Ok so I admit the "This Week in Food" series has been more like "this
last few weeks in food" but an infrequent something is better than
nothing.
Lyfe Kitchen in Palo Alto: A tasty lunch with a friend. American, organic, healthy foods.
($12.49) Kabocha squash risotto. This was soo good. Kabocha squash is that round green and orange striped pumpkin looking squash. It is surprisingly a big part of the Vietnamese diet too. Anyway, this risotto was rich, creamy, kabocha-ey and filling. Nicely grilled shrimp to top it off.
($12.99) Grilled barramundi: white fish on top of soba noodles, edamame, napa cabbage slices, and mushrooms in a light broth with some chili oil. The broth bland and the chili oil was not well balanced, coming at you out of nowhere. The fish was well seasoned and cooked perfectly.
($2.99) Roasted brussel sprouts with butternut squash and dried cranberries in a dijon vinaigrette. Excellent! brussel sprouts and butternut squash could not be prepared in a better way. Loves it!
Lyfe Kitchen has a store grown herb garden right in the middle of the dining area. What a unique concept. Speaks volumes to the theme of fresh and natural. I would definitely dine at Lyfe Kitchen again.
Merit Vegetarian is a place I go to alot even though I've never blogged about it. They offer all vegetarian Asian, some vegan and gluten free options as well. This is a vegetarian chow fun dish Phil ordered that was really good. He is slowly converting me into a chow fun fan.
Vermicelli with veggie eggrolls, tofu, and greens at the bottom, covered in a fish-less fish sauce. Don't ask me how they make it. I have no clue what substitutes for fish sauce. This would have been tastier had I not drowned it in 2 bowls of sauce. Last time Phil had it, the rolls were much crispier. I think I just put in too much sauce and ate too slowly resulting in soggy eggrolls. The busier I get, the more trips we will be making to Merit for dinner.
Lunch out with my coworkers involved this plate of spicy cajun linguine with scallops and prawns from Gumba's in Sunnyvale. The scallops and prawns were delicious but the sauce was a bit too heavy on cayenne. I'm always down for the cajun/creole flavors but the spice has to be balanced and this was just tomato sauce with cayenne. For $14, I did get this large portion of pasta, garlic bread, a sizable bowl of clam chowder, and a scoop of strawberry ice cream at the end. Not a bad deal at all. We were stuffed.
Scoop of strawberry ice cream.
Our work group has also been frequenting Pho Queen in Sunnyvale where I got this disappointing rice platter. I ordered rice with grilled shrimp and grilled pork but Vietnamese waiters never listen past the first two words of an order. This is a stereotype that is sadly true most of the time. I did not bother to send this back for the right order because Vietnamese restaurants also don't understand sending back food. The all shrimp and half shrimp/pork combos cost the same anyway.
Good thing Pho Queen has decent pho. Here's my #11 (pho tai sach - eye round slices with tripe). It really hit the spot!
On one of the days, I hopped on over to my friend's company for a catered lunch. They are so lucky to have awesome food for free each day. Here's my chicken and pesto sandwich on Dutch crunch bread with a side salad of greens, jicama, grapefruit in vinaigrette dressing. The other salad was a random mix of things I put together in Italian dressing. mmm...I wish I had catered lunches.
If you follow the twitter, you will definitely have seen this post. This is the Hawaiian pancake meal from Bill's Cafe. It has banana, macadamia nut, and shredded coconut. SO GOOD! Go there, wait in line, get this!
Just a reminder, I am not updating as regularly as before but I am posting almost daily on Twitter, Pinterest, and often on Facebook. You can add those two pages to get a tasty morsel of my foodcapades.
Lyfe Kitchen on Yelp
Merit Vegetarian on Yelp
Gumba's Cafe Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria on Yelp
Pho Queen on Yelp
Bill's Cafe on Yelp
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