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Last week was spent in the San Francisco bay area. There’s something about being in a new place, and living in a hotel that makes even the most conservative eater (aka me) want to try new things.
Here are pics of some of the best food we sampled.
Excellent sambusak at Dishdash
And because we needed to try something else, we got the M’shakaleh there (a kind of saffron rice, topped with mushrooms and a delicious sauce). Highly recommend Dishdash for excellent Mediterranean food.
On a work dinner, we went to The Crow’s Nest – a beachside (but not casual dining) restaurant in Santa Cruz. I absolutely loved the jasmine rice with stir-fry veggies and tofu that I ate there.
Awesome sticky rice and veggies
Actually, this had to be the week of veggie stir fries. I also totally enjoyed another vegetable stir fry that I had at The Crustacean.
The presentation was not the prettiest, but the taste was mouth-watering.
The vegetable stir-fry at The Crustacean
Btw, The Crustacean seems to be one of the best places in San Francisco if you are into crab meat. I am vegetarian, but everyone else around me loved the crab they served.
Crab
The prawns were also apparently excellent.
Prawns atop garlic noodles
I tried Japanese food for the first time at Kyoto Palace.
I enjoyed the vegetable tempura and the fried tofu, but probably because this is my first encounter with Japanese food, I found the flavors in the Yaki Soba vegetable and the miso soup a little overwhelming. I was later told by the Japanese folks in our team that the food wasn’t authentic, and that actual Japanese food is flavored quite differently.
Miso soup
And of course, I have to reference the awesome desserts that we swooned over in Napa, and which I have blogged about here.
To get an idea of the extent of our gluttony, think on the fact that in the space of a week’s time, I ate Japanese, Thai, Italian, Mexican (where I binged on the Margheritas and the nachos and salsa), and Mediterranean cuisines. Time to cut back a little bit on the eating, I think.
No regrets however. California seems to be a great place for eating out. The prices were reasonable in all the restaurants we visited, the produce was super-fresh, and the wines were a great accompaniment to the food.
Plus, it was Thanksgiving anyway, the only week perhaps when such gluttony can be excused 
.
