Home Away from Home

I always look forward to our annual trip away to Monterey, our home away from home, as I refer to Matthew's boss' vacation home.

It's so peaceful and relaxing there.

We first stopped off at a tourist destination, The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. We've never been there and decided to check it out.

It was quite interesting...

We couldn't figure out how worked. Matthew being the architect thinks it's all an optical illusion.

Spidey-Matt

But Hannah and I started to not feel good while we were on the Spot so it must be something..

Emily is standing straight. She really is.

We always visit our favorite aquarium,. this time with our Buffet Club President/VP and their girls.

And we hung out at Carmel Beach..

Some of us were very productive...

And some of us were not so much..

But we did eat well with Chef Owen on the grill!

And Phil's didn't hurt either!

Their cioppino is delicious!

This is the biggest and best bowl of clam chowder I have ever seen and tasted!

The vacation wouldn't be complete without dessert!

Great Pots

Feasting at a new restaurant in town. This time it's Hot Pot and it's still yummy in 80 degree weather!

This was my favorite: Seafood Pot

At Tasty Pot Restaurant, you get to chose a flavored pot and it cooks right at your table.

You get to pick your spice level from no spice to flaming! Matthew and Greg felt 'mild' was just the right amount of spice.

For lunch they even throw in a free iced green or black tea.

We loved it so much we went back three days later with Matthew's family.

My brother in law Kenny picked 'flaming' for his.. he said it was just the right amount of spice so that you can still taste what you're eating!

And again with our friends, Willie and Sandy and their daughter Shawna.

The cool thing is that right next door is a great boba tea place called iTea.

I think we need to have our next Buffet Club meeting here.. whatcha think Prez & VPrez?

Hi-Tech Sushi

We finally hit a new kind of restaurant! Our Buffet Club Pres and VP recommended that we give this one a try. Now I'm not too into those sushi places where all the dishes are the same price. Not because of the cost, but because of the quality of the food. I remember we ate at a place where all the sushi was $1.50 a dish. Well.. all I can say is you get what you pay for.

This new sushi place was $2.25 a dish. I was a little hesitant because that is still cheap for sushi. But I did not have to worry.. everything was delicious!

Our godson, Kyle was home for spring break from Cal Poly SLO, but his sister had to go back to college thus she's on the phone her mother is holding.

But the kicker wasn't only the cost nor quality of food but the hi-techness of the way the food is served.

They had a nice variety of sushi: cooked and uncooked.

All the tables were against the assembly line of sushi that you can grab whenever you want.

If you don't see what you want or want it be made fresh, you can order it on the iPad that is above your table. After you order it, a few minutes later it comes zipping down the conveyor belt and stops conveniently at your table.

The soups came locked with a lid. No spilling!

Once you have finished with your plate, you dispose of them in the plate chute which is also located at the end of each table. Efficient huh? No need to flag down a waitress to take your plates, nor keep them all stacked up to calculate afterwards.

I wonder what it looks like on the other side of this chute.

The computer keeps track of all your plates. And after every 15 plates, you get a free Hello Kitty surprise toy!'

We had 48 plates.. but at $2.25 each it's not a bad price!

Now you may think there isn't anyone waiting on you but there are. They fill your tea or water cups or if you order ramen or something that isn't on a small plate, they can take away those plates.

Their ramen was surprisingly very good for $4.80 a bowl. My girls loved it!

Overall, it was a must-try experience and the food was really good.  I was glad that we got to try it with my cousin and her family!

NOTE: BIG downside to this place was the wait. We arrived 30 minutes before it opened to put our name down and the first page and half of the 2nd page were already full. We had to wait 2 hours for our table. (Arrived at 11 ate at 1) They don't take reservations and it always a ton of people waiting at the door. No big tables. I think a max of 7 (which was our party) was the biggest they could accommodate if we wanted to sit together.

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar
19600 Vallco Pkwy
Cupertino

A Soft Opening

New restaurants are opening all over the Bay Area. We know this because of our friends, Grace and Owen, who frequent these new establishments for free. They go for free because they are invited to their 'soft' openings.

A soft opening is when a restaurant opens to a select few, usually friends and family of employees, to do a trial run,  to get the kinks out before officially opening to the public. Now I'm not sure if Grace and Owen are actually related to anyone who works at these restaurants but they get invited for some blessed reason.

And so did we.. through them!

So this new year of 2016 we got to eat at the new MOD Pizza in our town for free!

And we invited our friends, Scott & Helen

It's pretty similar to Blaze Pizza and Pieology but with a mega size pizza option and milkshakes.

The kids ate everything and loved the unlimited drink station.

It's the new trend of make-your-own pizza. It was good but nothing different from the others.

Thanks Buffet Club Pres and VP! Until we eat again...

Pepper Lunch

... in the US! My ingenious husband found a location here in the States.. the only location actually and it's just 20 minutes from our house. (If you read my HK posts, Pepper Lunch was one of our favorite places to eat in Hong Kong.)

So off we went..

Faith and Hannah outside of the restaurant.

We were joined by our Buffet Club President and Vice-President and their girls. (We don't only eat at Buffets.. always on the look out for new restaurants.)

I ordered the beef pepper rice with egg.

Faith ordered the salmon pepper rice.

Hannah (and Emily) both got udon noodles.

Overall I enjoyed it. But it wasn't the same as HK. It's not peppery enough and they don't have a variety of sauces you can choose from. My hubby did not think it was up to the par with HK's version and it's way too expensive here as well!

CNY

To celebrate the Year of the Snake, we went out to dinner to eat yummy food at BK Bistro. The place was packed and was reservations only.

Emily with her grandparents and cousins. Not sure where Hannah went.

steamed shanghai style dumplings

dried scallop with yellow chive soup

roasted peking duck with buns

sauteed egg white with scallop over broccoli

steamed empress clam with bean thread in garlic sauce

sauteed pea sprouts

braised mushrooms with seasonal veggies

beef short ribs with honey pepper sauce

braised e-fu noodle with mushroom

I forgot to take pictures of three additional dishes: diced duck meat with lettuce wraps,  honey glazed walnut prawns and red bean soup for dessert. I was so busy eating that by the time I remembered to take a picture of the dish it was almost all gone! Everything was delicious!

New Eats

One of my favorite foods is Korean food. I love the tofu pots and all the little side dishes they have that come with all their entrees. I especially like the little fishes, seaweed and anything pickled. No kim chee though... too spicy for me.

We noticed a new Korean restaurant that recently opened in our little city and decided to check it out.

Korean restaurants are known for their spicy tofu pots.

The redder the spicier.. but our kids don't like spice so we chose mild for them. But their mild still looked spicy.

Korean restaurants are known for their little side dishes:

An of course the kalbi spare ribs:

Lastly we ordered an appetizer, beef bulgogi with rice cake. It was as large as an entree. We thought the kids might like this but unfortunately it too was a little bit spicy.

Overall, this was an okay place. Nothing special about it and the big downer was that they don't serve  chicken. No chicken on the menu anywhere. No grilled chicken which is one of Emily's favorites. So don't think we'll be returning anytime soon. Bummer since it's so close to our house.