Starbelly Restaurant

A few weeks ago my friend Ashley and I agreed to start a search for the best pizza in San Francisco. We brought our men with us to 'Starbelly' last night to sample le menu!

In celebration of the upcoming royal wedding, Ashley and I enjoyed a Housemade Pimm's cup. I felt ferry Bri-ish. I didn't bother to photograph Griff and Chris' beer :)

I'm a sucker for cute presentation:

For starters we got 1 order of kalamata olive tapenade with grilled sourdough flatbread, and 1 order of warm bread & olivera olive oil:

Followed by a teeny little order of scallops, which were divine:

Then came the pizza!! Below is the pizza margherita with burrata & basil:

Anything with burrata is almost a guaranteed fave with me. The crust was so thin and light and tastey!

Next was a DELICIOUS pizza with arugula, manchego cheese and prosciutto:

My love of manchego stems from my study abroad days in Spain, so I'm a little biased to this one (although it could've used a litttttle more cheese...). Plus, I'm a huge fan of arugula on pizza, and the prosciutto was a delicious touch.

Of course we spent half the meal talking about other restaurants that we love, and so our list of places to go continues to grow...

Among one recommendation was Humphry Slocombe ice cream. I am an ice cream connaisseur and could not believe I hadn't heard of it before. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw that this very ice cream (and flavor!!) was on the dessert menu! The seasonal flavor is called 'secret breakfast' and is made of bourbon and corn flakes, and is soooo goood:

Last but not least, we sampled a salted caramel pot de crème with rosemary cornmeal cookies:

The cookies were so tasty, something I'd love to re-create, and of course, who can ever pass up salted caramel??

Overall it was a really cute restaurant with a fun vibe and must-try food. Looking forward to the next pizza meal!

Mango Rice Salad with Grilled Shrimp

This meal is by far one of my favorites to make! It is so colorful, tastey, and light! This recipe is of course from Cooking Light.

I always buy the shrimp that you have to peel yourself-I find it kind of fun, and it is a better deal than buying them pre-peeled.

The first step is to combine the following for the shrimp marinade:

-4 tsp curry powder

-1 tbsp minced fresh garlic

-1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger

-1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

-1/8 tsp ground red pepper

-1/8 tsp ground cumin

Throw in the shrimp (1.5 pounds, about 36), cover and chill for an hour in the fridge (yes, make sure you have an extra hour to spare before dinner!)

In the meantime find a willing sous chef to start chopping up the veggies for the rice:

-1.5 cups peeled, diced mango

-1.5 cups diced red bell pepper

-3/4 cup shredded carrot (use a carrot peeler to get a fun texture)

-1/2 cup sliced green onions

-1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

-1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

-2 tbsp fresh lime juice

My sous chef insisted he knew the best way to cut up mango:

At least he was excited about it :)

I used my brand new Santoku knife from my Auntie Di to chop the veggies--I insisted on being the first to use it:

It made chopping a dream! Great knives really make all the difference.

Anyhoo, back to the meal...bring 2 cups of water and 2/3 cup of light coconut milk to a boil and then add the rice (1 and 1/4 cup). Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed.

I decided to use jasmine rice because, well, when I went 'shopping' at my parents house, that is all they had! I also didn't have light coconut milk and to be honest, it sort of does make a difference. After having this meal several times, it felt noticeably more heavy with the regular. Its up to you (but, if you use the light, you can have dessert, right?).

Here is the excitement of waiting for the water and coconut milk boil:

While the rice is cooking and the shrimp is marinating (marinading?), of course be sure to enjoy some bubbly :)

I tried a bottle of 'Pink' that was available at the BevMo 5 cent sale. It did the job.

Once the shrimp is ready its time to grill! I adore my Le Creuset grill pan. The recipe calls for 36 shrimp (feeds 6) and says to thread 3 shrimp each onto 12 skewers. I think thats a little overkill so I just throw them on the pan:

Three minutes on each side and voila:

Add the mango and all the veggies to the rice, stir, add the shrimp, and garnish with cilantro sprig:

And, if there are only 2 of you eating you will have some incredible leftovers:

Enjoy!!