EastCoast WestCoast Family BBQ

A few weeks back, my cousin Felicia invited us all over to her apartment for an EastCoast WestCoast family bbq. We had family in town from both sides of the States, hence the name.

She marinated some meat, fired up the grill and we started chowing down.


Food on the Grill
Here's just a snipbit of the food that we had that day. Some drumsticks, hot dogs, carne asada..


Seasonings
Some grill side seasonings


ChauMian yes, i put chauMian instead of ChowMien bc i'm mandarin speaking.
The noodles were made for my grandma who isn't so keen on the bbq meats


Grandma!
Speaking of grandma, she was so happy and proud of my cousin. no one had ever had my cousin's "cooking" up until this day :)


Strawberries
Some fresh strawberries that one of the aunties brought




Alchie
And of course, no meal with my family is complete without some alcohol involved..We had our assortment of wines. there was one can of beer, that no one touched.


It was a fun time. great sunny afternoon. got to meet some new extended family members. Also got to see this little one again.

SFO Marriott

1800 Old Bayshore Highway * Burlingame, CA

So, after a week of training and meetings at the SFO Marriott, i decided to talk about the food per a suggestion from my co-worker. The photos are not going to be great b/c they were taken on by phone, but they'll have to do.

I only captured two meals, but overall, the food was pretty good for hotel catered to 150+ people. the only exception would be the sandwiches, they could have been a bit more interesting. each day was a diff't theme buffet for lunch; breakfast was consistently your typical continental; the one night we had dinner was a pretty good variety...

Italian-Themed Lunch
On the second day, there was an Italian themed lunch with tomato/mozerrela salad, pasta, roasted veggies...


papa al pomodoro soup
creamy tomato based soup with a wheat ciabatta roll

This was a highlight of the week. well seasoned. good consistency. a friend of mine said "I'd totally pay $41 for another bowl of soup."



cappuccino bandecake
Cappuccino mousse on chocolate cake

This was interesting...from the picture it doesn't look very appetizing. even as we were trying this it didn't look appetizing. but it was surprisingly decent. the mousse was a pretty strong espresso taste. i liked the consistency of the cake.

Asian-Themed Lunch

Paul's Gourmet Chinese Plate
Chicken Potstickers, Veggie Eggroll, beef with peppers in a black bean sauce, Jasmine Rice, Lychee from Asian Fruit Salad

As the meals were all setup buffet style, Paul's plate was able to showcase almost all of the items served that day for lunch. The potstickers tasted like linglings from costco to me, the skin was alittle bit too hard| eggrolls were pretty good. however based on talking to others, it seems like they may have been inconsistent. some found it to be too salty, while others did not | black bean beef was also alittle inconsistent in terms of the degree of cooked-ness of the meat. however, i thought for a catered event and the amount of food in each tray, there was a consistent flavor and the bell peppers were good | Jasmine rice is rice, nothing special |the asian fruit salad was interesting, it had lychee, pineapple, melon, strawberry in a mint marinade.


Overall, I thought the food was better than some of the other hotel-banquet/catered events I had been to...though still not the best food I've ever had...

(if you were there, i would love to hear your feedback..on the food)

paws: 3

Archipelago

(1107 Howard Ave*Burlingame, CA)
For AL's birthday we heaced to Archipelago for dinner. (now that we're getting older, our celebrations are increasing in $$) Archipelago is a fusion restaurant mixing Filipino foods with french and other european influences. The head chef, chef Alain, is a cordon bleu professor who previously worked at French Laundry as a chef and head cheese selector.

There were 15 of us. a relatively large group for a restaurant their size. This was my 2nd time at the restaurant. a relatively good experience.



Quartet of Hot/Cold Oysters.
2 hot & 2 cold oysters. one with lemongrass vinaigrette. one panko fried with banana sauce. one with rhubarb reduction. one with chinese mustard.

This came recommended on Yelp and by the waitress. we ordered a few to share around the table. I thought this was a pretty interesting dish. The temperature was alittle weird and I wasn't sure which one was cooked vs raw. I am a fan of these little oysters though. esp, lil raw oysters (yum!).



Lamb Rack
roasted lamb. roasted veggies. layered "scalloped" potato.

EL ordered this lamb. i'm not a big lamb fan, but it looked like it was done fairly well. looked juicy. not much for me to say..



Grilled Kurobuta Pork Chop
Grilled pork chop. black rice. caramelized endives with other veggies.

I ordered the pork chop as it was recommended by the waitress. it was pretty good. good portion size. juicy. the black rice was a nice touch, as I've been eating primarily this 10 grain rice at home. it was a little bit too greasy for me though.

- - - - - - - - - - --
I don't have pictures, but DK ordered a grilled whole bonzini (Mediterranean fish) which was very juicy and perfectly cooked. The grilled chicken was a little disappointing, not much food on the plate.

The cocktails were pretty good. I had the pineapple basil. (i LOVE basil cocktails).

Dessert was yum. their caramel apples are ingenius. lil melon-balled apples coated with warm caramel and 3 diff't toppings to dip into (peanuts, marshmallows, and dark chocolate bits) SOOOOO GOOD! The creme brulee duo is good as well with a hazelnut one and a vietnamese coffee one.

___________________________________________________________________

and I leave you with a random photo. that i thought was pretty cool. taken by DK

(hmm...whose girly lychee-tini is that?)