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

What I’ve been up to in the past two months?

• I went vegetarian from April 19 to May 19. Wow, exactly a month! It was much more challenging than the last time I tried to do this. I was so happy to end it T_T
• I’ve been working on a lot of random crap, for school and for work!
• I bought an Xbox 360 with Grand Theft Auto IV and WiiFit
• Which led me to force myself to not buying anything for myself for the entire month of May!
• Which was subsequently stopped when the Victoria’s Secret Semi-Annual sale and Nordstrom Half Yearly sale came around the corner …
• and I bought my first pair of awesome Rock & Republics

My very first pair of designer jeans that I actually bought for myself (not to sound all materialistic/snobby, but my brother and his girlfriend got me the other 3 that I have–Seven for All Mankind, Joe’s Jeans, and AG (Adriano Goldschmied) Jeans … none of which, to be quite frank, I’m all that thrilled about, but accept and wear quite graciously)! I snapped a picture of the stitching:

It’s so gorgeous! The gold thread is simply luminous and vibrant. This is the Kasandra boot cut denim, in Grievance Policy. I also got a pair in Grievance Manuel, but they don’t fit me! Oh well, these are ballin’ as it is

GTA4 is freakin’ awesome. I have yet to beat game (I think I’m only at 40% or less), but it’s so flippin’ fun. Niko Bellic’s character definitely helps add to the lure of the game, too. I love his smart-assery.

In other exciting news, Justin is officially a UCLA Bruin. I’m so proud of him. He’s such an incredible nerd! He barely tries in school and gets A’s … it could just be that JCs are that easy to him, but I actually really think he’s just that smart Anyway, I’m mostly excited for him. People have asked me what I’m going to do, as if it’s the end of the world for us, but you know what? It isn’t! I’m gonna work really hard here so that I can potentially move down with him in the next year, so we’ll be separate for a little while. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of challenges that would present us.

I should start writing here more often. Again.

One last bit of (semi?) big news: We rescued a kitten last week! Well, Justin’s stepdad did. When we first saw her, her eyes were so horribly infected that she would have the hardest time opening them, she was all skin and bones and was barely able to walk. We’ve been nursing her back to health, feeding her formula milk for kittens and taking her to the vet. Now she’s much bigger, there’s actually meat on her bones, and she is SO active it’s almost annoying. She’s learning how to control her claws (or at least learning more about her claws), teething like crazy, uses the litter box, can eat solid foods better, and loves to play with her own reflection. We just leave her alone in the kitchen and she tires herself out by all the crazy things to explore. She especially loves the wall-length vertical blinds and the mirrored dining table legs. Haha.

Anyway, we named her Sakura But we’re not keeping her. We’re just holding her until she’s fully healthy (she has some upper respitory problems as well as an eye infection). We’ll probably have her sprayed and vaccinated before we really try to give her away. Aww. I’m gonna miss her.

Here are some pictures of her:

“What’s that?”

The bluest eyes you’ll ever see

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

On Friday, after work, I went over to Justin’s house and we ate leftovers from the absolutely terrific Valentine’s Day dinner he’d prepared for me the night before (herb-crusted rack of lambs, spinach and pinenut salad, penne pasta) while watching Moyashimon, an anime about fermentation and a boy who can see bacteria. Really, the only reason why I watch it is because the bacteria are SO freakin’ cute!

Moyashimon Wallpaper

Saturday, we were supposed to get Justin’s loverly STi’s transmission fluid drained at a shop in Hayward, but something or other happened and we decided we’d come back next week. We instead decided to head out to Berkeley for lunch!

Stopped by the Epicurious Garden on Shattuck! Actually, we had originally planned for Cheeseboard but we were there early and we hadn’t eaten breakfast, so we opted for some soup from Soop and a steak torta from Picoso. YUM! Oh my dear gosh that Coq au Vin was soooo good!

Afterward, we trekked over to Charle’s Chocolates for a gander at their fine selection while waiting for Derek to return to his apartment. I bought a jasmine tea-infused chocolate truffle. So yummy

The next however many hours were spent packing, loading, packing, loading, etc … except since Derek’s apartment has lingering reminders that he once had a cat there, I was basically dying! Sneezed like crazy, nose running, coughing, etc etc, so all I was good for was holding the door open. Ha. :X

After we loaded everything in SF, Justin and I were paid in FOOD. Oh how I love food! We went to Manivanh in the Mission:

Great, I’m drooling now. Freakin’ aye! It’s lunch time, son!

Afterward, we moved some more stuff in Emeryville, and then we stopped by Fenton’s for (celebratory?) dessert. Mmm, the traditional fare of Fenton’s fries and ice cream! Sounds like an odd combination but damn son, it was GOOD. Cookies ‘n cream ice cream pie! haha! I can’t believe they finished their ice cream. They give you so much food there

On Sunday, I worked out in the morning and wanted to buy Professor Layton and the Curious Village. While at Target, I saw that they had Rock Band for … PS2?! I called Justin for advice, but finding that he was rather preoccupied, I decided to just buy it (and, if anything, return it later!).

I showered really fast once I got home and drove over to Justin’s house! Afterward we met up with Chandler and Laura (Lauren?) at Pepper Lunch. Had Hamburg Steak! Yum! I haven’t had Pepper Lunch in ages! Then Justin called his cousin to see if we could borrow his Xbox 360, seeing as how the PS2 version of Rock Band had a lot of features that were missing. We got a Go, so we traded our PS2 version for the Xbox 360 version (which, btw, was on sale at Target, without us really knowing! That’s so awesome. I love getting an unexpected deal!), dropped by his cousin’s house to pick up the 360, then drove back to Justin’s house to set it all up.

Oh man. Spent the past TWO DAYS playing! SO FUN! I hate the guitar though! The strummer has no tactile feedback, the buttons are depressed and therefore not as responsive, and the yellow button (or the 3rd fret) isn’t physically different enough to distinguish where your fingers are (they have these tiny ass dots on them that really do not do a good job of telling you where your finger is until it’s TOO LATE!). I think we’re gonna use masking tape for the button, but I don’t know what to do about the strumming lever. It just sucks :\ It registers my strum as doing it twice, sometimes! So fucking annoying.

Otherwise though, Justin’s usually on the drums and I’m usually either vocals or guitar. Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria is fun to play!

If not playing Rock Band though, Justin and I attempt to solve puzzles on Professor Layton. I’ve unlocked/solved 28 puzzles so far. It’s frustrating but in a good way! Your brain is getting some well-needed logic practice I do pretty well with the visual puzzles, but the logic and math ones are freakin’ annoying

Overall, a relaxing weekend! I haven’t spent time playing video games in awhile, so this is definitely a welcomed break!