Ruby Tuesday 2 - Mel's Diner, San Francisco, California, January 29, 2013

Recently, I had lunch with a friend at Mel's Diner.  It's always a fun place to eat, with an 
extensive menu and lots of red everywhere.

No romance for me, sad to say, but out with a great friend!

There was even plenty of 60's music!

Even red in my blouse...

I and participating in Ruby Tuesday 2 - and your bit of 

red and  join in the fun.

Sundays in My City - Tidbits - January 23, 2011

Yesterday was quite busy for me, starting with a visit to Dr. Quoch, the most wonderful
dentist in the world.  I am forever grateful to my friend, Elaine, for referring me to Dental
Health of San Francisco because, until I went there, I dreaded dental visits.  I actually
was very remiss in appointments and, sometimes, I'd wait two years between visits. 
Dr. Quoch, however, and his wife, Dr. Chen, and their superb office staff made me a
believer in routin dental visits, at the age of 62!  Well, better late than never, right?

I love their office location, on Noriega, in the Sunset.  There must be a hundred Chinese
restaurants on that one street and, every time I'm there, I try a different one.  I don't
know how they manage to stay in business but each one seems to be packed.  I had
a bowl of won ton soup yesterday though folks were lined up two deep at the
restaurant's counter buying food to take out.

Just one of many Chinese restaurants on Noriega Street

A tray of duck's heads - folks were buying these by the dozen!

While I was eating my won ton soup, a worker struggled past, carrying this roast

pig!  The skin was one of the hot sellers while I was there!

Last night, I went to Manivanh Thai Restaurant in San Francisco.  This fabulous place I've

blogged about before.  It's owned by a Lao family who have become like my own  family.

I went to have dinner with Gigie Marie, a beautiful girl who was part owner of the former

Monkey Club, the great place where my retirement party was held.  Sadly, she and her

partner, Daven, decided to retire from the business, after thirteen years of memorable

evenings for the San Francisco General crowd and other lucky patrons.  It was so great

to see her again.  I just wish Daven could have joined us. 

One of the Douangpanya grandsons, Michak, sat with us at dinner, feeding me peas and

fueling my desire to have a grandchild some day.  I've got three sons who should be able

to make this a reality!!

Michak with Bau, his aunt's partner

Sweet Michak who shared his green peas with me

A little shy, at first - but not for long!

Gigie Marie and Carmen

Bau, Michak, Gigie Marie and Carmen

Usually, the restaurat is pretty quiet on Saturday night - their main business comes from

the San Francisco General lunch crowd.  It was packed last night, however.  The family

said that I drew folks in to eat.  Whatever the reason, I'm always glad when they have

a lot of customers.  The food is incredible and my Lao family are the kindest,  most

generous folks in the world!

I am participating in Unknown Mami's Sundays in My City - check it out and join in the fun!



2nd Post for Saturday, September 4, 2010 - Brenda's Photo Challenge - Lunch at Lulu's

2nd Post for Saturday, September 4, 2010

Brenda's Photo Challenge 

 Lunch at Lulu's

I already did my Saturday blog post on Camera Critters but I didn't want to miss out on

the photo essay at The Brenda Photo Challenge so I'm doing a second post.  These

pictures were take a couple of weekends ago when my son and I and his girlfriend,

Katie, were taken out to lunch at Lulu's, a well known San Francisco restaurant

( the three of us had never been there before ) but Katie's mom, Joan, who lives in

San Diego has .  We had a great time.  It's one of those places that is packed for

lunch during the week but we had it almost to ourselves late on Sunday afternoon.

We ended up ordering a number of dishes and sharing them all.  They were all really

good - we had two salads, We had two salads - one argula with heirloom tomatoes,
cucumbers & tomatoes and the other was a watermelon, roasted beet & chevre. The
spicy prawn pizza with sun dried tomatoes and basil pesto was my favorite. We also
had roasted mussels with drawn butter and roasted garlic and goat cheese ravioli with
sun dried potatoes and pine nuts. We were far too full for dessert but our first course,
doughnuts with meyer lemon curd more than made up for that!