San Jose Weekend

Much of our Labor Day weekend was spent in San Jose. On Friday night, we went out to Santana Row where we went to dinner at Straits- a Singapore restaurant. We encountered it through the "sniff test" where walking by, it smelled really good. And it was a winner- we started out with the Garlic Noodles which were HEA-VEN. We also had chicken and beef satay with this amazing peanut sauce- it was a red based sauce which I've never had before but was good and then they had this really unique lemon grass sauce for the steak. It was slightly sweet, but unlike anything we had ever had before. And they had these AMAZING garlic french fries- just the right amount of garlic. Some of the other garlic fries we have had here are just way too much with huge clumps of garlic- but these were just perfect and even served in a chinese takeout box for unique presentation. All in all, we will definitely be back :-)

Then, on Saturday we went back to Santana Row again to meet up with several of my old friends- the Maughan Family. I've know Jeremiah for 10 years now and am also good friends with his parents as well. His parents, Jeremiah, and his wife Janai met us for lunch at Pluto's. Up until this meal, I hadn't been overly impressed with Pluto's, this custom made salad restaurant. But, I just hadn't had the right dressing- this time, I got the gorgonzola dressing and it was AMAZING and really made it a super good salad, instead of just ok. It was fun to catch up with everyone and we were sad that his parents couldn't spend more time with us because they had to get the bubble in their tires taken care of. Jeremiah, Janai, William and I then spent some time walking around the shops at Santana Row. And we needed a little chocolate dessert (imagine that) and so we stopped at a chocolatier we hadn't tried before called Joseph Schmidt. William is here demonstrating that we bought their signature black and white truffle that is currently on display in their sign.

Mmmm- look at that chocolatey goodness. The center was too rich for me to enjoy too much of it. We also tried their chocolate caramel bar which had a unique taste since the caramel was seasoned with fleur de sal.

Jeremiah and William were fascinated by the luxury cars on display- William mainly was checking out that they had horrible MPG and that even though they were super expensive, they also had huge additional gas tax fees. And then we saw some cars actually being used to chauffer a wedding couple and the rest of the party around- you can even barely see the bride in the back seat.

On Sunday, we went and attended the baby blessing of Elle, daugher of Ben (Jeremiah's brother) and his wife Deb, who are now living in San Jose while Ben works for Cisco. And look at just how precious she is
It was so fun to be able to catch up with so many old friends for this special event and we are thrilled that we will be able to spend some more time with Ben, Deb, and this adorable little one.