food trippin' in the bay area, part 2

okay, so where did we stop? okay, moonstar.

lunch the next day was at ppq dungeness island, along clement street in downtown san francisco. it's a vietnamese restaurant specializing in roasted crab.

here's what we had --

green papaya salad, a tasty salad made out of shredded raw papaya with peanuts and some beef. it was okay. not a big papaya fan.

steamed seabass, which i was not able to taste at all. there were 7 of us and four of them do not eat crabs (for one reason or another). do the math. 3 of us divided the 2 yummy crabs amongst ourselves, and let the seabass and chicken to the non-crab eaters. why we did we eat there in the first place? first off, we didn't know that the 4 people in our group didn;t eat crabs. hahaha. so much for asking.second, their garlic noodles was rumored to be goood.

crab 1 in creamy white sauce. not a big fan of crabs (i find it messy, eating it, i mean) but i had to eat some anyway.

crab 2 bathed and smothered in garlic. yum.

the resto's garlic noodles. i didn't like it as much as i would have loved to. crustacean's garlic noodles win by a mile and a half.

dinnertime six hours later. off to san bruno to dine in one of the city's newest restaurants. welcome to tribu grill.


had some appetizers: this one's my manila favorite - salpicao. didn't match my favorite - dulcinea's salpicao. maybe they sliced the beef in very small cubes. or maybe i didn't taste a lot of evoo. don't get me wrong, the taste was decent, not just the salpicao i was looking for.

this is where i miss italianni's. at tribu, they have a dalandan slush. it was very good, i loved it. i miss the shake and the plain dalandan juice at italianni's though.

one of a kind dessert - the frozen brazo de mercedes. if you think it is a frozen brazo de mercedes, think again. it's just graham crackers (for the crust), vanilla ice cream, caramel custard and cream, burnt a bit to simulate the look of a brazo. it's sinfully good, and original. i think.

the restaurant's specialty of the house: binagoongan fried rice, in an orgy of colors. i loved the presentation, i loved the taste, i loved the entire concept. the yellow-greenish mango, the red tomatoes, the brown binagoongan and the yellow scrambled egg. it's a must-taste when you're at tribu!

[ppq dungeness crab is located at 2232 clement @ 25th avenue in san francisco. call 415.386-8266 for details | tribu filipino grill is located at 235 el camino real in san bruno. call 650.872-8851]