Capital Restaurant & Yogurt Circle

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Ron and I had lunch in Chinatown today at Capital Restaurant. He said they are famous for their salt & pepper chicken wings so we ordered that plus a bowl of BBQ pork wonton noodles.

The chicken wings were nice and crispy and very salty and peppery (a bit too much for me). The meat was very juicy and tender.

The noodles were a bit overcooked for me, I like them al dente but the broth was good and the wontons decent. The BBQ pork was a bit fatty but then Ron said he might have eaten all the non-fatty pieces.

Overall it was an okay lunch but I’m just not that big a fan of salt & pepper chicken wings. The restaurant seemed clean and overall the service was efficient.

Finding ourselves in Daly City, we had a snack at Yogurt Circle at Westlake Shopping Center. Now that I’ve discovered that frozen yogurt has less carbohydrates than I originally thought, I’ve been sort of craving for it since I can’t really eat too much ice cream (too much lactose and sugar). It’s 39 cents per ounce self serve so I chose mango tart and strawberry-banana yogurt topped with mochi and slivered almonds, this bowl was about $2.50.

They also have a stamp card for buy 6, get the 7th bowl free. I might be back…

Capital Restaurant
839 Clay Street

Yogurt Circle
500 Westlake Shopping Center
Daly City, CA

Ringing in the New Year

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We rang in the new year at our friends’ condo in SOMA. On their rooftop we could see a bit of the fireworks (although there was a taller condo in front that partially obstructed our view). Just a few pictures to share.

With the ladies in our friends’ kitchen just finishing up our new year’s eve meal (before they get to playing poker).

View of the city before the fireworks.

Happy New Year!

I love the smiley face ones.

Enjoying a bubbly drink.

Happy 2010! What are your new year’s resolutions?

New Year’s Eve Lunch at Hukilau

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http://www.dahukilau.com/

I worked a half-day today and Ron came to pick me up from work to have lunch. We ended up at Hukilau which is a few blocks from where I work and also a few blocks from where we used to live. Even though we used to live close by, we’ve never eaten here although I have tried their catered food at a few parties.

Since it was sort of a holiday, they were kind of closed by 2:30pm but they opened the door for us to let us have lunch. Very nice of them.

I ordered the chicken katsu with a green salad (with papaya seed dressing) and macaroni salad. ($9.50) The chicken katsu was so crispy and delicious and their katsu sauce nice and tangy. I just love macaroni salad and I think this was better than when we were in Hawaii, a lot of the plate lunches you get in Hawaii always seem to be a bit oily.

Ron ordered the teriyaki short ribs with rice and macaroni salad. ($12.00) The ribs had a nice char and were sweet and sticky. The short ribs had quite a bit of fat on them, it tasted good but probably not good for your cholesterol.

These were big plate lunches so we couldn’t finish the whole thing. We had one rib left over with some rice and I had most of a piece of the chicken katsu remaining for leftovers. When you first enter the restaurant, there is a bit of an antiseptic smell (but at least that means it’s clean) but after you sit down and start listening to the music, you feel almost transported to mini vacation in Hawaii.

Next time we go (I’m sure we’ll be back), they have great weekday drink specials and we’re going to try their SPAM musubi. We saw the daughter of one of the workers carrying a delicious looking SPAM musbui in her hand so asked the father if they serve it, his reply was “what kind of Hawaiian restaurant would we be if we didn’t serve SPAM?” What an appropo answer!

Hukilau
5 Masonic Ave

Gestational Diabetes

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http://www.babycenter.com…_2058.bc?page=1

You may already know… or maybe have been wondering why I’ve been trying new recipes with soy milk or using agave sweetener and looking at nutritional information at restaurants but a few weeks ago I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, a relatively common condition where I am either not able to produce enough insulin or have developed a bit of insulin resistance.

First I did a 1 hour glucose tolerance test where I had to drink an extremely sweet orange flavored 50gm glucose drink and test my glucose 1 hour after. Since it came back higher than normal, I had to do a 3 hour glucose tolerance test where you fast for at least 8 to 10 hours then go to the lab to have your blood drawn before eating anything, drink another extremely sweet orange flavored 100gm glucose drink and have your blood tested at 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours. Three out of four of my numbers were high so I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes (usually two out of four being high is enough).

So I went for diabetes and nutritional education and have been testing my blood sugars four times a day. Right before breakfast, 1 hour after breakfast, 1 hour after lunch, and 1 hour after dinner. I’ve been following a low carbohydrate diet consisting or small meals and snacks throughout the day. The first week was really tough as I just didn’t know what to eat and it was just hard to be eating so frequently.

The recommended carbohydrate diet is as follows:
(1 serving of carbohydrates = 15 grams)

8am Breakfast = 2 servings
10am Snack = 1 serving
12:30pm Lunch = 3 servings
3:30pm Snack = 1 to 2 servings
6pm Dinner = 3 servings
9:30pm Snack = 1 to 2 servings

Of course mixed into all of this includes proteins, vegetables, fruits, and fats.
And to give you an idea on how much 15 grams of carbohydrates are:
1 slice whole wheat bread
1 8oz cup of milk
1 small apple
1/3 cup cooked white rice
2 small tangerines

I’ve never been a rice lover (my family will back that up) but since I haven’t really been able to eat any, I feel like I’m craving it. I know that I can’t tolerate white rice well but brown rice has been working out a bit better for me. I’ve been learning a lot about “low glycemic index” carbohydrates as these tend not to make your glucose levels spike as high or as fast.

So far everything has been going well. I lost a few pounds the first week because I as having trouble finding the type of foods I wanted to eat but have finally had time to shop and found myself some things I enjoy eating. Dinner is still the hardest meal of the day because I want noodles or rice but the portions I’m allowed are so small that it’s not satisfying.

My best find for a snack is FAGE Greek yogurt which per 8 oz (1/2 cup) has 7g carbohydrates with 15g protein. Protein is more filling and with the low carbohydrate content, I can still add my slightly sweetened granola for my mid-morning snack.

I am monitored by a diabetes nurse weekly by telephone and since my numbers have been good and within range, I am now allowed to decrease the number of glucose checks. Now I have to perform daily morning before breakfast checks but only three times a week do I have to do the whole sha-bang (checks 4X/day). Yay for me! Per my nurse practitioner, baby seems to be growing normally and been kicking vigorously (15-20 mins to kick 10 times) so I hope I’m on my way to having a healthy baby.

Since I still like my baked goods, I’ll be experimenting more in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for some trial (and error) recipes!

Venus & Yogurtland in Berkeley, Protein Style at In-N-Out

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We had a very nice day out today in the bay area. Our friends Tiff & Alex are visiting from Southern California so we met up with them in Berkeley for brunch.

At first we attempted to go to La Note but at 11:20am, the wait for 4 people was 45 to 60 minutes. Venus Restaurant, just down the street, had a shorter wait and seemed to go through customers faster, so we only had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes.

Ron ordered their very beautiful looking pomegranate mimosa, served with a juicy blackberry.

I ordered the chicken sausage scramble which is chicken sausage, mozzarella, roasted bell peppers, caramelized onions, fresh basil, mixed with three eggs and served with home fries and toast ($10). The chicken sausage was a little bit sweet and nicely pan fried. The home fries were excellent and I loved how they toasted the bread (this is whole wheat) because it was a bit chewy.

Ron ordered the 2x2x2, this with 2 eggs sunny side up, bacon, and flapjacks ($10.50). Flapjacks fluffy and delicious. Alex also ordered the similar dish with sausage instead and got the extra blueberries mixed with the flapjacks. His looked yummy too (sorry, no picture).

Tiff ordered the Venus Benedict, 2 poached eggs and sliced tomato, open-face on an english muffin, with ham, spinach or avocado topped with lemony hollandaise and served with home fries ($10.50). This looked really delicious too.

After we finished brunch, we headed for a walk through the Berkeley campus and reminisce about our school. Many of the buildings are the same and look like they’ve been cleaned up or are being restored. Ron and I took this picture by the campanile:

It was a very peaceful walk through campus considering that school is out for winter break. Lots of stores were closed either for the long Christmas weekend or for the winter break. We made a big loop from Shattuck, through campus, down Telegraph, then back down Durant to Shattuck.

Before leaving Berkeley, Ron and I went to Yogurtland, the first one I’ve been to in the Bay Area. Currently they are having limited edition Tokidoki cups and spoons, so cute! Plus there is a sweepstakes to win a shopping spree and free yogurt.

We tried three flavors of yogurt: taro (thumbs up), egg nog (thumbs up), and pecan praline (thumbs down) and three toppings: brownies (thumbs down), mochi (thumbs up), and slivered almonds (thumbs up). At 30 cents an ounce, this bowl cost $2.10. Also, Yogurtland has all their nutritional information on their website.

We spent the afternoon shopping then had dinner at In-N-Out. We tried a few things from their “secret menu”. Their corporate website lists a few of their secret items but I found this more comprehensive secret menu list online.

I ordered a double double “protein style”. Basically, any burger “protein style” eliminates the bun and instead everything is wrapped in lettuce. Quite good actually, it felt less greasy because of the refreshing lettuce.

Ron ordered the double double “animal style” with “extra toast”. I think “animal style” is well known but “extra toast” is the bun a bit more toasty. We also ordered fries “well done” which made them extra crispy.

Yum… good way to end the weekend.

Venus Restaurant
2327 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510)540-5950

Yogurtland
2236 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510) 548-8001

In-N-Out
11 Rollins Rd
Millbrae, CA