Day 5: Suburbia and the “normal life”

I believe this was....18 pounds of chocolate. Maybe more...Handcrafted for a family that orders every year for their Easter celebration. I went on a sugar high just looking at it. This is SOLID, I repeat, a SOLID Easter egg.

Confession: I completely forgot to write about day 5 of my Bay Area trip.

On the plus side: I remembered after ceviche entry. So here it is after the jump.

Alright, after 4 arduous days of travelling on the road (what a tough trip, huff), M and I decide to visit my friend Y in the ‘burbs. Ya know, just to mix it up a bit. Y lives in San Mateo, south of San Francisco. It’s a very nice quaint suburban area (to be honest, I can’t tell the difference between the suburbs so they all look quaint and the SAME to me).

We first arrived on the evening of day 4. We went to get sushi and hookah later. All very nicely contrasted with the hippy, eclectic and itinerant lifestyle we lived through the last few days in SF and Berkeley. Then saw the beach. Which was more just like sea than beach. Why the difference? Because there was no sand, just some nasty rocks and cold, cold water. Plus it was pretty small, nothing like the vast stretches of beautiful sand, beautiful water, beautiful sun, and of course beautiful people  as you’d

find in LA. Maybe it’s because we went at night so the beach didn’t even have a chance. But I suspect it would be pretty cold and rocky during the day too.

Ok fast forward 12 hours. After we wake up, it’s decided it’s breakfast time. Y takes us to a delightful little cafe called Alana’s Cafe (click Alana’s for the Yelp link and Cafe for their own website) in Burlingame.

I believe these folks are known for their pancakes. And if they’re not, then they should be. The have some of the fluffiest pancakes I’ve ever had. They also have some unique flavours. I got the oatmeal pancakes with lingoberries (swedish berries apparently you can try them at IKEA too, go figure). Very good.They also come with bananas or cinnamon apples. But lingoberries sounded the most fun to me, and they w

ere delicious. They also let you choose the short (2 pancakes) vs. big stack (3 pancakes) have bottomless coffee (none for me but I got a side of scrambled eggs, easy). Fun place with some kooky antique cooking utensils and bakeware. They even sell their pancake mix and lingoberry preserves on a shelf, so you can take the goodness home with ya.

Price range about $$ for brunch, so reasonably priced for the food, service and atmosphere.

Next, Y took us to some interesting stores around Burlingame which were quintessentially suburb. Let’s be honest, there’s no way we would ever find candy stores and chocolate stores with gigantic Easter displays. At least in Los Angeles, I’ve never seen it. If it exists, that is very rare. Most stores are refined chocolateries like Godiva etc. But it made this so much nicer, breath of fresh air. Reminded me of mountain towns like the time I went to Big Bear and Colorado Springs.

‘Nuff said. You can just look at the pretty pictures. They encapsulate everything I’d like to say about them. Plus there are always captions.

Care for some delicious fudge?

At the candy & chocolate store, the TV plays Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on repeat ALL day long. There's a little home theater area with plush couches and, of course, candy.

OMG I think I'm really in Wanderland. Jelly Bellies, one of my favourite for all time. The best jellybeans, ever. I'd never seen this many flavours before in my life. WOW

Oh, suburbia a gloriously artificial wanderland, right?

We ended the trip with a journey to Palo Alto to check out Stanford. Then back on the I-5 S to Los Angeles.