Nomming in the Bay: Part 7

Holy crap, can’t believe it’s been almost 6 months since I’ve last blogged. My bad! But on a good note, that also means I’m more than 6 months behind on my posts so I definitely have A LOT of meals to talk about! :D

The Melting Pot, San Mateo

Got an OpenTable deal for this, so it was a pretty good deal, but I can’t remember exactly how much it costed. It consisted of a 4 course fondue meal for 4 with 2 bottles of wine. We ended up taking the wine home lol. 

1st Course: Cheese Fondue

All our utensils and the pot. 

Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue. Gruyere and Emmenthaler Swiss Cheeses with White Wine, Garlic, Nutmeg, Lemon and Kirschwasser. Bread, Veggies and Granny Smith Apples for dipping. This was delish! By far the best cheese fondue I have ever had in my life. The bread was really good and went well with the cheese. The veggies and apples were super fresh and yum!

2nd Course: Salad

California Salad. Mixed Baby Greens, Roma Tomatoes, Candied Pecans, Gorgonzola Cheese with Raspberry Black Walnut Vinaigrette. This was yum! I love me some gorgonzola in my salads, and the dressing worked really well with the sweet pecans and the tomatoes. 

Spinach Mushroom Salad. Spinach, Baby Portobello Mushrooms, Red Onion, Bacon, Roma Tomatoes with a Burgundy Shallot Vinaigrette. This was alright, but nothing to write home about. The ingredients were super fresh but the dressing wasn’t that great compared to the other one. 

3rd Course: Entree Soup Fondue

Fondue Fusion. Lobster Tail, Angus Sirloin, Shrimp, Buffalo Chicken, Memphis-Style BBQ Pork Tenderloin, and Wild Mushroom Sacchetti. The lobster tail was really good and fresh. The sirloin was also super good. The sacchetti was definitely interesting, reminded me a little of Asian dumplings. The meat however was very seasoned and I think it was a bit much to actually boil it in another savory soup. It got a little too salty at times. 

Mojo. Caribbean-inspired bouillon with Garlic and Citrus. It was really good because it had a bit of a coconut-like note to it. Butter for the lobster on the right side of the soup pot. 

 

Side of Potatoes, Mushrooms, and Broccoli. With Green Goddess Sauce (Cream cheese, sour cream, onions, chives, and parsley). I loved the potatoes, they were super delicious with the Mojo soup. I didn’t really use this sauce because I felt like my food didn’t need all the extra flavor from the sauce even though it was delish. 

Curry Sauce (Curry yogurt sauce), Teriyaki Glaze (Teriyaki sauce with garlic, ginger, and onions), and Ginger Plum (Red and green peppers, ginger, and plum). The curry sauce was really good on the chicken. But my favorite of all was definitely the ginger plum, just the right amount of tangy sweetness. The teriyaki sauce was good too, but nothing special and definitely nothing to write home about. 

4th Course: Dessert Chocolate Fondue

Pure Dark Chocolate Fondue. With Bailey’s Irish Cream. This was good, but a bit too sweet for my liking. I was expecting the dark chocolate to not be as sweet, so I am glad I got this instead of the milk or white chocolates, but it was still too sweet. 

Served with Rice Krispies Squares, Strawberries, Pound Cake, Brownies, Bananas, and Cheesecake. My faves were dipping the fruit, rice krispies and pound cake. The rest made the already too-sweet chocolate even sweeter. 

Yu Zen, San Francisco

Green Tea. Super green and Incredible Hulky and so good!

Salad. Came with my entree. Super good and pretty fresh. The carrot sesame oil dressing was a surprising combination and really delish. 

Miso Soup. Came with my entree. Alright, pretty decent but also not anything special.

Tuna Sashimi and Mountain Yam topped with Seaweed. This was nommy, the tuna was fresh and delicious. The mountain yam was interesting and definitely not for everyone. Our server actually gave us a disclaimer just in case, telling me and my friend that it was a bit on the slippery side. And I must say it is quite slimy indeed, but with a bland flavor, similar to turnips. 

Chirashi. With Salmon, Egg, Tuna, Hamachi, Yellowtail, Snapper, Sweet Shrimp, Roe, and Mushrooms. Super delicious, by far one of the best and freshest chirashi that has ever reached my tummy. The fish was super fresh and yummy. The shrimp was legit sweet shrimp! I hate the places that claim the shrimp is sweet shrimp but it isn’t. Great quality food for a decent price. YUM. 

Healthy Porridge, Milpitas

Beef Noodle Soup. Definitely not a fan. The noodles were kind of gummy and sticky and the soup was way too thick, they added way too much starch in it to thicken it, overkill to the max. Basically a huge puddle of gooey stickiness, it’s enough to kill an appetite because it did mine!

Stinky Tofu. It was okay, just okay. I’ve definitely had better elsewhere as they did not do that great of a job frying it, no crispy skin sadface!

Oyster Pancake. THE WORST oyster pancake I’ve ever had in my life. The pancake itself wasn’t fried well, don’t think their stove was heated well enough. It lacked “wok-air” and the sauce was gross, definitely not legit and not tasty at all. Poor excuse for an oyster pancake, seriously. 

Purple Kow, San Francisco

Iced Milk. With Boba and Egg Pudding. So delish! My drink of choice from Purple Kow since I highly dislike their milk tea, don’t think it’s that great and not tasty enough to be worth the wait. Their iced milk, on the other hand, is delish! But it’s also more of a dessert than just a boba drink because it’s pretty sweet and can make you very full, but it also depends on who makes your drink. I’ve also come to realize that it’s not that difficult to make either because it’s just low-fat milk, evaporated milk, and brown sugar. It’s still pretty good and I love that I get a huge bucket of it when I do decide to make the trek out there. NOM!