When Friends Visit

I love when friends visit. Beyond the catching-up and the good times, there's the food. These visits always seem to center around meals, which is especially wonderful when your friend are foodies.

Over the past two weekends, two different friends from high school visited the Bay Area, and they are both foodies. One came from Denver and the other from Hawaii. Both friends had specific food types in mind that they wanted to try, and so I did the asking around for recommendations and Yelp searches.

My Denver friend wanted sushi since he and his wife don't really get fresh fish in Colorado, so we tried Tsunami in the City's Panhandle. Sushi is not a favorite of mine, and I really can't comment fairly on good or bad sushi (I don't care for sashimi), but I think my friend liked it.

My Hawaii friend wanted Italian. Now, Seth and I have a favorite Italian place, but it's in Oakland, and we were meeting in San Francisco. So, I asked around and did more Yelping. Among numerous recommendations in the City, one stood out, E'angelo. The big pluses for me were:

• E'angelo is located in the Marina, and not in North Beach.
  
• It's a hole-in-the-wall.
  
• They make their own pasta.
  

It was quite the nice evening. I was a little worried that we would be rushed out; when I called ahead to inquire about a corkage fee (it's $13), the girl who answered the phone said they turn tables pretty quickly and usually only have a 10-minute wait. But, we weren't rushed in any way, despite the steady stream of customers.

Now for the food. The three of us shared the burrata. It was lovely. The burrata was served with toasted bread, prosciutto and a bruschetta-of-sorts. One friend ordered the eggplant dish, the other ordered the linguini with clams and I had the bolgonese. It was a good. I think it's pretty easy to make a bland bolognese, and this was not bland. Rather, it was hearty and tasty. For dessert we shared the tiramisu and the torta. Both were good desserts, but I am far from being an expert, so I won't expand any further. All in all, E'angelo is the best Italian I have had in the City (Lococo's in Oakland is still my favorite), and I would go back--especially because the staff is so nice and friendly.

It's been fun having friends in town. They give me a good excuse to try new restaurants, and it's always amazing to me how easy it is to slip back into our friendships--it didn't feel like much time had passed between visits. Which is a bit astonishing considering how much time had, especially with my Denver friend.