Teresa and Adam’s Wedding!

By grace.g.yang · February 2, 2016
Under: American,California,My Life

We spent the holidays in San Francisco so we could attend Teresa and Adam’s wedding. We had a lot of fun getting ready together and meeting Adam’s family at the rehearsal dinner. Here I am with Ken’s family before heading to the wedding venue:

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For the wedding, Sammy played the wedding march on her violin as Teresa walked down the aisle:

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The food at the wedding was phenomenal (and there were so many passed h’ors d’oeuvres that I was too full for the main courses, which included short ribs, mashed potatoes and veggies). The pastry chef at the restaurant made their wedding cake, a chocolate cake, chocolate frosting with fresh flowers:

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And the cake cutting:

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Their first dance was really cute – it started out as a slow dance and then the music switched and they danced a choreographed number that they put together! Adam also sang to Teresa (can’t remember the song name, but it was really sweet). They had a super fun wedding and we had so much fun celebrating their love – we can’t wait to see them again!

Meritage at The Claremont

By grace.g.yang · February 1, 2016
Under: American,California,Celebrity Sightings,Dinner,Hotels



Before Teresa’s wedding, we stayed at The Claremont hotel in Berkeley because it was close to the wedding venue. We ate there a lot because we had a big group (10 people!) and it was easy to make reservations there for breakfast and dinner. I got a little sick while we were there but did enjoy a few things at the restaurant, including the homemade egg tagliatelle with roasted seasonal vegetables (mushrooms) and tarragon beurre blanc:

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And the Pacific salmon with wilted kale, Tokyo turnips, and honey mustard vinaigrette:

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Their dinner selections were all very good and came with a lot of different types of bred (their olive bread was my favorite).

We also enjoyed lots of breakfasts there – I was fighting some kind of cold so stuck with a lighter breakfast, which consisted of fresh fruit and a bruleed vanilla yogurt with their homemade granola and fruit:

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While Ken enjoyed the egg white omelet with purple potatoes and a side of breakfast sausage:

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The view from the restaurant is great for clear days – unfortunately, while we were there, it poured the entire time! (although, good for California – it’s been two years since they got rain!) The hotel’s fitness center was also really nice – so nice that some of the Warriors work out there! Ken’s nephew, Charley, ran into Steve Nash one morning at the gym while we were enjoying breakfast!

Taqueria el Farolito

By grace.g.yang · January 28, 2016
Under: California,Cheap Eats,Lunch,Mexican,Travels



On our way from Napa Valley to San Francisco, we got the idea to go to the mission district to grab tacos before heading to the hotel. We looked up the highest rated place on yelp and found Taqueria el Farolito:

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Funnily enough, when I walked in, I realized that I had come to the restaurant a very long time ago (possibly in 2005). I had the burrito that time, but was in the mood for tacos that day so I went with the tacos and Ken ordered a burrito. I ordered a pork taco (al pastor) and a steak taco:

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And Ken ordered a burrito (it was so big that I had to place the tacos next to it for scale):

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While you wait, you’re given chips and there’s a salsa bar where you can grab salsa for your chips or your meal:

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The tacos were really good – I love pineapple with pork (only in tacos) and this hit the spot. Ken also liked his burrito and had trouble finishing it (but managed to finish with a little help from me). I didn’t feel great afterwards and ended up not being able to eat for three days (not sure if it was because of the tacos or because of ad hoc the day before, but I was in bed for the majority of the weekend after we had the tacos and only got up for wedding festivities!)

Finesse the Store

By grace.g.yang · January 27, 2016
Under: American,California,Napa Valley,Shopping

Thomas Keller created a restaurant empire and decided to keep going with a retail store, Finesse the Store in Yountville. The store is located on the main road in Yountville (Washington Road) and is tucked inside next to the office for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group. We stopped in for a quick visit before driving to San Francisco:

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The store opened recently and is beautiful:

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You can buy the All Clad pots that the chefs cook with, cookbooks to recreate recipes, even a chef’s jacket for a kid:

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They also sell their beautiful china (made by Reynaud) at the store:

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They use the china at both per se and The French Laundry and if it were available to the public when we were registering, I would’ve purchased an entire set!

ad hoc

By grace.g.yang · January 26, 2016
Under: American,California,Desserts,Dinner,My Life,Napa Valley,Prix-fixe



After our full day of wine tasting, we went to dinner at ad hoc, one of our favorite restaurants in Napa. They change the four course menu nightly (except the fried chicken, which used to be prepared once a week, generally on Friday’s). The night we went, we were treated very well and were really pleased with the food.

We started out with a salad with vegetables from The French Laundry garden:

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Ken and I were saying how we both dislike black olives but the olives at ad hoc paired with the buttermilk dressing were so delicious we had to rethink our hate of black olives!

For the main course, we had a tri-tip steak with more vegetables from The French Laundry’s garden:

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We haven’t had a lot of tri-tip steak in the past but we both liked it; Ken liked the sweet onions to eat with the steak, I thought it was good on its own.

For the cheese course, we had a cheddar with pepitas and apples:

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And we ended with a brownie sundae with cookie dough ice cream, made with gluten free flour:

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We asked the waiter to go light on the portions because we weren’t too hungry after our morning at Mustard’s and an afternoon of drinking and snacking. I love ad hoc because the food is unpretentious and tastes like you can make it at home (although I tried – once – and will probably not be trying again because it took almost all night to make the fried chicken!)


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