Advice you can taste. Adventure you can feel.

3 Activities for a Cold & Wet 3 Day Weekend

Cold wet weekends in San Francisco are never fun… especially a three day one and on-top of that one with the big “L word” day smack in the middle of it. So what are you going to do this weekend? Do you have your Valentine’s Day plan together? Perhaps Weotta can help…

Museum hopping with a bit of Burmese

We have some pretty fantastic museums in SF and rainy weekends are the perfect time to do some museum hopping. One of our favorite combos is to start out with the DeYoung and end up at the Legion of Honor. Not only because one ticket gets you into both, but because they really are an ideal pairing of taste and style. Plus, if you go to the Legion of Honor right before closing on Saturday, you may get to hear them playing the organ; it fills every hall, bringing the artwork to life in an amazing way. Afterwards, continue your day of art and culture with a bite of Burmese food at nearby Mandalay or Burma Superstar. For those that haven’t had Burmese, it is like a combo of Indian and Thai, but with its own unique flavor. Some of our favorite dishes are fermented tea leaf salad, samusas soup and curry lamb. Both restaurants do a nice job, aren’t expensive, and are pretty much on the same level, but they are almost always packed. Don’t know what it is about SF residents, but we love our Burmese food. If you still have energy afterwards and it isn’t raining too hard head over to Sutro’s at the Cliff House to watch the rough seas . Last minute V-day addition: Get some flowers in there, dress a little nicer, and go to B-star (slightly upscale Burmese place). After dinner head to Nopa for cocktails and dessert, a 5 min cab ride away. They do amazing mixed drinks, always have great wines by the glass and fantastic unique deserts. Get a gin drink with caprock gin and checkout their sopaipillas (kind of a fancy donut… perfect for cold weather) .

Tahoe

Cold rain in SF usually means lots of snow in Tahoe… so you could get out of town, fight the crowds and the weather, and hit the slopes at Heavenly, Squaw Valley or Kirkwood. Last minute V-day addition: Get a nice bottle of red wine, some fine dark chocolate and a fire can go a long way after an exhausting day in the snow.

Takeout extravaganza

Hunker down (ever wonder what Hunker means?) and have a different type of takeout… pizza, Thai, Chinese, and perhaps sushi each night of the three day weekend. At least do Thai… both Basil Thai and Chai-Yo are good choices. This is the perfect opportunity to snuggle up in front of the tube for some mind-numbing entertainment. Try not to spend the whole day indoors… at least walk out to the restaurant.  Last minute V-day addition: Forget about takeout and cook together Saturday night… experiment and try something new. Perhaps wild mushroom and asparagus risotto or French onion soup with sourdough… both good, cold weather classy foods. Top this off with a nice Syrah and you are good to go. If you want to add a little something sweet touch to the evening with some adult hot cocoa.

Hope this helps you get through this long perhaps quite rainy weekend with a smile

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Weotta team!

Good Eats a Way of Life

Here at Weotta we are extremely passionate about food.   We love to cook. We love to go out. We love good eats.

When we cook, we enjoy making dishes to share with our friends. We have been known to make copious amounts of creamy shrimp risotto, succulent buffalo steaks with halloumi cheese and, always, tons of fresh greens and fruit.

When we go out we like going out for things we don’t make at home, like Persian or Burmese food.  In SF, Lavash (Irving @ 6th Ave) is a great choice for Persian food. They have amazing kebabs, and you have try Kashk-e Bademjan — I’ll bet you’ve never had eggplant that tastes so good. Burma Superstar (Clement @ 4th Ave) is also quite fun, although usually the wait is ridiculous. If you can bear the wait, the tea leaf salad is quite the unique sensation.. We also like going out for unique experiences: five-course dinners at a high-end place like Gary Danko (North point @ Hyde St) or northeastern- style lobster rolls, oysters and chowder at Woodhouse Fish Company (Market @ 14th St).

Of course, we don’t go out all the time, just as do we don’t cook elaborate dishes every day. But we do strive for good value and good eats. And making good eats is something you can do, too. Really, it’s not that hard, and doesn’t take much time or cost a lot. Take pasta — If you’re out of college, it’s time to put down the Raman Noodles. We’re talking about real Italian pasta with homemade sauce in under 30 minutes, including cleanup. Checkout Chez Pim’s 15-minute sauce — It’simple and tasty. Or how about steak? Steak is always one of the most expensive things on the menu when we go out, and it is rarely worth our $$$. It really is simple to make an amazing steak at home at fraction of the price — and you don’t even need to fire up the grill. Just ask “Good Eats” expert Alton Brown.

Know your Steak [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KrjeJDNKUA]

Make your steak in 15min [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQ0VOJmCbg]

So this holiday season, when you want an evening out with friends or family, try going out for something a little different. And when you do go out, make a point to ask yourself, “Is this something I could make at home?” If so, invite a few friends over, get some good wine and try your hand at some new dishes… And if you need help figuring out where to go or what to cook, feel free to ping us for some tips .

What are some of your favorite easy-but-classy recipes?

Good eats – good friends – Weotta do it!