Much has happened since my last update:

• I completed my vegetarianism, without too much difficulty toward the end. I even continued editing myself, out of habit. Heck, I still don’t feel like I really need to eat meat (much to the chagrin of my friends), but I’ll do what I do!
• I went to Las Vegas during the last weekend of February to celebrate a friend’s birthday!
• I played a lot of board games the weekend before that!
• I started preparing a (new) character for D&D 4E with my friends!
• I finished school today! Turned in my final project and had my portfolio critiqued by my peers!

And I ate a little too well, throughout it all. Easing back into eating meat has been an interesting experience; it started out very strangely (I couldn’t believe I was eating meat! It seemed wrong!), and then I got used to it, again. But the fact that I got used to it tells me that it’s something that I could easily negate in my diet. But, I did rather miss bacon + sushi (Long parenthetical aside ahead: So I’ve been having some moral issue with sushi, especially in light of the recent whale meat incident with that restaurant in Santa Monica. It’s not so much the idea of not knowing whether or not a restaurant I’m currently patronizing is serving whale meat, though, so much as it is the simple fact that fishing contributes so much environmental damage. Restaurants definitely don’t have to disclose where their fish come from, and the supposedly very best Japanese restaurants have their fish imported specifically from Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan, once a week or more–an incredible amount of carbon footprint to cover. Where is the comfort in eating sushi when you know that not only is the fishing methods for it harmful for the ocean and its ecosystems, but also the fact that many of the beloved sushi meats have trace levels of mercury that could be unhealthy if consumed frequently? I guess it’s all in the end product: how damn good sushi is! I haven’t really fully developed my feelings/stance toward the subject, but for now, I suppose I will be eating such things in moderation. By moderation, I mean once or twice a month )

Anyway, more updates will come, as I am (a little bit) freer to do so this week

On Superbowl Sunday, my roommate , her friend, Justin and I wanted to go somewhere to watch the Superbowl, especially since her friend was out of town. After doing a bit of research (we are, after all, still LA newbies), we decided to visit Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. It has since become one of my favorite places to go to in LA (even though Santa Monica is not technically in LA, but that’s a minor detail )

Pictures abundant, along with details, underneath the cut

Two things that made me fall in love with Library Alehouse: extensive selection of beer on tap, and a surprising number of vegetarian offerings for an alehouse/pub. The latter feature wouldn’t normally be a make-or-break feature, but being that I’m still on my vegetarian stint, it’s certainly a convenience.

I started off my meal with an Old Rasputin, a stout with notes of coffee and cream. Delectable!

I ordered the portobello sandwich, which consists of (as stated on their website): a marinated and grilled portobello mushroom with fontina cheese, red onion, tomato, arugula and basil aioli on rosemary bread). It was quite tasty, and a great reminder of how effective mushroom can be in replacing the texture and mouthfeel of meat. The proportion of aioli was just right, and I have to say that I love arugula (it’s probably one of my favorite leafy greens!).

Justin’s usual go-to is fish and chips, so it’s no surprise that he decided on that, here, with cod fish. He says it was delicious. The amazing part about it is the bed of fries it comes with–that whole basket is filled with them! It took us all evening to finish the fries, and even then, we had to take some to-go. They were well-seasoned, though, and remind me of curly fries from Jack-in-the-Box

After the game (hooray for the Saints!), we decided to get some dessert. Initially I wanted to try Jin Patisserie, but it was closed by the time we got there, so instead we went to N’iceCream on Abbot Kinney. It’s been awhile since I’ve had gelato (the last time was probably in the Bay Area, a year ago!), and personally, I like gelato more than frozen yogurt. Perhaps it’s because it’s been awhile, but it was quite tasty at N’iceCream!

We ordered one scoop of the stand-by stracciatella, and one scoop of chocolate and hazelnut in vanilla. Superb!

All in all, a wonderful way to spend Superbowl Sunday. For me, it couldn’t really get any better than good food, good beer, good dessert, and especially good company ♥

I was immediately taken in by the style of the place–it was literally like a coffee bar. You get in line, you glance at a little (beautifully designed) cardstock menu with a very strict selection of coffee and tea–no frappes, blended iced drinks, smoothies. Then, when he or she is available, a barista kindly asks for your selection, you walk to the side to wait for it and pay, while they painstakingly and craftily make your coffee, right in front of you. We ordered cappuccinos–for me, the Black Cat, and for her, the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe.

We sat down in one of the corner benches–seating is arranged to surround the coffeebar–and looked curiously at our drinks.

One slow, cautious, careful sip, and I fell in love. It was delicious! The last time I had such a memorable coffee was at Barefoot Cafe, in Santa Clara. I do apologize for giving such a gushing review and not remembering the flavor profiles–I have the worst technical memory–but, it left a lasting impression on me. The flavor was so robust, so rich, so plentiful, that my tongue was doing its best taking in every single note. And this was after I had had a cappuccino at Rose Cafe with my brunch! (As such, I would like to blame me not remembering the specific flavors on me being completely and utterly wired after it all )

Needless to say, Intelligentsia will see me again–perhaps, on a day when it hadn’t just rained

P.S. Everyone should check out this video on espresso, which interviews a barista from Intelligentsia. It is informative, and, incidentally, beautifully made. Thanks to Geoff for sharing!

Anyway, I delight in finding the most random things and trying out new snacks and food whenever I make a Nijiya run. The Mountain View location is right by my work, so it’s definitely not an inconvenience, and if anything, it’s a nice break from my (albeit very colorful) cubicle.

On one of these Nijiya runs, I was hurriedly going through the aisles to find something, and my eyes met this:

Instant pasta?! At 307 calories a serving? I’m down!

Review of the product, complete with pictures, underneath the cut

After carefully reading the instructions (a.k.a. reading the pictures), I opened the box to see what madness awaited:

Left to right: sauce packet, empty box, pasta bowl.

The pasta in the pasta bowl was actually fresh. That isn’t too big of a surprise, considering the abundance of instant fresh udon bowls and other non-fried instant noodle bowls, but for whatever reason, the fact that these were fresh pasta noodles made it somewhat more surprising

So, I peeled back the seal to the dotted line, poured in the Pasta Sauce, resealed the thing, and put it back inside the box. An interesting procedure–this was the first time I’ve had to put a sealed bowl of some sort inside another container. I’m assuming it helps with heat retention or something, but who knows. I’m not a scientist

After figuring out what wattage our microwave puts out, I set the timer accordingly, and within minutes, I had myself a nice, piping-hot bowl of neopolitan spaghetti!

Ground pepper for the final touch. I keep a pepper grinder in my cubicle

Overall, I found it to be surprisingly tasty. If you’re into Japanese-style spaghetti (somewhat sweet, but not overly so; light in flavor), this is actually a pretty good product to have. I can’t say much for its nutritional value, but it’s certainly a lot better for you than instant ramen (what, with the blanched noodles and overly salty seasoning packets (not that I don’t love it anyway)). The sauce packet contains actual bits of tomatoes and mushroom! If you really wanted to, you could probably slice up some hot dog and add it to the concoction

Oh, cruel, cruel reality, for there is not a coffee shop around here that has replicated the wonders of the “cashmere perfect” froth. Ever since I saw that picture, I’ve been ordering cappuccinos at any and every coffee shop (or place that served reputable coffee) around. My conclusion is that I need to froth the milk myself, but the steaming mechanism at my work’s espresso machine is out of commission. Maybe, soon enough, I will find my perfect froth… but, for now, I will have my dark beverage the way Laurie likes it: “Black as the devil, sweet as a stolen kiss … no milk, two sugars.”

Being overwhelmed by work and social obligations has left me little to no time to play video games or to finish reading the D&D 4E Player’s Handbook; however, from what I’ve gathered from old timer players (namely my boyfriend), they seem to have stripped down a lot of things about D&D 4E. It seems, in his words, “dumbed down so that WoW players can start getting into D&D.” I can’t say since I never played the older editions, but he used to play 2E with his friends all the time. Some of the changes makes me a little sad, but I think our DM might accomdate for those changes We will see though. I am way excited to play, but I have to wait a week and a couple days. Why so far away!?

For living in Berkeley for three years and being a fifteen minute walk away from one of the world’s best restaurants, you’d think that I would have had the opportunity to stop by and eat at Chez Panisse, right? Or, maybe you wouldn’t, considering that all college students are broke and poor and couldn’t afford such a luxurious meal … or so the stereotype goes, anyway.

For myself, it wasn’t the restriction of finances that kept me from going (hellooo credit debt!), or the nearly and seemingly impossible nature of holding a reservation for the place (must call exactly one month in advance, no sooner, at exactly 9 AM when the lines open, and with any luck, you’ll reach someone to take your reservation by lunch time), but rather … well, I have no excuse. Time, maybe? I was too busy being a rambunctious college kid to set aside time for Chez Panisse.

In any case, what better opportunity to go there than for your lover’s birthday? Well, I’m sure you could rattle off a few other incentives, but I phoned in a month in advance for a Saturday date, and of  course, no way in hell was I gonna get that, so I settled on a Tuesday night reservation, the day after Justin’s birthday (and, being that his birthday, which was on Monday, happens to coincide with Bastille Day, that was probably the best option). We officially are no longer Chez Panisse virgins, and quite proudly so!

Preface:
Chez Panisse is a restaurant built on Alice Waters’s philosophy that good food is simple–it is grown locally, fresh, and organic. Therefore, the restaurant uses mostly locally grown and organic ingredients. They never use anything off season, and the only thing in their menu that came from a far away place is wine. The atmosphere reflects this wholesome philosophy, as well–it’s rustic, comfortable, and charming, not stuffy, stiff, and sterile. It takes its French influence qiute seriously and, in addition to offering French cuisine and naming their restaurant a French name, they have old illustrated posters of French films hung at some places. The rustic quality traces itself in every aspect of the interior decoration–it almost feels like there’s a lot of wood/brick going on, instead of concrete and plastic. The fabulous philosophy behind this restaurant goes as far as its dinnerware–the plates are from Heath Ceramics, which is located in Sausalito, and the drink menu offers many brews from around the area. Of course, I have to acknowledge that I am extraordinarily spoiled; living in California makes it absolutely easy to buy locally and love it. The wines of Napa, the breweries of San Francisco, the artisans and craftsmen of all over, the farmers of San Joaquin Valley and most of Central California–seriously? We’ve been described as an economically self-sufficient state, and with good reason, too.

On top of all this great philosophy/value, Chez Panisse still manages to uphold a certain level of culinary expertise and craftsmanship that earns it a spot in the top 50 restaurants of the world, at #37.

Anyway! The style of this restaurant is based on two kinds of restaurant in one: The downstairs “Restaurant” and the upstairs “Cafe.” The Restaurant serves prix-fixed dinners that change everyday to reflect the season’s best offerings. It’s a little more formal, a little quieter, tends to be more expensive, and more difficult to get reservations for the Restaurant portion. The Cafe upstairs is a little more casual, the menu style is a la carte (meaning you can pick and choose what you’d like to order), the mood a little more excitable.

Tonight, we dined in The Restaurant. Today’s menu was somewhat special–it was an all-fish menu

Local halibut crudo with avocado and cherry tomatoes
The halbut was thinly sliced, dusted with minced chili, parsley and chives, doused in a sort of olive oil/vinegarette mixture. It was sooo soft and melted in my mouth. It came with a side of cilantro + avocado + cherry tomato salad. I’m not sure what dressing they used, but whatever it was, it did WONDERS. One bite of the cherry tomato and all this flavor just came bursting out! I’m not sure if it’s the tomato, the dressing, or both, but whatever trickery they used, it was quite effective

(No picture for this dish because I hastily dived into my dish, oops :X)
Tuscan fish and shellfish soup with wild fennel
Soothing, comforting, subtle–the flavors of lobster, crab, and scallop meld together in harmony, without one being stronger than the other, and the BEST BEST part of the soup? The sliced baguette with garlic aioli that was floating in the center of the bowl. The garlic aioli was out of this world. I don’t know how they made it, but each bite was like a piece of heaven TwT Even Justin, who abhors the taste of shellfish + crusteceans, took a liking for this one. Good job, CP

Yellowfin tuna grilled over vine cuttings; with porcini mushrooms and fried herbs
The main course. The tuna was cooked to perfection, the porcini mushrooms sauteed and flavorful, the fried herbs (onions?) delectable, all held together by a delicate sauce that I can’t explain because I suck and am not good at this yet. Well, actually, it’s more like I was too busy enjoying the food to extrapolate and dissect all the flavours, as I normally try to do

Santa Rosa plum tart with muscat sabayon
The dessert. My least favorite of the meal. It was absolutely tart. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be this tart, or maybe I’m not used to the taste of plums, but in any case, even the muscat sabayon (which looked/tasted like wine-based sweet cream to me) didn’t do a good job of balancing out the flavors. Sad. Luckily, dessert is my least favorite portion of any meal in general I prefer coffee for dessert plzkthx.

The check came, along with two truffles (hazelnut!) and two wild strawberries.

The two of us HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN <3And with that said, I am stuffed silly and absolutely exalted.

While we’re talking about fine dining, here are some restaurants I want to try out eventually…

• The French Laundry (this should be saved for a really special occassion though) – Always in the top 3 (they really need to redesign their website though!!) TOO MUCH FLASH PLZ.
• Bouchon the baby brother of The French Laundry
• Manresa (#35 in 2005)
• Emiles
• Kaygetsu – Apparently the Bay Area’s finest Japanese restaurant
• Bouchee and/or L’Auberge Carmel

I really, truly do love food ;_;

Curry House
10350 S De Anza Blvd
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 517-1440

We went to Curry House for lunch on Friday after I’d discovered that there was actually one in the Bay Area! Knowing that it was owned by the same company that makes the instant food varieties of curry and tofu, among other things, I knew not to expect Indian-style curry but good, Anglofied-Japanese (haha, thanks for the term, Charzu!) food. You wouldn’t find what non-Japanese people would perceive as Japanese staples here (i.e. sushi and bento boxes), but you definitely would find things like curry rice, hamburg steaks teppan-style, and Japanese-style spaghetti! (Refer to the full menu here)

Without further ado, some photographs!

Justin’s selection:
“Fried Shrimp & Onion Ring Curry – Deep fried shrimp and original onion rings with curry sauce and salad”

A close up of the tempura The onion rings are MASSIVE–each ring contains two rings of onion!

My selection:
“Spicy Omelet Rice – Chili chicken pilaf omelet”

I never thought to eat omurice with marinara sauce + ground beef! Haha.

Unfortunately, the rice wasn’t wrapped by the egg, it was just underneath it Ah, well, it was still good!

The total came to about $20, without tip and with a Shirley Temple (their drink selection is really fun!). Not bad! I would definitely return again. I think I’ll try the spaghetti next time

Tyme for Tea & Co.
37501 Niles Blvd.
Fremont, CA. 94536
(510) 790-0944
http://tymefortea.com

I had my reservations about doing tea time, even though I was obviously the most excited one of all my girlfriends to try it out. Two of our girlfriends were back in the area to visit, so we decided to catch up over some tea! And you know me, being a romantic and all, had been (almost unjustifiably) excited over this. “Bottomless” tea (haha, I’m so ghetto), scones, sandwiches, with no feeling of being rushed, and perhaps most importantly, a sanctuary for women to get together to catch up and talk–I mean, what more could I ask for? But the concept of frills, antiques, and lace made me feel a little nauseous inside. Did tea time have to be such a girly affair?

Nevertheless, we set out to try it, and boy are we GLAD we did! By the end of it all, my girlfriends thanked me profusely for planning this. I had no expectations myself and was just glad it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be–the interior decoration wasn’t overly gaudy, it was more homely and cute rather than stuffy and rigid.

We all ordered the Victorian Tea set, which consists of:
Beginning with a Scone
Crème Fraiche, Lemon Curd & Raspberry Preserves
Five Assorted Tea Sandwiches
Three Tea Pastries
Your choice of Tea

We should’ve figured that was too much food … -_-; haha. Oh well! We ordered mango tea, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, peach passion, and Tyme for Tea’s Blend (black with a hint of kiwi or something?). They were all pretty good ^_^ We passed our pot down to the left, and after we’d tried all 5 teas, we were pretty wired! Ahh, good times

My cup of tea, pre-sugar + milk

First row: Cucumber + Cheese tea sandwiches (dusted with dill)
Second row: Spinach/cheese/tomato? quiche, spinach turnovers;
Third row: Chicken sandwiches (yes, those are sandwiches, not banana bread pudding ), cheese and (something or other) toasted on baguette slices.

I suspect that very little dessert was consumed, at this point!

Faith, Vaishnavi, Lynh, Vy, me – Normal picture

Tea cup picture

MAGNUM er, sipping picture ;D

They have a hat bin in the back! So we put some on and took a picture

Overall, a really, really fun experience! We’ll definitely do tea again

For the birthday party, we had dinner at E Tutto Qua in North Beach and went to Apartment 24 afterward (which is where Dolce used to be). Interesting. The interior definitely looks a lot better than it did before. Unfortunately I hated the DJ’s tendency to mash things up Annoying.

Did a ton of shopping in the past few weeks too! I bought: 2 dress blouses, a rather sultry red dress, and a lace-fringed skirt from Forever21, a long sweater and a short, green satin dress from H&M, and a bunch of random accessories from Forever21 and World of Good. HAHA. Random last store This was I guess an attempt at getting my stuff together before I go to Las Vegas next week. I can’t wait for that :cool:

I have a couple of web projects on hand, my own personal projects (ugh need to find out what happened to my OTHER domain, and then I need to throw together another portfolio!), and schoolwork to keep me very, very occupied. In fact, perhaps a little insanely preoccupied But don’t mind me! I’ll get through it. Even though I’m not stressing over papers or exams anymore, the stress that comes post-education is a different kind of stress–the grown up kind. Sounds silly and obvious, but now the things you do really do affect you. For example, you can bomb a test in college but worst case scenario you can retake the class and be behind in graduation (and possibly have to come up with some sort of excuse for it when applying for grad school). At work, if you screw up, worse case scenario is you don’t get paid, you get fired and then you have to find a different job so that you can basically live. Yeap, that is some intense shit right there The problem is that I REALLY do need the money!

I need to put together my portfolio to apply for school (deadline is creeping up on me, shit!), and get a haircut this weekend. So, to do before I go to Vegas:

• Finish website #1;
• Finish website #2 design;
• Work out on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday mornings;
• Finish GRDES hw;
• Finish Programming hw;
• Take programming test;
• Finish the other GRDES hw;
• Get haircut;
• Put together portfolio!

Good luck to me!

Here are some food pics to keep your mouth watering while you read my blog

So yes, if you couldn’t tell, we had brunch at Caffe 817 in Oakland. It was rather delicious, as always. This is one of our favourite lunch time spots to frequent whenever we’re in the area, mostly because they use such fresh ingredients and because their sandwiches are so refreshingly Californian-Italian. I always used to visit Ratto’s, which is the deli/grocery store next door, especially back when I used to work in downtown Oakland. Their sandwiches were also simply amazing, but in a different way. I actually never ate at Cafe 817 before, not at least until after I’d left the office in Oakland, and the only reason why I started having my lunch at Cafe 817 was because Ratto’s was closed on one of the days Justin and I were in the area. Oops! Well, it just gave the store even more business

I usually eat sandwiches here, but we were early enough to try out their breakfast menu. I cannot resist eggs benedict, so whenever I see it on the menu I immediately go for it. I love that they used proscuitto instead of Canadian bacon. The Hollandaise sauce was ligthweight, although a bit sour for my taste (it could either be the vinegar of the poached egg or too much lemon–at times I could taste both!) They obviously use an egg poacher, but I sort of have a soft spot for places who poach eggs the old-fashion way–in a boiling pan of water. Granted, it’s the more difficult way, but it always feels like you’re getting more yolk than white. All in all, it was still a pretty good breakfast. I’m at least glad I ordered it and tried it out

Justin’s sandwich was the grilled chicken panini, pressed in between Acme rolls, stuffed with artichoke and proscuitto. That’s always the safe bet to go, and Justin sure wanted something safe Haha.

Another culinary adventure I had was on Sunday afternoon, with Justin and Chandler, at Mini Gourmet, a mom-and-pop diner that’s sure to remind you of the good ol’ days, if you’re about 70+ years old. It’s the kind of place where everyone seems to know your name, and if they don’t, they at least try to be warm and friendly with you. They serve all sorts of American goodness here, ranging from an impressive breakfast menu to a full lunch and dinner menu. It’s not so different from Country Way, although the portions are somewhat more manageable than Country Way. I may consider re-visiting this restaurant again, after I get over the caloric intake I’d had

I’m starting to realize this blog is becoming more and more like a food blog than it is an all-encompassing personal blog, but you know what? I love food! I can’t help if it I want to write about food all the time … and post really yummy pics of them … mmmmmmmmmmm.

I’m such a glutton