Browse Category: yum

just chillin’…

It was a warm and sunny weekend in SF and we had a good time hanging out at home with the windows open.   I must be somewhat rested because this morning I woke up at 5:55 am without the alarm and I was wide awake.  Too bad this had to go to waste because I have the day off today!!  Wooo!

Here’s the weekend roundup:

On Saturday, I got up early to go for a run.  I’m trying to break in my new running shoes before next weekend’s race and it’s been giving me some problems.  My left foot starts to fall asleep after about 2 miles of running.  Not good.  So, I stopped at 3 miles and it happened to be at the Farmer’s Market where I picked up a bunch of dahlias.  Aw…so purty.

For lunch that day, we drove 45 minutes to Liou’s House in Milpitas to meet up with some friends to have this elusive soup called Buddha Jump Over the Wall.  This soup takes a day to prepare (you have to call ahead to order) and it’s made with a bunch of stuff like shark fin, abalone, and other stuff that I didn’t recognize.  Regardless, it was pretty good but I’m not sure that if I were Buddha that it would make me want to “jump over the wall” to have meat.  Apparently that’s why it’s named that.  We also had a grip of other items for the 10 of us to share around the table and poor Jes had to drive home with food coma.

On Sunday, I went for another run in the morning – it sucked again.  Then around noon, I went out for ANOTHER run but just threw in some hills to see if it would make the buzzing in my left foot go away.  Nope.  No luck.  Hm…what to do?  I may have to run the half marathon next weekend in my old shoes.

Afterward, I decided to treat myself to some mango sticky rice.  On our way home from lunch Saturday, we stopped at 99 Ranch and got some ripe juicy mangoes.  So I whipped up my momma’s coconut rice recipe and that’s basically what we had for lunch.

At 5 pm, we headed over to Pete’s to watch the Lakers get whooped by the Celtics.  It was a sad sad evening for us.  We’ll be back for Game 3 on Tuesday but it’s not looking good for us if RayRay keeps making 3’s and Kobe has another off day.

Stay-cation Accomplished

I had a fantastic 3-day weekend.  As part of our stay-cation, we visited de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park on Sunday.  They have a special exhibition called “Birth of Impressionism” featuring paintings by Monet, Renoir, and Degas.  They were paintings borrowed from the famous Musee d’Orsay in Paris so it was as if Paris had visited me this weekend. In September they’ll be continuing it with works by Cezanne and Van Gogh so we got an individual membership, which will cover both visits at a discount.  Anyone wanna go to the Legion of Honor/Palace of Fine Arts with me?  I can get into that museum and bring a guest with me for free!

We also went up to the top of the tower of the museum (9 floors above the park) for a spectacular 360-degree view of the park and the city.

We were blessed with some really nice weather and got to take a nice stroll in the park to see the turtles in the pond people swing dancing out by the bridge.

Afterward, we stopped at San Tung for lunch and got some tasty tasty spicy crispy chicken wings and dumplings.  Yum.

On Monday, I got in a 3-mile run and came home to a spam and eggs breakfast.  We spent the rest of the day lounging around at home watching all the episodes of a short-lived sci-fi show called “Firefly”, made some lasagna for us to eat this week, and managed to get in spurts of cleaning.

For dinner, we grilled some chicken wings and corn out in the pool area.  The Masayas even joined us.  With the house clean, the laundry done and folded, and lunch packed for tomorrow, I feel ready to go to work for my 4-day work week.  Having a vacation at home is not bad.

Barrels and FARM

On Saturday, we drove up to Napa for Nickel & Nickel’s Barrel Tasting Event.  It was basically a preview of all the reds that they will be bottling next March and we got to taste quite a few.  They also had cheese and meats out for us to taste as well.  We found a really cool cheese that basically tasted like a Philly Cheesesteak.  Who knew that you could somehow get the taste of meat in a cheese?!

The four of us had a pretty good time sippy and snacking until our lips and teeth turned purple.  I’d have to say that out of all the ones we tasted (about 10 different wines), I liked Dragonfly, C.C. Ranch, and Sullenger the best.  I’ll just have to wait until next year to taste the real deal to see if they’re still my favorites.

On our way down the road, we stopped at Opus One for a $30 glass of wine that was just as mediocre as I had remembered about 10 years ago.  I thought I’d have a greater appreciation for it now but I don’t think we’ll be returning there.

Afterward, we did a little outlet shopping and then headed over to FARM at the Carneros Inn.  We were a bit early so we lounged in their outdoor patio area, which was a really nice relaxing place to rest up before dinner.

For dinner, we were seated outdoors and the weather was perfect.  We all shared a bunch of dishes including the scallops (above), hamachi crudo, lamb, lobster, and beef.  We stuffed ourselves silly, finished off two bottles of wine, and even ordered two desserts at the end of the meal.  We pretty much had to roll ourselves back to the car.

Here are photos from our afternoon in wine country.

Yum Yum

On Thursday, we had Happy Hour with some of Jes’ co-workers.  It was at Anchor and Hope, which is restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time.  They have a warm uni and crab appetizer that I had heard about and was also featured on a Food Network show.

So, it was ordered and did not disappoint.  It’s a creamy concoction of crab, uni, potato puree, lemon beurre blanc, and little bits of onion and tomato served in a hollowed-out sea urchin shell.  Mmmm…it was really good.  We stayed only for their HH specials but it was good enough.  Their parmesan fries were really yummy and they had a really interesting beer from Firestone Walker Brewing Co on tap.  Good eats…

Lobsta Time!

Oh man…I’m so behind on posts.  I was cleaning out my laptop to make more room and I got side tracked.  But I’m back.

Anyway, Jes got back from NYC last Friday (5/7) and on Saturday his pal James called us up for lunch at Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City.  It was at least a 25-min drive but it was all worth it.

I had my very first lobster roll and it was tasty.  It’s lobster goodness stuffed inside a thick slice of bread that has been grilled with butter and split down the middle for a bun. Nice.

We also had the fried shrimp and fish&chips.  They were just as tasty.

I also got to meet little Ariel who was born just a couple months ago.  She was such a cutie and pretty much slept though lunch.  Good baby…

Here are photos from the afternoon.

Team Building Pho

April is OT Month and every year we usually have a team building activity in the afternoon and go out for dinner as a group to celebrate our achievements of the past year.  This year we did something a little different…we took a cooking class!  It was held by a non-profit that partners with a restaurant who offers up their space and time for a mere $25 and donates the proceeds to charity.

We learned how to make spring rolls, mixed up our own sauces, and had some pho.  The activity was a little less hands-on than I was hoping for and the food was dumbed down a bit but it was still fun tasting everyone’s concoctions.  We also got complimentary wine so that also made it more interesting.

Here’s the pho that I prepared.  All I had to do was scoop the broth that was pre-made and plop in a bunch of noodles, meat, and veggies.  Phew, that was hard!