NOLA, Palo Alto
The rehersal dinner was at a really fun restaurant in Palo Alto, NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and the good times started rolling even before we left the hotel, as wedding invitees gathered to car pool and head down the highways to the dinner. We had instructions, but we were following the car in front of us, and so had a great adventure en route. Everyone finally got there just fine, the music was loud, the crowd was hoppin’ and the food was fabulous.
Hurricanes waiting on the table to greet the guests:
The appetizer plates (I couldn’t get to it fast enough to take a photo before some had disappeared!)
We started with soups and salads, but I forgot to take photos (there is a lot of visiting going on at these events!) so here is some fabulous jambalaya:
And what’s left of delicious king salmon:
I was honored to sit with the bride’s mother, originally from Tehran, and oh! what great conversations we had. The whole purpose of the rehearsal dinner is to give the families time to get to know one another a little, to provide a network for the young marrying couple, to give support. Our weddings are GREAT affairs – now I am going to brag a little. Our young generation of marrying age has chosen such fine mates. The bride in this wedding is a pistol; she and Earthling are so well matched, so good to each other and so good at supporting one another. And I love her mother! We had a great time visiting with each other.
And then – oh my – the desserts! Beignets and bread pudding:
People were scraping the sauces right off the serving plate, not wanting to waste a single tasty bite, they were that good!
This morning, the bride, my sister the groom’s mother, my mother and a host of attendants are off to the hairdressers to get hair and nails and make up done, the whole wedding ritual. I am thankful to be a minor character today – I have packing to do, and with the new packing regulations, I am in a world of hurt. I know if I need to I can buy another suitcase, but I am hoping I will not have to do that.
Last night was a truly great evening, (Thank you, Sparkle and MarinerMan!) and as good as it was, as delicious and fun filled as it was, it was just the prelude to the big event today. 🙂
UPDATE:
Hi there,
I noticed you wrote about our restaurant, Nola, on 5/25/2008 (https://intlxpatr.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/nola-palo-alto/). We really appreciate the mention! Recently, we created a new site that lets our customers order online with their desktop or smartphone. It’s an exciting addition to our restaurant, so we’re reaching out to you to ask for a small favor…
If you could help us by adding our new website (http://www.nolapaloalto.com) on your post about Nola, we’d really appreciate it! I know you wrote this post a while back so hopefully it’s not too much trouble!
Again, thanks so much for supporting our restaurant by mentioning us on your site. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Thanks there!
Cheers,
Your fans at Nola
Armadillo Willies
i am really lucky. Even though my son and his wife really really wanted to find some good Chinese food, they indulged me, and we ate once again at Armadillo Willies. Everyone ended up back at Armadillo Willies for lunch – it’s pretty good chow.
Once again, however, when we finally got the food we all just dug in and . . . I forgot to take any photos!
Breakfast at Google
The groom, my favorite nephew, Earthling, invited us to tour Google and have breakfast there this morning. What a thrill. We are all such geeks; being in Cupertino is just so much fun. Even Mom raved at the good breakfast available at Google, and . . . at the HEATED toilet seats in the ladies room!
Teriyaki Time
On my own for dinner, I noticed a little storefront dine-in and take-out place near the gas station and thought I would give it a try.
Good guess! It took me 30 minutes to get my dinner (salmon teriyaki) because the place was so full of locals (always a good sign.) Not exactly fast food, but worth the wait.
I love the photos to show people what they can order – although most of the people already knew. This place turned out to be very popular.
My First Favorite: 5 Star Pho
This is usually my very first stop when I get to Seattle. I CRAVE the 5 Star Pho salad rolls. They know me; they know I often stop on the way to my parent’s house to pick up an order, they have seen me fuzzy and smelly from my long travels. I bring my sisters and they put up with our laughter and chatter, I take my Mom here for noodle soup and green tea.
The owner and his wife always make us so welcome. It is a simple place, but they do steady business in the neighborhood – and it is also a favorite stop for the local cops.
Like Kuwait, increasing food costs have forced prices up everywhere:
When my aunt died, I got her little cat that always sat up above her kitchen sink in Santa Barbara. I was told that a cat with right paw raised welcomes guests, and a cat with left paw raised welcomes prosperity. I was told that these are Chinese cats, but my Chinese friends think they are Japanese. I don’t know where they originated, but you often see them in Chinese restaurants, too.
And finally – what I have been craving, what I have been waiting for! The 5 Star Pho Shrimp Salad Rolls (yes, there is one missing):
Girl’s Night Out
Sorry AdventureMan, I have had my first Mexican meal, and it was wonderful. You could have come! You could have come to wedding with me! You could have had Ivar’s seafood, and you could have had Las Brisas wonderful Mexican food.
My Mom insisted my sister try my new camera and take some photos of me. Of course, we got the giggles and every shot she took of me was worse than the one before. She said the photo gene skipped her, and – Sparkle – I agree. Those were some pretty awful photos. Of course, being hit by that great train jet lag didn’t help me to be a great subject.
Mom had the Camarones al Diablo, her long time favorite, and Sparkle and I had Chicken Mole. It was good, and we are looking forward to some time in California, with non-dumbed-down Mexican food, spicy!
The camarones (shrimp):
The chicken mole:
Wish I could bring you some, AdventureMan!
Come Back!
Law n’ Order Man! EnviroGirl! Come back! Come to Kuwait! We’ll make it worth your while!
Actually, in Kuwait, “coming soon” does not actually mean coming soon. There was a restaurant “coming soon” at The Palms, and we waited. And waited. The sign was up for months, and the restaurant never came!
We’ve heard there is also a Borders Books coming to The Avenues Mall – but we aren’t holding our breaths!
Turning into a Kuwaiti
We were lingering over the last bites of dessert and coffee in our favorite French restaurant when one phone rang and after a brief conversation, my friend turned to the rest of us and said “We have to get home. That was Anwar saying another storm had rolled in.”
We had all known it was a possibility, but wanted to take the chance to get together anyway. It was one of those rare occasions when our husbands were out of town, we could eat at a restaurant WE liked that they didn’t, we could get together and not worry about when we were getting home. We flurried out, I quickly dropped off my friends and headed home.
The streets were relatively quiet and the traffic relatively slow. I found myself thinking about the evening and how far I have come, living in Kuwait. I’m driving at night, and I don’t even feel a surge of fear-filled adrenalin, I’m driving in a sandstorm going ho-hum, just need to get home, and I’ve just had a great evening with female friends.
And I thought “I’m turning into a Kuwaiti woman.”
The West is so couple oriented. I remember when I was living near my parents in Seattle, and my husband was overseas, I hated Sundays; Sundays seemed like couples’ day to me – couples/families go to church, go to breakfast, go out shopping. Mostly on Sunday I would go to church, go to breakfast with a bunch of church friends and then go home, spend the rest of the day reading the Sunday paper and working on projects. If I were out and about, I would only be reminded how lonely I was, how I was missing a piece, I was incomplete.
In the Gulf, most of the social life is segregated – women go to women’s things, men go to men’s things, families do family things. Things are changing, but there isn’t a lot of “married-people-having-dates-with-their-own-spouses going on. Women go to engagement parties, wedding parties, condolence calls, they go shopping, they meet up at restaurants, they get together in one another’s houses. Men meet up at the diwaniyya, a local shisha cafe, they visit their extended family, they hang out and play cards, they race along the streets. The great circle called men’s social life intersects with the great circle called women’s social life intersect only rarely.
And here I am, meeting up for dinner with my female friends, and driving home alone at night through a sandstorm. Yep. I am definitely turning into a Kuwaiti.
Go For the Bloat
It is breathtaking in its audacity. In a report from CondeNastPortfolio.com we learn of a reverse approach by Carl Jrs. / Hardee’s – going full out towards mega-caloric burgers.
This post is dedicated to Mark, at 2:48 the b-side who is on a quest in Kuwait for the ultimate burger. I am afraid he is going to – literally – eat his heart out.
It was a patriotic statement that went a bit too far afield: an attempt to create the “ultimate picnic burger.” Called the Fourth of July Burger, it was tested last summer at seven locations by the West Coast fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. and consisted of a huge beef patty topped with pickles, ketchup, mustard, potato chips, and a hot dog. Stacked high and loaded with fat and calories, it was the food equivalent of the national anthem played through a sousaphone, a perfect distillation of a peculiarly American form of balls-out, postmodern gluttony that, at least outwardly, we’re all supposed to be ashamed of right now.
Yet for all its pomp and glory, it didn’t quite work. When John Koncki, director of product development for Carl’s Jr., talks about it now, he comes across a little wistful. It tasted really good, he says, but the name and the concept proved too much for the testers. “Sometimes,” the earnest Koncki says, “some of the sandwiches are so unique that consumers can’t wrap their heads around them.”
The uniqueness isn’t the only thing that’s hard to get your head around. During the past few years, CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, has employed an audacious go-for-bloat approach that defies just about everything you’ve come to assume about the business of modern fast food. (See nutrition data for CKE franchises and other fast-food chains.) In an age when other chains have been forced to at least pretend that they care about the health of their customers and have started offering packets of apples and things sprinkled with walnuts and yogurt, Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. are purposely running in the opposite direction, unapologetically creating an arsenal of higher-priced, high-fat, high-calorie monstrosities—pioneering avant-garde concepts such as “meat as a condiment” and “fast-food porn”—and putting the message out to increasingly receptive consumers with ads that are often as controversial as the burgers themselves.
You can read the rest of this article, and similar articles, by clicking HERE.
Gulf Royal City Center: Where Did it Go?
We hadn’t been to the Gulf Royal at City Center for a while, and since Chinese is my favorite “fast” food, we headed there this week-end. It’s gone.
You can see where it used to be – straight ahead was the take out window, and to the left there was a garish Chinese-style entrance, and all across the back there was red and gilt decoration, genuine cheesy, but we liked the food.
All the signs are still up in the window, but the inside is gutted.
“Maybe they are just remodeling?” I asked hopefully.
“I don’t think so,” said AdventureMan, “Usually they would put up a sign saying ‘New improved Gulf Royal re-opening SOON!” and there was nothing like that in sight.
He is betting they have opened up somewhere else, maybe they weren’t getting the dinner traffic they used to get. Does anyone know? I know there are a couple others, like one in Hawally and one in Fehaheel, and several in the mall food courts . . . maybe the sit-downs aren’t making enough money?
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