Sunday May 2, 2010
Oakland, California
Another Glorious Day
Wow, did I sleep in. Very unusual for me as usually the dogs wake me up as soon as the sun rises. I slept until close to 9am! I guess I needed it. Sandra was already up doing office related work. After a cuppa we decided to go for a short hike. And I do need to start getting into my exercise routine. So we went to Redwood Park which is a stone's throw away from her house. Beautiful park. The trails are so different from the ones in SoCal because of the trees. This part of Oakland gets a dusting of snow, and given this was a pretty wet year, the forests were covered in lush green and dotted with young redwood trees. But because of the wet season, poison oak was thriving too. While hiking the trails, we saw a lot of poison oak waiting for a victim. And speaking of victims, about 3 years ago, tragedy struck this area. It is here, where the body of Nina Reiser was found. Nina Reiser was murdered by her ex husband Hans Reiser - a computer science genius who invented a computer file system that is being used in Linux. He lived by the park and buried her body in the park. It's a very tragic story and was the scandal of this peaceful community.
But the park is Gorgeous! 12 miles of trails for every level, including equestrian and bike trails. I was so out of shape but enjoyed the 45 minute hike. It was a good way to start the morning.
View of Mount Diablo
After the hike, we rested a bit, showered and then decided to head to Berkeley to check a famous Indian place called Viks Chaat. Chaat is an Indian term for snacks. This place got rave reviews nationwide and since Sandra has never been there we ventured to Berkeley to check it out. It's been over 25 years since I've been to Berkeley. It's still a college town, but boy did it clean up and the area around the university is not as scary as it has been.
Entrance to Berkeley
Viks is on 4th street in Berkeley in the warehouse district. Our timing was good as warehouse sales were going on. I bought a beautiful leather bag for only 15$! Retail over 50 bucks. We also stopped by wine.com and a warehouse that sold French goods. Bought some Christmas gifts at the French store.
The "bag" sale
Then we went off to Viks. Wow, very crowded. Just as we arrived, a bus load of tourists arrived. It's the only place to eat in the neighborhood. Mmm, but the aroma, so aromatic! The place sells Indian groceries and is well organized. One first stands in line to order the food and then they call out your name when your food is ready for pick up. We had 3 highly recommended dishes from the reviews we read and I also treated my self to a mango lassi
Viks Chaat
I love the colors of India. Colorful desserts
Aloo Tikki
Fish Kebab with a very spicy but good green sauce
Vegetable Dosas
After stuffing ourselves, Sandra took me to the bay which was gorgeous and got a view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge.
San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge and the infamous San Francisco Fog rolling in
Since the day was gorgeous we decided to stop by the lake in Oakland for a drink. The place to go in Oakland in Lake Chalet. Great place for a drink but not so good food.
Gorgeous day to sit outside by the lake and have an afternoon drink.
And we had cosmopolitans! I haven't had one of these in over 5 years.
We then headed back to Sandra's, relaxed a bit and got ready for dinner. Yes, we were getting ready to stuff ourselves again. For dinner we went to Bellanico's that was highly recommended by one of Sandra's foodie friends. It was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. And the service was fantastic. We brought a special bottle of wine from our Argentina trip and they only charged a 15$ corkage charge. It's a small restaurant but very friendly, casual and just good food.
Bellanico's
Angelica Zapata Malbec: A special wine from our trip to Argentina 3 years ago.
Fresh watercress salad with gorgonzola, toasted hazelnuts and champagne vinaigrette
This dish was very special. I loved it. I have to figure out how to make it. Swiss Chard Malfatti with browned butter, sage and grana padano cheese
Roasted chicken breast with olive oil crushed potatoes, spinach and lemon sauce
Because we shared the salad, malfatti and chicken, we treated ourselves to the dessert sampler and a glass of Muscat
Muscat
The dessert sampler: from left to right, my favorite-panne cotta, chocolate cake with hazelnut ice cream, goat cheese cake, Italian doughnuts with lemon curd
I would love to go back to the restaurant again. I wish they had one like this in Malibu. After dinner we headed back to Sandra's and decided to have a movie night again. We finished the horrible movie Love Happens, which had a very bad ending and then watched the History of Violence. And of course, we did so with a bottle of wine. I've seen HIstory of Violence before but Sandra hasn't. Now, its gross, but a very good movie. The wine affected me, so I did not make it thru the end of the movie, and fell asleep and called it a night around midnite. But what a FUN day. I luv the East Bay!
Comments