Mmmm. Cheese. Board.

My favorite thing to eat is pizza. I love how some have crispy crusts, some are more on the doughy side, some airy, some dense, and especially how different combinations of sauces and toppings with the cheese just end up creating a masterful mixture of flavors and textures. Meat usually adds a big punch to the vegetables and cheese but Cheeseboard knows how to put their creative Cooperative minds together to create a splendid party for your taste buds.

I do not remember what day we went to get this but basically it had a cheese blend, olive oil, tomatoes, and basil. It is basically a margarita pizza (without the tomato sauce) which I love anyway. Cheeseboard is constantly busy. Long lines, fresh pizza pies out of the oven when you order. By the slice, half or whole. Whenever I go with my significant other we tend to get a whole pizza ... sometimes 1 and a half. Hahaha. There's even times when they've had fruits for toppings and we were quite skeptical but after trying, well it's just worth giving it a try. Must must must get a slice (AT LEAST) if you're nearby or in the neighborhood for the weekend.

Cheeseboard Pizza Collective
1512 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94701
510-549-3055

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Sweet. Cupcake Love.

Obviously it has been awhile since I have updated anything. What can I say? I've succumb to the infamous I'll-pretend-I'm-on-a-hiatus-but-really-I've-been-lazy-and-putting-things-off-then-getting-more-lazy-and-still-putting-off-updates-even-though-pictures-have-been-taken mode.

As of recent (within the past year) I have fallen for red velvet cupcakes and whatever creative siblings a bakery might be able to conjure up. Also, exploring new places while visiting my better half is always nice. So here it is: Love at First Bite.

Yum carrot cupcake. This is not the first time I've been here but I do not recall if I have pictures from last time. Grabbed some mini cupcakes to go and I like trying the things this cute bakery has to offer. These little cupcakes are a nice intro to flavors you might want to try so I always go for those just in case I might not enjoy the baked goods. The cupcake has a fair amount of air incorporated into the body of the cake without being intrusive. Its texture is not too dense, it does not suck up all the saliva in your mouth when you're chewing and it doesn't make you scream for a cup of water or milk. I like these cupcakes. The cupcake frosting is usually very good, compliments the cake. Some have more sugar than others, maybe a little more tart for some, etc. The bakers at the store have thought out how to make the frosting bring out other flavors in the cake and not just be an overbearingly sweet addition.

I would like to point out my significant other and I both are not sugar heads and probably only consume about 15% of the frosting you see. The rest gets scooped off. Is it nasty? No. Was there a hair in it? No. Did I just say we're not sugar heads? Yes.

We. Just. Don't. Like. Consuming. All. That. Frosting. Period.

Green Tea Cupcake front and center. To the left is the Red Velvet. I'd have to say it has a nice tea flavor without having the bitterness of tea leaves. Consumed it but if you don't enjoy green tea that much I'd have to say pass. The Red Velvet oh yum. There is no ridiculous amount of red food coloring, nicely colored, good cocoa taste, moist, and the frosting just dances with the cake in your mouth. If you're in Berkeley, try this place out. Yelp reviews are a hit or miss apparently. I can say the two times I have been, the cupcakes were moist. Then again can't really count on Yelp for anything accurate (will babble about this later on). Perhaps little hard to find, but right past Shattuck on Walnut.

Love at First Bite
1510 Walnut Street
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-848-5727

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Cold Night. Add Some Soup.

I have been putting off updating for awhile because I wanted to just come home, be lazy, and stay a bit away from the computer. Haha, so anyway, I felt it was definitely time to update a bit on where I have been recently. There's more places that I went with my better half but I decided to just add this place first.

So, little background ... we already had dinner but I was craving the tomato pastry soup ... and it was very cold out that night in Yountville. Hahaha, so what is the best way to warm the body up? Yes, alcohol. Yes, fire. Yes, more clothes ... or no clothes *wink wink* Haha. Back to what I was saying, we already finished dinner but it was freezing and since I have not had this soup in quite some time I said "Tomato soup!"

End up in front of small intimate French bistro. Weekends are usually busy so as I open the door for my beautiful date I'm just telling myself "I hope there's space for a quick soup." And they did!

Waiter gave us some complimentary bread with some delicious butter. As you can see I was not able to help myself from the soft bread centers because one of the baguette pieces on the left is missing the middle portion. Little hard on the outside and soft, warm, and chewy in the center. Only a few pieces were eaten, I mean hell we already had our dinner no need to blow up.

Better half was craving some fries so here they are. Seasoned very well, sometimes a little too salty (and in this case it was but still tolerable and delicious). Usually we get the rib eye steak with the frites and bearnaise but pomme frites by itself is very satisfying. Who needs McDonald's? Oh yeah, not everyone wants to pay $6.50 for a large serving of fries. Haha.

The tomato pastry soup before digging in and destroying it. I love this tomato soup. Very very rich with lots of butter and lots of cream. Do you like tomatoes? Do you like puff pastry and all it's flaky buttery goodness? Do you enjoy your clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl? If you answered yes to any of the above then you must go and try this.

Aftermath. This soup is served in this awesome mini cauldron thing with lion/tiger heads on two sides and they just stick it in the oven and bake it until it reaches its destination: Splendidton. Be careful, this soup is hot when it comes out. Like I mentioned earlier if you like any of the above you need to try this. The restaurant is known for this soup. If you dislike tang then best not to give it a whirl since ... its a tomato based soup.  Yum, craving satisfied.

And a dessert wine for my sexy date. Asked for a sweeter wine for my better half because she wanted to try, got the Moscato. She took a couple sips and did not really want that alcohol taste on her taste buds. So ... it was passed on to me. Very good, aromatic, light fruit taste. Alcohol content obviously is not high and (for me) it was only noticed a bit before swallowing the wine. Leaves my palate very satisfied as a sweeter, dessert wine should. Although not full bodied, it was what I would want to end the meal.

Environment: very intimate and small as mentioned before. What else is a French Bistro supposed to give? The service is very good and attentive. I have never experienced problems with this place. Price, it is so so. I would say for two people without drinks for dinner probably $40-70. Just really depends what you plan on eating. Stop by this place for a quick bite or for lunch/dinner. Great place in Yountville.

Bistro Jeanty
6510 Washington Street
Yountville, CA 94599
707-944-0103

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Omakase. Morimoto.

Morimoto. Napa.

First time for my better half and I to try a set menu, chef's choice, 7-course. I'll describe what I remember what was what but for the most part I'll just post pictures and say what I think at the end, except for one thing I must mention first. I did not expect too much but I thought that a place like this would be a little more quiet ... romantic .... upscale? Upscale indeed it is but the place reminds me of an upgraded Yardhouse. Little to no noise dampening, people everywhere talking loud and others talking louder to be able to talk over the ones talking talk. Then there's the ones yelling to be heard over the ones talking louder and loudest. Anyway, it's loud. I had a hard time conversing with my significant one. 

 Morimoto's characters. They're pretty much on everything.

Soy sauce, looked pretty neat. Not in a Kikkoman bottle. Haha.

My drink and her's. The lychee drink she ordered appears creamy but it did not taste anything close to how it was presented. I ordered a plum drink, and it did not really hit my taste buds all that well. Plum wine flavor was a bit there but regardless the lychee drink was better.

First course, a toro paste thing with five different pastes and a light shoyu "broth" thing and a small mountain berry to cleanse the palate afterwards. This dish was wonderfully wonderful. My better half and I enjoyed the nori (seaweed) paste, besides that one all I remember is the chives near the middle and the miniature rice cracker balls near the top. After trying all these pastes one by one I said screw it and just started putting all the flavors in and it was superb. We both loved this dish. You eat it with that little shovel you see in the back. Very fun. The berry at the end ... I don't know where they get it from but I want to harvest it and eat it every single day. Its appearance resembles a raspberry but the seed is in the middle. The taste reminds me of raspberry + plum + strawberry. Has the texture of raspberry (minus the seeds), juiciness of a plum and strawberry. Oh man, this berry was just spectacular. If I go back I'll ask if I'm able to just order these berries.

Not a second course but it came out second. I ordered a salmon skin roll. The salmon skin was toasted to a perfect crisp with a bit of salmon meat on the skin bits. Was good but not amazing. My better half and I concluded there is a particular taste to the rice ... I'd assume it's from the vinegar they add to the rice, but it overpowered a lot of the taste from the salmon skin and sushi in general, but we'll talk about the sushi later.

Second course: Hamachi of some sort lightly fried with a citrus shoyu sauce from what I remember. Iunno, it was good. Enjoyed it.

Third course: Anchovy & Garlic paste in miso oil. Vegetables, croutons, and some fried fish cubes for dipping. Salty because of the anchovies but wow this dish was very fun to eat, very tastey. One of the most memorable of the night that's for sure.

Here's an attempted closer shot of the paste getting heated up with the candle. Yum.

Fourth dish: Foie Gras Chawan Mushi. Duck breast, wasabi and a sweet soy sauce. This dish wasn't too bad. The duck breast was very tender, as for the foie gras custard thing all I can comment is it was rich and pretty salty. The strange thing is when I added a bit of the wasabi with the foie gras the taste of the wasabi turned to sweet. VERY weird, my better half wasn't able to distinguish this taste so many my taste buds are crazy?

(Fifth) Dish: Seaweed tea. Warm to touch, refreshingly smooth to the palate. Nice to have before the next course.

Fifth Dish: The sushi. I don't know what all of them are. I just know hamachi and toro. Fresh but with the aftertaste of the rice (that we didn't seem to fond of) this was, unfortunately, the least liked of our dishes.

Sixth Dish: Lobster tail, beef wagyu, pork medallions. I'll have to say this was just a little better than the fifth dish. The reason for it? Well it was tender but nothing that says "Wow, the flavor from this meat makes me want to slap myself across the face to force a smile on my face." It was just meat with some seasoning on it.

Seventh Dish: Pistachio ice cream with roasted pistachios and cognac marinated/soaked peaches. Peaches had a very overpowering cognac taste. Probably soaking a little too long... the champagne syrup you see that was added ... well the people next to us got to add it themselves whereas a hostess thought to pour the whole thing into our bowls. Overpowering sweetness. Not too impressed with this one.

Oh yes, one thing I wanted to add before ending this. When we arrived our reservation was lost in the system somewhere. I made the reservation through telephone a month in advance and they called me the day before arriving to confirm my reservation. When we got there, I wasn't in the system. Very strange but the hostess at the time was accommodating and put us on the list for the next table and it ended up being a 10 minute wait. Overall, it was a new, fun, worthwhile experience. Would I come back? Sure try something else. Definitely would like to get a picture with the Iron Chef next time when he's in. That would be cool. Now, for everything else. The environment I mentioned earlier, not too impressed but it definitely draws in quite the crowd. Good luck trying to get a seat at the bar. Service. Our server was nice when he was around but there's an army of people at Morimoto's. I don't know how many different people ended up serving our food and telling us about the dishes but there's too many people roaming around there. Cost, bring a days pay check, it'll cost you to try this place. If you're up for it, have some spare cash to burn, and maybe even want to try and see the Iron Chef stop by this place in Downtown Napa.

Morimoto Napa
610 Main St.
Napa, CA 94559
707-252-1600

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Go Shopping. Get Breakfast.

Every Saturday Vallejo, CA has a very nice Farmer's Market in its Downtown. I love it, friendly farmers selling fresh produce and being able to try small samples of the fruits to make sure it's to the consumer's liking. Wonderful. Anyway, there's a little restaurant in downtown called Eladio's and I meant to try it last time but wasn't able to because of a prior engagement so this time around right before shopping, my better half and I thought to grab some breakfast here. Just share a simple sausage, egg and pancakes.

Was great. Sausage isn't as good as Sugar Rush but hell they're MILES apart. Eladio's makes everything when ordered and even though we waited a good while for our food because they were busy it was worth it if you're a little patient. I'm positive it would be better if they weren't busy but we'll have to see next time. I don't remember paying much but the service was nice, they made sure we were okay, asked if we needed anything else. Food was good, egg was over-hard but cooked perfectly so didn't taste like plastic. The pancakes were fluffy and has a good density that doesn't make you want to pick up your cup of water every bite. The place is a mixed kitchen, has Mexican food too but we wanted breakfast. Will have to try other things next time. Definitely head over here for breakfast if you don't want to cook at home.

Eladio's Restaurant
402 Georgia St.
Vallejo, CA 94590
707-557-5343

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Tea Room. Cheers.

Raise up that pinky finger with the cup! Haha. There's always time for some high tea. My better half and I love taking some time out of our weekend to enjoy small finger foods and small treats. Located in downtown Benicia this little treat helps remind everyone to just sit down, close your eyes, take a deep breath and just enjoy what's around you at that moment where the past and future hold no value.

 Here's a picture of one of their teapots they use. Camellia brands their teapots ... I guess in case someone wants to steal this floral, bright, heavy teapot? Haha, I have no idea but all their teapots have floral prints and are very heavy, great and keeping the tea hot. I'll be honest, I do not remember what tea we got this time around but it was good. There are cubes of white and brown sugar on the side of the table if you want to add a little spunk to your tea. Usually we start off with no sugar to get a taste for the tea leaves, see how it is and just use our discretion or mood to decide if sugar should be added.

This is a cute little filter that gets placed over the cup when pouring out the tea. It'll catch all the loose leaves so you don't need to worry about any interruptions while your palate is embracing the tea.

This is the house salad. I cannot stress how much my better half and I enjoy this salad. It's very refreshingly and light. Greens, apple, candied (says spiced on their website) pecans, and gruyere cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette.  Why do we enjoy it so much? I'll admit this dressing is a bit on the tangy side but the raspberry concentrate/juice/whatever they put add balances out. Once you get some of the candied pecans and fuji apples in your mouth it is just oh so pleasant. You get the nutty texture, crisp from the apple, then the mixed greens. I'd say it's almost like a ballerina is in your mouth. You'll taste tang, then you'll get hit with the pecans and a balanced sweetness from the apples then a potent distinct rich flavor of the gruyere. It's wonderful.

Most of the time when we come here we get the three tiered tea set with the finger sandwiches, scones, and sweet treats (like cookies, small cake). This time we already had breakfast so we figured a small light afternoon snack will be just dandy. Anyway, currant scone. They also had lemon poppy scones but we really enjoy their currant scones. Freshly baked with a side of strawberry preserves or fresh whipped cream. I prefer the preserves with a little bit of the whipped cream. Go with whatever you like because these scones are good without anything. Currant flavor is not overpowering and pairs wonderfully with tea.

Something new on the menu? Yes: Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding. Fresh whipped cream on top with a pleasure hint of color added by the mint. Shower that all with some chocolate powder, I'm in. Now, I have never had bread pudding. Only thing I know is I was pretty full by the time dessert came out. This was pleasantly good but heavy ... hell is butter croissants! This bread pudding wasn't too wet because you could still taste the textures from the croissant and the semi-sweet chocolate adds a great punch of sweetness. Want more sugar for your tongue? Add a bit of the whipped cream :)

This place is fairly priced, won't break the bank. The environment is very ... "lady-like" to say the least. I imagine a lot of the tearooms are usually like that. I am usually the one guy in there. The tea room is nice, brightened with sunlight puts you at ease. Last thing worthy of mentioning is the service, if you have a question one of the female waitresses will give you an answer or suggestion. Make sure to call and check for reservations just in case so take a visit if you're in the neighborhood.

Camellia Tea Room
828 1st St.
Benicia, CA 94510
707-746-5293

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Ippuku. Late Night Snack

So went to visit my better half and my flight got in a bit late. Looked up what would be open during the time and this place seemed to fit the bill. Try out the Yakitori for a late night snack. Pretty good, they open from 5PM- 11PM, Monday through Saturday. Basically, we didn't come here expecting a great big feast, just something small to get us through since both of us weren't able to grab dinner. By not being able to grab dinner I mean it was my fault since my better half wanted to get dinner after I arrived ... and since my flight got delayed we had to change to this place. We'll try the other Japanese restaurant, which isn't Yakitori, next time.

This little restaurant is cute, comfortable, romantic, very nice. Wood everywhere. Table, dishes, napkins, lights, all wood. Nah, just kidding, just the tables, walls, panels, doors, all that stuff is wood. Very nice looking. Actually very traditional with some modern inspirations in there. We both enjoyed the environment. When we got there only a few of the tables were occupied. The picture above is one of the traditional looking booths. The one we sat it was "normal" with wooden benches, no need to take off your shoes (which we wouldn't have minded either).

Crab Croquette. This dish was freshly fried, buttery flakey taste. I added a lot of lemon to mine because I enjoy the citrus kick to seafood nowadays. The inside of the croquette is filled with crab and who knows what else but it was good. I like it. Crab flavor was there even if it wasn't overstuffed with crab.

This is what the croquette looks after taking a bite. Nice and flakey. Yum.

Shiitake mushrooms. My better half and I LOVE mushrooms, dirt and all. Haha just kidding we hate dirt and the oral blisters they might cause. Although the mushrooms aren't anything to praise, the citrus pickled minced radish (?) in the middle goes great with all the dishes. I wish they gave us a nice big side bowl full of it. So the mushroom ... yeah we concluded we could grill this at home.

Oyster mushrooms. Same story as the Shiitake.

Udon with Chicken based soup.

Ramen with Chicken based soup. The above two dishes are pretty much the same except different noodles. I'll have to say the soup base has a very homemade taste and feel to it. Very very refreshing since we were both cold that night. These bowls are pretty small but with the Yakitori it can satisfy your stomach. The broth was not very greasy, had a great light chicken taste and the green onion added a good contrast to the soup-base. The udon noodles weren't that great, high quality pre-packaged frozen udon noodles at best. The ramen, I'd have to say most likely the same.

Bacon wrapped cherry tomatoes. The best dish we had all night. Loved it. I love tomatoes now and bacon goes awesome with just about everything. I just put the whole tomato in my mouth, bit down and let the burning hot cherry insides and bacon oils burn my mouth. Good? Yes, indeed it was. The interesting thing about this dish was the bacon was not overly salty, it was a bit sweet too. Have you ever had Taiwanese sausage? The bacon Ippuku uses reminded me of Taiwanese sausage.

Like I mentioned earlier we came here for a snack. Would I come here again? Sure why not. Would I come here if I was really hungry? Hell no. The dishes and portions are small for the price point. All of the dishes you see we got was $49.xx without tip. Very expensive for what it is. Environment is great. Service was mediocre but I'll assume it was because we were basically the last customers. My suggestion is go and try it, but don't go overboard because your bill is going to slap you across the face when 30 minutes after you leave you realize you're satisfied but might still be hungry.

Ippuku
2130 Center St.
Berkeley, CA 94704
510-665-1969

Dim Sum. New Capital.

Who doesn't enjoy Dim Sum? (Probably many people). Anyway, thought it might be nice to take some time to munch on those little side dishes and sip up some tea. Whenever I get Dim Sum, I must order chrysanthemum tea. It's so light and refreshing. Mmm, nice whole chrysanthemum leaves:

No other way to show the goodness without taking off the top. (Har har). And what else goes well with the entrees? It's red and yellow and has nothing to do with McDonalds.

Unfortunately, the people I went with already scooped up all the mustard while I was grabbing my camera. So the usual red chili paste that you could buy at local Asian markets. Enjoy spice? Put some on your siu mai or add a bit to some pan fried noodles.

Siu mai (燒賣). I enjoy these very much at New Capital. I'm sure there's some at other places but they're plump, juicy, well flavored and salted. There's other places with some good siu mai too but these are better portioned I think. Going to get Dim Sum without ordering this is a no no for me.

Har gau (蝦餃). The good thing about the har gau from New Capital is they don't put any other fillings. Some other restaurants put vegetables, chives, shallots, just little things to alter the natural shrimp taste. Another plus is the texture and lack of starch found on the wrapping. I recall some other places use different wraps and the outside of the har gau ends up being too sticky and even wet.

Char siu bao (叉燒包). My comfort dish. Reminds me of my childhood because I used to be a little prick. Literally. I avoided a lot of things, onions, pickles, ginger, mushrooms, tomatoes ... I'd have to say I appreciate my parents for not leaving me in the dust, Joe Dirt style out in a trash can while visiting the Grand Canyon. Whenever I look back I think, geez, what a crappy child. Anyway, now I enjoy and even love most of the things I just listed ... so back to the char siu, I like it. Not too much sauce in the filling, semi-sweet outside bun and a decent amount of char siu pork in it. This time around I just toss aside the excess of the outside bao just 'cause I didn't want to fill up on this.

Fung zao (鳳爪). Chicken feet. Also, something I didn't like in the past because .... it's chicken feet. Lol. Now, I just try it anyway, give it a whirl. I'll have to say, this is one thing at New Capital that's not always so great. It's very inconsistent. Today, it seemed a bit under-steamed because usually once you put this in your mouth the foot should disintegrate and fill your mouth with a skin, little bit of meat marinated in the red sauce. Last time I had it, was great. This time not, not really. If you love your fung zao, just order it, only a $2 or something for the dish.

Spare ribs with fermented black bean and a little bit of chili. I haven't eaten this in awhile and I didn't eat it this time. Sometimes you'll receive a dish with lots of meat and sometimes it's mostly bones. The flavor is there but I mostly enjoy eating the chilis from the dish nowadays.

 Some type of egg roll that we tried. I don't know the name. Only thing I know is that it was not bad, but greasy. Since the wrapping used is a little different from the traditional egg rolls, I think this wrapping absorbs a little bit more oil. The inside was like har gau, shrimpy goodness.

Chinese broccoli with some oyster sauce. Good. There aren't many vegetable dishes to eat at Dim Sum or maybe I'm not very experienced but this is one of the few I see. Green is good, but the thick stems were a little bitter today. Very light in taste, almost like it's steamed and just drizzled with a bit of oyster sauce.

Beef cheong fun (腸粉). Wasn't feeling it today and a lot of places use more rice noodle than meat. Unfortunately, New Capital doesn't fill up the inside with a lot of meat and I'm positive many other places don't give much in terms of protein. This dish is better with a lot of the sweet soy sauce that's provided.

I have no idea what this is. Was just picked from one of the carts but the taste greatly resembles the spare ribs. Imagine chunks of the spare rib meat with some veggies (green onions?) mashed together into a meatball form, steamed and pan fried for a slight outside crisp.

First try and I'm going to have to give it my thumbs up. I'd definitely get it again.

Dan tat (蛋撻). Flaky, oily, egg custard. Yum. Not excessively sweet and the filling is in between cream and custard. Get it, because your mouth deserves something on the sweet side.

Lastly, naai wong bao (奶皇包). Puff pastry with a milky sweet filling with a hint of coconut at the end. It's so good, especially right after it comes out of the over. This time it wasn't warm but that doesn't matter. I just sit back and relax with one of these and my cup of chrysanthemum. Win.

Here's the filling. It's hard to describe so next time you get Dim Sum try it.

I like Dim Sum. One of my favorite things to get but I do dislike the waits, the loud environment, the sense of no service. But that's alright, watching carts move around with food is nice. Makes ordering food a bit exciting since you get to check everything out before you eat. Is this place the best, heavens no because there's other places in the San Gabriel Valley. Even though it's farther and cheaper, I'd still rather just come here because it means less driving and less of a wait. If you're in the neighborhood, swing by, just don't expect great service.

New Capital Seafood
1330 S. Fullerton Rd., #207
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
626-581-9813

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