Category Archives: Bars/Lounges

Macy’s SPCA window and ZaZang Noodles

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This morning we went to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market to pick up some delicious fruits and have a light lunch and afterwards while Ron went to do some work, I walked over to Union Square to check out Macy’s annual SF SPCA display. There were only six windows with the kittens and puppies, I wish there were more.

My favorite was this white kitten taking a nap on the little padded park bench.

Most of the kitties were napping, probably tired out from playing.
These two kitties blended in with the carpet, I almost didn’t see them!

These siblings got a little playful after their short nap but they looked so cute snuggling up to each other.

This orange and white kitty slept through all the gawkers, so sound asleep and relaxed. A very pretty kitty.

There was only one puppy. He or she was clawing against the door behind because he or she really wanted to get out of there. Apparently his or her sibling was already adopted earlier in the day.

I love baby animals. So sweet and innocent and very playful.

After a few hours of fawning over the babies, we met up with friends to have some drinks at 21st Amendment where we had a Pomegranate brew, yummy. We then went to our friend’s apartment and tried this fabulous sparkling wine called La Caudrina La Selvatica. It’s very sweet, good for dessert.

We ended the night with dinner at ZaZang Korean Noodle which we’ve been to before, great za zang noodles. We decided to try the deep fried beef with sweet and sour sauce.

Quite sour and almost couldn’t tell it was beef but a very good portion and not bad.

A lot of walking today though, very tired. Only one more day to the weekend then time to start a VERY busy work week…

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