Millbrae Art and Wine Festival

Millbrae is known as "The Last Stop on BART" to most people, however, it is also a great place to live and visit especially this long weekend!

This weekend is the 44th Millbrae Art & Wine Festival (August 30-31, 2014, 10 am to 5 pm), which is the The Bay Area's Biggest Labor Day Weekend Bash!

The "Big Easy" is coming to Millbrae for this huge Labor Day weekend event and the theme is going to be Mardi Gras-style feast.

In addition, there will be handcrafted wares, festive food and drink, premium wines, microbrews and margaritas, artisan specialty food and much more!!

https://www.facebook.com/MillbraeArtWineFestival/info

Hope to see you there!

West Park Bistro, San Carlos

Laurel Street in San Carlos is a great place to visit, the street is filled with a variety of shops and restaurants. The newest addition to Laurel Street is West Park Bistro. We were so glad about our new discovery!

It has beautiful clean décor with spacious wine room and extensive wine selections.

For starter, we ordered Lobster Cake, it was nice and crispy with a kick of sweet and spicy to each bite.

For dinner, we tried Chilean Sea Bass and lamb chop. Sea bass was tender, flavorful with a hint of truffle oil and lamp chop was juicy, savory and non-gamey at all!!!

For dessert we enjoyed bread pudding, It was moist and satisfying!!

We are looking forward to return and try other items on the menu!

Bento Lovers!

Ahhhhh, the word bento brings happiness to our taste buds! If you live in the San Mateo Area, you are in luck! There are several grocery stores that offer convenient bento at a great price!

Suruki Supermarket in Downtown San Mateo, 71 E 4th Ave have a great selection of bento, including sush, sashimi. They also have donburi as well!

Sozai Corner is right next to Suruki Supermarket. Not only they have great bento, they also cater as well!!!

And there is Nijiya Market located on 1956 S El Camino Real. They have lots of selection as well.

An abundance of choices!!

Outside Land Festival in San Francisco

Three days packed with music, food, art are set to begin in the far reaches of Golden Gate Park Friday, 8/8 afternoon.

The three-day music festival kicks off Friday with performances at stages at the Polo Fields and surrounding area. The event continues through the weekend.

http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/home/

There are some amazing  attractions at this festival including wineland, beerland, chocoland and our favorite-Gastromagic…………………sounds super magical and it’s a must “check out”!!!

BBQ Party

Entertaining our friends and clients is one of the things we love to do!

Here in the Bay Area with this beautiful weather, we took advantage of entertaining outdoor!

Getting ready!

Here is a  look of our menu and it’s so simple, anyone can do this in the comfort of their backyard!

Horderves

·        Crispy endive w/ spinach dip

·        Hot crab dip w/ crackers (This was a HIT!!)

·        Cherry Tomato with Mozzarella and sprinkled with basil, olive oil and vinaigrette

Main dish

·        Cilantro marinated chicken thigh 

·        Garlic roasted filet mignon

·        Whole grilled fish with rosemary and lemon stuffing

Side Dish

·        A variety of grilled vegetables (including corn, eggplant, asparagus, zucchini, bell pepper, red onion, and squash). The key is to marinate with Ponzu sauce, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, pepper flacks and onion flakes

·        Potato salad with cucumbers

Dessert

·        Petite cakes and macaroons

We also had a variety of wines, beer. Our guests always appreciated infused water with mint, strawberries, lemon and cucumber!

All About Ramen

We used to get our ramen out of a “Cup O Noodle” and now there are gourmet ramen shops all over the Bay Area!! Some of our favorite Ramen Ya made it to “THE 21 BEST RAMEN SHOPS IN THE COUNTRY” list. http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/best-ramen-shops-ramen-noodles

However, some of our favorite that didn’t make to the list are Ramen Dojo-805 S B St in San Mateo and Santa Ramen-1944 S El Camino Real in San Mateo.

If you truly love Ramen, you are in luck! This Saturday July 19th and Sunday July 20th, there is Ramen Festival in San Francisco!!!!!! This event will feature six ramen purveyors from LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Japan. It’s going to be Epic!!! http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/5254-epic-ramen-festival-coming-to-sf

Edible Garden

The beauty about living in the Bay Area is that we can grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables in the back yard (or front yard!) thanks to the great weather! 

We’ve begun taking this fun endeavors to the next level. We are experimenting with a variety of edibles and cannot wait to see how things turn out.

Here are the newest addition to the family: self watering planters!

In these beautiful containers we have sage, mint, broccoli, zucchini, bok choy, bell pepper, asparagus, brussel sprouts....and much much more!

And we have RED tomatoes that's ready to be eaten!

Here is a baby orange tree

And a variety of herbs here such as thyme, cilantro, rosemary plus eggplant and more tomatoes!

Ahi Tuna

We have a thing for ahi tuna…..we love anything that incorporates ahi tuna and we found ahi tuna heaven at Pacific Catch!

http://pacificcatch.com/location/san-mateo/

There is the original poke (sushi-grade ahi tuna in a sesame-soy marinade, spicy seasonings), Ahi Macadamia Nut (sweet onions, fresno chilies and macadamia nuts), Ahi Salad with avocado, cucumber, daikon sprouts, ginger & sesame seeds with soy-wasabi vinaigrette and finally, Wasabi Ahi Sandwich with ginger, avocado, daikon sprouts & ginger-wasabi aioli!!! (Ultimate favorite!!!)

This place has a fun and chill vibe and the menu is truly unique. Gotta check out the “Poke” Bar as well!!

SF Pride Celebration

San Francisco has it all! The sights, the scenery, the one-of-a-kind events, the world-class food, the welcoming people, the diversity, the rich history and the Pride Parade!

SF Pride Parade has been said to be "one of the last remaining pride events that can truly be called a rite of passage." according to http://www.sfpride.org/

The SF Pride Celebration will be held over the weekend of June 28 and 29, 2014, in downtown San Francisco. There will be exhibitors, parade contingents, stages, venues and it’s truly going to be a BLAST!!

Here is the link to 2013 parade, courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/alucinante/sets/72157634622405421

Dishcrawl

What is Dishcrawl? “Dishcrawl is the premier walking food tour that takes you on a culinary adventure”.

We had the pleasure of attending Dishcrawl in Redwood City Secret Supper, oh mine, it was absolutely amazing!!!!! 6 surprises courses with wine pairing at a secret location. We were looking forward all day and the wait was truly worth the wait. We were in culinary heaven!!!!

Here are some highlight of the night (curtsey of  http://www.dishcrawl.com/blog/23919/secret-supper-in-redwood-city).

                                                                                Happy Us!!!

Downtown Los Altos

What an adorable town filled with boutiques, cafes and restaurants! Downtown Los Altos is a quintessential small town America.

It’s a great place to bring your bike and take the time to explore this lovely place.

We started off by having Sunday brunch at Opa! Authentic Greek Cuisine.

We decided to order bottomless mimosa (well deserved after a busy work week) which had the perfect balance between sweetness and fizz.

For entrée, we ordered Greek Steak Chilaquiles (if you are not a carb eater, don’t order this because there are lots of pita chips), and Seafood Souvlaki (which was juicy and tender).

For dessert, we decided to stop by Satura Cakes….boy, we were so happy that we discovered this place!!!! The desserts are beautifully made like a piece of exquisite art and they tasted light, not too sweet and we felt like there was a dessert party on our taste buds! We also tried their mocha and I have to say it’s one of the best mochas I’ve ever had. We are on our mission to try all of desserts in the next few months!!!

And there is going to be a Pet Parade on May 19. A beloved community tradition for the past 60+ years. Take opportunity to explore and enjoy this great city!

http://losaltoskiwanis.org/events/pet-parade/