Skip to main content

2015 San Francisco - Day 7 - Afternoon

(Link to all 2015-April San Francisco / Berkeley trip blog posts)

Last day in San Francisco, and my last day of eating. I had already checked off Tartine and all that was left was Scoma's and that odd Mongolian place.

Scoma's proved disappointing, though in part because expectations had been set so high. When I went to Urbanspoon in preparation for writing my review of Scoma's, I couldn't help noticing some reviews from apparently long-time diners: David (2014-Nov-22 "I like changes, but..."), Richardhyppa (2015-Mar-6 "Used to be our favorite"), and Steven Teachout (2015-Jan-19 "A part of San Francisco restaurant lore has vanished").
Which reminds me that sometimes we go to a restaurant and have a great time (or a lousy one), and we carry that experience with us as if restaurants will never change.
But like people -- because they are run by people -- restaurants do change.
So when you read reviews or get recommendations, be aware and maybe dump everything that is over a year old because it's very possibly not reliable anymore.
Is change fair?
Scoma's sounds like they had a good formula and stuck to it for a long time. And when that familiarity was lost, so was the comfort that it provided. Is it fair for David to complain about broccoli and cauliflower being replaced by seasonal vegetables? That his beloved Shellfish Saute Sec had also been tampered with?
People obviously won't always stay the same, nor will their changes always be to your liking. But when they change what you liked about them -- and especially what was good about them -- then what? Simply agree to disagree?

Got to Let's Jam at 1:30 PM, and it was true! Mongolian food for the asking. Sadly they did not have banshtai tsai, which they described as dumplings in milk soup and which was far and away the most interesting thing that the Mongolian girl I met after Kirtan on Saturday wrote down in my diary. Everything else was sort of boring-sounding, including borsh, which was basically like Russian borscht. I ended up with a light lunch of ice chai tea latte with soy milk and a half order of three banshtai shol (deep-fried dumplings) for a mere $10.

My Berkeley friend called me while I was at Let's Jam to check in on me and sort out my final plans. I had borrowed a mug from her (to avoid wasting the individually-wrapped paper cups at the Golden Bear Inn) and too many mandarin oranges left over, so I wanted to return those. She was spending the afternoon with other parents, babysitting at "junkyard park" (Adventure Playground) and the playground at the Berkeley Marina. No problem, I'd meet her there, but if I didn't show up by 5 PM when she had to leave, then could she meet me at the Inn?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Melissa Gaines and her blurry sexy pics

Oh boy! I had no sooner finished posting about the lovely Taylor Burch responding to my personals ad on Craigslist when Melissa Gaines (e-mailing from erikmcclure858@yahoo.com) mailed me a couple more pictures of her lithe body and selling her profile on the same looks-like-a-phishing-scam site (http://craigslistsafe.net/profiles/melx3/). One of them was an NSFW naked-breasts pic which I haven't posted here (sorry -- but honestly, nothing to write home about, especially with the serious bikini tan lines). Here's the e-mail exchange: Melissa e-mail #1 Here is my picture as attached. Please e-mail me details what you are looking for along with your pictures. Thanks and waiting to hear from you soon. Melissa e-mail #2 hey thanks for getting back to me we should definitely meetup sometime... if youre interested of course :) a couple things i should set straight though: 1 we use condoms 2 you join a dating site that I belong to safedates no worries though its fr

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.