Lunar Noodling in Half Moon Bay

Lack of sleep has naturally led to lack of blogging for the last couple of days. Seriously, any leisure time I've had in the last week has all tended to start around 10pm and has been taken up by needing to work out, Top Chef and catching up with family (who at this point, may or may not even be sure of my existence)

And it's hot as hell in the Bay Area. We're talking in the 90s (!), but then again, we are the nominally spoiled, climate weenies of the universe. "Whadda ya mean it's not within 60-72 degrees? Take it away!"

Thankfully Mother's Day-while sunny and bright-was still breezy. Mr. Jones, Mymymy and myself took a trip down to Half Moon Bay for brunch and ran into their annual parade. (Who knew there was a 'Half Moon Bay' Day? Anyone? Bueller?) But luckily, parking was a snap and brunch was divine. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Pasta Moon.

Last year, you might remember my less than favorable review of Cetrella-well Pasta Moon is their sister location; same owner but more casual, cozier and closer to the heart of downtown, I still think that Pasta Moon's food and service is superior to that of Centrella's-simply for their lack of pretension.

Funny story: while we were heading down to HMBay, I remembered that I needed batteries for the digicam. No prob-I thought-I'll stop by the local convenience store and pick some up. Guess what?! No dice, they had sold their last four pack the day before. In an act of desperation, I stopped at the stationery store that's housed in the same building as Pasta Moon; but they didn't have any either. So I gave up and went in for brunch. Two minutes later-the shy, sweet, ponytailed stationiere walked by their big window where we were eating-CARRYING two AA batteries! Seems he had just gotten back from a trip and had extra. I never got his name, but I bought some paper from him later. I LOVE Half Moon Bay.

Let's see some food-no? BTW: a lot of these photos do not have the dishes in their pristine uneaten state, mainly cause I kept forgetting to take my camera out on time.

Prosecco, limoncello, basil, lemon sorbetti apertif

Whole wheat focaccia and regular french loaf. The whole wheat focaccia was so springy and with that amazing burnt orange color. Delicious.

My starter: fava bean and fresh English pea salad with feta. Even though the beans were remarkable-there was just too much feta and oil. I wish I had the tempura asparagus. Oh well, live and learn.

Mmymymy's starter: crabcake with basil aioli. Yummy. Crispy, hot and crab-by. hahah.

And her entree: Creamy polenta and smoked salmon 'lasagna'. So so perfect: layers of bechamel, polenta that was creamy but still firm, red peppers and smoked salmon. Probably about 80 bagillion calories, but who's counting right?

Mr. Jones' entree: seared flank steak with cherry tomato, fresh arugula and field greens. I've had the flank steak here before and it's excellent.

My entree: house made tagliatelle with duck confit and orange. I thought the overall taste of the duck was good. But I think I'm not used to homemade pasta-I found it really tough and almost undercooked. And the cheese and citrus was odd.














Desserts: Molten chocolate cake with peanut butter and vanilla gelato.
Sorbetti terrine (pineapple, raspberry, coconut)
Strawberry shortcake

hope everyone had a great Mother's Day-Pt. II up soon