As many going to Berkeley know, there’s a sushi place in Alameda with really good sushi – Sushi House (on Shoreline, next to Carlsbad Beach). There’s many sushi specialties on the menu (but the cartoony pictures don’t quite match up exactly..), but it’s not too expensive if you don’t order too much. Just make sure to arrive early and prepare for a long wait even though it’s a pretty big place – good thing there’s a beach right next to the restaurant. 🙂

This caterpillar lacks antennas and eyes shown on the menu

Cherry blossoms are made of fish! 😉

This particular farmer’s market in Redwood City seems to be open every day – kinda like a grocery store, but it also has the open air market setting for various booths to set up for the gourmet food festival. There was plenty of fresh produce like piles and piles of corn for cheap! (Wait.. am I back in Illinois already?)

“The Fresh Approach” with many onions and more onions

For the special event, there seemed to have been a bunch of specialty cheeses, so if you want to test out all sorts of fancy cheeses, come back here next time. There were also some not-quite-so-edible displays (but I suppose you could eat the flowers if you really wanted to..) And a single specialty chocolatier stand. Mmmm.. Chocolates + Almonds! 🙂

8+ flowers per orchid.. tasty?

A bowl of Orange Twigs from Charles Chocolates (milk chocolate ganache, orange, more chocolate!)

Making up for the lack of desserts at the banquet.. a trip with a high school friend at UCSD to a super fancy dessert place! After a few loops around the complex highway network of San Diego.. we pull up to 5th avenue to look for cakes, pies, cookies, or maybe just a cupcake at Extraordinary Desserts.

Mmmm chocolateee (but I didn’t eat it! just some of the top 😉 )