Weekend Fooding & Review: Pastas

Friday night Justyn made plans with Donoho to have dinner and watch Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. We went to South Legend to get our grub on but ended up having to wait over an hour to be seated since we had 5 people in our party. Since we had to wait for so long, I asked the host if we could have some beers while we stood in line. Normally, that's a no-no since they technically don't have a bar area. But without batting an eye, the waiter just grabbed some beers out of the fridge and handed them to me. Awesome! Eventually we were seated and ordered. We already knew what we were going to order. At least I did. I definitely wanted more of that delicious fatty "bacon" with leeks. South Legend is known for their spicy dishes and one of the guys in our party ordered Walnut Prawns which was silly because there's no spice in it. However when it arrived, I was pleasantly suprised by how good it was. It was probably one of the best Walnut Prawns I've ever had. We also ordered the tofu appetizer which comes off tasting like cheese. Believe it or not, it's good. Along with that, we had some fish (I think it was Chilean seabass). Justyn ordered some chili chicken which was a little on the greasy side, but whatever... it was still tasty!

After dinner we went to the Great Mall theatre for Harry Potter. I was exhausted from food coma and a long day at work so I tried to catch some Z's during the slow parts of the movie. I dunno, Justyn said he liked it but I thought it was a little on the boring side. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet so that's all I'm gonna say about that.

We got home close to 1:00am and I watched some TV before passing out on the couch.

The next morning we relaxed a bit and ate leftovers for brunch. It wasn't until evening that we went to Angel's place for drinks and hanging out. This was the last weekend she would be in town. She's leaving for France on Tuesday so I wanted to spend some time with her before she left. For dinner we went to Pastas in Downtown Pleasanton.

I think I pretty much speak for all of us when I say we were starving. Luckily there was no wait for indoor seating. Here's what we ordered:

Drinks (house white wine - Angel, mint mojito - Me, Bud Light - Dan, coffee - Justyn)

We got some bruschetta and focaccia bread with balsamic and olive oil dipping sauce on the house which was cool. Normally I just expect the house bread to come before the meal. The focaccia bread was perfectly fluffy and not overly dense. It paired well with the balsamic dipping sauce which had chunks of lovely garlicky goodness in it. Justyn added some salt and pepper to it for further seasoning.

(Sorry for the crappy pictures... it was dark inside the restaurant)

I decided to get the lamb osso bucco and Justyn wanted spaghetti and meatballs (sometimes he's such a kid at heart hehe). Interestingly enough they didn't have spaghetti and meatballs on their menu. Justyn had to request it from the waiter. Angel got something that resembled fruitti de mare which is just seafood pasta. Dan ordered the rib eye. All in all, the food was OK. Nothing spectacular about it. My osso bucco was on the dry side and the sauce didn't taste right. It had an artificial taste to it. I did however enjoy the marrow from the bones. I spread that on some bread and ate that all up. Soo good. I don't know how something so disgusting can taste oh so good. One other side note in regards to the green beans. They were overcooked! You probably can't tell from the picture because it's over exposed but they were almost a yellow color. Ah well, it was a pleasant dinner anyway.

After dinner, we went back to Angel's place for a little Wii Bowling time. I started off doing well and beat everyone until the drinks started to hit me.

The next morning we followed tradition by going to Pho Hoa. Also known as the McDonalds of pho since they are all over the place. Instead of getting pho to remedy my hangover I had grilled chicken with rice. I added some Red Rooster (Srirachi) to it. Mmm spicy foods I love you! Angel ordered pho without the pho. I guess she had a hankering for just meat and soup. Justyn got regular ole pho.

After lunch Justyn and I made the long drive home. I was wiped out from the weekend so I took a shower and relaxed for the remainder of the day. Angel had seen pictures on my blog of a pizza that Justyn makes. He buys the dough from Trader Joe's (whole wheat) along with some proscuitto, salami, red onion and feta cheese. The sauce for the pizza couldn't be simpler. It's just garlic and olive oil. Most of the effort is rolling out the dough so it's flat which isn't difficult. Since Angel had been drooling over the pizza pictures, Justyn invited her over for dinner. While he was making the pizza, Angel and I watched Pretty Woman as I sipped on some Pax wine we bought from Del Dotto in Napa. The wine was OK, not something I'd likely buy again since it was so pungent. I think I should have refridgerated it before opening the bottle. Speaking of, I'm going to keep the bottle as a cute little vase for some flowers.

Anyway, so that concludes my weekend and I'm here at work typing it out for your enjoyment!

Don't forget! Tonight is Donkey Challenge Part 4!! I'll post about that tomorrow :)