the counter, palo alto

It’s Singapore week in the Bay Area! Lots of SG friends passing through which means lots of meals to be had and lots of gossip to be shared.

Vinny arrived first so I picked him up fresh from the many-houred flight and took him to a burger joint. Hello, we’re in America. Everyone gets a burger on arrival. He’s a big In-n-Out fan but he has a whole week plus to satisfy those cravings. Instead, we tried out The Counter where a sorta awkward but nice enough waiter shuffled us along in our burger journey.

bi-rite creamery, san francisco

Yes, it was late. Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was raining. Yes, we got ice cream.

Post- Burma Superstar dinner, post-performance at the Women’s Building we hoofed in back in our high heels to the car. Despite the drizzle and my aching feet we made a detour to Bi-Rite to join the line of other smart people satisfying their sugary dreams. Verdict: worth it. Want more.

burma superstar, san francisco

I went to Burma Superstar and took bad pictures. Let me share them with you.

vung tau, san jose

My friend Phi is dead serious about Vietnamese food. I never expect to be eating Vietnamese when I’m with her because she has high standards for the stuff. Color me surprised when I asked her and Adeste to dinner and she suggested Vung Tau near downtown San Jose.

Obviously, this meal was gonna be dang good.

the boiling crab, san jose

Dinner #1 in the Bay Area was a meal at Boiling Crab with Sara, Jane, Lizzie, and Tolu (all of whom I share horrific temp memories with). We like to call these Friendship Renewal Dinners. You see, we’re friends. Good friends even. But we never see each other. When we do, we pick up right where we left off and our friendship continues refueled by our recent meetup and musings.

Boiling Crab was a personal request since I’ve heard that it recently made its way to the Bay Area. It’s in South San Jose (like super south, like the second to the last exit before you’re officially Gilroy-bound) and actually not far from my godparent’s old hood off of Capitol Expressway and Silver Creek Road.

This, my friends, is going to require a plastic bib.

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.