Dessert @ Luna Park

I had a great irish coffee bread pudding yesterday at work (moist, boozy, with a crispy caramelized top layer, topped with fresh whipped cream and caramel sauce ... sooo good!), and was left craving more bread pudding today.  I also wanted a warm dessert, paired with cold ice cream.  I remembered that a list of the best bread puddings in San Francisco included a warm chocolate chip version, served with ice cream, at Luna Park, which was two blocks away...

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Dinner @ State Bird Provisions

State Bird Provisions opened on January 1st, and has been seriously hyped ever since.  I've been interested in checking it out, but assumed most of the hype was just due to the novelty of their original concept: "Californian" cuisine, but served dim sum style!  ZOMG!  Reservations have become impossible to get, other than booking the furthest date out the moment it hits the online reservation system.  I was awake at 3am one night a month...

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Another Bar Dinner @ Prospect

One evening, we "needed" foie gras, but didn't want a full dinner.  So, we headed across the street to Prospect, where I knew the bar served a great pate with foie in it.  We've dined in the bar area at Prospect a number of times, and I've reviewed it before, so I'll skip the general details, and focus just on the details from this visit. The bar was full, so we sat at the walk in communal table instead.  It has standard waiter based service, not quite...

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Cooking Demo: Origen

Today's first demo was by Daniel Clayton and Trace Leighton from Origen in Berkeley.  They describe their restaurant as "farm to fork", with a very seasonal menu, including  a five course chefs tasting menu designed to highlight whatever is fresh. Throughout their demo, their love for the market and local farms was clear, and although I've never been, I'm sure this carries over into their restaurant.  They knew the names of every merchant, told...

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Dinner @ Alexander's Steakhouse, Cupertino

If you have been following my blog, you know that the restaurant I eat at the most often these days is Alexander's Steakhouse.  You can read all my past reviews on why I love Alexander's so much (best summed up here), so I won't bother repeating myself.  And you know that I normally vist the location in San Francisco, but that I was down in the south bay for work last week, so I was finally able to return to the original Cupertino location for the first...

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Frozen yogurt @ Orange Tree

Stop #2 on last week's frozen yogurt crawl in Cupertino: Orange Tree. This is another self-serve, pay by the ounce setup.  They offer 10 flavors at a time, and some toppings.  It was much worse than stop #1, Yogurtland, in pretty much every way.  Fewer flavors, far fewer toppings, but more significantly, the yogurt was also not nearly as good, it was not creamy, and the flavors were clearly fake.  I wouldn't go back here. I *think*, but am not certain, that they use YoCream.  I didn't see signs, but...

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Frozen yogurt @ Yogurtland

I was down in the south bay for a conference, and it was an incredible 85 degrees outside.  It wasn't possible to stay indoors, nor was it possible to not crave frozen yogurt or ice cream in that sort of weather!  And ... there were multiple frozen yogurt shops within a mile of the conference location.  So, I may or may not have ditched one session in order to go on a frozen yogurt crawl ... stop #1 was Yogurtland.  I'd been to one of their other...

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