FRIDAY
I pulled the plug on the initial plan to head up to Tahoe for Saturday, mainly due to the freezing temps, lack of new snow, and the need to be back in San Jose Sunday afternoon for Olivia's birthday party.
The upside is that it then freed me up to go for dinner with my manager, Brisdell, and the new senior associate that we hired into our group, Jessica, at Azie on Friday night. I hadn't been to Azie in over 5 years, so I was psyched to check it out again. Azie is located in SOMA on Folsom between 4th & 5th. It is next door to its sister restaurant, LuLu. The cuisine at Azie combines an asian slant on French cooking and doesn't disappoint.
(Sorry, no photos, I forgot my camera in the rush to get home and get to the restaurant...)
Azie was also participating in the annual Dine About Town promotion that happens every January. The deal is that you can get a 3-course lunch for $21.95 or a 3-course dinner for $31.95. Great deal, and great time to try restaurants at reasonable prices. However, despite the good-looking Dine About Town menu, we all went a la carte. We shared a nice bottle of 2005 Teresa Raiz Pinot Grigio, but this was after several attempts to get other bottles that they were out of. Maybe we caught them on a night before a wine delivery? Regardless, the service was very nice and attentive.
Appetizer:
All - Trio of Tartare (ahi, hamachi, scallop, house made taro chips).
This was delicious, nice portion of each tartare, the hamachi tartare came on a bed of seaweed salad as a nice bonus as well. The scallop tartare had an additional kick of spice and the taro chips were perfect.
Entree:
- Bea - seared sea scallops with coconut black rice, thai yellow curry, green papaya salad. Overall, a nice dish, with 4 large seared scallops. The coconut black rice was light and the green papaya salad (also with a slight kick) was light and didn't overwhelm the simplicity of the scallops
- Jessica & Brisdell - grilled japanese butterfish with spiced butternut squash puree, wild mushrooms, ginger-shallot jus. I had a chance to taste the rich butterfish that melted in your mouth. Definitely try this if you get a chance.
We also had dessert, but for the life of me, I can' t remember what we had. It was a trio of something. Something good too. Sheesh, this is why I need to remember to bring my camera...
SATURDAY
Ok, Saturday was a good day. I had a good sleep-in, did a bunch of house chores (why do I feel the need to clean when Will is not around???), and then met up with Key and Katharine in the Marina for a fun-run. We did the 3.5 mile jaunt from the Marina Green parking lot to Fort Baker and back. It was a perfect afternoon for a run in the city. The insane wind had died down and the sun was out.
After the run, we walked over to The Grove on Chestnut for a hot chocolate (they had smoothies). Then we bought some girlie stuff at Aveda and bought some sweet sweats at Lucky Jeans (big sale!).
For dinner, I met up with Abe and Katharine at Deep Sushi in Noe Valley. We were celebrating Katharine's new career move to Elan Pharmaceuticals, congrats Kat!
We started off with some great edamame chased with Asahi beer and some cold sake...yum!
One of the starters: Albacore Poki
On the left are two pieces of white salmon nigiri...white salmon? I had never had it before, but it was delicious, tasting like a mix of white albacore and hamachi...yum!
We also ordered a few great maki rolls: Shiso Sexy, "G" Roll (my fave!), Marilyn Manson.
After dinner, Kat headed out for drinks with friends and Abe and I watched a few episodes of NBC's "Heroes" that he had downloaded via iTunes. That show is addictive!
SUNDAY
I dragged my tired body outta bed and headed down to San Jose for Olivia's birthday party. Although her actual birthday was last Monday, her party with her little friends was on Sunday. Apparently, it took all week for Angie and Jack to convince Olivia that she wasn't turning 5, and that she was just a lucky little girl who gets multiple birthday parties. When I called to say that I was coming down, Olivia got on the phone and proclaimed "I'm still 4!!!".
Angie had invited her little friends to a great art place in Campbell called The Art Beat, where the little ones could make their own plates out of clay. Fun!
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