whoa

the naner french toast at jeanine’s is amazing. holy buddha. it’s challah french toast and then the naners are all carmelized and hot and delicious. wow.

I know, TS, I know

So ya, haven’t written up my chez panisse experience. Well it was great. Although somewhat similar to my october experience there.

We started with some salty almonds and then a santa rosa plum syrup w/ cava drink. holy crap, that was amazing. i could have had that all night. i need to learn how to make some plum syrup.

for starters we had some shaved zucchini ribbons with arugula, prosciutto and a crostini w/ ricotta cheese. that was light and lemony.

next we had a tuna tartar with some provencal flavors– red onions, capers, anchovies. it was ok. sorta predictable.

for mains we had lamb two ways with some beans and spinach. that tasted like last time, but it was still perfectly cooked and delicious.

dessert was a nectarine and blackberry mille fleur type thing. with zabaglione. uhhhh amazing. that was the best of the night, truly amazing. at the end of the meal, we were given a tour of the kitchen, but since we had the early seating, it wasn’t as extensive as last time. no visiting the meat fridge for instance.

sf weekend

Went up to sf this past weekend since A came into town. i drove up on saturday morning on the 101, which i hadn’t done in years. got to sf in decent time and went straight over to oakland for chicken and waffles. i guess this house of waffles place is related to roscoes some how. they didn’t have the carol whatever special but had 1 breast, 1 waffle and grits, so i exchanged the grits for their mac n cheese. wow, that mac n cheese was amazing. wow it was great to get some fried chicken. also amazing was when our waitress was taking our order, she started fan-ing herself and said, “i’m having a hot flash.. i look a lot younger than i am” amazing!

next we went over to the new berkeley bowl west. uhh whole foods corporate much? but it was nice to have the underground parking unlike the original. god, so many varieties of berries.

since we were so close, i happened to mention the charles choco store was nearby. here’s the pic of the boys: i got 12 of the carmelized almond clusters and also a box of the peanutbutter butterflies. i heart charles choco!!! man too bad i can’t get the truffles here.

ok that’s enough for now.. will post later about chez panisse

what’s a better word for staycation?

Anyway, my parents came up this past 4th of July weekend.  And luckily they got a room at the Bacara so I tagged along with them. God, that hotel is out in the boonies. but it’s a nice place to go since it’s a resort. There is nothing else to do out there. well it is Goleta afterall.

When we first arrived we were a bit hungry so we got dessert at their bistro. I had the creme brulee of course, dad had the lemon tart and mom had the strawberry shortcake. so they have a farm on the other side of the freeway and they grow a lot of produce there. they call all that they grow, “ranch blah blah” sorta corny, but cute.

dinner that night was at their fancy place, Miro’ (after the artist) and they had some real paintings.

Started out with a lobster bisque amouse boucheEach little cup had a tender, chunk of lobster in it! and my mom got 2 pieces. uh yum. starting out well.

Then next came the calimari salad with watercress, frise’, roasted chickpeas and peppers. roasted chickpeas are delicious! The calimari was very tender. almost as tender as the mozza octopus.

Next was the most amazing of the meal: the corn chowder. uh, they should call it lobster chowderSee all that lobster!!! the rest of the soup had chorizo, yukon golds and lots of yellow corn. man… i’m starting to drool.

Next was the mediocre part of the meal… meat. not worth even posting the picture. meh.

but for dessert, my mom and dad both had the grand marnier souffle’ and i had the cheese platter. that souffle’ tasted exactly how it is supposed to.

Otherwise, the rest of the vacay was filled with just lounging. i went to their nice gym once for a class. that was fun and i got a massage. i need a massage scholarship fund. anyone want to donate to it?

ok, one complaint about the weekend. we went to hungry cat for din on Sunday. why don’t they ever change their menu!? besides the drink specials, cheese and oysters, they have the damn same thing every time. MEH. tasty drinks and amazing bacon. but MEH. so over it, but there is nowhere else to go around here. depressing

hmm

I think I have a problem: I’m addicted to yogurtland. Went again this weekend… don’t get the root beer float, it misses up the balance of flavors.

also, the pozole at la super rica is great. i love the spicy salsa they give you. my nose had other ideas.

oops

yea.. haven’t posted anything in a while.. um, since the last entry, went to DC, Indy, uhh Dana point this past weekend for a wedding.

oh crap. well the most memorable meal is probably from osteri amozza. my fave was the burrata and also the donuts. man, that place is delicious. need to go to the pizzeria again soon.

hm, what else to report.. evacuated from the fire again.. so over it. ok, promise to be better about posting. ha, i’m posting about posting.

fuuuud

today my parents came up for the weekend. we had a late lunch at your place thai resto. it was gahood! we had the chicken/basil/eggplant, the pad see yew and the crisp duck. wow, the crisp duck was soooo great. so tender and flavorful. so much better than the peking duck one can usually get at chinese restos. new fave place!

in between lunch and din, we went to the orchid festival. man, that’s a lot of orchids… uh, yea. but this was the most densely populated group of asians i’ve seen since moving here.

for din, we went to seagrass. it was meh. the service was really great, so that hid the mediocre food. i had the mixed green salad with dried cherries, marcona almonds and goat cheese. mom had the roasted market veggies, dad had the squash soup. all was over salted.

for the mains, i had the halibut with lentils, frise and beets. mom had the bouillabaisse and dad had the lobster risotto. my halibut was dry and salty. my dad’s lobster risotto was cold and my mom’s bouillabaisse was weird.

dessert was a meyer lemon curd tart. uhh when did curd get runny and gritty. weird. i’m sad. i was hoping this resto would be like providence, but it is nowhere near it.  it was just really mediocre. the only highlight of the place was the huge amount of wine they gave me. it was 3/4 full! woo!

oh ya

this past week, i went to taqueria rincon alteno for their al pastor. wow, it was amazing. their asada was meh, but the al pastor was spot on. i want to get a burrito from there soon.

fun day

today started with brunch at hungry cat (yes i know i just complained about it in my last post.. but we had planned to do brunch here and friday’s happy hour was spur of the moment). i got a rossini with some cava. and then had the crab scramble with some taters. b had the veggie strada and s had the eggs, cornmeal biscuits, gravy, greens. my crab scramble did not have enough crab. the taters were good. oh ya, and we got a side of bacon, which they house cure and smoke. that was amazing. the best part of the meal. it was thick cut and we got it really crisp. they said that they do an exchange w/ c’est cheese, so i can buy their bacon and pancetta at c’est cheese! woo. must stop by this week to get some bacon.

after lunch, we went to carp to see the seals. the babies were cute! but we were pretty far away from them. i was still able to smell them though.and on our way back, we checked out summerland for their antiques. uhh.. hm, not going to find a bookcase there. there was one neat store- an america folk art one, but the other two were just not my style (country french).

on our way back, we got gelato from here’s the scoop in montecito. YUM. they make their gelato and sorbet on site and get things locally. i had the mint choco chip (made with girl scout cookies) and the nocciola. i can’t wait to try their other flavors!!!!

hmm

so tonight we went for drinks at hungry cat. they were obviously really great. i had a kumquat martini and then a blood orange/vodka drink. ya, i didn’t finish the second drink cuz that would have been bad. but anyway, we got 1/2 a dozen of the malpeques and then another 1/2 dozen of the fanny bay oysters. they had some from hope ranch (!?). but when i asked about them, the waiter said they were grimey. yea, not really into eating grime.. maybe he should have used a different word to describe those?

so my question, why did they only have 3 oysters today? and why don’t they change the menu ever? i went a year ago to this location and it’s pretty much the same. we are going to go to brunch on sunday, and i’ll report back.