01.25.06
I had dinner with bg at Gaylord India Restaurant at the Embarcadero but I think Berkeley has better Indian food and not so pricey. I ordered Kabuli Nan which is a sweet nan with nuts, raisins and cherries. Very delish and my first sweet nan. =d

Gaylord India Restaurant
1 Embarcadero Center
San Francisco
415-397-7775

01.20.06
I was craving sushi so I had lunch at Sushi House. It was my first time ordering the Bay Scallops which is crab meat and avocado topped with baked scallops and house special sauce. Usually I don't like scallops but thought the bay scallops were delish. bg thought the sauce was too mayonnaisey, though. All the sushi rolls are quite yummy; however, after awhile, they all kinda taste the same, some variation of the California roll. Anyway, it was nice day and there was a pretty view of the water outside.

Sushi House
2375 Shoreline Drive
Alameda
510-865-0999

Afterwards, we visited the Oakland Museum to check out the Baseball as America exhibit. There was a special section dedicated to Bay Area baseball which was kinda cool. I was really excited to see the Edward Weston photography exhibit. I love how he can turn a normal every day object into an abstract work of lines, curves, and shadows.

Oakland Museum
1000 Oak Street
Oakland
510-238-2200

01.19.06
I had dinner at Great China. Since it was a really chilly night we ordered the sizzling rice soup, which I've never had before. It's so cool how the rice sizzled in the soup.

Great China Restaurant
2115 Kittredge St
Berkeley
510-843-7996

I finally got around to renting Batman Begins and thought it was pretty good, much darker than it's predecessors. Eee, the the Scarecrow was really creepy.

01.15.06
I had breakfast at La Note and skimmed through some books at Pegasus while I waited for our name to be called. Haha, there's a sequel to Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same. It's Going for the Bronze : Still Bitter, More Baggage. The excerpt below reminds me of what Mike kept on teasing me about, how he wanted to get me cats because I was single for so long. These cute chickens are also in a marketing campaign for the Sak bags.

Anyway, the hot chocolate at La Note is delish and I love how they're served in huge latte bowls.

La Note
2377 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley
510-843-1535

I got my first lesson in how to drive a manual. Bleh, I'm not very good at it. We had dinner at Celia's to avoid the crowd at Union Landing. Mmm, and boba from Quickly next door.

Celia's Mexican Restaurant
25010 Hesperian Blvd
Hayward
510-782-2235

01.13.06
We met up with Ken, Veronica, Kent, and Bosun at Lulu for the Dine About Town promotion. I realized I like butternut squash but I don't like acorn squash; it's too fibery. The sorbets were yummy though, pink grapefruit, orange, and lemon. We played Taboo at Ken and Vee's place afterwards and realized bg is a horrible at that game.

Lulu
816 Folsom St
San Francisco
415-495-5775

01.06.06
bg and I hiked around Half Moon Bay which I haven't explored in years. We had fun writing our names in the sand. A lot of the trails were super muddy so we ended up finding a cafe and eating banana cream pie with hot chocolate and chai tea. Mmm, I was craving something custardy and that totally hit the spot. bg wanted to get some more information about Audis so we stopped by a dealership and I love how the salesman kept on looking at bg and then replied how he looked like his neighbor's son who is 14 years old. ; Þ

Mings
1700 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto
650-856-7700

01.05.06
Yay! I finally got to see my first Cirque du Solei show. Before the show, bg and I went to Paragon and then walked over to Pacbell Park where the Corteo tent was. I like how close the audience is to the center stage, not a bad seat in the house. I realized there are a lot of common elements in cirque nouveau. There's always balancing artists, juggling, huge rings, musicians and aerial acrobatics with some sort of story line. I'm lucky that I've gotten the chance to see other groups such as Cirque Eloize. Anyway, booo to the crazy ushers. They kept on accusing people of having cameras when often the cameras in question were blackberries, cell phones, or in my case binoculars. Afterwards, we just walked back to bg's place since taxis were scarce. It's funny, I've seen some of the height challenged performers on the weekends near Pacbell Park with backpacks while we're driving by.

Paragon Restaurant & Bar
701 2nd St
San Francisco
415-537-9020

01.04.06
I need to learn how to relax but really it's because I have too much energy bottled inside sometimes that I go kinda bonkers. ;p Heehee, and I can't help it that I'm a morning person.

01.03.06
I finally opened my Jacques Torres Coffee Break bar that I got in New York last October and it is heavenly. It's the best chocolate bar ever; it's creamy milk chocolate blended with strong dark coffee. Mmm, so good, I'm not willing to share, gasp and I think it might be better than Lindt chocolates. I wonder if they sell any on the West Coast though they're kinda pricey at $4.50 a pop.

01.02.06
I've been making a lot of soups lately. So far I've made:

• butternut squash
• chicken noodle
• corn chowder
• tomato soup

I really loved the creamy texture of the butternut squash soup, especially since I didn't add any heavy cream to it. I need to purchase a hand blender because it was pain transferring the soup into a blender. My mom said we should get a food processor to speed things up because it seems like it takes me forever to prepare a meal. =p

For the chicken noodle soup, things to note were that egg noodles cook for a really short time so don't add the noodles too early on. The broth was too salty so added more water to balance it out. I need to buy some beef and vegetable bouillon cubes; I've been using a chicken stock as a base for all my soup. Soups I want to try to make:

• chicken tortilla soup
• French onion soup
• Italian wedding soup
• tomato bisque

01.01.06
Happy New Year! I don't think I have any exceptional resolutions for 2006. My wish list is more interesting:

1. Learn how to drive a manual
2. Relearn how to ride a bike
3. Run a 5K race
4. Cook more often (please send your favorite recipes my way)
5. Explore anywhere in California outside the Bay Area