Bobby’s cousins are so sweet. I’m going to miss them a lot. On our last night in California (Monday, November 9th) we went out together to Blue Mango (our favorite restaurant) in Santa Clara. Blue Mango is a Thai restaurant and they have a separate vegetarian menu (I haven’t used it in a while). We shared a bunch of dishes…

Appetizer: Heavenly Stuffed Wings – de-boned chicken wings stuffed with ground chicken, silver noodle, cilantro, water chestnut and black mushroom. They came with this great sweet dipping sauce. This was kind of scary at first (fried! processed! breaded!) but the deliciousness made up for it.

For dinner we shared 4 dishes. The Blue Mango Fried Rice – a big house special: chicken fried rice topped with sweet garlic pork.

The Green Curry – eggplant, bamboo, and bell pepper are soaked in coconut milk, with a hint of basil (cannot be mild).

Mushroom Mountain, as usual – soft tofu, baby corn, bamboo, straw mushroom, and bean sprout stir-fried with a bit of green curry paste. Sesame seed are sprinkled on for a beautiful finish.

And Basil Chili Chicken, also as usual – with bell pepper and onion.

After dinner we went out for dessert (frozen yogurt) at Golden Spoon – pumpkin pie and chocolate flavors. The toppings were raspberries, mango (not ripe, unfortunately), and crushed brownie bits.

Blue Mango never disappoints. And neither does Golden Spoon. If you ever get a chance, go there! (I’m talking about the Blue Mango on Stevens Creek – I hear the other one is not so good.)

Now that I’m in NJ I don’t have Blue Mango. But I do have Edo Sushi! Bobby, Julia, and I all went out for dinner tonight. I love this place. Edo Sushi is a Japanese and Chinese restaurant on Route 31 in the same shopping center as Pennington Market. It’s about a 10 minute walk from my parents’ house.

First is the tea… (unlimited and free – my two favorite qualities). Notice my cool NY key chain – it’s kind of vintage because it has the twin towers on it. I think I got it back in middle school.

I got chicken and broccoli with the sauce on the side (brown sauce).

The other pictures didn’t come out, but Julia got veggies and tofu with the sauce on the side (also brown sauce). Bobby got the Dragon vs. Phoenix – chicken, shrimp, and veggies stir-fried with yet another brown sauce. He also got a big pot of rice.

We finished everything. The check came with pineapple cubes and fortune cookies. Yum! I love Edo’s.

This dinner was nice after my indulgent afternoon… My parents gave me a massage + facial combo for my birthday and I finally used it. I went to Sydney Albert Salon Spa in Princeton. I’d highly recommend this place – I’ve been going there for years and I’ve always loved everything. Their haircuts are amazing, the facials are fantastic, and the massage was wonderful. Bobby also got a massage and he loved it.

While we were getting pampered, our Relocube arrived. Now we have to unpack it. I’m going into the city tomorrow, but when I get home I think we’re going to try to start sorting through all of our stuff. It’ll be a big project.

What’s your favorite restaurant?

Last night we went out to meet our cousins in Santa Clara. We went to Blue Mango, our favorite Thai restaurant. (For those of you in the area – this is the one on Stevens Creek; the other location is crappy.) Other Blue Mango posts:

• July 26, 2009
• July 7, 2009 (engagement celebration)
• June 15, 2009 (with my mom)
• March 21, 2009
• March 9, 2009
• December 3, 2008 (anniversary)
• November 7, 2008 (with my dad)
• October 16, 2008 (with Brittany!)
• September 27, 2008 (one of my earliest daily eats posts)

We ordered 4 things to share. We got the mushroom mountain (no picture, but there are pics in just about every other post about Blue Mango!) – ”soft tofu, baby corn, bamboo, straw mushroom and bean sprout stir-fried with a bit of green curry paste, sesame seed are sprinkled on for a beautiful finish”. We also got Basil Chili Chicken (spiciness 7/10). Wonderful, as usual.

And a new dish – green curry (spiciness 5/10). This had prawns, eggplant, bamboo, red peppers, and maybe some other things. So creamy and satisfying. This is my new favorite. Bobby can’t decide between this and the mushroom mountain.

We also got crab fried rice, which we usually get. This was both of our cousins’ favorite.

After dinner we headed next door to Golden Spoon. Golden Spoon is one of the many California frozen yogurt shops, but it ranks among the best. The yogurt is creamy, ice-free, and basically a party in your mouth.

Bobby and I got the Pumpkin Pie (!) flavor and the classic vanilla. No toppings. I also tried Peanut Butter Cup, Cake Batter, and Raspberry. All delicious. The yogurt has about 25 calories in an ounce, and this size is supposed to be about 10 ounces. It was the perfect amount for two to share.

Today I think we are headed to the Japantown Farmers’ Market (maybe with friends) and I want to get a facial.

What was the last thing you did to pamper yourself?

I actually made this dish last week, but hadn’t gotten around to posting it until now. Clare sent me a fresh delicata squash from her garden (!) for my birthday and this is how I used it up. I made rice for Bobby and I roasted a delicata with some olive oil, dill, and cinnamon for me. Then I poured in the curry. I also added parmesan… because who doesn’t love parm?

As usual, feel free to switch up the veggies. I think the cauliflower is pretty essential for all curries, but do what you like. This recipe is particularly simple because you can get curry paste at any local Asian market. This was my first time using it. Depending on what protein you use, this can be vegetarian or vegan.

I’m submitting this to the Blogger Secret Ingredient contest, hosted this week by Coco! She picked cauliflower.

Indian Curry

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup curry paste
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup cubed white potato
• 2 cups chopped cauliflower
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 8 ounces protein (tofu, chicken, etc… we used frozen chicken thighs from Trader Joe’s)
• 1/3 cup milk/coconut milk/kefir/yogurt (optional)
• parmesan, yogurt, sour cream, or other cheese for topping (optional)
• base – rice, squash, or other carby-carb.

Directions

1. Boil the water in a soup pan. Add the curry paste and mix well. Add the potato and protein. Cook for about 5 minutes
2. Add the rest of the veggies and cook for another 3-4 minutes until they’re tender. If they aren’t covered by the broth, don’t worry – they shrink down. You can also add the milk at this point. I added a little bit of kefir and it came out well.
3. Ladle the veggies, meat, and a whole lot of broth over rice or squash. Top with parmesan.

This meal was very satisfying on a chilly fall night. I had both halves of my delicata filled with curry. Bobby has been obsessed with the rice I’ve been making lately… want to know the secret? I add some salt and pepper while cooking, and then when it’s done I drop in a tablespoon of butter and mix it up while it melts.

If you missed my post yesterday, you should check it out now. I got a lot of really great responses. I talked about whether or not a raw food diet is actually “natural” or not, based on a primatologist’s research. The question was, Does cooking make us human?

I also wrote this post: Does language make us human?

I have a question for you, readers – what do you want to see more of? Daily meals? Cooking tips? Recipes? Crazy cool foods like kabocha? Scientific research like the cooking/human post? Beauty information? Product reviews? Book reviews? More workouts? Giveaways? Leave me a comment to let me know

On Sunday’s blogger meetup we went to a cozy little cafe called Bread & Cocoa on Sutter Street in San Francisco. How could I resist the $2.99 oatmeal?

It was a humongous bowl, so I went pretty easy on the toppings. I had raisins, almonds, and in-house granola. I also added a little bit of skim milk. I actually managed to finish all but 1 bite of this gigantic bowl of oats. I brought the bloggies some homemade tea bags…

For lunch we went to the Ferry Building to get our favorite – Delica rf-1. It’s a Japanese delicatessen with the most amazing salads. I got the 3-salad combo; Bobby got the 2-salad + a main item combo. Bobby got Wasabi Garlic Potato Salad (Garlic potato salad with wasabi mayonnaise, edamame, snap peas, and romaine hearts), Spicy Burdock Root Salad (A spicy mix of braised burdock and konnyaku (mountain potato) tossed with thin slices of white onion, celery, julienne carrots, and wild mizuna), and for the main item he got Tofu & Chicken Patty with Hijiki (Free-range chicken and organic tofu patty with hijiki seaweed and carrot; served in a sweet soy sauce).

I got the Spicy Burdock Root Salad, and a double serving of Hijiki and Soybean Salad (Hijiki (seaweed rich in calcium, iron, and fiber) mixed with dried soybeans, edamame, konnyaku (mountain potato), daikon, wild mizuna, fried tofu, and kuko (wolfberry)).

I think we go to Delica almost every time we head up to San Francisco. It is probably the best food I have ever eaten. I’m not kidding. It’s that good. We’re heading up to SF tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll be back.

What is your favorite restaurant, and where is it? What do you get?