Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Rode Uber Pool Express to UCSF Laurel Heights. Breakfast from The View Cafe: egg and cheddar on english muffin, coffee with half and half. Sprint standup. Spent the day inserting helvetica neue webfonts and backporting html email template improvements learned on the latest UFD to the BTS Beat template. Lunch: two mandarins. Rode Uber Pool Express to Noe Valley. Dinner at Uma Casa with Patrick. Patrick had discovered this place after encountering it on a walk in the neighborhood with his mom and after seeing its chef on a television show. We aren't aware of many Portuguese restaurants in San Francisco, and I agreed we should try it. We had the three-course $33 tasting menu. San pell. Appetizers: pasteis de bacalhau (salt cod and potato fritters , cilantro aioli) for Patrick, caldo verde (chicken broth , potato, linguiça, collard greens, olive oil) for me. The fritters are the consistency of mashed potatoes underneath a crisp crust we think was flour-based—tasty, if a bit salty. I enjoyed the caldo verde which had delicious slices of linguiça in a rich broth with potato chunks and chiffonade of collard greens. These were paired with Portugal Ramos Louiero Vinho Verde 2015, which we liked a lot. Entrees: carne de porco a alentejana (braised pork shoulder, clams, linguiça, tomato-wine sauce, fingerling potatoes, cilantro) for Patrick, bacalhau a gomes de sa (salt cod casserole, potatoes, onion, egg, olive crumble, parsley aioli, olive oil) for me. My casserole turned out to be way too salty for me. It seems silly now, but I didn't know salt cod would be so salty. The waiter offered to exchange it and suggested the frango piri-piri (grilled half mary's chicken, spicy pepper glaze, french fries, baby kale salad) which I had declined earlier, saying they could go light on the spicy glaze. I assented. The chicken was still too spicy for me, but I ate some of it and ate all the accompanying fries. The plate included a side of greens that were heavily vinaigretted, which I avoided because of my angular cheilitis. The entrees were paired with Quinta de Chocopahla Castelao Lisboa 2015, which we also liked. Desserts: pastel de nata (portuguese custard tart) for Patrick, sorvete de maracuja (passion fruit sorbet) for me—both delicious. Desserts were paired with Sandeman Founder's Reserve Ruby (Douro), which we liked. $139.56 before a $30 tip—my gratitude for the entree exchange. Not a great meal for me, but Patrick enjoyed it. The wine choices in the pairings were excellent, though, and seemed to be a great value for the price. Rode UberX to the Castro with Patrick. We checked out Beaux, which was open but empty. Watched mostly rare videos from the 1970s and 1980s at Midnight Sun. We rode UberX home. Updated my iPad Pro to iOS 11.