Welcome to the Year of the Tiger!

(Dancing tiger of Post St.)

This past weekend I went to the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade with my friend Kristin. The parade runs through downtown San Francisco and brings spectators from all walks of life. Thousands of people gathered in Union Square and set up camp on Post and Kearny to get the best view. Kristin and I made our way through the crowds and patiently waited for a good spot to open up. We ended up in the middle of Kearny behind a group of squatting kids and beside us a group of late 20-early 30 somethings drinking Heinekens.

We watched the boring politicians drive by and ooh-ed and ahhh-ed at the brightly colored floats. What I liked most was of course the dragons and lions but also the dancing elementary school children dressed in red envelope and tiger costumes! They were so excited to be part of the parade and kept bouncing around even after walking and waving for 2 hours!

After the parade, we met up with Jseid and headed over to Pomelo in the Noe Valley district. The menu had a mix of everything but the restaurant claims it's primarily Asian Fusion. I ordered the Lanzhou which had fresh egg noodles(more like udon noodles) stir fried with ginger, scallion and garlic topped with peppered ahi tuna, seared rare and drizzled with a miso-sesame sauce. The dish was great but it lacked any kind of vegetable!

Kseid had the Otsu which had cold buckwheat noodles with cucumber, scallion, cilantro and a spicy soy, ginger & sesame dressing, topped with pan sautéed tofu. The dish was just okay in my opinion (see post below for a better recipe ;) ).

Jseid had the Mazantol which was basically a spicy tofu sisig with chile peppers, garlic, red onion, soy sauce and lemon. The flavors were strong but delicious! Jessica got it right when she asked for a side of rice since the flavor of the tofu in the sauce could have been a bit much by itself.

Overall Pomelo had a nice living room ambiance to it with it's low lighting and small amount of space. I would recommend this as a great date spot as long as it's not too busy(we could definitely hear the intense conversation the couple next to us was having ha!). The server was nice enough and the servings were pretty large. I could tell the ingredients were fresh and also love the fact that the menu changes seasonally.

Saturday was just another reminder of why I love San Francisco.