Restaurant Reviews
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Our Time in France – Part 2
Our first day of touring France, aka, not driving 8 hours from Paris to the West Coast of Brittany, Ted’s friend Jean-Marc took us to visit the medieval town of Locronan. As with any village or town in the area, there is a lovely church, St. Ronan. St. Ronan was an Irish pilgrim whose relics were housed for a time in the church. Most of the street signs in Brittany are in two languages, French and Breton. There is a movement to bring back the Breton language, and there are quite a few immersion schools for children to learn Breton. Surprisingly, this was illegal until somewhat recently. Anyway, we drove…
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Parada New Peru
Several years ago, the parking lot for our local BART station was converted (at least partially) into a couple of large buildings, with real estate for shops, parking, and restaurants on the first floors, and apartments up above. This change pretty much coincided with the crash of our economy, and likely for that reason, much of the retail space remains empty. There is a Starbucks, of course. There is a ‘brow bar’, a ballet studio for the toddler set, an insurance agent’s office, and a place to take your dog for training and play. About a year and a half ago, we noticed that one of the store fronts was…
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Girl with a Pearl Earring
One of the benefits of membership to our local PBS station is that they sometimes have a ‘free member day’ at local museums. Several years ago, that took us to the SF MOMA to see a Picasso exhibit, and Maya and I spent a lovely day in San Francisco together. This time the ‘free member day’ was for the de Young Museum, one of two fine art museums in San Francisco. They have several exhibits, but the current Special Exhibit is a collection of paintings from the Mauritshuis in Holland, which is a museum that is being expanded and is under renovation until mid-2014. While they’re tearing up the place,…
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Bella Trattoria ~ San Francisco
Sunday was a day in San Francisco, which we spent going to the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park, looking for Magnolia trees in bloom. It turns out it’s a bit early, even here in sunny California, so we didn’t see a LOT of blooms. OK, there weren’t many. But one thing I like about Magnolia trees (specifically, the ones called ‘Tulip Trees’) is how the branches and trunk look relatively delicate, and the sparseness of the branches with the beautiful pink and white flowers coming out, it’s somehow architectural or something. I love it. Anyway, after searching the Gardens for Magnolia trees for awhile, then stopping by Ocean Beach,…
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Cotogna
photo mix found on the Contogna website Yesterday found me taking BART into the City to meet my dear friend MAS for luncheon, at a lovely restaurant that I hadn’t tried before, Cotogna. Turns out, they are the sister restaurant to Quince, which inhabits the space once occupied by Myth, a restaurant that Ted and I happened upon one night several years ago. It was the kind of lunch that Ladies of Leisure enjoy…we had appetizers, potato gnocchi with castelmagno cheese, wine (I had wine, MAS had sparkling water), veggies, and a delicious apple-quince crostata with vanilla ice cream (seen in the picture there). We lingered for well over 3…
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Monday Randomness
Last week was Ted and my 19th wedding anniversary (link is to Ted’s blog, where you can see a slideshow if you’re interested….we look so YOUNG to me). It seems so strange that so many years have gone by, and yet I still sometimes feel 27. But then I look at my pictures, at my face in the mirror, and I think, oh yeah, I’m not 27 anymore. Oh well. We had a lovely day. We started off by driving to Muir Woods for a hike, with a pit-stop in Sausalito for sandwiches. We saw a segment on Check, Please, Bay Area about a deli counter in a little market,…
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A Day in the City
Ted and I are both fortunate enough to be able to take the week off between Christmas and New Years, and it may be my favorite week of the year. Don’t ask me about that when I take time off in the summer, because I may change my mind, but for now, let’s say this is the best. The lead up to Christmas is one of hustle and bustle, with hurrying here and there, buying gifts, going to parties, wrapping gifts, sending cards, decorating the house, making latkes (for Hanukkah, which we also celebrate, because we’re atheists and can do whatever we want), enjoying Stollen Bread on St. Nicholas Day…
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Artisan Bistro
(photo found here) Saturday morning, Ted and I were downstairs, looking at the newspaper and wondering what the hell is going on in the world, when we received a phone call from our friend Marilee, with whom I have been friends since our days in graduate school together, many years ago. She was in our little town on the wrong side of the tunnel, and had unexpectedly been released from her duties of the day. Would we like to go for coffee or breakfast, she asked. Indeed, we would! We considered IHOP, but decided to go to the other end of the spectrum and try the Michelin recommended Artisan Bistro,…
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Morimoto Napa
For our anniversary dinner, Ted and I decided to try something new, rather than our traditional Rivoli dinner. I wanted to go to a place in San Francisco that is supposed to be wonderful, Aquarello, but they’re not open on Sundays, so that was out. Maybe for our 20th anniversary, we’ll go there. Anyway, I remembered reading that Iron Chef Morimoto had opened a restaurant in Napa, so we decided to see if we could get a reservation there. Happily, we were able to get a table, even though it wasn’t until 9:30. So we got dressed up a bit (we were overdressed, the place is pretty casual…but I wanted…
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Brown Sugar Kitchen
I believe I’ve talked before about a local PBS show, Check Please, Bay Area, where people come in and talk about their favorite restaurants. I’ve seen an episode a few times reviewing a place in Oakland that’s famous for their Chicken and Waffles, Brown Sugar Kitchen. You can watch the review. I’ll wait. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOUE6BeOsjQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] OK, now you’re probably wanting some chicken and waffles too, right? I’ve been wanting to try the chicken and waffles at Brown Sugar Kitchen since first seeing this episode. This last Sunday, I got together at BSK with Cherry and our friend, Lei, for brunch. Yay brunch! Yay friends! Brown Sugar Kitchen doesn’t take reservations, so…
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Sasa ~ Walnut Creek
Photo found here After a morning swim and a hot shower, I was lazing on the bed in my bathrobe, hair in a towel, with my book, trying to decide whether to read or perhaps have a nap, when Ted asked, “Would you like to go to lunch with me today?” “Maybe,” I said, thrown off because I was still kinda full from breakfast, and almost too lazy to bother with getting dressed, but as he showered, I thought about it and admitted to myself that the likelihood of my wanting to lie there all day in my robe without lunch was slim, so when he came out I said…
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Rethinking Rellenos
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKAsSxelAu4[/youtube] Check, Please! Bay Area is a show on our local PBS station, based on the original Check Please! in Chicago. A local host (Leslie Sbrocco, a wine expert and enthusiast) talks with three people about their favorite restaurants in the area. They all go to all three restaurants, and come say what they think. A few weeks ago, we saw an episode that mentioned Memo’s Restaurant, which is way out here in on the wrong side of the tunnel in the East Bay. I was especially captivated by what they had to say about the Chili Rellenos, because aside from my trips to Hola! in Burlingame, I don’t generally…
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Friday Randomness ~ Vacation Edition
We’re on vacation! Last Thursday, we flew up to Portland to spend time with my family up there. We had a lot of plans, some of which were realized, and some of which were not. Maya’s a big fan of the TV show, “Avatar: The Last Airbender“, so we intended to see the movie version after our arrival. Ted and Maya passed out, though, and by the time they finished their nap, we still needed to have dinner, so it didn’t happen. And to tell the truth, the reviews have been SO horrible (like, wondering if this is perhaps the worst movie ever made, that kind of thing), that she…
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Halibut with Carrot-Ginger Purée
A few weeks ago, Ted and I decided to take advantage of Maya’s girl scout meeting and go out for a nice dinner. We went to Lark Creek, which is kind of hit and miss. The atmosphere is nice, the service is pretty good, and the food is sometimes wonderful, sometimes a bit so-so. I was contemplating the pork chop, when the waiter brought the couple next to us their food. The husband had a yummy looking scallop dish, but the wife’s halibut was drool-worthy. I’m glad I saw it, because it wasn’t on the regular menu, and I’m not positive I would have ordered it just hearing about it.…
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Udupi Palace
(Photos found at Check, Please! Bay Area) There’s a television at Ted’s office, and on Friday he decided to watch a little TV to unwind during his lunch break. Happily, Check, Please! Bay Area was on, and one of the restaurants reviewed was a Southern Indian place in Berkeley called Udupi Palace. The large majority of Indian restaurants in the Bay Area are Northern Indian, influenced by Punjabi and Pakastani flavors. We love that, but the idea of trying something from another part of India entirely appealed to Ted. He came home thinking we might go that night, but I didn’t feel like getting in the car and going to…