For lunch, I heated the leftover Red Robin burger in the convection toaster oven. I separated the bread from the patty (heated the patty longer) and tossed the lettuce. I toasted the bread a little and reassembled.

For dinner, I brined a bone-in loin pork chop (water, salt, some Amazing Taste pork seasoning mix that I'm supposed to be testing) and prepared some fresh shrimp for the grill. I seasoned one shrimp kabob with Amazing Taste's seafood seasoning which seems to be predominantly lemon and dill powder and the other kabob with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (as a control group).

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What I Ate: January 23, 2009

For lunch, Papa and I went to a restaurant we had never been to before: Caffe Centro (102 S Park St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 882-1500). I chose Caffe Centro because when we went to South Park Cafe last week we noticed this place next door to it was packed. I ordered a Roast Beef Sandwich (on focaccia bread with mayonnaise, tomatoes, and Swiss cheese). I looked a bit disappointing, but tasted okay. Not anything special. (There was also a hair next to my sandwich that I had to remove - another strike against them.)

I also snacked on some pretzels and fresh pineapple that I bought from the corner market.

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What I Ate: January 22, 2009 (Caffe Centro, Red Robin)

(Posted late due to a power outage at 12:40 - when I was going to upload my photos. The outage lasted 7 hours and my network switch failed when the power returned.)
I ate leftovers from Won Ton house for lunch (a mix of the two claypot rice dishes).

After my Homeowner's Association Board of Directors Meeting, Tina and I decided to go to Ringerhut (1072 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 554-0877) for dinner. (Tina wanted ramen and we ran through our favorite options - Halu, Ringerhut, Maruichi. I chose Ringerhut because if I didn't feel like ramen when I got there, then I could get something else.) When we got there, I felt like eating the tonkatsu curry rice which comes with a side salad.

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What I Ate: January 21, 2009 (Ringerhut)

Busy day today. Watched President Obama's inauguration (twice), racked a new server and four hundred pounds of UPS (uninteruptable power supplies) hardware into our data center, and found out my father's in the hospital for gall stones (please pray for him!). That's a little too much excitement for one day. I grabbed a quick lunch from the "corner market" between packing the UPS's into the car and bringing them over to the data center.

I put together a quick salad:

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What I Ate: January 20, 2009 (Won Ton House)

I spent all day at the Fancy Food Show and didn't eat a formal meal. I snacked on food samples that caught me eye throughout the entire day. When I got home around 9pm, I felt like eating a little more, so I cooked up a bowl of Nong Shim spicy ramen (with an egg beaten into the soup).

We went to Day One of the Fancy Food Show today. On the way there, we stopped at McDonald's for a quick lunch. Tina got her favorite: Southwestern Chicken Sandwich (which she puts up with while we're not in Texas with access to Chick-Fil-A's). I got my favorite pair of fried foods at McDonalds.

A Filet o' Fish - what I don't understand is how hard is it to place the fish patty on the bun squarely? I think it's been years since I've had one constructed properly.

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What I Ate: January 18, 2009 (McDonalds, Sozai Restaurant and Sake Lounge)

Believe it or not, until today I had never eaten ate Panda Express before. I had heard they weren't bad as far as fast Chinese food goes. Tina and I both ordered a three entree (one side) plate. I had fried rice with green beans, broccoli beef, and orange chicken. Tina had the chow mein, eggplant, kung pao chicken, and Beijing beef. It was a great value for the amount of money we paid. Besides the great quantities of food, the taste wasn't too bad either. Tina didn't like most of the dishes, but I like Chinese American food and have a greater tolerance for "crappy" food.

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What I Ate: January 17, 2009 (Panda Express)

Tina and I went to In-N-Out for lunch. I got a Double-Double, and we shared fries and a Coke.

For dinner we went to Merit Vegetarian (548 Lawrence Expy, Sunnyvale, CA‎ - (408) 245-8988) which serves vegetarian Asian cuisine. We started with a Red Bean Smoothie (made with red mung beans, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk blended with ice) which was excellent. It was so good, in fact, that we ordered another one to go at the end of our meal.

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What I Ate: January 16, 2009 (In-N-Out; Merit Vegetarian)

I grabbed some food to go from Kwality Sweet n Food (1036 E El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA - (408) 617-0660). I ate there once before a couple years ago, but I think it was called something else - also fast Indian food (naan wraps, chaat, and similar small plates of food). I ordered a seekh kabob wrap and a pair of samosas. The samosa I ate was fine - crispy on the outside, stuffed with flavorful potato on the inside. The wrap wasn't as good. The seekh kabob was fairly salty and I couldn't really taste the meat or any seasonings except for saltiness and a slight spiciness. I've definitely had better. In fact, a few minutes later I lost my appetite and stopped eating. (I ate less than 1/2 the wrap).

For dinner, I reheated the remaining chicken drumsticks and ate it with a salad (from a bag) of radicchio, romaine, and baby spinach with Marie's Creamy Ranch dressing, the heal of bread, and a small bowl of cherries (which were a little sour and watery, but what do I expect this time of year in California?)

For lunch I went back to South Beach Cafe (800 Embarcadero St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 974-1115‎). Even though they have the best pizzas around, I like to mix it up a bit so I ordered a Salciccia Sandwich which came with a small side salad.

By the time I got home, Tina had already eaten (the rest of the leftovers from last night) so I had to choose to eat more of the lime marinated chicken or cook the remaining piece of tri-tip (that she used as beef for her beef dish the night before). I salted, peppered, and grilled the tri-tip over high heat for several minutes on each side and enjoyed that for dinner.