Monthly Archives: January 2010

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe and 5A5 Steak Lounge

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We did quite a bit of eating today starting with breakfast this morning at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe which is within walking distance from our apartment. Our friends recommended this place for a great breakfast but might have a long wait.

We got there around 8am and had to wait about 15-20 minutes, they open at 7:30am. We ordered from their specials which are written on the dry erase boards.

This is the butterscotch french toast. I had one delicious slice. I think eating more would have been bad for my blood sugar.

This is one of their egg scrambles, a type of sausage with mushrooms and basil. It’s served with potatoes and a slice of jalapeno corn bread. Also very good. I really liked the corn bread.

For home, we took home some pastries. This is the sweet potato pecan muffin, very dense and sweetened by the sweet potato rather than sugar.

The whiskey blueberry coffee cake. The coffee cake was a bit dry and the topping a bit too sweet. It didn’t really work together well in your mouth.

Lunch we had at home but then went to dinner at 5A5 Steak Lounge for Dine About Town. It was probably too much to hope that they would have the Waygu beef on their menu… so here was their menu where we chose one of each.

Iceberg lettuce salad with thick bacon. The bacon was very delicious.

Caesar salad with fresh anchovies. The salty anchovies went well with the fresh taste of Romaine lettuce.

We ordered a separate starter of short ribs with lotus chips. The lotus chips were pretty cool, just like potato chips but probably healthier. The short ribs had persimmons on them which was an interesting touch.

The New York strip steak. The green stuff on top was a bit spicy and creamy, delicious but I have no idea what it was. The steak was tender too and a perfect medium rare but not bloody.

The salmon served with a cabbage leaf stuffed with fennel.

Sticky toffee bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. I wish I could’ve had more!

Banana Cream Tart. The cream wasn’t too sweet and had a subtle but delicious banana flavor. The brulee’d bananas were a nice touch too.

Overall, a very good dining experience and a lovely day of eating.

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe
522 Jones Street

5A5 Steak Lounge
244 Jackson Street

Hard Knox Cafe

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http://www.hardknoxcafe.com/

I finally got to try the fried chicken at Hard Knox Cafe. Ron had talked about this place before and it always sounds really good but he’s never had a chance to bring me.

We had a bit of a hard time finding parking and then had to wait about 15 minutes inside. But once I got to taste the corn bread, that was already worth it. I loved the “muffin top”, especially with a little bit of butter, served warm.

I had the three piece fried chicken with collard greens and mac ‘n’ cheese. The chicken was very crispy and super moist. It wasn’t over seasoned so you could really just taste chicken (rather than say, spice or pepper). It was really good with the Crystal hot sauce.

Ron had the country fried steak with corn and potato salad. I didn’t like this as much since it was a bit salty and the sauce didn’t have much flavor (to me). The potato salad deserves mention though, it was sort of like thousand island flavored potato salad.

It was a good meal to end the day as we had spent all day in an 8 hour childbirth preparation class at Kaiser. It was a lot of information to digest but was very good in giving us an idea of what to expect. We also had a tour of the labor & delivery and post-partum area of the hospital. There’s still tons to learn but at least we’re not totally clueless anymore.

Hard Knox Cafe
2526 Third Street

Isa Restaurant – Dine About Town

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http://www.isarestaurant.com/

I met up with Patrick and Shirley at Isa Restaurant for Dine About Town. Although we might have gotten a bit cheated as their regular prix fixe for Mon thru Thur is only $28 while for DAT, it’s $35… I hope that these portions we got were larger…

Well for appetizers, we started out with salmon carpaccio (which I didn’t get to try).

The calamari with beans and cooked arugula. Very tender and had nice flavor.

The mussels with garlic, white wine, parsley, and grilled bread. A big portion and the “soup” was really good with the bread.

For main courses, we had the pan fried sole with broccolini. The sole was a bit sweet and fresh. I really like the broccolini.

This is the flat iron steak, nice and tender, with potato gratin, creamy and delicious.

Lobster bouillabaisse with fish and clams. The bouillabaisse was good but I couldn’t tell it was lobster.

For desserts, we had two cheese courses and creme brulee.

Needless to say, we were pretty stuffed. The bread they offered too was delicious, toasty on the outside and soft on the inside and served warm. I wish I could have eaten more of it, I can’t wait to have carbs again!

Isa Restaurant
3324 Steiner Street

Misu – Trapped!

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Our silly cat Misu:

He’s been really needy lately so has been bothering us every evening. He’ll sit right next to you and wait you for you to look at him and once you look at him and start speaking to him, his ears perk up. If you don’t touch him, he’ll rub his face on your arm or leg to coax you to scratch his head. He’s super sweet.

In this case, he was sitting right in front of me so I lifted my legs onto the table (excuse my swollen feet) with his head in between. He didn’t budge. He seemed happy that I was paying attention to him.

I wonder if he knows a baby is coming so he’s trying to get even more attention now than usual…

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

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http://www.beachboardwalk.com/

Ron and I went down to Santa Cruz just to get out of the city. We visited the Beach Boardwalk which was mostly closed except for the arcade and mini golf. It was quite a drive and it started to rain a bit but it was just nice to get away and see some different scenery and spend some time together.

We got there around lunch time so had lunch at one of the eateries. I enjoyed a smoked turkey leg while Ron had a hamburger and garlic fries.

It was very chilly down there so I was bundled up.

We went to play some video games before heading home.