What I Ate: June 3, 2010 (The Village Pub, Old Port Lobster Shack)

Lunch: We drove to Woodside to visit Cliff and have lunch with Fanpop. We ate at The Village Pub (2967 Woodside Road, Woodside, CA‎ - (650) 851-9888‎) where the food was delicious, but had a few execution problems.

Tuna Carpaccio / Grapefruit and Fennel / Avocado The citrus paired perfectly with the mild fish and creamy avocado balls. Good appetizer.

Sweet Gem Lettuce / Shaved Spring Vegetables / Ricotta Salata Fresh sweet and crisp lettuce with shaved asparagus and other vegetables made this an excellent salad course.


I also had a taste of Dave's Duck Liver Mousse / Cornichons and Crostini which I thought was excellently prepared. He didn't finish all of it and gave me 1/3 of the mousse, but I wasn't paying attention when they cleared the appetizer plates and they took away the remaining mousse. That bummed me out a little.

Crispy Duck Confit / Frog Hollow Peaches / Glazed Turnips The duck was texturally excellent, but too salty. The first few bites are delightful, then the saltiness adds up and there's no way to eat it without taking a break. It's especially troubling since the duck is otherwise perfectly prepared and there's nothing else on the plate that isn't salty.

Grilled Hanger Steak / Sauteed Romano Beans / Crispy Cipollini Onions The tempura battered and fried onions were the highlight of this dish for me. They were tender, sweet yet oniony, and had a nice crispy and savory shell. The steak itself was fairly tough and chewy, but apparently this was an aberration. Papa's hanger steak was soft and tender.

I also tried the Brentwood Sweet Corn Risotto / Basil Pistou and it was excellent. A great balance of sweetness (which was the dominant flavor) and texture (soft but with a gentle resisting chew that makes risotto so good).

Pineapple Tart / Coconut Sorbet a tasty dessert - good cooked preparation of pineapple on a custard filled tart. I tried the Butterscotch Pot De Creme / Vanilla Shortbread and the Strawberry Pop Tart / Vanilla Ice Cream and all were delicious. I liked the Strawberry Pop Tart the best.

Dinner: We had lobster rolls at Old Port Lobster Shack (851 Veterans Boulevard, Redwood City, CA‎ - (650) 366-2400). The potatoes were a bit off today, but the lobster rolls were pretty decent and had a nice amount of lobster. Mostly, I wanted to check if we were doing okay with our crab sandwiches, and they are pretty close (except for the crab/lobster part) so that made me fairly happy. We were busy catching up with a few friends, so that made it a little difficult to concentrate on the food and determine just how good it was tonight, but that's okay.

I also picked up a couple root beers made in Maine from Old Port Lobster Shack while I was there. I preferred the Capt'n Eli Root Beer over the Sea Dog. This is notable because yesterday I happened to try a Lemon Lime soda from Capt'n Eli while dining at Serpentine and liked it for it's natural citrus flavor (vs. other lemon-lime sodas which tend to taste like artificial flavorings instead).

The highlight of my day was meeting (and shaking hands with) Cliff's neighbor, Martin Eberhard (the founder and former CEO of Tesla Motors). I'm always delighted to meet people trying to make a changes to the world (in this case, attempting to revolutionize how we use and perceive electric vehicles) and it's makes me happy when they turn out to be incredibly friendly and welcoming like Mr. Eberhard was in the brief exchange that we had.