lala's creamery

petaluma, ca

website

adorable little old-fashioned ice cream shop. when we walked by on the way to central market the night before, i made a mental note to check out lala's later. although it opened fairly recently, it has the old-timey soda shop feel that fits in perfectly with historic downtown petaluma. i ordered a sundae with tea & honey ice cream topped with hot fudge, whipped cream, chopped nuts, and a cherry. the ice cream was delicious - tasted like taiwanese milk tea but less sweet. definitely stop by if you're ever in petaluma.

yeti

glen ellen, ca

website

instead of visiting wineries, we decided to hike jack london state park just north of sonoma. it was cool to see the remains of jack london's ranch (apparently he was very interested in the science of farming). otherwise it was an ordinary hike in the forest. the map and guideposts, however, were vague and ambiguous -- we accidentally ended up at fern lake about a half mile outside of the state park boundaries. thankfully derek's iphone gps was still working and we managed to find our way back to the car.

we were very hungry after our little expedition and jack london village was just a short drive south of the park. because it was sunday afternoon, yeti was the only restaurant that was open and they were just about to close the kitchen. thankfully, the cooks graciously agreed to serve us. although the restaurant served both nepalese and indian cuisine, we went with our standard indian restaurant order - chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, and basmati rice. i'm not the best judge of indian food, especially when i'm starving, but i thought it was delicious - creamy, spicy, yum.

central market

petaluma, ca

website

why were we in petaluma? cheapest hotel in napa valley where i could use my starwood points. this is how a lot of our travel decisions are made. anyway, it was fortunate because otherwise we would have never found this amazing restaurant - central market. awesome food, awesome atmosphere. i love restaurants where the chef and waitstaff are clearly excited about the food and wine that they're serving. they were out of tables when we arrived, so they sat us in the corner booth next to two large windows. it was super comfy with big pillows and we had a great vantage point to observe the nightlife in petaluma (it's quiet).

our waitress was fantastic - she recommended excellent wines for us and steered us toward great options on the menu. best appetizer that i've had in a long long time - fresh mozzarella served with arugula and crostini slathered with artichoke tapenade. the fact that i still remember all of the ingredients in the appetizer demonstrates how good it was. derek had an amazing smoked fish as an entree - i think it was rainbow trout. dessert was a rustic strawberry pie - clearly homemade. so good. worth driving up to petaluma for, imho.

napa valley burger

sausalito, ca

website

because of our work schedules, derek and i were too nervous to book any flights for our first anniversary in case we had to cancel. instead, we decided that if we had time to get out of palo alto, we would just drive up to napa valley and maybe even do some wine tasting. luckily, our work schedules freed up and we had the whole weekend free. on our leisurely drive up to petaluma, we decided to stop by sausalito to look for milk chocolate and macademia nut cookies.

instead of cookies, we found a cute town, beautiful scenery, and a lot of tourists on bikes. derek (surprise, surprise) wanted a burger, so we decided to try the napa valley burger company. derek's burger was pretty good. i really enjoyed my chili - nice and spicy. the cheesy tater tots were good, but cheesy tater tots are always good. next time i want to try hamburgers sausalito - we walked by and there was a line out the door, which is usually a good sign.

cafe tiramisu

san francisco, ca

website

derek and i happened to be working in our respective SF offices one day and we decided to have dinner in the city before heading back to the south bay. belden place is a narrow alley near the office with a line of restaurants and outdoor seating. supposedly it's reminiscent of european outdoor dining -- it reminds me of little italy in new york and post alley in seattle. we walked through the alley, glanced at the menus for each of the restaurants, and decided on italian food at cafe tiramisu.

pictured is my appetizer - black ink risotto with pan seared scallops and lobster bisque. the scallops were perfectly cooked, buttery, and delicious. the risotto and lobster sauce matched the scallops well - with just a slight hint of the sea. my entree, however, was less successful - spaghetti with clams and uni. the uni, unfortunately, was not fresh and tasted a little funky. both a hit and a miss - we'll probably try another belden place restaurant next time.

umami burger

san francisco, ca

website

i've wanted an umami burger ever since giada de laurentiis described it as her hometown favorite on the "best thing i ever ate" (video) two years ago. i love umami flavors. i love burgers. it sounded perfect. except it was located in los angeles. but last year, umami burger opened a san francisco outpost, appropriately located in the cow hollow neighborhood. vibe is extremely casual, the waitstaff seems genuinely enthused about the food they serve, and the menu is one of those menus where i just want to order everything on it.

i chose the famous umami burger - shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, parmesan crisp, and housemade umami ketchup. (that's the parmesan crisp sticking out in the picture). if you're a fan of sweet & salty - this is the burger for you. incredibly rich flavor - definitely hits all of the umami notes but the sweetness was almost too much. but i would happily eat this burger again. and again. the truffled beet salad was fantastic (i would put that truffled ricotta on everything). derek ordered the manly burger - beer-cheddar cheese, smoked-salt onion strings, and bacon lardons. excellent. there's a nice beer and wine selection and humphry slocombe ice cream sandwiches for dessert. amazing. if only it wasn't so far away from my apartment - i hope they open a south bay location next!

yucca de lac

palo alto, ca

website

the stanford shopping mall is just one of those places where palo alto people tend to congregate. the mall, the dish, university ave, california ave, that's about it for palo alto hot spots. so we really shouldn't have been surprised when we ran into m+s there, the day after eating dinner with them at madera. palo alto is a small world.

yucca de lac has a very modern exterior with an appealing patio area - bright & sunny with comfortable-looking lounge chairs. according to its website and the description on the menu, it's a popular hong kong eatery. i've never heard of it before and after eating here, i can't imagine that it's actually popular in hong kong. it's basically expensive healthy-ish chinese food. my fried rice was decent but bland, hot & sour soup was pretty good but over-priced. there's a tiny chance that derek and i will eat there again if we're stuck at the mall and want to sit on a comfy lounge chair while drinking cocktails, but this is not a destination restaurant by any stretch of the imagination.