Peninsula and South Bay Adventure Day!

When I suggested to Eleanor that we reinstate weekend brunches, I didn't think it would turn into an all-day adventure touring around my possible new home, the South Bay. Somehow, though, it did.

The Sunday started off like many Sundays before. I met Colin and Eleanor at the Blue Bottle kiosk. Colin and I had frothy cappuccinos out of tiny brown mugs. Ben showed up shortly, still with crutches, and ordered coffee too. Tucked out of the rain, we caught up for a bit, finished our coffee, and walked over to Ben's car. We headed to Burlingame to have brunch at Alana's and then get some photos from Colin's mom's house.

At Alana's, Ben and I split the oatmeal pancakes with bananas and the Company's Coming, which was potatoes, sausage, cheddar and Provolone cheese, tomatoes, and scallions (we asked for no mushrooms), and topped with two poached eggs. Colin and Eleanor split a variation of the same two dishes. The oatmeal pancakes were as delicious as I last remembered them. They were light but substantial, incredibly tender but not mushy, and packed full of oats. With a little smudge of butter and maple syrup, they were fabulous. The Company's Coming was good too, especially as a nice salty balance to the sweetness of the pancakes. Ben didn't quite eat his share of food though and I couldn't eat it on top of what I had already eaten, so we left some pancake on our plate.

After the yummy brunch, we went to Colin's mom's house, where we looked at old photos of Colin, were mesmerized by and contemplated bees, and picked Meyer lemons. We then drove to San Mateo to do some shopping at the Japanese grocery store. I picked up some sesame oil, bonito flakes, and a box of sauce for eggplant.

At the market, Colin asked if we were getting hungry yet. At first, I thought it was ridiculous to be hungry again, since we only finished brunch about two hours earlier. But, when he asked, I could see how I wasn't as full as I expected to be. I told him that I could probably eat again. Ben said that he was easily swayed. We told Eleanor that we hadn't eaten at Santa Ramen before, and that settled it. We would eat again and eat noodles at Santa Ramen. But, after a quick phone call, we had a change of plans. Santa Ramen was closed until later in the evening. Eleanor was ready with a backup: Maru Ichi in Mountain View.

We got back into the car (Colin had a triangle of rice with pickled plum and wrapped in seaweed) and headed further south. Apparently, none of us had plans for our Sunday and were more than happy to drive for more food. Downtown Mountain View looked freakishly similar to downtown Burlingame, with the exception of the angle of the parking spaces that lined the sidewalk. I was surprised at how many Asians there were and all the Asian shops. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of downtown Mountain View since this was my first time there.

We made our way to Maru Ichi and sat down at a booth. Eleanor told us that we should order the Kuro Ramen, which has a black slick of oil on top. It sounded a little gross and a little weird, but tasted amazing. The oil was made with browned garlic, which was fragrant but not overpowering. And, surprisingly, for a bowl of soup with a layer of oil floating on top, the soup wasn't oily or heavy. Was it magic? I had no clue how they did it. Other highlights were the homemade noodles, which was chewy but tender. Too bad the noodle-making booth in the corner was lacking a noodle maker.

Eleanor had discovered this place in the back of a Japanese newspaper and had tried it on her ramen noodle extravaganza. It and Santa Ramen topped her list. I was glad to know of it too. And, I would be glad to share it with all my potential Stanford friends so that I could be the coolest kid at grad school. We also talked about Colin and Eleanor now having an excuse to either visit me in Palo Alto (if I do end up leaving my Hayes Valley house) or to visit the two ramen houses. Life wouldn't be so different if I had a little San Francisco respite.

As if we didn't see enough of the South Bay yet, we made one last stop in Palo Alto, in search of Keeble and Shuchat. Colin's iPhone battery died so we had to find it the old school way, with Google text. We had a problem though: we had no idea how to spell the name. After multiple text messages to Google and some driving around Palo Alto, we finally got the phone number and went way old school and made a phone call to ask for directions.

We were all exhausted by the time we left the camera store. As much fun as the South Bay was, I think the warm weather and all the food from the day was taking their toll on us. I was ready to head back to the City.