Dim Sum

I love dimsum, but I never had the opportunity to have really good dimsum. So today, on our way back from Reno, we stopped over at Dublin to this Koi Garden, there is another one in Daly City. Oh boy, to eat at that branch, you'll have to wait for an average of 2 hours before you're able to be seated, by the time you get to sit down, everything will be too yummy to decline. But seriously, Koi Garden's dimsum is really awesome!

I didn't take enough photos but the food was very good, my favourite is the radish cake. We had our usual, Phoenix claw, siumai, spinach dumplings, radish cake, noodle, porridge and salty egg custard pao. The next time I want to eat DimSum, I'll definitely come to this branch! Yummy!! :)

Winter Wonderland

Finally, after working really hard for the past 4 months, it's time to kick back and have a little break before going back to work. Where should we go? Reno! To gambling? Nah, to SKI of course! The weather turned really cold over the weekend and it was snowing on the way up, so we had to rent a 4-Wheel drive, if not putting on and taking off the chain will be a real pain in this cold weather.

See, it started snowing on the drive up.

Most cars had to stop on the road side to put on the snow chains.

YC said it feels like we're in Narnia.

On the way up to North Star ski resort.

On the lift, prepared to be dropped off and down the slope we go!

After a hard day of battling with the snow, it's time to have some food. Into Reno city we went.

Seafood buffet. Yummy? It was but this was all I could stomach that night.

The next day, we went to Mount Rose and attempted the slope again, the weather was so beautiful. :)

Look at the snow covered mountains.

We had to leave at 7am the next day because there was a snow storm coming up and we didn't want to get stuck in the traffic and it started raining halfway through...

It's so beautiful. :)

I had a really great time, thanks to AP and YC!!

Brrrr.....

The weather is getting very cold. Thus, my staple diet - vegetable hot pepper soup noodle with home made kimchi.

Santa Cruz

The weather was really beautiful so we had to take a stroll along the beach after breakfast.

The tide was coming in but we were looking for the anemones in the pool tides.

Finally we found some! :)

Breakfast at Santa Cruz

We drove almost 1.5 hours to Santa Cruz for breakfast. Was it worth it? It was pretty good. Cafe Brasil is a very small restaurant famous for its breakfast. Everything here is really fresh and superb. As usual, we ordered the Cafe Brasil pancake, Egg Benedict and Omelette. Somebody asked if there was a worm in my tummy, I think so, and it's name is Bo.Pit - Bottomless Pit.

The breakfast was really good, but it's crazy to drive so far just to have breakfast but if you're around the neighborhood, you should definitely try it.

Ta.Ra Thai

I love the city. I love it even more during the holiday season when the whole place is deserted. I assumed that this place would be packed if it had been a normal evening, but considering it's Thanksgiving night, there were only 3 tables of patrons when we reached. I must say the interior of the restaurant is beautiful. Even though the food is good, but you probably pay a premium for the ambience.

We ordered the fried calamari, samosa, tea leaves salad, satay chicken, Singapore meehoon, and fried sambal ribs. They are as good as they looked. The most satisfying are the ribs. I have been craving for ribs for a very long time so I was very excited when I saw this on the menu. It's so good the meat just slip off the bone. All in all, it was a good meal and I am thankful for the good food.

Ta.Ra

123 2nd street. @ Minna San Francisco, CA 94105 415.34.8.9977

Phnom Penh House

I've heard so much about this place. A lot of the people that I work with seemed to really like this Cambodian restaurant. So finally, I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner at this restaurant!

The Cambodian ice-tea and eggplant with sauteed pork and shrimp were highly recommended. As it was a cold night, we needed some soup, so we ordered the basil lemon grass chicken soup. T wanted to try the fried noodle, on the menu it says, "Char Khytiw", but it turned out to be just like Pattai, but hey, it was really good so a name is just a name! The egg plant was awesome, before it was cooked with the pork and shrimp, they had charbroiled the eggplant so you could really taste that BBQ burnt taste in the eggplant. Another dish that we ordered was the chicken curry, it was not bad, it was a really light curry so that was good.

As usual, the portion is more than enough for 3 person but I just couldn't stop eating while my friends happily busily chatting away....towards the end, I was really ready to go to bed at 8pm *burp* :)

Aaaah..... life's good. Love the people that I'm with so much!

Phnom Penh House

3912 MacArthur Blvd
(between Patterson Ave & 38th Ave)
Oakland, CA 94619
Neighborhoods: Laurel District, Lower Hills

(510) 482-8989

Barracuda!

All work and no play makes Sunshine a plain Jane. Thanks to Groupon, we got a $30 voucher for half the price. So on a beautiful Saturday evening I went to have dinner with C at Barracuda Sushi. I have been craving for sushi for a while, but seriously, with only the 2 of us we cannot really order a lot. So we only ordered our usual favourites, agedashi tofu and spinach salad. But since it was a new opening, we decided to try out the Fried Suzuki drizzled with garlic oil and Baraccuda sushi.

Now, what is Suzuki? It is a type of Japanese Seabass. Woah, this was really good. The thinly sliced Suzuki was lightly pan fried and drizzled in garlic oil garnished with coriander leaves. The fish was slightly raw but because of the richness and the freshness of the meat, it was very satisfying. It has been a while since I have had such a satisfying sushi. As for the Baraccuda (soft shell crab, avocado, mangoes and salmon) was also very good. It has everything that I love in one dish, what can you not love about it? Good thing is we bought 2 $30 vouchers, which means we would be coming back soon for second round! *grin*

As the song goes...BARACCUDA! *burp*

The Slanted Charm

Grumpyurbanslacker said that he wanted to try Vietnamese when he comes to visit. After much planning and research, he decided that he wanted to try The Slanted Door. Right after he decided I called up to make reservations. It was a month ahead but all the preferred time were booked so we settled on a Sunday night at 7:45pm. We couldn't believe how packed the place was! GUS joked that the place resembled a bus transit station. As usual, I couldn't decide what to eat so he made all the decisions.

We started with the appetizer, the slanted door springrolls.

Then seared dayboat scallops with mango, toasted lemongrass and spicy fish sauce. I really liked this one very much! The scallops were cooked just right and I really liked the fresh and pickled mango. Was so glad that we ordered this over the others!

For the main course we tried the grilled ranch brother's berkshire pork chop. I know GUS loves pork! My oh my, it was really good, I really like chewing on the ribs but I don't know what GUS thought of my dinning etiquette and I didn't care to check with him and used my hand. Haha..

And the grass fed estancia shaking beef. We have no idea why it's called the shaking beef and we forgot to ask the waitress. But the beef was good and I really enjoyed the watercress in lime sauce! Haha.... I was ready to go to bed after being so contented with the meal... Hehe..

But we couldn't leave just like that, so GUS ordered the Vietnamese drip coffee. It was a tad too sweet for me but he loved it.

I was really full and we couldn't even finish our main courses but GUS had to entice me into ordering a dessert. Good call GUS, because we orderd the almond milk tapioca. Oh my god, it was really awesome. I could just come to this place again just for this dessert and nothing else! The brown thing is puree kabocha and the white part is tapioca in almond milk and the grapes were garnished with caramelized almond I think. Bottom line is I like this dessert! Yummy!

I had such a great time and towards the end of the meal I was laughing so much, I hope the food wasn't spiked with happy substance that's why we all loved it so much! Hehe...

Thanks GUS for the wonderful time!! :)

Steps of Rome

On a beautiful summer day, my friend and I took the vespa and zoomed into the city for a dessert break. The beautiful day took us to Steps of Rome. From just a coffee and tiramisu we ended up staying for dinner before heading home and that was yumm.... indeed.

A few months later, my friends came to visit and chance brought us back to Steps of Rome for dinner the 2nd time. I really loved my eggplant baked in mozzarella and the bruschetta. But this time, the tiramisu is a little soft and there was not enough alcohol in it. However, the great company compensated the not so perfect dinner. I hope my friends had as much fun as I had with them!

It was indeed a great day out with my dear friends!

Aaaah....what a life. :)

Baker's Beach

Ms. Golden Gate Bridge was too shy to come out and meet us today! As I thought I've gone to all the touristy spot to visit Ms. Golden Gate Bridge, apparently I have not. I went to Baker's Beach to visit the beauty but she was hiding behind the fog. Looks like I'll have to visit her again some other time! Hope to see you again Ms. Golden Gate Bridge!

Emandal

I love Emandal.

I love everything about Emandal, the place, the food, the weather, the people that I went with. I went to Emandal almost 4 years ago and this was the 2nd time I went and I LOVE IT! Emandal is actually a farm by Em and Al, hence the name Emandal. The weather was beautiful over the weekend that we were there, all we did was sat at the lawn, chit chat, read, ate, relaxed and did nothing. It was awesome!

That's the main building of Emandal. Isn't the weather beautiful?

The flowers and vegetables garden and the barn at the back.

Dining hall at 8pm. Where we got fed 3 times a day.

Campsite by the river.

Breakfast was served at the deck.

Everything was fresh from the farm. Eggs, fruits, milk, homemade yogurt and wheat pancakes with homemade fruit sauce!!

Even the flowers are freshly picked daily.

Lunch - Mash potatos, fresh made buns, salad and beef stew.

Dinner - Heirloom tomato with dill sauce, beets, squash, pesto pasta and onion bread! Oh yum...the onion bread was so yummy!!

We learned to make pickles. We picked the cucumber, cleaned it, cut it, filled it up in the jars with grapes' leaf, chili, garlic and dill.

Another really cool thing was that there were wild berries all over the farm and we got to pick and ate them while we walked.

And grape vines by the deck.

On the last day of camp, they gave us complimentary freshly picked produce! Isn't that awesome?

I had a really great time at Emandal and it is something that I will always look forward to every year. Who know, maybe if you visit me at the right time next year we get to go together! :)

The End of Summer Camp 2010

You're not required to say grace before a meal. But do you think about the food on your table every time you eat it? For my last meal before heading back to SF, my sister made a big pot of soup and kakak made dinner. It would be my last home cook food until I go home next summer. It was probably the best meal I've ever tasted in my whole entire summer trip because the main ingredient is L.O.V.E. and I thank thee for the wonderful and yummyliciously prepared dinner.

25 yards

How much would you pay to play golf?

In Manila, 3 buckets of golf balls + a caddy girl costs less than Php. 200 and with an instructor for an hour it's Php. 700. Now, what say you? Golf anyone? :)

Go Green!

Philippines is a meat nation. It is pretty hard to get vegetarian food. Often, if you tell them that you're a vegetarian or you don't eat meat, they'll say, "Oh we got fish." However, Corner Tree Cafe is probably one of the rarest vegetarian restaurant in Manila and also the winner of the Best Vegetarian Restaurant in the Philippines. Not only they serve western style vegetarian food but also local style and catered to vegan or non vegan.

We ordered the feta/spinach croquettes, deep fried lumpia and fried polenta with mushroom sauce. I really love lumpia and they make very good ones, they're crispy and not oily at all. I don't know about carnivores but for me, if I can have such great tasting vegetarian food like these constantly, I really don't need meat :)

Corner Tree Cafe (Vegetarian Food)

150 Jupiter Street Bel-Air, Makati, Metro Manila

Summer Fat Camp 2010 - Destination IV: KL

YS: Eh, where do you wanna go?

Me: Anywhere lah, just take me to your favourite joint.

YS: Erm, there's this place at Damansara Heights, good bread and coffee.

Me: Sure, let's check it out.

IY: Eh, you just came back from the States right? Takan you still wanna eat bread ar?

Me: It's oklah, what matters is not where but who I'm with mah....

So off we headed to The Bread Shop @ Damansara Heights.

I didn't think I would have time to go KL to spend some time with my Coffee kakis. So when I did, I was very excited, I missed my old friends dearly.

YS said the place has a really good bread pudding thingy but it doesn't come out until 12.30pm. Perfect. Since I was really full from breakfast, they ate, drank coffee and waited until this bread pudding thingy came out. Hahaaa....so IY thinks that since I've been away, I should be either tired of bread or tasted much better bread abroad, but I was really surprised with how tasty this little thingy tasted and I finished it all by myself. It was like pastry puff on top and bread custard at the bottom. :p It was sure yummy!

Being deprived of the time to hang out with each other the past year, we continued our coffee session to YS's next favourite joint - Fat Spoon Cafe @ Uptown.

The interior of this cafe is pretty cool. They decorated the place with all the old and ratan furniture from the early 50s-70s. It feels like going back to our grandparent's place for coffee or tea. YS wanted to try the Pohpiah and they serve it in such a way that you can roll it yourself.

So here's YS busy making the popiah and IY cutting it. :) Such an honor to be able to eat the popiah made by YS & IY. Haha...

I love my friends, they're the loveliest bunch!