Saturday, March 31, 2012

Mussels for dinner

This morning my mom and I went to the farmers market and got a lot of amazing things which we made for dinner.


Lettuce with avocado, radishes, slivered almonds, and lemon-dijon vinaigrette

Homemade bread

Mussels with white wine sauce



Lemon-yogurt pound cake with berries and homemade whipped cream


It was a delicious dinner and I was so happy to be able to cook again! It's only been one day and it's already been a great break. This morning I also went on a run with my brother, which is always fun :)


True Food

Over winter break I tried the restaurant True Food for the first time, and loved it. Today I went back again with my friend Amina. The drinks are green tea with honey lemonade, and blood orange juice with sparkling water - they were both great. Then we shared the farmers market salad which had lettuce, kale, asparagus, artichokes, peas, manchego cheese, and mint. We also shared a delicious pizza that also had asparagus and artichokes. 



Huckleberry

I am home for spring break!!! I'm so happy to have a break from school, and to be home and enjoy the great California weather, and of course eat great food!

This morning my mom and I went to the farmers market, but first we went to a great restaurant called Huckleberry for breakfast. I've been to Huckleberry many times for lunch, but never for breakfast and I'm so glad I tried it. We shared a blueberry muffin that was delicious. It was so moist, and very blueberry-y and not too sweet. We also shared "Green Eggs and Ham" which is an english muffin, prosciutto, poached eggs, pesto, and arugula. It was amazing, and just my kind of dish. We also shared homemade granola with yogurt and farmers market fruit.







Sunday, March 25, 2012

Chicago Breakfast

I just realized we also had a great breakfast in Chicago that I forgot to post about!
We went to West End Egg. The servings were pretty big and we left soo full but the food was great.

Michaelangelo Omelette with sausage, peppers, olives, mozarella

Blueberry Granola Pancakes

Huevos Rancheros 


Fresco and Marigold

My mom came and visited me this weekend, so I got to go to two of my favorite restaurants - Fresco and Marigold! They were both sooo good.

Fresco:

I forgot to take pictures of appetizers but we both got the roasted vegetable salad which was great.

Cioppino pasta with scallops, shrimp, mussels mahi mahi, salmon, clams, linguine, spiced tomato broth, and grilled bread

Panko-crusted salmon with caper-dijon marinade, cauliflower, leek, fingerling potato, horseradish cream

Concord grape sorbet with fig fruit leather, peanut butter powder, mint syrup

Buttermlik beignets with milk chocolate center, vanilla creme anglaise

Marigold:

Omelette with goat cheese, parmesan, zucchini, roasted red pepper


Toasted almond pancakes with berries and whipped creme fraiche

Chicago

Last weekend Richard and I went to Chicago for his birthday. We went to TRU restaurant and had an amazing dinner and experience! We ordered the tasting menu and everything tasted great and had really great presentations. Here is what we had:


coral caviar

white sturgeon "caviar", avocado, hazelnut

array of silver salmon

dashi flan, california sturgeon caviar, edemame, yuzo kosho

butternut squash soup, ginger marshmallow, apple, peppercress

duroc pork belly, potato two ways, black truffle

jidori chicken and rosemary, honshimeji mushroom, foie gras

australian wagyu beef


cow, goat, sheep's milk cheese with cranberry compote, honey, bread

acacia honey parfait, black currant, moscato gelee

mini birthday cake


tea, assorted candies

exploding carmel chocolates

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Richard's Birthday

Today is Richard's birthday! We started off the day by having brunch at Graze.


 I had the egg scrambler which had tomatoes, onions, garlic, white peppercorns, and mint. It was delicious. Richard had chicken fried steak which was also amazing.


Magic coffee! Coffee, cinnamon, brown sugar, half and half. 

 Then we went to a cheese store on the capitol square called "Fromagination." It had so many amazing cheeses and cheese related things and foods. We got three different kinds of cheeses, a gruyere, onion and garlic gouda, and a mobay which is half goats milk cheese and half sheeps milk cheese which was incredible. We also got some delicious peppery salami.Then we picked up a baguette from a local bakery and had a picnic overlooking the lake :)











For dinner we went to Tornado Room. We both got steak au poivre, which has a peppercorn crust and a mushroom cognac cream sauce. Amazing.




For dessert we got pineapple upside down cake. It was so moist and delicious, almost like sticky toffee pudding. A great end to a great day!