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. 

The Case of the North Beach Hotdog

I just found pictures stashed away on my phone of a place Megan, Paul, Kali and I stopped at for fourth meal this past Friday night. (ps Kali has a blog and posted a fantastic review of her SF weekend! Check it out here! It's nice and sassy :)




Anywho... I vaguely recall getting food that night. Let's work backwards to figure out what happened!

Here's the picture found on my phone:




Saturday morning Megan told me the dog was covered in perhaps marinara and onions - looks about right. She also said it was called the North Beach Hotdog. Time to Yelp search. The only late night hotdog spot in North Beach with Yelp pictures that match the one I snapped on my phone (below) is The Dogfather (532 Green Street, San Francisco). UrbanDaddy describes it as a "low-key sausage joint—or salsicceria, if you're Italian—meant to satisfy your gourmet, quick-bite fix."





Okay mystery 1 is solved! I must have had the The North Beach "Our mild Italian sausage, with peppers, onions, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese" ($6) - Nice memory Megan! Let's continue backwards... Megan also let me know that before the hotdog stop, we went to a place called Savoy. I've got a couple of pictures on my camera of us in a spot with red lighting... This must have been Savoy Tivoli (1434 Grant Street, San Francisco). On Yelp the settings seem to match up! Wahoo!

Mystery 2 solved! Prior to that our group got some drinks, courtesy of Kali, from the upstairs room at a Thai restaurant named King of Thai Noodle. One Yelper perfectly sums up the perks of this place - "The best happy hour everyday till 12:30AM.. $2 beer $6 cocktail drinks and $5 entree.. Unbeatable.. My favorite place to hang out.. They have free popcorns and peanuts and nice wide screen tv.."  YEAH. AWESOME.

Rewind even further to when we all met up. This part is not hazy! Megan, Kali, Paul, Kelley, her friend who knows Lauren Sweeneeeyyyy, Joe, his roommate, and myself met up at Paul's apartment.

We drank a bit, ate some of Megan's homemade cookies, indulged in some of my cupcakes, the usual. It was so-awe-some seeing everyone and getting the opportunity to go out and get a little irresponsible. Plus, I'm sure that hotdog tasted damn good.

LOVE THEM!

Thai Bistro II

As mentioned on an earlier post, I am making it a point to try out as many of Monterey County Weekly's 'Best Of' list. The Thursday before I left for Vegas, Kyle came down to Monterey for the night. We decided to try out the 'Best Thai Restaurant' winner, Thai Bistro (159 Central Ave, Pacific Grove).

We arrived around 8:30 pm to a crowded Thai Bistro. There were still a few tables open, so wait time was pretty non-existant. TB occupies an old house, painted white and blue, inside and out. There is a large outdoor patio that would be wonderful for a sunny day. (Does Monterey even have those??)

We ordered the pumpkin curry, of course, and a garlic chili chicken entree.

LOVE LOVE LOVE MMMmmmMMMM

YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME. 

(Compared to my pumpkin curry love!)

If you are a curry person, consider it a gift from the food gods when pumpkin curry makes it on your Thai menu. It's always worth looking at the restaurant's specials because it isn't typically a standard menu item.




PS: for the Bay Area folks, try out Sa-By Thai Cuisine in downtown San Jose. Located at 346 E. Williams Street, this hidden gem offers pumpkin curry and it is deliciousssslysalivainducing!


I loved Thai Bistro. I'm a sucky judge though because I - JUST - LOVE - THAI. Best part of the night was When we left and I saw a sign for their happy hour special. For the entire month of April, Monday through Thursday,  from 4:00 - 6:30pm, their entire menu is (was) 50% off! Press save on that nugget of information!!


I can see why MCW awarded Thai Bistro with this title, but it won't sop me from trying some other Thai spots in the area!

"Best Restaurants of 2010"

Best Restaurants of 2010. - Monterey County Weekly

MCW, one of my favorite local papers, just finished their "Best Of" review of everything in Monterey County. I know that I'll come back to this post when I'm looking for a restaurant that won't disappoint. Below is a quick rundown of the best in each category:

New Restaurant of '09: Mundaka
Restaurant in Monterey County: Marinus  **oh snap! That's where my roommate works! Yay for him!

Restaurant more than 10 years old: Rio Grill

Restaurant in Big Sur: Nepenthe

Restaurant in Carmel: Cantinetta Luca

Restaurant in Carmel Valley: Cafe Rustica

Restaurant in Marina: Kula Ranch Island Steakhouse

Restaurant in Monterey: Montrio

Restaurant in North County: Phil's Fish Market & Eatery

Restaurant in Pacific Grove: Passionfish

Restaurant in Pebble Beach: Roy's **might have eaten here before with my mom, I'll try it again though!

Restaurant in Salinas: Gino's

Restaurant in Sand City: Sweet Elena's Bakery

Restaurant in Seaside: Fishwife **what no Baan Thai?

Place for a Business Lunch: Tarpy's Roadhouse **been there, can't remember a thing about it...

Best Breakfast: First Awakenings (Pacific Grove)

Cheap Eats: Chipotle (Monterey) **what about Tommy's in Marina?!!

Chinese: Tommy's Wok (Carmel)

French: Fifi's Cafe & Bistro (Pacific Grove)

Italian: Little Napoli (Carmel)

Japanese/Sushi: Crystal Fish (Monterey)

Korean: Orient Express (Seaside)

Mediterranean: Petra (Monterey)

Mexican: Peppers Mexicali Cafe (Pacific Grove) **tried going here but they weren't open, now I'm sad for missing out!

Middle Eastern: Amir's Kabob House (Monterey)

Thai Food: Thai Bistro II (Pacific Grove)

Appetizers/Small Plates: Esteban (Monterey)

Outdoor Dining: The Forge in the Forest (Carmel)

Vegetarian Menu: Tillie Gort's (Pacific Grove)

Steakhouse: John Pisto's Whaling Station (Monterey)

Family Restaurant: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (Monterey) **my other roommate works here! Both of their companies got on the list!!

Seafood: Monterey Fish House (Monterey) **definitely going here! top of my list! apparently you need to call wayyyy in advance though

Best Clam Chowder: Old Fisherman's Grotto (Monterey)

Best Splure: Ventana (Big Sur)

Best Wine List: Sardine Factory (Monterey)

Best Romantic Spot: Pacific's Edge at Highlands Inn (Carmel)

Sheesh, those took a long time to link! But this is my official MUST-EAT LIST. 

I solemnly swear to eat at every place and tell you all about it!

Baan Thai Seaside

For lunch I joined in with a few coworkers and ordered takeout from a Thai place in Seaside. Baan Thai (1760 Fremont Blvd, Seaside) is family-owned and operated and the owners value authentic Thai cuisine and hospitality. Each entree is prepared with fresh ingredients and LOVE. Well, I could taste the love at least...

They opened shop in '97 and have been dishing out (get it?) creative Thai dishes since then with very reasonable prices. The current owners are Tom and his wife June. They look so friendly!

Lunch deals include hot and sour soup or salad with peanut dressing. I didn't have time to glance at the menu before I placed my order. All I knew was soup or salad? So I said "salad." I'm dumb. HOT & SOUR SOUP is like my favorite soup ever and I was just talking about it recently with Sarah Hunter and my craving has not been satisfied. When in London, Kerry, Megan, and I developed a system where if you crave something, just SATISFY that CRAVING. It really will help you be a more peaceful person if you simply buy that Starbucks, or that red bag of peanut butter M&Ms, or KFC's weird crunchwrap supreme look-a-like (Kerry).  Sigh. Next time.

I was told that they have red, yellow, and green curry. I ordered the red curry, asked for the highest heat level, and hoped for the best! For $6.95 I got chicken, bamboo shoots, carrots, bell pepper, coconut milk and Thai basil cooked in a red curry.

Their green curry option has your choice of meat, eggplant, carrots, bell pepper, coconut milk and Thai basil cooked in a green curry. The Panang Curry over rice has your choice of meat, stir-fried with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, onions and pineapple. Choices of meat include chicken, beef, pork, shrimp (extra $2), or vegetarian style with tofu and assorted veggies.

Baan Thai offers 17 delicious lunch entree options. Lunch hour is M-F 11am - 3:30 pm. Dinner is M-F 5 - 9 pm and Saturday noon - 9 pm. One of their specials is Pumpkin Curry, my all-time favorite curry dish. I MUST GET IT! I loved my red curry dish as a take-out and I'm sure the pumpkin curry dish would be even better! I reheated half of it for dinner and it still was the pinnacle of Yummy Mountain. Definitely recommend Baan Thai!