Monthly Archives: October 2008

Halloween Treats and San Wang Restaurant

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I haven’t baked in a while so I wanted to make some Halloween treats for my co-workers. A few weeks ago, I bought the Halloween edition of Martha Stewart Living magazine and there were these really cool chocolate madeleines with skull marshmallows. I got a madeleine pan from V last year so thought this it’d be a good time to break it out… I think this may only be the 2nd time I used it.

While I was at it, I made peanut butter rice crispy treats made in a shape of a pumpkin, using Twix for stems and chocolate Skittles for eyes.

Turned out pretty cute, don’t you think? I think everyone at worked enjoyed them, they went pretty fast 🙂

We didn’t know anyone having a party tonight so we just went out to dinner with a few friends. My co-worker recommended this restaurant in Japantown called San Wang for good jia jiang noodles. I had mentioned to her that I really liked ZaZang Noodles on Geary and she said this one was good too.

I looked on Yelp for other recommendations for dishes. From Yelp, the restaurant had mixed reviews but I thought it’d be worth a try anyways.

We ordered the spicy noodle soup which wasn’t very spicy but the hand pulled noodles were good.

The jia jiang noodles were only okay. I was a bit disappointed so probably won’t go back. The onions and pork were in big chunks instead of small pieces like I think they should be. The noodles were good though.

To round out our meal, we also had the pea sprouts. It has garlic and mushrooms, this I actually really liked.

Lastly, their dried fried chicken. I think people would like it if they like it salt and with garlic and onions. I think our palates prefer the sweet and spicy of San Tung Restaurant on Irving.

So a quiet Halloween evening. Just as well since I’ll be working tomorrow in Oakland Chinatown.

Made With Molecules

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http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5165490

I came across this great website where you can buy or sell homemade things, it’s called Etsy. They have jewelry, clothing, paper crafts, and whatever creative thing you can think of.

My particular favorite right now is a seller called molecularmuse which brings out the nerd in me, remembering molecular shapes. The designer makes molecule necklaces and earrings of caffeine, estrogen, dopamine, and more. Pretty cool… I’m gonna think about getting something for myself… if only there were rings!

I’m looking forward to exploring the site for more cool stuff.

Maxwell

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So I’m very happy that Maxwell is really starting to adjust back to being with us and sort of getting used to Mochi and Misu. I feel like I’m writing about this a lot but it really is amazing if you know Maxwell. He’s like a cranky old man (he is 9 1/2 already) who doesn’t like his space disturbed and likes to do his own thing…

But he’s gotten back into the habit of sitting on our laps to take his evening nap. After eating a bit and drinking some water, he’ll wander around our couch looking for a lap to hop on and if there’s a blanket on your lap, even better! He reminds me of when he was a kitten and used to do this almost everyday and he’d also sit comfortably in my lap while Ron was driving us somewhere.

Sometimes I have to get up to get a drink of water or something so I lift him up in the blanket and set him back down… do you think I spoil him? He curls up in a little ball sometimes because the light is too bright in his eyes. When he’s sleeping soundly like this, it’s hard to wake him up, you really have to give him a good push or loud call.

I think he feels safer sleeping near us so the other two cats don’t bug him. I’ve seen Misu snooping around looking for Maxwell underneath the couch then suddenly dart underneath and chase Maxwell out. Misu is a secretively mean cat… but he’s also very lovable to us.

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, Golden Era Vegetarian, and The Hidden Vine

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So we had a busy day today although still had time to nap in between 😛

We went to the SF Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for the first time.

There are beautiful fruits and vegetables and lots of sampling!

We bought some yummy cheese.

And got some delicious fruits: pears, pluots, and lemon cucumber.

We met up with Virginia and Dan at the Blue Bottle Coffee Company kiosk for a cup of coffee.

A delicious latte.

There was a free apple cider demonstration. It was very yummy.

It was a beautiful day.

At dinner time, we met up with some friend we made in Singapore. They live in Southern California and were visiting SF for the weekend. They arranged to have a group dinner at Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant. The food is Asian, mostly Vietnamese and Thai flavors.

This was the crepe.

Steamed fish that you wrap in rice paper. The texture was kind of chewy, not much like a fish. It was wrapped in seaweed to stimulate skin.

We had a variety of other dishes, the best was the Gourmet Chicken (lemongrass) which had a nice texture and well seasoned. Surprisingly the meal was very filling even though the portions weren’t that large, I guess soy is dense.

After dinner we walked over to The Hidden Vine. It’s a small wine bar which was very cozy. I had the dessert wine flight, 3 1 oz portions of your choice for $14.

Look at all our wine glasses!

It was a good day, I hope to visit the Farmers Market again soon!

Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant
572 O’Farrell Street

The Hidden Vine
1/2 Cosmo Place at Taylor Street
620 Post Street

Xanh Restaurant

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http://www.xanhrestaurant.com/

Tonight we went down to Mountain View for a farewell dinner. Ron’s classmate Tina from INSEAD is moving to Finland in the next few weeks to start her new job so her friends decided to throw her a small party.

We had dinner at Xanh Restaurant which is on Castro Street, the main street of downtown Mountain View. There were Halloween revelers already roaming the streets tonight, dressed in pirate and wench costumes mostly.

The restaurant has a lovely decor, very modern and the restaurant was quite large. They have two dining areas and the bar & lounge at the front entrance. We were seated at a large table in one of the rooms and promptly ordered drinks.

This is called “Little Miss Sunshine” made with Korbel champagne, PAMA liqueur, and pomegranate seeds. Quite tasty I must say.

There were four of us for dinner so we did family style. Tina’s friend had eaten here a few times already so she helped us to choose the dishes.

This is the tuna tartare small plate. You’re supposed to mix all the stuff in the bowl together before enjoying. It had avocado, cucumbers, and some spices that gave it a kick. Presentation was very “cool” and served with fried wonton skins.

Xanh Shrimp Cakes: minced shrimp with chicken, glass noodles, carrots, and garlic atop toasted bread served with lightly spiced vinaigrette. This was quite yummy as the “cake” was nice and moist. Except that we wished we had a knife to cut it up so we did it the ghetto way using a pair of chopsticks with a fork.

Beef Satay.

Side of eggplant with minced chicken. Very good.

Garlic noodles with Pineapple short ribs. The garlic noodles had fried garlic and shallots on top and parmesan cheese to add to your taste… oh so yummy but not something you should eat on a date. The short ribs were okay but I like kalbi better when you BBQ it yourself.

This is called something like “Good Good Duck” where the duck is medium rare and served on top of sticky rice (kind of like Chinese “zongzi” or “jung” in Cantonese, makes me crave eating one of those right now, good Chinese comfort food).

I think these are the tamarind prawns as they were a bit sweet, not spectacular but still good.

They also had spring rolls which I didn’t get to try. Maybe next time.

One more drink before heading to the lounge, this is the “Good Ruck” with Absolut Peach, Peach Schnapps, white wine, cranberry juice, and soda water.

We were pretty stuffed even though the plates seemed small. We spent about $50 per person though which is a bit hard to stomach considering Vietnamese food in Chinatown or something would be $7 for a bowl of Pho but you’d come here for the atmosphere and higher quality and better designed food. The bar and lounge is nice with good seating and a live DJ. Mountain View is a bit far to go and if we did go down there again, I think we’d want to try some of the other restaurants on Castro Street but with so many fabulous restaurants in San Francisco, it’s hard to justify the drive.

Best wishes to Tina as she embarks on her new adventure!

Xanh Restaurant
110 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA