withdrawal

Yes, I'll admit it: I'm experiencing San Francisco Withdrawal Syndrome. It's tough. And a lot of it has to do with the food. I miss the burrito place down the street. And fabulous Citizen Cake, which has the best brunch. I miss dim sum. Bok Choy Garden. Pizza Orgasmica.

I miss my old neighborhood sushi joint, where the nigiri was cheap, there was a tofu teriyaki rice bowl on the menu (it was my favorite non-sushi item) and the servers knew me -- and gave me a hard time if I stopped in too close to closing time. (One actually asked me why I eat so late. This kind of reminded me of something a family member would say. And strangely, it sort of felt comforting.)

We tried the "best" Japanese restaurant in Petaluma on Friday night. (Note: There are only two Japanese restaurants in all of Petaluma.) Sadly, it was just so-so. The fish was fresh and the sake was good, but prices were high and service was bad. (Our waitress spent at least 15 minutes trying to figure out where the sake glasses were.) I actually went home that night after dinner and felt a little depressed.

Thankfully, I got a nice fix and made trips to the city Saturday, Sunday and Monday and tried all kinds of places -- some new, some newly discovered. We hit up District, a new wine bar near the ballpark (see my photo above). This was its opening weekend, and it was already packed -- the vibe was more like a bar than a wine bar, if you know what I mean. Still, the wine list was great -- lots of interesting flights -- and the service was awesome. I'd go back.

Then it was off to Bong Su for Jessica's birthday dinner. I have to say that I don't understand the hype about this place. I was pretty disappointed, and largely because of the service. We were part of a big group, so we were going to eat family-style, but our server totally skipped over the bf and me, even to the point of leaving our menus on the table after she took everyone else's, so we never got to order any of the entrees we wanted (which is rough since I'm mostly veggie and he's almost always veggie). And basically we hardly ate anything at all for dinner. And paid a nice price for it. (At least I got a glass of Tokaji Aszu at the end of the "meal.")

Luckily, Sunday night's excursion to Powell's Place was redeeming. I am still dreaming about the hushpuppies and black-eyed peas and fried okra. So freaking good. And inexpensive. And we followed the evening with some pool at Family Billiards, which actually has its own parking lot with free parking (totally unheard of in the city).

And I found myself asking: Why, oh why, didn't I find these places earlier?