Minty Choco Chip

2009-04-25T10:44:00.002-07:00

BURGERMEISTER

Burgermeister is a small local chain of burger shops in SF, that's actually pretty popular. And I have eaten here before. However, it was last year right after we'd completed that AIDS walk, and I was so tired that I was in no mood to take pictures of food and write about them later.

However, on a rare visit to SF, we were in the Haight and decided to head to the Burgermeister in Cole Valley since Tom had never been there before. The thing with Burgermeister is that they give you a lot of options to customize your own burger. The bad thing is that they're pretty expensive - the most basic burger starts at $9. You can expect to spend around $12-$15 for a burger.

So on this visit, I went with a California burger- turkey patty with cheddar and avocados. I also like putting BBQ sauce on it. And it came with a side of very delicious curly fries.

Meanwhile, Tom went all out and got his burger topped with chili and cheddar. He got a side of their sweet potato fries, which I also like. And he did enjoy his burger (though he didn't think it was the best burger he'd ever had).

I admit that I do like going to Burgermeister for all the customization and options. And they do use great, fresh ingredients, and the make the fries fresh, so they're always super hot and crispy. However, the price is a deterrant for me. A meal here always costs around slightly under $20, and we're talking about burgers, fries and a soda. So really, it's more of a yearly thing for me - good thing it's located in SF.

2009-04-25T10:44:00.001-07:00

CUGINIS, SOLANO AVE.

We're not exactly new residents to the Bay Area - we have lived here for almost 2 years now. We have our favorite places that we like to eat at, but what I like is that there are still a lot of restaurants for us to explore. So on one random evening when I totally didn't feel like cooking, we decided to check out Cugini on Solano Ave. Now, we'd driven or walked by this place a number of times (it's down the street from Kitty's vet) and what appealed to me is that they had a wood burning oven.

So to start off with, I had a salad - just a simple mixed green salad. I thought it was fresh and pretty tasty. Plus it wasn't too expensive.

Meanwhile, I think I got a pasta for my entree, but now I don't remember what it was and apparently I didn't take photos of it. So given that I've forgotten it, I can conclude that it was fine, but not memorable.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered a pizza.

I did try a slice of his pizza. But again, it was fine, and not that memorable.

I can see why people would eat here. It's moderately price, the food is fine and if you live nearby it's really convenient to just walk here. I don't think we'd go out of our way to eat here again - there are plenty of other options that we enjoy more on Solano Ave., but I truly have no strong opinions about this place - it's just fine.

2009-04-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

TARA'S ORGANIC ICE CREAM

Wow. This is shocking, but it looks like I may actually be finishing up the posts that I had uploaded in April. And, I still have a ton of photos to upload and post about, especially from our recent trip to Seattle. It'll just have to wait until after we move into our new house this weekend. But onto the post.

A few months ago (actually, right after we got engaged as I recall), we had brunch and ice cream with a big group of our friends. We started off with brunch at the Thai Temple, and afterwards we headed down to Tara's Organic Ice Cream. I had heard about Tara's before, but none of us had ever tried it. Turns out it's just a few blocks from Wood Tavern.

So when we walked in, the place was totally empty, with only one employee to help us. I think she was pretty surprised when the giant group of us all walked in together and started staring at the case:

The case was set up like a gelato case (but of course, they were serving ice cream).

There were some interesting flavors, but I'm a traditionalist when it comes to dessert, especially if I'm trying a new place. I went with chocolate, in a sesame seed waffle cone.

What I really liked was that sesame seed cone. The ice cream was pretty good, not as intensely chocolatey as I normally like, but tasty, but that cone was really the best part. It was almost like those waffle cookies that you can get at Japanese grocery stores.

Here's Tom's allspice ice cream. He liked it, though I was not a fan.

Overall we had a fun experience here. I wouldn't say it's worth going out there just for ice cream (it's not like Sketch), but if I'm in the neighborhood and don't want to pay for dessert at Wood Tavern, I certainly wouldn't mind stopping by here for a quick cone.

2009-04-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

BOSTON: DAY 2

Part of the reason why you're not going to see a lot of food places on this recent trip to Boston is that we went to a lot of our old favorites that I blogged about when I lived in Boston - India Quality, Clear Flour Bakery, Shabu Zen, etc. But I did manage to try a couple of new places. First up, the Natural Bean Coffee Company.

As Leah and I wandered down Newbury Street in the pouring rain, we spotted this new coffee place and decided to check it out. (Uhm, did I mention the large sign outside offering free coffee? And did I mention the pouring rain?) We stepped into this basement space to find a very hip, modern coffee shop. And their whole thing is to have organic, natural coffee, and compostable cups, and stuff like that. We both ordered free coffees and took them to the tiny seating area in the back to enjoy it.

The seating area only holds 3 tables, but it's quiet and was a nice place to take a break from the rain. Of course, all the compostable utensils, the bins to separate compost, recycling and trash - they're all things we see on a routine basis in the Bay Area. But I guess it's new to Boston, and if it encourages other businesses to do the same thing, I think that'd be great.

My second new food experience took place later that night. It seems that a Bon Chon Chicken has opened in Boston. Or rather, they're selling Bon Chon chicken at a lounge in Brighton. For those of you who don't know, Bon Chon Chicken is a Korean fried chicken chain with locations in NY. I'd heard of their chicken before, but never tried it. Of course, my friends had already tried it and were raving about it. So despite having stuffed ourselves on shabu, they insisted on order a take out order to chicken just so we could try it.

We ended up taking the chicken over to the Super 88 food court, cause there was seating there. The packaging was quite fancy:

And here's the chicken. It really was pretty good. Crunchy, sweet, a littly spicy. I definitely saw the appeal. And I liked the little tub on pickled daikon that it came with. I think I ate more of that than the chicken.

So we had additional good eating experiences in Boston and I look forward to having more Bon Chon chicken in the future.

2009-04-25T10:42:00.002-07:00

BOSTON: DAY 1

Ok, so you all know that I'm engaged. And this is the meal that I had prior to being proposed to. Now, this wasn't the meal that we were supposed to have. I was supposed to have flown into Boston on a red eye to land early Sunday morning. And I made reservations at Craigie on Main - it's a restaurant that I never made it to while living in Boston, and with it's relocation to Central Square, I really had no reason not to go. Except my flight got cancelled. So I didn't land until 8:30pm on Sunday, so we didn't have dinner at Craigie on Main. Instead, we went back to the hotel we were stay at (the Hotel Marlowe in Lechmere) and went to the hotel's restaurant, which happens to be Bambara.

When I was living in Boston, Bambara had just opened and it was a pretty popular spot. But I never went. On the evening we went in Boston, it was pretty late, and the restaurant was fairly empty. All I really wanted was a quick bite before going to bed, and this was more than I really wanted to spend on dinner, but oh well, I was tired and didn't care.

So first we got some rolls with butter:

Then, I got some mini lobster rolls (hey, I was in Boston. I had to eat lobster at least once!) Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of them, but there were 3 mini lobster rolls on a plate, served on toasted brioche buns. They were really good. So good that I ate all of them and forgot to share one with Tom.

For my entree I got a seafood risotto with aspargus and some nice big prawns on top.

It was very good, but kinda heavy and full of butter. I didn't end up finishing the whole thing. The other thing I thought was really good were the fries (they come with Tom's steak frites).

These were well cooked, crispy and they had a nice touch of fresh rosemary. I like them a lot.

Service was uneven, though. It was a big, empty restaurant with not a lot of staff, so when we brought the wrong bill, Tom had to get up and find someone to get the right one. (we would've gladly paid the wrong bill, it was 1/3 of what our bill was). Overall we had a nice dinner there. It was on the expensive side, but I wouldn't mind eating there again, as long as someone else is paying.

2009-04-25T10:42:00.001-07:00

SHAN DONG RESTAURANT, OAKLAND

Tom and I still don't have Oakland Chinatown totally figured out. We haven't had the best meals there and aren't quite sure where to go. Plus, everyone speaks Cantonese, which means mu Mandarin is pretty useless there. Luckily, we decided to meet up with our friends who've spent plenty of time there, and they took us to one of their favorite spots, the Shan Dong Restaurant.

Now, this is one of the random restaurants off a main street in Oakland Chinatown that you'll never go into unless someone takes you. When we arrived, it was pretty full, but we were able to grab a table. So this place is known for it's noodles and dumplings, and that's exactly what we ordered. You can even get homemade noodles for $1 more, but my friend said it's pretty much the same, and not worth spend the extra $1.

So here's what we got. This is the sesame noodle.

It's made with really nice fresh noodles, a sesame sauce, chilis and sauteed veggies. It's actually quite tasty (I'm kinda craving it now). Plus, you can get it with pork if you want. We also got a scallion pancake:

Which was pretty good. And finally, I got a plate of dumplings:

It's really nice that they even offered an option for chicken dumplings. I don't know if I've actually seen that in another restaurant. And they were pretty good. The skins were kinda thick, but the filling was pretty tasty. Overall our lunch there was quite good, and I think we didn't spend too much money there. And the best thing is now I know a restaurant to eat at when I'm hungry and in Chinatown.

2009-04-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

PORTLAND: DAY 3

Our third day in Portland was a casual day for us to just wander the city and check things out in the downtown area. We started off with breakfast at the edge of the Pearl district at a place called the Byways Cafe.

It's a pretty normal looking diner, but apparently, it's very popular with the locals on the weekends. Luckily, it was a Monday morning, so the restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived.

We grabbed a booth, looked over the menus and checked out the funny collectibles in the glass cases that lined the walls. Pretty soon our food arrived. Tom got the sunrise special: One egg, two strips of thick-cut bacon and three fluffy buttermilk pancakes served with pure maple syrup. (actually, he got blue corn pancakes instead of buttermilk, cause that's what they're known for). Here's a photo:

I must say the blue corn pancakes were pretty tasty. And the portion was huge. Pretty good for $8.75. Meanwhile, I got a much smaller breakfast, just a basic breakfast with two large farm fresh eggs served your way with home-fried red potatoes and toast and I got it with a chicken sausage.

The eggs were well cooked, the potatoes were tasty and for $8, it was a pretty good deal for breakfast.

After stuffing ourselves, we wandered about the city, made a second trip to Voodoo Donuts and finally headed home. It's really a cute town - I could imagine myself living there if I had to, and I would have plenty of places to eat. Now if only it didn't rain so much....

2009-04-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

PORTLAND: DAY 2

Our second day in Portland was another rainy day. Luckily, it didn't rain as steadily as our previous day, and it did eventually let up. We started our day with a breakfast at Brail's a local favorite diner, run by a Korean family (funny that our favorite diner at home is also run by Koreans.)

This place has your pretty average breakfast foods, but some with a twist. For example, below my breakfast looks like a regular omlette, but it's actually filled with chicken teriyaki. And it was yummy (so were those hash browns, look how nice and golden they are). My friends ordered spicy pork omlettes (I don't remember what Tom got).

Breakfast also came with a biscuit on the side. Now normally, I love biscuits, but this one was just a bit too undercooked for my taste. Overall, I really liked this place. If I lived in Eugene, I'd totally be a regular.

After breakfast, we wandered around a park, and then my friend Jess insisted on taking me to Sweet Life - a dessert place in Eugene.

This place had cases full of pastries, and because it's Eugene, there were a lot of vegan, dairy free, egg free, flour free, etc etc type options.

I just got a slice of chocolate cake, which I shared with Tom.

It was fine. But more importantly, how can Eugene have a dessert bar, and there's still not one in the East Bay??

Afterwards, we headed back in to Portland and spent the afternoon walking around the Portland Zoo. After a few ours, we were finally hungry enough to head out to dinner and this time, we checked out the eastern part of Portland. At first I had wanted to visit a well regarded Thai restaurant, but when we went and figured out it was closed on Sunday, we headed to my backup restaurant called the Screen Door. Basically, they serve Southern cuisine using local, organic ingredients. Even though we showed up pretty early, the place was already packed when we arrived.

I really liked the setting, lots of light woods, and big windows. The menu itself is pretty small, but the portions are not. We started off with two appetizers. The first was okra:

Now, I'm not a huge fan of okra, (Tom ordered these) but doesn't frying make everything better? Plus, these had a born meal batter and came with a spicy mayo type sauce. They were pretty good.

More to my liking were the hushpuppies:

These were quite tasty, though kinda dense, and I knew I had a good amount of food coming, so I only had one. So for my dinner, I picked a meal composed of three sides. Here you see mac and cheese, coleslaw and a cauliflower gratin and it came with corn bread (hey, at least it was all vegetarian!)
Now, that mac and cheese was pretty amazing. Actually, I really enjoyed all my dishes. The only thing is that it was all so heavy. I barely made a dent in the mac and cheese before I was stuffed.

Meanwhile, Tom got Jess' fiancee both ordered brisket:

Tom said it was really good, since it just fell apart when he cut into it (just like good brisket is supposed to). At this point in the meal, we were all stuffed, but I just have to order dessert when I go to restaurants like this. So I got the peanut butter pie for us all to share:

As you can see, there's a chocolate cookie crust, peanut mousse stuff and unsweetened whipped cream. It was really rich and delicious. I just couldn't eat more than a few bites.

We really did have better meals on our second day in Oregon. I'm actually a big fan of the Swing Door and hope they open an outpost here in the East Bay.

2009-04-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

PORTLAND DAY 1:

The beginning of our crazy month really started with our trip to Portland. (not that we had planned it that way) The trip was planned as a casual trip - neither of us had ever been to Oregon, and I wanted to visit my good friend, Jess, and meet her fiancee. And more importantly, tickets on Alaska Airlines were super cheap.

So we left on the first flight out from Oakland (aka the cheapest flight) and landed in Portland super early in the morning. Now, my friend Jess actually lives in Eugene, which is 2 hours from Portland, so she wasn't able to pick us up from the airport and since I knew we have a couple of hours to burn while we were waiting for her, I planned some places to visit while waiting to meet up with her.

It was raining when we arrived, so it was nice to duck into Pearl Bakery, a well known spot located in the Pearl District of Portland. The space is huge - probably a converted warehouse, like many things in the Pearl District, with 20 ft ceilings. Though most of the space was taken up by the production area, there was a small seating section in front, filled with locals. We were able to grab a table for two, and ordered a few pastries and coffee for breakfast. Here's the line of locals waiting to order:

Here are two of the things we ordered. Tom got the plain croissant, I got the apricot danish.

Then I got a chocolate croissant and Tom get a donut type pastry thingy.

Overall, the pastries were pretty good. The croissants were nice and flaky, though I like mine to be cooked darker, so they're even flakier and crunchy.

After our breakfast, we headed over to Powell's Books where we spent an hour hanging out and waiting for my friend to meet us. We she finally showed, we checked out some chocolate shops together and then visited the Portland Saturday Market - a mix of outdoor crafts and food booths. Though it was raining, there were still quite a few people out. Here's a row of food booths:

It took a while to decide on what to eat, and we all ended up ordering from the same Philly cheesesteak booth. (Maybe I was persuaded by their display food).

Here's my chicken cheesesteak with ketchup on top. It wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten. The chicken had been precooked, so the cheese was just added on and heated until the cheese melted. However, I was hungry, so I ate in anyway. (We later learned that the "good" food booths were in another section of the market.)

Allright, so of course, since we were in Portland (and we were close by) we made our first of two trips to Voodoo Donuts. Below is a combination of photos from the two trips that we made (I didn't want to write up two different posts). First, we start off with the line outside of the donut shop. And yes, it was raining at the time.

It took about half an hour to get through the line and up to the front counter, but we had fun being entertained by an aging Elvis, in full Elvis regalia, singing Heartbreak Hotel.

When you finally make it indoors, you find a tiny, cramped space. This photo is from our second visit, which was on a weekday afternoon, so there were a lot less people there:

You definitely feel the pressure to order fast, with everyone waiting behind you. I got Tom the maple bacon bar, while I got the No Name - a donut with chocolate, rice krispies, striped with peanut butter. Here's Tom's maple bacon bar:

He thought it was just ok. I think he thought the maple part was overly sweet. Meanwhile, I also had a lukewarm reaction to my No Name. I thought it'd be coming with cocoa krispies, not regular krispies and they were a little soggy, so it was just eh. (The Old Dirty Bastard, which I had a few days later was much much better, though).

And here's a photo of the half dozen donuts my friend, Jess, bought. Notice the pink one - it's bubblegum with a piece of bubble gum stuck to it.

After the donuts, we did the two hour drive to Eugene where my friend actually lives. There we were able to rest and play with her pets before eventually heading out for dinner.

We initially tried to go to a well known Southern restaurant, but it was packed and had a long wait. Instead we headed to a place called Beppe and Gianni's, a popular local Italian restaurant located in a converted Victorian house. This place was also filled with people, but we got a table within twenty minutes.

I would characterize this place as the average Italian American restaurant, except dressed up a little nicer. I apologize for the pictures in advance, the place was pretty dark, and I didn't want my flash going off. We started off with their famous appetizer of blue cheese with roasted garlic served with toast:

I thought the garlic was well roasted, and it wasn't too bad.

I then started with a Caesar salad, which was pretty average, and quite over dressed:

And for my entree I just got something simple - spaghetti with red sauce: The spaghetti ended up being pretty over cooked, so it was kinda mushy, and the sauce was fine. However, we were in Eugene, OR, I wasn't expecting spectacular food. And so our first bites were decent enough, just nothing stellar.

2009-03-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

A TRIP TO THE MISSION

So like my businesses, the company I work for has seen a slow down due to the economy. This meant that for a few weeks, I was only working 4 days a week (and I had it good). However, I also sought to take advantage of my 3 day weekends, and on a very sunny Tuesday, I headed over to the Mission to join some friends for Mexican food.

Now, I have been to the Mission before, but not since we had moved to the Bay Area. It's kind of a funny thing, to go from our neighborhood in El Cerrito and take the BART 40 minutes to a part of San Francisco that is so different from where we live - it's almost like visiting another country.

Once I met up with my friends, we headed over to El Farolito for lunch. There are a lot of Mexican restaurants to choose from in the Mission - El Farolito just happened to be the one my friends liked. And there are several locations in the Mission. We ended up at one a little farther from the BART station, but it was much bigger. The inside wasn't anything special - we're talking picnic tables and plastic benches, but there were a lot of people inside.

Since I had never been here, I decided to order a couple of different things to try. What I didn't realize was that I'd end up waaaayyy over ordering. First we all got a basket of chips and we got to pick different types of salsa to go with it.

And here's my meal. So on the left there are two chicken tacos and on the right, there's a chicken tostada. See, I could've just ordered either the tacos or the tostadas and been totally fine ordering just one.

However, both were very tasty. I think I liked the tacos more than the tostada just because the tostada was loaded down with too many toppings. The tacos were packed with yummy grilled chicken, and were more simple, but equally messy. I'd imagine that if we had Mexican food like this anywhere near us, we'd be going once a week.

After we finished lunch, we checked ou a new ice cream place just a few doors down called Humphry Slocombe (yes, it's quite a name).

This place makes its ice cream from scratch in small batches, and they change the flavors pretty frequently. They're known for crazy flavors like fois gras, and my friend ordered a beet hibiscus sorbet (which she liked a lot)

However, when it comes to dessert and ice cream, I'm pretty traditional, so I went for their most conservative flavors - a cup with Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee and Chocolate.
I found the ice cream to be well made and tasty. However, it's not the best ice cream I've had since we've been out here - I still like Bi-Rite and Sketch more.

I had a great time in the Mission, and I just need to get my lazy butt to go out there more often. I definitely have to take Tom, though, to prove that there really is good Mexican food in the Bay Area.

2009-03-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

BRUNCH AT THE THAI TEMPLE IN BERKELEY

There's a local brunch here in the East Bay that's well known - it's at the Thai Temple in Berkeley and it takes place every Sunday. I'd heard rumors of it, but had never been, so one Sunday, we finally went with our friend Brian. It's kinda confusing if you've never been before and haven't read up on it before hand, but luckily, I'd done so, and Brian had also been there before. Basically, there are food booths and tables set up on a concrete patio adjacent to the Thai temple. It's actually pretty busy and crowded, so it's a good idea to show up early. The day we went it was raining, so I think there were less people than usual.

The first thing you have to do when you arrive is get in line to trade cash for tokens. I think there might be some rule about ppl handling cash, so they use tokens instead. 1 token = $1 and all the food is priced in terms of tokens. Don't worry, if you get too many tokens you can trade them in and get your money back. Then you can look around and check out all the stations to decide what you wanna eat. After I did some scoping, I settled on getting a rice plate with 2 toppings - yellow chicken curry and a chicken leg. I think this cost 6 tokens. :

The food here is decent. It's not super cheap by any means, but it's pretty tasty. And the money goes to a good cause. The other nice thing is that there's a lot of variety, so you can try new things. Here's Tom's plate. He also got 2 choices with pork and pad thai.

I also got a box of veggie spring rolls and in this photo, you can see a box with mango sticky rice. I think both were 5 tokens. I liked the spring rolls and on a later trip I had the mango sticky rice, which was also really good:
And here's a plate of coconut desserts that Brian got. One's fried, the other's steamed. I liked the fried one more, but it's really only good if it's piping hot.

We've actually already been back once since our first visit. It's a great place to meet up with friends, just as long as you can find seat for everyone. And like I said, it's pretty decently priced and an opportunity to eat good food for a good cause.

2009-03-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

TOM'S BIRTHDAY DINNER

Ok. I realize I haven't blogged in nearly 2 months. And the fact that I'm blogging about Tom's birthday dinner, which took place in early March, just goes to prove how long it's been. However, let's recap what's happened in the last 2 months : visited Portland, visited Boston, got engaged, bought a house and are currently in escrow. (Did I mention that getting engaged and buying a house happened in the same two week span?) So to say that we've gone through some big, life changing events would be accurate.

However, I'm spending a lot of time at work these days (until I can hire a new employee) so I've got a bit more time to blog. So back to the post. For Tom's birthday, I took him to a surprise birthday dinner at a shabu restaurant in Berkeley called Zabu Zabu. It's sort of in this hidden location on University, but turns out it's actually pretty popular, especially among the university crowd.

We haven't been to a shabu restaurant since moving to this coast, so I didn't really know what to expect. But now I know that it's pretty much like shabu in Boston, except that it costs way more. So Zabu Zabu is actually known for it's all you can eat shabu, and they have all these different options. The only problem is, if one person orders all you can eat, everyone else has to, which is kinda crappy since I'm the most useless person when it come to all you can eat. But we decided to go with the all you can eat appetizers and all you can eat shabu (you can also get all you can sushi).

First, you get your usual set of sauces:

With the all you can eat, you can pretty much order any variety of meats - pork, chicken, beef or lamb. Of course, I went with chicken and here's the little bowl of veggies that it comes with:

Then there were the appetizers. You actually get a choice of like 12 appetizers, and again, it's unlimited. Here's the fried chicken (it was ok)

And here's an order of seaweed salad. We also got mussels, calamari and I don't remember what else. They were all pretty good.

And our all you can eat meal also came with dessert - my favorite - green tea ice cream. Overall, the food here was pretty good. I still still think the price is pretty high - the cheapest all you can eat is $25 for shabu only, and if you don't want all you can eat, it's like $18, compared with $12 in Boston. However, I'd go back for a special occasion. Otherwise, I'll just make shabu at home, like my mommy does.

2009-03-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

QUITO, DAY 11, THE LAST DAY

Ok everyone. It's the one you've all been waiting for... the cuy post! But first, it was our last day in Ecuador. Our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we were able to squeeze in some shopping, and more importantly, some dining, before our flight departed. Now one thing that I haven't blogged about yet is breakfast. Breakfast in Ecuador is pretty much like breakfast in the U.S. - you know, eggs, omlettes, fruit, toast, cheese - that kind of stuff. So I didn't really document any of it since it wasn't too exciting.

However, one thing I did enjoy was the lavish spread that we had every morning at our hotel in Quito. (which was twice). At the Hilton Colon, they have a lot of business travelers and airline personnel staying with them. And every morning for breakfast, they put out this huge buffet in the cafe. It has lots of stations. For example, here's the cereal/yogurt bar.

Here you can pick cereal or yogurt and top it with lots of different things like fruit, yogurt, etc. And there were a ton of fresh juices. By the way, all the fresh juices we had in Ecuador were amazing - it was just fruit, blended with water, so it was never too sweet and just tasted great.

Then there's the fruit area:

It's filled with lots of fresh, locally grown fruit. Including that granadilla that I got on the first day.

And there's the pastry/bread area with baskets filled with all different types of fresh pastries. I liked the mini croissants the most.

I've left out photos of the make your own omlette bar and the hot food stations, but here's a photo of my plate on the last day. As you can see, I was pretty moderate.

We had a little time before our flight in the afternoon, so we spent it shopping and squeezing in our last meal at Mama Clorinda in La Mariscal. I chose Mama Clorinda because it specializes in the foods of the Ecuadorian highlands, and more importantly, it served cuy. So for those of you who don't know, cuy (aka guinea pig) is eaten as a delicacy in Ecuador. It's not all that common, and much more prominent in the highlands. And it's not like everyone eats it - one of our tour guides went on and on about how much she loved it, while the other mentioned how much she dislike it. But it was something that both Tom and Cathy wanted to try. We had ordered our cuy ahead of time because our tour guide had told us that it took an hour to prepare, and we were on a pretty tight schedule.

Here's the dining room at Mama Clorinda. We were having an early lunch, so it was pretty much empty inside, but as you can see, it's very brightly colored and sunny:Since we had ordered the cuy in advance, they had it ready for us when we arrived. Ben and I ordered some more normal foods for our lunch, while Cathy and Tom shared the cuy. They're actually kinda expensive - each one costs $18.
This is what it looks like when it comes out - still pretty much intact. And it turns out that they actually fried the thing (rather than roasting it, which is what I had expected). Tom and Cathy both dug in. Here's Tom eating a leg:And here's another of him eating the head (you can make out the ears and eyes):
Overall, they thought it was pretty good. To be honest, it didn't have much meat on it - mainly skin and bones. And Cathy thought that some of the meat tasted fishy (though I personally think it was the feed that they give it). Ben also tried it and they all agreed that it was something that they'd eat again.

Meanwhile, I had ordered a roast chicken lunch plate:This wasn't so great, because the chicken ended up being fried, rather than roasted. And it was pretty dry and tough. Plus the French fries just weren't very good. But we were here for the cuy, not for the other foods.

We had a really great trip to the Galapagos - I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for an adventure filled vacation and to finish off this last post about our trip, I'll leave you with a photo of the Galapagos mascot, the land tortoise:

2009-03-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS AND QUITO , DAY 10

Our last day in the Galapagos was spent doing the reverse of what we'd done on the first day - taking the flight from Baltra back to Quito. We took the first flight out of the day, so when we landed in Quito, it was the middle of the afternoon. We hadn't really eaten lunch, so after doing a visit to the local craftsmarket (just a couple of blocks from our hotel), Tom and I decided to leave early, head back to the hotel and eat local junk food.

Well ok, I wouldn't count my bag of Ruffles as local junk food. But Tom had a bag of chincharrones:

He deemed these much better than the ones that we have in the U.S., stating that they literally melt in the mouth. He'd also gotten himself of chips made from plantians:

I'm not a big plantain fan, and these were covered in a sweet coating, so I'd say it was just ok. (Yes, I liked my sour cream and onion Ruffles more).

After our little break, we headed out for a brief city tour of old town, where the colonial Spaniards had settled. There are lots of churches, plazas and colonial buildings in the area and after walking around for a bit, we had our last dinner for the trip at Cafe Plaza Grande in the Hotel Plaza Grande.

The restuarant is located in an old historic building that was bought and renovated by Swissotel and now houses several restaurants. The cool thing is that it overlooks the main square in Old Town - the Plaza Independencia:The restaurant serves local Ecuadorian delicacies, but it's in a very formal setting - by far the most formal place that we had visited the whole trip. But it was a nice change from flip flops, mosquitoes and sand.

The first thing that that give you is bowls of crisply fried plantains in like a flower arrangement:
along with three dipping sauces:There was peanut, sesame and something spicy that I don't remember. But I liked the spicy one.

As for the menu, it's basically a prix fixe menu, and you get several choices for appetizer, entree and dessert. For my appetizer, I got this potato cheese soup served along with local avocado:Ok. To be honest, my tummy wasn't feeling so great the last couple of days in Ecuador (I blame that chicken stick I ate on the beach in Isabella), so I didn't really have much of an appetite. The soup was pretty good, but I didn't eat most of it.

For Tom's appetizer, he got a really pretty ceviche:served with the ubiquitos popcorn and toasted corn:
Even though it was quite pretty, he thought it was just pretty good. He like the ceviche we had at Las Redes more.

For my entree, I ordered fish:It was locally caught, well prepared and very pretty. But again, my stomach just wasn't into it - I mainly ate the veggies.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered chicken:And it was fine. I tried some of it. Well cooked and well seasoned, but nothing extraordinary.

And lastly, dessert. Apparently they like dramatic things at this restaurant, because the ice cream was served over a bowl of dry ice:I'll admit, it was pretty cool, and you could make it continue misting just by adding more water to the dry ice.

Overall, we had a really pleasant dinner. I mean, the place certainly is one of those places where you'd see foreign tourists dining with wealtheir Ecuadorians. And for me and Tom, we'd certainly prefer eating this type of food in a local joint. But it was still fun to be a bit pampered and surrounded by that type of elegance. I just wish my stomach had been feeling better so I could've enjoyed the meal more. (But that should teach me about eating street food on a beach).

2009-03-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

GALAPAGOS, DAY 9

On our 8th day in the Galapagos, we left Floreana and headed back to Santa Cruz - it was our last night on the islands. They'd planned a pretty packed day for us. In the morning, we visited the Floreana highlands and the turtle reserve there. Then it was a boat ride back to Santa Cruz where we immediately went kayaking. Right when we got back to Santa Cruz, it started to rain. We're not talking about little rain, we're talking about torrential tropical down pour, which lasted for three hours. During this time, we went kayaking, and for a not so easy hike over wet, mud covered lava rocks to see Las Grietas.

Suffice it to say that by the time it'd stopped raining, I was soaked, and in no mood to go snorkeling (which was the activity planned for the afternoon). Tom and I decided that we'd be much happier heading back to the hotel, taking hot showers, drying off and relaxing. (though we did end up missing snorkeling with sea turtles that afternoon - oh well).

When we headed back to the hotel, we were offered lunch, since it was included in our package (even though the hotel kitchen had been shut down for at least half an hour). My dad, Tom and I ended up ordering 3 of the same sandwich, and then waited 20 minutes before they came. I was kinda annoyed, given how wet I was. I had really just wanted to take a shower and grab pizza in town, but my father had wanted to eat lunch. But when the sandwiches arrived, I realized why they had taken so long:

As you can see, it's basically like a club sandwich, but they had to cook all the components before it could be assembled. This included cooking the bacon (which I removed and gave to Tom), the chicken breast (sliced thinly), warming the cheese with the ham (which I also removed and gave to Tom) and then there were those french fries. They had probably already turned off the fryer by the time we arrived, so they had to turn it back on and heat the oil.

Overall though, I enjoyed my sandwich, because it was warm and I was cold, damp and starving. That evening, we returned to the Red Mangrove Lodge for dinner at their restaurant, but it just wasn't as good after the food we'd had in Isabela. Also, they served us things that we'd had at previous dinners, so it was nothing new.

Still, we'd had an amazing trip to the Galapagos, and I was pleasantly surprised to have such great food the entire trip - I truly wasn't expecting it.

2009-03-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS, DAY 8

For the morning of the 8th day of our vacation, we went snorkeling at a little cove on Isabela. It was cool, since the cove was so protected, and we got to see and swim with some sea lions. Then it was off to Floreana, one of the least populated island in the Galapagos chain, with only 200 year round inhabitants. It took a two hour boat ride to get to Floreana, which wasn't too bad. And we encountered a pod of very friendly dolphins.It was pouring rain when we arrived, but we were able to settle into our cabins at the Red Mangrove cabins in Floreana. They were pretty rustic and minimalist. My sister thought it was like camping. I was thinking this is a close as I'll get to camping (I DO NOT CAMP). Then we headed off for a hike to the sea lion breeding grounds. It was actually pretty cool seeing a ton of sea lions hanging out in the family group. Plus we got to see some rays and sea turtles in the water.

After the hike, we all went back to get ready for dinner. We had to shower early, because the island of Floreana is run completely on solar energy. That's pretty awesome, but it also means there's not hot water after 7pm, and the shut off the power in the evenings. Then, it was off for a 10 minute hike to the restaurant. Now as I've said, Floreana has a tiny population, so they don't exactly have restaurants or shops. We had dinner at a local restaurant, which was attached to a woman's home. It was anything super fancy like we'd had previously, but we finally got to have a local meal and it was actually Tom's favorite meal of the whole trip.

We started off with these fried yucca fritters, served with a mild aji sauce.

I've learned that Ecuadorians are totally not into spicy things, so though the aji sauce was supposed to be kinda spicy, it was really pretty mild. Those yucca fritters, though, were delicious. I'm normally not a fan of yucca, but I've never had it served like this. I just gotta say, frying makes everything taste better. And my dad really liked these, too.

Meanwhile, we were also served a bunch of sides. On my plate below, you'll see veggies, potatoes and a salad involving onions and cucumbers. As always, it was served with rice and it was all really delicious.

The main entree had been cooking on a grill right next to our table:

There was locally raised beef and the foil packets contain locally caught fish. I could tell the beef had been cooked until very well done. This isn't how most Americans like to eat their beef, but apparently, that's pretty much how they serve it. (At least that's true according to that No Reservations episode they filmed in Uruguay). Though my father didn't like the fact that it was so well done, Tom didn't mind. I think he liked the flavor of the locally raised, grass fed beef.

As for the fish. I thought it was allright. It was a seasoned white fish, but we'd had locally caught fish many times during our trip, and I just preferred some of the other ones that we had eaten.

Lastly, there was dessert:

We were served a slice of an incredible dense, sweet cake along with a scoop of super dense ice cream (which was supposed to be chocolate ice cream). I ended giving mine to Tom.

Overall, I was glad to finally have a meal involving local foods. I found it all to be delicious, and the experienced could only had been improved had it been moved indoors and away from all the mosquitoes.

2009-03-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS, DAY 7
Day 7 in the Galapagos involved a hike to Sierra Negra, the second (or is it third) largest caldera in the world. Basically, this meant that we didn't spend a whole lot of time eating that day, so I figured I'd give you some nice pictures of the scenery. Here's a shot of the caldera itself.
And here's a shot of a lava tube:I'll admit, I didn't make it to the part with the lava tubes. I only did about half the hike, and then my parents and I headed back to the hotel where I read and took a nap. So here's a picture of our hotel rooms on the beach:The rest of the party continued on and did a full day's hike, but I just wasn't up to it. I'm really not much of an outdoorsy person, I prefer the urban jungle. By the time everyone had gotten back, it was too late for lunch, and too early for dinner, so we just got a light snack of tuna ceviche (which I didn't photograph).

To be honest, by this point in Isabela, our meals were getting kinda repetitive. I mean, they served us excellent three course meals for lunch and dinner, but I just got tired of documenting it. So I stopped taking pictures. That's basically why I don't remember what we even had for dinner that evening.

What I do remember is that it was the first day of Carnival. Even though Isabela isn't a big island (it only has around 2,000 inhabitants), they had still setup speakers and some stands farther down the beach in the middle of town. I got a tip from my sister that they were serving chicken wings at one of the stands, so after dinner, we headed over to check it out (and my other sister requested that I returned with an ice cream sandwich for her.)

What we found on the beach were people mainly hanging around and drinking beers. We found the place with the chicken wings pretty quickly. There were two ladies grilling the chicken over a make shift bbq. There was a tub full of chicken parts next to them, unrefrigerated and I totally knew I was going to get food poisoning from this (which I kinda did - but it was a mild case). I didn't mind though, it was worth it. I ordered one chicken wing skewer (which cost me $2), and it was totally yummy - grilled food just is. It was juicy and tasty. I don't know how well cooked it was, since it was so dark I couldn't tell what color the meat was, but I enjoyed it anyway. Plus, it was a rare taste of local food.

It was our last nice on Isabela, and we'd really had a great time on the island. I would miss it a lot.

2009-03-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS, DAY 6

Day 2 on Isabela involved more exploring of the island. In the morning, we took a boat ride to the southern part of the island where we got to see really cool lava formations. We also got to spend time snorkeling there. We had a rough ride back to town, because it'd gotten windy and the water had become quite choppy. I basically wasn't a very happy camper for a good hour during that entire ride back.

However, by the time we got back, lunch was ready for us. I gotta say that having three courses for every meal took some getting used to - I really never eat this much food. But having it all ready for you and not having to think about it made it a lot easier. Plus the food was really quite good. For lunch we started off with grilled veggie skewers.

I liked this since it was nice and light. And I didn't feel that I was getting as many veggies as I usually eat. For the main course, we had shrimp fried rice.

This really wasn't Asian in anyway, but it was packed with shrimp. I found it a bit salty, so I didn't eat most of the rice, and just picked out the shrimp instead. And lastly, dessert. They had an Oreo cheesecake for us, and yes, they used real Oreos.

Allright, I don't eat cheesecake, but I love Oreos. I ended up deconstructing this thing - eating just the cookie crust at the bottom and and Oreo cooked on top.

As for the afternoon, we finally got to have some time off to lounge and do whatever we wanted. After spending some time reading, napping and hanging on the beach chairs outside, Tom and I decided that we wanted to wander into "town" and explore. (it was a 5 minute walk) Now the town of Puerto Villamil isn't very big - it's basically a strip about 5 blocks long with a few restaurants, hotels and shops on either side.

Since we hadn't had much of a chance to try local food, Tom and I found a like snack stand that sold various items. He ended up ordering a hot dog, while I got a cheese empanada. Here's Tom's hot dog:It was a pretty impressive variation on the hot dog. The dog itself wasn't vary big, only about a quarter of the size of the bun. But the topped it with a bunch of stuff - ketchup, mustard, mayo and a sprinkling of crushed Ruffles. Kinda unique, and Tom thought it was pretty good.

Meanwhile, here's my cheese empanada:
I really enjoy the salty crispiness of the shell and the gooey cheese on the inside. I found it to be the perfect little snack.

After hanging out in town a bit more (and paying over $12 for a bottle of sunblock) we eventually made our way back to the hotel for dinner. I have forgotten to point out how much Ecuadorians seem to love popcorn - since they always serve it with ceviche and soup.
We always got a few freshly popped bowls if we were having soup for lunch or dinner. Personally, I was pretty happy with it, because popcorn is one of my favorite snacks.

So the popcorn was served with soup, this time we had a bowl of veggie soup.
I couldn't tell you what type of veggies were used (though I'll assume carrots due to the orange color) but I'll once again say that I found it very well made and flavorful. I enjoyed the soup a lot.

For our entree we had spaghetti and red sauce:
Ok, it was supposed to be meat sauce (which is what everyone else had) but as you know, I don't eat red meat, so mine came with mushrooms. And though it was loaded with mushrooms, the sauce was just too salty (I think almost everyone felt that salt factor was very high with this dish), so I mainly ate the pasta, with a little sauce.

I think I once again skipped dessert, but once again, we had great meals on the island of Isabela. Too bad we only had one more night left here.

2009-03-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, DAY 4

On our third day in the Galapagos (4th day in Ecuador), we headed off Santa Cruz and over to Isabela. It the largest of the Galapagos islands, but only the 3rd most inhabitated island, so it's a pretty quite place. After a 2 hour boat right over to Isabela, we started by visiting the turtle reserve and breeding center on the island. After looking at a bunch of different turtles (and tons of little ones - they're so cute!), I got a little hungry and decided to buy an ice cream bar at the gift shop.
Ok, the photo is kinda dark (and Tom claims he takes better pictures than me), but in the photo, I'm eating a Magnum. Now many of you who have traveled outside of the U.S. have probably enountered a Mangum, but those of you who haven't, it's basically like an ice cream bar that comes in lots of different flavors - like a cheaper version of the Haagen Dazs ice cream bars. It's sold a lot in Europe and South America, but for some reason, not in the U.S. (I have no idea why), so I decided to take advantage of the fact that they're sold in Ecuador. It was very yummy, and nice to have on a hot day on Isabela.

After some hiking and a visit to the Wall of Tears, we headed over to our next hotel, the Red Mangrove Isabela. The place isn't like a traditional hotel. The "lobby" is a two storied house on one side of the road and has a desk, lounge area and the dining room. Across the street are where the rooms are. We had a great room right on the beach, with a deck to lounge in. It was definitely a great place.

But my favorite thing about Isabela turned out to be the chef. I think we had our best meals on this island. For every meal, we'd head over to the dining room to eat. And though we weren't given a choice in for every course like we'd had in Santa Cruz, we still had really great food prepared just for us. For lunch, we started off with this nice salad:It was very refreshing and you can see the pieces of hearts of palm. For our entree, we had fried fish. You can see this is pretty similar to the meal we'd had for lunch when we went to North Seymore - a deep fried piece of tuna, along with mixed veggies and rice. I found it to be super tasty, especially since they were again using locally caught tuna.

For the afternoon, it was more hiking - in search of a colony of marine iguanas. We also saw penguins and sea lions, and there was also snorkeling. After our very active day, we were given some time off to settle in and unpack. For dinner, we headed back to the dining room.

Apparently soup is very big in Ecuador, so while on Isabela, we had lots of different types of soup. The first one we had was this celery soup:

It was very very good. I actually wish I could figure out how to make a celery soup like this (though Tom would never eat it since he doesn't like celery - he still had some of the soup, though). For the entree, we had grilled chicken with veggies.

Again, it was very well cooked and tasty. I enjoyed it a lot. Lastly, there was dessert. The desserts weren't my favorite during this trip, so I didn't always order it. In this case, we had vanilla ice cream with cherry sauce.

Ok, I admit it. I ordered this mainly for the cherry on top - I'm not a huge fan of vanilla ice cream unless it somehow involves chocolate (like hot fudge or chocolate sprinkles). All in all, we had a wonderful first day on Isabela, and I certainly was enjoying the food.

2009-03-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, DAY 3

Day 3 of our trip involved an all day adventure to North Seymore (a small island north of Santa Cruz). It started off with a boat ride to the island, a full on nature walk (where we saw a ton of birds, sea lions and marine iguanas), and snorkeling. This was the day that I got so severely sunburned that I hurt the rest of the trip (and I'm still peeling- despite the ton of sunblock I put on). Our lunch was aboard the ship, right before we spent the afternoon visiting an empty beach and snorekling. The quarters were a little right, but the totally set the table for us and cooked a full meal:

Here's my plate. We were each served a plate of veggies and locally caught tuna that had been breaded and fried. We were also given the ubiquitos serving of rice. It was surprisingly good, considering it'd been prepared in this little galley aboard the ship. I totally wasn't expecting to have a full meal. The one thing with the Galapagos (which I think chefs in the U.S. would freak out about) is that they have access to this wonderful yellowfin tuna, which they always cook to well done (this happened more than once). You wouldn't really see that happening in the U.S. - the tuna would be served seared, and still pretty rare. I liked the fish, though I did find it a bit overcooked. And for dessert, we got nice big refreshing pieces of watermelon.

After swimming and snorkeling on a deserted beach (where I spent most of my time trying to get the perfect picture of the Sally Lightfoot crabs), we returned to our hotel and we able to rest a little bit before dinner.

For dinner, it was back to the dining room at the Red Mangrove, but they had another set menu for us to choose from this time. (When we were at the Aventura Lodge, you got two choices with each course). For my first course, I had a crab/shrimp "ravioli".

As you can see, it's not really a ravioli. They would've been more correct in calling this a crepe (since that's what the pastry was made of). But it was a very generous portion and quite tasty.

For my main course, this time I had a shrimp dish:

It was a little heavy with the cream sauce, but they are very generous with the shrimp, and I really liked all the veggies that they used

And for dessert, I had a chocolate "mousse":
Ok, this was the one part of the meal that I didn't like. This wasn't a mousse, or if it was, someone had put waaaaaayyyy too much gelatin in, and it was really more firm than creamy. It kinda had a strange texture, and I didn't end up eating much of it. (I have issues with texture). However, we had another great day of dining and traveling and we were moving onto another island the following day.

2009-03-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, DAY 2

On day 2, we headed to the Galapagos Islands. But first we had a quick breakfast at our hotel, the Hilton Colon in Quito. They had quite a spread for the breakfast buffet (I'll have pictures in a later post), but one thing I found really interesting was in the fruit section where I found this unusual looking fruit called a granadilla:

I had a very thick rind on the outside, and none of knew what it was. When we cracked it open, this is what it looked like inside:

It kinds looks like a passion fruit, (a fruit that I love), but it actually tastes pretty funky. I didn't like it at all. I later learned that this fruit is called a sweet passion fruit, but really, if you like passion fruit, it's a totally different thing.

After about a 3 hour flight, we ended up in Baltra Island in the Galapagos (that's where the airport is located) and our first stop was the island of Santa Cruz, the most populated island in the Galapagos. We arrived in the morning and hit the ground running, start off with some hiking, visiting a private farm that had giant turtles and also walking in the national reserve where we saw a ton of giant turtles.

The also had passion fruits growing in the reserve (which the turtles like to eat) and our guide gave me one of the to snack on:
It was pretty tart, but so much better than what I had eaten in the morning. We also fed on to a turtle. After our long walk and hike through some lava tunnels, we were finally able to eat a well deserve lunch. As you can imagine, it's pretty hot on the Galapagos, but that made it pretty appropriate to have a dining room open to the outdoors:

First, we were given a bowl of chicken soup. It was pretty damn tasty, and nice to know that they used local chickens (like the ones that freely roamed around us).

With lunch, the also served a juice of a fruit that I'd never tried before - the tree tomato.

I must say, it tastes nothing like a tomato. Actually, it's kinda hard to place what it tastes like, but it was cool and refreshing and fairly mild and inoffensive, so I drank it.

For lunch we were served two types of meat (chicken and beef) along with salad and veggies.

Though the food was really simple (and maybe cause I was starving from not having eaten in like 8 hours) I found our meal to be delicious. The view was also pretty damn great, looking out over the farmland, you could see all the way to the ocean.

After lunch we headed off to our hotel, the Red Mangrove Aventura Lodge in Puerto Ayora and after dropping off our bags, we finished our day with a stroll to the Charles Darwin Research Center and the viewing of some more giant turtles.

It had been a very very long day for us, that started early in the morning, and we had just begun our Galapagos adventure. One thing to know if you're every considering a trip there - it's an active vacation, with not much time for relaxing or sitting on the beach. After our long day, we were certainly ready for a nice meal. The great thing about our trip was that we had an all inclusive vacation booked for us (when you're traveling with 9 people, it makes life a lot easier), which meant that all our meals were taken care of. It's actually so nice not to have to think about which hotel you're staying at, checking in, meals, logistics - it was totally worth the money to have that taken care of for us.

But this also meant that we had most of our meals at the hotel. The only downside was that every evening, we had a preset menu, so we were never able to take advantage of the sushi bar at our hotel (it was known for having the best sushi in the Galagpagos, though I don't really think there's much sushi being served there anyway).

The dining room at the hotel was open to a small harbor that belonged to the hotel, so you could always see wildlife outside (like the great blue heron drinking from the jacuzzi that we saw on the first night). sealions and crabs, but which meant we also had constant dining companions -

Yes, they're geckos. But they were totally harmless and just hung out on the walls during our meal. The mosquitoes were a lot more annoying. Every meal that we had at the hotel involved 3 courses. On the first night, I started off with a shrimp salad. I think it was supposed to contain avocado, but didn't have any. However, the salad was very good. They were very generous with their shrimp and use a lot of local ingredients. For my entree, I had fish, served with mashed potatoes and green beans:

Again, the food was really well prepared and flavorful. The fish was locally caught. Tom loved the potatoes (actually, the potatoes in Ecuador were one of the highlights of the trip for him).

And I finished off my meal with a fruit plate:
Unfortunately, they served a bunch of tropical fruits that I don't eat (bananas, papaya, etc. ), though if you look at the bottom there was one piece I did eat, which was a local pineapple. Apparently the pineapples in Ecuador are white fleshed, but they're equally tasty and I enjoyed having it frequently.

I was really plesantly surprised at the quality of the food that we were having. It was obviously well made, well flavored and utilizing local ingredients when possible. Though it was really authentic in any way, I still enjoyed my meal, and would continue to enjoy all the meals we had.

2009-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

QUITO: DAY 1

So here they are, the posts that you've all been waiting for.... our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. As many of you know, we recently got back from a trip with my family to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. We spent most of the time on the Galapagos, and for reasons that will be explained later, we didn't really get much of a chance to sample local cuisine. However, on the first day that we landed in Quito (the capital of Ecuador) we were able to go out for our first dinner at Las Redes, a seafood restaurant that's located in La Mariscal, a neighborhood about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

Since we had arrived earlier in the day and hadn't really eaten, and we had to get up really early the next morning for our flight out to the islands, we ended up having a very early dinner, so when we arrived at the restaurant, it was completely empty. This ended up being a good thing since our large party of 8 ended up taking up a large table on a platform that overlooked the rest of the small restaurant.

This place wasn't particularly fancy, but I knew it wouldn't be, after finding about it in a guide book. However, I was looking forward to the food. We ended up ordering several things to share, and while we waited for our dishes to arrive, we took lots of pictures of the funky marine themed decor that filled the place.

After waiting a bit, our dishes finally arrived. My sister and her boyfriend ended up sharing one seafood platter (meant for two, but it could've fed 3 or more) which was served with a butter garlic sauce.

Uhm, the thing was enormous, piled high with various types of seafood including shellfish, shrimps, fish, conch and lots of other stuff. Can you believe that we actually ordered two of these? (the second one was shared by my mom and her two sisters). I definitely helped out. The sauce was actually quite yummy, and I ate quite a few of the shrimp. However, cooking so much of different at the same temp means some stuff gets really overcooked, which was certainly the case.

Meanwhile, for my self, I had ordered a seafood rice:

As you can see, the portion was much more reasonable. The rice was very good, but all the seafood in it was overcooked and pretty dry. I ended up just eating the rice, while picking seafood off my sister's massive seafood plate. Tom shared the seafood rice with me, but he also got a sampler platter of ceviche, which is one of the things that this place is really known for:

I think more than anything, he liked the plate that it was served in, but his favorite part of the ceviche was the conch. At this meal, we also learned of two accompaniements that always appear with ceviche at Ecuador - you can see the popcorn in the right claw of the crab plate, and in the left claw is this puffed corn stuff. It's pretty tasty. The ceviche plate was meant for sharing, but everyone was so distracted trying to eat the massive mixed seafood platters that Tom ended up finishing most of it off.

Meanwhile, we worked hard on finishing the mixed seafood platters, and my sister Cathy was pretty proud with the result:

Oh, I forgot to mention one of Tom's favorite parts - the bread and butter, or really, just the butter. Unlike the U.S., Ecuador hasn't fully developed factory farming techniques. This meant that the butter they served actually came from cows that ate grass (rather than corn, which is what most cows eat in the U.S.). Because of that, the butter had a very distinct flavor, almost like that of cheese, and Tom was eating like it was cheese (until I told him to stop).

Overall, I'd say that our dinner at Las Redes was pretty good. The service was very friendly and they definitely spoke English (despite my efforts to speak Spanish to them, people in Ecuador would generally respond in English). Though it wasn't the best food in the world, it certainly wasn't a bad start to the trip, and I looked forward to our future meals.

2009-03-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

SMALL BITES

Here's a collection of small bites that I didn't feel needed their own individual posts.

The first was a visit to a new cafe that's opened near our home called Cafe St. Honore. We had walked and driven by it several times, and I noticed that it served breakfast, so one morning we decided to go check it out. Armed with a newspaper, we were hoping to find a cute French style cafe, hopefully serving some nice homemade pastries and baguettes.

We did find a cute cafe, though the very white interior feels a bit sterile. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything homemade. I don't think the place has a kitchen, and it was very clear to me that they had purchased all their pastries (basically croissants and chocolate croissants) premade by someone else. The "breakfast menu" was quite short - it was basically a selection of the aforementioned pastries and a few baguette selections. Tom ended up getting a baguette with butter and coffee. Since I'm currently off the coffee, I got a baguette with poached eggs. Here it is below:

Yeah, I know. It's not pretty. I confirmed that they didn't have a kitchen when I saw our server cooking the poacked eggs in a pot on a hot plate behind the counter. It ended up being pretty overcooked. The baguette was really the worst part - it was leaden, so dense, not airy at all and none of the crunchy outside. I had Tom finish it off for me. And it made me sad knowing that Cafe Fanny was just a few blocks down the street. (We also wondered why they didn't just buy their baguettes from Acme Breads since it's located next door to Cafe Fanny.)

I'm not saying this place was horrible. The service was very friendly. It's open late and they offer free wi-fi. However, it isn't the place for breakfast, nor for baguettes.

Next up was our visit to the Asian Pearl Restaurant located inside the Pacific East Mall. We have visited most of the restaurants at the Pacific East Mall, but this is one of the largest one that we had not yet visted. One of the reasons we hadn't visited was because this place is really more well known for its dim sum, but since they start later in the morning, (I think around 10:30) we've eaten breakfast by then.

So one evening we couldn't decide where we wanted to have dinner at the Pacific East Mall and decided to give Asian Peal a try. It's a much larger, nicer restaurant than the rest of the places at the mall. (it actually had tablecloths). Because it's a large restaurant, it looked pretty empty when we entered, though there were other people eating there.

We ended up ordering three dishes (though only 2 are pictured). Tom got his usual salt and pepper shrimp and we got a cold tofu salad.

I liked the tofu salad, and the salt and pepper shrimp were pretty good. The dish that I ordered that isn't pictured is a clay pot with chicken and tofu. It was actually pretty awful. The sauce was really gloopy and not too flavorful. I ended up eating the tofu in the pot and left the rest there.

However, the food wasn't our issue here. It was really the service. They took forever to allow us to order and after they delivered the food, they basically ignored us. Though we asked for our check, they never brought it, and Tom finally went up to the front to pay (which he also had to wait to do.) Tom ended up leaving a tiny tip, which is really unusual for him, but that just shows how bad we thought this place was.

The funny thing is that Tom ended up going back there the next day for dim sum with his friends. But I don't think we'll be returning there again.

Bite #3, Superbowl Sunday. For Superbowl, we spent the afternoon at my friend, Kim's, house. We all made stuff and kind did a weird combination of foods for Superbowl. Starting in back, you'll see a bowl of hummus with veggies. Next is homemade nacho cheese with tortilla chips, I made my own homemade chicken pate (so much easier and cheaper than you could ever imagine, and totally tasty) with cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, Tom insisted on getting KFC, Kim also made some small snacks, including Totino's pizza rolls, and these chicken patties with cheese that were fried. Not surprisingly, we all stuffed ourselves. And we even watched a bit of the actual game.

And the very last bite - pizza at Cheeseboard. I actually have had Cheeseboard pizza before, but I've never actually had it at Cheeseboard - they have some pretty weird hours, so I've never really made it there while they're open (or I refuse to wait in the long line). Lately though, I've had Tuesdays off from work, and since we were able to snag a parking space right in front, we decided to drop in to get a couple slices and visited next door to get some cheese.

I will admit that the pizza is much better out of a pizza oven than a regular over. I still don't think that Cheeseboard pizza is as amazing as people claim, but I will say, the experience it having it there is much better than having it elsewhere. I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

2009-02-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

VIETNAMESE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

We haven't found a truly great Vietnamese restaurant around us. There are some pretty good ones - we sometimes visit the one in the Pacific East Mall for pho, but nothing that has been truly amazing. While driving over to kickboxing a couple of times, I had noticed a pho restaurant called Pho Hoa in a strip mall in Richmond - the neighborhood north of us. It's not really the safest neighborhood, nor one that we visit often, but the restaurant we saw always seemed like it was packed with Asians. So one evening we finally decided to check it out.

We decided to go to dinner early, since I was being a little paranoid and wanted to eat while it was still light out. This meant that we were basically the first people to show up at the restaurant (though we were quickly followed by a few other people). Since this was our first time visiting the restaurant, I decided to get a few simple things.

The first thing we started off with were fish cakes.
There were okay. They weren't my favorite fishcakes that I'd ever had, since they weren't crispy and had a more oily flavor. Maybe because we arrived there early, the oil still hadn't heated up fully. (when you fry at a lower temperature, whatever you're frying will absorb more oil and end up soggy rather than crispy).

Then a order my usual - a bowl of chicken pho.
It was actually a very good bowl of pho. And the side additions it came with were very fresh and tasty. I must say, that's it was probably the best bowl of pho that I've had in the East Bay. However, I must warn that the service here is high lacking, and they aren't exactly nice. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to visit this restaurant again. Though it was good, it wasn't truly amazing enough for me to go there rather than the Pacific East Mall. So I'll continue looking for some really great Vietnamese here in the East Bay.

2009-02-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

ZAKI KABOB HOUSE

Ok, as stated in my previous post, I have a bit of a backlog of restaurants to work through, so the Ecuador posts will have to wait a bit. I've learned that some of the best restaurant recommendations come from friends, and this has certainly been true of our friends Paul and Armando. They've lived in the East Bay for quite sometime, and have been very helpful in introducing us to some of our favorite restaurants like Sabuy Sabuy and Vanessa's. This was also true of Zaki Kabob House, a restaurant located just 3 blocks from their home, and one that I had never even noticed.

The first time we went to Zaki, we had tried to go on a Monday, but the restaurant ended up being closed. So we went back a different night. Our friends had given us some suggested dishes to order. First I started off with an order of the hummus.I gotta say, their hummus is pretty damn awesome. It's really smooth and I think they put a ton of tahini in it, but it's also really tasty.

I ended up getting the half chicken for dinner.And it was delicious. It's covered in spices and roasted until it falls off the bone. The rice it comes with is also very tasty. It's obviously a large portion, and I didn't end up finishing the whole thing. Best of all, it's a great deal - I think it's around $8.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered a lamb burger, which our friends had also suggested. It was contained lots of different herbs, and I think he liked it quite a bit. The only problem was that it was so juicy, it kinda fell apart, and was impossible to set down.One of the best things that Tom discovered was this mint lemonade. It's like a whole lemon pureed with a ton of mint and ice and it's soooooo tasty. We totally loved it.

Since this post is a bit delayed, I've actually been to Zaki quite a few times. Like 5 times in a span of 3 weeks - which is when I stoppped going, I kinda OD-ed on it. I've learned that the rotisserie chicken is much better when you have it there. By the time you get it home, it's less juicy (though still yummy). Also, I've learned that you should order the chicken kabobs - I found them quite dry the time I ordered them. As for the service, it's super friendly since it's run by a family, but it can also be kinda slow and sometimes spotty. They make up for it with the super friendliness, though. Also, though the offer a few vegan and veggie options, I think the meat dishes tend to be the more outstanding items on the menu. I took my vegetarian cousin, and she liked it a lot, but I'm not sure my other vegetarian friends liked it as much.

At any rate, I think it's a great place, and it's definitely become one of our regular eat out spots. I hope the restaurant does well. I always like to see small family owned business succeed - especially when they're serving great food.

2009-02-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

I'M BACK!

Ok loyal blog readers, I know it's been a long time since I've written anything here (it's not like the rest of you have run a chocolate shop during Valentine's Day), but I just want you to all know that I survived Vday and am back from vacation and will soon be updating the blog. First I have some old posts to catch up on, but then you can look forward to some more recent posts about our trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands last week. So stay tuned! (hopefully my sunburns will have healed by then.)

2009-01-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

IT'S OVER!

And so, the Challenge has ended (at least for me - Tom's still on until tomorrow morning). I actually didn't even spend money today until dinner. I spent most of my day at the Fancy Food Show in SF, filling my belly with cheese, chocolate, ice cream and other assorted gourmet treats. And when I came home, we celebrated by going to dinner, which Tom had me pay for.

So what did we learn from this past week? We really missed spending money and especially, going out to eat. On our list of things to do tomorrow: buy eggs and milk, get haircuts and visit the farmer's market for fresh fruit (we're out of fruit). But I've also learned that for us, we can really save money if I just spend a few more days cooking at home. And I hope that Tom has learned that he doesn't have to go out for lunch as often - he can just finish off left overs. It was a good exercise, one that we'll probably repeat once every couple of months.

And now onto my next challenge - kicking my caffeine addiction. I started yesterday and man does it suck! I'm suffering from classic withdrawl symptons - nausea, headaches and exhaustion. But don't worry, I won't be document that here - it's back to the food and restaurant reviews- I promise.

2009-01-17T11:05:00.000-08:00

DAYS 3 AND 4

Our progress has been pretty good, since we still haven't spend any money. For dinner on Day 3, it was King Crab legs (don't you just love Costco?) with left over wild rice pilaf and sauteed kale. I didn't say this was going to be a week of healthy eating, but maybe we should try that at some point. And of course, for all other meals, it was more leftovers. Luckily Day 4 brought our CSA box, which was a nice relief with all the fresh fruits, veggies and leafy greens. I made us a big salad for dinner on Day 4, because I really just needed to eat something light.

Since we're at the half way point in our challenge, I asked Tom how he felt we were doing, and I think we both agree that we miss going out. The thing with not spending money and eating at home, is that's basically where you end up spending all your time. That's especially hard for Tom, since he works at home and already spends his days cooped up inside. So we miss the entertainment value of dining out. I also miss the social aspect of dining out. I'll be missing two dinners with friends this week because I'm trying to stay committed to not spending money for one week. On the other hand, I'll be making up for it the following week, because I already have a bunch of meals planned with family and friends.

Since we're nearing the end of this (just 2 more full days to go!), I realize that I just gotta push through. It'll soon be over.

2009-01-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

DAY 2

Day 2 of the challenge was rather uneventful, apart from the fact that Tom and I are debating when the challenge actually began. I say it began on Monday during lunch, since that was the last time I spent any money. But while I was taking a nap in the afternoon, he apparently bought electronics online, which I didn't learn about until the following day. However, we'll have to stick with my original date of Monday, since we have dinner reservations on Monday evening, and I'm not about to cancel on my friends. Though I did suggest that he could continue until Tuesday.

Apart from that, we're still eating leftovers. Since I actually cooked last week because Tom was housebound due to a back injury, we still have a lot of food left. I did cook something new, though - Mark Bittman's "Ducketta" and you can find the recipe here. You can also watch the video. I think it turned out rather well, served with a side of wild rice pilaf that Tom made. And I was able to make it using ingredients that I had at home, so we haven't spend any money, yet.

2009-01-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

DAY 1 OF THE CHALLENGE

So I declare that we truly started the challenge yesterday (Monday) around noon, since we ate lunch and dinner at home and didn't spend money otherwise. I also need to declare this, because we have dinner plans next Monday evening, so for this to work out for 7 days, it needs to end by lunch next Monday.

To be honest, I think doing this for a week is not going to be much of a challenge. I really think it'd take at least 10 days for the word "Challenge" to truly apply. That's because all we're doing right now is finishing off a ton of leftovers that we have in the fridge, esp. the remnants of a massive lasagna that I'd made for my birthday dinner on Sunday. And I know that right now I have sitting in my freezer king crab legs, duck breast and duck legs. It really doesn't seem like much of a challenge when you're eating that kind of stuff for dinner. I think we could call it a "Challenge" if I actually started cooking the wheat berries that I've had in the pantry for 6 months. But I guess we'll see. It may hit Friday night when I'm desperate for a night out, but will have to stay at home and cook - for me, that'd be a challenge.

2009-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

THE CHALLENGE

A few weeks ago I read in one of the major newspapers a story about a family that had decided that they wouldn't spend any money (other than to pay bills) over a 2 week period. (you know current state of economy an all). At that point, I kinda dismissed the whole thing as pretty hippy, but after a month of free spending, I've decided that maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.

So here's the challenge. Starting next Tuesday, and for one week (cause let's be serious, I'm not going to last 2 weeks), Tom and I are gonna to attempt to not spend money for 7 days (other than to pay bills). I don't think it'll be too difficult, since we spend most of our money on eating out and buying food. Plus, since I pay for my CSA on a quarterly basis, we'll have a supply of veggies. I'm starting it on a Tuesday, since it's a lot easier for me to do this when I've got a regular schedule, especially since I bring my lunch to work anyway. So mainly, that means I'll have to cook dinner. I'm also hoping this will really motivate us (meaning me) to clean out our pantry and freezer.

I'll document how things go here. And maybe if it's successful, we'll try it again - like once a month. We'll see.

2009-01-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

DINNER AT BLUE HILL AT STONE BARNS- REVISED

Ok, I'm back at work this week, so this may be my last post for a while. I'll try to make it a good one.

On Sunday we headed out of the city to spend the evening with Tom's brother and his family. They live in upstate NY, about an hour outside of the city, and very close to Tarrytown, the location of the famed Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Since we knew we'd be visiting, I had had Tom make reservations for Blue Hill two months in advance, and we were joined by our friends Huong and Kjell for dinner there. After spending the afternoon playing with Tom's adorable nephew, Jayson, we headed out to the restaurant. Located on a sprawling farm, Blue Hill is famed for its farm to table philosophy and practice. You can actually visit the farm during the day. There's a visitor's center, a cafe and picnic areas. Unfortunately we were visiting during the evening, so by the time we arrived, it was dark and couldn't see much, so we hustled over to the main restaurant to meet our friends.

When we entered the building we were first met by a warm lounge with a bar and a fireplace. We checked in with the hostess and then waited a few minutes in the lounge area before our friends showed up. We were then escorted into a pretty large dining room with 20+ foot tall beamed ceilings. It had that farm kind of feel in that they used a lot of gray granite all throughout. It was pretty dimly lit, so unfortunately, you'll have to miss out on photos. Sorry!

Many of you might not know how Blue Hill works, so I'll explain. There's no menu there - just a list of seasonal ingredients that they'll be using for the meal that evening (and they actually emailed the list to Tom before dinner). Basically you get to make one decision - if you're going to have the 5 course meal, or the 7 course meal. Everyone at your table has to agree. I argued for the 7 course, because we'd made the trip out there, might as well splurge. Then I listed off the ingredients I don't eat- pork and red meat. And that was it. From there the kitchen creates your email. (Kjell wanted to avoid anything dairy heavy).

And so you're first started off with a series of amuses. It doesn't matter if you get the 5 or 8 course, you all get the same thing. This is what we got:

Parsnip soup in a shot glass (yummy)
Homemade potato chips with fried sage (ok)
Homemade oatmeal crackers with butter and special salts. Butter is yummy.
Mini beet burgers - ok, Tom and I both really enjoyed these. First, they were super cute - the diameter of a quarter. And it was these sweet little "buns" with a tiny circle of beet and a little chevre.
Pancetta and salsify with sesame seeds. I avoided this one, but Tom got to have mine. And I think he enjoyed it.

Ok, and onto the actual main courses.
#1- Seafood chowder with Maine diver scallop. This was probably one of my favorite dishes of the meal. It was a really light chowder and the diver scallop was super yummy and nicely cooked. It came with lots of other seafood, like mini clams and mussels. The only once thing that bugged me was that I specifically said I wanted to avoid pork, and there were chunks of bacon in the chowder. Luckily, I'm not one of those people who freak out if there's pork or red meat in my food, so I just gave the bacon to Tom.

#2 - Local beet salad. Ok, I must admit, the presentation prior to the beet salad kinda annoyed me. Our waiter came up with a plate of beets and explained to us the different kinds that'd be used in our meal - Chiooga, golden, etc. And then how the grow and harvest them. I realize how proud they are of the food and their desire to educate, but these are the same beets I get every winter in my CSA. But the beet salad was actually one of Tom's favorite dishes. I'll admit that it was well prepared. I wasn't a fan of the yogurt dressing, but they had this toasted pine nut puree spread on the plate and it was delicious. I scraped up every bit of it.

#3 - Local farm egg with lentils. They served us a local farm egg (laid that morning) that had been deep fried in a crust of panko and then served on a bed of lentils. I guess you're supposed to be super wowed by the egg being laid that morning, but I really swear, having a soft boiled egg at Cafe Fanny tasted better and fresher than this one. I guess that the fried crust really didn't do anything for me. And the French lentils were well cooked, but I felt they it contained too much vinegar, so that took away from the flavor of the lentils. Tom felt that it worked well if you broke the egg and let the yolk run down on the lentils, but it wasn't my favorite thing.

#4 - Seabass. Ok, I forgot what the seabass was served on top of. But it was perfectly cooked with a nice brown crust. And I did like it.

#5 - Homemade gnocchi. My friends got pork cheeks, and I don't know why, but they also served Tom the gnocchi even though he eats pork. I though that it was well made, and I liked that it was served with local mushrooms. Those were yummy. Tom actually liked the gnocchi more than the pork cheeks.

#6 - Chicken. Everyone else got lamb (actually, Tom didn't like it at all - too fatty and unctuous for him). But I got chicken. And it was really good. Perfectly cooked and full of flavor. It may have been simple, but was my favorite dish of the entire meal.

Finally, dessert. We got 2 dessert courses!! And you all know how I love dessert. But they end up being my least favorite part of the meal. To start off with, we were served:

#7 - Grapefruit and Fromage Blanc Ice Cream. The Grapefruit had been candied, but I still found the rind far too bitter. I ended up avoiding it after a few bites. And I truly believe that cheese should not be made into ice cream. I had one bite of the ice cream and avoided the entire quenelle. However, my friend Huong like her ice cream a lot.

#8 - Apple Tarte and Squash Cake. For our last course, we were served alternating desserts. The ladies got apple tartes, the men got squash cake. Let's start with the apple tart. I found the apples themselves far too over spiced and then it was served for spiced ice cream. It was too much for me. So I traded with Tom, who was struggling with his Kabocha Squash cake and ice cream. To be honest, the cake wasn't too bad - kinda like pumpkin cake. But I find it utterly unnecessary for Kabocha squash ice cream to exist nor pickled Kabocha squash. I did love the candied pumpkin seeds that were served on top of this dessert.

Overall, we had a very pleasant dining experience at Blue Hill. The service was really great (finally at some point during this whole trip we got good service), but I gotta warn you, the place is not cheap. Not to mention after some consideration and discussion with my boss (who had also been in NY the same week), I've come to the conclusion that food in the Bay Area is just better than that in NY, and I am utterly spoiled from living here. And my friends who dined with us would agree. When you're forced to rely on seasonal ingredients in NY in December - there's just not a whole lot spectacular to eat. And truly, over 75% the ingredients used by Blue Hill I'll see in my CSA box at least once a year. And it'll also be locally grown, organic and direct from the farm.

I guess when you live 15 minutes away from Chez Panisse, the restaurant that started the whole farm to table thing in the U.S., you just get to experience better quality food on a daily basis. So my advice to you all is to come visit us. We'll take you for food just as great, just less expensive.

Ok, Tom wanted me to make some slight revisions to my post after he read it. He'd like me to mention that the service, pacing and portion sizes at Blue Hill were excellent. He'd also like me to clarify the point that I do not believe that all food in the Bay Area is better than that in NY. I was just making the point that for restaurants doing from farm to table, seasonal or local foods, we definitely have the advantage. However, I will not deny that fact that NY tends to have superior pizza, pastrami, bagels and for Tom, hot dogs. Also, when discussing with my boss, the overall experience at NY restaurants tends to be better - they really have the whole package, though we win in the food cateogry.

2008-12-31T18:01:00.000-08:00

A FINAL MEAL IN MANHATTAN

We had one final meal left in Manhattan before heading to visit Tom's brother and family in upstate NY. We decided to make it a quick meal since we still had to check out of our hotel and catch a train, and made our last trip over to Bouchon in the hopes of grabbing some breakfast. Unfortunately, we learned that though the Bakery was open, the cafe part of it wasn't, and there weren't many seats open in the bakery area, so we decided to check out Landmarc, just down the hall from Bouchon.

I knew that the Landmarc served 3 meals a day, and after checking out the breakfast menu, I decided that it looked fairly reasonable (by NY standards at any rate). We headed over and after finally getting the attention of the hostesses who were chatting amongst each other, we were seated at a table for 2. The Landmarc is a huge, sprawling restaurant, with a totally industrial look featuring lots of metal and brick. The ceiling is decorated with metal rods, and it has great views of the city. Here's a view of the semi circular bar located behind Tom.

Once we were seated, we were given menus and then were left to wait.

During the time we were waiting to order, I noticed that this huge sprawling restaurant, though pretty empty, was full of beautiful looking staff - basically all aspiring actors and models who chatted amongst themselves and generally ignored any of the diners. When we were finally able to order, we both got a simple breakfast.

Here's my plate of eggs with toast and potatoes.

And it was fine. The eggs were well cooked, the potatoes were crispy and drenched in butter. Tom just got a toasted baguette with butter and jam. Overall, our meal was fine. Though the service kinda sucked (a trend for this entire trip) at least the runner was nice to us. In retrospect, we probably would've enjoyed a simple breakfast at Bouchon more, but luckily, we can just drive up to the original one whenever we feel like it.

2008-12-31T18:00:00.000-08:00

A LIGHT BREAK

Well, if you haven't been able to tell by the sheer amount of blogging that I've been doing in the last two days, I'm on vacation. Actually, it's my last day off - I'm back to work tomorrow, but I'm celebrating the New Year by watching TV and staying in my pajamas all day. Tom's actually changed, but really, why bother? I'm not going out today.

So after our trip to the Carnegie Deli in the morning, we spent the early afternoon shopping in Soho. Well really, it was just window shopping, but one of the things I like the most about NY is that there's always something interesting to look at. Oh btw, for a great cappuccino, visit the snack bar in the Alessi store on Hudson. But even after the walking and shopping, we weren't hungry, until around dinner time, though Tom wasn't hungry, I decided we'd go out for a light dinner. Once again we headed over to the Time Warner Center, but this time, it was a trip to the basement, where Whole Foods is located.

So for those of you who have been to the Time Warner location of WF, you'll know that it's really a big cafeteria, which happens to feature some groceries. They even have their own sushi bar (with seating) and a Jamba juice. Since I was craving something light and "healthy" I hit the salad bar, while Tom picked up some sushi.

It's just your basic Whole Foods salad bar (maybe a little bigger than other locations):

After picking up drinks and paying, we headed over to the expansive seating area. This is a favorite place for locals and tourists, since it is a relatively inexpensive and quick place to eat, but this also means that the seating area is often busy and full. (though rather attractive with its stone tables and benches, and light wall)

Ok, here's my salad. (Yes, I did grab some chicken wings, but only 2 of them, the rest really is veg). It was a very light, refreshing break from the rest of the meals that we'd had up to this point.

And for dessert, we headed up to the 3rd floor to once again visit Bouchon Bakery where we picked up a caramel macaroon and a chocolate tart that we enjoyed back at the hotel - a perfect way to finish off our meal.

2008-12-31T17:59:00.000-08:00

THE CARNEGIE DELI

Our hotel in midtown was located across the street from Carnegie Hall, and half a block from the famous Carnegie Deli. We had walked by it, and it was packed with tourists, but neither of us had been there before, so we decided to check it out for breakfast when we figured there'd be far less people. And at 10:30 in the morning, though there were people inside, it was totally packed and we were seated right away.

There are certain things that Tom craves when we go to NY. He misses pizza from Brooklyn and hot dogs from street vendors. The other thing he misses is the pastrami, and so that's what he ordered for breakfast. (He wasn't the only one, lots of people around us had ordered sandwiches for breakfast). Meanwhile, I attempted to order a breakfast sandwich, which apparently wasn't possible. On the menu, they listed all different type of egg sandwiches....eggs with bacon, ham, bologna, etc etc., but when I tried to order one with turkey, the waitress was super confused. Did I want a turkey sandwich with an egg on it? I finally gave up and just ordered a turkey sandwich.

As you can see, it's piled high with turkey, which is what the Carnegie Deli is famous for, these super huge sandwiches. But it wasn't that good. Though it's stuffed with meat, it still served on slice toast, so it's basically impossible to eat. The turkey wasn't all that moist or flavorful, and I had to deconstruct the thing just to eat it. It tasted better when I put some Russian dressing from it. Meanwhile, Tom had a much better time with his Reuben.

As you can see, it's enormous and covered in cheese. He really enjoyed it (though he felt it could've used less cheese) and was so proud of the fact that he finished it, he made me take a photo of it.

Though I didn't have the greatest meal there, I think I could do some better ordering the next time we visit a NY deli. Tom definitely liked his food, but also a warning, it's not cheap eating at places like this. Tom's sandwich cost over $20, and breakfast for 2 with tip came out close to $50. Ahhh NY, it's so easy to spend money there.

2008-12-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

DINNER AT LUPA

After an afternoon of shopping (warning: never go to Saks when they're having massive after Xmas sales), we headed down to the West Village for dinner at Lupa. Ok, if you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of Batali restaurants - we go to at least one every time we're in NY. Lupa was one I had wanted to go to for some time, but never made it (it is hard to get in there) but after making a reservation a month in advance, we had a 7pm reservation for 2.

When we approached the restaurant, it was very unassuming from the outside. Tom actually walked passed it and when we entered, we found this warm, inviting room, full of wood and lots of diners. Unfortunately, when I gave my name, they initially told me that they couldn't find it. I told them I'd just called 2 days earlier to confirm, and before freaking out and taking out my cell phone where I had saved the voicemail (note to self, always save confirmation voicemails from now on), they found the reservation. Apparently it'd been "hiding" (or so claimed the hostess).

We were seated a a cozy table for two. And not cozy in the bad sense. This place was far roomier and friendly than Casa Mono, which was so tiny the table had to be moved so I could get to my seat. The other surprising thing was that this was the first Batali restaurant I'd been to that seemed truly family friendly. And there were more kinds here than I'd seen at any of his other places.

Unfortunately, this warm, inviting atmosphere was not met by warm, inviting service. Our server was efficient, but not nice in any way. Imagine being served by M played by Judi Dench in the most recent Bond films. That's basically what our server looked like, and how she acted - efficient, cold, and not pleasant.

But onto the food. Tom I started off with two antipasti. (I apologize for the dark pictures, but I don't like the flash going off in these type of restaurants.). On the right was a very good dish of brussel sprouts with Pecorino. Though I was surprised that the brussel sprouts had been shredded and served raw (almost like a coleslaw) they were covered with cheese and quite tasty. On the right, Tom ordered Octopus with Ceci & Sorrel. He liked it quite a lot, saying the octopus was cooked until it was super tender.

Next up, salad. I have learned from Batali restaurants that I'm a big fan of his antipasti and pasta, but not so much of the secondis (entrees), and so for my next course, I ordered an arugula salad. Nothing too exciting here, but after my lunch, I truly needed something green. Meanwhile, Tom had a Spaghetti alla Carbonara, a classic Roman dish. It was actually the first time he'd had it, and a good place to have it, too, since Batali does excellent pastas. Filled with little chunks of pancetta and perfectly cooked spaghetti, he enjoyed it a lot.

And then onto my main course. I ordered their special pasta of the day - with handmade pasta, chicken and tomatoes. I do love getting pasta at Batali restaurants, you always know that they'll come out perfect. This one was quite tasty, and though not as amazing as the simple spaghetti agli olio that I'd had at Enoteca, I still enjoyed it.

Tom had a saltimbocca for his main course. The veal was pounded super thin, and the he did enjoy it, he just couldn't finish the whole thing off - it was too rich.

Finally dessert. I normally order gelato at Batali restaurants, they do a great job with them, but the two flavors they were offering - pistachio or lemon, just didn't interest me. We got a tartufi instead, and though it wasn't anything super special, it did finish the meal on a nice sweet note.

The food portion of our dinner was really great. The service was surprisingly poor. I've been to quite a few of his restaurants in this is the only time I've ever had unpleasant service. And to be honest, the prices aren't so bad here. I don't know if I'd be back, though. If I lived in the area, there'd be no doubt that I'd frequent this place, but since we visit NY only once or twice I year, I'm more likely to go back to Enoteca, where I know the food will just as excellent, along with the service.

2008-12-31T17:53:00.001-08:00

IT'S NEW YEAR'S EVE

If you've noticed that time stamp on my posts you'll realize that today is New Year's eve. Tom and I are celebrating by doing nothing at home. We've just gotten back from a whirlwind trip in NY, and are recouping. Tom's spent the entire day playing video games while I've cooked and surfed the internet. But of course, this finally gives me the opportunity to catch up on my blog, especially for all you complainers - and you know who you are.

And speaking of NY, you should all know that I take our trips to NY as an opportunity to stuff myself silly. I make reservations months in advance and basically end up planning our trip around what meals we'll be eating. After spending Xmas with Tom's family, we spent two days in Manhattan just shopping and eating. Rather than staying with friends like we normally do, we found it easier just to book a hotel. I got a really good deal via Priceline, and though the hotel wasn't anything spectacular, it was truly worth it for it's location - smack in the middle of midtown and blocks from major shopping and the Time Warner Center.

When I figured out how close we'd be staying to the Time Warner Center, I knew we'd be spending lots of quality time there, and sure enough, after checking into our hotel, it was the first place we headed for lunch. Now though the original Bouchon Bakery is an hour's drive from us, and we go everytime we're in Napa, I still wanted to visit the one in the Time Warner Center. A lot of people had said it's a little hard to find, due to the massive, kinda mislead "Samsung" sign that heads right over it. But knowing that was what I'd be looking for, I looked straight up and headed to the third floor where we found the cafe. Here's a shot of it....

So in Napa, you can't sit a a full service restaurant like the location in NY. You can get take out sandwiches, but there's no seating area. In contrast, the NY location has a cafe, along with a mini bar and off to the side, you can get take out if you want (serving many of the same items that are on the cafe menu). Though it was almost 2pm, the place was packed, but Tom and I decided to wait it out and were seated in about 20 minutes.

Now as you can see form the photo, the location is kinda weird. It's basically a space carved from the middle of the mall. It's pretty tight and not a great place for a large party. When we were seated, we were handed menus, which was filled with sandwiches and salads.

After ordering, we were served the typical Bouchon epi baguette. And though it was good, it was kinda chewy and not as crusty as a really great baguette. And not as great as the ones we get in Napa.

I ended up ordering a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup - a perfect lunch on a cold day (and lots of people around agreed with me - I saw them ordering the same thing). The grilled cheese was perfectly grilled- look how that got it all brown and crunchy all over, and it was filled with gruyere - may favorite cheese. The tomato soup was also really great. Lots of tomato soups tend to be kinda watery and salty, but this one was perfectly balance and yummy.

Meanwhile Tom got a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Though he did enjoy it, he would've preferred it not toasted. I also picked at his salad, since the one thing I was lacking from my meal was a bit of green.

Overall, the food was really great, which is what we've come to expect from Thomas Keller restaurants. The setting is a bit noisy and hectic (it is in a mall after all), and the service was efficient, though not pleasant. That was the one weird thing, since service at Keller places tends to be quite good, but really, I felt for the servers there. They were dealing with a tremendous numbers of people, many of them tourists. And though this place wasn't cheap, it wasn't really expensive, either. So they had to continually turn tables to really earn tips. I can see why they wouldn't want to keep people lingering over their meals. I also liked the fact that this Bouchon Bakery had a seating area - something I think the Napa location could certainly use.

2008-12-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

WHY I'VE GAINED 10 POUNDS IN THE LAST YEAR

Yes, I really have gained 10 pounds since I've moved to the Bay Area. People don't believe me, but jeans don't lie. I can no longer fit into any of the jeans (except a single pair) that I brought with me from Boston. (Hence the trip to Steve and Barry's - I bought 4 larger pairs of jeans). I guess it's also due to my slowing metabolism. I do turn 29 in a week. Damn metabolism.

But it's also the food here in the Bay Area. My sister just spent the last few days here, staying at our house and eating at some of our favorite places. She deemed the food really good, but what she calls "vacation eating" is what we call everyday eating. So much good food surrounds us, it's really hard not to partake.

And speaking of which, my workplace is no help. I'm surrounded by foodies who love to eat and cook, and there's always yummy food around. Just take for example, Christmas Eve. Though this is more of an extreme case, one of my co-workers made fresh cinnamon buns with homemade cream cheese frosting. They were still warm. And delicious.

And right next to that were the two boxes of Noah's Bagles. Along with all the toppings.

I failed to photograph the fried chicken sandwiches and enormous chocolate cake from Bake Sale Betty's that we had just the day before for a co-worker's goodbye party.

With so much temptation around, I'm sure I'll gain another 10 pounds by next year. I must go to kickboxing more often.

2008-12-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

BREAKFAST AT A TOURIST TRAP

It's not often that Tom and I will head into the touristy parts of the city. However, Steve and Barry's was having a liquidation sale, and the closest location is located at The Cannery near Fisherman's Wharf, so early on a Sunday morning, we headed into the city for some breakfast and shopping.

The times we've been down at Fisherman's Wharf we've often walked by Boudin, a place famous for its soudough bread and always packed with tourists. We decided to have breakfast at their cafe since I figured it'd be less busy with far less tourists.

When you enter the place, it's clear that it's a show place designed to handle masses of tourists.

Though there were plenty of people there, it wasn't packed, so Tom and I were able to order at the counter. It was funny because as we drove to the city, we discussed uses for the breadbowl (not just for soups). I had commented that it'd be possible to serve eggs in a breadbowl and sure enough when we got there, it was one of the options on the menu.

Though I really would've been happy with a clam chowder bread bowl, it wasn't listed on the breakfast menu and I figured they didn't serve it this early in the morning (I later saw someone else with it). And Tom greatly encourage me to order the egg breadbowl, so I did. Here it is below:

And yeah, it was kinda as appalling as it looks. It was basically a veggie scramble with cheese in a sourdough bread bowl. The eggs were waaaaayyyyy overcooked, but to their credit, that sourdough bread bowl was really quite tasty. (Though Tom didn't think it was sour enough). I think I would've been happy with just some toasted sourghdough and butter.

Meanwhile, Tom ordered the breakfast pizza:

He describes it as "passable" and "it wasn't great". They had cooked the eggs prior to putting it on the pizza rather than cooking the eggs on the pizza, so the eggs ended up quite dry.

My advice in the future - stick to the sourdough and maybe the clam chowder. Avoid everything else.

2008-12-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

BUI, SOLANO AVE

Though Tom and I have our favorite places to eat in our area, we do like to try new places. And so on one evening we ventured out to Bui, a local Vietnamese restaurant on Solano Ave, since we couldn't decide on where else we wanted to eat. Now, we had avoided this place for a little while, mainly because the sign outside indicated that it was a "Contemporary Vietnamese" restaurant and I prefer hole in the wall, authentic (and cheap) Vietnamese food.

When we entered the restaurant, it was about a third full, and I noticed that there wasn't a lot of staff on the floor. We were seated right away and presented with menus. As I suspected, (along with the white table cloths on the tables) this place specializes in more French influenced Vietnamese cuisine. So though I was just craving a bowl of noodles, that wasn't really what the offered here.

Tom and I ended up ordering a few appetizers to share. Here's my summer spring roll below. You can tell from the photo that it's a little dry looking (clearly made a while in advance), but it was pretty good.

I also ordered these garlic basil chicken wings. They reminded me a lot of the ones we always get at Sabuy Sabuy, and though they weren't bad, the ones at Sabuy Sabuy are better.

As our meal progressed, the dining room started getting fuller and fuller - to the point that nearly every seat was taken. It was clear that the restaurant had not expected this as they had a single server and a single runner for the ENTIRE restaurant. Now, I can fully understand that for restaurants in this economy, it's prudent not to have too much waitstaff, especially on a Thursday night when you don't expect to be busy (and haven't been in the past). But I think it's also important to have people on call, just in this type of situation.

After our entrees were cleared, we were mistakenly handed our check by the waiter. We notified the runner, but it took another 10 minutes to flag down the waiter to convey the mistake. Meanwhile, the table to our left were regulars, who were surprised at how busy the restaurant was, and the table to the right were newcomers who were rightfully annoyed that it took 20 minutes just to get their drinks.

We were eventually given our entrees. (by this point I had forgotten to take pictures). Tom got a seafood stew, that I found was way too salty, but the thought it was pretty good. And I did get wish for a bowl of noodles with shrimp. It was pretty nice, but I could've gotten the same thing for half the price elsewhere (though not on Solano Ave.)

Our overall dining experience wasn't totally negative. The waitstaff was just way too busy and I felt sorry for them. I was truly more annoyed at the owners who were clearly ill prepared. I don't think we'll be going back to Bui, though. The food was fine, but I truly do enjoy less fancy Vietnamese food at the much lower prices.

2008-12-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

THE DRIVE HOME

Well, we had gotten the mini van from my parents and it was time to drive home to the Bay Area. Unfortunately the weather spoiled our plans. We had planned on driving up the 5 back up, but snow closed down parts of the highway, and so we took the 101 North all the way back to the Bay Area. Though it was a much longer route, it was also far more scenic.

I haven't driven up the 101 North in years, so when we started approaching San Luis Obispo, I started noticing things that we had visited on a family trip years before. The thing that caught my eye was a giant billboard for Apple Farm. I remember visiting the place with my family years before, and since it was near lunch time, I made Tom get off the highway so we could find out. Unfortunately when we followed the directions that the billboard had given us, we found a satellite location for the Apple Farm which had closed. A little sad, we headed back to the 101, but at then I spied the original Apple Farm and we stopped for lunch.

You know, memories are a powerful thing. I don't actually remember eating at Apple Farm with my family, I just distinctly remember going there. But given that we had to wait 20 minutes for a table, I thought it'd probably be a decent place to eat. As we walked to the seats, I noticed that the clientele there is filled with locals, elderly people and tourists, probably not the best crowd to be dining with. And when we were given the menus, I noticed that the prices were actually kinda on the high side of standard American fare.

So we wanted to get back on the road, we ordered quickly. I got a turkey pot pie.

The crust that you see on top was actually the best part of the whole thing. I was very buttery and crusty. What was underneath wasn't as tasty, but it was fine. Meanwhile, Tom ordered a burger...

which came out pretty overcooked and anemic looking. At least the fries were ok.

Overally, it really wasn't worth stopping here for a bite. It did delay us an additional hour, and I have a feeling we would've been happier at In N Out, but it was good to experience this place again and learn that memories of food don't always translate to the present.

2008-12-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

PALM SPRINGS/LA DAY 2

Our second meal in Palm Springs took place the next morning for breakfast. After surfing Opentable, I had learned that there was a Norma's located inside the Parker Meridien in Palm Springs. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Norma's is famous for it's breakfast. Though I never visited the location in NY, they became widely known recently due to it's offering of a $1,000 omelet (it's got a lot of Beluga caviar on it). Though the prices are sky high, I figured it'd be fun to try it out, so I made the reservation.

When we arrived at the Parker in Palm Springs, we found a hotel that could be best described as retro chic. It was clearly an old hotel, that they had repainted and filled with all sorts of retro furniture and details. Not exactly the right fit for my parents, but it was different. We tried to find the restaurant, but there was no sign, just a open door that lead to an area with tables. I figured it was Norma's, since it was the only dining area in sight.

It turned out to be the right place, and we were seated quickly (by a gentleman wearing far more make up than needed). Here are our table settings - you can see how the retro chic look continues throughout.

Ok, here's a link to the menu, so you can check out the offerings and prices. Given that the prices begin at $15 and go up from there, you'd kinda expect this to be the most amazing breakfast that you were ever going to have. Tom and I did like the fact that they served as French press coffee, which was pretty good. For my breakfast, I ordered "flat as a pancake" crabcakes. Here they are below.

I'd say they were pretty good. Certainly not the best crab cakes that'd I'd ever had, but I liked the fact that my side dip was served in a hollowed out fried onion. We also decided to get an order of fresh donuts to share.

Unfortunately they weren't that great. The frying temperature had been far too low, allowing the batter to absorb a lot of oil, so they had that oil tasty and weren't as light and crunchy. Additionally, they had coated it with way too much sugar and cinnamon.

The good thing was that parents seemed to enjoy their breakfast. Tom and I agreed that though it was pretty good, it certainly wasn't worth the high price tag, and our favorite thing overall was the coffee.

After breakfast, it was time to visit one of the may spas in the area, and then it was back to LA for dinner with friends. When I found out I'd be going back to LA, I asked Katie to pick a restaurant and make a reservation so we could all go out to dinner. And though she rarely makes reservations so far in advance, she made an exception for me and made reservations at Akasha, near hear home in Culver City.

When we entered the restaurant, we found a sprawling space with high ceilings and a dark, industrial/modern interior. The entrance is a tad strange because the front part acts as take out cafe during the day, and you actually have to walk around to the side of that to reach the sprawling dining room. We were seated right away and given menus. Now, I don't know why I thought this (perhaps due to its name, or because I looked at the menu online too quickly), but initially, I thought the restaurant was more like a modern Indian place. However, I was wrong, and I would agree with Katie's assessment that it's "organic." Ok, I realize that doesn't actually describe a type of food, but the menu is kinda wide ranging, though does feature a lot of organic, vegetarian or vegan options.

I started off with a grilled artichoke.

I'm such a sucker for artichokes, they're truly one of my favorite foods. And though I don't think they're really in season right now, if I can get someone else to prepare them, I'll happily order it. This one was quite good. I liked the fact that it was grilled and not overcooked.

But it did kinda fill me up, so I wasn't super hungry when my entree arrived - a pizza with chicken sausage and red peppers.

I did enjoy the pizza, though I let Tom finish it off. Overall, I found the dining experience at Akasha pretty enjoyable. The prices are reasonable and though I wouldn't count it as a place I'd go for a casual bite, it's certainly somewhere to take friends who are in the area. Mostly, I liked hanging out with my friends from LA, and only wish I could see them more often.

2008-12-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER TRIP TO LA LA LAND...WITH A STOP IN PALM SPRINGS

Last week was my mom's birthday, so we decided to celebrate with a trip down to LA. Ok, actually, I needed to swap cars with my sister, but we figured since we needed to get that done anyway, we'd go on my mom's bday. Since my parents own a time share in Palm Springs, they decided that they wanted to celebrate there, so after a 7.5 hour drive, that where we ended up.

Now, I haven't been to Palm Springs in quite a while, but I don't remember stellar dining options there. But my sister had asked me to look up a place for dinner (and breakfast the following day). After some Googling, I was happy to find that Open Table had a list of restaurants in the area, and after some more research, I had settled on Zin American Bistro. (It was one of the recommended restaurant for "foodies").

After getting a bit lost finding the place, we finally arrived at the restaurant. It wasn't packed when we arrived, but it had totally filled up by the time we left, so it was clearly a local favorite. However, for me, if this is what the "foodies" in Palm Springs are eating, then I feel a bit of pity for them.

Below, you'll see the salad I had ordered. It was apparently a salad featuring their famous dressing (garlic/anchovy aka their version of Caesar). I don't know if you can tell from the pic, but it was more correctly dressing served with some lettuce. They had completely drowned it in their famous dressing. It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't that good.

But not everyone had the same experience as me. My mom enjoyed her lobster bisque, and was quite happy that there was actually a large chunk of lobster in it. My father liked his crab salad, though I really can't call this a "foodie" place when they would serve slices of tomato in December which were tasteless and didn't enhance the crab salad in any way. Oh, and Tom thought his sweetbreads were decent.

For my entree I ordered the fried chicken. As you must know from reading this blog, I have a small obsession with fried chicken. Unfortunately, this one wasn't so great. First, they actually managed to make the meat dry. (Isn't that the opposite of the purpose of frying?) and the coating on the outside wasn't so great. And the sides they chose to serve with it were kinda ridiculous in how heavy they were - heavily buttered mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and the chicken sat atop a pool of country gravy. It was all just too much for me, and I really didn't get very far. (My dad helped me out).

But again, not everyone had the same experience as me. My mom liked her mussels. Tom thought his rabbit stew was ok. My dad didn't like his porkchop because he felt the sauce was too sweet. What kinda annoyed me is that when he mentioned it to the server, the server didn't respond to it at all. There was no, oh, how can we make it better? Can it take it back? Would you prefer something else? There was just a nod.

We were seated next to the host stand and throughout dinner, that's where the chef spent a lot of his time, meeting and greeting diners. Personally, I thought he should've been in the kitchen overseeing every dish that was coming out. The good thing was, dinner wasn't super expensive, especially since I footed the bill. Would I go back? No. But I think the rest of my family had a far better experience than myself, and the important thing was that they enjoyed their time there.

2008-12-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

SUSHI BOATS!

Ok, you know I don't upload videos very often, but this one is so worth it. And, they've made posting videos much easier now, so I think I'll be doing it far more often. Just click below...

We were visiting my cousin at the hospital in SF, which is located right next to Japantown. And rather than facing rush hour traffic, we headed over to grab dinner before going home. We had known about the conveyor belt sushi place, Isobune, but hadn't tried it yet, and so this was a good opportunity to check it out.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is how conveyor belt sushi works. Basically you have dishes of food going by you. Each dish costs a different amount of money, which is dictated by the color plate that it's on. As you eat, you collect plates and in order to calculate your bill, the staff with tally how many plates you have of each color. It's pretty easy.

However, this place was truly awesome. If you actually watched the video, you 'll see that it's not just a conveyor belt. The plates of sushi are actually riding atop sushi boats that are chained together and floating along a little body of water. How much more entertaining could it be?

Ok, as for the sushi, that's a different matter. The sushi at a conveyor belt sushi place is never stellar, because it's not made to order. The thing doesn't get eaten until someone picks it up. So sometimes, the same plate is just riding around, as the food dries out and doesn't look so hot. Ideally, you want to go to a busy place so the food is turning. We went to dinner a bit early. So there was a mix of fresh stuff and not so fresh stuff. I gotta say overall, the food wasn't too bad. I had some pretty decent sushi, and it truly wasn't that expensive (and certainly cheaper than Kirala here in the East Bay).

Tom accumulated far more plates than I did, and he enjoyed the octopus the most. He didn't feel it was the freshest and best fish ever, but he also liked the variety and the experience of going. I wouldn't say that we'd rush back to this place, but if we're in the area in the mood for sushi, it's certainly a good place to grab a quick bite, without blowing a ton of money on sushi.

2008-12-21T18:23:00.000-08:00

TURKEY DAY 2008

And finally, I will blog about Turkey Day, though you may find this posting rather disappointing since I forgot to photograph the results, but more about that later. This year we celebrated Turkey Day at home, with just a small party of 4. Tom persuaded me not to go overboard, which I have a tendency to do, so I stuck to a bit more of a simple set up. We didn't get a whole turkey - just a turkey breast, and that was mainly for Tom. I was more interested in the duck breasts I got.

But here I am starting to prep my turkey breast.

You know, you never realize how big a four pound turkey breast really is until you're given one by the butcher. I had specially ordered this one from a butcher in SF - it was an organic Diestel turkey breast. As for preparation, I had pondered for a while what I wanted to do. At first I considered frying it, but upon watching an episode of Tyler's Ultimate on the Food Network, I decided to do his Turkey Breast with Cornbread Stuffing Recipe. I ended up choosing this recipe because the ingredients were fairly simple, and it would cook up pretty quickly. In the photo above, I'm slicing the turkey breast in half in preparation for stuffing it.

Here I am stuffing the breast with the corn bread stuffing. I had made the cornbread earlier in the week with my favorite Marie Calendar's cornbreak mix. Sure, it cost 4.5 times more than the other cornbread mix, but it's well worth it. After stuffing the breast, I had to tie it all together with butcher string.

Ok, here's the finished thing, with the stuffing kinda spluging out.

Now the next step was to brown this in a pan, but the other thing you don't realize is how heavy and unwiedly a 4 pound turkey breast stuffed with corn bread really is. This thing just wasn't easy to handle. However, all the work ultimately paid off - sort of. The turkey itself came out really nicely cooked and tasty. The stuffing was another matter. It ended being far more mealy than expected. I actually wished I had stuffed it with a more traditional stuffing, or maybe even wild rice. But the good thing was that Tom enjoyed it, and he finished all the leftovers off within 2 days of Thanksgiving.

As for the rest of the meal, well, by the time I finished the turkey and started putting everything out, I had completely forgotten about taking photos. But I did make a lovely tarte tatin, even though I didn't get to pick the apples myself, like I would have done in Boston. And overall, it ended up being a very peaceful, quiet evening. Just what I needed after all the work and chaos of the holiday season.

2008-12-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

MY FIRST DRIVE THRU

Yes, I know I haven't posted since Thanksgiving, but I'm busy. And I'm totally backlogged on posts, including my Thanksgiving dinner post. But I wanted to put up a quick mention about my first drive thru experience. No, it wasn't the first time I'd ever been through a drive thru, but it was the first time I was doing the driving and ordering.

We were heading down to LA this past weekend, and before we departed, we stopped off at a BK drive thru, and I realized that this was the first time I'd ever driven through one on my own. Normally I just find it faster to park and go in - you have at least two or three people waiting on you, rather than just one. And you know what? It's kinda fun - like a ride at Disneyland. There are brightly colored signs and pictures. They tell you where to go and this person talks to you through a monitor. It's all so strange if you think about it and yet, man, Americans really do come up with crazy things. I mean, really? Who was the genius that came up with the drive thru? And what will we come up with next?

2008-11-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

LUNCH AT POULET

For some time I've wanted to visit Poulet, a little deli in Berkeley that serves, what else? - chicken. So on a Monday, Tom and I headed over there to grab a quick lunch. Apparently we showed up right before the lunch rush arrived, because there weren't any people waiting when we arrived, and there was a line as soon as we had placed our orders.

The place is kinda tiny, but very cute and decorate in sort of a rustic French way. The front is dominated by a really big case, where they keep a bunch of cold salads and various other side dishes. You can tell this must be a popular place to get some quick take out for lunch or dinner. Tom and I perused the menu for a little bit, before finally settling on what we wanted to order.

I ended up getting a chicken plate. I had a choice of three different flavors of chicken, and ended up going with teriyaki and a side of coleslaw. The food was well cooked and flavored, but I thought the portion was kinda skimpy for the amount of money. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. I really should stop eating so much food and start cutting back on my portion sizes- you know, more of that European thing - really good food, but in smaller quanities.

Meanwhile, Tom got a panini which ended up being kinda boring. The panini wasn't grilled long enough for the cheese to actually melt, and all it was was chicken and cheese on bread - there weren't any additional veggies or additions.

In retrospect, we may not have had the most wonderful food at Poulet, but it certainly was decent enough. And to be honest, if it were open right now, I'd probably run over then to pick up a quick, simple, realtively healthy lunch. It really does have it's place, and though we may not be visiting it often, I'm sure we'll go back at some point.

2008-11-10T14:04:00.001-08:00

DINING AT THE FERRY BUILDINGg

A couple weeks ago we visited the Ferry Building so I could order my Thanksgiving meats at the Golden Gate Meat Company (I ordered 4 duck breasts and one turkey breast from Diestel farms). Since we were already there, and kinda hungry, we decided to grab a quick lunch. Unfortunately it was Sunday, meaning the tourists were out in full force, and the line at Hog Island Oysters was just too long, so we decided to check out a place we hadn't eaten at before - Delica rf-1.

For the longest time I had thought Delica was an Italian deli, but turns out it is really a sleek Japanese Deli, specializing in serving bento boxes to go. They had a lot of things to choose from - cold bento boxes or warm bento boxes that you could choose to assemble yourself. I decided to go with one of the cold bento boxes with 9 different selections - mostly mini salads, a couple pieces of sushi and a chicken meat ball.

I thought the bento box was Ok. Certainly healthy, but I really do enjoy hot food, and I don't think there was enough food for the high price tag (around $11). I definitely like the bento boxes that we can get in Japantown more.

Meanwhile, Tom got one of the pick your own bento boxes with 3 dishes. You can see there are chicken meatballs towards the top, a sort of eggplant dish on the right, white rice at the bottom and seaweed salad on the left.

Tom also thought his bento box was ok. It might not have been his favorite thing in the world, but the place is conveneient and allows you to get a quick bite at the Ferry Building. The organization of the place is a little strange and it's hard to figure out where to pay or how to order, but once you get it down, it's not too bad (and he's already been back there once since our first visit.)

2008-11-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

DINNER ON HALLOWEEN

On Halloween night we had dinner with Huong in Rockridge. It was only our second trip to Rockridge, but luckily, she had picked a restaurant a little bit farther from the main drag, so we were able to find parking pretty quickly. Tom picked me up after work and we went directly to the restaurant, Soi 4 Hong Kong Eatery, and I was starving when we arrived. Even though we were a little late for our reservation, the restaurant wasn't packed, and we were seated right away. The restaurant is a sort of fancy Thai place - with big windows that looked out onto the street, a lot of metal and a big bar. It was kinda fun looking out onto the street, with costumed people walking by.

Since Huong and her friend were running late, I insisted upon order a few appetizers right away, so I could get some food in my tummy. We ended up getting an order of fish cakes and and crispy veggie rolls.

Both were good, and they really hit the spot. But I certainly don't think they were worth the $6-$7 /plate that they charged.

When Huong and her friend arrived, we ordered a bunch of dishes to share. Below you can see a duck curry and a crispy sliced chicken & string beans wok-tossed with sweet kaffir pik-khing chili.

The dishes were all quite good. And I really did enjoy the crispy chicken, but Tom and I agree that we could have easily had a meal just as good at half the price if we had visited Sabuy Sabuy (just as long as the owner's there). As with certain types of food, I just don't feel that I need fancy Thai food, I would much rather be eating at a little restaurant or hole in the wall, where I'll have food that's just as good, and the price will be much lower. Also, I don't think the service was that great at Soi 4. They really seemed to want to turn our table (even though there wasn't anyone waiting to be seated) and served our dishes way too quickly. It was fun to hang out and eat with Huong, but I think next time, we'll pick the restaurant.

2008-10-19T20:22:00.000-07:00

ITALIAN IN LA

We were down in LA to attend Katie and Dustin's wedding a few weeks ago, and that also allowed us to spend a couple days hanging out with my family. I wanted to try out some of the new restaurants in LA, but my mom made reservations at an Italian restaurant that she had visited previously called La Botte. Hidden on a corner in Santa Monica, it's full of dark woods, and dark leather. When we entered, the restaurant was almost empty (we had an early reservations so my little sis and her boyfriend could drive back down in SD later that evening.)

The servers were really friendly, though, and unlike many places where servers will pretend like they can speak Italian, many of the servers actually were Italian. So were ordered a bunch of small plates to share, and my favorite one is below - a duck prosciutto.

It was pretty light and not too salty, so I like it quite a bit. Most people at dinner ordered just one course (a pasta course) for dinner, but I was hungry, so I ordered two courses. (God, is it any wonder that I've gained so much weight since leaving Boston?) At any rate, here's my crab and squid ink linguini. I found this dish to be allright - it was pretty basic and as I often say, I could have made it very easily at home.

Meanwhile, I also ordered a dish or roasted duck, which I liked a much more. The duck was well cooked and had very crispy skin.

I think our meal was actually pretty good. I think it's hard for me to judge restaurants when I don't pay for the meal, because that whole value thing goes out the window. But the bottom line is that my family had a good time eating there, the service was very friendly and I wouldn't mind going back.

2008-10-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

FRIED CHICKEN AT AD HOC

Yes, I know it's been more than a month since I've blogged. But as Tom can probably tell you, I've been exceedingly busy and stressed out at work. But finally I have a day off where I can sit around and not do a whole lot (Ok, I lie, I'll probably be doing a little work later today and I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner). But while sitting on my couch with Top Chef playing in the background and my kitty curled up in a ball next to me, I decided to catch up on my blog. Actually, I'm pretty surprised that I haven't even blogged about our trip to Ad Hoc, so that just shows show long over due I am for blogging.

Ok, so a while ago Tom and I went for dinner at Ad Hoc in Yountville. But it wasn't just a regular dinner - it was the fried chicken dinner at Ad Hoc. For those of you who aren't familiar, Ad Hoc is a Thomas Keller restaurant with a bit of a twist - they only serve one prix fixe menu every night. It's 4 courses for $48, and you can't choose what you get, and they don't repeat the exact same menu. The good thing is that at least once a week, on alternating Wednesdays and Mondays, they always do a fried chicken night. So it's pretty easy to predict which day fried chicken night happens.

So before we even headed over to Ad Hoc, we dropped by the Oxbow Market for some snacks and provisions. The reason we were up in Napa was not just to have dinner at Ad Hoc, I also wanted to see some grapes on the vines during harvest.

At Oxbow we visited the Fatted Calf Charcuterie where Tom picked up a ton of stuff including some thinly sliced lardo, duck rillettes and smoked turkey.

After our snack, we drove over to Chandon in the hopes of seeing some grapes on the vines, but it turned out we were too late - most of them had already been harvested. A bit disappointed, we headed over to Yountville for dinner. Since we were still early for dinner, we walked around the town, and finally spotted some actual grapes on the vine.

And so I was finally ready for dinner at Ad Hoc.

The dining room at Ad Hoc isn't very big, but it is very Californian, with this casual, modern look, and lots of brown leather. We were having an early dinner (the only reservation I could get was at 5:30), so the dining room wasn't full when we arrived.

After ordering some drinks, we were served our first course - a salad of haricot vert.

Oh, I forgot to mention that no only does Ad Hoc serve only one menu, but they also serve everything family style. Man, looking at the photo of this salad just makes me hungry. It was really perfectly done. They were so generous with the the green beans, but what made it really awesome were the pickled red onions. The only thing we didn't like were the black olives served on top of the salad, which were way overpowering.

Next up was the main course - the fried chicken. It was also served with two sides- brussel spouts and roasted potatoes cooked with bacon.
Tom's favorite dish of the entire night ended up being the potatoes cooked with bacon. The chicken was served in a really generous portion (we actually ended up taking some of it home) and what I liked about it was the little hint of rosemary. The batter was much lighter than the fried chicken that I make, and what can I say, how can you really beat freshly fried, prefectly cooked chicken?

Our third course was the cheese course - the Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery.
Now, I'm not normally into soft cheeses, but this was really awesome. It was served with warm, butter toast and a side of fig jam. So when you spread the cheese on the toast, it just melted and adding the fig jam on top added this lovely sweet note. Surprisingly enough, I really enjoyed it.

And the last coure was dessert - for me my least favorite course for dinner. Acutally I don't find any of the Ad Hoc desserts really inspiring (I get the email menu every day). They really go for simple desserts that can be easily assembled. In this case we had red wine poached pears with whipped cream and shortbread cookies on the side. But it was decent enough and I certainly ate my share.

Overall, we had a really lovely meal at Ad Hoc. And sitting there at dinner, looking out at this beautiful sunny day as the sunset over the valley, it was really hard not to think that we were truly lucky to be living and eating in the Bay Area.

2008-10-06T12:18:00.001-07:00

HANGING WITH THE BOYS FROM BOSTON

We were pretty busy a few weeks ago. Not only were Cathy and Ben visiting, but Big Ed and Harin were also in from Boston to attend a wedding in the Bay Area. Even though they stayed at our place, we didn't get to spend much time with them since they were otherwise occupied with all different wedding related activities. However, on the Monday before they left, we were able to hang out together and visit the Ferry Building. We also met up with Sue Min and Nate there.

The Ferry Building is packed with all types of places to eat, so we decided to take on a grazing tactic and visit a number of different vendors. They first one that we stopped off at was the famed Hog Island Oyster. It was beautiful day, so we sat outside:

Harin and Ed ordered a number of items from the menu which we all ended up sharing. We were given some rolls and butter...

And then we were left to wait. It was kinda surprising that the food ended up taking so long, since half of it was raw. But it showed up after a while. They boys ordered a dozen different oysters:

And though I didn't partake, they thoroughly enjoyed it. They also ordered some oysters casino and some clams. Meanwhile, I ordered some fresh sardines:

And they were really excellent. I love really fresh sardines, because they end up with only a slight fishiness.

After Hog Island, the boys got some charcuterie, bread and cheese. While they sat aside Taylor's Automatic Refresher enjoying their snacks, I got an order of chicken fingers and sweet potato fries. Overall, we had a fun time just hanging out and eat. Harin said that I really do know how to eat, and I responded, it's one of the fews things I'm truly good at.

2008-10-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

OLIVETO, ROCKRIDGE

Since my little sister, Cathy, was in town with her boyfriend, Ben, we decided to head out to dinner at a place we hadn't tried before. We ended up in Rockridge, which is a really nice area in North Oakland, filled with shops, and on that day, a street festival that was winding down when we arrived. We headed over to a restaurant called Oliveto, which is a pretty famous restaurant in the East Bay. The upstairs area is the fancy party, but they also have a small cafe downstairs, specializing in small plates and pizzas.

The cafe is pretty cozy, but they had quite a few seats available and we were seated immediately. After perusing the menu, we decided to order a few small plates. Tom, Cathy and Ben ordered pizzas, while I ordered a chicken brochette.

Here's a photo of one of the small plate: a salad of octopus and beans. Normally Tom loves octopus, but he also hates celery, so he was so so on this.

And then there was my chicken. On the menu it was $15, so I was expecting something more substantial than a single skewer of chicken. Now, it was really tasty, with lemon zest and grilled bread sandwiched between the chicken pieces, but for $15, I should've gotten at least 3 of these.

Not surprisingly, I ended up being pretty hungry. I stole some pizza from Tom, but even then I was hungry. So post dinner, we check out Ici, a very famous ice cream place also in Rockridge. There was a line out the door, but I gotta say, it wasn't worth it. I just like gelato much more then ice cream. At least it filled me up, though.

So even though the food (what I had of it) at Oliveto was pretty good, the price are just too high for the portion sizes. I wouldn't mind going back if someone else were paying. Actually, Ben paid, but I mean more like my parents, but I'd just prefer to go somewhere where I don't walk out hungry.

2008-10-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

OYSTERS IN TOMALES BAY

A little while ago I had to do a demo up in Point Reyes Station for a client. It was my first time visiting Point Reyes - an area north west of where we live, but it was a cute little town and not too far from our home. While I was doing the demo, I overheard some people talking about the place you could go and buy oysters and shuck them yourself. I was curious about it, so when I got home, I googled it and found out about the Tomales Bay Oyster Co. Actually, there are two companies, Tomales Bay and the more famous Hog Island. I had wanted to go to Hog Island Oyster, but not only do they charge you to reserve a picnic table ($8/person), but it fills up months in advance for weekend reservations. Oh, I'll also mention here that I don't eat oysters. Actually, the only bivalve I eat are scallops, but Tom loves oysters, as does my little sister, so when she and her boyfriend, Ben, visited last month, we decided to take them up to Tomales Bay.

So I actually did some major prep before our drive up - buying bread, supplies, utensils, etc. And the first stop we made before we even went to Tomales Bay was at the famed Cow Girl Creamery located in Point Reyes Station. Here we picked up some supplies, like cheese, drinks, and rabbit pate. We ended up at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company a little before noon, and luckily, not all the picnic tables were taken up yet - though plenty of people were already there- shucking oysters and preparing for their BBQ's.

Since it was our first time, I went on the guidance of reviews on Yelp, which in retrospect I probably shouldn't have done. While Tom heated the grill, we headed over to buy the bags of oysters. This is where they're kept:
This place only offers one type of oysters in like 5 different sizes. People online generally suggested getting the large oysters for shucking and grilling. So I ordered 50 of them (the previous day, Tom said he could easily eat 40 oysters). While I was fiddling with ordering some mussels and shucking tools, the oyster were gathered up. Only when I was handing over the money did I realize how enormous the "large" oysters really were.

We hauled the bag back to our picnic table, and Tom got busy shucking. Unfortunately, our oysters were like 2-3 times the size of the oysters we'd seen online for the shucking tutorials on Youtube, and it ended up being much harder in real life. Cathy and I left the shucking to Ben and Tom, and after eating a few raw, they decided that the best way to serve them would be cooked on the grill.

Meanwhile, I manned the grill, grilling our bread, to eat with the cheese. I had also bought myself a pack of chicken dogs, and happily ate those. Here's Cathy and Ben at our table - the view was pretty spectacular, and you couldn't have asked for a nicer day.
After a while, we started getting pretty stuffed. But I'd bought five pounds of mussels to cook for my little sis. I did it with some garlic, white wine and parsley and cooked it all over the grill.

Our neighbors at the table next to us were also really friendly and they had totally done this before. There were only two of them, and they had so much extra food that they started giving it away to all the surrounding tables. They gave us garlic bread and some seafood stew with more mussels. I also saw lots of groups of Chinese people - one party was grilling shrimp wrapped in bacon.

Overall, we had a really great time. I had bought too many oysters, and ended up hauling them back home and giving them to a friend. I've now learned my lesson that next time I have to buy the small oysters, and hopefully will actually manage to shuck one successfully. And I'm hoping to go back soon.

2008-10-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN SUSHI? ONLY IN BERKELEY

There's a very popular Vegan/Vegetarian Japanese restaurant in Berkeley called Cha-ya that I've wanted to try for quite some time. However, the place is tiny and since it's located in Berkeley, it's also packed most of the time. We'd tried going there once, but the line was too long, and on other occasions, the restaurant's been packed.

So we were pretty surprised one evening while we were headed to a different restaurant that there were seats available at Cha-ya. We decided to take advantage and ducked in to sit at the sushi bar. Now, I knew that Cha-ya was expensive since I'd seen their menu previously, but it was really quite surprising how expensive it was considering that there was no fish involved at all. Many people assume that just because it's vegetarian, food will be cheaper, but I've founded that that is often not the case, especially up here in the Bay Area. Basically, the prices at Cha-ya were the same as if you'd gone to a nice sushi restaurant (and maybe a little higher, too).

At any rate, since the place was kinda pricey, I had to do some strategic ordering. I started off with a special. It's a tofu roll with corn that's wrapped in seaweed and deep fried. It served with a side of dipping sauce:

As you can see, they have very nice presentation here, and the tofu roll wasn't too bad. Meanwhile, Tom ordered a bowl of agadedashi tofu. (deep fried tofu in broth). It was quite good, and I ended up liking it more than my own tofu dish.

Then we each had plates of sushi. Here's mine. You can see that there's one cucumber roll, and then 3 pieces of nigiri - one with seaweed, the other topped with mushroom and the third with eggplant. Again, the presentation was really nice.

However, the sushi itself was pretty terrible. Or not so much the sushi, but the sushi rice. It was tough and underflavored and really not tasty at all. I soon discovered why. While watching the chef prepare sushi for another customer, I watched him take out a large plastic bag filled with rice. He then walked over to a microwave, nuked it, and used that for the sushi. This place charged so much money, and they didn't even make their rice fresh. That was just appalling.

Additionally, we didn't really start off the meal on a great note. We were basically ignored by the waitress for like 10 minutes, during which I was very tempted to just walk right out. Our dinner ended up costing $40, which is much more than we usually spend on a sushi dinner, and in the words of Sue Min, "It cost the same as regular sushi and there was no fish? Why bother?" and I'd have to agree with her.

2008-10-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

SAUSAGES AND FRITES

As many of you know, Tom and I have plans to adopt an additional kitty and one day a dog. Not right away - we're gonna wait until we have more room, first, but that didn't stop us from attending the annual SPCA Adopt-a-thon at Jack London Square in Oakland. It was our first time to Jack London Square and there was a lot going on that Sunday. We saw plenty of cute puppies and kitties and there was a also a farmer's market to walk around.

Earlier in the week, I had read of review of a place serving sausage and frites right in the area called O'My Dawg, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be quite a small shop, and after perusing the menu, I realized that there weren't any non-pork or beef options. That's a little unusual for the Bay Area - even the little hot dog cart a block from work serves turkey dogs, and they only have 5 things on the menu. I think this place will figure it our pretty soon, and add either turkey or veggie dogs. At any rate, this meant that I'd be eating just frites. That wasn't a bad option though. Here they are below.

They were definitely skinnier than the traditional Belgian frites that I've had, but they weren't bad. And I like the slightly smokey and spicy aioli that it was served with.

Meanwhile, Tom had two different type of sausages. I don't remember which ones, but he actually liked them quite a lot - enough to say that he'd want to go back again in the future. (and he tends to be pretty picky about his hot dogs). As for me, the setting was nice, and the owners were very friendly, but I think I'll wait to go back when they've got a turkey dog on the menu.

2008-10-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

BREAKFAST IN BERKELEY

As many of you know, Tom and I are early risers, so we enjoy going out for breakfast. After living here for over a year now, we certainly have our favorite places, but we're always looking for new ones to try, too. We've recently found two places to add to our regular roster of breakfast favorites. The first is a coffeeshop called Jimmy Bean's. We've often driven by this place and I'd heard good things about it, but we hadn't taken the time to visit it, so one morning we finally headed over to Berkeley to check it out.

Jimmy Bean's is owned by a family that owns several restaurants in Berkeley. Unfortunately, I haven't really loved the other restaurants that we've visited (T-Rex BBQ and Fonda), so I was a little skeptical about Jimmy Beans. On the other hand, it is pretty hard to screw up breakfast. When we arrived, the place was pretty empty, so it was easy to find a table quickly. We first ordered out breakfast at the cashier, helped ourselves to coffee and were given a number to put on our table.

This place is much more casual and has an unfinished look to it that their other restaurants lack. After picking a table and flipping through the paper a bit, our breakfast arrived. I had ordered a breakfast burrito, which chicken sausage, eggs and cheese.

As you can see, it was served with a side of 3 dipping sauces, and the green one, the cilantro pesto, made the whole thing worth eating. The breakfast burrito was good, but with that cilantro pesto, it was truly amazing. Meanwhile, Tom ordered corned beef hash.

He found the hash to be pretty good, and even liked it more than the hash he'd had at 900 Grayson. Breakfast ending up being very enjoyable - the only thing that wasn't was the price. This place definitely cost more than our usual breakfast places, so I think we'll visit it only when we have guests in town.

Another breakfast place that we've frequented lately is Berkeley Bagels. It's been known to have the best NY style bagels in the Bay Area. We finally checked this place out while dog sitting for a friend - they just live a few blocks from the store. Here's the bagel case:

And here's the bagel I ordered:

Though the coffee there isn't great, I do enjoy their bagels. I normally get a toasted Asiago bagel with light butter. We did try their whole wheat bagels, but they use real wheat, and it came out too heavy and chewy. It might not be as healthy, but I'll stick with their normal bagels. As for being as good as NY? Not quite, but since I don't eat bagels that often, I'm happy to have theirs.

2008-10-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

GETA SUSHI, PIEDMONT

In our continuing quest to find good, cheap sushi in the Bay Area, we recently headed over to an area that we haven't visited before - Piedmont. Piedmont is one of the up and coming neighborhoods in North Oakland, filled with a strip of cute shops and restaurants. My co-worker who lives in the area was the one who suggested Geta, since she enjoys going there for quick, cheap sushi.

So we headed over there one evening and found the place pretty quickly. It's actually not too far from work, by kind of a schlep from where we live, so I'm not sure how often we'll be visiting Geta. When we arrived, we found a very small restaurant, with only about 5 tables and 4 seats at a bar. It was so small that there was a little line outside, and we ended up joining the line and waiting to get it. Luckily it was a pretty warm night, and the line moved quickly, so we only waited about 10 minutes before we were seated at a table for two.

My co-worker wasn't kidding about the low prices. Everything was incredibly cheap, with nothing on the menu over $12. Below is the sashimi plate that Tom ordered:

It was very pretty and a decent portion. He said the fish was ok. Not the freshest stuff in the world, but not terrible, either. I ordered a cucumber salad:

Along with some rolls (behind my rolls is some spicy chicken that Tom also ordered).

I had ordered a lobster roll, because it was only $6.50 and also a veggie roll. Overall, it wasn't too bad, and certainly worth the very low prices. I ended up liking this place more than Manpuku, though Tom felt that they were about equal. And I thought that they were making pretty good stuff, considering the very tight space that they were working out of. I wouldn't mind going back again in the future.

After dinner, we decided to explore Piedmont a little bit. We walked down the streets and discovered all types of cute shops and places to eat. I think we'll certainly have to go back in the future and explore more of the food options there. If only it weren't so far away....

2008-09-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

A HODGE PODGE OF BITES

All of the things we ate below aren't worth their own posts (not that they weren't good, but most were snacks), so I've combined it all into a mini hodge podge post. The first one I'll start off with is pizza at Arizmendi. There are a lot of co-ops in Berkeley. We like going to this one co-op cheese store and bought our bikes at a co-op bike shop. It's a big thing here in the Bay Area. Another well known co-op is a bakery called Arizmendi. Much like Cheese Board Pizza, Arizmendi makes a single type of veggie pizza every day. They even have a pizza calendar on their website. The day we went, we go to try the Roasted Carrots, Arugula, Roasted Garlic, Three Cheese, Cherry-Balsamic Vinaigrette pizza.

I figured with so many ingredients that there'd be no way to tell the difference between each one. But this pizza proved me wrong. Here's a pic of the pizza:

It's kinda hard to see the carrots, which were shredded pretty thinly, but you could really taste the vinegar and cheeses. I thought the pizza was actually very nice. My only complaint was the fact that the crust was very very chewy. But I wouldn't mind going back to try a few other types of pizza.

Next up, the Solano Avenue Stroll. The Solano Ave Stroll is this neighborhood event that takes place once a year. There are tons of people who go and vendors setup their booths all along Solano Ave. Tom really didn't want to go. He hates crowds. But I love food booths. So I forced him to go along. As walked along the crowded streets, we soon realized that the food vendors weren't concentrated in one area - they'd been spread out between all the other vendors. This kinda sucked, because you can't check out all the booths at once and decide what you want. After seeing about 3 food booths, we ran into us with stuff that actually interested us AND the line was pretty short.

So below you'll see what we got:

Ok, at the bottom of the pic, you can see a corn dog. But the great thing about living in northern CA is that they offered turkey or veggie dogs. We both opted for the turkey. Since the batter was homemade, you could actually see the cornmeal in the batter and it was pretty tasty (too bad they were so busy they couldn't refill the ketchup.)

At the top of the pic is something less identifiable and rather strange - it's garlic fries topped with crab aioli (the white stuff) and crab (the pink stuff). Ok ok , it sounds strange, and I wasn't going to order it, but Tom wanted to try it. And to be honest, it wasn't that bad. Those garlic fries were really the best part - probably some of the best garlic fries we've had here. Tom felt that there was too much aioli (he was right) and really wasn't a fan of it period. But overall, I found this to be surprisingly good. Too bad we were so stuffed that we were too full to try stuff from the other stalls.

And finally, a cheap Thai restaurant on the Berkeley campus called Tuk Tuk Thai. We had dropped my car off at the repair shop and decided to stop here for lunch. They had pretty cheap lunch specials, which ended up not being all that bad. Here's my tom yum soup below:

And my chicken with basil and noodles. It came with a summer roll on the side. The food was decent enough, and the generous portion meant that I was able to take the left overs home. Overall, not a bad meal.

And that's my list of bites in the East Bay.

2008-09-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

GOING VEGETARIAN IN SANTA CRUZ

On our last day in Santa Cruz, we just had time for breakfast. My sister and her boyfriend had a long drive ahead of them, so not too much time to hang out. We decided to go to check out a local restaurant called the Saturn Cafe. I had checked out the menu briefly while at the beachhouse, and saw that they were well known for their burgers and late night scene.

It looks a little funky from the outside:

And is even funkier on the inside: (I'm pointing out their lighting here)

So apparently I hadn't looked at the menu close enough, because what we soon figured out was that this place was a vegetarian restaurant. And apparently what they're famous for our their veggies burgers. Since it was just for breakfast, it's kinda easy to go without meat. I just ordered chocolate chip pancakes:

And what can I say, they were pretty good. Just pancakes. Meanwhile, Tom was a little more adventureous and ordered something with "fakin' bacon" ie. bacon looking stuff made out of tofu. To be honest, it didn't taste that bad. The texture was just kinda strange. And he compared them to Bacos (which are also vegetarian).

The breakfast at Saturn was pretty decent. I enjoyed the funky decor and wouldn't mind going back to try out those famous veggie burgers.

2008-09-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

EATING LOCALLY IN SANTA CRUZ

Day 2 in Santa Cruz was filled with activity. We were very lucky that the beachhouse was located just blocks from a large farmer's market. So on Sunday morning, we headed over there for breakfast, and to pick up food for dinner (we had decided to do some grilling that evening).

We arrived at the market right as it opened, so not all the vendors had setup. We did a quick circle around the market to check out what was available and what we should have for breakfast.

We bought a few cups of coffee, along with bread and cheese. The nice thing about this market is that they setup tables where you can actually sit and enjoy your purchases.

I bought a head of "elephant garlic", basically I huge garlic clove, for grilling that evening.

We ultimately decided that for breakfast, we'd eat crepes. We got 2 salty crepes:

and I got my favorite nutella and strawberry crepe:
They actually came out pretty excellent. The only bummer was the wait. It took about 20 minutes before our crepes were ready, but we just munched on some of our purchases and I perused some of the stalls. We ended up buying a ton of stuff at the farmer's market, and took all our supplies home before we headed out for the day.

Our second stop of the day was a visit to Bonny Doon winery - located in the hills, about 20 minutes from where we were staying. It's a located in a totally scenic area. Because I was the designated driver and Tom doesn't drink, we left my sister and her boyfriend to check out the tasting room while we wandered the grounds. That day, they just happened to have a caterer doing bbq on site, so Tom and I felt it was a good opportunity to get a snack. Here's the cute mini bbq that they were using: Tom ended up ordering a pulled pork sandwich:
We were surprised that they put the coleslaw on top on the sandwich, rather than to the side. Tom thought it was ok, I thought it was kinda small for the $8 they charged. Meanwhile, I got some chicken wings: I liked the fact that they were juicy and kinda had these burnt crispy parts. They were pretty good, and not nearly as expensive as Tom's sandwich.

After driving down the mountain, we spent some additional time in downtown Santa Cruz, bought some more supplies for dinner and just hung out at the beach house. We eventually started preparing to do our grilling for dinner. We had gotten a huge number of veggies at the morning farmer's market. Here's Tom cooking them on the grill (you can also see some of the sausages we bought downtown): And we ended up with quite a spread (and this doesn't even show everything we made): The food turned out super delicious, and we got to eat it outdoors. It was a really a great day for eating locally and cooking for ourselves. And after stuffing our cheeks, we rested a bit before relaxing in the hot tub - the best way to finish off a truly fun day.

2008-09-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

BETTY'S BURGER'S AND THE SANTA CRUZ BEACH BOARDWALK

After my sister and boyfriend arrived in Santa Cruz, we played a round of pool. (yes, along with beautiful views, the beach house came with its own pool table). I suck at pool. Luckily, everyone was ready to go for dinner. Earlier in the day when we drive over to downtown Santa Cruz, we'd passed by a burger restaurant called Betty Burgers. I noticed it just by the smell coming off the place. So we decided to head over there for dinner.

When we arrived at the place, it was already pretty packed with family, locals and a whole lot of children (it was Labor Day Weekend after all). The place is pretty small, but is decorated with cute 1950s decor and they have a good amount of seating outside. I had Tom place our order while I went outside to stake out a table and chairs.

After we placed our orders, we waited for quite a long time. The place was packed, and they made their burgers to order. Still, after waiting about 15-20 minutes, we finally went in to check on our order. We were told it'd be out shortly and it was. Here's a photo of Tom's burger:

It was a 1/2 pound patty, and as you can see, he got it with all the toppings. I think he said it was ok, but not as good as the burgers at Al's Big Burger. Meanwhile, we got a basket of sweet potato fries to share:

I was a big fan of these fries. They were skinnier than the normal sweet potato fries, which make them cook up extra crispy, and I do love crispy fries. It was served with a side of their secret sauce, which I really didn't find all that special, and the fries were pretty great on their own.

Meanwhile, I was still so full from lunch that I got a kid size order of chicken tenders:

And what can I say, they were chicken tenders. Nothing super special, but not bad, either. I was only disappointed that they had only one type of dipping sauce - ranch.

After dinner, it was off to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. (we see ads for this on ALL THE TIME). I gotta say, it was located in a seedier part of town (if you could say that Santa Cruz has a seedy part of town) and the attractions themselves were a little run down and unseemly. But we still had a good time playing skee ball (when the machine wasn't ripping us off) , video games and just walking around.

To top off the day, Tom decided that he needed to try a deep fried twinkie (though I encouraged him not to):As you can see, it came on a stick, drenched in powdered sugar and chocolate sauce. I didn't try it, but made him let me look at the inside when he bit into it - the creamy interior had basically disintegrated during the frying process. He ended up throwing most of it out, because had been pre-fried and had been sitting there for a little while before it'd been served (not tasty for any type of fried food).

So we had a great first day in Santa Cruz. Did a little bit of relaxing and a little bit of sightseeing, with plenty more sightseeing coming up.

2008-09-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

WEEKEND IN SANTA CRUZ, DAY 1

Many of you may know that I haven't really taken any time off since starting my job a year ago. This is due to a number of reasons. First, I run the retail store, so it's pretty much open all the time. Second, we haven't done a lot of traveling - just some weekend trips within CA, that hasn't required me to take days off. Third, I kinda am a work-a-holic. Not so much like my co-worker who works 24/7, but things need to get done and I will work on my days off. I don't know, after owning my own business where I just worked all the time for over 2 years (and you business owners know what I'm talking about), even having 2 days off a week still seems like a luxury, and I haven't even taken advantage of any of my paid vacation days (which I seem to be saving up like it's a precious treasure). But above all else, I need the money.

But all people need a break, and just get away from it all. So even though Slow Food Nation was in town for Labor Day weekend, I skipped all the festivities to spend a quiet weekend in Santa Cruz with Tom, my sister and her boyfriend. We even got to stay there for free, by borrowing the awesome beach house of my aforementioned co-worker.

Tom and I got down to Santa Cruz in the late afternoon. After dropping our stuff off at the house, we decided to grab some lunch and check out the downtown area. I'd read some reviews of NYTimes, and we decided to go to a restaurant called Taqueria Vallarta, well known for its large potions and low prices.

Tom and I both ordered fish tacos. Here they are below. As you can see, they were pretty loaded with stuff. Unlike the fish tacos we're accustomed to, they didn't fry their fish here, but cooked it up in a sort of sauce. It was actually surprisingly tasty and a little spicy. I didn't end up eating most of my, because a had to work through my other jumbo taco.

Now I had ordered two tacos cause I was pretty hungry and I had never expected the tacos to be so large. But I was wrong. I could've just ordered one and been fine. For my second taco, I had ordered a grilled chicken taco, but I ordered it as a special, meaning it came with shredded cabbage, lettuce and more importantly guacamole.

As you can see, it was enormous. And I wasn'te ven able to finish it. We found the tacos at Taqueria Vallarta better than average - and much better than some of the "Mexican" food that we've tried up here in the Bay Area. Wish we had a place like this closer to home.

After lunch, we relaxed at the house while waiting for my little sister to arrive. This meant that I fell asleep in the hammock in the front yard, while Tom did a little work and surfed the internet. But please enjoy the lovely views from the beach directly across the street from the house:

2008-09-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

BURMA SUPERSTAR, SAN FRANCISCO

After the baseball game, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we were in SF and had a friend visiting by having dinner at Burma Superstar in the Inner Richmond. Now Burma Superstar is one of these super famous SF restaurants that everyone talks about and tells you you have to go to. If you get there anytime after 5:30, you'll have to wait to get in. Luckily, by the time the game ended, we were able to get over to the restaurant a little before 6. There was already a crowd waiting to get in, so we dropped Tom off to put our names down while we circled around for parking.

I'm still get accustomed to SF and all the neighborhoods there, so I was quite surprised to find this super famous restaurant located in the midst of a working class Asian neighborhood. Really, it wasn't super nice, and it was surrounded by typical Chinese shops - we even grabbed boba drinks three doors down while we waited for our table to be ready. But this just proves that ppl in the Bay Area will go almost anywhere for great food. We waited about 30 minutes before we got in, to a pretty small, cramped, kinda loud restaurant.

To be honest, the space wouldn't have been so cramped if they had chosen to use slightly smaller tables, but whatever. At least we were seated. We were ignored a little bit at first, (just due to how busy this place was), but that was alleviated when our super nice and cheery waitress came to take our order. Since we'd spent a while outside, we had perused the menu and decided on what we'd be ordering. We shared a number of dishes. I started off by ordering one of their famous tea life salads which was a : Salad prepared with imported Burmese tea leaves, tomatoes, lettuce, dried shrimp (or vegetarian), fried garlic, sesame seeds, peanuts, and split yellow peas. Here's what it looks like when they've mixed it all up for you.

Ok, I'm kinda lame, but for some reason when I heard tea leaf salad I had imagine fresh tea leaves (like on this episode of Bizarre Eats when Andrew Zimmern visited Taiwan). Of course, this is pretty preposterous to have fresh tea since they all grow in Asia and would be oxidized before they even shipped to the U.S. (I didn't think this through until later). At any rate, I really enjoyed this salad. Tom didn't really like it, but I liked all the different flavors and textures. And the tea leaves added this delicate almost soapy (but not unpleasant) character to it all. It was my favorite dish of the entire meal.

Ok. Onto the other stuff. This was a dish of stir fried chicken breast with tofu, string beans, red bell peppers, and basil in our five spice sweet heat sauce.

It was pretty good. I liked the dried tofu. Oh, this is also where they screwed up. Apparently this also came in a beef version, which they gave to us initially. Luckily, I hadn't eaten any of the beef before they figured it out and gave us the correct plate with chicken. So we got a free plate of food out of it.

This is a plate of honestly I don't remember. I think it involved chicken, tomatoes, onions and green beans (but that's what I'm identifying from the photo).

And lastly we got a plate of : Wok tossed shrimp in our garlicky infused oil, and topped with toasted garlic.

Overall our dinner at Burma Superstar was pretty good. We hadn't had Burmese food before, and it's this interesting mix of South Asian, Chinese and Indian influences. However, I don't think Tom thought it was all the great, and it certainly wasn't amazing enough for us to make the trip out there, look for parking and wait. And it wasn't all that inexpensive, either. We did find out that they have a location in Alameda, which is at least on our side of the bay, but I again, I don't think it's worth all the effort. We could probably be just as satisified with a cheap Chinese restaurant.

2008-09-02T20:00:00.001-07:00

A VISIT TO THE BALLPARK

As most of you know, Tom and I are both fans of AL Teams. (Yankees for him - Boo! and Red Sox for me - Yeah!). Unfortunately, this means that we have to go to McAfee Stadium in Oakland to watch out teams play - which is basically a stadium located in the middle of the Oakland ghetto. We've been to 3 games there this season, and that's been quite enough. (During our last game there, we sat in seats right next to the concourse where someone had vomitted . It smelled like that the entire game). It's too bad that we are not really fans of NL teams, or else we'd get to watch games at the beautiful AT&T Park.

We'd planned to go to a game at AT&T Park just to experience it, and one day we got lucky and got offered corporate tickets to a game (by one of the vendors I work with). It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon - perfect weather for a game. We got to the ballpark a little late, but that was ok, because we were able to visit the concessions pretty easily. So the recommended food at AT&T Park are the crabcake sandwiches, but they were located on the other side of the ballpark. We just wanted to grab some food and get to our seats.

There were a lot of food choices for us. (Oh and btw, the concourse has the most flat screen TV's that I've ever seen in one place). Tom decided to stop at a gourmet hot dog place. He was super hungry, so he ended up getting two types of hot dogs. The first was a "Coney Island Dog":

which was basically a chili cheese dog. I have no idea what made it "Coney Island". He thought it was pretty good, and liked it more than his second dog the "San Francisco Dog":

Again, I have no idea what made this "San Francisco". It had sauerkraut, a pickle and thouand island dressing. As you can see, they were both quite large and required a fork. He actually would've just preferred some regular hot dogs, since these were kinda hard to eat.

Meanwhile, I wasn't having the best of luck finding food. We wanted to get to our seats, so I finally just ordered some chicken wings, garlic fries and a soda. Amazingly enough, it came out to be just under $20. (yikes!)

The nice thing is is that they give you your choice of dipping sauces. (Unlike many places where they just make you use mustard and ketchup). The garlic fries were ok, certainly better than the mealy pices of cardboard that I'd had at McAfee. I enjoy the chicken strips at Fenway Park more though. They have a different breading that's studded with black pepper that I just like more.

We had a really fun afternoon at the ballpark. We had the best seats we'd ever had at a ballpark (though we were surrounded by families and little kids) and the home team one. Even though my team almost never plays at this park, I look foward to going back and seeing more games there.

2008-08-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

BUSHI-TEI, SAN FRANCISCO

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that most of my friends eventually move to SF. (Yes Leah, I'm waiting on you). The first one to move here has been Sue Min, she's here for at least 3 years for dental school, and it's really nice having a friend from the East Coast, who loves to eat as much as I do.

Unfortunately Sue Min is often quite busy with school, so we haven't been able to hang out as frequently, so when she called me up for brunch recently, I agreed to meet up with her. Sue Min now has a favorite brunch place, a restaurant called Bushi-Tei located in Japantown (one of the few places I know how to navigate in SF). It's a Japanese French restaurant that features a prix fixe brunch menu. Now, it's more than I would normally spend on brunch, but I rarely go into the city, so I didn't mind spending the money.

So here's the exterior of the restaurant

It's got this mix of modern and rustic - with some large wooden pieces inside. I liked this huge communal table they have running down the length of the restaurant made of some really cool wood. Sue min was a little late, but luckily, she'd chosen a restaurant next to one of my favorite stores in Japantown, Super 7. So I hopped over there and bought Tom a little key chain while I waited for her to arrive.

She did eventually show up and we sat at a table in the window. The restaurant was pretty empty (which is probably why they offer the prix fixe deal in the first place), but the waiter was helpful and pretty friendly (though a little pushy trying to up our bill with special lemonades and iced teas - we passed). So for the prix fixe, you're allowed to choose two courses from the menu. All of it is French-Japanese inspired food. After we ordered, we were given this lovely and adorable selection of breads and pastries.

They were all very fresh and quite yummy. Then my first course arrived I ordered a corn soup:

My soup was pretty yummy. It was kinda thin and not as corn flavored as my favorite corn soup served at Gotham, the restaurant that I used to work at in NY. But it was still very nice. Next up, Sue min and I both ordered the crab cake hollandaise:

I know. Truly decadent and a bit over the top, but they were really tasty. The hollandaise sauce wasn't too heavy and those crab cakes were basically all crab meat and very little filler. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but at this point, I had gotten quite full and only managed to finish one of them. I ended up taking the second crab cake home.

Lastly, I ordered dessert. I hadn't planned to, but Sue Min ordered dessert and I that encourage me to do so. I ordered something light - a trio of sorbets

There was a mango, green apple and pear. All were homemade and very light and delicious. The mango was my favorite.

Bushi-Tei was a lovely restaurant for brunch with a friend. Though I don't think I'll be going back any time soon (I ended up spend around $40, which is more than I'd spend at dinner for two normally), but it's a pleasant place to take someone like my mom (especially if she's paying.)

2008-08-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

T-REX BBQ, BERKELEY

A few weeks ago Huong was once again visiting the Bay Area. (I swear I see her more often than I see my parents). At any rate, knowing what a meat lover she is, I chose a bbq restaurant that seems to be a local favorite - a place called T-Rex BBQ. I knew it was sort of a fancy bbq restaurant and not all that cheap, but felt it was worth checking out.

Located on a corner in West Berkeley, I'd driven by T-Rex plenty of times before, but had never really noticed it. When we entered, we found a really slick, beautiful room with high a lot of open space (it was two floors), big windows and lots of wood accents. Though the place seemed pretty full, they were able to find a table for us right away.

As we waited for Huong to arrived, I ordered a basket of homemade bbq chips and Tom got a ginger beer. Meanwhile, we perused the menu. Rather than ordering an entree, I decided to get an appetizer and a couple of sides so I'd get a try a number of different things. At some point Huong arrived, our orders were taken and we waited for our food to arrive. (We never got those bbq chips - the waitress forgot about them and I can only hope that we weren't charged for them).

As I said, I got a number of different things to eat. I started off with some chicken mushroom spring rolls.

They were allright. The filling wasn't all that flavorful and I found the dipping sauce to be too vinegary.

Meanwhile, the rest of our food come out all at once, shortly after we'd ordered. I love corn bread, so ordered a side of cornbread with maple butter. Here it is below:

What I hadn't expected was that the cornbread would actually be soaked in maple butter. I would've preferred it on the side so I could spread it on myself, but this version of it made it really more like a dessert. I only had a small nibble of it. Finally, I ordered a side of mac and cheese:

It was allright. Kinda runny, very heavy. I had a few bites of it and that was enough.

Overall, our experience at T-Rex was very much like many of our experiences at restaurants in Berkeley - namely, what's all the hype about? My experience was a bit better than Tom's. He said the sauce for his ribs tasted more like a spicy marinara sauce than BBQ sauce. I guess we just really prefer our hole in the walls and more authentic restaurants. All these fancy versions of whatever just aren't doing it for us.

2008-08-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

JAC'S ASIAN BISTRO

We have a small strip mall just 2 blocks from our home. It's a little sketchy, with an "adult video" store, a strange massage parlor and a pizza place that never appear to be open - but it's also the home to our favorite bahn mi shop (Bah Le). So when a restaurant, Jac's Asian Bistro, opened there a few months ago, I was rather skeptical about it. Every time we drove by, Tom would jokingly say that he wanted to try it, so one evening I finally caved and we walked over for dinner.

The place was very minimally decorated, but it was nice to see some other Asians dining there. As we were seated, we were handed some massive menus, that went on for pages and seemed to have anything imaginable on it (including some dishes involving hot dogs.) We ended up ordering a few dishes to share (including several off the menu where all the dishes were $5.99 and under).

Before our food arrived we were given a couple of bowls of house soup, which wasn't too bad.

Then our dishes started to arrive. Tom had ordered a chili-garlic fish dish. And considering it was off that $5.99 menu, it was pretty good.

Next, my dish arrived. I had gotten a seafood chow-fun with XO sauce. It wasn't off the cheap eats menu, but it was only $7.99 and it was a pretty big portion.

Lastly Tom ordered this dish with mushrooms and bok choy, also off the $5.99 menu and it was surprisingly good. The bok choy was fresh, as were the mushrooms, and best of all, it was really cheap!

Overall, the dinner at Zac's was pretty decent. It certainly wasn't the healthiest or best Chinese food around, but for the price and quantity, we'd happily go back.

2008-08-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

JAPANESE FOOD IN EL CERRITO

As many of you know, we're still searching for a good Japanese restaurant near where we live. We'd heard of a Japanese sushi place near our home called Yusan Sushi, so we wanted to check it out. Unfortunately when we arrived, we found the restaurant closed, with a pretty cryptic note on the door. It said "Reopening Soon", but was dated three days earlier. As we stood outdoors contemplating whether or not the restaurant would open that night, we noticed another restaurant next door called Yokohama Restaurant. Given that we didn't have many other restaurants nearby to choose from, we decided to check it out.

When we entered the restaurant, it was pretty empty, but it was cute, with your stereotypical Japanese restaurant decorations. We were seated right away and after putting in our orders, we were given a few freebies, a little plate of cold soba noodles along with some pickles.

They weren't too bad, and I was pretty suprised that they gave us these freebies in the first place. With my dinner, I also got a salad, which was pretty average.

For dinner, I ordered a combination- chicken on chicken. Well, it was more that I got to pick from a list of foods, so I chose chicken karage (which was done as chicken wings) and chicken teriyaki. Here it is below:

As you can see, the portions are pretty generous, and it wasn't too bad either. Tom and I decided that it certainly wasn't the best Japanese food that we've ever had (nor the cheapest, we spent about $15-18/ea for dinner), but it was better than some of the places we had tried previously (and certainly better then Katana-ya, where our cousin likes to visit frequently). I don't think we'll be back any time soon, we'll continue to visit LA for truly great Japanese food, but if we're ever in the mood, we'd certainly go back to Yokohama.

2008-08-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

FUDDRUCKER'S

That's damn right people, I'm doing a post about Fuddrucker's. Most of you know that above all, I want to know that when I pay for a meal, it has to be worth it. That means if I pay $5 for a meal, I know that I'm not going to get a whole lot for my money, and that's ok with me. I'll still enjoy my food. And if I'm paying $100 for a meal, then I'm going to expect more- better food and exceptional service. When I don't enjoy a meal iis when I pay $50, and end up getting food and service that was worth $10. So yes, I may love going to fancy restaurants, but I also like KFC fried chicken and biscuits.

So it was my co-worker Kim's birthday and she loves Fuddrucker's. A little while ago, we'd gotten some coupons for Fuddrucker's in the mail, and I handed them off to her, but she wanted to use them, so a group of us headed out for burgers.

So I'd been to Fuddrucker's as a kid, but it's been at least 15 years since my list trip, and I was actually pleasantly suprised by the settings. It was pretty early on a week night, so there weren't any screaming kids, big families, etc. It was really tame, the place was impeccably clean and they even refilled the BBQ sauce pump right away when I complained that it was empty. (more on that later).

But first, a photo of my soda (I got the Orange Crush for Tom and took it home with me) and the large roll of paper towels that they provide for each table:

One reason why my friend loves Fuddrucker's is for the free pump cheese. Actually, if you're unfamiliar with the chain, the whole idea is that they make a burger for you, and then there's this whole toppings bar when you can add all the free toppings that you want- tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce, and for my friend, the glorious pump cheese, served warm and in two different flavors (plain or jalapeno). Behold the pump cheese:

Let me just say, this whole trip was worth it, just to see my co-worker order a Kobe beef burger, with bacon, and then dump orange pump cheese all over it. And yes, she finished the whole thing (though she felt kinda sick afterwards).

I was a little more tame and ordered chicken breast with grilled mushrooms and cheese. As you can see below, I topped it with tomatoes, onions, pickles, lettuce and bbq sauce:

And I gotta say, it wasn't that bad. The mushrooms were kinda dry and overly peppered, but apart from that, I'd totally rather pay like $6 for a burger here, than $10 for a burger at Barney's. I think it's got something to do with that all you can eat toppings bar- just makes it feel like you've got so much more control. So overall, I enjoyed by meal at Fuddrucker's and I truly wasn't expecting to. Maybe one day I'll go back and take Tom- just as long as he promises to avoid the pump cheese.

2008-08-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

DA NANG, ALBANY

For Vietnamese, we normally go to the pho place in Ranch 99. It's pretty decent and cheap and quick. But one evening, I felt that we should try out a new place, and decided to check out Da Nang, a Vietnamese restaurant pretty close to our house. Now a while ago, my cousin had warned me not to go to this place. Apparenly she and her husband had gone there a long time ago, and had a bad meal there. I maybe should've heeded the warning more, since they're a lot less pickier than I am when it comes to food, but I had read views online that said that new management had taken over and that the food was much better now. So we headed over and decided to give it a try.

When we arrived, there were a few people present. It had pretty simple decorations, and I liked the planters of lucky bamboo running down the middle of the restaurant:When we were handed the menus, it was clear that we were off to a poor start. The restaurant serves a mix of Vietnamese and Thai food. They had the Vietnamese dishes, but the focus was clearly more on the Thai stuff. That's always a warning, when a restaurant takes two distinctive Asian cusinese and thinks it can lump them together and come out with something good. I tend to avoid such places. But we were there, so I put in an order for some summer rolls:
These were OK. I guess when you're making summer rolls, the components are so simple that you really need to use super fresh, yummy stuff. That was not the case here. The veggies weren't overly fresh and the dipping sauce wasn't very good, either. Just kinda tasteless and forgettable. It certainly didn't add much to the rolls.

I had also ordered the Vietnamese classic: pho. The thing that bothered me was that it wasn't even called pho on the menu. They had all these different dishes, and I couldn't really identify was just a bowl of chicken pho- I finally just asked the waiter if they had it, and this is what they brought:
So this wasn't really the best pho I've ever had. The noodles stuck together, the broth tasted kinda strange and worst of all, the chicken tasted as if it had gone bad. Like, you know when you smell raw chicken and it has that slightly rotting flavor so you know it's bad? The chicken in my bowl had that flavor. I ended up picking our all the chicken cause I didn't want to get sick, and dousing the damn thing in hot sauce so I could mask the flavor of the broth.

So overall, it wasn't a great trip to Da Nang. We'll be sticking closer to home, with trips to the Ranch 99. I guess you just gotta go where all the other Asians go.

2008-08-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO, DAY 3

Well, you guys may actually see some blog posts out of me this week. Tom's off in Boston for a whole week, and kitty's ignoring me (as usual). So unless some really great stuff starts showing up on TV, I'll be blogging more. Though I must admit, I have gotten quite addicted to Weeds. Unfortunately, my local video store didn't have season 2 in stock, so I've got one episode left of season 1 before I run out of episodes to watch.

But onto the food. On our last day in San Diego, we returned to Balboa Park in order to see the Star Trek exhibit at the Air and Space Museum (this was not my idea, but Tom and his friend, Evan, seemed to enjoy it). But before we headed to the museum, we had lunch at the Prado Restaurant in Balboa Park.

It's actually set in a beautiful area of Balboa Park (no wonder so many ppl have weddings here) and there was a ton of outdoor seating. It being another beautiful day in SD, we opted to sit outside. This is the view we had...

Our waiter started us off with a small selection of bread sticks. Evan kindly repositioned them so I could get a shot of the cheesy one. They were pretty good.
The menu at the restaurant is an attempt at California cuisine, with very heavy Mexican influences. The place wasn't cheap, but I guess you can charge that much for the setting. Below is Tom's order of fish tacos. I think he said they were ok. The fish was pretty drowned in white sauce, and though the plate looked pretty, I don't think the flavors worked that well.

Meanwhile, I had chopped salad. I had taken a pic of it, but accidentally deleted it while screwing around with Tom's camera. But it wasn't that great. It was an attempt at an Asian inspired chopped salad, but ultimately, the veggies weren't so fresh and the salad dressing could've been much better. As I say quite often, I could've made a better version at home, and wouldn't have had to pay over $10 for it.

Overall, I think people go here much more for the setting than for the food (it's one of those places). But I don't question it too much, it is a goregous location, and because it's located right near the outdoor organ, you can probably hear a whole concert if there's one happening. So just realize, you're paying for the view, and not for great food.

2008-08-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO DAY 2

Ok, I'm back. I am a little handicapped right now, after slicing half my nail off while chopping veggies this past weekend, and the band-aid gets in the way of my typing, but I'm limping along and continuing with my San Diego blog posts.

So reading this post, it may seem like we spent the entire day eating, but really we didn't. The best part of the day was visiting the San Diego Zoo and seeing pandas! And the baby panda was not just lying around sleeping, he was so active and playful with his mommy, I almost died. I wanted to get back in line to see him again, but everyone (especially Tom) voted me down. Sigh, guess I'll see him again next time.

But first, we started the day with brunch. Cathy and Ben took us to one of their favorite places, the Parkhouse Eatery, which according to their sign serves "American Ethnic Grub" or whatever that may be.

When we got there, the place was already packed and there were a slew of people in front of us, so we ended up waiting quite a while for a table. I think it took almost an hour before we were finally seated. But the weather was quite nice and it wasn't too bad just hanging out outside. They had lots of tables outside, but of course, that's where everyone wants to sit, so when we finally got a table inside, we were just happy to be sitting. The interior of the restaurant is actually much nicer than the exterior, and had lots of rooms, almost like a house. We were seated at a table in the back, close to the kitchen.

The menu wasn't huge, and they had some pretty enticing options, but I ended up going with the Bueno spicy homemade turkey chorizo & eggs scrambled w/roasted potato and fresh romas w/flour tortilla. Our server had warned us that the kitchen was backed up, so it did take a while for the food to arrive. Here's mine below.

I had actually expected the eggs to be cooked separately from the chorizo, but they were cooked together. It ended up being pretty tasty, but wouldn't have been half as good without that spicy sauce you see on the side. That really made the entire dish. The food there was pretty good, and in a very cute neighborhood. Even though it was kinda pricy the largish portions help to offset the high cost.

After brunch, it was off to the zoo, and after spending a number of hours walking around there, we were pretty hungry and ready from some dinner. Cathy suggested that we check out a yakitori place, Yakitori Yakyudori, one of the few in San Diego, and she had made a reservation for us. When we arrived, it was actually a few minutes before their opening time, but they let us sit. And it was a good thing we made reservations, because the place filled up very quickly.

One of the things I liked about this place where the picture menus they give you. Another fun thing was they had these two big signs on the wall. One listed the most popular items for Americans, and the other listed the most popular items for Japanese. I ordered stuff off the Japanese list.

We ordered a bunch of stuff like : chicken hearts (though I don't like it when places slice them apart like this- I prefer them pretty intact)

Chicken thigh meat:

chicken "meatballs"

chicken gizzards and Tom's order of takoyaki to the the right:

grilled smelt:
and fried chicken wings:

To be honest, we ordered more stuff than this, but I didn't have time to photograph everything. The food came out pretty quickly and it was all really good. This place isn't as refined as my favorite yakitori place in LA, Yakitoriya. And unlike many yakitori houses, I don't think they cared as much about the type of charcoal they were roasting over (if they were using charcoal, they could've been using gas). Some place are really particular about the charcoal, because it imparts flavors to the meat, and the stuff we had didn't really have character. However, I was happy to have pretty well priced yakitori and would be happy to have this place located near us.

We were all pretty full after dinner, but we had to make sure to save room for dessert. There's a pretty famous dessert place in SD called Extraordinary Desserts, which Cathy has been telling me about since she went to college. So finally, we had to take this opportunity to visit. We went to the original location, not too far from where we'd had dinner, and even though it was still fairly early (it was before 7pm) there was already a line of people out the door.

The setting was really cute. It looked like someone's home, warmly decorated inside with garden seating outside. There was lots of outdoor seating, which is not surprising considering it's SD. As we waited in line, Ben bumped into a friend, and I plotted out what to order. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the front of the line to place our orders. There were a ton of choices, from pastries, to cakes and they plate all the desserts. Here's a pic of their cake case:
I ended up choosing one a passion fruit chocolate bombe. And I made Tom order some ice cream so I could try it. After ordering, we took our seats at a table and waited for them to be plated and served. Unfortuantely, the place seem understaffed, and it took a while to get our desserts. The problem was that we could see them sitting on the counter behind us, and I was tempted to just walk up and grab them:

Finally, our plated desserts arrived, along with our drinks. Here's mine below:

As you can see, it's very pretty. However, it wasn't as amazing as it looks. It wasn't very passion fruity at all, and I got more fruit flavor from the sauces on the plate than the dessert itself. It wasn't bad, but I was hoping for better. Here's the ice cream that Tom had:

To be honest, I don't remember what flavor this was. I do remember that it had macadamia nuts, but the ice cream itself didn't have much flavor. The flavor came from the toppings that were mixed in.

And lastly, my sister got a cookie.

This was also pretty good and loaded with butter.

Overall, I can see why this place is so popular. It's an adorable setting, has great presentation and the desserts are pretty good. I'm not going to say that it seems to be more flash than substance. After all, I've only been once, and I'd like to try a few more desserts before making that call. However, I certainly enjoyed going there, and once again, I can only wish that we had something similar in our area.

We had a great time in SD and hope we can go back and visit soon, to fill out bellies with more food and check out more adorable animals.

2008-08-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

MEXICAN FOOD IN SAN DIEGO

Last weekend Tom and I headed down to San Diego for a visit with friends and family. Tom actually headed down earlier than I did, taking a couple extra days off to hang out with his friend Evan and attend Comic Con. Meanwhile, I stayed to work, but headed down Saturday evening to join Tom. When I arrived, I was picked up by my little sister and her boyfriend who live in SD and then we picked up Tom. I was ready to eat after I landed. My little sister had planned to take us to Phil's, a local BBQ joint, but turns out that Tom had already gone, so we headed to Old Town instead and looked for a place to eat.

Apparently Old Town SD is very touristy, and filled with Mexican places to eat. Not a bad idea, since Mexican food in San Diego is supposed to be great (how can it not be with Mexico being less than an hour's drive away), and almost all the restaurants we saw were packed with people. We got a really great parking spot and started looking for a place to eat. We saw a huge restaurant, which seemed to have a fairly short, quick moving line in front, so we decided to check it out. The place was Cafe Coyote. It kinda looked like the place you'd hang out as a college student and wanted to drink margaritas, but I was hungry and it seemed promising enough.

We were seated quickly in one of the large dining rooms, and right away we ordered some guacamole and chips and were also given salsa with more chips for free.

I actually like the salsa. It was kinda watery but had good flavor.

And I like the generous serving of guacamole, though it could've used more salt. If I could've taken the salsa seasoning and mixed it with the guacamole, I would've had a really great guacamole, but I just took alternating dips of both.

I ended up ordering this combo place with a fish taco and a chicken enchilada. The fish taco was pretty good, but the crema dressing was a bit thick, and they didn't serve it with the nice pickled veggies that I enjoy. The chicken in the enchilada was a bit tough, and the thing was so drenched in cheese, that I ended up scraping most of the cheese off and taking nibbles from the inside.

Tom ordered a "Mexican pizza" which looked interesting, but was quite heavy. It kinda reminded him of the Taco Bell Mexican pizza, but heavier.

Overall, the food was decent enough, and it certainly satisfied my hunger. The service could've been better, though. Our waitress was pretty good at first, taking our orders and getting the food to us quickly, but then she totally disappeared. We couldn't find her to get our check, and when we were ready to pay, it took even longer for her to pick up the credit card to run it. I did kinda enjoy the live music, played buy two guys who were talking from table to table, playing their guitars for tips, but it really was a tourist trap and I look foward to more authentic Mexican food the next time we visit.

2008-08-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

VENTURING OUT

As you all know, Tom and I have a favorite Thai restaurant that we always go to - we visit almost 2-3 times a month. (And we just saw the owner at our local farmer's market, which is always a nice thing to see) But there are a number of Thai restaurants in the area, and after some debating, we finally decided to venture out and try a new place, one that we'd heard was pretty good, called Sweet Basil.

The restaurant is rather oddly shaped. we entered through what appeared to be the main entrance- which was a rather small room with only 12 tables and a kitchen, but there appeared to be another larger dining room outside, which was filled with a private party. We were seated right away (the dining room we were in was kinda empty) and we started to peruse the menu. There was a lot of stuff that you'd see at any typical Thai restaurant - this one just seemed a little fancier and slightly pricier.

Tom and I decided to share a few appetizers, and then ordered a few entrees. We started off with these summer rolls stuffed with veggies and tofu. There were pretty good (though not nearly as good as the summer rolls they occasionally have at Sabuy Sabuy).

Next we shared some mushroom skewers. They had a choice of different skewers, but we wanted some veggies and got the mushrooms one. At $3/ea, I was hoping for some mushrooms that were more exotic than white button mushrooms (even some mini portobellos would've been nice) , so I'd say these were just ok.

And I also ordered a bowl of Tom Yum soup. Tom says that whenever I don't like something at a restaurant, I always say that I can make a better version of it at home, and I could've made a better version of this soup.

Behind my soup, you'll see a dish of fried squid that Tom is still complaining about, even weeks after we had this meal. This was their famous crispy fried squid, which Tom expected to be your normal fried squid, but it turns out the batter on it was sweet- they had put sugar it it. And that made it taste really really strange. He's still saying "You don't put sugar on squid".

After this I had Pad Kee Mow as my entree, and it was pretty decent, but nothing special. And Tom doesn't even remember what he had as an entree. Overall, our dinner wasn't horrible, it was pretty average. And maybe it wouldn't have been as bad if we didn't know that we could've gone to a fantastic Thai meal just 1/2 mile away. Personally, I think people are still eating at Sweet Basil because they have yet to discover the greatness of Sabuy Sabuy 2.

2008-07-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

P.F. CHANG'S DOES NOT SERVE CHINESE FOOD

If you go into P.F. Chang's thinking this, you might not be too disappointed. Actually, we've had a few more crappy meals this month than we normally do. I don't think our experience at P.F. Chang's was as bad as Vong's, but it was pretty terrible. But let me back up a little. First, why were we even at a P.F. Chang's? I had managed to avoid this nationwide chain of "Chinese Bistros" for quite a long time. I just refused to eat at a place that'd put China + Bistro in the same title AND used funerary statuary as it's primary decorative element (I don't know, it just kinda creeps me out - kinda like having a sarcophagus decorate a restaurant). But they lured me in by sending me an offer for a free entree off their new grill menu. Well, if they were gonna give me free food, we may as well try it out.

So after a bit of shopping at Ikea, we headed over to the closest location, in the Emery Bay shopping mall. I was kinda of surprised that there was a wait for a table for 2 at 7pm, but we were given a little buzzer and wandered over to William Sonoma for a bit. After about 20 minutes, our buzzer went off, and we were seated. The interior of the place was quite expansive, with high ceilings and fairly modern decor. (but I repeat, the funerary statuary creeps me out). After we were seated with our menus, we were left alone for quite a long time, without anyone coming by to ask us if we wanted something to drink or if we had any questions. And as I looked around, I realized that the place was really understaffed. We weren't forced to wait not because there weren't tables available, the restaurant was pretty busy, but because there wasn't enough wait staff to serve everyone. (and not enough staff to even clean the bathrooms - toilet paper would've been nice).

Looking over the menu, I was not surprised to see the typical Americanized Chinese food being offered - like General Tso's chicken and Moo Shu whatever. But to my dismay, there was no sign of the new grill menu. I looked over the little card I was sent, thinking maybe they hadn't started offering the new menu yet, maybe we were too early. (Even though I'd seen it on the website) So we decided to order a few items off the regular menu.

When our waitress finally showed up, she took our orders. We decided to share two appetizers and each got an entree. Our appetizers showed up pretty quickly. One was a vegetarian egg roll, but I found it odd that they had rolled it in cornstarch of flour prior to frying, and there was a strange residue left on the exterior of the egg roll. Plus the serving was kinda wimpy. Our shrimp potstickers turned out to be a bit better. They were pretty plump and filled with ground shrimp, carrots and other stuff and tasted decent enough, though they weren't really that hot.

As for our entress, I got the Dan Dan noodle, which I didn't think were that terrible. Tom thought the noodles were kinda gummy, and my main criticism is that it was on the salty side. Otherwise, it was edible. Tom ordered their version of General Tso's chicken (below), which was basically pieces of fried chicken covered in some sauce. The sauce had so much corn starch in it, that as it sat, it kinda solidified, but the worst part of his meal was the brown rice. On the menu, they said they had steamed it, but the rice was so overcooked that it was bordering on the texture of porridge. It kinda reminded me of when I lived in Italy and didn't have a rice cooker. I didn't know how to cook rice on the stove (and I still don't) and so my rice would always come out overcooked and mushy.

My favorite part of the meal was the fortune cookie. It was actually pretty good, though I don't think they made it. Tom said he liked his Pellegrino. Maybe our experience would have been slightly better had we had better wait service that evenly midly showed interested in us, but that wasn't going to happen. I told Tom that I might email P.F. Chang's and complain about the lack of a grill menu, but he said why bother, we'd never be coming back, and I agree.

2008-07-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

OUR TRIP TO NY

As I do every year, a few weeks ago, I attended the Fancy Food Show in NY. But it was a different situation for me. In previous years, I'd always attended the FFS as a buyer, walking the floor and checking out new products and trends for the next year. This year, I was at the show on behalf of work, and I was now a seller, and I gotta say, it's much more fun to be a buyer than a seller. But I won't complain too much, since working at the FFS provided me with a free trip (well, at least they paid for the flight) to NY and a mini break for me and Tom. I also got to hang out with my friends, Harin and Big Ed, whom I hadn't seen since moving from Boston last year.

Of course, upon finding out that I would be in NY, I started planning on where to eat. After I bit of effort, I landed two reservations - one for Casa Mono and the other for Sfoglia. Any reader of this blog knows that I'm a huge fan of Batali-Bastiniach restaurants, and I was greatly looking foward to visiting Casa Mono. As for Sfoglia, after our memorable meal in Nantucket last year (I still think of the radish bagna cauda), I was looking foward to visiting their NY location.

Our first night in DUMBO, we landed in the early evening, which allowed a casual dinner with my friends, Jayna and Juliet. We decided to stay in Brooklyn, and visited a Japanese restaurant near my cousin's house (which we'd gone to before, and I think I've blogged about it). Afterwards, we went over to the promenade to check out the NYC Waterfalls, but while over there, we decided to get in line for ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Now, I've always seen the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, but the last time I'd tried to go, they had amazingly run out of ice cream. This time, they definitely had ice cream, so we got in the "express" line (limited menu and you order from a window). We stood in line and chatted, and it took us nearly an hour (so much for express) before we got to the front and ordered our ice cream. Ultimately, it really wasn't worth it. The ice cream was allright, nothing amazing, and by the time we got it, they'd shut off the Waterfalls for the evening (we thought they ran all night). Oh well.

The next day, was Sunday, and the beginning of the show. It was crazy and tiring and after it was over, I was ready to eat. We had our reservation for Casa Mono and headed down to Union Square. (sorry, no pics, it was a small place and I didn't want to disturb other diners). When we approached the restaurant, we found a tiny little place packed full of people. We were a little bit early for our meal, but they sat us anyway. We got a seat by the windows, but the place is literally so tiny that they table had to be pulled out before I could get to my seat.

Tom and I ordered quite a few dishes. The menu changes pretty frequently, but I definitely enjoyed a lovely plate of grilled sardines (it was also Tom's favorite dish of the night). The pimientos del padron were allright, but they for some reason included sweet peppers with it. At least they were cooked well. I also got a plate of mushrooms, which were too charred for my taste, I wasn't even able to finish it. But I did get this amazing dish of soft shell crab. I forget what else we ordered, but I do remember that this was some of the best tapas I've had in the U.S. and I certainly wouldn't mind going back. (I will say it was pretty pricey, though).

For our second night in NY, we had dinner with Tom's parents and brother, at a casual neighborhood place in near his brother's house in Brooklyn. The following night we had our reservations at Sfoglia, however, we ended up having dinner with my cousin and Juliet, so I had to search around for reservations elsewhere. I did a quick search at Opentable and after looking at the available options, I chose Vong. I'd heard of Vong before (it's a Jean Georges restaurant) and after taking a quick look at the online menu, it seemed like a decent bet, it was also located very close to my cousin's condo.

Upon entering Vong, we found a very modern looking restaurant, with lots of cool bamboo work and decorated in dark reds and browns. We were seated right away and as we waited for the rest of our party arrived, I noticed a rather ominous thing - the dining room table was barely 1/3 full and it was already 7. As we looked through the menu, I noticed another ominious sign, Vong offers a prix fixe menu all the time. After our party arrived, we were able to put in our orders. Juliet and I went for the prix fixe menu, while the other two menus over our party ordered from the regular menu.

Juliet had also put in a drink menu, which never showed up, she actually had to ask for it. And in fact, our wait service was pretty slow and spotty. The appetizer I started off with was decent, but nothing amazing, just a seared tuna roll served like a summer roll in a thin, soft rice paper wrapper. After waiting nearly 25-30 minutes, our entrees finally showed up. It's the kinda of waiting that makes you wonder what the hell happened to your food. I had a dish of chicken which was supposed to have lemongrass (though I never really tasted it), long beans and sticky rice. It wasn't a memorable dish. Just a chicken dish that was ok. Meanwhile, Tom was having a much worse time. The crab spring rolls that we got for his appetizer were pretty good (again nothing memorable), but his tuna burger was memorable for a bad reason. It arrived at the table lukewarm, and the fresh potato chips it had been served with had sat so long, that they were cold and greasy. After eating it, he actually began feeling sick, and ended up with a mild bout of food poisoning later that evening.

Meanwhile, service was neglectful and sluggish. We did end up ordering a few desserts. Actually, both Juliet and my meals came with dessert. None of their dessert options truly appealed to me, so I went with something I felt was pretty safe, a tropical fruit salad with, interestingly enough, white pepper ice cream. Let me just say that people should not make a white pepper ice cream. As for the "tropical" fruits, apparently that meant a whole lot of kiwi and bananas. I was looking foward to maybe mango and passion fruits, but just picked out all the kiwi and ate that. We also got a passion fruit souffle to share, which was ok, the texture was a bit strange, and I think Juliet got the typical warm chocolate cake, it was the only decent dessert, but really, it's a hard one to screw up. In Tom's words, Vong sucked. It's clear that after opening over 15 restaurants, Jean Georges is just resting on his name for this place, which I should've known, with warning signs like reservations available at all hours and a dining room that never became more than half full.

And the last meal I'll write during our trip to NY, was my lunch at Google. That's right people, I finally made it into the Google cafeteria (who knew it'd end up being the NY one). My coworker's boyfriend is an employee at Google, and was working out of their NY office while we were at the FFS. And since my co-worker new that I'd always wanted to dine at the Google cafeteria, she invited me to lunch after a meeting with our publicist.

They actually have two cafeterias at the NY location. We checked out the first one, which was smaller, and they had a lasagna bar going on. They also had an area where you could pick up sushi in to go boxes and any drinks that you wanted. But we weren't too interested in the offerings and headed up stairs to the main cafeteria. The main cafeteria is on the top floor of the building, affording a nice view of the city. It had lots of different themed stations, but I stuck with the salad bar offerings. There was certainly a lot of variety and lots of nice fresh veggies, but to be honest, this wasn't the most amazing food I'd ever experienced. I mean, the selection of food is readily available to anyone who's ever been to City Bakery or an type of gourmet food market. The difference is at Google, you don't have to pay, and you can eat as much of it as you want. I did enjoy my meal there, but overall, it wasn't the transcendent experience that had been described to me.

So that as our trip to NY. I don't know if we'll be back next year, because the FFS will be in D.C. But we'll certainly return in December, to visit Tom's folks. I'm already thinking about where we'll be eating....

2008-07-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

OUR FIRST (AND LAST) TRIP TO YANKEE STADIUM

As most of you know, Tom and I just got back from NY last week. I'll review some of the restaurants we visited in my next post, but I did want to do a quick post about my meal at Yankee Stadium. Now, in the title, I said that this was our first and last trip to Yankee Stadium. Tom's been a lifelong Yankee's fan, but he has never seen a game at Yankee Stadium, so when I knew we'd be going to NY, I also checked to see if they would be playing at home. Luckily, they were, and there were tickets available, so I got us tickets to see the Yankees v. Texas.

Many of you may also know that this is the last year for Yankee Stadium. They're building a brand new stadium directly across the street from the old stadium. We got there early so Tom could watch batting practice (missed it, but saw the Texas batting practice) and visit Memorial Park (also missed getting in by 5 minutes, we'll have to see it when we visit the new stadium). That means we had plenty of time to get few bites before the game started.

While Tom went for hot dogs, I actually had plenty of choices, and decided to go for a chicken cheesesteak. Here it is below.I even surprise myself when I say that this was pretty damn good. The bun was nice and soft, the chicken was decently cooked, and I enjoyed the cheese and onions on top. Overall, the food at Yankee Stadium is so much better than the stuff at McAfee. In fact, the entire experience of going to Yankee Stadium was better then McAfee. (though I can't say it was better than going to Fenway). Best of all, Tom had a great time, and I got to watch the cleaning crew do the YMCA before the 7th inning. I hate to say it, but I actually really enjoyed going to a game at Yankee Stadium, even if they painted the women's bathroom pink.

2008-07-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

KATHMANDU RESTAURANT, BERKELEY

Ah, it's my day off, so I'm sitting in front on my TV, watching Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel while blogging. Eventually I'll get up and runs some errands, but for now, I'll just keep up with my blog. So Mondays are my day off, but Tom has to work, but we still like going out to get lunch. This gives us a chance to try new places at typically lower prices than you'd be paying at dinner, and a few weeks, I figured we'd try out a restaurant called Kathmandu Restaurant.

Located in the Gourmet Ghetto, we'd actually walked by this restaurant quite a few times, but we'd never stopped there. After doing some research on Yelp, though, it turned out the reviews were quite positive, so we decided to check it out.

When we entered the restaurant, it was totally empty (it was admittedly an early lunch), but we were greeted warmly by the staff and seated quickly. After looking at the menu, I discovered that this place didn't really have a lunch menu. The just had the same menu for lunch and dinner, so it was actually kinda pricey for lunch. Luckily, on a menu board placed on the street, they did list like 3 lunch specials, and I ended up ordering one of them.

So we both started lunch off with a cup of lentil soup. It was actually pretty good. Not anything I couldn't have made a home by myself, but quite nice.

Next, we ordered one of their famous appetizers that everyone raved about online - the momo (basically a meat dumpling). They have different versions, but we ordered the chicken ones, and here they are below.

I gotta say, these were really good. They actually remind me of soup dumplings (which I haven't eaten since I gave up pork over nearly 13 years ago) and they're served with a very yummy red pepper sauce (that orange colored stuff in the middle of the plate). I would go back just to order these again.

For lunch, Tom ordered this enormous plate of mixed grilled meat.
He thought his dish was pretty good. By putting all different types of meat on the same plate, not all the meat cooked evenly, so things like the shrimp were a bit overcooked. Meanwhile, I ordered the lunch special of grilled chicken, which was served along with rice and veggies.
I liked my dish. It was a generous portion, and actually cost a lot less than Tom's meal (probably half as much). I wasn't feeling so great during the meal, so I didn't end up eating most of this, but I did take it home and managed to make two meals out of the leftovers.

Our meal at Kathmandu Kitchen was pretty good, but it ended being a bit pricey for lunch. I thought the food was pretty good, and would gladly go back for some more momos, but I don't think it'll ever become a regular dining destination for us.

2008-07-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

BOUCHON, YOUNTVILLE

With so many friends visiting for Kjell and Huong's wedding, we decided to take a trip up to Napa to spend some time together and visit a few wineries. Of course, we had to have a great meal, and started the day with a lunch at Thomas Keller's Bouchon. Now, I've actually been to Bouchon before, but it was years ago, right after it had opened, and I went to a New Year's Eve dinner with my family. I didn't think it was all the spectacular at the time, but it was worth another try.

We didn't have reservations, but since we arrive fairly early in the day, they were able to accomadate us. They started off by serving us a lovely warm baguette along with some butter.

I wasn't actually that hungry, so I decided I'd just have a salad and soup. Of course, I did order a pretty heavy salad and soup. I started off with a duck confit salad served on frisee with poached cherries and pickled turnips. Let me say, this dish was wonderful. The duck was cooked perfectly and was soft and delicious. The pickled turnips were really well done- crisp, tart, and still tasting of turnips and lastly the cherries. I'm not a fan of cooked fruit, especially if it's going to be served to me cold, but those cherries really were great.

I then ordered a traditional onion soup. It was actually much heavier that what I wanted, but the only other soup involved fennel and I hate fennel. So I had this bowl of soup, covered in an enormous layer of cheese. It was too much for me. I had a few bites of it before I gave up and handed it over to Juliet to finish off. (She's kinda like Tom, finishing off the things I'm always too full to eat).

Overall, we had a really enjoyable lunch at Bouchon. The service was friendly, everyone enjoyed their dishes and other than the slightly high price tag (which we expected) it really did meet all our high expectations.

2008-07-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

AN OAKLAND WEDDING BANQUET

As many of you know, Huong and Kjell got married in the Bay Area a few weeks ago. Their ceremony was on Sunday, but they had the traditional Chinese banquet on Saturday evening at the Restaurant Peony in Oakland Chinatown. We arrived a bit late (having been told that everyone shows up late to these things), so food started being served shortly after our arrival.

We got seated at a table with all of our friends, and the table next to us was filled with even more friends (it's nice going to a wedding when you know so many people). And even though some of the food was unfamiliar to Tom and other guests at our table (and I just didn't eat a lot of what was served), we still enjoyed the plentiful food.

We started off with the typical plate of cold cuts, filled with slices of pork, pickled veggies and jellyfish. I enjoyed the jellyfish, though would have preferred it with more pickled veggies.

The next item that followed were these tasty fried crab balls. (There was also a plate of roast suckling pig, which I didn't photograph since I didn't eat any)

Next up, a dish or broccoli, shrimp and scallops- all very fresh and tasty.

Next, my favorite dish of the night, the Peking duck with those fried shrimp chips that my sisters and I used to fight over when we were kids.

Here's a photo of the duck after we had consumed the skin with the little pancakes (unfortunately, the didn't give us nearly enough scallions or plum sauce)

A plate of ginger scallion lobster was served.

Followed by a plate of pan fried noodles:

And the final dish, the steamed fish with soysauce, ginger and scallions.

Overall, the food was decent enough, but it was actually really oily and greasy, thus it was a heavy meal. Since it was so oily, I actually didn't end up stuffing myself and walked away from the meal a little hungry (amazingly enough). I'm not a huge fan of the banquet food at Peony, but I've heard from many sources that they have a great dim sum, so I'm hoping to try that out in the future.

Oh and to finish the meal, we had a bowl of red bean soup (the Chinese aren't really known for their desserts), but at least this was a nice, light way to finish the meal.