Eureka + Giveaway - Mountain View

Last month, I wrote an article about the Main Street Cupertino complex's newest restaurant, Eureka! Today, they are opening their second Silicon Valley location in Mountain View on Castro St. I had the pleasure of attending a soft opening where my meal was complimentary. Here's what I tried.

($10) Rosemary Ruby Red - gin, rosemary, grapefruit, lemon

This is a perfectly refreshing drink for mid Spring. It continues to taste better as the crushed ice melts and the sweet grapefruit flavor mixes in.

($6) Hangar 24 

We forgot which type of beer this was. The waiter suggested it as one which tastes closer to a hefeweizen. I thought it was lighter and was less hoppy but still enjoyable.

($9.50) Truffle cheese fries

These are the best fries I've had. They won a non-fry lover like me so bonus points for a conversion. It's all in the melty truffle and havarti cheese sauce.

($11) Smoked Chicken Nachos - chicken, black bean, jalapenos, salsa, guac, sour cream drizzle, and house made chips.

I like how the nachos are layered with toppings so it's not just the to pieces that get soggy while the bottom is plain. You get something with every bite.

($12.50) Jalapeno bacon egg burger

PICKLED JALAPENO. BACON. EGG. Need I say more? Cannot go wrong with those three things on anything, especially a juicy medium rare burger.

($7) Apple Crisp with vanilla ice cream

70% ice cream and 30% hot steaming apple crisp and 100% wonderful.

I really enjoyed both the Eureka locations and highly suggest getting the burgers and truffle fries. In fact, you can enter my giveaway for a $25 gift card so you can try it yourself. Thanks for Eureka for sponsoring this giveaway. There will be two winners. Contest ends April 29. The card can be used at any location and the whole amount must be used in one transaction. Good luck!

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Veggie Grill - Mountain View + Giveaway

Veggie Grill has a new menu and a new location. I received a complimentary lunch from Veggie Grill to try these spring dishes at their Mountain View location recently. It was all about asparagus and strawberries!

($9.95) Strawberry arugula salad with walnuts and almond ricotta, pomegranate seeds, asparagus sections, and micro greens on top and a strawberry vinaigrette. They gave me spinach for some reason, but just imagine arugula in here. As you can tell from the ingredients, it is a very healthy, fresh, seasonal salad. 

I couldn't resist ordering a portion of their popular buffalo wings made from imitation chicken. It's vegetarian but you can't tell because the sauce is delicious. Phil and I love any of the menu items with the buffalo wings as we mentioned in our previous review of the Santana Row location.

($3.95) Strawberry parfait - another seasonal menu item with strawberries, cream, and mint. I thought it was interesting to have a parfait on the menu. I don't think the Santana Row location has this so it was quite a treat.

The other seasonal item is a side of grilled asparagus. The photo did not turn out well. Check out the spring menu here
http://veggiegrill.com/docs/VG_Spring_menu_20140424.pdf

And the new Mountain View location here:
565 San Antonio Road
Mountain View, CA 90404

GIVEAWAY DIRECTIONS
I'm giving away 4 coupons for a free entree at Veggie Grill (any location). You can enter by filling out the form below. 4 winners will be drawn on Tuesday night and announced on Wednesday morning.

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Asian Box - Mountain View

A quick drive by post today to introduce a great lunch spot in downtown Mountain View on Castro Street. The business name is a bit erhm...either plain or naughty, depending on how you look at it. Last fall/winter, when the weather was perfectly crisp and idyllic for our definition of California cold, Kate introduced Olivia and I to one of her favorite lunch places, Asian Box, fresh and fast sustainable boxed meals. 

While the food can be ordered online in advance, it is also a sit down restaurant that takes walk ins. The Box works like this:

1. Choose your grain from brown rice, white rice, noodles, and salad options
2. Pick a protein like chicken, pork, beef, tofu, shrimp
3. Add on veggies, garnishes , and sauces 
4. Order optional drinks or sides. Light alcohol like beers and ciders is an option here.

You may also be able to choose some pre-set combos.

I love pear cider and seize every opportunity to try a different brand. The Spire cider from this day was light, fruity, and bubbly. 

I forgot the exact price. This was somewhere around $9-$10. My box had brown rice, garlic and soy glazed beef,  jalapenos, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, fresh lime, herbs, and pickled veggies. The sauce was a tamarind vinaigrette. I really enjoyed this lunch. It was healthy, fresh, tasty. The tamarind vinaigrette was good. My one complaint is that I wish there was more food. Healthy food digests really quickly and I need more. 

We had a great lunch and chat in their curbside seating area. As you can see, we're all bloggers so photographing your food like Kate and I did here is perfectly acceptable. Olivia ordered one of the boxes with a hot sauce and she was dying, so beware if you decide to add heat.

Ah autumn in Mountain View. So cute.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

I recommend Asian Box for quick healthy lunches. Whether you order in advance or order in the store, it doesn't take too long to prepare and you will be eating sooner rather than later. If the weather is nice, sit outside and enjoy people watching. Castro Street is very adorable. If there's no space outside, the indoor seating is spacious. I like the concept of Asian Box. It is very much like Kincao but with a storefront. Check it out if you're in the area. 

Asian Box on Yelp (This is confusing because they list it as Vietnamese food. It's mostly fusion. Only things like tamarind, bean sprouts, lemongrass, and herbs make it sorta Vietnamese.)

Tea Era - Farm Fresh to You - Grilled Cajun Shrimp

 Grilled shrimp made in a pan. Buy fresh shrimp at the store, preferably with the heads on. Skewer them like the picture. Heat a mixture of a bit of butter and olive oil with cajun seasoning, pepper, paprika, and chopped green onions at the very end. Brush this on both sides of your shrimp as they're cooking. HELLA good snack.

Pad Thai made from the recipe book we got from our Thai cooking class. I will share this recipe later when I get a chance to write a decent post about it. Pad See Ew leftovers from my lunch with coworkers. Grilled shrimp in the back.

A small mixed fruit and veggie shipment from Farm Fresh to You. My bro and sis in laws gave me a Living Social deal which would expire this week so I had to redeem my shipment. 

2 avocados, 1 bunch of broccolini,1 delicata squash, 4 Fuji apples, 2 kiwis, 1 yellow onion, 1 bunch of radishes, 1 bunch of carrots (already consumed), and 1 fennel bulb. These are all organic. $25 for all this is a fair value I think. It's just alot of produce and I don't have enough time to cook. They delivered on time either in the early AM's or late PM's. You don't even know they've arrived until you open your door. It's a pretty good service and the veggies I have eaten so far are crunchy and fresh. I would recommend this for those who have a need for such services.

HOWEVER: I only wanted this one shipment but I had to sign up for the whole service. I plan to cancel the service after receiving this one shipment for which my Livingsocial deal covered. Signing up is as easy as a few clicks of the mouse. Cancelling requires calling customer service. That's how they get you...

Someone introduced me to roasted barley tea with green tea jelly from Tea Era in Mountain View. YUMMMMMMMM

I still love my Ten Ren, T-Pumps, and Huong Lan for their own special purposes, but for roasted barley tea, only Tea Era from now on. 

Tea Era on Yelp

DIY Halloween Costume 2012

 I have really gotten into the spirit of Halloween within the last 5 years. It was hard to really get into it when your mom handed down the same clown jump suit for all 3 kids each year, depending on who fit it that year. We took our turns as either a clown, or a karate kid. Blah....

Ever since I started challenging myself to make cheap and quick costumes, I've had alot more fun with Halloween. The previous budget was everything under $10. This year I had much less time to shop for materials and make the outfit.

 I just bought this leopard dress from Forever21, size small, for $17.90. It needed a little work as you can see with the wide arm holes and the long bunching skirt.

Flip inside out, cut the bottom as short as you wish. I should've known that the back needs to cut a bit higher than the front to make room for any junk in the trunk. My skirt rose up higher than I liked so I wore bicycle shorts underneath.

No cutting needed for the arm holes.Just pinch what you want to take in and sew a slanted line like above to take it in. If I really had the time and wanted to get fancy, I'd open up the two sides and take in the waist too because it was bunchy. But just the arm holes will do.

 Cut 4 triangles out of the extra bottom piece you cut off from step 1. They can be all leopard or two leopards and two black sides. Sew 2 sides, flip inside out, stuff with cotton, sew up the bottom. Exactly like you would sew a pillow. Hot glue each piece to one of those snappy hair clips (like the ones they use in gymnastics).

Draw leopard spots on your face with eyeliner pencil and fill it in with yellow and orange eyeshadow. I primed my face before this too and wet the brush with water so the eyeshadow would be more pigmented. Reminiscent of 2010's giraffe makeup, no? 

 Curl hair, draw dramatic cat eye makeup. I Googled "leopard makeup" and took inspiration from the first page of image results. False lashes would look good here too but no time. No dress rehearsal this year. I got ready in under an hour right after work so the first try had to work or else...

Lastly, and optionally, draw leopard spots on your legs with marker. If I had time, these spots would go all the way up the left outter leg. This was inspired by that contestant from X-factor who basically draws this on everyday.

Don't forge to look fierce, leopard fierce!

Everyone at "The Company" used to dress up for Halloween and it was a fun work event. At "The New Company," no one dresses up and I was forewarned about this. Instead I donned my costume to go for happy hour with a Capless Cap'n Crunch and scarfless Tony the Tiger (NOT TIGGER!!! she says).

Xanh Restaurant - Mountain View

My NYE 2009 celebration started off with happy hour at Xanh a Vietnamese restaurant in Mountain View. Xanh means green (or also blue). Xanh gets very high ratings on Yelp and I have gotten several in person recommendations for this place so I admit, I was a little hyped up.

The restaurant lays less than a block down the street from where this picture was taken. Such a beautiful downtown street. I like smaller cities with lighted streets in the winter time. It's one of my ideal winter settings.

Standard bar with the drinks and the poshy lighting. Let's start with some basics: happy hour is 4:30-6:30pm M-F, only at the bar or lounge area, $3 drinks, $4 food from the happy hour menu.

Garlic Noodles: so good. so buttery, garlicky good. Big enough portion considering it's only $4. This could fill me up.

Kobe beef spring rolls: so good. crisp and fresh taste with lemony/vinegary dipping sauce good. Side of Widmer Hefwenweizen beer.

Papaya Salad: so good. so fresh and crunchy and vinegary/spicy good. I would consider this a big portion for a happy hour item. We took part of this home for a midnight snack. FYI, the spring roll sauce is the same sauce as the dressing for the salad.

The whole spread: so good. Side of Lychee Martini on the left, also so good. Not on the happy hour menu but I asked the bartender for drinks that he could make for me at the same price. He made me this Lychee martini for the happy hour price of about $5.

Toast to end 2009: Little Miss Sunshine on the left and Widmer Hef on the right. Little Miss Sunshine is basically a pomegranate champagne and it is so good.

Aw its like a school dance.

Things of note:
I did not write much to introduce Xanh because I want to lead in with the good and end with the slightly less good. I have not been so satisfied with a meal like Xanh in so long. I loved this place and definitely want to come back. But I do have to warn readers about two things.

1) Don't expect authentic, but do expect yummy. We don't really have garlic noodles and kobe beef spring rolls in Vietnamese food. Or that vinegar/lime sauce. The food is not on the same level as your hole in the wall joints off Tully Rd. But nonetheless it is good for its genre, which I would consider to be Asian fusion and we all know from the Straits entry that Asian fusion has not been a hit with me. Dood, don't even get me started on PF Chang's.

2) It is pricey. I don't know the exact prices of the regular dinner menu but I know it takes an arm, a leg, and maybe a set of balls to have a fulfilling meal here. Go for the happy hour. You may only get to eat a few dishes but they are worth it. The portion is large, the quality is excellent, and the price is cheap. The drinks were also very tasty.

The ambience is nice and made for lovely pictures. The service was really good too because we were one of the only ones to arrive at that hour and all eyes were on us. I usually don't mention these things because I don't give an F about them as my stomach and taste buds take first priority. But I had a pleasant enough experience to make this side note.

Xanh Restaurant on Yelp