Thursday, November 1, 2012

lavanda


palo alto, ca

website

an extremely varied menu includes mediterranean, italian, and croatian dishes. i've never had croatian food, so i decided to try something from the croatian menu. "sarma" -- stuffed cabbage with minced beef, onions, rice, fresh herbs, served on mashed potatoes. basically - meatballs wrapped in cabbage and doused in tomato sauce. it tasted fine, but it wasn't anything special.

i love cake, so, for dessert i ordered the cake with passionfruit sauce. the cake itself was okay, but it was drenched in overly sweet sauce. the menu had other items that sounded appealing - pastas, steak, schnitzel, and fish. although i didn't have a lot of success with the two dishes that i ordered, lavanda is a nice spot to have a glass of wine with some bar snacks. probably won't be back for dinner, but maybe for wine.

liang's kitchen


cupertino, ca

website

lots of great asian food in the south bay. derek managed to find another spot for taiwanese food. derek and i took his parents there for dinner. excellent beef noodle soup - ask for "ma la" if you want it spicy. but my favorite dish were the beef rolls - fried cong you bing (onion pancakes) flattened, filled with beef and cilantro, and formed into a roll. like a light flaky onion-y egg roll. there's other great stuff on the menu - hopefully we'll be back soon to try more.