What Did We Eat?

Dinner at ABC Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Milpitas

Friday night, Joe and I had dinner with our extended family at ABC Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Milpitas, CA. Joe called the restaurant manager ahead of time and special ordered the very popular winter melon seafood soup.  If you have not tried this soup, I would highly recommend it. The soup has crab meat, scallops, etc in it. Most importantly, the winter melon meat is super tender.  I could just eat that by itself as an entree.  Another one of my favorites was the crab meat cream served with French bread (this is another "must try" but you don't have to pre-order this item).

We also ordered the salty fish/chicken/tofu hot pot and sweet & sour pork. Both were extremely flavorful, perfect to be eaten with white rice.  Joe also ordered steamed fresh fish.  The restaurant manager "caught" the fish from the restaurant fish tank and showed the fish to Joe first before taking it back to the kitchen. With fresh fish, the best way to cook it is simply steam it. That way, you can really taste the freshness.  We also had garlic stir-fried spinach and beef rolls.  The beef rolls were a special entree recommended by the restaurant manager.  It was thinly sliced beef filet with asparagus wrapped inside.  The dark sauce inside the hollowed cucumber was actually honey.  You are supposed to eat the beef rolls with honey.  Then we had peking duck.  The restaurant server skinned the duck at our table side.  You open the steamed buns, put the duck skin inside and top it with hoisin sauce.  One thing I notice in many Chinese restaurants in California.... most of them serve peking ducks with steamed buns.  In Asia, the proper way of serving peking ducks is to serve them with thin flour crepes.  I honestly don't care for the buns, I always like the crepes; but possibly for efficiency and cost-saving reasons, Chinese restaurants here usually opt for the buns instead.  At the end of the dinner, we got three kinds of desserts, courtesy of the restaurant manager.  It was a good dinner with awesome company. :)
  
    

    

   
 

Thanksgiving Dinner at Chandni Pakistani & Indian Restaurant in Fremont

Our friend Don invited us to a Thanksgiving buffet dinner with his family and close friends at the Chandni Pakistani & Indian Restaurant in Fremont, CA.  Joe and I felt extremely honored.  

It was our first time to Chandni. The restaurant itself is huge but Don's wife Linda told us that next door, the restaurant actually has two extra banquet rooms that can accommodate hundreds of guests! The picture below with me and Joe sitting in two big white chairs was taken from the larger banquet room.  After dinner we went in to take a peek and we were delighted to see the room fully set up for a wedding party in purple and white theme colors.  On the center stage, there were two huge white chairs for the bride and groom.  So we sat in the chairs and took a quick picture. 

About the dinner... Since it was Thanksgiving night, the restaurant has altered its menu to include traditional Thanksgiving food items such as turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry jelly, pumkin pie, etc; while still serving a few Indian entrees.  I went for the samosas, curried cauliflower, and naan bread right away; while Joe opted for the turkey and all the trimmings.  Turkey in an Indian restaurant? You bet. Joe even got creative and made his own "curry turkey" dish by adding curry sauce to his turkey. Yum.

    

   
 

Rice Cafe Chinese Private Cuisine in Cupertino

 

Last weekend we had lunch with our good friend Angela and her family at the Rice Cafe Chinese Private Cuisine Restaurant in Cupertino, CA.  "Private" cuisine is a common term used in Asia to describe small (usually family owned) restaurants serving home-cooked meals.   

We order a couple of items to share.  First one was noodle soup that has meat and fish fillet in it.  The second item was egg rolls.  These egg rolls are every different from the ones we get from regular Chinese dim sum restaurants.  Here at Rice Cafe, the egg roll skin is paper thin and crispy.  Inside the egg rolls is steaming hot and soft Chinese cabbage.  I would say, the egg rolls are definitely a must try. We also ordered some fried rice and dumplings.  Those two items were just 'so-so' to me, there was nothing special to it.  The last item was the chili pepper chicken.  Although the chicken was way too dry, the chili pepper really made the dish special.  There is a kind of spice they use in the chicken dish that makes your mouth feels "numb" and that was pretty good.  Would I come back to this restaurant?  Yeah, for the egg rolls.

   

Nola Restaurant and Bar in Palo Alto

   

On Halloween night, our extended family treated us to a News Orleans dinner at Nola in Palo Alto downtown.  It was quite a busy night, good thing we had a reservation.  The decor of the restaurant totally fits the "Halloween" theme and the servers were dressed in costumes. 

    

For appetizer, we ordered the fried crawfish and calamari (not pictured).  Then Joe and I each got a huge bowl of gumbo, served with a piece of cornbread.  The gumbo tasted ok, I just wish they had put okra in it. For entree, I ordered the Crawfish, Shrimp and Scallop Etouffee while Joe got the Cajun Chicken Penne Pasta.  The etouffee came with two big shrimps but it tasted too much like the gumbo.  I remember I had the best etouffee in New Orleans many years ago when Joe took me there.  For desserts, we had to have the "Beignets Du Monde" with three sauces: maple brandy, chicory chocolate, and raspberry.  I think the beignets tasted best with the chocolate sauce.  The second dessert was the brownie sundae and it was quite good.  I mean, who could turn down desserts!?

555 Steakhouse in Long Beach

  
This week my coworkers and I went to Long Beach, CA to attend the Women's Conference.  At the end of the event, we had dinner at the 555 Steakhouse.  I ordered the 8oz filet mignon medium rare with peppercorn sauce.  The steak came out just perfect!

"Grape Stomping" Event at the Castello di Amorosa Winery

  

Oh, it was so much fun!!!  Have you tried stomping grapes before (like the old fashion way of making wine)?  Well, we did it at the Castello di Amorosa's "harvest celebration/food and wine tasting/grape stomping/music and dance" event in September.  If you have not been to this winery before, it is definitely worth a drive up there because the castle is spectacular.  

   

Joe found out about this event when he was surfing the web and he booked it right away without hesitation because of the grape stomping activity.  The "dinner" served was all finger foods because guests were encouraged to explore inside the castle (and to hunt for food at each different destination).  We went to the grand ballroom for shrimp appetizers and soup.  Then we went to the huge wine barrel room for more food.  Joe even did barrel tasting (first time realizing that half fermented wine in a barrel actually tastes just like regular grape juice).  Then for dessert, we had to go into the "torture chamber"!  It was a strange experience looking at those torture equipments while eating "killer chocolate truffles"!  Anyway, if you are a wine lover, you would love this event because they have so many different kinds of wine to pair every kind of food.  Joe and I only tasted a few drops of wine here and there, but you could really go all out! 

Fume Bistro and Bar in Napa

     

Our Napa hotel staff recommended us to try "Fume" for dinner.  It was our first time there and we were glad that we went.  To start, we got fried calamari as complimentary appetizer (because we got a coupon from our hotel).  Then we had very yummy baked oysters.  For entrees, we ordered baby back ribs and pork chop. Joe said that was the best baby back ribs he had - the meat was extremely tender and the sauce was unique.  I ordered a mac and cheese as a side dish as well (I always like mac and cheese!).   For dessert, we had the refreshing peach sorbet and creme brulee trio.  We went on a Friday night, the place was very busy.  Reservation highly recommended. 

        

Brix Restaurant in Napa

   

When Joe and I go to Napa, we always stop by the Brix restaurant.  It is one of our favorite places for a leisure, yet casual lunch.  A couple of weeks ago, we took a friend to Napa to attend a special event and we dined at Brix again.  At Brix, you can choose whether to dine inside the restaurant or outside at the patio. We choose the patio every time.  You can look out to the restaurant's "edible garden', vineyard, and even catch a glimpse of the wine train when it goes by.   

    

This time, we ordered a simple salad, ham and cheese sandwich and a baked pasta dish.  How's the food?  It's ok.  Not bad, not outstanding.  Well, to be honest, we don't go to Brix for the food, we go to Brix for the surrounding.  To us, there is just something special about that garden. 

Palace BBQ Buffet in Sunnyvale

Last night, Joe and I got treated to a Korean BBQ buffet dinner (thank you Auntie!) at the Palace BBQ Buffet Restaurant on El Camino Real, Sunnyvale.  This restaurant is very popular especially on weekends.  We arrived before 6pm and it was already full with patrons and we had to wait for about 10 minutes for our table.  After we finished dinner at around 7:30pm, there were quite a number of folks waiting both inside and outside of the restaurant for tables.  So our recommendation is, go early if you can.  Oh, another thing, don't wear nice clothes to dine in there, because after your meal, you will find yourself wearing the BBQ perfume from head to toe.  : )

This is an all-you-can-eat and cook-it-yourself restaurant.  They offer a wide variety of raw meats and seafood - BBQ beef, ribs, spicy pork, chicken, shrimps, octopus, etc.  You take what you want at the buffet line and bring the raw food back to your table and BBQ them on your grill.  The Korean way of eating the BBQ is to wrap the meat with lettuce.  At the buffet line, there is also a variety of cooked food items such as fried chicken, tofu, vegetables, hot and cold noodles, etc, plus three different kinds of rice and four different soups.  My favorite soup is always the Korean seaweed soup but they also have "western" soups such as clam chowder and pumpkin soup.  The most popular meat is the ribs (the meat is still attached to the bone).  The ribs are only available at dinner buffet, not at the lunch buffet.  The dinner buffet is quite pricey at about $26 a person (not including tax and tips).  You should go in really hungry and eat as much as you can to get the money's worth.  Enjoy!

Sunday Brunch at the Lodge at Pebble Beach

Yesterday, Joe and I took a special friend from Hong Kong to the StillWater Bar and Grill Restaurant inside the Lodge at Pebble Beach for brunch. The Lodge resort is where the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Course is located.  There was a golf tournament in progress and we got a front row view of the golf players at the 18th hole!  The brunch was relaxing.  We were looking out at the ocean and eating seafood... The crab claws were great.  The weather was great.  What a nice Sunday.