During Easter weekend, my aunt invited us to her place in Union City, CA to celebrate her birthday, as well as, to get together for Easter. My uncle from the Philippines is currently in town so it was also a reunion for my dad and his siblings. We spent the entire weekend with good company, amazing karaoke skills and great food (just like we did the year before).
Hunan Cuisine
We arrived around 5pm to find all the adults out playing badminton. When they arrived, we headed straight to Hunan Cuisine which was part restaurant and part karaoke. We got a room for 15 people and just ordered skewer after skewer throughout the night. We finished our karaoke session close to midnight.
YAYOI
The next day, following my cousin’s basketball tournament, we went spent the day in Palo Alto. We had lunch at Yayoi which happens to be THE fanciest Japanese restaurant I’ve ever stepped foot in. Basically, the concept of the restaurant is serving Teishoku set meals (miso soup, the main dish, a vegetable side and pickles). The coolest part was that every table had an iPad attached to the wall next to it and you order everything through there – including beverages! The service was really great as well. Everything came out at a reasonable amount of time and everything tasted amazing. I ordered the Mix Toji Teishoku which had pork cutlet, fried shrimp and sukiyaki beef simmered in sauce and egg *drools*
Blue Bottle Coffee
My other uncle really enjoys stopping by coffee shops – a lot. After lunch at Yayoi, he insisted that we stop by Blue Bottle Coffee and hang out for a bit. I’m not a huge coffee drinker but I’ll enjoy a latte here and there (especially if it’s a green tea latte). Their menu had a limited selection to pick from and they didn’t have green tea, unfortunately. I settled for an affogato. The aesthetics of this place was good but their coffee didn’t win me over.
Philz Coffee + everything in between
After Blue Bottle, we headed back to my aunt’s house. When I thought I could finally catch a break, I volunteered to accompany both of my aunts and uncle to buy some things needed for dinner. What I envisioned to be a 30-minute errand run progressed into a 3 hour drive around the city -buying seafood, buying sauce for said seafood, buying water, ordering and picking up some Indian food from Pakwan Restaurant, stopping by for some coffee at Philz. Nevertheless, the joy ride was rather entertaining.
On Sunday, we stopped by Philz Coffee again and enjoyed each other’s company. I fell in love with their iced mint mojito and it’s definitely better than what Starbucks has to offer (except the green tea latte is still the best, ok). Afterwards, I went with my parents to stop by church and then it was time go home.
That weekend went by too fast. My family may be loud and overwhelming (at times), but being able to spend time together despite all our busy schedules is always a blessing. Until the next family gathering!
