Umami for JoJo

January 28, 2009

Turns out that we're bad friends, because we missed JoJo's birthday in December. So, to make up for that social snafu, the ladies went out for a belated dinner celebration for JoJo. We went to Umami on Webster & Union (Cow Hollow/Marina?), which also happened to be participating in the annual Dine About Town program. Sweet!

Umami is a trendy-ish and spendy-ish restaurant featuring Japanese cuisine and some pretty fantastic styling in the dining areas. The Dine About Town program goes for two weeks every January (January 15-30 this year), and the dinner features 3-courses for $34.95.

Umami actually had a lot of choices on the Dine About menu, which was nice. We also ordered one extra starter, the KOBE BEEF “BBQ” SKEWERS (robata-style wagyu beef marinated in korean “bulgogi” sauce with scallions), which were yum:
To start, we tried the EDAMAME HUMMUS (shichimi-dusted grilled house-made flat bread) and the THREE SAMURAI maki roll (ahi tuna, wild salmon, yellowtail & avocado/tobiko).


The portions were generous (5 rolls per order), which was a nice surprise. For dinner, most of chose one of two entrees, though there were four choices.

MISO-GLAZED BLACK COD (green tea-miso broth, crispy rice “furikake” & sesame spinach with shaved bonito). Delicious, melt in your mouth fish.

BI BIM BAP KOREAN HOT POT (braised niman ranch pork, snow peas, water chestnuts, maitake mushrooms & quail egg). Surprisingly spicy but tasty. It was too much food!

There were some pretty interesting desserts on the menu, and seeing as how we were each allowed to ordered one, we tried them all! Ah, gotta love girls night...


Hands down winner: Maki of ice cream wrapped in cookie dough ("sushi roll"-style) served with chocolate sauce and ginger caramel. To...die...for...

Vietnamese black coffee pot de creme with almond brittle and ginger snaps. Very good as well.
Sake pineapple tapioca with vanilla bean ice cream.
Cheesecake "egg rolls" with lemon curd.

Their desserts were HUGE, there was no way to finish any of them. I was generally impressed with the food at Umami, but thankful that I wasn't paying the regular a-la-carte prices. I would even recommend just coming here for a couple rolls and the desserts!

Happy belated birthday JoJo!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Year of the Ox!

January 24, 2009

My mom was back in town for a quickie trip, and also in time for an early family Chinese New Year's dinner with the local aunts and uncles. So, Will and I headed down to south bay for dinner on Sat night to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Ox with the family at Dynasty Seafood Restaurant (good ol' family fave) in Cupertino.











This balloon-animal dude was making a killing whipping up balloon animals for kids in the restaurant, of course my mom had to spoil her grandchildren:






Gung Hay Fat Choy! Sun Ty Geen Hong! Sun Leen Fi Lok! Bo Bo Go Sing!

TGIF With HB

January 24, 2009

On Friday night, Heather came over for dinner at our house and so we could start planning logistics for the 12-women relay team that we're putting together for the daunting 199-mile relay race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz held on May 2-3 called "The Relay". Eek!

Heather brought groceries so we could make a pretty awesome dish with spaghetti squash, pork sausage, onions, bell peppers, garlic and parmesan. It was delish! We rounded out the dish with a mixed salad and fresh baguette. Yum!


After dinner, we sat around my lap top and tried not to get intimidated by the organization challenges of The Relay. We've got our team pretty much set, but could use some alternates, so any ladies interested? Lots to plan, but good thing it's not until May!

Trent is 34 & Obama is 44!

January 20, 2009

And so, the day has finally arrived...Obama's Inauguration! Hotly anticipated, can't go anywhere without hearing about it, could barely get my internet browser to work this morning because everyone and their dog was probably trying to watch streaming video of the inauguration speech on the web.

After work, Will, Wendy and Key headed over to Trent and Shelly's place for a combination party for Trent's birthday (he turned 34 on the weekend!) and an inauguration celebration (Obama is the 44th US president!).

Trent and Shelly were serving up Barack-burritos and Obama-themed cocktails: Chirac-Obamas (martinis with Chirac vodka, pineapple juice and cranberry juice) and Hope-tinis (I have no idea what were in this drink, but it was blue, so take a guess...).












Happy Birthday Trenty! Thanks for hosting!

Cheers to the era of Obama!

MKL Jr Day 2009

January 19, 2009

I had Monday off for MLK Jr Day, which was lovely. Will and I hosted lunch for my Aunt Joanne and Uncle Peter from Oakland, and my Uncle Cherk from San Jose. It was their first visit to our new home and as we finally hung up our pictures and are fully unpacked, we were ready to have them over.

I whipped up some extra-meaty lasagna, salad and garlic bread, and we enjoyed lunch while re-living some stories from the China trip.


After lunch and clean-up, I headed downtown with Wendy and Key to the Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center. My friend Geneve, was in town with her crew from the fantastic little chocolate company, Sweet Riot, to exhibit at the Fancy Food Show. A couple years ago, I volunteered to do a tasting for Sweet Riot at another event, and it was great to see them in action representing at the Fancy Food Show.

Geneve got us into the exhibition hall, and we toured around for an hour or so, sampling and tasting all sorts of yummy goodies.


It was great to see Geneve, albeit briefly, but the ladies looked hot in their Sweet Riot gear and were showing off their new Unbar (delish! Check it out at Whole Foods near you!).
After the Fancy Food Show, we headed back to the Mission for happy hour at Tokyo Go Go (yay! $3.50 hand rolls!). Here's a pic of Wendy maliciously taking down a shot of Uni (payback for the sea urchin that pierced Vicki's foot and sent her to the hospital for a few days with an infection...get better Vicki!):
I heart long weekends.