Agatha Christie, September 25th. Browsing our bookshelves, surprisingly there are a few books I have not read (well my books, not Virantha’s)… I kept looking and nothing was catching my eye and after reading # 40 well I was in the mood for more happy memories, so alas I grabbed another one! This time it was Poirot - I do like him… A visit to Egypt, walking in pyramids, a murderous boat ride and some happy endings for two couples! I did remember all the details so no surprises for me. Oh well. I did go down to the pool and read the final two chapters. It was a nice Friday - there was no more sun so it was still warm from the day but I was not roasting, the water was warm enough but at the same time refreshing. I had walked a lot: between hour of power yoga at noon, farmers market trip, stop at San Jose Museum to see the Mandala (monks were having lunch when I arrived), and then to the post office… It was a good day that ended with dinner at Kumako Ramen at Japantown. We shared a shoyu ramen with a boiled egg and plate of eel with rice (my favorite), and two cream puffs. Then we could not resist and included a luscious dessert crepe = banana double choco at Banana Crepe.
Unfortunately this year I had to travel to Baltimore that same week, so I arrived on Sat Sep 12th after 8:30 pm to San Jose airport, to late to have a real birthday celebration. After clearing the Hudson St apartment and donating many items, opening boxes in San Jose, and also donating many items I was having a hard time choosing a birthday present for Virantha. The question was if I bought something where was it going to go? I have been trying to consolidate and find places for all our belongings, and for those that know me that is a very hard task for me. Fortunately email lists can become useful once in a while. Manresa had send me and update about their events, and one of them was taking place Sep 19 and Sep 20th. The event was called Tomato Modernista dinner. Love Farms and Manresa were getting together to provide a degustation menu inspired on Heirloom Tomatoes. Well so I choose and that was the present, and I have to say that was also a present for me! As I got to join Virantha ; ). We arrived punctually at 5 pm, we were the second table of the evening. We sat in a corner table that, the table setting was white table cloth and a set of three tomatoes in the vine, yellow, red and green, they were gorgeous, they were labeled with their names in very cute handwriting. Virantha decided to accompany the dinner with the wine degustation. And the adventure began (courses on in order followed by the picture - this time I did not let anything stop me from having a visual memory of my plate):
It really was a delightful event! We enjoyed every little bite and sip of what was placed in front of us. Of course we had our favorites, mine was: and Virantha’s : I do not think I could say if they had placed a different wine in front of me accompanying a particular dish if it was better or not, probably need to study more. To me they were nicely paired. We left with our tomato table ornament and more than two caramels offered by the Manager after you leave.
You can see the description of the plates in the pictures when they become larger.
After the food we strolled through Los Gatos, Halloween windows are starting to appear. We also spend some time at a candy store that has all sort of treats. Then a short drive home to end this birthday celebration.
Traditional Wine Pairings
N.V. Bailly-Lapierre Cremant de Bourgogne Burgundy
2008 Soalheiro Alvarinho Vinho Verde Portugal
2006 The Scholium Project The Prince In His Caves Farina Vineyards
2008 La Sibilla Piedrosso Campi Flegrei Italy
2006 Jacques Puffeney Pinot Noir Arbois France
2007 Bodegas Olivares Altos de la Hoya Monastrell Jumilla Spain
2007 Domaine de Durban Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise-France
Mariajose came back to San Jose after Mexico City. She arrived with two checked bags, a backpack and extra bag. I brought three kings bread from Maiti for Virantha. The things we did through the week:
We cooked lasagna, which is the best one we have ever made, the difference is that we had a lot of sauce. Enough for Virantha to freeze and eat later. We also marinated chicken in buttermilk and spices, then breaded it and into the over. The vegetable was spinach and apple salad with home- made dressing.
Mariajose took the Caltrain to Palo Alto and had lunch with Debbie. We ate at Thaiphoon and then Debbie treated me to Red Mango a great Frozen Yogurt, I had mine with pomegranate seeds and granola. It was a great time.
We had dinner with Anwar, Cate, Mitch, Clint, James, Mitch, Fang, and Bob, at Michi Sushi, it was interesting, a lot of food and a lot of sake.
We also went to Banana Crepe and had our favorite: banana double choco.
We drove to Walnut Creek and met the Laura and Christoph’s kitties and also their new house! Then we had dinner at Nibblers. Then we had Champagne and carrot cake at the house.
On Sunday we went to the tech museum where we went to Leonardo: 500 years into the Future. It was awesome! From the engineering and the artistic point of view. Mariajose took a lot of pictures. We also had some fun in the workshop.
On the 29th we drove to San Miguel Allende in the State of Guanajuato (my father stayed in Mexico- of course work). We stopped at a gas station to use the restroom and also bought some chips, peanuts, sodas, and a huge ball of Oaxacan cheese. We got there about 1 pm and spent a long time going into the city. It was crowded and the streets are tiny. finally, we found a parking lot and we started walking.
San Miguel Allende characterizes itself for having plenty of colonial architecture and a lot of mexican art for sale. Also, there are a lot of people that have come to retire to San Miguel from the US. We went into several churches, stores and just walked. Each store is like a tiny museum, as the type of art you can find is different in each one and some of the pieces are exquisite.
Claudia and Agustin arrived at about 4 :30 pm and we went to eat a late lunch/dinner at El Gallo, were we had plenty of good Mexican food. Virantha ordered cecina, which is salted beef that was served with guacamole, Mariajose ordered fideos secos that she shared with eGaby and tacos de arrachera, Gaby ordered pastor fish tacos, Maria Jose ordered nopales salad and panuchos, Agustin ordered a chile that was filled with bread and a sauce everyone liked, Carlos ordered nopeles salad and guacamole and Claudia had corundas. For dessert they ordered some cajeta crepes with ice cream.
After eating we want back to walking and found an estudiantina and sang some songs - it was fun until it got cold and we reached Cafe San Agustin, this is a small cafe owned by Margarita Gralia an Argentinian actress that has been working in Mexico TV for a while now. We had churros and hot chocolate for a late snack. The hot chocolate is nothing like what you find in the states, it is much better made with milk. You can get 3 kinds: Spanish (bitter and thicker), French (sweeter), Mexican (lighter with a hint of cinnamon), each coffee or chocolat cup is accompanied by 3 churros - fried dough covered in sugar.
We returned to the cars and then headed to the house that very kindly Lupita y Joaquin, sister and brother in law of Agustin loaned us for a night. We got to the house and after testing a lot of keys we got in! It was great and very cute. We did have trouble with the air mattress as the pump was not charged, but in the end we made it.
We all slept well and woke up hungry, the neighbour was kind enough to help us turn on the gas as it was frozen. We spent a lot of time folding the matress back into the box - but i have to say that in the end we did a pretty good job and it was incredibly flat.
We had breakfast in the plaza in a cafe called Rincon de Don Tomas. It was great. First the cappuccinos were amazing, kind of sad that people go to the new Starbucks were really the coffee was horrendous. Then they gave us small bolillos, accompanied by real butter and molcajete salsa - which was amazing. Several of us had huevos rancheros with pasilla sauce on top. We also ordered nata side that everyone tasted. It was all so good and fresh. Definitely recommend that place.
We then went and walked some more, we found a panaderia (Virantha is the biggest fan of pan dulce I have ever met) adn bought some pices of bread and cookies. We shopped for little trinkets and found really beautiful pieces. A bee bit me in a very nice store Caracol collection, I believe several of us bought things there. We also bought chocolate, cookies and an interesting chutney at La Capilla - a beautiful restaurant.
And in the plaza I ate a corn the mexican way, it was pretty good. We sat in the plaza - the coffee drinkers had another coffee and then we headed back into the city…
After spending some days with Virantha, I took a plane to Mexico City. I flew from Oakland, then Denver were the plane was delayed and finally I arrived after 1:30 am to the airport, were my father was waiting for me. Unfortunately, the city has many streets with construction and it took a while to get home. We arrived and had dinner. We went to bed at about 4 am, very late.
The next day we spend in the Club Aleman, just a lazy day and for food we had some barbacoa from Enrique’s. The next day Gaby and Carlos arrived. Claudia, Agustin, Alonso and Jimena came to eat. We had bbq ribs, tamales and potatoes. The next day Gaby and Mariajose went to the dentist and then we went to the beauty parlor where we both cut our hair and Mariajose finally dyed hers. I liked the end result (and Virantha did too!).
The following day we went to the center of the city to see the snow ramp and the ice skating rink. We walked through the center saw the National Palace, the botanical garden that you can find on the back, there were pinatas, and the huge Christmas tree. We then had lunch at the Hosteria de Santo Domingo. Were we ordered: quesadillas surtidas that came with nopales and guacamole, enchiladas de mole, cecina, chile en nogada and the chicken of the house with pasilla chile and nata. They had arroz con leche for dessert. We then drove to Antara (a new and fancy mall) to the movies. We watched Rudo y Cursi, as Jimena said “la pelicula de nuestros idolos juveniles” (the movie of our youth idols), it was very good and well made and we even got a shot of Gaby and Jimena with Diego and Gael ; ).
The next morning my Mom, Gaby and Mariajose after the dentist second’s visit we went to Mercado de San Angel to buy things for Christmas Eve dinner. I got some pretty colorful pictures. Virantha was arriving that evening…
Just before AIChE Jimena (Mariajose’s cousin) came to DC. She was presenting a paper in the Neuroscience conference. We had the opportunity to have dinner on Friday Nov 14th. Virantha and I drove down to DC - traffic was crazy. We picked up Israela and Jimena and drove until we were lucky and found parking in the street. We had made reservation at Thaiphoon. We were seated right away and we ordered: thai iced tea, summer rolls, shrimp, phad tai and a green curry. The food was good, Jimena had a sticky rice and craving, unfortunately they did not have any. We walked through Georgetown and found another thai place where we finally fount it! So we went in and ordered two. After dinner we walked a little more and then left them at the hotel. We had a great time!
In one of our weekends together we decided to drive into DC and visit the Mall. We drove into the city - after a long time looking for parking we found a place for 10 $ very close to restaurants area. We walked to the Natural Museum of Natural History. We finally got a chance to see the Butterflies exhibit - even though you have to pay (DC museums spoil you) it was worthwhile. We had to wait in line for about 15 min. Then you go into the tunnel - it is hot in there. It was very nice - the butterflies are flying around you and they are quite beautiful - many different colors. One of them decided to stay in my back for a while. We were able to identify a few. It was fun. Then we stopped a little bit in the new Ocean exhibit - the best part was the giant squid - it was huge. We then went out to get a hot dog. Then visited the Natural Gallery of Art were we saw the Ansel Adams and Robert Adams picture exhibition. Some of them were very nice pictures. I spent some time at the store - they have so many papers, cards, and cute things, it is hard for me to walk through there without stopping.
After that we walked back (in the rain) and reached Oyamel, a Mexican restaurant we decided to try. We had a table right away as it was early ~ 5:30 pm. The menu looked pretty interesting. Virantha had a Pacifico and I had a Bohemia. Then to start we ordered Guacamole - they make it right in your table: 1 1/2 avocado, serrano chiles, tomatillos, onion, lime juice, salt and some chihuahua cheese. It was chunky and delicious. The chips and salsa were also very good. The salsa was smoky and a little spicy.
For dinner we had tacos: I had mushrooms taco - liked it very much, then the chicken taco - that one was a little salty. Virantha had: the tinga, cochinita pibil, and fish. I thought the tinga and cochinita were incredibly authentic, I was not that thrilled with the fish and pesto combination. We also ordered the fries with mole: something I would not have thought of but it was pretty good.
Overall the food was great. It is the best Mexican restaurant I have tried in the DC/Baltimore area. Definitely will go back. (They had a great plate for tacos! )
Then we drove back, stopped at Target and then went home. It was a very nice day, well it always is when we are together.
We went to dinner at our favorite pizza place in Baltimore (or anywhere for that matter). Matthews Pizza on Eastern Ave.right across from Patterson Park, where they make a yummy original pie with no cheese, or the equally scrumptious ‘everything’ pizza that includes the best anchovies. We had the latter as seen below.
In October we went to Christoph and Laura wedding. We had lunch while waiting for my father to be done with his workshop. We had tuna tacos and a chile en nogada from my Aunt Claudia. Then we drove through Reforma picked my father and headed to Morelia. It was a nice drive - the sky was beautiful. We arrived pretty late. We stayed in the Hotel Concordia - it was small but very cute. We had dinner there, bean soup, uchepos and corundas, and cookies. It was pretty good. We then walked to the Cathedral, and went to bed.
The next morning we had breakfast at Los Portales. Virantha had a capuccino and eggs with chorizo and I had Mexican hot chocolate and chilaquiles. Everything was pretty good. I finished my speech while eating breakfast. Then we got ready for the wedding (a different entry).
The next day we had breakfast at Hotel de la Soledad. It was a buffet and the food was delicious. They also had the best marmalade, it was made out of: pineapple, mango, papaya, apple, and more. You eat in their garden. Then we walked a little bit, we stopped at Bazar del Arcano where I bough a present for Theresa ( I hope she likes it). We then visited the cathedral, and walked to the Sweets Museum. It was interesting - we saw how the made ate - they have us fresh samples. We walked a little more and then went back - straight to the airport. There my aunt Claudia, Alonso and uncle Agustin joined us for dinner. We had tacos (al pastor and steak).
Then went home and my father had dinner and my mother and I had some pitas with jocoque and cheese. Then it was time to go to bed. The next morning I took a plane back to Baltimore.
Agatha Christie, September 25th. Browsing our bookshelves, surprisingly there are a few books I have not read (well my books, not Virantha’s)… I kept looking and nothing was catching my eye and after reading # 40 well I was in the mood for more happy memories, so alas I grabbed another one! This time it was Poirot - I do like him… A visit to Egypt, walking in pyramids, a murderous boat ride and some happy endings for two couples! I did remember all the details so no surprises for me. Oh well. I did go down to the pool and read the final two chapters. It was a nice Friday - there was no more sun so it was still warm from the day but I was not roasting, the water was warm enough but at the same time refreshing. I had walked a lot: between hour of power yoga at noon, farmers market trip, stop at San Jose Museum to see the Mandala (monks were having lunch when I arrived), and then to the post office… It was a good day that ended with dinner at Kumako Ramen at Japantown. We shared a shoyu ramen with a boiled egg and plate of eel with rice (my favorite), and two cream puffs. Then we could not resist and included a luscious dessert crepe = banana double choco at Banana Crepe.
