try a cruffin from Mr. Holmes (because you totally should!), here my tips after three trips there:

• FLAVORS: Mr. Holmes posts flavor updates every Sunday on Instagram. There are different flavors daily Monday-Friday and the same flavor on Saturday and Sunday. They also list their rotating doughnut flavors, using the same custard recipe, but are different from current cruffin flavors.
• TIME: Cruffins are available to purchase at 9am, but you should arrive early because there is a limited amount and people stand in line for them. According to Yelp reviews, 8:30am seems like the latest time you should get there on weekends. I get there at approximately 8-8:15am because, personally, my thought process has been, if I'm already this committed to getting up early and driving there, I am NOT walking away empty-handed. You may not have to be there as early on the weekdays, but don't take my word for it!
• PARKING: Because it is early in the day, it usually isn't too hard to find street parking nearby. Be sure to pay the meters in advanced, as meters must be fed starting at 9am, which is when the cruffins start. Meter maids DO drive around, so don't risk getting a ticket!
• LINES: There are two lines. Facing the store, the line on the left is the cruffin line and the line on the right is regular bakery line. Go to the left. If you're going with a friend, one of you can hop out of the cruffin line to check out the bakery items.
• STICKERS: About 5-10 minutes prior to the cruffins being available, they start distributing Mr. Holmes stickers to each person in line. It is one sticker per person, so if someone from your party isn't in line during distribution, they're out of luck. However, they give a 5-minute warning before distribution begins so there aren't any surprises. Each sticker allows you to purchase up to TWO cruffins. And you get to keep the sticker.
• PRICE: Each cruffin is $4.50. By default, they will put it in a paper bag. In order to get a Mr. Holmes box, you either pay an extra $1.50 or have a total of six items. Unless you have a party of three and are putting them all in one box, that means you'd have to purchase regular bakery items. Their bakery items are just as good, so you might as well go for it!
• JUST EAT IT: Cruffins are best eaten the day of. You have to refrigerate it overnight because it is custard, which means you'd have to warm it up the next day, and it's just not as good. 

BONUS TIP: For a very San Francisco visit, there's a Philz Coffee location within about half a mile. Sip on that mint mojito coffee while you eat that cruffin, and you'll be golden.

EXTRA BONUS TIP: LA - they're coming for you!

Eating Real 2015

This past weekend, EAT REAL FEST celebrated its seventh year of combining "a state fair, a street-food festival, and a block party to create a celebration of good food" in Jack London Square in Oakland. With 20+ vendors, there were all kinds of food -- everything from vegan, Indian, Mexican, soul, Asian fusion, and so much more. And really, looking at the vendor list sold me on going. Just like many food festivals, there were hits and there were misses -- keep reading to see what I tried this year!

SWEET LEMON RICOTTA ZEPPOLE with EARL GREY CHOCOLATE GANACHE from GIRL FRIDAY ZEPPOLE. Hands down, the best of the day -- it was practically love at first bite. There was a variety of dipping sauces to choose from, including the vanilla bean crème fraîche that I was close to getting. Looking back, I would've definitely gotten a dozen and chose both flavors! They also have a savory option. Next time, Girl Friday!

STARTER BAKERY KOUIGN AMANN SANDWICH with MALTED WHITE CHOCOLATE FROZEN CUSTARD & BURNT CARAMEL SAUCE from FROZEN KUHSTERD. I was not completely sold on the caramelized croissant, but the frozen custard was delish. I loved it even though I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate (other than white chocolate mocha). Yum! **FUN FACT: Frozen Kuhsterd ran a successful Kickstarter project and will be opening a brick and mortar shop in San Francisco!**

BRAISED OXTAIL TACO from ALAMAR. I was actually in line to get the spiral fries - half a potato cut into a spiral and fried on a long stick. Unfortunately, everyone wanted one because of how interesting it looked. The wait took over an hour when I was there because not only did it take them a long while to prepare and make each batch, they also had fryer problems. I ended up just changing my order to their braised oxtail taco because they were pumping those out in just seconds. The braised oxtail was flavorful, but overall, this taco was just OK.

FRIED KOREAN SWEET SOY AND GARLIC CHICKEN AND WAFFLE SANDWICH from BOK SSAM. I actually had this before a long time ago and really enjoyed it the first time, but it was prepared differently this time. The waffle was totally different, and a little too soft and sweet. The chicken, on the other hand, was juicy and flavorful. However, the skin eventually became rather soggy and starting to come apart. There is potential -- I just wish it was like the first time I had it!

TEA LEAF SALAD from BURMA BEAR. The first time I went to the booth, they were not open yet sadly because someone had stolen their generator the previous night (evil!). When I went around the second time around, they started to sell two of their three items, including the tea leaf salad. I was excited to try because yum, tea leaf salad! Sadly, this fell short for me and I think it was mainly the preserved tea leaves. It was just missing that kick overall.

RAGIN' CAJUN FRIES from SPUDS. When you have a slogan like "When the side becomes the entree!," you'll attract all the french fry aficionados, such as me. These fries had garlic shrimp, sausage, bell peppers, green onions, and a creamy cajun sauce. And the fries? Definitely not your frozen fries, which is something I truly appreciate. SPUDS appears to be just starting out, and the Eat Real Fest website has me thinking this is from the kitchen of Gussie's Chicken & Waffles. And? Looking good so far!

CRAB CAKE SLIDER from NEW ORLEANS CATERING. I've been to Eat Real Fest three times, and all three times, I couldn't help but get this crab cake slider. This crab cake? Totally legit with the cook frying it, making it all crispy, right in front of you. Topped with that remoulade sauce? Yes, please.

Did you go to Eat Real Fest this year? What was your favorite?