More food adventures

When I left TechProse in June the team gave me a couple of very lovely gifts....one of which was a rather impressive credit for Jardinaire.  Which is described as "French fine-dining restaurant with Californian accents".  I am not really sure what that means exactly BUT can report that the food and service were both yummy!  Irene and I started out with drinks at Absinthe a cool little bar that empties out as the theater crowd head out, getting a seat is all about timing.
Arriving at Jardinaire we were seated in a little booth, affording Irene an expansive view of the restaurant. Our server was a sweet guy and very attentive, good food, good service perfect combo.
Irene started with the scallops while I had the oysters.  As a rule I'm generally a total Bluff Oyster snob.....but you can't get Bluff Oysters here so I've had to learn to compromise a little.  As it turned out last night was a good night to compromise.  From New England (I think....) I got a mix of fresh and salt water oysters.  I don't think I've ever had fresh water oysters.  While both were lovely and creamy and delightful the salt water oysters were definitely my fav. The dish of the night had to be Irene's choice of the Risotto - seriously melt in the mouth and totally yummy.  I chose the Sea Bass on lentils.  This was seriously good as well!

To finish cheese plate, Grappa and Cognac.
It was a stylish, comfortable uber nice food experience!
Of course along the way adventures were had.  As we left the house we decided we would just walk down to the Mission and grab a cab.....yeah, not so easy!

In the end we stalked some cab driver who had stopped at a corner store to buy (what we assume) was half a dozen beer....which he did discretely put in the trunk!  Shot of me on the right is lurking outside the store in front of his cab waiting for him to walk out.  Clearly I am gobbing off about "something".  Of course once we did get in the cab the dude drove like a New York cabbie (which isn't exactly necessary in San Fran.....even Irene was prompted to comment and she has a much higher threshold for the crazy than I do!).

Coming home, for reasons that escape me (apart from Irene's natural tendency to want to observe life) we didn't call a cab but waited to hail one....no success.  This prompted us to walk the streets for a little way, in search of a cab, bus or, as it turned out, the subway (BART).  Eyesore of the night had to be the Civic building lit up like some gawdy side show.....what were they thinking?  This is a beautiful stately building that should only ever be discretely lit with white lights - well in my thinking anyway.

BART is always an interesting experience as there are all types and we didn't have to wait long for a train to rock up.  Although it was closer to midnight than not there were still a lot of folk about.  It's all fairly safe and remarkably clean so the ride home and then short walk to home was pleasant enough.



Christmas decorating is well underway with houses being "dressed" for Xmas.  Some more tastefully than others but all with a total enthusiasm for the Xmas spirit.


The "dandy" shot of the night goes to Irene who put on her best Warhol like impression as we prepared to go out!