Three square meals eaten out

I try not to eat out too often so it is a little odd that yesterday I ended up eating out for two meals - and having a little mini takeout in between. A while ago I had e-mailed a friend and said that we should try to get together May 8 or 15, after all my maid of honor duties had calmed down. And in the meantime, I was trying to arrange a time to go to breakfast with another friend. Somehow this week, they both got back to me that Saturday would work great. With breakfast plans at 10 a.m, I figured I could manage dinner at 6 p.m.

The first meal was breakfast at OD's Kitchen, which is always great. Since it is a little hole in the wall place in Gilroy, I always like introducing out-of-towners to it. So I went there with a friend who is from the East Coast. I'm not really a breakfast person and he admitted while we were at breakfast that he's not much of a breakfast person either. But he seemed to really enjoy the eggs benedict and I love the home fries. I've tried to recreate the home fries at home, but I've never quite been able to do it. So I guess OD's will always get a visit from me every once in a while.

Since I knew I had plans to eat dinner out later in the day, I ate half of my breakfast and took the rest of it home, thinking I could always warm it up today.

I didn't think I'd eat much more before dinner. But a couple hours later my parents showed up at home with a plate of samples from the "No Bull BBQ" cook-off in Morgan Hill. I couldn't resist trying the brisket, tri-tip and a piece of garlic bread. Luckily the samples were quite small so I didn't really eat that much of it.

For dinner, I met up with some friends in Campbell and the meal helped me along with Resolution No. 2 (eat at five new restaurants.) My friends have a place across the street from the Pruneyard, and within walking distance of downtown Campbell. I left the place we'd eat out up to them and they chose a Aqui, which is a Mexican restaurant with a southwest flare. The menu included burritos, tacos and other typical fare, but with a little twist. For instance, my chicken burrito had slaw and barbecue sauce in it. My friends knew pretty much everything on the menu, and said they eat there at least once a week. The burrito was good, as was the roasted tomato salsa I had with some tortilla chips. The salsa was perfectly mild for me, but quite tasty.

Once again, I ate only half of my meal - this time to save room for a dessert at a little place around the corner called Satura Cakes. The place had cookies, donuts, truffles and a bunch of fancy little desserts. I got a New York NY cheesecake souffle. It was light and fluffy, and delicious. And since we had to walk a few blocks to and from my friends' apartments to get downtown, I didn't feel so bad about all the eating out.

My friends have already listed a whole bunch of other places in Campbell they want to take me to eat, so I am sure I will have Resolution No. 2 done well before the end of the year. And hopefully, I will get to introduce my other friend to a couple other good local eats, even if it doesn't move me closer to completing a resolution.

Of course, this morning before I could warm up my leftover breakfast my dad got to it and ate it all. I went back to my normal eating routine by having a piece of toast.



Photo by Melissa Flores

The New York NY Cheesecake souffle from Satura Cakes in downtown Campbell.

Breakfast at the Village Bistro

I met up with some college friends this weekend at Santana Row, a place that is a convenient point between the places we live. We originally planned to grab lunch, and I had a few places picked out to help along Resolution No. 2 (eat at five new restaurants.) But since my family had tickets to Cirque du Soleil later in the afternoon (4 p.m.) and my sister at work in Campbell, we decided to get together earlier in the day.

The problem with meeting at 10 a.m. is that there are slim pickins' at a shopping center at that time when it comes to eating. In fact, the only place that was open was The Village Bistro and Bar. We were not drawn in by the sandwich board sign outside that promised a Bloody Mary bar inside, but simple by the fact that it was open.

Now here is where I should probably confess that I am not a breakfast person. My sister and dad love breakfast - the bacon, the sausages, the eggs, the pancakes, the chorizo - if it's on an early morning menu they love it. They even love breakfast burritos for dinner or just plain breakfast for dinner.

But me, I only eat in the morning because when I go to the gym at 5:30 a.m., I'm kinda hungry by 7 a.m. Most days I eat a piece of wheat toast with jam, a hard-boiled egg white and a glass of fat-free milk. And I don't crave anymore than that.

Paired my underwhelming feeling about breakfast foods with my attempt to eat healthier this year, and I was kind of at a loss about what to order off the Village Bistro and Bar menu. There were plenty of items that looked good. A BLT breakfast sandwich, eggs benedict, french toast. But I went with a three-egg scramble with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and jack cheese, roasted potatoes and a buttermilk biscuit. The potatoes were delicious, coated in a red spice mix that was reminiscent of Season-all. The egg scramble was pretty standard, though, and I ate about half of it, and I skipped the biscuit altogether.

Next time I am craving breakfast, I think I will stick with OD's Kitchen, a little hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Gilroy that has the best homefries and pancakes I've ever eaten. It's the kinda place only locals know about and the family pick for Father's Day. And next time I go to Santana Row, I'll make sure to get there after the lunch hour so I can try Pluto's or the Counter, or one of the many other restaurants only open for lunch or dinner.