I see dead people

Today's adventure was The Tech Museum in San Jose, where they are currently featuring Body Worlds 2 & The Three Pound Gem (aka the brain). Thanks to our nifty GPS, we managed to get there in one piece with no wrong directions. As we get more used to the device, the more user friendly and addicting it becomes. Although we had the wrong voucher, the person at the desk was nice enough to give us the student price on the tickets, so we saved a few dollars. The exhibit was truly amazing. I was dreading going, since I've never been able to stomach dead things. It is, in fact, the very reason why I didn't go into the family business of medicine. I remember as a young child telling my dad I wasn't going to be a doctor because I did NOT want to dissect cadavers. At the time, he tried to explain that by the time I got to med school, all dissections would be computerized. Well, that still hasn't happened, and if I need to, I'll still fall back on that as my excuse as to why I ended up in law school instead. Anyway, I was absolutely fascinated by the entire exhibit, and the gross-out factor was truly minimal, with the exception of a few of the bodies towards the end. The bodies really didn't look much like dead people, so it seemed more clinical and scientific than anything else. It was only when they took on recognizable human characteristics (hair, for example), that my stomach turned over.

On our way to San Jose, we got take out from Panera in Concord. I happen to love Panera. That is another one of those rare M & R dining suggestions that Jim and I actually appreciated. In fact, it may be the only other one besides Tomatina's. I always get the same thing when I go there--a half Mediterranean Veggie sandwich and half Greek salad. The sandwich is on tomato basil bread with cilantro hummus, tomatoes, feta, red onion, cucumber, and (what makes the sandwich for me) piquant peppers. The salad is your typical Greek salad, except I hold the olives and get the Greek dressing on the side. What I love most about Panera is the bread. I don't think there's anything of the baked variety that I've tried there that I don't love. Plus, while you're waiting for your food, you get to look at all of the delicious baked goods and drool. Oh, and watching the bagel slicer in action? For the record, I do realize that I'm very easily amused, but you've got to enjoy the little things in life, right? Jim got a Chicken Pomodoro panini. It actually was a pretty good sandwich for him to eat on the road because the melted cheese held everything together. My side was a whole grain baguette and Jim got chips. Jim ate most of my baguette and I tried a couple of his chips. I don't really like the chips since they're greasy without the flavor you'd expect with all of the fat like with Hawaiian chips.

After 5 1/5 hours inside the museum, we were both rather famished, Jim especially, but our reservations weren't until 8:45 pm. Since we finished the Bodies sometime around 7:00, we had some time to kill. Outside of the Bodies exhibit were health tests. I discovered that I have 20% body fat, which I was a little devastated to discover. Guess it's time to head back to the gym. We took our blood pressures on two different machines. One said I my systolic (I think that's the one) 122, another 92. Who knows. I am also 5'4" and somewhere between 105 and 107 pounds, depending on the machine. My scale at home says I'm 98, but I know that's definitely not right. Jim swears up and down that I've gained weight, but I've been the same for months now and haven't gained any weight in over a year. I really thought my body fat percentage would be lower, but I am 20% fat. Ick.

So I drowned my sorrows in food at The Village California Bistro and Wine Bar, a lovely restaurant located right on Santana Row. It was a good meal, although nothing particularly memorable. It's one of those places that we enjoyed, but have no desire to come back and try again. Since Jim's been on a big seafood kick lately, what attracted me to the place when I made reservations on Open Table was the lobster fritters appetizer. Unfortunately, Jim wasn't overwhelmed with them. He didn't dislike them, but he expected lobster to be featured in them, instead of just their essence. Or something like that. We shared a Red Raspberry Fresh Fruit Svedka Vodka Infusion. I loved the vibrant red color--so pretty!




I got an organic greens salad, which tasted like salad. The balsamic vinaigrette was thicker and more garlick-y than the typical, but it wasn't anything particularly exciting either. My spinach and mushroom lasagna was pretty good, though. They broiled the top, which is just the way I like it. I could definitely taste the difference with fresh spinach, as opposed to frozen, and the crimini mushrooms were really good. I'm a little curious as to how the dish managed not to be liquid-y with all of the vegetables. I know if I had made it at home that it'd be sopping.



Anyway, Jim got the sole, which came with spinach, mashed potatoes, and a lemon caper sauce. He liked his dish. I liked that it was pretty. I will say that the bread there was really, really good. It was basic sourdough baguette, but they toasted it up so that it was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside--exactly how we like it best.



For dessert we got the white chocolate creme brulee. As far as creme brulee goes, I don't think it's possible to make it taste bad, but as compared to all of the other creme brulees we've eaten over the years, this one was strictly average at best. The white chocolate flavor was extremely mild, and if the menu hadn't said that was the flavor, Jim said he wouldn't have been able to detect it. I tasted only the slightest hint of it, and couldn't tell at times. It was certainly nothing spectacular to look at, and I would have preferred the top a little less burnt. Jim ordered an iced tea, which ended up coming in a bottle. But it was really, really good--none of that Nestea or Lipton crap.



Anyway, the best part of the restaurant was the overall ambiance. I absolutely loved the interior. We were seated in a two person table, but it was set up like a booth and completely private with etched glass between us and the couple on our right. And for as bustling as the place was, it was also relatively quiet. We had a full view of the bar, which happened to be rather extensive and with a gorgeous wine shelves.





I hope I'm getting a little better about blogging. It was admittedly a little difficult to write about food at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. And I'm going to start trying to take pictures, too. Should make things a bit more interesting.