Archive for the ‘bay area’ Category
pvh for the win
Oh PVH, how I’ll miss thee.
Pho Vi Hoa is my version of Cheers. I’m not a beer kinda girl so I don’t have a local bar or watering hole to frequent. I’m more fobby than anything else so my local watering hole is actually my local pho place. I don’t think they know my name but they definitely know my face and the face of all my nearest and dearest Bay Area homies.
I’m slightly appalled by the fact that I’ve never featured PVH before, but I suppose it’s fitting that I wrap up my Bay Area fun times (for now anyway, I’ll def call it home again sometime in the future) with a post about PVH.
When I first started going to PVH I was all about the pho – served hot and steaming, ever so fragrant, meaty but not oily, and with a side of fresh bean sprouts, lime, and other add ins. Note that PVH pho doesn’t come with cilantro unless you ask for it. (Of course, I ask for it.)
say my name
If you say this out loud in Mandarin it sounds like my full name.
I found this out Friday night at the 2nd Mahjong night. I was wondering why I heard the fobicized version of my name a few times (juw-ahn!). The first mahjong night was a few weeks ago. It involved a lot of tiles and a lot of snacks and a lot of shouting in Mandarin. I also had to learn Taiwanese style mahjong which is a tad different from Filipino mahjong.
The overflow of Chinese-ness made me long for my Filipino roots. The next day I Yelped ‘filipino food’ until I found Tipanan in Newark.
mikonos grill, milpitas, ca
Another tale of getting moted.
We were trying to go to this new Brazilian place for dinner. Surprise! It’s only open for lunch during the week. This place is really close to Jane’s house. Since we’ve been meaning to try it for awhile, this was as good a time as any to finally give it a whirl.
hello desserts!
We’re always on the look out for a Bay Area equivalent to mango sago. So far we’ve been unsuccessful, but Hello Desserts does bring us one step closer.
If you’re familiar with the South Bay, Hello Desserts is in the Ranch 99 complex in San Jose right off of Hostetter near the side that has the Goldilocks. Do you like how I give directions based on important landmarks like Ranch 99s?
We ended up here after we were moted trying to see Forbidden Kingdom a few weeks ago (it was sold out). The place is super cute inside and smells of waffle cones a la Coldstone’s Creamery.
circa, san francisco, ca
I’m a big fan of Top Chef (reality TV + food = yay). This season a few of the chefs are from San Francisco which means that with just a little bit of effort you can go out and taste for yourself. Jane’s good at getting me out and about and suggested we try Circa for their Top Chef dinner.
Chef Eric Hopfinger was eliminated from Top Chef a few weeks ago after a bad round of lobster corn dogs sent him home. His restaurant , er the the restaurant he’s exec chef for (no clue if he owns the joint), is very… Marina – microsuede covered seats, wooden tables, jewel curtains.
amarin thai, mountain view, ca
Julia and I had work this weekend so we made sure to not burn the midnight oil on Friday. Instead, we (Julia, Jlin, and I) headed out at 5:30pm to catch some sun and grab an early dinner.
We strategically placed ourself on Castro (the one in MV not SF) for easy access to frozen yogurt after dinner. It didn’t take too much thinking before ending up at Amarin Thai. I’ve been to Amarin before but have yet to post about it.
high tea strikes again
RAWR from the Ritz.
Me and the rest of the HK crew have not been on an international flight in 3 months. We’re antsy for something that requires a passport but those kinds of things take a lil’ more planning.
sushi house, alameda, ca
Alameda is Spanish for ‘grove of poplar trees’. Sushi House is BayArea-nese for ‘big sushi with a long line’.
My first adventure to Sushi House was courtesy of J-nice (Janice’s new rap name) post-Berkeley PCN a few years ago. I haven’t been back since but got the chance for Round 2 when I met up with roommate #2 this weekend.
Sophia aka Soapy and I were roommates at UP Diliman back during our study abroad days. Items of note here include the fact that me and Soaps enjoy eating, like adventures in the Philippines, and are the same size. This means it was easy to haggle at shops in the Philippines because we really wanted 2 of everything.
Okay yah the sushi. We started dinner with miso soup (unremarkable + bad photo = not posted) and shared three generous rolls.
Crunchy.
sino, santana row
Check me out. My social calendar was booked this weekend. Lots of plans and lots of meals to be had. The fun started with dinner at PVH (if you’re curious I tried the chicken curry that JenLui had a few weeks ago – very ginger-y and lemongrass-y) and Gamba Karaoke (faves include: Independent Woman, No One, and the always annoying Umbrella).
On Saturday I met up with my long lost roommate from my 2nd year, Becca. Becs hails from Alamo up in the East Bay aka really far from me. We were very good roommates but are very bad at getting together. Case in point, it’s been 2 years or so since the last time we got together.
Becca is a lawyer. A forreal-as-seen-on-TV-I-go-to-court-and-stuff kinda lawyer. It’s pretty awesome.
We decided to look for a lunch place on Santana Row and ended up at Sino which is this fancy, lounge-like Asian fusion place. We partook of the dim sum menu and ordered one entree to share.
First up were the chicken curry dumplings (pictured above). No clue why the picture looks like I took it at JC Penney studio. The pastry on this is very good. Buttery and crumbly, and perfectly baked. The filling is your ho-hum chicken curry. The pastry is what makes it a winner.
I also opted for baked bbq pork bun. Again the pastry was good but the filling was only so-so. I thought the bbq would have been good had whatever alcohol they add to the sauce been cooked down more. In this state, it was too overwhelming.
I got tricked by this one. On the menu it’s listed as ‘lobster seafood soup dumpling’. I saw soup + dumpling and thought they were going to bring me some xiao long bao. UM. Not so much. The broth on this was simple but well seasoned. The dumpling itself is good with big chunks of lobster inside. What’s not cool is that the dumpling looks like a giant stomach which is less appetizing than a cutesy little xlb.
We shared a plate of beef chow fun which I found just alright. The beef was very tough. The veggies were good though.
Glutinous rice with some sugary dusting (semi-flowery tasting?) and then liquid black sesame. They could have used a thickening agent to help make the inside not explode everywhere as soon as you bite into it.
Sino would probably be a nice place to start off an evening. The entire front part of the place has long benches and sectioned off lounge areas. Everything is red and black – part ode to Asia, part better for clubbing ambiance.
The entire meal set us back about $40 (we also had one other plate of dim sum that I didn’t get to taste as well as some hot jasmine tea).
I wouldn’t avoid it but I probably wouldn’t ask to go back. 3***
food for warriors
We had a work offsite to a Warriors game last Thursday. I really have no business going to basketball games but I try to enjoy them for the simple pleasure of driving my sports fan brother Joshua crazy.
We sat super close in the beginning to watch the them shoot around before the game. Afterwards, we were relegated to the nosebleed seats to enjoy the actual game. Let’s get to what’s really important. What’d I eat?
The choices are pretty limited at Oracle Arena. You have jumbo hot dogs (not jumbo at all), cheeseburgers, chipotle burgers, fries, nachos, pretzels, and a few random food stalls with bbq and cheesesteaks and stuff.
Feed your reader! 
