Browse Category: outings

Iron Chef Sighting!

Masaharu Morimoto is one of the original Iron Chefs and he has a restaurant in Chicago, NYC, and now Napa!!  It just opened a couple weeks ago and Jes and I went last night.  As soon as we walked into the restaurant, there he was!  He was on the line with all the other chefs hard at work.  So cool!

We opted for the Omakase tasting menu and were delighted with an 8-course meal.  My favorites were the toro tartare that came on a bamboo platter with a dipping sauce and 6 little flavors to try with the tuna.  It was so much fun to eat with a paddle and it was oh so tasty.

My other favorite was the foie gras chawanmushi topped with 2 slices of savory duck.  I already LOVE chawanmushi and now they went ahead and added foie to it!  Wowzers.  The broth was light and flavorful and the rich foie/egg custard was hiding underneath.  It also came with a tiny ball of wasabi on the side.

Everything was presented in such a classy and yet interesting way and the production of having 8 surprises arrive at you table was so much fun.  He also has a bunch of really nice housewares in the front.  Check out all these sake boxes and cups!

Another Girls’ Night Out

Friday made the 5th night in a row that I was out this week!  Mai was in town so we arranged for a Happy Hour at Conga Lounge and it certainly was not lacking in laughter.  These girls crack me up and I’m so thankful that my co-workers are people I enjoy hanging out with after hours.

At the end of the night, we went to Ici, which is another ice cream shoppe that I’ve been dying to try.  I chose maple candied bacon and it was delicious.  It was a sweet vanilla ice cream with bits of salty goodness hidden inside.  Mmmm…

Ramona…

We have a coworker (the one on the very left) who was teasing one of the kids with a crutch during a group activity.  To show the consequence of “unfriendly behavior”, she was put on time out and given the nickname “Ramona the Pest”.  The name has stuck for the past year and she really is very Ramona-esque.  So, when the movie “Ramona and Beezus” came out, we were very excited to go together to see it.

So, tonight after work, we went to Emeryville to watch the movie and pretty much had the whole theater to ourselves.  The movie was so much fun and the girl who played Ramona was absolutely adorable.  By the way, the Emery Bay Theater has a Tuesday special of $5 tickets and $1 popcorn.  What a deal!

Last Weekend

This is a little late but here’s the recap of last weekend with Brother and Joy.

As soon as I picked them up from the airport, we dropped off their stuff and headed out for a bite to eat.  We initially went to Orson for some duckfat fries but then ended up eating at the Korean taco truck out in front of Bar Basic.  It was a tasty $2 taco filled with spicy pork, a thinly sliced pickled dikon, and kimchi.  On top of that, there was a red sauce that gave it a good kick in the mouth.

On Saturday morning, Koa greeted them with a few sniffs and tugs of the pillow.  After a long walk and some coffee, my uncle came up to pick up Brother for a game of golf in Vallejo.

It was good to see him and Johnny got to play golf on a nice, quiet course.

While they were away, Joy and I went to the race expo and did some shopping at Sports Basement.  Afterward, I took Joy to Sausalito to buy some teeny tiny Totoros.

On our way there, we got stuck in traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was unusually heavy and I was wondering what was going on until we find the far right lane blocked and cops hovering over the rail.  Someone was threatening to jump the bridge!  Joy even saw the guy on the other side of the rail talking to the cops.  Sorry guys, no photo this time.  We were too distracted by the incident to think of snapping a photo.  Too bad though…she had a front row view of it all.

For dinner, we carbo-loaded at La Briciola on risotto, mussels, ravioli, tagliatelle, and veal.

On Sunday afternoon (after the Half Marathon), we showered and rested up before heading out again for ice cream.

We went to Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous in Dog Patch and tasted a variety of interesting flavors ranging from Candied Violet to Candied Ginger.

For dinner, we went to La Mar where Brother almost got tricked by a sauce that contained peanuts.  Heh heh.

Here are the rest of the photos.  It was good to see you guys again.  Hope you’re having a great time in Hawaii right now!!!

Back in Cali

For those of you who didn’t already know, after 8 long years away in Medical School and Residency, Dayantha is back in California and brought Krissy with him!  They’re living in Sacramento for a year while Dayantha finishes his last year as a Fellow at UC Davis.  On top of that, they recently got engaged during their EuroTrip to Italy and Spain!  Woohoo!

We finally got to see them this weekend since they drove down for Scotchfest and stayed with us all weekend.  It was fun hanging out and catching up while eatin’ up a storm and doing some walking around the city.  They arrived on Friday night and we took them out for a good Southern fried chicken dinner.  On Saturday morning, they walked to the Ferry Plaza with us while we had to shop for the party and picked up some kimchee fried rice and Korean tacos.

On Sunday, we had brunch at Bar Tartine before driving them to the Rockridge BART station where they parked their car all weekend.

They both look good and happy to be in California. We happy to have them back in California too.

Holiday Weekend

It’s weird to have a national holiday fall on a weekend.  July 4th was on a Sunday this year so it meant it would be a regular 2-day weekend for me.  Since I didn’t request Monday (today) off, we hung out in the city and had a regular weekend with a sprinkling of illegal fireworks.

On Saturday, we slept in and had brunch down the street.  We scored a table outside and tied up the dog to my chair.  He was pretty well-behaved with the occasional growling at dogs walking by.

The rest of the day was spent running errands and Jes made mushroom, swiss, and bacon burgers.  They were tasty.  I almost forgot what beef tasted like.

On Sunday, I woke up a bit earlier to go for a little run and had some oatmeal to offset the fatty burger from the night before.  In the afternoon, Jes and I took the bus to the Fillmore Jazz Festival for a little jazz, street food, and sunshine.  We went two years ago and had a good time.  That was also when and where we discovered Kim Nalley, a jazz singer that has lost of charisma and a great voice.  She performed there again this year and we got off the bus just in time for her performance.

We also picked up some pork buns, duck buns, boba for me, beer for Jes, a Puerto Rican pernil made with pulled pork, tomato, avocado in a soft flat bread.

We walked around some more and stopped for cheaper beer for Jes (at the local liquor store) and I got a cup of frozen yogurt from Fraiche.  Yum.

Later that evening, we made another set of burgers and headed out for some fireworks around Fisherman’s Wharf.  Unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough time to get out there for the 9:30 show and ended up walking a long way to see a bunch of illegal fireworks along the way.  Oh well. We’ll have to try again next year.

I went back to work today and managed to cram all 8 treatment sessions together by starting early and working through lunch.  I was done with the kids by 2:30 and out of the hospital by 3:15.  Awesome.