BEEN THERE, ATE THAT: WEEK OF JANUARY 13 - JANUARY 19

Hello and Happy 2014! We know we've been a bit MIA these past few weeks but we're happy to be back with our weekly Been There, Ate That column.  This past week was a bit slow as we're just getting back into the swing of things but we're looking forward to a delicious 2014!

Bite of the Week: Coffee cracker with chicken liver and manischewitz gelee by Wise Sons at the Good Food Awards.

Thursday: Good Food Awards
For those of you not familiar with the Good Food Awards I'll share a brief description found on their website. "The Good Food Awards were created through a collaboration of food producers, farmers, food journalists and independent grocers organized by Seedling Projects. This team nominates judges from across the country to select over 100 winners from 5 regions of the country that are then honored at a special ceremony in San Francisco in January."

After the awards were finished we were able to enjoy some of the fabulous food at the reception. Each restaurant serving food incorporated one of the winners into their dish. Tacolicious was there with some amazing lamb albondigas featuring Kelly's habanero pepper jelly glaze, cumin scented black bean puree and pickled red onion, fennel and cilantro.  Wise Sons was also there and ended up serving what became my favorite bite of the week, a coffee cracker (unfortunately I didn't get the name of the coffee purveyor) with chicken liver and manischewitz gelee.

Friday: ICHI Sushi 
ICHI Sushi is one of those places that has been on my must try list for about a year now. The only issue is that every time we tried to go, there was an hour plus wait; and if you know me, you know I hate to wait at restaurants. Luckily, in December they started taking reservations (yay!!!), so I of course made a reservation immediately. I wanted to wait until my sister was in town because she's been dying to go as well and well, I don't know many people who like sushi as much as she does (she told me last night if she had to eat one food for the rest of her life it would be sushi).

Upon arriving we didn't even bother to look at the menu. I'm sure it's great but we had decided ahead of time that if we were going to ICHI we were doing Omakase. We sat at the bar and had a fantastic meal. The sushi was fresh, exciting and unique. The service was also great, with some unexpected twists and turns; there was a short power outage at one point during our meal.  In the end we ate about 20 pieces each...like I said we really love our sushi!

If you haven't been to ICHI and love (or even just like) sushi, I highly recommend adding it to your list immediately. I'm already planning my next visit and I look forward to seeing what their new location, opening this year, brings!

Dessert: Mitchell's Ice Cream
After 20 pieces of sushi you'd think we had no room for dessert, but you're wrong (that's why we're the Dessert Pocket!). One thing about San Francisco is that we have great ice cream shops, but like Mitchell's, most of them are on the opposite side of town from me. So, whenever we go anywhere in the vicinity of the Mission I always make a point to save room for ice cream.

Established in 1953, Mitchell's is one of San Francisco's most classic ice cream joints and with over 40 flavors to choose from, picking just one is never easy. This time I decided to try something new and went with the Kahlua Mocha Cream.  Rich yet creamy this flavor is a must try, even if it's just a sample! If you've never made the trip to Mitchell's I highly recommend adding it to your list, who knows maybe you'll even make it a sushi ice cream night like we did!

Tip: Make a reservation at ICHI, this way you don't have to wait for an extended amount of time. If possible, ask to sit at the counter, great service, great view and great recommendations from the masters!