Sunday, November 17, 2002
Leftovers for lunch. Dinner with Patrick at 22/23 or 2223 or No Name or whatever they call it (2223 Market St, 415-431-0692). It was our first time to the restaurant. We both chose the fixed price meal: 3 courses for US$19.95. We both started with an amuse of fruit and cheese tartlets of some kind (raspberry?). For the appetizer, Patrick had tomato soup with very thin tortilla strips (which they called "nachos"), and I had a mixed salad of organic greens with pomegranate, diced apple, diced carrot, pecans, and goat cheese. Our main courses were: pork chop with mashed potatoes (Patrick) and wild mushroom and pumpkin ravioli (Frank). Patrick asked for his pork chop to be cooked medium well, and it was, but what was especially notable was how tender the meat was. Patrick said, "I haven't tasted pork chops this good since I cooked them!" The service was excellent except that the waiter lied to me when I asked if the soup was spicy and he replied that it was not: "No, not at all." He was also so tall that it hurt my neck when I looked up to tell him my order or ask for a fork after he brought my salad and he didn't notice that the busboy had taken away my fork with the amuse plate. This $19.95 deal ends on December 1, 2002—they're celebrating the restaurant's 7th anniversary. It's a slightly better deal than Watergate, which offers a fixed price meal for $25, and it's in a more convenient location for us. For dessert, we both chose the bread pudding with brandied cherries—delicious! (The other choice was mango-raspberry sorbet with coconut tapioca.) Afterwards, we hung out at The Cafe for a while, then went home to do a little work before going to bed. A message on our answering machine told Patrick that he won first place (!) in the Chinese character writing contest in which he had recently participated. Woo hoo!