After a long silence....

Hi Mmm-Yoso! It is Vicky again. I have finally revived my writing bug. Many apologies for the long silence, but life has been extremely hectic this past half a year. (Yes... I am gainfully employed...  in fact, loaded down with three jobs! One of which is with a restaurant critiquing and consulting company!!) I relocated up to the Bay Area and will now be blogging for restaurants up here! (In case any of the dear readers want to come up here and eat.) Again, I would like to thank Kirk for the opportunity to be blogging here.  Mahalo! I dearly miss San Diego, and look forward to visiting in the near future to continue eating and exploring down there. In the meantime... here are the records of the gluttony goodness that is available in the beautiful SF Bay Area!! (Apologies for not being able to respond to comments immediately and promptly, I am currently posting from Taiwan and will be traveling around for a bit.)

In mid September, I had the wonderful opportunity of dining at Parcel 104 located in the Santa Clara Marriott.  Currently voted the "Best Fine Dining" in Silicon Valley, I've been wanting to try this place out for awhile now. I remember when it first opened, the concept was very interesting.... the head chef, Bradley Ogden, created the daily menu around whatever farm fresh ingredients were available within a 104 mile radius. I'm not quite sure if they still do that, but I do know that they try to use the freshest ingredients around, often scouting out farmers markets.

Upon walking in, the decor of the restaurant was a very warm contemporary American feel with rich mahogonies accenting warm beige. The service here was beyond superb and the food was excellent. It was a beautiful sunny typical California day so I brought my lovely mother along so we could have some Mommy/Daughter bonding time amidst our hectic lives. We started out with the bread service and the freshly blended strawberry lemonade.

I have to say... the strawberry lemonde smoothie was probably the most expensive smoothie I've had to date, but it was worth every penny. The lemonade was fresh-squeezed and the sweetness of the strawberry puree swirled in balanced out the tang. The bread sadly did not come in an all you can eat bread basket. Being the carb lover I am... I was disappointed that the server came by with the hot basket and served each of us with tongs. That definitely made it harder to hide the bread glutton in me. I have to admit... the ciabatta roll was VERY yummy! The crust was crunchy and the insides were light and fluffy... Behold the wonderful container of butter that came with all this yummy goodness.

Our appetizer came out; I ordered the BLT flatbread. The bacon was crisp and salty. The BEST part of this was that Parcel used Heirloom tomatoes!!! MMmmmmm.... There was a lovely basil aioli spread on the flatbread that gave this dish a reminescent Italian twist.

My entree... Hawaiian Mahi Mahi on a bed of corn relish with wild mushrooms and a citrus dill romoulade.  Hah! Try saying that ten times fast!! I don't think I can pick a favorite component of this dish. The corn was freshly shucked off the cob, straight from the farm. It was AMAZING!! The earthiness of the mushrooms went well with the buttery fish. Mmmm.... Not being a dill fan, I thought the sauce would have been flavor overboard with such a variety of ingredients but I was proven wrong. The creaminess of the dill and the tang of the citrus brought everything together.

Mom's dish: Caesar Salad (oops... they called it "Romane Hearts tossed in Dressing....) w/ Pan Seared Seabass. Goodness.... it blew us away. The fish was seared with the scored skin side down, to produce this amazing crunchy/crispy texture. The actual flesh was soft, buttery, creamy, and slightly firm at the same time. Words can not describe and give it the credit it deserves.

And how can I possibly leave without having dessert?!  There's a lovely dessert platter with a three layer mocha beautifully presented. We had the creme brulee, molten chocolate cake, crepes with grand marnier accentuated mascarpone cheese, and french toast with carmelized bananas. Oh the gluttony goodness!! I don't even know where to start.... the crepes were amazing... the creme brulee was amazing, and french toast was amazing. I really like the concept of using french toast as dessert! And now I leave all you salivating readers with the closeups up the desserts....

Crepe....

Molten Chocolate Cake

French Toast w/ Carmelized Bananas.

Creme Brulee...

If any of you are up in the area, I highly HIGHLY recommend this restaurant. It can be a little pricey, all this food ran around $120, so try this restaurant on a business trip and try to expense it out...

Parcel 104 at the Santa Clara Marriott
2700 Mission College Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95054
408.970.6104
Reservations available via Opentable.

REGULAR DAYS AND HOURS:
Breakfast
Monday – Friday:
6:00am - 10:30 am Buffet
6:00am – 11:00am A la Carte
Saturday & Sunday:
7:00am – 11:00am

Lunch
Monday – Friday:
11:30am – 2:00pm

Dinner
Monday - Saturday:
5:30pm – 9:00pm

Comments

[Cathy]

Hi Vicky!!! I am so glad you are back- but Taiwan??! They are kind of in the most interesting weather area of the world right now. The photos and descriptions of food at Parcel look great. One day The Mister and I will travel north. Good reference.

[janfrederick]

Great post. Reminds me of the good old days growing up there.

By the way, I'm not sure if they could get Mahi Mahi within 104 miles of Santa Clara. ;)

[Kirk]

Hi Vicky - Welcome back, we missed you! Hope you staying dry in Taiwan.

[MissVicky]

Cathy - Talk about it! It's about 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity one day, and then one other day its about 70 degrees with 100 mph winds because of the typhoon! It's nuts! Thank god it has passed... And now its back to being excruciating hot. Let me know when you and the mister are up here!!

Janfrederick - I absolutely love the Bay Area!! I grew up here, didn't think it was all that, and completely fell in love with SF after I moved to SD. (Yeah... I didn't think they'd be able to get seabass and mahi mahi... hence my reference to "when it first opened." If so... man I want to get my hands on that "within 104 miles" type of mahi mahi!!

Kirk - Thanks again!!! :) Yes, it's drying out over here.