Menlo Park CA: Menlo Grill Bistro

Menlo Grill is part of the Stanford Park Hotel, an upscale hotel at the border between Menlo Park and Palo Alto. I visited there for breakfast but they are open all day. my food was OK but a little bland; my service was disappointing.

The bottom dish is huevos rancheros minus the tortilla. The top dish is, of course, oatmeal. Both dishes were made surprisingly little use of spices. The huevos rancheros didn't have any heat. The oatmeal, to my great surprise, wasn't served with cinnamon. In both cases, I think that a little more spice would give them that extra flavor that one really appreciates at breakfast.

The service I received, as I mentioned above, was slow and erratic. The entrance was totally unmanned, so I ended up walking to the kitchen entrance and asking for a table. (My seat faced the entrance and it remained unmanned for almost the entirety of my meal.) After sitting at my table for several minutes, I finally stopped a staff member and asked to order. Once the order was in place, the service went a little more smoothly.

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Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...

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Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

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