Gastro Monkey // 美食家

I love it when my friends introduce me to something new that I haven't tried before. In college, when I was teaching, I met a girl from Shanghai who loved food too. We went around eating. Most of the time it was me sharing places to eat. She was so excited when she finally showed me someplace new - and that was Creations Dessert House. That had to be over ten years ago now. Since then, I have gone there when I am craving some mango or watermelon smoothies. These watermelon smoothies are fresh watermelon blended rather than a powder with milk and sugar. Also, they have a ton of fresh mangoes. Sometimes it isn't ripe enough and it's not super sweet, but it's still fresh. Their drinks and desserts are very refreshing.  In case you are hungry, they also serve hot food/snacks. I can't attest to the quality of it, but I have seen employees in the back folding dumplings before. They also have a bathroom which can be a commodity in certain parts of San Francisco. ...

I actually shot a wedding at this restaurant before and loved how good it was. I made a mental note to come back some day and eat here again. A few years later, I finally made it for dim sum (when your "To-Eat" list is as long as mine, it really takes a while!). We had a great seat with a view of the city. We got there around 10:30 on a Saturday so there was still plenty of parking close by and a fair amount of seats with unobstructed views. You have a choice of ordering from their dim sum menu, or their regular lunch menu. It was hard to choose. We picked some things that we regularly would order (chicken feet, pork ribs, shrimpy items), along with some specialties (pea leaf, Japanese crab). Most of the items we ordered were amazing. I loved the pea leaf and abalone. The abalone, as always, was tender and flavorful. I think a few of the pea leaf stems were older (read: harder) but still good. I loved the radish cakes (also called daikon cakes, everyone has their pre...