Sunday--I went to Project Open Hand's nth (I think n=6) annual Dessert First (note: this is the website for last year's, b/c they don't have this year's up yet. You can get the gist of the event from looking at these pictures from last year.) w/ some friends. This has become a sort of quasi-tradition for me; I think this is the fourth time going with them. (Interestingly enough, I think that every time I have gone to this function with these friends, there is a new addition to their family. Well, the "addition" between the first and second times might be a bit of a stretch, but the first time, I think they were just dating; then they added each other (i.e. got married); then child #1, and this time, child #2. Hmm. Ok, enough of a digression.)
This would've been the perfect bring-your-camera opportunity, but I missed it. Imagine a beautiful array of aesthetically pleasing desserts of all varieties lined up for miles and miles. Ok, maybe not miles, but several hundred square feet worth.
Wednesday--I made ratatouille with basil dumplings. The brilliant hues of the various veggies--red, purple, bright green and bright yellow--serving as a backdrop to the green speckled pale yellow dumplings looked very colorful, and would've made for a good photo, but again, my mind was on other things--like eating this before it got cold.
Thursday--I went to Vung Tau II in Milpitas. Excellent Vietnamese food, and no pho! Not that I have anything against pho (except cilantro, which I detest, despise, abhor, etc. etc.), but it's like Japanese food and sushi. Many people here think Japanese food=sushi, teriyaki, and tempura, b/c that is all they serve at most restaurants around here. So I imagine the same is the case w/ Vietnamese food. We did family-style, which I don't usually get to do w/ Vietnamese food. I got to try more dishes this way. They didn't have banh xeo, but they had other stuff that was very good. Here was another occassion where I would've liked to have taken pictures of some of the stuff we ordered--lotus root salad, shrimp cupcakes, lemongrass shrimp, seabass dish among others--just because it's not your typical bun, pho fare. (Plus it would make for a much more interesting read with photos)
Friday--I had my friend Verdant over. We were supposed to "cook" together, and I had planned a menu of pasta w/ herbs from my garden plus an herb souffle that I had recently cut out, but it was sweltering hot in my apartment, and I was in no mood to increase the temperature of my apartment by another 20 degrees (F). Thus I decided to change the menu to cold sesame noodles, a summer staple. It's sort of Japanese food, but not really. Well ok, they serve it in Japan, but they call it "cold Chinese-style noodles" or 冷やし中華. I'm sure it's a Japanized version of a Chinese dish. There wasn't much to do except boil noodles, and julienne slice some veggies, make a salad, thinly slice cucumbers, so I ended up finish much of this before Verdant came over. The arrays of different colors again called for a photo-op, but again, who thinks, "Oh wait. I just finished cooking. Let me preserve this moment on camera" when one is starving and winding down with a chilled glass of Asti Spumante, not to mention dying from oppressive heat? However, I did get some silly (It's impossible to not be silly when there are only two of us, and we are trying to take a picture of the two of us. Half of the photos were useless and utterly silly-looking.) shots of the two of us.
This was actually more eating out than I usually do in a month (or sometimes even two-- including lunch outings which I didn't mention here)!
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