Panipuri

I have never had Panipuri, over the holidays my friend invited us to her place and her mom prepared Panipuri for us. 

These are the ingredients - Pani (the fried puff dough), mung beans,chick peas, onions, potatoes, chutney, and tamarind sauce.

Served on a plate with a hot steaming cup of Chai.

Break a little hole in the pani and put in all the ingredients, flood it or dunk it in the Puri (Masala water) and pop the whole thing into your mouth! Who would've thought such simple ingredients would create such a fireworks of flavours in your mouth! Sweetness from the tamarind chutney, sourness from the Puri, a hint of freshness from the Coriander chutney, and full of satisfying textures from the stuffings of the Pani.

It was really good, try it if you can. After the 'appetizer' we were served another full round of meal and dessert! Yummers!

 

*Aah... I'm happy.... :)

Jonga II

Time for a treat! Off to Jonga we go again! They always serve us cold noodles before the food comes!

The last time we went we were served 16 panch'an, this time? 18! Can you believe it? 18 panch'an! We're soooo... lucky!

Grilled Mackerel, we had too much meat over the holidays, so we figure we should eat some fish instead, this grilled Mackerel is really yummy! The meat is firm and thick and crisp on the outside... *sllrrpp*

Spicy tofu kimchee soup

Beef Cold Noodle

Tempted? Enticed? Come and join me the next round! :)

Ukiah II

I love going to Ukiah, it feels like our 2nd home and I love our hosts, every time we go, scrumptious feast awaits us! We were tired and hungry when we reached Ukiah but the moment we arrived, we see all these wonderful piping hot food greeting us!!

Vege pasta soup

Bread with herbs and cheese

Tofu!

Yummy homemade bluberry pie!

*Thank you for the wonderful time T&S!

Ending of 2009

I thought I was going to have a quiet and boring winter break but before I got enough of rest, I embarked on a frenzy week traveling with friends and families.

We were thankful because the weather was so beautiful and here's only a snippet of what happened over the week.

18th-20th : Point Reyes

8am at Point Reyes, the fogs were rolling in and streaming through the sunlight.

The quaint little cabin that we stayed for 2 nights. Fully furnished with a hot tub!

A stroll through the national park to reach to the Limantour Beach.

Limantour Beach

21st - Around SF

Then my friends wanted to see Lombard Street, but I didn't manage to take any cool lombard shots though. 

It's supposed to be very 'S' like windy, you can google it and take a look for yourself.

22nd - Tiburon

The weather was so beautiful we had to go to Tiburon.

The pier at Tiburon

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great ending for 2009 and a great year ahead for 2010!

Lulu's Excuses!

It's pretty ridiculous I know, but what do you do when you have a bunch of great friends gathered together? Eat drink and be merry of course! So after the Crab House we attempted another dining spot in the city -  Lulu House, only 8 of us made it but the meal was definitely fit for 12! We were planning for a simple dinner but we had all these excuses to try almost every other thing on the menu. 

As we sat down, we smelled this wonderful aroma of baked mussels, hence we have to order the mussels.

I was cold, so I needed some hot soup - Tomato Basil Soup.

But we needed our quintessential appetizer, so we ordered the French Fries, with a twist! Truffle Parmesan French Fries... OMG! It's so yummy.

Hmmm.. some pizza maybe? So we ordered the Spicy Prawn Pizza for the shrimp lover.

But wait, there's also the Monday special - Steak with potatoes.

And also for the pork lover - Pork tenderloin with mash potatoes.

Then we mustn't forget the vegetarian dish -  Squash and mushroom salad.

More vege pizza - cheese and mushroom.

But after all these food, we have to try the dessert - Warm donuts.

It was almost end of the year, we figured we should order some Profiterols for good omen - profits rolling in... Haha *lame*

And the warm chocolate fudge cake!

Verdict? It's good, so good that by the end of the meal I gained 5lbs. Hahahaa.... 

Crab House At Pier 39

It's time for  celebrations! We had guests from London, Ohio and Manila! So all 10 of us went to this highly rated seafood place at Pier 39 - Crab House. Verdict? Oklah... the food wasn't bad but I wouldn't crazily rave about this place. What to do? We're spoilt with choices back home.

I remember taking a lot of pictures, but I guess out of excitement, I must have not. Here are only a few. We had garlic fries, fried Castroville Artichokes...

Mixed baby green salad

Crab chowder

1/2 order of Killer Crab

Pan Seared Halibut

And dessert? 

We went to Ghirardelli and had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sundae!

I'm so happy that I get to celebrate my holidays with friends and families... xoxo

"Old Golden Hill"

What a rare sight! The ABC of weather - Awesome! Blue! and Crystal Crisp Clear! The different angles of SF Bridge and sceneries.

Isn't the SF Bridge beautiful? Well, the only way for you to experience SF is to come here and visit the place yourself! 

It was very cold, I tried to take some steady shots but the wind was so strong, eventhough my hands were firm but the wind shook the camera! But still, this is a pretty decent photo don't you think?

La la la la la Note!

What? We're having a few simple slices of French toasts and scrambled eggs for brunch? No way, I'm going to make it at home. That is, until I was introduced to La Note - French restaurant. It was full with the weekend brunch crowd and we had to wait for half an hour before getting a table. The weather was really cold so we ordered the hot chocolate and cafe Au Lait. They were as big as your soup bowl!

We had the special La Note Paine Perdu $10.95 ( 3 generous slices of Semolina French bread sprinkled with Lavender Honey, paired with home made cream cheese) and Cote Nord $12 (2 eggs lightly scrambled  with cream cheese over toasted levain bread, with homefries and tomatoes).

Verdict? OMG....the eggs! I could never imagine being so in love with scrambled eggs! Must be the homemade cream cheese.  It's so fluffy, moist and smooth in your mouth. The french toast? It's quite amazing, it was so well done that the bread is still fluffy yet crisp at the same time and the light flavor of the lavender honey added a surprising zing to it.

The experience? It's quite a chi-chi French restaurant for brunch, but the experience was worth it, when you come I'll take you there. :)