a & j restaurant

cupertino, ca

link to yelp

craving a good bowl of noodles, we headed to cupertino village. a&j restaurant is a very basic chinese restaurant with a short menu. walk in, someone usually gestures at a table. it's the kind of restaurant where you don't have to order tea or water, they just throw it onto the table after you sit down.

we each order a bowl of noodles. derek gets the beef noodle soup. i usually do too, but this time i decided to try the tripe noodle soup. it was good, but not as flavorful as the beef soup.

kitchen kura

san francisco, ca

website

on the way back from reno, we stopped by SF to find dinner. which was a little difficult on new year's day. we drove around inner sunset, figuring that we had a better chance of finding an asian restaurant open on the holiday. april and lennon's favorite chinese restaurant was open, but had a ridiculous wait. we were too hungry and tired, so we ended up at kitchen kura, a decent japanese restaurant with some solid comfort food.

everyone else in the restaurant was ordering fried chicken and it looked fabulous. but i didn't feel like eating fried food, so i went with the sukiyaki (tofu, onion, beef, sweet soy sauce) and nishime (daikon, carrot, bamboo shoot, and shitake mushroom w/ dashi bouillon soup) with rice. derek ordered the katsu curry (pictured). very simple and comforting. definitely hit the spot after the long drive from nevada.

french laundry

yountville, ca

website

thomas keller's french laundry is one of the best restaurants in the country, has three michelin stars, has been on my wish list for years, and is extremely difficult to get a reservation for. derek, always thinking ahead, called the requisite 2 months before new year's eve to get a reservation for 4 for lunch. april and lennon joined us for the amazing meal (see april's excellent write-up on her food blog!). the restaurant is located in napa valley, about an hour north of san francisco. french laundry is in a beautiful old building that looks like it was plucked out of the french countryside (at least what i imagine the french countryside might look like).

we were taken upstairs to a small room with a couple of tables, where it felt like we were in someone's bright sunlit living room. as is often the case with uber-expensive restaurants, the staff recognize that you're there for an experience and not just a meal. they were extremely pleasant and patient, pouring us a complimentary glass of champagne for the holiday and explaining each course in detail. the waitstaff got a kick out of the fact that we were planning on heading to reno after lunch ("gotta stay classy," said derek). after spending $$$$ at french laundry, we had to try to make the money back somehow...

now the food - april did a much better job of chronicling each dish, so i'll just stick to the highlights. our favorites of the 9 courses - "oysters and pearls" ("saboyan" of pearl tapioca with island creek oysters and white sturgeon caviar) and the snake river farms "calotte de boeuf grillee" (bone marrow, marble potatoes, creamed spinach, and "a-1" sauce). they DEEP FRY the bone marrow and serve it next to an impeccable cut of melt-in-your-mouth meat from the top of the rib-eye. perfect beefy goodness. derek ordered the foie gras en terrine, which was served with a toasted brioche bread. what's funny is that before he even finished the first slice, they brought out a second freshly toasted brioche. derek remarked that he was fine, but the server insisted that the chef's instructions require that the terrine be spread on warm bread. that devotion to perfection is evident in each of the nine courses and made for a meal that we will never forget.

milagros cantina

redwood city, ca

website

california is supposed to have amazing mexican food, right? still haven't found it. i'm sure it's here somewhere. i'll just keep looking. after having just-okay mexican food at margaritas in redwood city a few months ago, i remembered that we walked by another mexican restaurant, milagros, that looked much busier.

before heading to the movies (where we saw new year's eve which i enjoyed and derek not so much), we had dinner at milagros cantina. i ordered the chicken mole enchiladas. chicken was dry, mole sauce was bland. the guacamole was pretty good, but the chips were stale. cocktails, however, were excellent.

663 bistro

seattle, wa

link to yelp

this is our new go-to chinese restaurant in seattle's chinatown. it's a rather ordinary looking restaurant, but the food is amazing. in fact, we had our rehearsal dinner here before our wedding in july. they served a traditional chinese feast with course after course, but their everyday menu is just as good.

my favorite is the "diced seafood on a bed of soft tofu." ignore the seafood. it's good, but the real star of this dish is the soft tofu - fried on the outside, creamy custardy melt-in-your-mouth consistency on the inside. i could eat the whole plate myself. if you need more than tofu, i recommend the crispy roast pork appetizer and e-fu noodles with lobster (some might consider the noodles to be the accompaniment, but not i).

beecher's handmade cheese

seattle, wa

website

even though it's usually packed with tourists, i love going down to pike place market whenever i'm in seattle. good food, cool crafts, and i still enjoy watching them throw the fish. my sister cindy, brother chris, and i were looking for a quick lunch so that we could get back to shopping. beecher's cheese shop was perfect because we could munch on their sandwiches while walking.

at beecher's, you can either walk through the store for tastings and pick up some cheese curds or you can wait in the line outside to pick up lunch. we went for the latter. a little tip - while you're in line, ask for a sample of their famous mac & cheese. they'll give you a small cup of it, but it's so rich that the small cup is more than enough. we all went with their decidedly unboring grilled cheese sandwiches made with their flagship cheese. simple, yet delicious.

elite cafe

san francisco, ca

website

to continue the theme of comfort food, derek and i had brunch at one of tina's favorite places, the elite cafe. there's a little bit of a wait on sunday afternoons, but service is speedy once you get a seat. atmosphere is cozy, very appropriate for brunch. tina recommended the beef hash, which derek ordered and enjoyed.

but i had to go with the alabama scramble - scrambled eggs and minced bacon with baked mashed potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. definitely delicious and comforting, but could have used more gravy on the biscuits. we ordered the cinnamon sugar doughnut holes (i have a hard time passing up doughnuts on a menu), but they were unremarkable. next time, we'll just get more biscuits - they're amazing - buttery and flaky.

wayfare tavern

san francisco, ca

website

one of my new favorite restaurants! derek discovered this place while working in his firm's san francisco office. it's actually tyler florence's restaurant - the menu is very similar to the dishes he cooks on his show (which always look delicious). the atmosphere is upscale gastropub - the prices are a little high, but the ingredients and preparation are worth it. we walked in on a saturday afternoon and the place was packed - but thankfully we were able to get a seat at the bar, where we could watch chefs put the final touches on each plate.

wayfare tavern is known for their fried chicken, which derek thinks is amazing. if you're not in the mood for fried chicken, the dish to get is the tomales bay mussels - perfectly plump little mussels served with herbsaint cream, crispy chunks of pork belly, sweet potato, celery salt, and grilled toast. it's a little on the rich side, but trust me, you won't have any problem finishing it.

evvia

palo alto, ca

website

one of the top restaurants in palo alto, it's been recommended by nearly everyone we've met since moving to the south bay. it's not the kind of restaurant where you can get a table on a whim, which is how we usually decide on dinner. but for derek's birthday, i made 8 pm reservations about a week in advance. the atmosphere at evvia was surprisingly cozy and welcoming for such an expensive restaurant.

pictured is the best octopus that i've ever had - grilled with lemon, oregano, and olive oil. perfectly charred yet tender. delicious. for my entree, i ordered the moschari souvlaki - beef filet, sweet peppers, mushrooms & onions with Cretan rice & Greek yogurt. the beef was well-spiced and served over excellent rice. everyone raves about the ice cream sundae - it was good, but a little bit too rich for my tastes. overall, a fantastic meal. there's so many other items on the menu that i want to try, but i'll definitely be back for the octopus.

madame tam

palo alto, ca

website

decent southeast asian food on university ave. solid bowl of pho, which is perfect for those cold california evenings. hey, sometimes the temperature can dip below 50 degrees here. the pho is served with slices of beef and a few meatballs. i'd prefer more tendon and tripe, but it still soothes the soul.

there are several other bright spots on the menu. i like the buddha's spring rolls - good fresh veggies wrapped in rice paper, served with hoisin. we also like the provincial beef stew, the thai drunken fish, and garlic noodles. pretty good asian food if you're stuck on the ave.

straits

san jose, ca

website

straits is purportedly a singaporean restaurant. lennon, an actual singaporean, warned us that the food bares little resemblance to real singaporean food. so we've avoided the place for nearly a year. but we were doing some christmas shopping at santana row, got hungry, and the steakhouse was completely booked. that's how we ended up at straits for some fake asian food.

there is nothing singaporean about the fried calamari, especially the chinese takeout box they serve it in. but it was edible - slightly spicy, well-fried, and served with delicious dipping sauces. the murtabak, roti stuffed with minced beef, is just weird - nothing like singaporean/malaysian roti should taste like. the whole striped bass was fried to death and doused with a too-sweet sauce. the indian street noodles were similarly over-sauced with sticky sweetness. if you're forced to eat here, get a cocktail and the calamari and call it a night.

armadillo willy's

los altos, ca

website

we used to live in the flatiron district which had several excellent bbq restaurants located nearby, like hill country and blue smoke. we've also visited austin, where a+m served us amazing bbq from the salt lick. i used to make frequent trips to north carolina for work and had excellent bbq there (even at the airport...) so, we're quite picky when it comes to bbq.

armadillo willy's is located between derek's office and our apartment, which means its perfect for him to pick up on his way home from work. the food is pretty good. it's not as good as anything i listed earlier, but its sufficient to satisfy our bbq cravings. derek likes the ribs, i like the brisket sandwich (chopped, not sliced) and their "texas tots." if you're stuck in los altos and are craving bbq, i highly recommend.

kowloon tong dessert cafe

san francisco, ca

link to yelp

jason took all of us to this hong kong-inspired dessert cafe located in inner richmond (which is apparently where all the REAL chinese food can be found in san francisco - forget chinatown). after starting the evening at mums, this was a good place for jason, the steves, derek, and me to settle down and sober up before the drive home. it can get quite crowded on a saturday night, so we had about a 10 minute wait for a table.

standard hong kong desserts. the egg puffs were my favorite - like mini waffle balls. they clearly do waffles well here. the ice cream waffle sandwich was free because we checked in on facebook (another instance where derek's iphone triumphed over my blackberry). the waffle was appropriately thin and crispy and the ice cream sufficiently chilled - derek devoured these sandwiches. another one to add to the short list of desserts that derek enjoys.