Another Birthday dinner @ Piazza Pellegrini

I met up with my coworker from Hong Kong and she treated SQ and me to an Italian dinner at Piazza Pellegrini. This restaurant is located on Columbus Ave, in the heart of North Beach. Since it was a Wednesday night, we didn't have to wait for a table. We ordered a Pizza Margharita to share as appetitizer. The crust is very thin and it was pretty good. There were 6 generous pieces. However, the entrees were disappointing. Here are some of the entrees we ordered:

Fusilli con Pollo

Fettuccine with shrimp and peas, in a chardonnay saffron sauce

Angel Hair pasta with cherry tomatoes, garlic, olive oil

I must say that the food wasn't all that great. Very typical Italian, nothing extraordinary. None of us were wow'ed by our dishes. The food was a bit on the bland side - because I ended up having to sprinkle some salt over mine to get a little more taste out of it. Given our disappointment with our entrees, we didn't hand around for dessert.

Besides the food, we had a great time hanging out.

Birthday Dinner @ Chouchou

SQ and I enjoyed a nice and quiet birthday dinner yesterday. We dined at this lovely French bistro called ChouChou (pronounced Shoo-Shoo) in the Forest Hill area. It is a small quaint restaurant almost in the middle of nowhere but definitely worth trekking to. I ran across this place through a recommendation from a co-worker and it was a great restaurant indeed!! Service was great and the food ... it was Yum-Yum excellent! SQ ordered the prix fixe menu that came with a selection of appetitizers, entrees and dessert - all for only $25.95. He chose the Frisee aux Lardons (Frisee salad with poached egg and pancetta as appetitizer and I got the Sauteed escargots with garlic, butter, and puff pastry. Both were delicious. Sorry we both got so excited about the food that we forgot to take pictures of our appetitizers!

For entrees, I ordered the duck confit - shredded duck nestled inside the lightest, tastiest, thinniest fingerling potatoes I've ever had. Simply deleeessh!! SQ ordered the mussels with the side of shoestring fries. Mann, that bowl must have had 50+ mussels in there... they definitely didn't go cheap on the portions even though the mussels were part of the Prix Fixe menu. The broth that came with the mussels was excellent.

Then came the dessert. By this time, I was too full to have any - but since SQ's order came with dessert, we picked the Mixed fruit tart to share.

And mann o mann....I practically ate 1/2 of this tart even though my tummy was about to explode. It was soooo good!! The crust was thin and sugar-coated, which provided a great balance with the fruits. Excellent!! The dessert was my favorite even though I liked everything else too. I would definitely recommend this place if you are looking for a non-pretendious French bistro that gives you all the things you're looking for - service, price, and great food!!

The Triplets

Not many people realize that I actually have a set of nephews/niece who are triplets. They are my husband's brother's kids. They were born in July 2005 and will be THREE years old in a couple of months! They were born weighing less than 4 pounds each, and a 2-1/2 months from full term. They stayed in the hospital for a few months until they were big enough to breathe on their own. Now, they are healthy toddlers who loves to take pictures & run around making a mess. They are a handful (literally!)

Their names from left to right: Albert, Alex, and Alisa (in that birth order too!). Obviously, they are not identical triplets, but faternal triplets. They look different from each other and definitely have their own personality as well!!

Can you guess who is the naughtiest one?

Greenest Cities in the U.S.

San Francisco got voted #2 as the greenest city by Popular Science. Portland, Oregon was #1.

The rankings were based on:

Electricity - cities score points for drawing their energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric power, etc.

Transportation - points go to cities whose commuters take public transportation or carpool

Green living - cities earn points for the number of buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, as well as devoting areas for green space, such as parks and nature preserves

Recycling and green perspective - measures how comprehensive a city's recycling program is and how important its citizens consider environmental issues.

Hopefully, as we continue to build awareness, San Francisco will get the #1 spot next year!