Mid-Week Dinner Out: Aqui Cal-Mex, Campbell Downtown

I live for mid-week dinners with friends. Meeting-up for a gab, and sometimes we even go running. Tonight, we went to one of our usual rotations, Aqui Cal-Mex in downtown Campbell. 

Aqui's menu always pleases the palate. Many of the ingredients are organic with an emphasis on providing real, natural foods with an innovative twist. The dishes are familiar, such as wraps and salads, but the flavors are unique to the restaurant. Most dishes borrow flavors from around the world, from the Southwest to California, from Asia to Latin America. Pictured above is BJ's BBQ salmon wrap with jasmine rice and jicama.  Yes, jicama!  Where else can you get this combo? 

The salad contains fresh mango, leafy greens and walnuts. 

My plate was also something special. There was salmon, organic tofu with adobo sauce, papaya, greens, and hidden underneath is polenta!

Butter Lettuce - Live Gourmet

 The folks at Live Gourmet must be doing something right with their marketing as I'm convinced these are fresher than the ones sold individually. Aesthetically, the Live Gourmet butter lettuce are more appealing with their roots attached, and a bit of sand and water are in the clamshell packaging as well. All signs point to lettuce that is freshly harvested, from my grocery store aisle that is.

But this brand of butter lettuce offers more than just a pretty face. The flavor is extremely fresh and very tasty. The leaves have a mild sweetness, almost buttery tasting, that is so delicious they can be eaten with minimal dressing or any other fixings.

I made my first butter lettuce salad  as part of the Park Avenue Potluck CELEBRATIONS virtual book launch party held by Kelsey (Naptime Chef) a few months ago. 

For a recent lunch, I made the same salad but added tofu and a poached egg for protein.

I am enjoying my "new" red Pyrex serving bowl for this salad. According to Pyrex Love, this rectangular bowl belongs to an entire hostess set created in 1949 for multi-use in the oven and on the table. Also, pics of a more complete set, such as Jenny's (ljcfyi), can be found throughout Flickr.

Turns out eating just salad for lunch is too controversial of an idea for BJ. Instead, he had toast and egg, with a bed of butter lettuce. It's not salad when there's a bread slice in the bowl.

Butter Lettuce Salad with Tofu and Poached Egg
Ingredients
Serves 2

• Half butter lettuce head, cored and trimmed
• 1/4 container of extra firm tofu, chop into cubes, keep cold
• 1 ripe but firm avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
• 2 poached eggs (to be served on top of salad once it is plated) 
• Balsamic Vinegar and EVOO
• Italian Parsley chopped
• Minced Chives chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

BJ's Birthday Dinner at Piatti Ristorante & Bar, Mill Valley

For BJ's birthday dinner, we trekked to our favorite restaurant of all times, Piatti Ristorante & Bar in Mill Valley. It's become a tradition to dine at Piatti for special occasions. Oh, who am I kidding. We really never need an excuse to eat delicious Italian food!  Not even the 146 miles round-trip drive between our home in San Jose to Mill Valley can deter us.

 

First off, there's the picture perfect views of Mt. Tamalpais across the inlet. The interior of the restaurant is modern and cozy, but we prefer the serenity of the patio dining. 

We started off with appetizers. Even though the menu hasn't changed since our last visit six weeks ago with BJ's dad, I always discover something new to try.  Tonight, it was polenta frittas drizzled with a bit of rosemary honey.  

Piatti's has been running a special 3 course promo menu that includes one small salad or soup, a small pasta, and dessert for $20. It's a great promo to make one want to return over and over. I've enjoyed trying the different food combinations.  For my first course, I ordered the creamy carrot soup that was the special for the night. I hope Piatti keeps the carrot soup on the menu - it's extremely comforting and delicious.

BJ ordered his favorite - the gamberi, a shrimp on ciabatta toast with lots of seasoning. 

The funny part about our recent visit is that the general manager of the restaurant recognized me immediately when I asked for a table. Admittedly, I was a tad bit embarrassed. While I appreciate my readers, it's surprising to get noticed when I'm out and about.  I mentioned to the general manager that I was favoring a vegetarian meal and he highly recommended the strozzapretti pasta.  That means"priest stranglers" in Italian. Up close, the pasta resembled a roll towel and was served with roasted potatoes and carrots with a hint of a light, lemony pesto sauce. So very good, and I'm thankful for the recommendation.

More shrimp for BJ! The shrimp risotto was so good that he even ate the olives in the rice, which he usually shuns to the side.

 

For my final course, I ordered a scoop of chocolate gelato.  The night was getting chilly so I topped my dessert with a cappucino. 

And an Italian birthday meal wouldn't be complete without cannolis. These had chocolate and candied orange mixed into the cream, a perfect partnership!

Our meals at Piatti always brings back memories of us eating our way through Italy on vacation. Just look at those tourist and their cannoli! 

Happy Birthday BJ!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is BJ's birthday and I bought fresh baked cupcakes and cookies from Dick's Bakery in San Jose to celebrate this morning.

    

BJ wanted to make sure that the caption says we split the sweets. Wouldn't want anyone to think he ate the whole plate.

We actually celebrated BJ's birthday yesterday with a special trip to Mill Valley to feast at our favorite Italian restaurant - Piatti's. I'll post a recap of our wonderful birthday meal tomorrow.

Today we had to stay home as our new plantation shutters were installed this morning (pictured behind BJ), and we also put in a new dishwasher. We're extremely pleased with both new additions to our home, and I especially like the extra privacy that the split top and bottom shutters provide.

Golden Beet Juice

These organic golden beets caught my attention as I've only tried red beets. Into the juicer the smallest beet went.

Major BLEH. Even though I included carrots and a cucumber, the taste came out very grassy tasting. Perhaps I used too much of the beet leaves. One thing for sure is the remaining two golden beets will be roasted.

To cleanse my palate from the awful taste, I broke into these.

Afternoon Coffee

 

I will surely pay for this later tonight. Drinking coffee in the late afternoon is hazardous to a good night's sleep, at least it is for me. Risking insomnia, I still went ahead and made a cup of joe to go with a snack of raw energy balls at 4:30pm. At least the coffee is decaffeinated, and it's from Barefoot Coffee Roasters, my favorite brand of beans. 

I put 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds into a filter that went into a ceramic coffee dripper and then poured boiling water through the system.

A perfect cup, and the raw energy balls taste even better the second day, after they've been frozen in the freezer.

What's the latest time that you would drink coffee or another caffeinated drink?

Happy Friday Night!

Chile Colonial's "Chile Crunch" Condiment

This tiny spoon is filled with a small amount of chile condiment that packs a powerful, fragrant and spicy punch.  It's by far the best I've ever tasted, and I've tried my fair share of condiments ranging from Szechuan hot bean pastes to Korean chili sauces. This chile condiment is truly one of a kind. Made by a San Francisco-based artisan using only fresh and natural ingredients, it is actually marketed as a Mexican gourmet topping. 

 

I received a sample jar of the Chile Colonial's Chile Crunch from Foodzie to review recently and was surprised at how it has seriously improved the flavors in my meals.  Usually, one prepares meals and then find condiments to accompany the dish. Not with this. After one bite, my taste buds were in heaven. There's a freshness here that I don't find in similar products imported from overseas. And then there is the roasted, crunchy garlic bits. Yummm!

I was hooked. For days, before preparing any meal, I would ponder whether it would compliment the Chile Crunch.  I anxiously prepared savory snacks and dinners and felt the euphoria of knowing that  I could drizzle heaping spoonfuls of the condiment into my plate soon enough. No joke - I am so addicted.

Luckily, my husband also likes the heat, although his palate is not as tolerant as I am with hot sauces. I find Chile Crunch to have a wonderful, aromatic depth from the roasted chiles and garlic combination and very, very little heat. However for BJ, a few drizzles of the hot oils is more than sufficient to get his eyes watery and nose running. Nonetheless, he loves the fresh tastes as much as I do. 

All the snacks and meals I prepared are influenced by Chinese dishes, but the gourmet topping can easily be served with other cuisines as well.  For now, here is a sample of the dishes where the Chile Crunch elevated the flavors in my meals... 

...Served as a dipping sauce with pan fried Chinese Scallion Pancakes.

... Served on top of  a veggie and tofu udon noodle stir fry...

 

... Mixed-in with black bean sauce to accompany chicken, veggies and rice.

...Drizzled over steamed oyster mushrooms, tofu and eggs...

... And enjoyed with more scallion pancakes and a mushroom omelette. 

In summary, Chile Crunch is awesome and will be a staple in my pantry. The company also makes three other condiments: Adobo Loco, Chile Fusion and Veggie Escabeche that you can learn more about at Foodzie.  Each 9oz jar is $8.95, which is similar pricing to other gourmet condiments and sauces I buy at places like Williams-Sonoma, Whole Foods or Napa Style.