Curry House

After a trip to the Tech museum, some friends suggested we go to Curry House in Cupertino. they serve Japanese-style curry, which is very different from Indian or Thai curries.

We didn't know what to expect, but our friends raved about the food and loved the fact it was very family friendly, so we said, "Okay!" Plus, I LOVE curry so it was a real treat.


I had their curry rice set, which had corn potage, rice, green salad, deep fried shrimp, and chicken curry. It wasn't as spicy as I would like it, but the set was still yummy and very filling.


Rick had the seafood gratin with curry rice. This was really good. I'm not a seafood person, but this was awesome.

We ordered a kid's meal for Emi-chan, but she refused to eat it. Too bad, because it was a very nice spaghetti dinner. What was really nice is that all the children received a little toy. that was a very nice touch.

Vanilla Moon

I love these cupcakes from a little bakery called Vanilla Moon in San Carlos.

So does Emi-chan!

Taylor Brothers Hot Dogs

For all you folks from the Watsonville area, here is the world(?) famous Taylor Brothers Hot Dog stand!


Why is it famous? Probably because the chili dogs are great and relatively cheap. Sorry no photos of the chili dogs. Too busy eating them to take a picture.

How can you beat these prices?

Meet The Boys

No, we didn't adopt any young tykes, or even buy a couple of turtles. I was at the local Mitsuwa Market, and found these: Otokomae Tofu-ya. What's so special about them? They give their tofu male names and personalities!

This is Ryuichi:


This is Tetsuo:



This is Masahiro:


They're so handsome and manly, I can't bring myself to eat them. They're still sitting in my refrigerator, getting older and manlier by the day.

Fair Food

Fair food. It isn't just fair. It's really, really good.



We went to the Washington County Fair last weekend and I think I almost drooled. Everywhere I turned, something made my eyes pop. Seriously, I think the fair needs to run at least a month so that I can keep going back and eating!

I wasn't able to get pictures of the food itself ('cause I was too busy eating it all), but just looking at the signs makes my mouth water. Elephant Ears. Funnel Cake. Fresh-squeezed Lemonade. Corn dogs. I think these once-a-year delicacies taste even better when they're mixed together with the lights, sounds, rickety rides, and childhood memories of shooting a water gun at the target to win a prize.

Pine State Biscuits

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives recently spotlighted Pine State Biscuits in Portland, so my mom and I decided to check it out. They're famous for their biscuits (obviously) so we each had a biscuit sandwich.





I had the Reggie Deluxe -- fried chicken, bacon, cheese, and an egg, topped with gravy. My mom had the special which had flank steak and blue cheese (I didn't get a picture of it, darn). Sounds good right? It was okay. Sadly. Not bad. Just satisfactory. The prices were reasonable, and I probably would go back if they were closer to me, but I didn't think it was worth the 40+ minute drive across town.

I also thought it was odd that the wait for the food was pretty substantial, considering that a lot of the food was pre-prepared (I saw the guy assemble my sandwich from a bunch of pre-cooked eggs and bacon sitting in piles on the assembly table). I'm thinking that maybe the trick to this place is to call your order in ahead of time, then go pick it up. Something to think about.

Sigh. So now you know.

Oh, by the way, if you're wondering about the background of my biscuit sandwich, it's my car. There's very little seating at the cafe (very little), and since Sydney had fallen asleep in the car, we opened the windows and ate in the car.

King's Hawaiian Restaurant and Bakery

To make up for the healthy food we ate in the morning, we went to King's Hawaiian Restaurant and Bakery in the evening to celebrate food, I mean Mi-chan's birthday. It was a carb, protein, and sugar feast! It was great!

Rick got the beef stew. The wonderfully yummy, filling, tender beef stew. Yumm. I kept picking at his stew.

Are you gonna eat that?

I got the Macadamia Chicken Bowl. It was wonderful. The chicken was tender and sweet and lightly spicy. Underneath that was perfectly stir-fried veggies and warm white rice. I should have gotten the medium instead of the full size. I was full just half-way through dinner. And there was still Rick's stew to eat :) I also got POG (passion-orange-guava juice).


After dinner, we had guava cake. It was nice and light. Perfect after a carb and protein heavy dinner. Before we left, I picked up some pastries for breakfast. Wow. I wish we had a place like this up north.

Clockwise from the top, I got an ensemada, chocolate muffin, chocolate croissant, and cinnamon roll with apples.

We had a good time eating and talking.

M Cafe

Outside

Inside

On our recent trip to LA for Baby Mi-chan's birthday and dedication, the girls (Yumiko, Lisa, Selena, Julie, and I) went out to an interesting cafe for brunch. It's called M Cafe de Chaya. On the outside, it looks like your average, trendy little eatery. What makes it different from the other trendy little places is that it serves only macrobiotic food. Until now, when I heard of macrobiotic, I had images of algae scum and vitamin pills. In other words, I had no idea what macrobiotic meant. Simply, it's eating only what is in season, and only vegetables, no meat, some fish. Truthfully, I was a little scared to try at first, but I was happily enlightened to this way of eating.

The manager (at least I think he was the manager) came out to explain the philosophy behind their food and pointed out their specials for the day and gave us tips on how and what order to eat their food. I ignored the advice and got their breakfast burrito and iced barley tea (mugicha). I was starving! We all took turns trying each others food. Surprisingly, it was all good.

Lisa and Yumiko with their sandwiches, soups, and coffee drinks

The soups were creamy and the sandwiches filling. Selena ordered some spicy sushi made with brown rice, and although it was a little on the mild side, it was still yummy.

Selena with her soup, sandwich, sushi,
and scarlet lemonade

Julie with soba, sandwich, and scarlet lemonade

My burrito was on the interesting side. Instead of scrambled eggs, it was filled with diced tofu colored and flavored to look and taste like scrambled eggs. Also, the bacon was substituted with tempeh. The texture was really weird. The experience eating tempeh was weird. It tasted and looked like bacon, but kind of spongy and grainy at the same time. Other than that, my burrito was really tasty and filling.

I don't think I can adhere to this type of eating and lifestyle, although I probably should, but it wasn't scary trying something really out of my comfort zone.

Who knew macrobiotic could be so decadent?

Krispy Kreme

At the tail end of our bout with the flu, Rick got a major craving for Krispy Kreme donuts. Now, I'm not a big fan of Krispy Kreme, but I was tired of not being able to taste anything. I was hoping that a overly sweet, pillow of deep fried piece of lard would kick start my taste buds.

We packed up Emi-chan and went to the local shop. It was almost 9 PM and Emi-chan was wide awake. Confused, but awake. When we got there, they were making a batch of orignal glazed donuts. The shop was BUSY, filled with hyper kids in pajamas and tired looking adults. Emi-chan loved watching the moving conveyor belts, even when there were no more dounts being made.


Rick bought a box of dozen donuts. This is the selection he chose (ignore the grubby little hand in the corner):


This was a surprise. Krispy Kreme donuts are now considered a health food:


Now, here is one happy customer!

Yum!

Hankook Korean Market

A few days ago, I had a craving for Korean beef. Plus I wanted to provide a dinner for some good friends and for my Bro Jeff, so I made a little trip to a Korean supermarket called Hankook. I usually go to Mitsuwa or Nijiya for my Japanese/Asian food, but I needed meat in bulk and those two places would break the bank for me.

I went in the late morning because 1)Emi-chan was in a pretty good mood, 2) the workers at Hankook are usually in a good mood, and 3)I was in pretty good mood. After 12 PM, we all would be in foul moods.

When I make a trip down to this store, I usually get their marinated meats and banchan, but not today. I went straight to their meat section and bought, oh, about 8 pounds of beef short ribs. I don't think I got enough :)

After picking up some other items for the marinade, Emi-chan and I wandered up and down the aisles for a few minutes. She was fascinated by the fish section. They had these HUGE flatfishes swimming unhappily in a tank. Emi-chan kept laughing and yelling, "Fishes!" I hope the fishes didn't think she was laughing at them. The fish guy looked a little annoyed.

I also picked up a couple of interesting items. The first one is a bag of frozen mantou.


I remember my mom telling me she loved eating mantou for breakfast as a little girl in China. I also remember my uncle, her younger brother, buying a dozen at a store in Chinatown in San Francisco, and eating about half in one sitting. The mantou brought back some good memories so I decided to get a bag. I got the chocolate flavored one, since I was a little scared of the pandan flavored one (pandan? What's pandan?). I microwaved one and ate it. It was pretty rubbery and dry. And it didn't taste like chocolate. Maybe I'll try to steam it next time.

The second item I got was Habanero Shoyu (soy sauce).

I was actually looking for la-yu and came across this instead. I'm a little scared to try this. Maybe I can talk Rick into trying it first.


I wanted to explore a little bit longer, but I could tell Emi-chan was getting a little tired and the lunch crowd was starting to trickle in, so I decided to leave. I want to go back soon to see what else I can find.

Churrasco

Brazilians know soccer. They know samba. They know the beach. And they know barbecue. Man, do they know barbecue. Imagine a large sword skewered with bacon wrapped filet mignon, grilling over an open flame. Next to it are more swords, each skewered with cognac marinated chicken, tiger prawns, chili lime rubbed pork, flank steak, and more. As each sword is ready, a traditionally dressed waiter slices a piece of carnivorous delight onto your plate. This is how Brazilians do churrasco (shoe-hahz-koo).


I can't remember what this was, but it was good!

Gratefully, we don’t have to go all the way to Brazil to have churrasco -- a churrascaria (shoe-hahz-kah-ree-ah) opened up here in Portland a few years ago, much to our delight. So when it came time to celebrate Xang’s “my middle name is carnivore” birthday last month, Brazil Grill was a no brainer.


The birthday boy with his plate. Can you see his eyes glazing over?

We sat down and anxiously turned our disc to the green side, indicating to the waiters that we were ready to gorge. And they pounced. Much like the waiters at dim sum, they swarmed until our plates were nearly overflowing. And that was just the first round. We ate until our stomachs were content, and our eyes glazed over as much from the cognac-soaked chicken as from the dizzying array of meats that were offered to us. And then we ate some more. It’s funny how you can be stuffed, and I mean stuffed, then a waiter walks up to you with a sword full of juicy pineapple covered in a cinnamon sugar glaze that’s hot off the bbq and suddenly, oilah! There’s room in your stomach!


Cinnamon-glazed Pineapple is a specialty of the house. We try to re-create it at home sometimes, and it's never the same!

Since it was Xang’s birthday, we got dessert, compliments of the house. So…apple cinnamon empanada it was. Yum! Apples flavored with cinnamon and baked into a flaky pastry…it’s actually making my mouth water again!?

Burgerville

So...I'm not always a huge fan of fast food. But, on occasion, I confess to giving in to a hankering for a Filet-O-Fish from the Golden Arches. Since moving to the Portland area though, I've discovered Burgerville. They're Oregon-owned, and promote healthy, sustainable business practices (local ingredients, used only when in season, recycling and composting, using local vendors and farmers, hormone-free eggs, and they even offer affordable healthcare for employees, just to name a few).

So in keeping with their seasonal ingredients, every season brings a new item to their menu. At various times during the year, you can find chocolate hazelnut milkshakes (Oregon being known for its hazelnuts), Walla Walla Onion Rings, pumpkin milkshakes, strawberry shortcake, and more.

Currently, rosemary is the featured ingredient at Burgerville. If I didn't keep a check on their Rosemary Shoestring Potatoes, they would quickly become an addiction. It's a good thing they're seasonal! "...fried crispy, tossed in rosemary and garlic infused olive oil, then dusted with rosemary seasoning," as their website describes them. Yum-o! (excuse me, as I channel Rachel Ray).


Today, I had their chicken strips and fries, and substituted the rosemary shoestring potatoes. And let me tell you, these are not your ordinary chicken strips. They're juicy, white meat and lightly breaded. They're so good, I usually bring them home to eat with rice and tonkatsu sauce.

I was so anxious to start eating, I forgot to take a picture until Sydney and I had eaten a few of the chicken strips =D

Mini Cupcakes

*I posted last night/early this morning, but when I went back to edit a paragraph, I ended up deleting my whole post! Aaagh! All that writing! Oh well. I'm going to try again.*

As you probably guessed, I have a slight obsession with cupcakes. It's been a lot of fun trying to find the best, the sweetest, the cutest ones around, and I've just gotten started!

For Emi-chan's birthday, I decided to do mini cupcakes. First ones were for her Parent and Me class. Since I was the snack mom a couple days after her birthday, I decided to make some special ones. The normal thing is probably to go to a supermarket and buy a box of cupcakes for $6, but no, not for my precious baby. Only the best for the little princess. I had to make these beach going teddy bears I saw on Bakerella and My Little Mochi.

I found that these mini cupcakes were both easier than I thought it would be, and also harder than I thought it would be. The easy part: I decided I wouldn't make the cupcakes from scratch, but used a mix and canned frosting, for sanity and health reasons (my sanity and the kids' heathy. I'm not the best baker). Drawing the faces and bathing suits on the bears was easier than I thought it would be, thanks to edible marking pens. The hard part: finding decent bears to draw on (I ate most of the rejects...I don't want to look at another Teddy Graham for awhile), and frosting the cupcakes. I decided to use the easy-peasy frosting technique I saw on a Food Network show, where you take a plastic ziplock bag and load it up with frosting, push the frosting into a corner of the bag, snip the corner, and then pile your cake with fluffy frosting. When I tried it, it 1) got all over me and 2) looked like I had piles of white dog poo on the cupcakes. Not very appetizing. So, I had to refrost them before sprinkling them with blue sprinkles. In the end, I'm pretty happy with the results (the kids were, too, except for Emi-chan, who hates cake). What do you think?


For Satuday, we had a family birthday party. I had ordered 2 dozen mini cupcakes from Sibby's in San Mateo. My brother Jeff tagged along to help me pick them up. At first, I wasn't sure if I had the right directions. The address took me to a one way street behind a row of retail stores. All we saw were auto body shops. No bakery. I had Jeff re-read the directions to me. Then I saw it. Sibby's. A little pink oasis among dirt and grime. Once I saw the cupcakes, I was very happy I chose them.


Rick thought the cupcakes were too sweet. Emi-chan rejected them because they were cake. I liked them very much. Yes, the cupcakes were sweet, but you could taste the distinct flavors. I had ordered the variety pack, and we got (I think): Dulce de Leche, Carrot Cinnamon, Red Velvet, Grandma's Tea Cake, Choco Choco, and Butter Cup. I'm starting to get hungry again. Maybe I'll go and get a leftover cupcake :)

Bikkuri Donkey

I needed to meet Renee in Dotonbori to pick-up Jo (her son) for an overnighter.  Jo is Luke's buddy from church.  They (Renee and kids) just moved to Australia earlier this month. It was a farewell sleep over together.  Since we were in Dotonbori, we decided to eat lunch together at Bikkuri Donkey.  This is one of my favorite restaurants in Japan!

JoAnn, I'm sure you remember this restaurant.  We used to eat there after church for lunch.  It's a chain.  Each shop has a theme to their interior.  In Sakai the theme is pirates.  In Wakayama (at the shop we ate at) the theme is Miami Vice.  (Do you remember that?)  In Dotonbori the theme is miners.  It's always a surprise and fun.

The menu in all the shops is the same--Japanese hamburg.  

I had the oroshi hamburg.  It's my favorite.  It is, basically, a hamburger patty topped with grated daikon and a ponzu/soy sauce.  It's yummy.  It comes with rice and a daikon salad.
Luke had the hamburg with cheese on top (at the very top of the photo) and Jo had the plain hamburg.  They shared a plate of french fries.
So delicious.  BTW, don't you just love the name of this restaurant--Bikkuri Donkey.  Literally translated, "surprise donkey".  As far as I know, the hamburg is made from real ground beef, not donkey.

CreoLa, San Carlos, CA

After whining about not doing anything special for Valentine's Day, Rick finally got the hint and made reservations at a Cajun/Creole restaurant called CreoLa: A New Orleans Bistro. We had gone there a couple of years back but didn't have a chance to come back until this year.

Gran-Gran (my mom) and bro babysat Emi-chan while Rick and I were gone. A diaper mishap made us a little late, but the maitre d' quickly seated us with a smile and didn't grumble. The restaurant was very dark. Probably to put the patrons in a romantic mood, but because of that, none of the pictures I took came out very well, even with a flash, hence no pictures of the food. Oh, well.

They had a 4 course Valentine's Day prix fixe tasting menu which I was a little nervous about because it was mostly seafood. For those of you who know me well, I don't do seafood very well. BUT to my surprise, I LOVED everything I had, ESPECIALLY the seafood items.

This is what we had that evening (sorry, I forgot what some of the items were called):

Rick:
Starter: BOLT deep fried oysters with bacon and ??? (Whatever was in it, they were awesome)
Second course:Fennel and crab Bisque (Yummm)
Third course: Grilled Grouper and ??? stuffing (The sauce was really rich and tasty)
Dessert: Chocolate and Peanut butter mousse with a short bread crust (So dense! So sweet! So good with coffee!)

Linda:
Starter: Dungeness crab cake (I could have licked the plate clean)
Second course: Salad with sweet vinaigrette and praline ??? (The vinaigrette was wonderful. Not too tart, not too sweet)
Third course: Shrimp and crab pie (I loved it! It was supposed to be crawdads and shrimp, but the crawdads weren't good, so the chef made a substitution)
Dessert: Beignet with fresh fruit, mango sauce, and whipped cream (I got only 2 little baby beignets. I could have eaten 5 more)

I think this is one of our favorite restaurants. The food is fantastic, the service is great. Only thing is we probably only go once a year because it isn't a cheap eats place. I think that makes it even more special.

Mini Cupcakes

Today, I visited a bakery called Chocolate Mousse in San Carlos. Once upon a time, it was called Chocolate Mousse, then Vivaldi's, then Vivaldi's Bakery and Cafe, then back to Chocolate Mousse. A little confusing. Rick and I got our wedding cake there when the bakery was called Vivaldi's. But I digress. I was specifically looking for cupcakes. When I got there, there wasn't much to in the display cases. I think I got there a little before closing. There were a few yummy looking pieces of cakes, cookies, a few pastries, and one display case full of Valentine's chocolates. After peeking around for a bit, I saw that they had a couple of trays of cute little mini cupcakes. Since I was in a bit of a hurry, I didn't ask what flavors they carried. I just picked 3 that appealed to me. And here they are:

Since I don't know what each one is called, I just called them: Choco chip, Lemon, and Pinky

I liked the lemon flavored one the best. It wasn't too sweet, nor was it too sour. The pink one was a little too sweet. The cake on all 3 were not dry. Yeah! I hate dry cake.

Here is Emi-chan eating the frosting off her cupcake. Just the frosting. She left the cake. She doesn't know what she's missing.

Chocolate Filled Malasada

I had my first malasada (Portuguese fried donut) 3 years ago at Leonard's in Honolulu. I loved it. Hot. Fluffy. Sweet. Not oily at all despite being deep fried. I probably could have had a couple more but I was full from eating (Rick and I were taken on an eating tour by some friends). Since then, I've kept an eye out for someone or someplace that carries/makes malasadas. Unfortunately, no luck.

I had practically given up on finding malasadas on my own, when one day, when I was browsing through the freezer section at Takahashi Market when I saw them! A box of frozen malasadas! And they're chocolate filled! I practically dropped Emi-chan to get into the freezer. I was ecstatic! But wary, too. I took my box up to the check out counter to ask the 2 young guys working if they had tried them. Their reaction was this: "These are awesome!" "I can eat a whole box myself." "Whoa! Check it out. We got chocolate ones. We gotta try these." And so on. I was encouraged.

Once I got the malasadas home, I had to try one. I microwaved one for a few seconds and it was still frozen. I put it back in for almost a minute and I got molten lava in the middle. I had to wait a couple of days to let my tongue heal from the burns.

Finally, I got it right. Warm. Moist. Sweet. The chocolate wasn't too sweet, but not bland, either. A little oily, but not too bad. It was good. Not as good as Leonard's, but still very satisfying. I'll have to see if they get in the regular ones and try them out.

Looks like a brown egg...

It's chocolate, no yolk!

Chambord Whipped Cream

Oh yum. I've had my whipped cream maker for, like, 5 years and I'm finally experimenting with flavored whipped cream. What, oh what, took me so long!?

Anyways, tonight it was chambord. Chambord is a raspberry liqueur that I used to be slightly obsessed with (for at least 2 Christmases, Santa brought me a bottle!). I'm not so obsessed with it now, but I do still like it.

Anyways, it's really good. Interestingly, the kahlua took just 2 teaspoons to flavor the whipped cream, but the chambord took more like 6. Honestly, I stopped counting and just started pouring until it tasted good. It gave the whipped cream a slightly fruity taste, with a kick at the end.

I will continue to experiment and keep you updated!

Bubba Gump Shrimp

The kids boat.

The shrimp linguine.

The chocolate chip cookie ice cream dessert.

For my birthday each year we eat out at a restaurant of my choice.  I always choose an "American-style" restaurant, as there are not many in the area.  This year I chose the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant in the Osaka Universal City Walk.  It was our first time to eat there.

It proved to be a lot of fun.  The atmosphere is very "western" and it felt like we could be eating in any West Coast American restaurant.  I love shrimp, so I ate the shrimp linguine.  It was delicious and had lots of butter.  Luke chose the kids boat which was fried chicken and french fries.  Michael had the shrimp boat which was fried shrimp and french fries.  I noticed a theme--no vegetables and high cholesterol.  I guess it's good that we go there only once every couple of years.  

For dessert we decided to try the chocolate chip cookie topped with ice cream.  In our minds we imagined the yummy dessert at BJ's (pizza place).  Sorry to say, we were a bit disappointed.  But it made a nice substitute birthday cake for dessert.