Recommendation: Continental Caterers

It's June, which means that the wedding season is in full swing. So I thought I'd give props to my own wedding caterer from a couple of years back.

Menlo Park-based Continental Caterers did an awesome job -- from start to finish. We worked with Paul Alexander, the president of the company, to plan our menu. After the tasting, we refined the menu a bit more until we were 100% satisfied with our selections. We didn't have a wedding coordinator, so Paul's assistance was invaluable to us. He helped us with way more than just the food, offering ideas (when asked) about the timeline, the layout of the room, the rentals, etc. Continental Caterers also provided an event manager, which made a big difference as well (again, because we didn't have an actual coordinator).

At our reception, these were some of the things that we especially loved:

• Blackened Tiger Prawns
• Seared Ahi on Wonton Triangles
• Cornmeal-Crusted Eggplant Napoleon
• Miniature Pizzas
• Ice Cream Sundae Bar

(Note: Continental Caterers doesn't really specialize in wedding cakes. We ordered ours from the Noe Valley Bread & Bakery.)

Oh yeah, perhaps the BEST part of Continental Caterers' service was the picnic basket that was packed up for us at the end of the night. Hours later, after the reception, Jon and I realized we really hadn't eaten much and were still famished. Luckily, we had our basket filled with all sorts of goodies!

Peninsula Food Reviews

Wow. The Chronicle was all over the Peninsula last week! They ran reviews of three different establishments:

• Marche in Menlo Park
• A Tavola in Redwood City (a fire forced the restaurant to move from its San Carlos location last year)
• JZ Cool Eatery in Menlo Park

Both Marche and A Tavolo are on my list of places to try -- although I'm less excited about the former now that Michael Bauer says it's not really worth the money.

As for JZ Cool, I recently went to a dinner party that was catered by the company and all of the food was delicious (the lemon bars were a stand-out). While Jesse Cool's Flea Street Cafe is also on my list, I have had the pleasure of eating at her Cool Cafe at the Cantor Center for the Arts on the Stanford campus. The cafe offers lots of healthy, organic options. I give the museum, which is free (so there's no reason not to go!), and the eatery a big thumbs up.

Sweet on Sibby's

I forgot to mention last week that Sibby's Cupcakery is open again! The business was temporarily shut while it moved its operations.

Although based in downtown San Mateo, Sibby's delivers all over the Bay Area (from San Francisco to Mountain View). Through the end of the month, you can get 50% off the standard delivery charge.

By the way, January's flavor of the month is "Mmm Good Mocha Coffee" -- a mocha cupcake topped with rich coffee frosting.

P.S. Speaking of cupcakes! If you haven't seen SNL's Chronic of Narnia rap by now, you must. (And yes, it is cupcake-related.)