Post 43.4: Bay Area - Smorgasbord

I'm all pooped out from writing lengthy posts about San Tung and Burma SuperStar, so this post is going to consolidate all the remaining smorgasbord of meals that I had during my weekend trip to the Bay Area.

Breakfast @ Country Inn Cafe (Bay Area: Santa Clara)

I had my first meal less than an hour after I landed at SJC.  Vickee whisked me away to a very filling breakfast with Ian, Aparna and Jeff.

Country fried steak and eggs over-medium

The country gravy smothered over the top was amazing-delicious.
This was the server's recommendation, and it made the perfect protein-packed breakfast.

Swedish pancakes with lingon berry butter
The crepe-like pancakes were light, but I could barely finish after inhaling the country fried steak.

Wine tasting @ Picchetti Winery (Bay Area: Cupertino)

What's the best way to digest a very filling breakfast? Mid-morning wine tasting of course! This is where my eyes were opened to the Mission Angelica, a Port wine that tasted like honey and was thick like syrup.  The sommelier dropped an ice cube and a lemon rind into each of our glasses for the tasting.  Quite interesting.

The entrance to Picchetti Winery

Wild peacocks roam the premises, so it's not a good idea to bring your pets.

Benches adorn the open grassy area, which makes for relaxing picnics.

The first tasting of many

2007 Chardonnay, Leslie's Estate

Picchetti charges $5 for five tastings.

The tasting room
Festive carolers provide holiday cheer as wine connoisseurs taste their favorites.
Barrels of wine are nestled right under the floor boards of the tasting room.

Lunch @ Santouka inside Mitsuwa (Bay Area: San Jose)

Nothin' beats the ramen from Santouka.  The chain restaurant is usually located inside a Mitsuwa Marketplace food court, but I think their ramen beats out local LA favorites Daikokuya, Orochon, and Shinsengumi.  A simple bowl of noodles in the afternoon really made me feel like I was on vacation.  And a walk around Daiso helped jump start my digestion.

The miso ramen and its spicy sister
Wood ear mushrooms, slices of bamboo and kamaboko lay atop the noodle bed.
The chasu is fatty but firm, and the broth is flavorful but not extremely salty.  The fish cake (kamaboko) is al dente, and the wood ear mushrooms have a texture similar to cartilage.

More wine @ Press Club (SF: SOMA/Union Square)

At Candice's suggestion we headed over to the Press Club near the Metreon to chill out with some wine.  The venue's basement has a spacious modern interior and had different sections of bar counters catering to specific types of wine.  The music was current but not pop, loud but not blaring... the crowd was Financial District yuppie cool.  They've got an interesting concept in terms of paying for the wine.  Patrons swap their Visas and MasterCards for the Press Club's own plastic charge card, and it's later used to cash and check out.

99 bottles of wine on the wall
Jamie, who happens to work for a wine distributor, was kind enough to show us a red wine with tastes of vanilla and leather.  Insert S&M joke here.

Late-night grub @ Golden Boy Pizza (SF: North Beach)

We shed our pre-midnight yuppie casual cool for a bit of post-midnight college kid debauchery at John Colins.  How can you pass up a night out without stopping by Zorro or Golden Boy?

Clam pizza
Minced clams are hidden under a chopped shrub of parsley.  Just a bit of intoxication augments the amazing-delicious taste.  Supposedly, Golden Boy makes the clam pizza only every so often; I'm glad I got to try it before my memory completely faded.

Breakfast @ Curly's Coffee Shop (Bay Area: North Beach)

I've passed Curly's a number a times when walking through the North Beach neighborhood, and I've asked my friend Grace, "How come we never eat here?" It always seemed like a very friendly, neighborhood coffee shop... and it is.  The coffee shop serves up traditional American breakfast with Japanese flair.  I'd stop by again for an early morning meal as a substitute for the long waits of the nearby brunch places.

Spam and eggs
The infamous canned lunch meat grilled alongside eggs with toast and hash browns
I ordered eggs over-medium... not solid but not too runny.  Perfect.
The hash browns were crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.

The ramen
Japanese ramen submerged in a pork broth with chasu and egg.
The soup was sticky and thick, almost like gravy.  The egg was cooked very well... medium-boiled with a slightly gooey and runny yolk.  The broth was a little on the salty side.

I was actually quite surprised at how much I accomplished in less than 48 hours in the Bay Area.  Half a dozen meals, wine tasting, spontaneous bar hopping, 2 near-missed flights, and 2 chance encounters with Nick Wong who ate at the same restaurants for lunch and dinner, San Tung and Burma SuperStar, as I did in the same day.  Minus the sprint through SFO to make my flight back to LA, I felt accomplished and ready to take on corporate America on Monday morning.  Until the next trip, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

ML - 20110113/20101212

Post 25.5: Welcome to Seattle - Day 1, Part 2

continuation from from Post 25.2...

Our journey through Seattle takes us to the area around Pike's Place Market.  Our journey in numbers:

A lesson in truffle oils.

Connie gets a whiff of the buttery essence of the truffle.

5
The number of dollars it costs per person for wine tasting (and food pairing) at La Buona Tavola, a small shop with everything from wine to pasta to truffle salts, truffle oils, and truffle creams galore.  Duke and I had a red wine tasting; Connie and Diana chose some sweeter whites.  Totally worth it. 

Is the glass half empty or half full?

Well, really it's one-tenth... but who's counting?

You can read Duke's post on our wine tasting experience here.

The house that chowder built.

Small store, little space... but big chowder taste.

4
The bowls of chowder we ordered from the highly recommended Pike Place Chowder.  One cup each of (clockwise from top left) traditional clam chowder, shrimp and crab clear chowder (special of the day), scallop chowder, and Manhattan chowder.  The scallop chowder had a hint of lemon, and it complemented the dill very well.  We came back here again before our flight back to LA.

See which chowder Duke likes, and view higher resolution pictures from his post here.

Est. 1971.

The company has since gone public but has adopted a more private logo... ifyaknowatimsayin.

3
The cups of coffee we (we as in Connie, Diana and Duke) drank from the original Starbucks location.  The line to order (not to the mention the line just to get into the store) looked more like the branches that hang off of the tree that produces coffee beans.  Super touristy.  Yes, we were super tourists.  Along with their coffee purchases, they also rang up a bill for Starbucks coffee mugs.

Smelly cat?

We learned that the storefront performers share the space with each other.

One of the baristas attempted to engage the tourists in conversation.  "How many of y'all are from America?" (a few scattered whoops and shouts).  Then, "how many of y'all are from overseas?"  (silence... then nervous laughter from the crowd).  I don't think the non-American tourists quite understood her.  =\

2
Too much cheese! Also, the number of cheese-filled items we tasted from Beecher's Handmade Cheese, a cheese shop that not only serves cheese-infused food but makes their cheese in-house too.  They claim that they have the world's best mac & cheese, but I think Duke and I agree... we've have better.  However, the panini-style grilled cheese sandwich was to die for.

Duo of dairy.

The best grilled cheese sandwich and a so-so mac & cheese.

There's more of the cheese-making process in Duke's post here.

The falafel princess. 

A very shy falafel maker attempts to hide from me while another prepares with zest.

1
Gyro cut into four sections from Falafel King.  And one conversation with the store employees about where their homeland of Eritrea is. 

Me: So where is Eritrea exactly?
Employee: You know Ethiopia?
Me: Yeah.
Employee: Okay, right next to Ethiopia.
Me: (pointing at the employee's small map of Africa) Here?
Employee: (flips it in the opposite direction) HERE.

How can we split this? The knife was dull, but we managed. 

It was tough to see the meat under there, but the meat was far from tough.

Read Duke's post about our pit-stop at Falafel King here.

And those were our daytime activities for our first day in Seattle.  The next post will show of the loot I brought back from Pike's Place.  Until then...

ML - 20100709/20100529