Pearl Cafe (Mountain View)

A surprising find! The bulk of the food menu was Hawaiian. We tried loco moco, morning musubi and the pepper chicken with jasmine milk tea. The milk tea was decent (tasted like Quickly and the pearls were not hard), and the food was pretty nice. We liked how the pepper chicken had a good meat-to-batter ratio. We had never had musubi before, but the morning musubi was quite nice (the hashbrown and the rice melded together), although the seaweed was pretty old and couldn't be torn apart.
It's pretty decent food at decent prices (the portions were HUGE), so we'll probably return in the future. Also, the ambience is pretty nice for relaxing and hanging out with friends!

Loco Moco with katsu and curry sauce. This could be two persons' lunch.

Morning musubi. Egg, spam and hasbrown with rice wrapped in seaweed.

 Pearl Cafe

506 Showers Dr

Mountain View, CA 94040

(650) 917-8988

Sushi Sam's Edomata (San Mateo)

At least two friends recommended this Japanese sushi restaurant to us, so we decided to make the drive up to San Mateo. It was worth it.
We ordered salmon nigiri (our standard for testing sushi bars), soft shell crab roll, and omakase sashimi (our friend recommended we try it). Everything was provided at very generous cuts, and the salmon had lots of fat (close to salmon belly). We quite liked the soft shell crab roll although we found that the batter was a bit too thick and we couldn't really taste much of the meat. 
What I really wanted to talk about was the omakase. It was completely worth the $40 we paid for it. 8 big cuts of a variety of white fish, special yellowtail, flounder, TORO, and a seasonal baby squid marinated with miso. The toro simply melted in our mouth, no need for chewing! We hadn't had the other kinds of fish before, and it was a good first experience. 
Finally, the omakase dessert, white miso parfait, was simply delicious. The blend of flavors in the cream and spongecake was heightened by the slightly salty taste of the miso puree. 
We would come here again!

Salmon nigiri and soft shell crab roll. Check out the thick layers of fat on the salmon

Omakase sashimi

White miso parfait. YUM!

Sushi Sam's Edomata

218 E 3rd Ave

San Mateo, CA 94401

(650) 344-0888

http://www.sushisams.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my favorite recipe for making dark chocolate chip cookies that are soft on the inside, yet crispy on the outside.

The whole recipe takes less than 1 hour from start to finish, and made ~60 mini bite-sized cookies:

Ingredients:

1. 2+1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt
3. 1 teaspoon baking soda
4. 1/3 cup cocoa powder (*** Omit this if you don't want double chocolate cookies***) 
5. 3/4 cup granulated sugar
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. 1 cup (= 2 sticks) butter, softened
8. 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
9. 2 eggs
10. 2 cups semi-dark chocolate chips (I like using Guittard's or Ghiradelli)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.
3. Beat together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy.
4. Add eggs to the liquid mixture, and beat well.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture, and mix well. (The dough will become rather stiff)
6. Stir in the chocolate chips until evenly mixed.
7. Drop by rounded teaspoon-fuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. (Or use your hand to pinch off and round off a small chunk)
8. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned, or the top has hardened and cracked.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Enjoy! The cookies will look like little round mochi balls.

It's all about the crockery

The size of the plate and cup determines how much you will eat and drink.

I greedily choose a large cup for my juice and now I'm bloated.

Also a good principle to remember for those on a diet. It affects how much you perceive yourself to have eaten!

Funny post about how lunch can make or break your day..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9900230/My-entire-day-can-be-spoilt-by-a-badly-chosen-lunch.html

My first Omu Rice!

Made my first omu* rice today =) Paired it with japanese curry, what a simple yet delicious dinner!

*translation: Omelette-wrapped rice 

  

Things don't have to be perfect to have a good time..

Sometimes we think that, to have a good time, the event we had planned must execute perfectly. I don't deny occasions when I've become a wet towel when things didn't go as I had anticipated. But one should realize, most of the time, it's not the things you do, but the people and the time that you spend doing those things with, that really make all the difference!

During my last trip to Hong Kong, my mother and I tried to make pork floss springrolls for our family. It turned out to be a frustrating process, as the springroll skin from the supermarket was too dry to roll and stick to itself. Nevertheless, it was one of the most memorable experiences I've had this trip, amid all the family visits and catching up with old friends, because we just ended up having fun making different shapes and experimenting with what would work with the skin (read: creativity at work!). Also it was a rare time where I could sit down with my mum and make things with her (I'm away so much during the year), so it really meant a lot to me.

The photos probably doesn't look like much, but the feelings behind them weigh a ton.