AND FINALLY, SOME DECENT JAPANESE FOOD

Ok, so you've probably already read my post about not having great Japanese food around us. The one exception is the visit we had to Japantown in SF. We were taking my cousin to her doctor's appointment in the city and the hospital is just 5 blocks away from Japantown. So Tom and I decided to go explore a new part of the city while we waited for my cousin to see the doctor.

We walked over to Japantown, which is surrounded by not necessarily the greatest neighborhood in SF, but once we got to it, it was kinda nice. Now Japantown is really made up of a big shopping mall that divided into three segments- 2 of the segments contain shopping and the third contains food. After walking around a bit, we went straight for food, but couldn't decide on which place to try. It was kinda mid afternoon, so it was too late to have a full lunch in a restaurant. Luckily, I had spotted a sign of Nijiya, a Japanese grocery store that I like to visit in LA, so we headed over there to get some yummy prepacked food.

Now Tom had never been to Nijiya before, so it took us a little while to decided what we wanted from their large selection of prepacked food. We finally settled on some selections, picked up drinks and headed outside to sit in the sun and eat our food.

Here's the famous square where the little pagoda sits (pagoda not pictured) where we ended up sitting and having our little picnic.

Tom got a bunch of stuff, but I didn't photograph most of it. One of his favorites was the takoyaki- octopus balls, served with a side of mayo. (he didn't use the mayo, the Japanese people love mayo). He'd also got some sushi, some chicken karage and something else that I'm now forgetting. Basically, he went all out on the Japanese food.

Meanwhile, I was a little more tame and got a prepacked bento box with two rice balls, and my favorite, a side of chicken karage (the Japanese version of fried chicken). Yeah, it might've been room temperature, but I still found it all pretty yummy, especially the fried chicken. I don't know why we can't have a Nijiya on this side of the bay, and the other day, I actually considered driving into SF just to pick up some Japanese food.

You know the funny thing is is that it'd take me just as long to drive from my house in LA to our local Nijiya as it would for me to drive from our house in El Cerrito to the Nijiya in SF, but there's a bit of a mental barrier for crossing a big span of water and paying a $4 toll to do it that just dampens my whole desire.

We continued to walk around Japantown for a while. Tom bought me yet another wind up toy to add to my collection. This one is an awesome Domo that walks really slowly. There did seem to also be some good food options in Japantown (perhaps excluding the sketchy looking 24 hour Denny's that serves Hawaiian food), so I hope we'll be back in the future to try more places.

NEW YEAR'S DAY IN NAPA

There are many reasons why we moved from Boston to CA, but New Year's Day just reminded me even more of why we moved. While Boston was finishing the month getting the most snowfall it'd ever had in over 30 years in December, we were spending the day in Napa, where it was a sunny 60F, clear and beautiful. Ok, admittedly we'd gotten rather lucky. It'd been raining a few days before, and we currently have a downed tree in our back yard after a day of torrential rains yesterday. My little sis had come up to visit and she wanted to take her bf, Ben, to Napa. Tom had also never been, and I invited Kjell and Huong who are also in town (and they brought along a friend and Huong's mom). So all of us spent the day in Napa.

We started off by visiting V. Sattui. It's a winery, but it's more well known for its well stocked gourmet marketplace and picknicking area. After spending a while picking out the meats, cheeses and breads we wanted for lunch, we headed outside and I picked a sunny spot for us.

Here's my little lunch plate. I'd ordered a turkey and cranberry sandwich. Tom also got a curried prawn salad and we got two Acme baguettes to pair with the cheese.

Here's our spread of cheese- we'd picked a lot of them. I think 6. I enjoyed my cheddar with dill and herbs, but Tom had picked a mild blue which he stated was his favorite cheese that'd he ever had (and he loves cheese). We did pick a dud- a brie with walnuts which was too bitter to eat, but overall, we had a great meal, which was even better just due to the beautiful surroundings and excellent weather.

After lunch, we headed over to Domaine Chandon, just 10 minutes down the road, for a winery tour. Let me just say that I've been to a handful of wineries in Napa and Domaine Chandon was very impressive and beautiful. It's just built on a gorgeous piece of land and the architecture itself is just lovely. However, the tour was sort of a dud. When you pay someone $7 for a tour, during which they get to promote their brand, restaurant, etc., and have a captive audience, they should at least give people a sample of wine. Instead tastings were an extra $15. While some of our party opted for that choice, Tom and I headed outside and took pics of the lovely surroundings.

After the tour, we headed into downtown Napa to visit COPIA, a food and wine museum. We got there at exactly 3 and found out that they'd just closed since they were having a special event for New Year's eve. So we headed next door to the newly built Oxbow Marketplace. The thing with Oxbow is that it literally just opened. It's a huge building and you can tell it's going to be an amazing place that will showcase local food artisans, but for now, it only has like 6 vendors.

We checked out the olive oil store

and sampled some very good olive oil.

We also visited the organic ice cream shopwhere Tom got an organic root beer (he said it was pretty good) and we shared an ice cream.I actually enjoyed the coffee ice cream quite a bit. And it was served in this funky biodegradable cup with a biodegradable spoon.

We had a couple hours left to burn before dinner. (I had expected to spend that time at COPIA) but we took a trip to Walmart instead and then walked around downtown Napa a bit. Soon it was time to head to dinner. We had early reservations at Pilar, a small restaurant focusing on local ingredients.
Of course with such early reservations we were the first ones at the restaurant. The menu was pretty short and we had already decided what to order while we waited outside for the doors to open. I ordered a crab cake to start. It was pretty good and I especially liked how it was served with the side of fresh grapefruit.

For dinner, I had a chicken dish.Ok honestly, it's been nearly a month now, and I don't remember what was in this. But it was pretty good. Nothing amazing.

And lastly, I finished with some type of warm chocolate mousse, which was truly incorrectly named cause it was more like a warm chocolate cake, though not as good. I didn't finish it (it wasn't worth the calories).After dinner, we drove home, with the idea in our minds that we'd play Monopoly. But we ended up watching Shrek 2 on TV and going to bed by 10:30. Yeah, that's what you do when you're old. We couldn't even manage to stay up until midnight. Overall, we had a lovely New Year's day- a great way to start off the New Year's in our new CA home.

THE FERRY BUILDING FARMERS MARKET

Well friends, I'm sitting here suffering from a bit of neck pain. I think I slept funny last night or something, because it's been bothering me all day. No biggy though. I'm just resting, propped up against a bunch of pillows. And I made myself an appt at the local massage therapy school for tomorrow morning (just $35 for a 55 minute massage!) so hopefully I'll be feeling better very soon.

Anyway, I figured I'd take this time to update my blog. So I'll write about yet another farmer's market- the famed Ferry Building Farmer's market. So after lunch at the Slanted Door, we walked around to check out the farmer's market. It wasn't all that different from the ones that I regularly visit in the East Bay, except the setting was quite impressive.

I was finally able to try out Blue Bottle Coffee, though. It's a pretty famous coffee company and it's located over here in the East Bay. They don't have a store yet, and are pretty selective about who can sell their coffee, but they do participate in a couple of farmers markets, including the one at the Ferry Building.

I tracked down the booth and ordered myself a cappuccino and a coffee for my aunt. Here's my cappuccino.

As you can see, perfect latte art, and he cappuccino itself was quite good. I didn't get to try the coffee, but they use these special drip filters to make it, so it takes a few minutes. The only thing that bothered me was that they didn't offer sugar. Sure, I understand that you're purists and sugar masks the overall flavor, but it does help make it a bit more enjoyable. And they always give you sugar in Italy.

Lastly, here's a pic of the historic Ferry Building.

Overall, it wasn't the greatest farmer's market that I'd ever been to. (maybe cause I'd already had lunch) but I think we may go back this weekend to pick up a few bags of Blue Bottle for Xmas presents.

BERKELEY BOWL

Wow. I haven't blogged in a long time. But these last weeks have been really busy, both at work and at home. The final guests (my parents) finally left yesterday, so it should be relatively quite for the next few weeks (at home, not at work. Work is busy busy). In fact, this post is from my mom's last visit, 2 weeks ago. But better late than never.

My aunt wanted to buy someone hormone, anti biotic free chicken for my cousin, Cindy. So I took this as a great opportunity to check out Berkeley Bowl, a super famous supermarket that specializes in a ton of fresh produce. It's a Bay Area institution and is always packed. When we arrived, it was around 11 in the morning and the parking lot was already full.

When you step in, you realize it's a lot like Whole Foods, except the produce section takes up like 2/3 of the store. Here's a pic of something I'd never seen before. It's called Buddha's hand, apparently it's some type of citrus.

Here some shots of some pretty produce:

Brussell sprouts still on the stalk. You see this pretty often, and I haven't quite figured out what the benefit is. Can you eat the stalk? If not, then why go through the extra work of picking them off?

And here's a shot of the poultry section. I was FINALLY able to buy some duck legs (something I couldn't find in Boston), so now I can make Mario Batali's duck ragu. And my aunt was able to get the chicken that she wanted.

Overall, I was glad that I was finally able to go to Berkeley Bowl. They had a wonderful selection of fresh produce and other products. But I don't think I'll be back any time soon. Shopping for groceries just shouldn't be so stressful.

A DAY IN BERKELEY

As I type this, I'm watching the Sox on the verge of winning the World Series. (maybe) This entire series has made me miss Boston, but to make myself feel a little better, I'll remind you of why I live in the Bay Area.

As you know, now that I'm working again, I don't have "normal" days off. My days off are now on Wednesday and Thursdays, and with Tom having Saturday and Sundays off, we never get to spend a full day together. But we do spend our half days together. So one Thursday, we decided to meet my old college friend, Eileen, for lunch in Berkeley. However, since we weren't having lunch until 1, and we get up pretty early, we decided to get a snack at our local Vietnamese sandwich shop, Bah Le (just 3 block from home).

I love going here to get a quick lunch to take to work. I don't know what it is about Vietnamese sandwiches that makes them so great, maybe the pickled veggies, the crunchy cucumber, spicy jalapenos or soft, crunchy roll, I guess the combination of it all makes them extra yummy. Plus at $2.50, it's always an excellent deal. Tom and I are both fans of the bbq chicken sandwich, which is what you see below.

A couple of hours after our snack, we headed out to downtown Berkeley we went looking for Cafe Panini, a small sandwich shop tucked away in a courtyard. You wouldn't know from the outside that it's there, but since we had looked up the information on their website, it wasn't too hard to find. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a bunch of outdoor seating, so we grabbed a table outside.

I decided to order a soup and half sandwich combo. To be honest, I'm really not sure what I ordered anymore (this was two weeks ago), but I do remember that the soup was pretty good, and the sandwich was kinda small. (though also good and made with very fresh ingredients). Also, when they say panini, what they really mean is a toasted sandwich, since when I think of panini, I'm thinking of something placed on a panini press and squished flat.

Meanwhile, here's Tom's sandwich. It was a pork loin sandwich and he thought it was ok. Again, it was surprisingly small, so he was still hungry afterwards. Luckily, Eileen is more familiar with Berkeley and suggested that we visit a gelato shop afterwards. (I guess it's common knowledge that I love gelato).

Here are some shots of the gelato case. They all looked very good and they were quite willing to give out samples. However, I ordered my usual- chocolate and strawberry.

I thought the flavors were quite good and I enjoyed the chocolate quite a lot. After lunch, Tom and I decided to head up to North Berkeley for their weekly farmer's market. Ever Thursday, the farmer's market in North Berkeley feature only organic farmers. And we already have our favorite stalls at the farmer's market.

We're big fans of pretzel man who makes these German style pretzels, but better.
We also like getting bites at Flacos, the vegan, vegetarian Mexican stall. Here's tom standing next to the sign. Yeah, it doesn't sound very good, but it really is. You can hardly notice that the taquitos are filled with tempeh rather than chicken. Ahhh, the miracles of frying. And here are some more pics from the market. Overall, it's great to spend an afternoon sitting the sun and enjoying some yummy snacks. I guess this California living isn't so bad afterall.

LONDON: DAY 4

On our fourth day in London, we didn't have any really big plans. The main one was lunch at Maze, a Gordon Ramsey restaurant that I'd made reservations for months before we arrived. So we spent the morning checking out chocolate shops and buying tickets to see Wicked that evening. We also went to Fortnum and Mason- yet another super fancy department store.

I know that some people compare it to Harrod's, but Fortnum and Mason is much smaller and lesser known. It also means it's quieter and makes for a more enjoyable shopping experience. It kinda reminded me of Takashimaya in NY.

Just like Harrod's, the also have a large food section in the basement. Here's a pick of some dried beef and another of the veggies:

After our little shopping excursion, we went back to the hotel to change into some nicer clothes. Then we headed off to Maze at Grovsenor Square (near the American Embassy). I'd chosen Maze because I knew I wanted to have one nice meal in London, and Maze has a 28 pound 4 course prix fixe for lunch. (yes, that's still quite expensive, but it's cheaper than anything else you're gonna find). Also, the current chef (not Gordon Ramsey) at Maze has become quite well known for his talent- he used to work at El Bulli in Spain.

The dining room is very modern and well lit by large windows overlooking the square. I like it's muted colors of brown and beige. When we arrived, the dining room was already half full, and it'd fill up more as we ate. And for the first time, we seemed to be the only Americans in the room. Everyone else was English. There were lots of business lunches going on around us, but there were also a few group of friends having lunch and a few couples like us. First, we were served bread with butter and salt. The butter is also a deeper yellow and more yummy in Europe. (higher butterfat content).

We were then given menus. Not surprisingly(for having a Spanish chef), it was organized in a tapas style, where you're recommended to get 4-5 courses( generally around 10-15 pounds per course). I already knew I was going to be ordering the prix fixe (you get two choices for each entree, and you can also order a 6 course prix fixe if you really want), but Tom decided that he was more interested in ordering from the menu, and so went for that.

My first course was this lovely pumpkin soup:It had little bits of caramelized chestnuts and onions at the bottom, and then the soup was poured over it. I loved the savoriness of the caramelized parts, and the sweetness of the soup- I just wish I could've had a bigger bowl of it. It was supposed to be served with this little brioche that looks like a mushroom (below) but the waiter gave it to Tom! (I let him have it, I don't like egg breads and he loves brioche)Meanwhile, Tom had his first course- some form of avocado mousse with creme fraiche, topped with crab and oddly enough, a quenelle of sweet corn sorbet and caviar. All these flavors my sound kinda crazy, but the sweet corn sorbet was surprisingly good, and this ended up being Tom's favorite course.

My next course was a seared scallop served with squid ink risotto and "micro squid" (really tiny pieces of squid which I gave to Tom). This was also a very good dish, I loved the risotto because it was packed full with butter. Oh, also, Maze is really into tableside presentation, so when I got my plate, the waiter actually came with a tiny copper pot and spooned the risotto onto my plate (I wish I could've asked her to just leave the pot- I know there was more in there). For Tom's second course, I had encouraged him to order a version of the croque monsieur, with Jamon Iberico and what really interested me- a 2 hour egg yolk. (which means the egg yolk was cooked for 2 hours via sous vide). Tom thought this course was ok. I would've liked it more had the presentation been different, but he found it hard to eat the sandwich with his hands while trying to spread the egg on top.

Next up, Tom got a chicken poached in butter. It was served with this little potato guy on the side. Personally, I didn't find it that amazing, but the sauce was packed with butter and the chicken was moist. I guess I just don't particularly like poached chicken, even if it is poached in butter.
As we ate, I did notice that table next to us- a business meeting of 4. They'd ordered wine and were having the same prix fixe meal as me, but I felt I was getting shafted. They got two scallops, rather than my one, and seemed to be getting more generous portions of everything! Tom thought I was being paranoid, but I think it'd because they were more likely to come back, and we were just tourists. Oh, but I will mention that service here is impeccable, as you would expect from a restaurant of this caliber. There's a ton of waitstaff on the floor and they are quick to refill your water (and at 4 pounds for a bottle of Evian, why not?) and meet your needs.

Ok, for my main course I had the "fish and chips". This wasn't my favorite course. The fish was just slightly over cooked, and not hugely flavorful. And the "chips" weren't potatoes! They were fried turnips. Lastly, the homemade tomato sauce that they'd served it with wasn't really tasty at all.

For Tom's final course, he ordered the beef tongue and cheek (aww, isn't that such a cute name?)I think he also found this course to be pretty good. It was well cooked and the meats were tender.

And now for my favorite course of this meal- dessert. Normally, I find desserts to be a major let down. I rarely say that I like them (even the desserts at Jean Georges were disappointing). I asked Tom when the last time is that I said I even liked a dessert. It took a while to decide, but I did love the caramel tart served at Enoteca. (oh, and the gelatos at Mozza). I'd eaten at both places in March.

I wasn't expecting much from this dessert- a mainly chose it because it came with a doughnut. (mmmmmmmmmm, doughnut). You'll noticed it as that little fried ball- and it was filled with a very nice apple filling. But the best thing was the apple caramel trifle. It's got a layer of apple gelee, a layer of caramel pudding, a layer of vanilla cream, and apple granita spooned on top by the server. It was DELICIOUS. I'm not even a fan of cream, puddings and gelees, but the combination of it all was great.
And of course, we ended our meal with a few petit fours: chocolates and rose gelees. By the end of the meal, Tom was stuffed and I was pretty full. I know that people on Chowhound had complained that the portions on the prix fixe were too small for the price, but I think Americans are always complaining too much about how small portions are. I found this lunch to be just right, and I didn't walk away painfully full (definitely a good thing). I really did enjoy our meal, but we certainly won't be doing anything like it again anytime soon. With everything included, I think it came out to around 90 pounds- you can do your own calculations into dollars.

After our large meal, we went back to the hotel to rest. But we were up soon enough. A tube strike had started that afternoon, and we needed to take the bus to get to theatre where we'd be seeing Wicked that night. We arrived a little early, so I consulted my Cheap Eats guide and decided to take us to a fish and chips place a few blocks down from the theatre. I don't remember the name right now, something involving Super Fresh and fish. At any rate, they have a sit down restaurant, but next door, they also have a take out part. We decided a cod fish and chips combo. We took it to go, found a seat on the sidewalk and began to eat (yes, we're super fancy like that). Here's the cod. It actually wasn't too bad. It was really really hot, but it was moist inside and pretty yummy. The customers in front of us had gotten a large amount of take out, so this had just been fried. (I could see how it'd tasty pretty crappy if it'd been sitting under a heat lamp for a while).

The chips were not as great. They were all different sizes, so they didn't fry evenly. And they were clearly frozen and not too delicious. Overall, it was a great little snack to have before we headed into the theatre- and an appropriate meal for our last night in London.

LONDON: DAY 2
Our second day in London was a Saturday. We had grand plans to get up early and meet up with Jayna at Borough Market. But at 10am, when she called and we were already supposed to meet her, we still hadn't gotten out of bed. You might think that a 5 hour time difference isn't much, but it really is. So we got ready in 15 minutes and headed to the other side of London, arriving at the market at 11am.

So Borough Market is just like a really great farmer's market- except that some parts of it are indoors and some are permanent stores. It reminds me a lot of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. The first shop we went to was Jayna's favorite cheese store in London. I don't recall the name right now, but it was stocked to the ceiling with cheese, with lots of cheese on aging racks inside, and even more cheese to sample.

Here's the main area where you can order your cheese and have them cut off slices for you. Tom got an unpasteurized brie cheese that he saved for later.

Then it was off to do some browsing and shopping. We had lunch plans with a cousin at noon, but it was a pricey place, so we decided to have some food before hand. We bought tarts from this vendor. They were ok, though cold and kinda soggy.

There were all types of vendors, and lots of local ones, so we sampled and walked along checking them out. Here's someone selling olives:Fresh berries:Sandwiches and breads:Potted plants:And fresh seafood:There were also vendors where you could get food made. Tom and Jayna wanted to get chorizo sandwiches, so as they waited in line (Londoners are incredibly good at queueing), I went off to get myself some scallops.
These scallops had been freshly caught, so they were sweet, briny, smokey and delicious. The only problem was the bacon that they decided to put under it. Ah well, I let Tom eat it. Meanwhile, here are the chorizo sandwiches:Tom and Jayna thought these were delicious. Unfortunately, I had to make Tom scarf his down because we were having lunch with my cousin in 5 minutes.

So my cousin chose a restaurant called Roast. It actually sits above Borough market, in a beautiful second floor space that overlooks the entire market floor. It's almost worth it just for the view. Plus it's got huge glass windows, so there's a ton of light pouring in. However, I had looked up the menu while still in the U.S. and knew that this place would be pricey. So after filling up downstairs at the market, both Tom and I ordered light appetizers. I didn't take any pics, but I had a warm chicken liver salad, which was very good. The chicken livers were overcooked by like 30 seconds, but were still tender. Tom ordered a beet soup with goat cheese, which would've been better served cold. He ended up eating only half of it.

After lunch, we took a quick walk over to the Tate Modern where we spent the afternoon. During this trip, we had grand plans to go to lots of museums, but the Tate ended up being the only one we visited. Afterwards, we met up with Jayna again for an early dinner. Ever since we'd decided to go to London, Tom kept saying that he wanted to have fish and chips. But I'd had heard from people that it's not the easiest thing to find. So I did some research and found a highly recommeded place called Master's Super Fish. If you happen to be seeing a show at the Old Vic, this place is right around the corner. The restaurant opens at 4:30, and we weren't the first ones there (we were the second ones). We were seated quickly. The surroundings aren't luxurious. Actually, they're pretty plain and kinda grubby, but sometimes those type of restaurants have the best food. You could order different types of fried fish. Tom got the cod and Jayna and I both ordered the plaice (a type of flatfish). After we ordered, we were given little amuse bouche- 3 little shrimp on a plate. Ok, this was actually one of my favorite parts of the meal, because the shrimp actually tasted like shrimp. I think we've gotten accustomed to eating farmed shrimp that really have no flavor, but these were sweet and very shrimpy. Then we got our enormous orders of fish and chips. I gotta say, the fish was really good. It was well fried, moist and was a huge portion. I ate it with lots and lots of tartar sauce. Luckily, they give you your own bowl of it. Strangely enough, they also offer you gherkins and pickled onions with your fish. (I passed on those). Overall, our meal was really great. Everyone enjoyed it. At around 15 pounds each, it definitely wasn't the cheapest meal we'd have, but it was very good. Also, it seemed to be a place with lots of regulars and local- not many tourists in site. After dinner, we walked around Westminster and Buckingham Palace, finishing with an ice cream from Mark's and Spencer. Overall, a great day, though tiring and long.