Food Fiends Fantasy Time.
I am one lucky little travelling laydee, with all these great people looking out for me round the globe. Herein lies the story of the perfect end to my perfect visit to sunny California.
On my final evening in San Francisco my friend Tim treated me to dinner out in The House, the asian fusion restaurant du jour.
(Check out the website if you're interested: www.thehse.com )
For those who can't be bothered to check out the site, sit back relax and enjoy the virtual gastronomic ride I will do my best to take you on. Let's hope I do the meal some sense of justice.
Malheureusement we didn't take photos, because each dish was a visual masterpiece which would have prettified my photo collection (my atrocious photography skills aside). Nevertheless.

We arrived 3 minutes after our 8pm booking, just in the nick of time to catch our table before it was whisked away to the next, eagerly slavering, couple. This was a competitive food situation.

Once safely seated however, this was the sort of place where you made friends iwth your neighbours, as each table eyes the others' order droolingly, berating themselves for their choice of course, and fretting about whether it's the ideal one.
I was suffering from serious food envy, not helped by the fact that I was sitting facing the area where each fresh steaming concoction emerged from the kitchen. It was like exquisite torture.

Warm Up
2 x shotglasses of sake (a failsafe way of making me even more verbose and enthusiastic than normal)
Starter
(me) Deep Fried Salmon Roll with Chinese Hot Mustard
Tender tubes of salmon, a smidgen of wasabi coating, and wrapped in seaweed and deep fried, gently steaming the fish. Served with an asian coleslaw of finely sliced red and green peppers, red cabbage, carrots and coriander with a sesame seed/oil sauce. Searingly hot mustard and miso dipping sauce. I have never been quite so determined that the delights of a dish would not come to an end. Sadly, eternal salmon was not to be, and we polished the plate off between us.
5*

(Tim) Steamed Calamari in a Roasted Tomato Sauce
Tiny delicate steamed baby squid in a rich, tasty almost spicy tomato sauce.

Main
(me) Grilled Sea Bass with garlic ginger soy
Butter-like flakes of chargrilled bass dipped into a garlicky piquant rich soy sauce. Rich sesame udon noodles with beautifully al dente green beans. I died a little bit and went to heaven. (But then made sure I came back to try Tim's main, obviously).

(Tim) Grilled rare Ahi Tuna with mustard ailioli sauce
A tower of tuna-tastic seared sashimi, surrounded by delicious drizzles of mustard garlic sauce.

Dessert
(/two) Rich chocolate truffle tart with home-made coffee icecream and caramel sauce

I laughed as the table next to us received their shared desserts and proceeded to go into tortured extasies over every mouthful of every plate. At least I know there are similar souls out there!

We left the restaurant on a jubilant high and the mutual agreement that it was a 'darn good foody find'. And with Tim ranting and raving like a madman about how he was going to try each and every dish, and probably not visit any other restaurants in his one-year stint in San Fran. I thought this was slightly extreme, but deep down inside of course I was wildly jealous...