Godzilla Sushi Khoon Chang El Burrito Express
Vida started basketball at the JCC a several weeks ago. For once she was completely excited and willing to go an extracurricular activity I had planned for her. Rara is equally excited. You could say we were waiting for this moment since she was tiny. Although Vida refuses to try and shoot hoops in the adult sized hoop she has developed into a good dribbler. She showed up for practice ready to show what she knew.
The first practice was extremely cute. She bonded quickly to her cool kid college student coach, Aaron. The girls vary in ability but most have a passable dribble. They worked on playing defense and Vida took the concept to heart continuing to be on her “man” even when her team had the ball. I was happy to see her taking a few shots on the lowered kids size hoop. There was one girl from her soccer team that she knew so she wasn’t feeling as shy as she was when she started soccer. After practice we planned to go out for dinner to celebrate. Vida requested sushi. We thought that we would go to Godzilla Sushi on Divisidero since it was on the way back home. Godzilla Sushi was probably one of the earliest trendy San Francisco sushi restaurants and we had high expectations.
By 6 o’clock after soccer practice Vida has pretty much had it. Our meal started with soy sauce spilling and arguments over soda. Godzilla Sushi is more a place for real sushi enthusiasts meaning lots of raw options and not much in the inauthentic but delicious roll category. Vida has been really into grilled salmon cheek but at Godzilla they let us know that it would take 20 minutes to prepare. Things would definitely fall apart if we had to wait that long. Vida has started to tire of avocado rolls and look toward more interesting things. I ordered a shrimp tempura roll that she declined. I had a bit more success with a California roll. Interestingly she was most interested in Rara’s tamago nigiri. Rara ordered some overly challenging raw fish nigiri. All of us felt limited by the choices and none of us were quite satisfied.
Driving down Divisidero each week my eyes are always drawn to the Thai restaurant Khoon Chang. Rara used to live around the corner from the place and had fond memories of the food. We had always meant to go together but it has taken over 10 years to make it in the door. I always thought the place would close before we made it. But, the following week of basketball practice we found ourselves actually going there. Going out to eat so early in the evening is good since places are barely full and we don’t have to worry so much about Vida drinking water with a spoon and clinking the ice in her glass. The temptation to run around the empty restaurant does sometimes become a problem though. Rara pulled out her calendar for Vida to draw in, one of her most successful distractions.
The dish Rara really wanted to eat again was a sweet and sour tofu. We ordered that along with veggie pad thai, veggie fried rice and a coconut soup. All the dishes came with lots of well prepared vegetables. I thought the tofu dish was delicious and I think it lived up to Rara’s memory of it. Vida ate the entire plate of fried rice. I spent much of the meal fielding phone calls from work about a fast dripping leak in the ceiling. Once the fire department and the landlord were called I decided that it was out of my hands and put the phone away.
The following week Rara decided not to come with us to practice. The near meltdowns between practice and dinner kind of stress me out so a quick and tasty burrito joint was in order. A couple of days earlier Rara had driven with me to a pre-natal appointment and taken a walk while I was inside. She had a snack at El Burrito Express on Divisidero. She saved me some and I was fairly impressed with the bean and spicy salsa burrito. I thought this should be our next post-basketball destination. Vida and I were going back and forth between whether we should eat at the restaurant or take it home. I was so hungry I didn’t think I could wait to get home but as soon as we walked in and took in the fake brick, ragged plants and tiny eclectic table selection we quickly decided to go was the best option. The menu was extensive as far as the meat burritos were concerned. I don’t really eat meat at burrito joints but if I did they sounded good. I didn’t see much special in the vegetarian category so I ordered Vida’s rice and bean burrito and asked if they had a “super” vegetarian burrito. The woman behind the counter was borderline surly so I didn’t ask any more questions but assumed that it would be the usual sourcream, cheese and guacamole filled burrito that counts as “super” everywhere else. They gave us each plastic sandwich bags of chips that were mostly consumed in the car on the way back.
When we got home and sat down in front of “Totally Spies” to collapse and eat Vida was a little bummed out that my burrito was so much larger than hers. I tried to explain that it had stuff in it that she didn’t like but as soon as I cut into it I realized that they had just made me a bigger rice and bean burrito. It was exactly the same as hers just larger. The burritos were tasty enough-- mine didn’t have the usual anemic salsa because there was no salsa at all. Luckily I had asked for a side of salsa and she threw (and I mean that literally) some delicious spicy and slightly tart red salsa into the bag. We were so hungry the burritos could have been made out of cardboard and we probably would have eaten them anyway. I definitely wouldn’t go out of my way to visit El Burrito Express again since there are so many other marginal burrito places around.
Restaurant Total: 224
