I picked up lunch from Crossroads Cafe (which has some great sandwiches). I went in thinking I was going to order the Cold Tuna Sandwich, but instead I changed my mind and got a Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Avocado Sandwich (BLT with Avocado, please). Sometimes they don't dress the salad enough, so I asked for some extra dressing.

For dinner, Tina cooked. It was the first time she's cooked in a long time. (She thinks it might be a couple years since the last time she remembers cooking). She asked me to mention that in case people were critical of how the food looked. I thought it looked great! It tasted good as well, but she's really critical of herself. She stir fried some baby bok choy with garlic and scallions, beef with red bell pepper, and tomato and eggs. We ate it with rice.

For lunch, Papa and I walked over to South Park Cafe (108 S Park St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 495-7275‎). Neither of us had tried their food before so we were eager to try a new experience. I ordered the "Pig Salad" (pork confit, shallots, apples, mixed greens, and mustard vinaigrette). It was really tasty and I loved the crispy texture of the pork with the spicy dressing.

One thing that I was surprised by was the orange juice at South Park Cafe. I ordered a large orange juice for $3. I expected a 12 ounce glass of fresh squeezed for that price. What I got was a 6-8 ounce glass with some ice in it filled with orange juice from a Welch's shelf stable (read "super-pasteurized") bottle. There are so many things wrong with this. It's $3. If that's a large glass, what's a small? Ice in orange juice? Diluting orange juice is a sure way to make it taste… well, bad. The orange juice should have been chilled. For that matter, it shouldn't have been from a shelf stable bottle. At least give me Tropicana or something that's not reconstituted from concentrate.

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What I Ate: January 12, 2009 (South Park Cafe)

After church, I grilled up some chicken drumsticks that I had marinated previously in a salt water and lime juice solution.

While the chicken was grilling, I sauteed a medley of zucchini and white bush squash with some diced onion and minced garlic.

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What I Ate: January 11, 2009

We went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [4.25/5.00] and grabbed some food from World Wrapps in the same plaza. I ordered a Spicy Southwest Shrimp that I didn't particularly like. Also had a Sprite from the movie theater.

We brought our Turkey Pot Pie leftovers over to Dave W. and Rachel's place to have dinner together. (That's the last of the Turkey Pot Pie…)

For lunch, I heated up some of the ruote that I cooked before along with an ample serving of my meat sauce.

I had made a reservation at Parcel 104 in Santa Clara for dinner. During the 6+ years that I worked at Intel, I would pass by this restaurant once in a while - once even stepping in accidentally when I was trying to find a conference room for a meeting in the Marriott Hotel that it's inside. Only recently (the last couple years) had I heard about how they were doing good fine dining with fresh (usually local) ingredients. I was eager to try the food and was pleasantly surprised by not only the quality of the cuisine, but the friendliness of the wait staff as well as the eagerness of the chefs to talk about their food (I spoke to Anthony Ippolito, Parcel 104's Chef de Cuisine, and Carlos Sanchez (one of two chef's who started Parcel 104 7 years ago), the Pastry Chef).

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What I Ate: January 9, 2009 (Parcel 104)

Papa and I walked over to Pasta Paradiso at 180 Spear Street for lunch. I had the Thursday special Grilled Shrimp Salad (with feta, olives, onion, and tomatoes over mixed greens). I hadn't eaten at Pasta Paradiso before, but I think I'll go back for lunch again in the near future. The shrimp was slightly overcooked, but flavorful. The entire salad was quite tasty.

Before driving home, I heated up some left over chili and eat it with the bread that came with my salad.

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What I Ate: January 8, 2009 (Pasta Paradiso)

I had the last of the left over spinach ravioli and an Italian sausage for lunch.

I made a turkey pot pie for dinner. Used a pastry crust that I found in the freezer a few days ago on it. It was a tad too sweet for the pie (would have been fine if it was single layer, but I had crust left over, so I double layered the top…)

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What I Ate: January 7, 2009

Papa and I walked over to Mehfil's Indian near 2nd and Folsom in San Francisco. This is a common lunch destination for us since they have $5-6 lunch specials (which pretty much involve rice covered by a tasty long cooked sauce/curry) and the take-out menu changes daily. First Indian food of the year for me… tasty! Unfortunately, I forgot to record what it was exactly - chicken something.

For dinner, I boiled ruote pasta to al dente and then cooked briefly with some of the meat sauce I made earlier. I also cooked some broccoli to go with it.

For lunch I ate with the other guys at Fanpop at South Beach Cafe. I had a caprese pizza with a hot chocolate. I still think that even though they are sometimes a little inconsistent, the South Beach Cafe pizzas are the best thin crust pizza that you can buy.

There were a couple comments on the Photo of the Day: My Kind of Burger post from a couple days ago. I looked at the photo so many times that I had a craving for The Counter so off we went to the one at Santana Row in San Jose. I ordered a 2/3 pound beef patty (cooked medium-well) topped with gruyere, Bermuda red onions, grilled onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and a fried egg served on a hamburger bun with Southwest Caesar dressing on the side which Tina and I shared.

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What I Ate: January 5, 2009 (South Beach Cafe; The Counter)

Lunch was quick and dirty - more left over taquitos and some more of the appetizer things from Olive Street Table. Heated them up in the toaster oven on a sheet of parchment paper. Ate them while playing Civilization Revolution!.

Before dinner, I cooked some pasta sauce (to consume over the next week or so) - jarred some and tupperware'd the rest (for consumption in the next several days). Heated some of the left over ravioli, grilled an Italian sausage (left over from the pasta sauce making) topped with some of the sauce (I can't spend an hour making the sauce without eating any can I?) and bread.