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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Napa Trip - May 2011: Day 4

Before our flight (again...) in the afternoon, my aunt took us to downtown Los Altos to this bakery/cafe she likes a lot.

Le Boulanger
301 Main Street
Los Altos, CA 94022
(650) 949-3429
http://www.leboulanger.com
Price: $

The bakery goods all looked really good.

I finally decided on the Sandwich & Salad Combo (petite size sandwich accompanied by a small salad: Roasted Portabella (portabella mushroom, jack cheese, roasted pepers, red onion, spinach, vinaigrette) and Primavera salad (fresh spring mix with walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, craisins, vinaigrette dressing). The ingredients were all really fresh. It was a nice, healthy lunch!

My sister and I got a Yogurt Parfait to share. It wasn't that great. But it was nice to have a lot of fresh strawberries in there.

My sister's bf got the Reuben (Sourdough Rye, turkey pastrami, swiss, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing)

My aunt got a bear claw for dessert. hehe. It was pretty good. Not super sweet.
Now it's off to the airport for the 2nd time...

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So...guess what?!? The flight got cancelled AGAIN!! DAHHH! It's such a waste of time. From the time we checked in at the ticketing counter to walking to the gate was all of 5 minutes. And in that 5 minutes our flight was announced cancelled. WTF!! I guess we'll try again tomorrow!

Since we were stuck in Cali again, we decided to enjoy ourselves. We decided to take the train to San Francisco. I haven't been there since I was little!

We took the Cable Car to Fisherman's Wharf and stopped by a restaurant for some seafood! Dinner #1~

Sabella and La Torre
2809 Taylor St
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 673-2824
Price: $$

There was a whole strip of restaurants but we decided on this one because it had the most people in it. That means it should be good right? hehe.

We were going to eat more later so we got some stuff to share.

Chef's Special Platter (Fried crab legs, scallops, prawns, oysters & clams; served with clam chowder and potatoes) $26.95~

I really wanted clam chowder and my sister really wanted oysters so this was a good option. She was able to substitute the clams for more oysters and get raw oysters instead of fried. The clam chowder came first with bread. It was AWESOME! I think we could've finished a whole pot of it. YUM!! The fried platter was pretty good as well. It came with tartar sauce which I love. They were all fried nicely. The scallops were cooked perfectly. Not at all overdone and rubbery. And my sister really enjoyed her raw oysters and cocktail sauce.

Our waiter was super nice and even gave us a couple suggestions on where to get some good sushi later!

After, we took the bus to Japantown. It was a cute little area and we found a place that specialized in Ramen! Sweet! Dinner #2~

Tanpopo
1740 Buchanan Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-7132
Price: $-$$

We just got several things to share.

Vegetable Ramen (Salt flavor soup ith boiled vegetables - cabbage, onion, green onion, carrot and shiitake) $9~ For $2 more we added Extra Roast Pork. YUM!! The noodles were cooked really well and the roast pork was sooo good. There was lots of veggies in there as well. Really tasty!

Hamachi Sashimi (Yellowtail 6 pcs) $7.50~ This was a really good price for sashimi and the pieces were a decent size. It was super fresh!

Gyoza (Pan fried pork potstickers, 7pcs) $6.50~ This was fried well. The outside was nice and crispy and the filling had good flavor.

The service sucked at this place. Once we were seated, it was as if the waitress forgot about us. We had to flag her down to get menus, and waited a long time for our waters. But the food was really good. I would still go back for the food.

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Napa Trip - May 2011: Day 3

From my research before the trip, I really wanted to check out this bakery in downtown Napa. It was featured on Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate" and was actually presented by Michael Chiarello. They are known for their English Muffins and it's supposed to be different than your typical english muffins.
Model Bakery
644 1st St # B
Napa, CA 94559-2611
(707) 259-1128
http://www.themodelbakery.com/

Price: $

We were heading back to San Jose but we stopped by the bakery to get some breakfast before driving back. There were lots of delicious looking pastries but I decided just to get the English Muffin. They are $2 a piece. And it's larger than your typical english muffin. When you order it, they actually cut it in half and put it in the toaster oven for you. You can get it with butter and/or jam. I got both. It was hot and toasty when I opened it up. It had a great crust on the outside. I really enjoyed it. The texture was different than regular english muffins and I liked it a lot. I wouldn't say it's one of the best things I ever ate, but I thought it was pretty good. It was hard not trying anything else...hehe.

My aunt also ordered another pastry. Think it's the Apple Butterhorn? $3~ It was pretty good...I think the middle apple part should've been bigger but overall it wasn't super sweet and the pastry was buttery. For the size, the price was really good.

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Dinner: Chinese Restaurant. I didn't get the name... :(

So we were supposed to fly back to Dallas Sunday night but due to the severe weather in Dallas, our flight was cancelled and we couldn't get on another flight until Monday afternoon! Gahhh! So my aunt picked us up and we went to have more yummy Chinese food! :P

Good ol' Taiwanese food. It was pretty tasty! :)

Minced Pork on Rice
Bok Choy
Spicy Wontons
Cold Noodle with Chicken
Beef Rolls
Pig's Feet

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Napa Trip - May 2011: Day 2

Yountville, CA (just north of Napa)

See
Bottega for review.
See
Bouchon for review.

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Wedding Reception @ Tra Vigne

Tra Vigne
1050 Charter Oak Avenue
St. Helena, CA 94574
(707) 963-4444
http://www.travignerestaurant.com/


My cousin had her wedding reception at Tra Vigne restaurant in St. Helena. It was an outside setting with trees and lights and it was just beautiful. The food was one of the best I've had at a wedding reception...meaning the restaurant has really good food.

Just wanted to share the awesome food pics with ya'll. :)

Cocktail Hour Hors D'oeuvres:
Steak Tartare on Parmesan Crisp

Oysters on the Half Shell
Fried Calamari and Olive


Then it's dinner time! We got sooo much food!!
Bread for the table
Arugula and White Corn Salad (with aged pecorino and citrus vinaigrette). So fresh and such a simple but great combination. I cleaned the plate!
Pizzas (Cheese and Mushroom). They are known for their pizzas. It was really good!
Costata Di Blue (braised short ribs with soft polenta and natural jus). Initially I got the fish, but I didn't know the beef was gonna be short ribs! Luckily one of my cousin's wife got the beef but wanted the fish instead so we traded! The short ribs were fork tender. It was awesome!
Pesce al Giorno (pan roasted halibut on buttermilk whipped potatoes and citrus sauce). The fish was also really good. Cooked perfectly. Good size.
And instead of a traditional wedding cake they had a dessert bar! With cookies, shortbread, biscotti, and ice cream! YUM!!
OMG... I was soo full! :) It was a great reception. Both the venue and the food.

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Napa Trip - May 2011

I recently went to California to attend one of my cousin's wedding reception. The reception was held in Napa but we flew into San Jose where my aunt lives. Be prepared for several posts of yummy food pics! (I didn't really rate anything, just wanted to share all the food pics with ya'll!) :D Enjoy~~

Day 1:
We flew in Friday morning and a big group of us went for some lunch. It was like a mini family reunion! :)

Hong Kong Restaurant
2650 W El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
(650) 948-7728
Price: $$

My aunt had pre-ordered the set menu for large parties. The portions were pretty huge and the food was decent. Not the best Cantonese food I've had in Cali, but it's still better than most of the Chinese food options we have in Dallas...

Crab Soup

Mayonnaise Shrimp with Walnuts (this was my favorite)
Sauteed Beef with Onions
Lobster
Peking Duck (they left the bones on the duck...they didn't prepare it the right way...)
Fried Fish

The set menu also included Vegetable with Mushrooms, Soy Sauce Chicken, Shrimp Fried Rice, and Chinese dessert at the end. It was a TON of food....and we finished most of it. Soo full!

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We decided to have dinner in San Jose that night before driving up to Napa. That way we'll miss the after work rush hour. We wanted some good and spicy Chinese food so we went to Szechwan Era in Cupertino.

Szechwan Era
10971 North Wolfe Road,
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 873-8628
Price: $$

My sister and I grew up eating spicy food so we love it! We can't get any good Sichuan cuisine in Dallas so we're gonna get as much as we can in California! haha.

Pick 3 for $5.99~ Bamboo Shoots, Pigs Ears, Fuqi Fei Pian (a cold spicy beef dish)
Chang Wang (spicy hot pot with Pig Intestines and Duck Blood)
Ma Po Tofu (spicy tofu)
Crispy Rice with Shrimp (this wasn't spicy)

Make sure you get lots of steam rice when you eat Sichuan food. It's sooo yummy!! Everything was good. Again...sooo full!!!

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Monday, May 30, 2011

Bouchon Bakery Yountville

Man, there are so many great places to eat in Napa... If only we were here longer!!

After lunch at Bottega, we walked across the street to Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. Since I can't really afford his other restaurants right now, I definitely wanted to check out the bakery.

Bouchon Bakery
6528 Washington Street
Yountville, California 94599
(707) 944-2253
http://www.bouchonbakery.com

Price: $

There was a pretty long line as we approached the bakery. It was a small store so the line curved around outside the door.

There's no room to sit inside the store but they had outside seating. The weather was beautiful, so it was great to sit outside. The line moved fairly fast... When I reached the doorway, I really tried to look around and make a decision so I don't hold up the line. It was sooo hard! Everything looked amazing! Pastries, breads, tarts, cookies, you name it...

Finally it was our turn to order. We ordered several things to share.

Caramel Macaron $3~ I really wanted to try a macaron. I've been to several bakeries now where they sold macarons and they're sooo expensive for the small ones. I thought this was quite reasonable compared to all those other places. It was much larger and for the size, the price was good. I've been to places where the small macarons are $3 a piece. Craziness! They said the caramel one is one of their big sellers so I went with that. I really liked it! It was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Kinda meringue like. I really enjoyed the texture.

Chocolate Ganache Tart $6~ My cousin and I were eyeing this from the beginning. Can't go wrong with chocolate ganache with more chocolate on top! It was so pretty. It was super rich and decadent. I really wanted a glass of milk or some ice cream with it. It was really really rich....if you are a true chocolate lover, this is for you!

S'mores Cup $6~ We couldn't decide on other stuff and finally settled on the S'mores cup. It was in a cute little glass. Initially I thought it was kind of expensive for such a tiny cup. But it was pretty rich as well. The chocolate cream/mousse was rich and smooth. I really liked the little cubes of graham cracker in the middle...added a nice crunchy texture. The marshmallow on top was a little too sweet for me though. It was good that the cup was small. haha.

Business was crazy, there was a line the entire time we were there. All the items looked delicious...I wish I had time to try more. The prices were a little high, but given the quality of the products and the location it was actually not as bad as I thought it would be. I definitely recommend this place for a midday break or quick lunch. They had some sandwiches that looked really good as well. Maybe one day I'll make it to one of Thomas Keller's restaurants! :)

Quality of Food:

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~