Monterey y Carmel

Just came back from a wonderful weekend in Monterey.

Aisha and I are trying to do as many NorCal events as we can before our move to NYC. We drove up to Monterey on Saturday to visit the Aquarium there. The aquarium itself was a slight letdown. We both agreed that the Long Beach Aquarium was more fun, interactive and had more displays and activities.

The unexpected highlight was meeting Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook. He was there to promote sustainable seafood. He signed a cookbook that we purchased and he also did a very entertaining cooking demonstration for about 40 minutes. The man is highly charismatic, witty and extremely funny.

Of course he was completely into Aisha. No big deal. Lots of people are. We spoke at length with Martin on the importance of his media role as a successful Chinese-American. He spoke eloquently of seeing himself as a cultural ambassador.

We then went shopping in Carmel. Aisha picked up some luggage at the Coach store. I nearly got my foot lopped off from a falling glass shelf there. Luckily my lightning quickness and instinctual cowardice got me out of the way with superhuman speed and I was unscathed.

We then found a wonderful dog accessories store. We got Mochi a couple of toys and a halter.

We went to a dinner at a place in Pacific Grove called Passion Fish. It was recommended by an acquaintance we have now labeled "Monterey Stacey". The restaurant was beautiful and the wine selection was large and CHEAP.

The food was pretty good. I only say that because the night before on Friday, we had a GREAT meal in North Beach at a place called Pinochio. Damn we're spoiled. My cioppino (what a classic SF dish) was amazing. Jerry was with us and he kept whining about how his dish sucked compared to mine. Now back to Passion Fish...it was all fairly good, but the one truly memorable item we had was the crab salad. It was WOW wonderful. It was a mista type salad with an Asian-inspired vinaigrette with some sesame oil. It was great.

We then spent the night in Monterey, woke up, had breakfast in Carmel and picked up a pair of doggy glasses for Henny. That's our friend Colin and Laura's dog. They were nice enough to dogsit Mochi at the last minute for us.

We then went back to the City and picked up Mochi and headed over to Aisha's mom's place. She decided to bbq. We showed up, had steak, potatoes, ribs and PRAWNs. Did I mention we're spoiled?

It was then back to the apartment for a quick change for dinner. I was to host a dinner in the City for some of our new employees. We met at Pier 33 at Crossing the Bar. It is an Indian fusion restaurant. I admit to having some concerns about the cuisine, but decided to keep an open mind. It wound up being very good. I think everyone had a good time and of course that was all that mattered.