Dinner with Brothersahn

Now that we are living in Lafayette, we are closer to San Ramon where Greg still works. We met up a few weeks ago for dinner like we did back in the day. Meeting up once a week for dinner was a regular occurence when I was still living and working in San Ramon. 

We would rotate between 4 restaurants: a Mediterranean or Thai place in Danville, or a bar & grill or sushi place in San Ramon. Since Baby is particular with what I eat and since sushi is a no no right now, we went to the bar & grill, The Hop Yard. 

What kept us coming back was the fried spicy mac & cheese bites. Since Greg is a fast eater, I have to make sure to keep up if I want my fair share!

Mac & Cheese bites. Oh so good!

Greg got adventurous and ordered the Impossible Burger. It is a meatless, plant-based patty he had read about. While he didn't hate it, not sure he will order it again. Since we were living it up he got it with garlic fries.

The Impossible Burger

I think there were only 2 times I didn't order the cheesesteak and had order's remorse each time. It comes with either chicken or beef, onions, mushrooms, banana peppers and melted Swiss-American cheese. Also feeling fancy, I ordered it with onion rings. 

Beef Cheesesteak

With the pregnancy, the whole gluten-free thing has gone out the window. Baby wants what Baby wants! I can tolerate it more than before so it will be interesting to see how my body reacts to it after I give birth.

 There's a Cold Stone not far from the restaurant so we walked over and each got a scoop. He likes cotton candy flavored ice cream with gummy bears and I ordered strawberry with Kit Kat bar.

 Mother always appreciates a picture so we snapped a few after dinner. (We did not plan the stripes.)

Bouchon Bakery

After our afternoon of walking around on 9/11,
we stopped by Rockefeller Center to check things out.

Across the square was Bouchon Bakery.
Lindsie is a fan of the owner/chef, Thomas Keller, so we had to stop in and have dessert.

We ordered a pistachio macaroon, 2 parfaits, and hot chocolate.

The pistachio macaroon was very flavorful and had a rich pistachio flavor
and not overly sweet.

The Cookies n Cream parfait was very good and
my favorite part was the crumbled cookies on top.

The Strawberry parfait had a gel on top with an intense strawberry flavor which was quite addicting. Out of the two, the strawberry was my favorite, which is saying a lot as I am a chocoholic.

We both enjoyed our hot chocolates.

After our pit stop, we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral to listen to a
special choral concert in honor of 9/11.

We actually lucked out on this concert. We were walking around after dessert and thought we'd just look inside. There were a lot of people inside and the choir had just walked onto stage so we decided to stick around awhile. The pipe organ rocked!

Katz's Deli

After church on 9/11, I ate the best pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli. I told Greg he needed to visit this place when he was visiting Lindsie back in February. They sent pictures to my phone of these beautiful sandwiches they ordered, a pastrami and a Rueben. Since they are so big, Lindsie and I opted to split one, which was more than enough for us along with the pickles. Greg said if he had to pick one, it would be pastrami. Hence the reason we went with the pastrami over the Rueben. He said both were very good, just that the Russian dressing was a tad sweet for his liking.

Upon entering, each person is given a ticket on which the sandwich makers write your order on, so you can pay on your way out. You do not want to lose this ticket! As Lindsie and I only ordered one thing, we turned in the blank ticket at the register on our way out. Otherwise they'll charge you a hefty amount. They try to prevent people from 'losing' their ticket so they don't have to pay their fair share.

Lindsie knew the trick for getting samples while waiting for your sandwich, something she picked up from her last trip with Greg. You tip the sandwich makers a dollar or two and they'll cut off slices of whatever meat they are cutting for you to sample.

Isn't it beautiful? Thick slices of succulent pastrami on rye. The pickles were good too.

I can't wait to dig in!

I hope you're hungry!

The pickle I'm eating (thanks for the most flattering picture Lindsie) wasn't pickled very long as it still tasted mostly like cucumber. It was a nice refreshing compliment to the rich pastrami.

Here are a few pictures of our afternoon after Katz's Deli.
This officer is certainly packing some heat.

Brooklyn Bridge

Near Ground Zero

An empty subway train car! I had to document this.

After our adventure downtown, we stopped by Little Italy to have a slice of pizza.

More posts to come of the wonderful food I had in NYC!

Fette Sau

I went to NYC for a week (Sept 9-Sept 16) and spent time with Lindsie before school started up again for me, and before Lindsie flew to Portugal for lab. We ate at some amazing places while I was there. The first place we went to was Fette Sau in Brooklyn. The train that takes us almost directly there was not in service that Saturday so we took a less-direct route and definitely built up an appetite.

The name means 'fat pig,' so naturally we had to get the pulled pork. It was the best pulled pork I've ever had. We also ordered some beef brisket, a sausage which reminded me of pepperoni in flavor, homemade baked beans with chunks of pork swimming in it and sauerkraut. Our eyes are always bigger than our stomachs but we made a good dent on the food.

On each table there was a selection of 4 sauces. One was spicy, one was your traditional tomato based bbq sauce, one was vinegar based, and the last one was a mustard/horseradish combination. My favorite out of the bunch was definitely the vinegar as it cut through the richness of all the meat quite nicely.

Lindsie enjoying the 'pepperoni' sausage.

We washed it down with water and now had the energy for 9 more hours of walking around NYC. It was a long day but well worth it.

Here are a few pictures from the trip before we made our next food stop that evening.

Because the 10th anniversary of 9/11 was the next day, the city was covered with NYPD and the ferries also had the coast guard escorting it to and back from Staten Island. I thought it was awesome.

Manhattan in the background.

At a near by park from the ferry building, there was a 9/11 memorial where each flag represented a life that was taken that day 10 years ago. It was quite sobering and made the events that happened that much more real to me.

This is a picture of the most massive Reese's peanut butter cups I've ever seen. Each cup is 8 ounces and 1150 calories. I bought it just because it was so ridiculous. I've yet to crack it open.

Fenton's Creamery and Restaurant

Last night I went with a few friends to a creamery in Oakland, California. Being lactose intolerant, I knew I'd be sorry in the morning for this splurge of dairy. But I figured I've been behaving myself lately (in regards to dairy) and figured it would be a nice treat to myself before school starts. I've always heard good things about it. Fenton's serves items from a crab melt to Cobb salad to a dessert called The Saddleback Brownie.

My friend Jessie and I both had the small 'Old Fashioned Sundaes.' The sundaes were very good. They were served in a goblet that is placed on a small plate to hold all the fudge and toppings that drip off the ice cream. It contains a generous scoop of ice cream topped with one topping of our choice, whipped cream, almonds and a cherry. Jessie went with the traditional vanilla and I went with Mint Cookie ice cream. After scarfing down my sundae, I realized I would have been completely content with the petite size.


Our friend Dave got the Banana Jr that was anything but junior! A banana slice was buried under 3 heaping scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream which was covered in pineapple, strawberries and hot fudge. With additional toppings of whipped cream, almonds and a cherry. Needless to say, it is not a diet friendly dish.

They've been around since 1894 so they must be doing something right.

Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago

Warning: Do not continue reading this if you are hungry. Pictures may induce stomach growling.


For Greg's birthday, the parents shipped four 9" pizzas from Lou Malnati's Tastes of Chicago which were incredible! The package included 2 pepperoni and 2 sausage pizzas. Greg's birthday is not until August 5th, but we had to make sure things tasted OK. We sampled the pepperoni pizzas the day after they arrived and are saving the sausage ones until his actual birthday.

Being a California girl, I often wonder if I'd prefer a Chicago deep dish over a NYC thin crust. I realize it may seem trivial and not as important as pondering ways of stopping world hunger, but I contemplate it almost every time I eat pizza which is about twice a month. So in that perspective, it is important to think about a food one consumes on a regular basis. :-)

I am accustomed to my pizza being a certain way: crust on the bottom, sauce on the crust, cheese on top of the sauce, toppings on top of the cheese, which may then be sprinkled with more cheese.

While this pizza had things a little backwards (with the order of crust, cheese, toppings and then sauce) I absolutely loved it! Maybe it was the chunky tomato sauce or the thick layer of cheese that won me over, but this pizza definitely won points for the deep dish side. Chicago has some valid points for making their pizza the way they do. Why put sauce on the crust which may cause it to become soggy? Why not have sides on a pizza in order to put in as much cheese and toppings and sacue as possible?

My lactose intolerance did not stop me from enjoying this delectable treat.

Isn't it a thing of beauty?

Along with the package of pizzas came a mouthwatering catalog containing other goodies from ribs to cannolis to a Chicago style hot dog kit. Afraid you won't like it? Let the evidence speak for itself.

The Crepe Place

After an afternoon at Sunset State Beach, Erika and I had dinner at The Crepe Place. We had originally wanted to try out Lilian's again but they were on vacation and closed. The Crepe Place, located in Santa Cruz, was just down the strip a few buildings. We had the choice of sitting inside or outside. To get to our seats outside, we passed by the bar & mini stage area which are right in the front door and then headed down a hall which leads to the main dining area. The garden and outside seating was just outside this main dining area.

This place had such great potential! I mean, how wrong can a crepe get? I was sadly mistaken.


Since Erika and I ordered dinner and not a la carte, we started the meal off with a honey-wheat bread loaf. Best part about the bread was the presentation. Came on a cute wooden plank, speared with a knife.

Next we had our salad or soup. Erika's salad was just your average garden salad while my french onion soup was very salty. When I first received it, I wondered where the cheese was. The picture you see is what my bowl looked like when I was served. The cheese was at the bottom of the bowl and the croutons were a bit soggy by the time it got to me. As you can see from the pic, the bowl wasn't very neat either.


Crepe Fredo – 12.00 / 16.50 Blue Point Crab, Spinach, White Cheddar Cheese, Swiss Gruyere, Mushrooms, Onions & Herbal Seasonings. Topped with our White Wine Alfredo Sauce.

I was sorely disappointed in the crepe I ordered, which was the Crepe Fredo. I think it would've been better had there not been any crab in the crepe. Also, the Alfredo sauce that the crepe was drenched in was separating and not very appetizing to look at. Presentation wise, I would give it a 3 out of 10.


Crepe Gatsby – 10.50 / 15.00 Sautéed Chicken Breast, Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Spinach, Feta & Mozzarella Cheeses, Fresh Mushrooms, Scallions, Tomatoes & Garlic. Sprinkled with Romano Cheese.

The redeeming grace of Erika's crepe, which was the Crepe Gatsby, was that it had garlic in it and it wasn't soaked in sauce. I preferred hers over mine.


My favorite part of the meal was the ginger ale, and then that wasn't even that wonderful. It tasted better with the squeeze of lime and lemon juice.

Being sadly disappointed with our meal, I decided to pass on dessert. It was too pricey for the quality of food we received and the service wasn't great either. At the end of our meal, we had to go and find our waitress so we could just pay and leave. Perhaps if I'm feeling generous in the future, I will go back and try the dessert crepes to see if they are any better than the dinner crepes.