Life: Touring CU Berkeley

I finally got around to visiting Berkeley. I've been wanting to visit for a while and even considered applying for graduate school but deemed it too far at the time. There EECS was always comparable to our ECE program back in my undergraduate years, so I've always been curious what there labs were like. Unfortunately, winter break is still in progress so I was not able to go into any of the buildings.

Touring from the outside, the campus was actually a lot smaller than I imagined it to be.  I think I spent at most two hours to walk around the entire campus. I was walking rather slowly too. I went up the clock tower, visited the engineering building and the computer science building, then the new life science building. I even got to stand in front of the recent Randy Schekman's office. Randy is a recent Nobel prize winner.

Review: Cioppino's (Fisherman's Wharf)

• Cioppino
• Clam Chowder
• Fisherman's Platter

The cioppino was really good. I enjoyed this one better than the one at Scoma's but not as big. Regular size was enough to share among 6 people (including 4 other dishes).

Clam chowder and bread bowl was good too. I am not too familiar with bread bowls but seemed like there was quite a bit more bread than soup. Fortunately, this worked out with cleaning up the sauces from the other pasta dishes.

Fisherman's platter was ok. Nothing particularly special except fresh calamari. 

We also had two other pasta dishes but I do not recall what they were as I didn't order. Both were decent. One was with a red sauce and mussels. The other was with a green sauce with seafood. I would prefer the cioppino and clam chowder over the pasta dishes we ordered.

Reference
https://plus.google.com/104832740765930391855/about?hl=en&gl=us
http://www.cioppinosf.com/

Review: Kunjip (Santa Clara)

• Gori Gomtang - Oxtail soup
• Side dishes - Kimchee (nappa, daikon, cucumber)

Both were great. The oxtail soup may be slightly bland to some people but that is the way I like my food. The oxtail was tender and not too difficult to eat. I do not think I understand how to eat the meat with the sauce they provide. I didn't find it making the meat any tastier. I did like the slight spicy flavor from the jalapeno which I just ended up eating the jalapeno with the rice. This place has one of my favorite nappa and daikon kimchee. It was very crispy and tasty.

The place is a little pricey but I would return again on a limited basis.

Reference

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kunjip-restaurant-santa-clara-2

Review: Curry King (Union City)

• Curry chicken lunch special
• Lamb Tikka Masala
• Chai Tea (free)
• Wheat based dessert

Curry chicken was good which also comes with rice and curry mixed vegetables. Great price for $6 with naan. The naan was excellent. They had very nice crisp on the outside yet chewy in the inside that goes very well with the curry sauce.

My friend had the lamb tikka masala which I really liked the sauce more than the lamb. The lamb was good, but I think I still preferred the chicken.

Chai tea is unsweetend which was nice since I do not particularly enjoy over-sweetened tea. You can add sugar to your taste.

There was also dessert made of wheat. Unfortunately, I did not catch what it was called. It was a nice sweet treat for the end of the meal.

We were the only ones there at an odd hour. People were nice, service was good. Portions and price are reasonable. I would definitely like to go back just for the naan (there were also other naans with garlic, onion, etc.) and try some other dishes (perhaps the chicken tikka masala).

Reference

http://www.yelp.com/biz/curry-king-union-city

Life: Stanford University (tour)

Spent a couple hours walking around Stanford University. The campus is really large. There are definitely a lot of nice areas to just tour around and take pictures even though almost all the buildings were closed for the holidays. The architecture of the buildings were definitely more interesting.

I stopped by the Packard Electrical Engineering building and the Gates Computer Science building. I would have loved to go in to see their labs. Too bad there weren't anyone going in or out of those buildings.

Life: Google Plex (Mountain View) - Drive-by tour

I had a driving tour of the Google campus in Sunnyvale. I always imagined that it was one large complex so I was surprised that it was just a typical commercial area with some Google themes sprinkled around. For a holiday weekend, there were still a few people around. I also got to see the Google bikes. Unfortunately, I do not know any Google employees in the area so I can tour inside.

Spent the afternoon at the Shoreline Lake at Mountain View Park. I saw a lot of people playing golf, kayaking, canoeing, stand boarding, biking, walking, and other park-like activities. The park is right next to the campus area.

Review: Muir Woods - First visit

• 3 Short paths for casual tourists (30 - 90 minutes)
• Kids friendly
• Descriptions provided along the paths
• Extended paths (unpaved)
• $7 / person, free after 5pm
• Free for under 17

Path

We went in thinking the park closed at 5pm. We also did not have a plan on which paths to take.

We ended up taking the bridge 4 path which is approximately 2 miles. We finished this within 45 minutes. We didn't stop much to look at the scenery. I am more of a hiker than an nature observer, so I didn't mind this much. Although most of the path is either paved or boarded on flat ground, there is a short path after bridge 4 that is more natural ground and slightly inclined. I would imagine that this would take about 1.5 hours if we spent more time on the trail.

Hiking

The look trails were not much of a path for hiking. There are a lot of other tourists taking many pictures. Few people were on the bridge 4 path. We did stumble across a couple of the other paths (one was closed) which appeared more hiking like material.

The main loops are basically level ground so was very simple to walk through. The other trails appeared more interesting but we did not take those paths due to time. Looking on the map, there did not seem like there was a nice loop for the other paths. They appeared that you would eventually have to backtrack or be hiking for a rather long distance.

Scenery

The scenery was filled with a lot of redwood trees. There were a lot of information provided along the main loop paths for any casual tourists. On a few of the stops that we had, I thought the experience was unique to be surrounded by so many very tall trees. A few of the fallen trees were also interesting to look at. Some of the trees were amazingly huge. I really wanted to climb a couple of them but you are not allowed to step off the paved paths in the main loops.

Cost

The entrance is $7 per person, free after 5pm. We arrived shortly before 5 pm and thought that the park closed at 5pm but on our way out, there was a sign that entrance was free.

Reference

http://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

Review: Shao Mountain

Fish Fillet with Dual Flavour

This dish is rather large with two fillets. One covered with red chili peppers but was surprisingly milder than the other half which was topped with a green chili peppers. Both were really good. This dish does take a while for the restaurant to prepare. We basically finished the other two dishes before this came out.

Braised Pork Slices with Bean Sprouts

This was ok but a little disappointing. This was about 10 slices of thick bacon. After a couple slices this tasted rather heavy. I wish they could have made the skin more crispy. The bean sprouts were more enjoyable. Tastes better with rice and with another dish that is lighter like Melon with Garlic.

Squash / Melon with Garlic

This is basically squash with a lot of diced garlic on top. This dish nicely balances with the Braised Pork that we ordered (even though I would have liked to have ordered another braised pork dish). Beware for anyone that is not particularly fond of garlic or people on dates, there is a lot of garlic in this dish.

Overall

The spiciness is a nice change. I have not eaten at other places with a high degree of spiciness as this place especially for chinese restaurants. There are quite a few interesting dishes that I would like to return to try. As usual, I also find this place a bit salty for my palate.