2nd Trimester
Piccolo
Piccolo, an Italian restaurant seated in downtown Venice; it is just off the beaten path right behind the Venice Beach.
Upon arrival, Piccolo will surprise with its cozy and romantic ambiance, no wonder many foodie reviews mention this is one of the perfect spot to take your date to. This neighborhood gem will amaze you with its extensive Italian wine list and lengthy dinner menu. We even think most (if not all) of their staffs are Italian and they are very knowledgable about the menu.
Since this is recommended by ToORiMa, of course we are dining with Mr. & Mrs. Chan as well. Although we were a little early today, wifey feel this evening was too windy for photo shoot at the beach, so we went straight inside the restaurant.
Amy @ Piccolo. This is the last day of her 2nd trimester. Hang in there, you are doing great!
Busy kitchen tonight.
A lot of pictures and paintings hanging on the wall.
Candle light dinner. Very romantic.
Why does he talk like a girl? >_<
They didn’t serve bread until we order…. weird!
Does that mean the bread was OK?
Green asparagus soup with scallop.
The soup itself taste a little too bland to me, but the scallop was on the salty side.
Capesante Scottate: Seared Sea Scallops, parmesan-truffle fondue.
Perfectly seared scallop, but the parmesan-truffle fondue sauce was so mild that I didn’t realize truffle was put in it until I’m writing this.
Piccione Arrosto: Pan-seared squab, semi-boneless, lentils, chard, vino rosso reduction
This is another great dish, seared squab (baby pigeon), and I was very surprised how the chef perfectly prepared this. Two thumbs up.
After the appetizer, here comes the main course(s). We started off with couple of pasta dishes. All of their house made pasta is hand-crafted and prepared with organic eggs.
Spaghetti ai ricci: rustic spaghetti, sea urchin emuision, fava beans.
According to ToORiMa, this pasta taste very much the same as in Italy; although many would think the pasta was undercooked and it still hard in the middle.
Ragu di capriolo: tagliatelle, slow-braised venison ragu, aromatic spices, red wine
This is another great pasta dish. The fettuccine was cooked just right and with the aroma from the venison meat, it melted my taste buds.
il Pesce: Chilean Sea Bass
The sea bass was pan seared and seasoned with salt only, so it was still juicy and tender inside. I had a small bite only and think this was quite good.
Maialino nero con porcini e vaniglia: natural berkshire pork chop, Italian porcini-tahitian vanilla bean sauce
I was just listening to 麥兜’s 最靚豬腩肉the other day, and here is probably the 最靚豬腩肉 dish I ever had after CUT @ Beverly Hills.
The pork chop was perfectly cooked to medium, good job by the chef BoBo. Yes, BoBo is the chef, and he was very tentative. He has been splitting the dishes through out the 九大饋 dinner so we all can have a taste of everything. That’s why you probably find the food portion was a little smaller than usual.
To finish up the dinner, we have couple of dessert.
Bignole: pastry puffs filled with belgian gianduja chocolate cream.
Wifey: The Belgium chocolate taste so good, yummy.
Me: Huh? Belgium chocolate? It taste no different than other choclolate.
Wifey: I should had just given you some M&M instead. What a waste.
Me: I like M&M too. =P
Semifreddo: Imported amaretto cookies soft-frozen cream
A very fancy name for pistachio ice-cream; a little too sweet for the ladies so I had 2 big scoops all by myself. Yum!
Thank you for the dinner, Amy & I had such a wonderful time. See you guys in 2 weeks @ INK! =P
Happy Pa-Day
Poor Papa Ma, has to go to Doctor’s office with me today on his big day! To protect his wifey, me, from fainting after the big tests, we had to stop by 85 degrees for some snacks.
Glad to see that it’s not packed like the Irvine location.
There’s still room to walk!
But don’t get their cake! It is so not tasty!
Goodness! One bad thing after another. The nurse at the doctor’s office forgot the key. We honestly feel that it was pass the time for the test, but she just did it any way to not look bad 2 times in a row. So the doctor said that if the tests is abnormal by just a little bit that he will note it, if it’s off by a lot then those extra minutes will have no affect. So I should know by next Saturday……….
After Doctor’s office we went to eat at Jin Jiang for his crab/pork dumplings, a 70-minute massage for Mr. Ma, shopping, and then Redondo Beach just for a few pics before dinner time.
Rare occassion bor.. Mr. Ma asked someone to help take a pic for us!
This is the place I chose for his birthday dinner!
If you like to sit outside, there’s a nice warm environment that Mr. Ma said is furnished with Ikea Furniture.
Our reservation was at 6:30, looks empty but not long after that tables were filled.
The menu for today! I didn’t try the bread or use the bean dipping sauce, but I had potato chips!
Seared Foie Gras: walnut bread, fig jam, fig gastriquem pomegranate
We were very disappointed with this dish! We told the waiter, and later the boss came out!!!! :X
Escargots: garlic, butter, gorgonzola, tomato, fettuccine pasta
Mmmmm….the escargot dish was the best dish for me!
Roasted Marrow Bone: Pan con tomate
But the bone marrow we had to cancel! Not even cooked! Totally killed our appetite!
Fresh Local Figs at Palos Verdes: roasted with gorgonzola cheese – crispy prosciutto, balsamic reduction
I think the owner felt bad, as he came out with figs on the house! I felt so bad, I had a little but fig is not my thing.
Galen was so much more supportive! He had 2, he said it tasted like eggplant.
Seared Foie Gras
After asking us why we didn’t like the first foie gras dish, the owner came out with another foie gras dish. He removed the jam spread and used membrillo instead, a Spanish Quince Paste. This was definitely a lot better. It’s the first time that an owner actually listened to suggestions and made changes so that the customers would be happy. Give a star for this!
Petite South Pacific Buttefish: pan roasted – sticky rice, wakame – sweet soy glaze
A little overcooked. I think I am just more used to the asian way of cooking fish, so fish has to be cooked to perfection for me to really say “GOOD!”
Twice Cooked Pork: braised, grilled, glazed pork shoulder – country braised greens – cheesy grits
I wasn’t too into this dish, but GM finished almost all of it, just not the burnt parts.
We decided to skip dessert! But the owner was so nice and desserts were on the house!
Salted Butterscotch pudding. At first it was too salty to taste but then afterwards I found the way to eat it. Small bites! I was too full otherwise I would have finished the whole dessert.
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Then there was the hazelnut ice cream and the pie (which I didn’t touch). GM said their dessert is better than their main course.
Owner: Michael Franks
This is the super friendly owner. I have to say the owner redeemed any negative thoughts I had about the restaurant!
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I felt like I ate so many dishes but that’s all we ended up being charged for! Whew! I didn’t totally bring all my bad luck to Galen!
Sunday Brunch at Orange Hills again to celebrate Galen’s birthday!
They even make pasta for you, and put in ingredients you want! He had two plates of king crab legs!
With a $10 survey coupon we got from Orange Hills, and also a $20 voucher from Opentable.com, it brought the price down to $33 only, good deal, two brunches for the price of 1! And after brunch…more shopping! Mommy and Aiden got more goodies!
Today, mommy even gave up the last drawer so that we can store supplies for Aiden later on! What a busy weekend!
PS. It just happened we passed by the Irvine 85C Bakery today, look at the line of people waiting to get in. It’s CRAZY! What a difference from the Hacienda Heights location!
Kagura
Just like any other Sundays, Amy & I usually don’t have any clue about where to go for lunch. After flipping through my Yelp’s bookmarks, I’ve decided to take Amy to try Kagura, a Japanese cutlet (a.k.a TONKATSU) cuisine located in Torrance. I have put Kagura on my to-try list for a while already, but never found a chance to give it a try.
Kagura opens at 1130. Perfect for early lunch.
Main dining area and sake bar.
The other side of the restaurant is the more “private” dining area.
Amy ordered the Premium Filet Katsu Gozen but she doesn’t like any tonkatsu sauce as usual.
All you can eat cabbage salad and the ‘forgot-to-take-a pic” Chawanmushi. Yea, we were hungry!
It comes with Japanese pickled vegetable and 4 small plates.
The cutlet was a little too lean to be consider a good piece of black pork. It is no where close to the one we had in Osaka. =P
I ordered the Katsu Jyu Gozen. Yummy…
We also ordered the Gindara Saikyoyaki Gozen, Amy & I both agreed this is the best dish. The black cod was so juicy and tender, perfectly prepared by the chef.
After lunch, we wanted to try Kagura’s black sesame ice-cream; though they ran out of it. Oh well, I guess we will come back and try it next time.
Seventh Doctor Appointment 10/1/11
Today was supposed to be the notorious glucose test, but the nurses failed to do their part. So next week we’ll have to go back and once again drink another 50 grams of glucose water. If I could see another ultrasound of baby Aiden next week I wouldn’t mind. hehe… But the doctor appointments are becoming more frequent. Baby Aiden is getting bigger and bigger all the time!
It’s supposed to be the end of 25 weeks, but the baby’s measurement is about 26 weeks and 4 days. Doctor said, baby is not small and not short either. He asked me if I drank milk….guess maybe the milk is making baby bigger??? He is 2 pounds and 1 ounce. And as you can see the picture above Aiden’s fingers are very long! Doctor Han compared our fingers and said that his fingers are long like mine. He can play the piano when he’s older! For a split second I thought of Jay Chou.
