Cinco de Mayo weekend Brunch

I have to say I deserved last weekend.  I have had jury duty for the past two and a half weeks (and counting) and it's safe to say that the plants don't stop growing for court, so I haven't been able to abandon all responsibilities at work.  So I felt like this weekend was worth celebrating.

Samantha had planned to visit for Cinco de Mayo to see a show at Sophia's Thai Kitchen in Davis, and she brought two welcomed guests, i.e. Jessica and Courtney.  The show was really fun, mostly because the music was really good and also because Ben had the foresight to pack me an extra jacket for when I got cold.  But there's one thing about Sophia's that will always lead to a good time: ginger ale.  My education in Viticulture & Enology basically qualifies me to be a beverage expert, so do not doubt that Sophia's has the best ginger ale ever.  Plus sodas are free at bars.

Sunday morning Samantha, Courtney, Jessica, and I snacked on popsicles that I made and had various discussions about various things.  Then we met Ben at The Shady Lady for brunch where we had coffee, mimosas, bloody marys (with pickled green beans!!!!),bacon, eggs, omelets, hash browns, blueberry pancakes, and a breakfast sandwich.  After brunch I sent off my visitors with a banjo and the address for Doughbot,and then Ben and I had a relaxing Sunday afternoon complete with The Avengers and dinner in Old Sacramento.

And because you're all dying to know...

The Hulk is the best Avenger.

Easter

This Easter weekend, Samantha and Erin came to visit.  In case you were wondering, the components of a successful sisters weekend are:

1. Snacks

After a strenuous morning of working out, Samantha demanded macaroni and cheese as soon as she and Erin arrived in Sacramento.  I failed a little bit in the snacks area because I ran out of Easter candy by the time Easter Sunday came around.

2. Movies

Hunger Games.  Yeah, we saw it again.  It's still really good.

3. Shopping

The Downtown Plaza Westfield Mall in Sacramento doesn't have a lot to offer, but after two shopping weekends in a row, my pink sparkly wallet (purchased during a sisters weekend) wasn't complaining.  Samantha did get some really cool pants for her paper doll though.

4. Nail painting

I had painted my nails gold on Thursday (Fun Friday came early last week because it didn't want to steal Good Friday's thunder), but Samantha and Erin took advantage of my gamut of nail polish.  I should really take a picture of my supply, but go ahead and picture an overflowing gallon Ziploc bag of nail polish.

5. Target

Target was closed on Easter, but we did take a trip to the parking lot.  Even though it didn't work out this weekend, it still deserves mentioning.  When I used to visit Samantha in Berkeley, we'd roam the aisles until we found something we needed, such as an ICEE.

6. Meal(s) sponsored by Dad

This Easter sisters weekend meal was brought to you by Dad, via Burgers and Brew.  We had salad, a bacon cheeseburger, a jalapeno bacon cheeseburger, lots of curly fries, and a BLT.  And a root beer and a regular beer.  And I ate everyone's pickles.
Also, not sponsored by Dad but still a great Easter brunch was had at Cafe Bernardo.  Fun fact: There are two Cafe Bernardos in Sacramento.  When Ben was meeting us on Sunday morning, we found this out the hard way.  We ate a ham and egg sandwich, yogurt with fruit, toast, breakfast burrito, and potatoes. We drank OJ, water, and a bloody mary.

7. Coffee

At Peet's!  Thanks Erin!

8. Swapping clothes

Because we can.  Samantha borrowed a shirt from me, and Erin left her jacket at my apartment.

9. Gossiping

Upon settling down for some bedtime Law and Order (how do we not have nightmares?  Instead we have wonderful dreams about one day getting jury duty), we decided we should gossip like normal sisters.  However, this turned into a discussion about why Erin should design UC Davis themed fake nails to sell at the Bookstore.

Spending weekends together since 1992

Biscuit Poisoning

I think the lard equilibrium of my bloodstream has been altered since I moved away from the South.  I remember I used to be able to consume an occasional Bojangles or Chic-fil-A chicken biscuit, but I don't know if I'm capable anymore.

Last weekend I went to brunch at The Porch with Erin, Samantha, and Ben.  I had very high hopes for The Porch because it's related to Capitol Garage, which is definitely a favorite location of mine, and because the menu had a large menu with brunch foods that had not been previously available to me in California.  Maybe The Porch is still figuring out a few kinks in the kitchen (and not just the menu spelling), but a part of me wished I had gone to the Shady Lady instead.

Location: The Porch

Drinks Score: 8
Food Score: 6

Food we ate:  Grilled Brie, Biscuit Sandwich, Banana Bread French Toast, Soft Shell Crab Sandwich, Grown Up Grilled Cheese

Drinks we drank: Orange juice, Mimosa, The Charleston

It is my opinion that The Porch took the concept of a Southern Brunch to the extreme.  I'm pretty sure the biscuit on my biscuit sandwich was deep fried and/or supersaturated with grease.  And I don't think it was necessary for everything on the menu to come with hollandaise or cfreme fraiche.  The french fries were really good though, as was the grilled brie.

The quality of the bacon carried the rest of the food at The Porch.  I was so distracted by the outstanding bacon that I found myself grabbing the bacon off of Ben's sandwich without even asking.

We redeemed (in my opinion) the brunch with a trip to Broadacre for coffee.  Erin and I walked around Downtown Sacramento for the rest of the morning gossiping daydreaming putting a dent in her photography project and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Burgers

Samantha and I ate at Counter Burger a few weeks ago, and I'm going to go ahead and call it brunch because 1) it was before 11:00 am and 2) something interesting happened (i.e. horseradish mayo).

Introduction
Location: Counter Burger
Food score: 8
Drink score: We had water and Coke, so..... I don't really know what to say for this one.

Materials and Methods
We ate: Burgers, Onion straws, Fries.
We drank: Water and Coke

Results and Discussion
My burger toppings included a honey wheat bun, swiss cheese, gruyere cheese, pickles, mixed greens, bacon, and horseradish mayonaise, which I'm convinced that out of the ca. 20 spreads that Counter Burger offers, is the best spread.  Note this is a claim my Nana would respectfully disagree with, because she likes honey mustard better.   One piece of advice I might suggest for the Counter Burger patron is to eat the burger as fast as possible, because Samantha and I both noticed that the buns on the second halves of our burgers got too soggy. A solution might be to de-bun the second half of the burger until it's ready to be eaten.

Omg, this brunch review is reading like a lab report (edit: I included headings in small font, because I figured this was an all or nothing writing style).

For fun, a list of my favorite burgers in California:

1. Burgers and Brew Jalapeno Bacon Cheeseburger - the one in Sacramento, not Davis
2. Barney's Bacon Cheeseburger (with curly fries and a Turkish coffee milkshake) in Berkeley, CA
3. Counter Burger - anything with two kinds of cheese
4. Sam's Mediterranean Cafe Cheeseburger with yogurt sauce (with the best fries in Davis!) in Davis, CA
5. Kupros Cheeseburger in Midtown Sacramento


What's your favorite burger?

Bill's Cafe, and San Jose All Day

I spent this weekend in San Jose visiting my sister Samantha and finally going to my second brunch of 2012.  On Saturday we started off with Counter Burger (brunch blog coming soon) and some shopping until our feet hurt so bad we had to sit down every 10 minutes and our eyelids drooped from exhaustion.  Next we napped in The Cloud while watching Law & Order (sounds so luxurious).  We ordered take out from Naglee Park Garage and ate it while watching Law & Order and then saw The Vow.  On Sunday we went to brunch at Bill's Cafe, described below in detail, then took a nap while watching Law & Order.  Samantha's friend Jessica came over and we went to see The Woman in Black, which was the scariest movie ever.  We ate dinner, and I was too scared to drive home, so we spent the night at Samantha's, painting our nails and watching Law & Order until we went to bed.

Without further ado, a brunch review:
Location: Bill's Cafe.
Food score: 10
Drinks score: 9
Service etc. score: 9
We ate: Bacon Grilled Cheese sandwich with fries, Ortega omelet with hash browns, rye toast.
We drank: Cranberry mimosa, coffee, water.

Drinks from Bill's.

My favorite parts about Bill's were: the outdoor seating and free coffee while we waited for a table and discussed the roles of children dining at restaurants, my many beverages, the crunchy hash browns, and the mountain of butter on my rye bread toast.  I'm not planning to keep up my lack of brunching effort for 2012, but Bill's definitely made up for a brunch-less month and a half.

The only thing I didn't really like about Bill's was the presence of strawberries in my mimosa.  (Most of the time) I really don't like strawberries.  When I used to make smoothies for my food service job, the strawberry smoothie mix smelled a little bit like strawberries and a lot like sugar, and for some reason it was the most popular smoothie flavor.  Therefore, it was the most frequent smoothie flavor to end up on my clothes.  I could not hold onto a carton of smoothie mix if my life depended on it.  I hate thinking about how many articles of my clothing were completely ruined by a sticky coat of strawberry Island Oasis mix....  Gross.

I ended the weekend by accidentally leaving behind a sweater and my favorite pair of jeans, i.e. tricking Samantha into returning my stuff visiting soon!

Brunch Leftovers

Thanks to Ben, I now have a new pink microwave for microwaving my brunch leftovers, to use when my eyes are bigger than my stomach.  This would be a perfect time to feature my extremely pink kitchen on my blog, but I am sans iPhone so I can't take a picture.  But be prepared for a virtual tour of a kitchen more pink than you could ever imagine.  Even my dishwashing soap is pink.

Why doesn't Doughbot have Apple Bacon donuts every day?  They were the best, and sadly only available during Bacon Fest.  I never did find out if Bacon Fest was a real thing or just a short event that Doughbot made up to stop productivity while everyone thinks about bacon all day every day.  On Sunday, which was two-days-post-ACL-re-repair-surgery for Erin, I met my mom and Erin in Davis with Doughbot donuts (Blueberry Cornmeal x2, Lemon Lavender, Chocolate, Vanilla Bean, Apple Bacon), and then we went to the UCD vs Air Force gymnastics meet.  On Saturday night I had a dream I went to Doughbot and got an embarassingly large amount of donuts.  I was little disappointed when I woke up on Sunday knowing deep down that three Lemon Lavenders would be a little too much.

Other than Doughbot, I've been skipping brunch lately, because of sleeping in and eating lots of peanut butter toast, but I'm going to try really hard to go on Saturday.  I do have a guest post by Samantha at sam says... coming up soon though.

Capitol Garage, Part THREE

I went to Capitol Garage with my friend Erik today.  He's finally back from France!  I had the Happy Scramble which was huge but good, and a Classic Peach Bellini.  Erik had a Smoked Salmon Benedict and a Bloody Mary.  Keep meaning to try the bacon jam but, oh wait, that sounds really gross.

If I'm being totally honest, today was actually a two brunch day.  Ben and I went to Insight Coffee Roasters, also in Sacramento, where we had a brewed coffee, a double Americano, a vanilla bean donut, and a bacon maple donut (donuts from Doughbot).  So good.  I think Sacramento loves bacon.

It's finally vacation, so I'm going to take this blog on the road to Washington, DC and Charlotte.  Although, what's the point of going to DC if there's no such places as the Jeffersonian, Founding Fathers, and the Royal Diner.  How disappointing.  I guess I'll just have to settle for finding the dinosaurs from We're Back (pre-Brain Drain), or Julia Child on a motorcycle.


The team at the Royal Diner

That thing's bigger than you are!

I started playing the cello in the sixth grade, and I had to carry it to and from school, through the hallways.  As a four-foot-something middle schooler, helpful parents and students were always exclaiming, "That thing's bigger than you are!"  As if I didn't feel like a big enough loser for being the only person to take my instrument home and practice it.  One day, I finally surpassed my instrument's height, and I still heard the same phrase.  Until one day, I went to college and stopped practicing my cello on a regular basis, and I thought I had gotten past the insensitive comments from strangers who've clearly had a large helping of self esteem for a large part of their lives.

Then two years ago I turned 21, and apparently, no one told my face, because I've been told by countless airport employees, waiters and waitresses, and other checkers of IDs that I look extremely young for my age, and I'll be glad to hear it in about 10 years.  Thanks people.  I'm pretty sure I'll never feel quite comfortable with strangers telling me their opinions on my appearance.  Three memorable incidents are the following:

1. I was having a dinner with my family in Hawaii when I was 21 and I was not served the beer I ordered because I didn't look like I was 21, which I was not told to my face (Thanks to Uncle Trey for getting to the bottom of that situation).

2. This past summer at the airport I was kind enough to give up my seat on a plane so a family could sit together.  I was then asked how old I was, because they wanted to move me to an exit row.  Pretty sure you have to be 16 to sit in an exit row.

3. Last week, after working hard to prepare a wild rice field for sampling and take-down, I checked in to a hotel and the chatty man at the front desk asked me if the credit card I handed to him was mine, because I look a little young to have a credit card.  Um, didn't you just finish looking at my driver's license?

A word of advice: think before you speak, especially to strangers.  They probably don't care about your opinion as much as you do.

Anyways, back to this blog post's title.  This morning, my boyfriend Ben and I went to brunch at Pizza Rock on K Street in Sacramento (no link because there's really annoying music on their web page), and I got this:

Premium Bacon Bloody Mary

This thing was basically bigger than I am.  Not only did this bloody mary have a brunch staple, bacon, but it also had my all-time favorite food: green beans!  Also there's bacon in the actual bloody mary, and you can also see a slice of green bell pepper, onion, pepperocini, and an olive.  It was huge, but don't worry I finished it.

Location: Pizza Rock
Food: 8
Drinks: 9
Service and Ambiance: 9

Food we tried: The Wolfpack Pizza
Drinks we tried: Premium Bacon Bloody Mary, Bottomless Mimosa (Orange and Mango)

The Wolfpack pizza had eggs, three types of cheese, peppers, and two types of sausage.  I think we just ordered it because it reminded us of the movie The Hangover.  It was definitely enough pizza for 3 or 4 people.  They have a pizza with berries on it, which sounded pretty good.  Maybe next time.  The Bloody Mary was really good, but if it hadn't been adorned with bacon and green beans then I probably would have ordered the mimosas.  And it was huge, inducing a 2.5 hour nap when I got home.  The mango mimosa was better than the orange.  I think there may have been other types, but once I saw that my bloody mary was going to come with bacon, I got a little distracted.

I will definitely go back here!