Wild Plum Bakery and Cafe

On Saturday two of my friends from San Jose were in town. Sarah and Brian drove down the night before for their pal's housewarming party. We decided to meet up for lunch and it was my task to find a "cute spot" to blog about! I'm glad Sarah keeps me accountable.


But where to go? Little known sandwich spot? Somewhere on Alvarado? Hit up the municipal wharf?








A few weeks ago, my friend Maren wrote a review of Wild Plum Cafe and Bakery after she had lunch there with her bf Max. I hadn't ever seen the Wild Plum Cafe, hadn't heard about it, but oh man - based on her pictures, I definitely had to file it away in my "gotta try" list. So, when I met up with Sarah and Brian for lunch, the Wild Plum was the place to go!


I'm a big fan of Yelp. I don't really ever write reviews, but I love reading them. Before texting Sarah and Kyle (yep - he met us there) the address, I quickly looked at what Yelpers had to say.  Cons: unprofessional, stressed owner, understaffed. Oh Phooey! They don't know anything.


Check out that one ^^ "Yum. Lunch." My thoughts exactly.

Wild Plum Cafe is right behind Denny's (I think) and has a couple of outdoor tables. We went on a rainy day, and were lucky that an inside table opened up right as we walked in the door. Our waiter brought coffee and water as soon as we sat down. 
We grabbed our menus but didn't look closely look at them for another 10 minutes or so. Our waiter returned probably once every 2 minutes to see if we were ready to order. That means that we had to apologize about 5 times for not being ready to order. Can you blame us though? We had to catch up!!

So 10 minutes later, we had made the HARD decision and each figured out what we wanted to order. Of course, that's when Kyle walked in and he had about 10 seconds to make his mind up... 

I chose the 1/2 sandwich (veggie sandwich) 1/2 salad (sesame chicken) option. So effin good - the bread started crumbling apart, but it was covered in avocado and pesto and who cares if I need to attack my sandwich with a fork? Not me, and not when it's this good!




Brian picked the 1/2 sandwich (grilled chicken sandwich) and 1/2 soup (...soup of the day?). Kyle picked the same sandwich, but the full size. I had a bite and it was warm and cheesy - highly recommend.

Sarah went with the full sesame chicken salad.

Everything was delicious! There were about 5 or 6 things on the menu that I still want to try, so I'll have to come back someday.


MMM food & friends FTW! (I just learned that means For The Win and now I can't stop saying it in my head). We talked about lots of stuff - jobs, challenges facing the educators of America, secret clearances, wedding parties, and... my impending MOVE. Dun Dun Dunnnn... Yup, I decided to move back to San Jose to be closer with the ones I love: family, friends, Jan Hagel, Valley Fair, Orange Leaf frozen yogurt... 
As I write this it's easy to see why moving is the right thing for me. I LOVE Monterey. It's a beautiful town, has lots of charm, and is great to explore with people who make you happy. However, I'm a numbers girl, and the numbers point to San Jose. I am eager to be back in a city that has a higher percentage of people I can go out and experience life with. Let's bring back the kickball games, the random mall trips, and MOM time :) I'm going to miss living here, miss my roommates, but there's absolutely nothing stopping me from future weekend trips.....

Breakfast Club, Biking, Homemade Thai

Remember how we won two free meals at The Taste of Seaside's Breakfast Club booth? Well the morning after the event we decided to check it out. A lot of my friends have tried it before and all have said really great things about it....

The inside was big - lots of tables. When we got there, we waited behind two other groups, but everyone was seated fairly quickly. While we waited I enjoyed a cuppa coffee.

I brought the coffee with me to the table and kept asking for refills! They have the best creamer selection at The Breakfast Club. Coffee-mate? Are you for serious? I lovooovovoeeeee Hazelnut Coffee-mate! Nicole knows. Anyways, free coffee refills + hazelnut creamer = dangerous combo. Check out the other goodies they have - Pepper Plant Hot Sauce AND Cayenne Pepper shaker? SO AWESOME!

psst they also have a special stash of Tapatio and if you ask nicely they'll give it to you.

Kyle and I split the mixed berry + banana waffle. YUMMMM

Second pick: an omelet with biscuit & (spicy) gravy on the side and breakfast potatoes.

Honestly, this all happened so long ago I don't remember what was INSIDE the omelet. I remember it being yummy. I'm guilty of always choosing the waffle/pancake/crepe over any sort of omelet/scramble so I think that justifies why I can't recall (?)

After breakfast we drove from upper Seaside to the McDonalds in lower Seaside to park his car and pull out Murray - my shining tandem bike. 

All aboard!

We rode the coastal trail through Cannery Row area and continued towards Pacific Grove.

Pretty...

The sun started to come out and views across the bay were gorgeous. I love riding the tandem bike! 

On our way back into Monterey, we parked the bike near Cannery Row and walked around.

We popped into a random magic shop and peeked around. Strange stuff in there!

It was the same weekend as the Red Bull U.S. Moto Grand Prix at Laguna Seca so Cannery Row was FULL of crazy cool looking motorcycles and lots of biker dudes. 

I'm pretty sure this was the same day we ducked into Cannery Row Brewing Co up the street and tried one of their house brews. They have over 70 beers on tap so I knew I wanted to do a return trip soon (plus their menu looked awesome).

PS I went back with Katie (read her recap here) and plan on writing up about that too!

For dinner we decided to try our own take on a Thai dish. We chopped up lots of veggies.

That looks like a potato, but I don't remember (nor can I figure it out from the picture haha)

The sauce we relied on to bring it all together.... it wasn't all that good to be honest. The red curry flavors just fell flat.

Add some chicken....

With Trader Joe's brown rice....

And a cupcake to finish it off a la Hugo from LOST. Bottom goes on the top to make a sandwich. These red velvet cupcakes were SOOOO good. 

Sake for 1 cent... not even!

I've been to Yama Sushi three times now. It's located in the Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey (Bldg A Ste 92). I'm definitely not a picky sushi eater. Throw some spicy tuna in my roll, add sriracha on top, give it a hokey moniker - I'm yours.

These are some photos from the first time I went with a few coworkers and friends. 

They've got the sushi makers over yonder making all the rolls. They are so nice! Once, when on my way out, one ran up to me and did that "pound" thing (modern high five). He's so with it.

 So about the title of this post. This place is fairly new and has been advertising 1 cent sake Mondays - Thursdays. Also, their sushi rolls are 50% off! All the time! That means I can order the Lobster Delight or Victoria Secret or Fuji Mountain or ... or ... or ... all for half the price! Pretty sweet deal.

This is the sake fountain. It's kind of like a soda machine, but for sake!

They've got lots of seating, but it does get packed!

My group!

Mills-Monterey! Day 2

Deep breaths. I'm scared about how long this post is going to be.

Saturday morning we went to Tommy's. I've blogged about this place before, so I'll just remind you all why I love it so much: everything under $3. Yup.

We are so cool sitting at the bar.

We both ordered the Tommy's special - eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and bacon (or sausage if that's your thing).

After breakfast we drove from Marina to Carmel. The plan was to start as far south as possible and hit up the tourist spots as we headed north. First stop, the Carmel Mission!

The Mission itself isn't that tall looking, but somehow when Kmills stood in front of it and I snapped this picture, it looked so much taller! Optical illusion making is one of Kerry's hidden talents. Inside the choir was practicing. It was nice to see the inside because last time I was here (for Easter mass) we had to stand in the entrance because of how packed it was!

There's something so pretty about the Catholic Missions. Kinda creepy how people are buried right there in the church - reminded us of our trip to Westmister Abbey back in the summer of 2007, where patriots like Oliver Cromwell, scientists like Isaac Newton, poets like Chaucer, etc are buried under your feet!

Throwback pic on right: Okay so this guy's not dead - but it is from our trip to London, and yes, I want everyone to know we met Zac Efron... plus, I didn't take any Westmister Abbey pictures :)

We played around in the strange room, taking fun mirror pictures, then we went outside and painted.

Isn't Kerry's picture coming together beautifully? She's such a talented artist.

There was a small little fair. We rubbed olive oil on our hands to make them smooth....

Then we passed through their gift shop. Kerry begged me to get her BibleOpoly but I refused to spend another dime on buying her versions of Monopoly. I've already given her Birdopoly, Elvis edition Monopoly, The Lord of the Rings edition Monopoly, and Sponge Bob Square Pants edition....





Next stop: Carmel-by-the-sea's Ocean Avenue!

We walked around for a while with one major destination in mind: the Cottage of Sweets! I've blogged about this place a lot too so here's why I love it: SWEETS, sold in a COTTAGE.

Kerry chose white chocolate covered pretzel balls and salted carmel fudge. I went with chocolate covered gummy bears in memory of Natalie, peanut butter chocolate malt balls (my recent favorite), and their peanut butter squares.

We grabbed coffee from a cafe up the street and then walked down to the beautiful beach to enjoy our treats.

  

Continuing on our journey, we drove 17 Mile Drive the back way through Carmel towards Pebble Beach. They still had some of the tents up from the US Open, which was going on the week before.

Look! It's the Lone Cypress ("a salt pruned tree which is the official symbol of Pebble Beach and a frequent fixture of television broadcasts from this area" Wikipedia... and since I know you are curious: "Salt pruning is the process by which saline mists generated by seawater are driven ashore by winds to alter the shape of trees over considerable times throughout the growth cycle of the affected plant... [it] selectively degrades foliage and branches on the windward side of the plant facing the body of saline water. The resultant growth form is an asymmetrical plant form, swept back away from the ocean")

Much to our delight there was a wedding party that arrived via trolley to take pictures. When they abandoned their vehicle to walk down to the Lone Cypress, we hijacked it for our own pictures hah!

The 17 Mile Drive continued on along the coast. We drove through Pacific Grove and then parked on Lighthouse. After a quick stop in the liquor store nearby and then another quick stop at Nob Hill for a light lunch of fruits, we walked to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Get ready for a compilation of Kerry Mills at the Aquarium photos:

Kerry with the jellyfish

Kerry with the crazy looking seahorses

Kerry with this cow statue

Kerry getting ZAPped!

The clam shell! Max if you are reading this: this is my first time actually seeing the clam shell at the Aquarium. Up until recently I didn't think it existed, only in your photoshopping abilities.

We left the aquarium and walked up and down Cannery Row. We stopped in the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a second and I saw these chocolate covered potato chips. Weird!!

When we were driving back to my house, I spotted Mrs. Delish's Cupcake Boutique. I was literally like "WTF?? Since WHEN has that been there?" Kerry, I don't know if I said that out loud, but I was definitely thinking it! Since Kerry's visit I've read a review about the place on Special Edible's blog. I really want to go check that place out soon!

P.S. If you are local to Monterey I suggest you start following that blog because the author, Mark Anderson, works for Monterey County Weekly and reviews a lot of awesome local spots!
P.P.S. Also, if you don't yet, pick up a copy of the Weekly or read their stuff online. LOVE the local paper. I hear about neat events and free stuff from it. Oh and they have the Best Of list that I'm trying to tackle.

We decided to get Baan Thai takeout for dinner. We picked the pumpkin curry (no surprise, if you know me) and pad thai. Kerry let me order, so I of course chose extra hot. The combination of EXTREME heat and an ongoing sinus cold made it impossible to taste our high class $2 bottle of wine.

Empty! :)

Victor, Max, Maren, and Tyler came over (except that Tyler now lives here so I can't really phrase it that way anymore haha) and we busted out the deck of cards!

King's cup is always such a fun game to play.... especially when the rule made up is you have to say your appointed nickname before you say ANYTHING. Slippy Slappy Hippy Happy Trippy Trappy. TOUGH STUFF.

Slappy and Hippy make me Happy.

Sarah was there too - her bro showed us his new tattoo. Then Tyler iced her. Despite the fact that she was on her way to bed, she took it like a champ on one knee!

Then we went downtown.... if you take one good look at the picture below you'll realize how much fun we were having at the Mucky Duck.... such a good dance spot ;)

Not pictured: our trip to the Hippodrome "club" that had cages ... annnnddd yes - we did dance in them.