FRIDAY
I was very excited that Will was actually going to be home for a weekend (first one in 5 weeks!).
On Friday night, we joined a bunch of folks to surprise Toby for his 30th birthday dinner at Le Colonial, a schmancy French-Vietnamese restaurant between the Tenderloin and Union Square.
Robert's Scorpion Bowl...
My delish leechee martini...
The entire table ordered the Tasting Platter of appetizers, so we each go to try:
- Banh Hap So Diep (seared potstickers filled with scallops, ginger, herbs and served with a sesame citrus sauce)
- Bo Bia Chay (fresh vegetarian roll with chayote, portabello, tofu, cucumber, crushed peanuts, mint and peanut sauce)
- Goi Bap Chuoi (poached chicken tossed with banana, flower, apple, cabbage, mint, pistachios and lime nuoc cham)
- Dungeness crabmeat cakes
- Tasty chicken wings
I had the Suong Ham (braised short ribs, leeks, mushroom, apricot and wild rice in a star anise broth). The short ribs were tenderly cooked and fell off the bone. This was very good and very filling, I couldn't finish it all. The wild rice was delicious with the broth and mushrooms.
Gail had the Bo Luc Lac (seared filet mignon cubes wok-tossed in a garlic soy sauce over mesclun, watercress, and crispy yukon potatoes).
Wendy had the signature dish of the Ca Hap La Chuoi (steamed Chilean sea bass wrapped in banana leaves, tomatoes, shitake and ginger in a black bean coconute sauce).
Will had the So Diep Kho Tieu (pan seared day boat scallops with carmelized black pepper sauce, and truffle oil, served with corn, pineapple and toy box tomatoes).
They decorated the Le Colonial Banana Split for Toby's birthday...awww....
The Vietnamese Flourless Chocolate Cake
The Cinnamon Apple Beignets
The dinner was tasty, but pricy. Le Colonial is good, but it's not necessarily mind-blowing compared to some of the other great restaurants in the city. This was my third time there anyway, so I knew that it would be a good meal.
We did a little boogeying upstairs (where they turn the top level into a bar/club later in the evening). Surprisingly enough, the crowd was actually our age-demographic!
SATURDAY
On Saturday, I headed down to Santa Cruz with Wendy, Dana and Gail to meet up with Jet, who was taking the ladies on a little mountain bike ride. SFGBC returns!
(Aside: SFGBC = San Francisco Girls' Biking Club; a gaggle of chicks that talk a lot about mountain biking, but can never get their act together to actually get a group/date set to go biking together. We go about once or twice a year if we're lucky).
I personally haven't been on my bike on almost two years. Last year when my sister had the twins, I spent all my free time on the weekends down in San Jose helping out with the kids. So, my poor bike had airless tires and I had to figure out how the gears worked again. And, I still hadn't put on my clipless pedals and couldn't find them for this trip, so I was still sliding off my regular pedals.
Jet took us on a ride around the trails of UC Santa Cruz campus and bordering on Wilder Ranch State Park.
We rode for a couple hours and it was hilarious. Thank goodness Jet is so patient with the giggling, girly-screaming chicks following him on the trails.
After the ride, we headed over to the beaches, close to Steamers/Cowells surf areas. The surf itself was nonexistent.
We didn't last long at the beach, and headed back up Hwy 1 to the city. We stopped briefly at Waddell Creek to gaze upon all the crazy kite surfers:
Saturday night was pretty mellow. By the time we got back to the city and had dinner, it was time for some zzzz's....
SUNDAY
On Sunday, I headed down to SJ to see the kiddies (of course!)
My plan was to hang out with them for lunch/early afternoon and then head back to the city.
They're both crawling! And standing up on their own.
Ok, here's another cutesy 11 second video of the twins...
By mid-afternoon, I kissed the kids goodbye and headed back to the city to check out Wendy's new pad in the Upper Haight/Cole Valley (*cute* place!) and then meet up with Key to go to the Metreon to see the fifth installment of the Harry Potter movies "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Good times.
After the movie, I met up with Will and Wendy and some of their hockey team (Panteras) at the Hotel Utah to grab a drink. Our friend Wade, and his wife Donna (yay! we finally get to meet Donna) were in town and met us for some catchup and beer.
Great weekend, wish we had more weekends that were free of events...
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