For lunch, I grabbed a BLT with Avocado from Crossroads Cafe (699 Delancey St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 836-5624‎).

Tina and I phoned in an order to the Chili's near my home - a Southwestern Cobb Salad for Tina and a Chicken Caesar Salad (with Shrimp) for me. Usually, these salads are quite good, but tonight they didn't turn out too well. It might have been because I was over thirty minutes late heading over to pick up the salads (because the guy I was going to sell my propane grill to finally showed up; at least I managed to sell the grill).

For lunch, Tina and I joined a party our friends Andrew and Mary threw celebrating their new baby girl. We all had dim sum at Loon Wah Chinese Restaurant (1146 S De Anza Blvd, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 257-8877).

At night, we headed over to Alex James's place to have some hot pot. We brought the hot pot and Alex provided all the materials - beef balls, fish balls, enoki mushroom, napa cabbage, tofu, and bean vermicelli noodles. (He also had a variety of meats and baby bok choy, but it was way too much food already.)

Continuing the San Francisco Bay Area series, here's a shot of Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz (which is either in the southernmost part of the Bay Area or just outside of it depending on who you talk to). Natural Bridges is probably most famous for the yearly Monarch butterfly migrations where you'll see entire trees covered in butterflies. It's really quite spectacular. Oh, and the beach is quite nice also.

Handheld, 1/60 sec at f/8 on ISO 800, 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

My friend Ian phoned this morning and invited us to join his, his wife Winnie, and his son Ethan for a dim sum lunch at China Stix (2110 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA‎ - (408) 244-1684‎). The company and conversation was good, but the food ranged from so-so to just plain bad (the chicken feet were bland and the shaobing with beef were too sweet from plum sauce, and after the taste of cucumbers passed it was flavorless).

For dinner, we continued on our fine dining "death march" with The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton (600 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 773-6168‎). Before receiving the menus, an amuse bouche of fried agnolloti stuffed with a white bean puree arrived.

After we downed the tasty, bite sized pasta bits, we reviewed the menu. Our choices were to select two main courses for a three course dinner ($74) or the nine course tasting menu ($125). The tasting menu at The Dining Room is unique because if you eat as a couple, each diner gets a different dish for each course which gives you a total of eighteen different dishes. Tina and I were both concerned with the three course dinner - what if we don't like what we ordered? Obviously, we'd send it back, but there's still a good chance that we'd get bored. Plus, tasting eighteen dishes (twenty-one including the amuses) would give us a real feel for the restaurant. I ordered the Hildon sparkling water and the tasting menus and the evening began. It turns out the Hildon Natural Mineral Water was excellent - crisp, lightly effervescent, and barely acidic.
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What I Ate: March 21, 2009 (China Stix, The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton)

I found myself really hungry after running a few errands today. I was next to a Taco Bell, so I went in and ordered three crunchy taco supremes.

Tina and I went to see The Reader (4.5/5.0) but because of the timing of the movie we needed to eat some place close to the theater. The AMC Saratoga 14 has a Pizza My Heart (850 El Paseo De Saratoga, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 364-0400‎) right next to it, so I suggested that. Neither of us had ever had Pizza My Heart, and we were pleasantly surprised at the tastiness of the pizza slices. We split a slice of combination pizza.

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What I Ate: March 20, 2009 (Taco Bell, Pizza My Heart)

Dave and I walked over to the Los Compadres Taco Truck (Spear and Folsom, San Francisco, CA) where I got myself the three taco plate. I got them one each with carne asada, carnitas, and al pastor.

We walked across the street and ate them on the Embarcadero.

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What I Ate: March 19, 2009 (Los Compadres Taco Truck, Ringerhut)

I didn't have much time to eat lunch today, so I grabbed a quick hot dog from 7-Eleven after picking up some forms at the post office.

For dinner, I saw that Vickey and Pete were eating Indian food for dinner (on Facebook), so I started craving Indian food. Tina and I compromised with wraps from New Tandoori Cafe (5134 Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 247-9010‎). I got a fish wrap with garlic naan. I had never gotten the fish wrap before and initially I thought it was not as tasty as their lamb and chicken wraps, but by the time I was done, I was really enjoying it.

Here's another photograph from San Francisco. This one was taken from within my car parked on Bryant Street near where I worked. The photo was taken with the camera braced against my steering wheel and dash. It was the first photo that I took with my Nikon D200.

Supported, 1/2 sec at f/3.5 on ISO 100, 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 lens

It was a seafood heavy day today. For lunch, Papa and I walked over to South Beach Cafe (800 Embarcadero St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 974-1115‎) where I got myself a shrimp salad (thought I'd try something new there). It was okay, but nothing special. I think I'll stick with the pizzas.

For dinner, I suggested Old Port Lobster Shack (851 Veterans Blvd, Redwood City, CA‎ - (650) 366-2400‎) to Tina, and we rushed over to arrive around 8:15pm. The kitchen had shut down but they could still prepare us some lobster rolls (which is exactly what I wanted anyway).

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What I Ate: March 17, 2009 (South Beach Cafe, Old Port Lobster Shack)

For lunch, Dave Lu and I walked over to Snack Depot (303 2nd St # 126, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 546-6201‎) where I ordered a hot dog and a breakfast muffin (with egg, cheese, and sausage).

Dave said I'd probably be hungry afterward, so I also ordered a Pastrami Sandwich. He was wrong. I brought the sandwich home and split it with Tina.

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What I Ate: March 16, 2009 (Snack Depot)