Our weekend in the Bay Area: Mina/Annika, Curry Up Now!, and Stanford Football!

We spent a weekend in the Bay Area.  During that time, we saw our cousins Mina and Annika, ate at Curry Up Now!, and watched the Homecoming Stanford-U. of Washington football game.  

Mina and Annika

When we arrived in the Bay Area, we were HUNGRY. l.  For dinner, Uncle Ben grilled a bunch of food. Here is a picture of the delicious meal:

There was Steak, Salami, Prosciutto, Cheese, Butter and Bread, and some vegetables – including something called Chayote (that’s the green one). Chayote is a delicious squash!  The steak (ribeye) was cooked just the way Anya liked it: Medium Rare!  

On a scale of 1-5 smiley faces (with 5 being best), we give Uncle Ben’s grilling:   🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 

FIVE SMILEY FACES!!!

While we were enjoying the yummy food, the grown-ups were enjoying wine:

The next day, Mina and Annika had to attend a Halloween Party and invited us to go with them.  For the Halloween Party, Mina wanted to dress up as a butterfly with rainbow wings. Annika dressed up as a turtle.  This is what Mina looked like in her costume:


When we were in the house, Annika started crawling around in her turtle outfit. Here is a link to the video:

Bay area-Video-Annika in costume crawling

While we were at the Halloween party, we took a group picture with Annika sitting on Anya’s lap and Mina on her right. Karsen was on the left.  We were wearing Stanford shirts because of the football game that day:

It was a fun party, but as usual, it made us HUNGRY.

Curry Up Now!

Our hunger brought us to Curry Up Now!  (recommended to us in our Poutine post, http://www.sophisti-kids.com/2011/10/14/our-canadian-fall-break-apples-niagara-falls-and-poutine/).  This is what their sign looked like:

It features Indian Street Food.  Here is their menu:

You’ll notice a Kids Menu but the other sections of the menu looked much more interesting.  We ordered the Sexiest Fries Ever.  Here’s a description:

Of course, we had to order two kinds of the sexiest fries – one with paneer tikka masala and the other with chicken tikka masala.  This is what they looked like:

You’ll notice the same gravy, onions and cheese on sweet potato waffle fries.  The only difference is that one has chicken and the other has paneer.  Anya liked the paneer one better and Karsen liked the chicken better.  

We also ordered some fancy drinks.  Here’s a picture of the Indian-lemonade that mommy ordered:

It was not nearly as delicious as the mango lassi (lassi is a yogurt drink that tastes like a smoothie) that we ordered.  Here is a picture of Anya drinking mango lassi.  

And we tried some kathi rolls:

A kathi roll is like an egg/tortilla rolled sandwich, filled with whatever you’ve ordered.  Papa got both the paneer tikka masala and the chicken tikka masala to try.  He says that this is typical Indian Street Food and was delicious.  It also came with a great salad.

Mommy will eat anything as long as there is good chutney.  Here is a picture of the chutney:

It was a cilantro and mint chutney.  And SPICY just the way we like it!!

We shared a thali.  A thali is a meal with lots of different dishes.  This is what it looks like:

There was papadum (papadum is a crispy round thing).  There was roti (roti is Indian bread) and saag paneer (saag means spinach and paneer is the indian cheese – that’s the dish on the top left).  There was a cucumber salad and keema matar aloo (keema is ground beef, matar means peas, and aloo means potato).  We loved the papadum and the saag paneer.  We thought the keema matar aloo was just ok.

Here is a picture of Anya enjoying her food:

And of course, when there is Indian food, we need to take a picture of Karsen happily eating with his hands:

There was even something for our cousin Mina.  Mina is only four years-old and is very particular about the food she eats.  She had sweet potato waffle fries:

No – that is not ketchup.  That’s Indian Maggi Sauce.  It’s much tastier than regular ketchup.

And of course, we ordered dessert.  But for some reason, dessert took a little while.  That was okay because Papa and Karsen got to watch cricket!

Our desserts finally arrived.  We ordered two kinds:  kulfi (a pistachio ice-cream) and gulab jamun (described as Hot Balls on their menu).  This is what they looked like:

The kulfi was creamy and nutty.  And gulab jamon was hot and sweet.  That is a sweet syrup smothered over the hot balls.  

On our 1-5 smiley face rating, we would give this place:

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 1/2

Overall – everything was delicious.  We would definitely go back!  We especially like the sexiest fries ever!!!!!!!  (It’s important to note that Papa did not like the sexiest fries ever.  But he was the only and he’s crazy).

Just in case you feel like eating the sexiest fries, here is the link to the restaurant:

http://www.curryupnow.com/restaurant/

Homecoming Football:  Stanford vs. University of Washington

Mommy decided to take us to a Stanford football game (that’s where she went to college) because Stanford finally has a good team!  This is the FIRST football game we have ever seen LIVE.  Here is a picture of Papa and Anya enjoying the game:

And Karsen:

We had terrific seats – right on the 50 yard line:

There are a few differences between watching the game on TV and being at the stadium.  At the stadium, there is no yellow line to let you know if the players have crossed the 1st down line.  Also, in the stadium, it is much more exciting.  Even Anya enjoyed watching!  We high-fived everyone around us everytime Stanford scored.  And just in case you didn’t watch the game, there were a lot of Stanford touchdowns!  Stanford won 65-21!!!!!!

Overall, we had a fantastic weekend with Mina, Annika, Uncle Ben, and Pei pei Ahyi.  Thank you so much for sharing the weekend with us!  Overall, it was a five smiley face weekend!!!   🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 !!! 

 

 

 

 

33 Replies to “Our weekend in the Bay Area: Mina/Annika, Curry Up Now!, and Stanford Football!”

  1. so glad your visit to our place ranked your 5 smileys! next time stay a longer time… we miss you guys already!! especially the girls… and you didn’t even mention the indoor football picnic… when are you coming back??

  2. Those metal trays remind me of prison trays.

    Congrats on Stanfurd’s win against Washington (and then again this past weekend against USC).

    Kids, there’s an even better school that’s just right across the bay.

    http://berkeley.edu/

  3. wow, another excellent post! when are you guys going to come to LA? Did you guys know that Doktor/Person just had a baby named Zander? We think you guys will like him.

        1. Person, Zander, and I went to Curry Up Now, a couple of days ago when we were visiting ben,minna, akki,pat, and annika. We had the paneer kathi roll, which I thought was the best. We also had the paneer sexy fries which were very yummy as well. Next, we had the beef unburger which was kind of like a deconstructed samosa on a hamburger bun. It was good as well. We also had the punjabi by nature chicken burrito that was pretty solid. finally we had a special which was a pretty authentic tasting goat curry. Thanks for the great recommendation! Are you guys going to do a Thanksgiving post?

      1. hey, there is a poutine place near popo’s house that we saw last time we were back for thanksgiving! maybe we should try that! and then Eric jojo’s dreams could come true

  4. Hi Kids,

    I’m your Mom’s friend Tim. I’m looking forward to meeting you when I come to Arizona for a visit in March. I met you both when you were just babies and lived in Atlanta, but you wouldn’t remember that. I barely remember it. It’s hard getting old.

    You have a very cool blog! It’s so cool to see kids your age with such an interest in good food. And you get to go so many neat places. Think I could get your parents to adopt me? I’d like to know how your mom scored tickets on the 50 yard line! I’m glad you enjoyed your first live football game. Slightly more exciting than cricket, I think ;^).

    How many smiley faces will you give your Mom’s cooking, so I know what to expect when I visit?

    See you in few months. Keep up the excellent posts.

    Tim

    1. Dear Mr.Tim Pollock (a.k.a mommy’s friend),
      We are looking forward to you coming!!IWe do not remember you from Atlanta, but mommy and papa probably do.Thank you for commenting!!We think football is more exciting then cricket too.We give Mommy’s food the highest number ever(infiniti and beyond) because home cooked food is always more special than restaurants.
      From, Anya and Karsen B-)

      1. Hi Anya and Karsen,

        I’m sure they remember. They aren’t as old as I am.

        You’re right home-cooked food is always better, and I’m sure your rating is completely impartial. I’m looking forward to it.

        See you next spring!

        Tim

  5. JBJ jo-ma and i went to a kati roll place in new york, that your mom recommended. it was so delicious and so cheap. if you guys come to new york, we’ll take you there. and it’s so cheap, you can pay for our meal.

    1. This is Karsen. I have $76.75 saved up in my allowance. It’s mostly to buy Christmas presents. Is that enough to buy you and JBJ jo-ma lunch and still buy presents?

      If not, I checked, Anya has a whopping $141.50 saved up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      1. How come Anya has more money than you?

        You should level the playing field by getting a credit card. Listen closely Karsen: credit card makes a poor man a rich man. This bears repeating: credit card makes a poor man a rich man. Tell your parents you read that somewhere.

        The amount you have combined with the amount Anya has is exactly the amount needed. So don’t spend any of it.

  6. Wow, you guys and gals had great seats to see Stanford’s rushing attack decimate those little dawgies from Seattle!

    Stanford should easily handle Oregon on November 12…and hopefully the Huskies can win a thriller against SC just like Stanford.

    Hope Anya is feeling much better and that the whole family is doing well.

  7. Wow, this post is so popular, and I’m way late to the game here. It definitely appears that you enjoyed all aspects of your visit. Those are the best kind – good friends, great events and the greatest food! I will think about feeding you guys a “thali dinner” the next time – gathering ideas now!

    1. We loved our visit and you are right – good friends, great events and the delicious food are the best kinds of visits .
      We are glad that you are getting ideas. A Thali would be nice – hint hint.
      The sophisti-kids

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