Thought I'd let everyone know that TCBY is giving away free cups and cones to all Mom's on Mother's Day. You can find locations and details at the TCBY Website. I have also been informed that "nothing says I love you Mom better than a Mrs. Fields Cookie Cake! You can personalize the message to say whatever you want, and they are quick and easy to order either from your local store, or from MrsFields.COM."

I just had the most amazing meal in my life. No kidding. And it wasn't in San Francisco or New York, it was in Austin, Texas. The restaurant: Uchi; The executive chef: Tyson Cole; The food: mind blowing. I'll be writing up a piece on Cooking For Engineers (but I'm in Austin right now and only have a laptop for use as an image dump and internet access - so I'll work on it when I get back to California) but for now here's a couple pictures as teasers.

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Uchi in Austin, Texas

While on the flight to Austin, Texas, I bought what I thought was going to be the most over priced bag of potato chips ever - $3. What I got was surprising:

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American Airlines Potato Chips

Papa and I did take out from Mehfil Indian at 2nd and Folsom. I got Meatball Kadahi. The menu explains it as:

(Beef Meatballs cooked with green and red bell peppers and onions)
The big iron wok known as ‘Kadahi’ is used as it gives the best flavor as it keeps all the nutrition’s and the moisture sealed. Meatballs are added to the thick gravy made of onions and bell peppers and are cooked till the oil separates.

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What I Ate: March 18, 2008 (Mehfil Indian Cuisine, Bombay Oven)

For lunch, Dave, Papa, and I walked over to a place called Snack Depot. Snack Depot got incredibly high Yelp rankings (about 4.5 stars out of 5) with everyone raving about their sandwiches. We found it inside the South Tower of the office buildings at the southeast corner of Folsom and 2nd. I ordered a Super Combo sandwich with everything on it on a soft roll. The sandwich was very good - it reminded me a little of the sandwiches at Yellow Sub in South Lake Tahoe (Tina's and my favorite submarine sandwich shop so far). I really liked how there was a lot of fresh shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles to balance the large combination of meats in this sandwich.

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What I Ate: March 17, 2008 (Snack Depot)

For lunch, Tina and I went to University Avenue in Palo Alto for lunch. After walking down the road a bit, we decided to go back to the Neibaum-Coppola Cafe which is now called Cafe Rosso & Blanco. We had been there over a year ago and remembered the food being adequate and the meal being pleasant. I mainly remember it because I can order my favorite wine - the Rubicon Estate Cabernet Savignon 2002 - in affordable portions (a 750 mL bottle starts at around $140) such as a 1.5 oz pour for $7.50 or a 3 oz pour for $15. I don't drink much wine, so a half glass (3 oz) is perfect and, although really expensive for a half glass, it's worth it. I was a little disappointed to see that they had the 2003 Cab instead (I haven't tried that one), but wasn't planning on drinking anything so it wasn't a big deal.

We had the Insalate di Spinaci (spinach, crimini mushrooms & pancetta, tossed with a Dijon vinaigrette and topped with a sunny-side up quail egg) which was really good. The spinach was fresh and sweet and went perfectly with the sweet dressing and slightly salty pancetta.

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What I Ate: March 16, 2008 (Cafe Rosso & Blanco)

For lunch, Tina and I went to Queen House in Mountain View where we ordered a variety of Mandarin and Taiwanese Dim Sum.

Tina ordered youtiao ("Chinese doughnut" on the menu) which are fried dough strips and sweet dou jiang (soy bean milk) served warm. She couldn't eat all of it, so gave me some.

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What I Ate: March 15, 2008 (Queen House)

I had to get up early to go to the Volkswagen dealership, so I ate a glazed doughnut there with a cup of Carnation hot chocolate.

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What I Ate: March 14, 2008 (St. John's Bar and Grill)

A turkey sandwich on Dutch Crunch from the local corner market in SF was lunch.

I wasn't able to finish the sandwich, so I had the other half of the sandwich for dinner.

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What I Ate: March 13, 2008

I lost track of time and had to grab something to eat while running errands. I grabbed a Big Mac and milk for lunch.

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What I Ate: March 12, 2008