Meh. I wouldn’t recommend buying these. You’re better off sticking with plain ol’ Cheez-Its of the regular or white cheddar variety.

While in San Diego, Barbara Jo and I got dinner at a restaurant called Operacaffe before we headed to w00tstock. And then we liked it so much we went again the next night!

First of all, nice decor. Cozy but not cramped. No full bar, but a decent selection of wines by the glass. I got the pinot grigio and was quite well-pleased.

I ordered a gnocchi special (I think it was $15.95 or so) and Barbara Jo got the penne speperina ($13.95). (The next night, she got the gnocchi and I got the penne.) They were both fabulous. Usually I’m a little wary of gnocchi because they can turn into rubber so easily, but the chef did a wonderful job. They were either filled with asiago or it was an asiago sauce, I can’t remember which. Supremely tasty and correctly pillowy in texture. There was a piece of chive laid across the top of the dish that should definitely be eaten and not just cast aside as a garnish. The penne had some nice heat from the sausage, and a deliciously creamy sauce.

The waitstaff was friendly—actually, they remembered us on our second night. Service was relatively swift. Operacaffe is right across from the Balboa Theatre, so I imagine they get a lot of pre-show diners. They offered a 15% discount on food for Comic-Con attendees, which was nice.

The only blemish on an otherwise perfect meal was the basket of bread on the table. Now, when we were looking at the menu outside, the hostess had mentioned that their chef was from Florence. I know from personal experience that Florentine bread means saltless bread. So I wasn’t expecting much when I picked up a piece. But this was not Florentine bread. There was no textural interest, and the taste was oddly sweet. It was like plain white sandwich bread. It was bizarre, to say the least.

So skip the bread and save space for your pasta. The servings are pretty big, so you’ll appreciate the extra room.

It should be noted that we are DEFINITELY going back there next year.

This is my Rather Boring Pantry Pasta, using the spinach variation. I threw in a few crumbles of gorgonzola at the very end as well.

I rely a lot on Trader Joe’s for my lunches at work. They have a lot of really, really good frozen foods.

However, these?

These suuuuuuuck. It’s a five-inch (approximately) diameter disc of masa filled with the most tasteless beans, cheese, and chiles imaginable. And it’s 350 calories for this tiny little thing! They’re sold in packs of four, so unfortunately I have three more to choke down. I think I will need to bring in some complement of salsa, sour cream, and avocado to work in order to make them palatable.

So yeah. Super-disappointing.

Stuff from Trader Joe’s that has served me in good stead for lunch include:

Pizza Olympiad
Paneer Tikka Masala with Spinach Basmati Rice
Shrimp with Green Curry and Jasmine Rice (weaklings, it’s not THAT spicy)
Chicken Quesadillas
Mac and Cheese (although it’s too big, 1 or 1.5 servings would be better than 2)
Chile Relleno
Eggplant Parmesan Towers (these take like 2x the cooking time indicated because they’re so freakin’ dense)
Curried Lentils on Basmati Rice with Cumin (well, I liked it)

One of my coworkers gave me a bag of Kirkland Green Tea yesterday to try out. It’s actually not bad. It is, I would go so far to say, quite pleasant. A mix of sencha and matcha—after you brew the tea for 30 seconds, you empty the matcha dust from the bag’s packet into the tea. There was a little notch cut out on the tag so it could hang on the side of your cup, which seemed like a keen idea, but my mug was too thick for it.

Well done, Costco!  (Sadly your website appears to be broken, so I linked to Amazon up above.)

More reviews here:
Green Tea World
Chowhound

St. Stephen’s Green is a pub in downtown Mountain View. They’ve got a good selection on draft, including: Newcastle, my favorite; Fat Tire, my second-favorite; and Anchor Steam, my third-favorite. Guinness, Blackthorn Cider, Boddingtons, etc.

They serve some good pub food. Amazing thick cut French fries (SK will make the trip down from SF just for them). Other goodness includes: the chicken curry, the beef burger, buffalo wings, and the crispy chicken salad (more fried chicken than lettuce, but that’s not a bad thing!). They serve the wings with ranch instead of blue cheese, which has always struck me as odd, but they’ll substitute the correct dressing if you ask.

To be honest, the main draw of this place to me is their Happy Hour. 5-6:30pm weekdays. Pints are $3.50 for the good ones, $2 for the crap. Many entrees are 40-50% off. The waitstaff is extremely friendly, and they’ll remember your brew of choice if you come in somewhat regularly. It can get quite busy during Happy Hour, so be very direct when flagging down your waitperson.

Another good deal is their lunch specials. $4.99 for certain menu choices (burgers, the curry, some sandwiches) if you eat on their patio (or, I think, in the front room—ask the waitstaff, they once let us sit in there when I felt it was too windy to eat outside comfortably) if you order between 11:30am-12pm.

Here’s something dumb.

The following recipe is my attempt to turn this cake into a quick bread. I think I did a decent job. I was sort of winging it, because that’s ALWAYS a good idea when baking. I did not feel like whipping egg whites, so I chucked in a whole egg and omitted the oil. I was worried that it’d spill over in the oven, so I put a baking sheet under the loaf pan, but it turned out I needn’t have worried. It rose above the loaf pan and cracked across the top, but all the batter stayed in place. The loaf I made tastes spiced (duh) which is then followed by a very strong wheat flavor from the whole wheat flour. It’s not bad, but I think it’d be more pleasant with AP flour. It’s better after a night of rest, the flavors are melding together better. It’s (not surprisingly) good with tea.

I had the best sidecar ever last year at Serpentine. They make theirs with Qi White (which is SO MUCH BETTER than Qi Black, that monstrosity made with Lapsang Souchong). Back at FallFest… 2007, maybe?… I tried a bunch of wines from Quady Winery. They make great stuff. I bought a bottle of Essensia the other day to share with my friend Sylvie, and decided to use the leftovers to make a Sidecar that would hopefully rival the wonderful one I had at Serpentine. I think it worked!

Oh yeah, I’m 30 now. And this blog is six years old. Woo!

I made four pounds of spiced nuts last night during D&D for our company holiday potluck. It turned out that four pounds is more than I thought. I had them in a large Pyrex bowl, but it was overflowing. So I grabbed my big ol’ cast iron French oven (not a Dutch oven, heavens no, Le Creuset wouldn’t want to sully their name so) and mixed them up in there. I used a pound each of pecans, almonds, cashews, and walnuts. It’s basically the Peppered Pecans recipe made without the butter, and using the “coat in egg white and liquid then drain for five minutes before baking” method I got from the Orange-Cardamom Spiced Nuts. So they’re very crunchy, which was the only problem I had with the Pecans recipe.

The party is tomorrow. My coworkers better like them!