Seafood chowder with Alaskan sockeye salmon and halibut, and imported farm-raised shrimp. Re-warmed herbed focaccia on the side, along with garden greens in vinaigrette.
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Menlo Park has an interesting set up of French (bistro style) restaurants sitting directly next to each other with quite related menus - Left Bank and Bistro Vida https://www.bistrovida.com/ .We tried Left Bank before but now it was time to also see how Bistro Vida compares to it. Overall quality of cooking is quite similar (as are the prices), same with service. It’s nice to have these two options in the (extended) neighborhood (but it was also apparent how “sleepy” Menlo Park tends to be as both restaurants (as most others nearby) tend to close around 9:30pm on a weekend)
Assiette de Charcuteries - prosciutto, saucisson sec, pate, olives, cornichons
Coquilles - sauteed sea scallops, garlic, white wine, herb de provence
Tartare de Thon - ahi tuna, ginger, chives, yuzu
Olives Marinees - warm marinated olives
Cassoulet de Toulouse - duck confit, toulouse sausage, white beans
Vida Burger - roasted red bell pepper, gorgonzola, fries
Coq au Vine - red burgundy braised chicken, lardons, mushrooms, pearl onions, egg noodles
Bread Pudding - apples, raisins, and coconut, creme anglaise
Profiteroles - vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce
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Heyyy! We went back to OUR favorite Thai restaurant last night, too, in anticipation of the new menu items the owner announced to us before our Palermo trip (and bc we were craving spicy food 
).
The couple sitting at the table next to us were clearly eating the MAMA tom yam one had to preorder, and I was experiencing more food envy. After we’d ordered our dishes, I asked if they had indeed preordered, to which they replied in the negatory. So maybe we could’ve gotten the soup as well, but having had the hand-cut noodz the night before, we were happy with our choices:
THEY HAVE MOO PING NOW! The Best Moo Ping that ever crossed these lips, at that. So flavorful & tender, and the dipping sauce was dive-in worthy 
We also shared the ‘meat salad,’ which was fiery and tart, but the chicken sausage was pretty uninteresting, and I can’t say that I tasted or saw any pickled egg anywhere, either.
Finally, we split stir-fried water spinach for our main bc we were craving vegetables & a non-spicy dish to relieve our tongues 
Wonderfully smoky from the wok hei & a perfect conclusion of our dinner.
Well, that… and a couple of Kinderkugeln of ice cream from our local purveyor: 85% Valrhona chocolate sorbet and toasted hazelnut for me, Sicilian pistachio for my PIC. #YOLO
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It was! They used to just have the food stalls in previous years which is always a big draw. But this year they are adding some animation (dragons and large characters on stilts) as well as crafts. The crafts looked kinda like dollar store varietal but it’s nice to see the night market branch out a bit. The food stalls have improved a lot in quality and selection since they started 5 or 6 years ago so hopefully their plans on expanding the market will improve over time as well.
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That looks amazing!
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I don’t think so - I think the organizers just neglected to put out enough garbage cans. The only biodegradable items they had were the bamboo skewers that the squid came on. There was lots of bubble tea available as well as freshly pressed juices and they all came in plastic cups. I suppose I could have taken my garbage home and thrown it out there but there was no signage advising us to do so, so carrying around loose plates, cups etc. would have been awkward.
Every year at the end of May we have race weekend culminating in a marathon on Sunday morning. It draws thousands of runners from around the world and they were facing the same problem a few years ago. The runners are usually given bananas at the end of the race and the spectators show up with coffee they picked up from any of the nearby coffee shops. There was so much garbage being generated the one garbage can I saw was full to overflowing so it was spilling over onto the sidewalk. When I walk up the street on my way to work on Monday morning there is so much litter on the sidewalks it looks like a tornado touched down. They have since put out more garbage cans.
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Did a quick and very successful Greenmarket run. Half-shell clams, carrots & French breakfast radishes with herb sauce, and a warm salad of clams, squid, favas, scallions and parsley.
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Great minds think alike 
Everything looks great. We had them make everything with a spice level of 4 out of 5, (except the crispy vermicelli with crab, which is sweet), which gave everything a nice little kick. My tongue was on fire when we left 
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I usually don’t eat a lot of rice, but I needed it yesterday to comfort my poor tongue 
Hurts so good 
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I was craving a SALAD, so that’s what WFD: two bags of mâche, a few baby plum tomatoes & walnuts in a creamy herb dressing, topped with pan-seared organic chicken breast & oyster shrooms.
I served the chicken & shrooms atop the salad, so the meat & shroom juices could mingle with the dressing. Good decision 
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Dinner omelette stuffed with bacon, asparagus, cheese and a crispy hash brown. Toasted baguette on the side.
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Another night where I told BF to take whatever fish struck his fancy out of the chest freezer and I’d figure something out when I got home. BF chose the arctic char, so tonight is roasted arctic char on a bed of one pot Alfredo pasta (with mixed mushrooms and peas). Maybe a little heavy for the weather, but we were hungry so it hit the spot!
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Only used one of the two defrosted b/s chicken thighs for yesterday’s satay, so the other was quickly marinated in some honey-mustard dressing, olive oil and wine when I got home. Cooked it in a fry pan, sliced up, and put onto some sourdough bread with thin slices of gruyere and cooked applewood-smoked bacon, and grilled on the grill pan with a press.
Not too bad for a quick dinner.
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Tonight’s dinner was a basa fillet cooked en papillote with cherry tomatoes and asparagus and rice on the side. I realized after that I was going to use the more perishable bok choy instead of the asparagus. Oh well. I also managed to burn the rice. I’ve never done that before…
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Spiced lamb-and-zucchini meatballs over braised kale and onions. Homemade pita. Charred scallion dressing.
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Bok choy with glazed shiitakes (different presentation this time). Blowfish tails, marinated in ponzu & Szechuan peppercorns and oven-grilled.
Cheese & strawberries.
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Green blop but a tasty green blop - green shakshuka with swiss chard (stems and leaves), baby spinach, onion, garlic, coriander and Ancho chili powder, vegetable broth, eggs, feta, dill and mint
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I found a pound of ground turkey on clearance, but didn’t really know what to do with it. After going through some recent recipes, I decided to make Hoover Stew. Instead of hot dogs, I substituted in sauteed onions and the ground turkey. It turned out really good and we both enjoyed our dinner. Sunshine told me she likes this version a lot better than the version with hot dogs. Any who… here is a pic of my latest experiment Ground Turkey Hoover Stew!!
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Where? Did you cook blowfish tails?
