Moving Tribulations

April 30, 2007

And so, an era has ended. The 512 house has officially disbanded.

Will, Chris and I officially moved out on the weekend, with Will and I headed to a sweet place down the hill in the Castro, and Chris over to a cute cottage in Berkeley with his girlfriend, Sonia.

The last 10 days have been a blur of dust, heavy lifting, organizational chaos, hellish logistics, and just plain being overwhelmed. As soon as I got back from Calgary, it was directly into the craziness. Thankfully, Will and I got possession of our new place on the 21st, so we had 9 days of overlap.

We spent a few hours on a Sunday (22nd) at Ikea and picked up some good pieces. I know, I know, I swore that I'd never buy Ikea again, and then I realized that my last stuff was the cheapest Ikea I could get at the time, and if you look at the "more expensive" stuff, you can get decent pieces. Of course, you have to put EVERYTHING together. We are so Ikea'd out. Will is the king of reading those wordless instructions.

So, Will headed out of town for work for most of the week, which added another layer of complexity. With over 5 years in one place, I never forgot about how many logistics you have to deal with:

• changing your address for every bill, magazine subscription, credit card, bank, car registration, car insurance, rental insurance, etc. Even though I signed up for Mail Forwarding with USPS, you still have to make sure you change your account details for every credit card, etc. so that you can still use all your cards!
• our house ended up donating everything we could to Goodwill (they'll pick up large pieces of furniture), or getting it hauled away through "bulky item collection" with Sunset Scavenger because it was crap. Depending on your zip code, Goodwill only does residential furniture pickup on certain days, so if you don't plan accordingly, they won't be able to pick up everything you want to donate at one time. The bulky item collection has strict standards on what they'll take for you and you need an itemized list prior to them scheduling a pickup.
• setting up the new utilities. We had previously split up all the utilities and bills, and setting up the new ones are just another item on your "to do" list. Ick!
• finding boxes. I ended going to U-Haul and picking up a bunch of their boxes and packing supplies. They have a great kit for kitchen glasses and stuff that I used for all our wine.
  
• hiring movers. Yup, there's no way I was going to lift the desks and heavy boxes. And I didn't want to deal with renting a truck. See below for more about this, which turned out to be the best idea about the move and I will always use movers in some capacity any time I have to move.

Will got back into town on Thursday night before the move and jumped right into the fray. We ended up packing the boxes and moving them down from the 2nd or third floor to the first floor, as we now had room because all the crappy furniture was gone, and to minimize how many flights the movers would have to climb, thus limiting their time on the clock. Oh, my aching back...

Here's a picture of Chris on Friday before the move, in his room after he had taken down the temporary wall and enjoying the view before leaving:


We had hired two guys from Corrib Moving & Storage, a relatively new company started by some Irish guys who have been in the business for many years. When I was searching for movers, I had scoured Yelp, and tried calling Pat Ryan Movers initially, but they were booked solid, not a surprise considering all their great reviews. So, I tried Corrib Moving and got in touch with Kevin, the owner, immediately. He was very personable, informative, and we were able to book their services immediately.

Kevin gives you an estimate on the phone based on the information you give him and then follows up with an e-mail estimate that summarizes the agreement made on the phone, which is very helpful. We had agreed to a rate of 2 men @ $100/hour. They have a three-hour minimum, and charge for a 30 minute travel time after the move.

On the day of the move (Saturday), our movers (Dave and Charlie) came on time at 8:30 am, were very friendly and hustled from from get-go. They moved our behemoth furniture like it was nothing, rounding two flights of stairs and never hitting anything or damaging a thing the entire time. They loaded and unloaded the truck in just over two hours, and even helped us put our bed together. It was insane how awesome it was to have these guys help us. They were so nice too! If you ever have to move, use these guys.

So, we spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and settling in. We also spent some time on Sunday making sure the old house was cleared out.

The theme of this move has been one of challenge and repetitiveness. This is because almost everything we do has to be done again or at a later time. There were about 5 trips to Goodwill, multiple trips to Ikea (three times to get a pant rack that they were out of stock even after we called ahead and confirmed that they had them in stock...grr!), Comcast has to come back because the cable box we got doesn't work quite right, Cheap Pete's was out of the frames I wanted and they are supposed to be in stock next week (right...), and so on and so on.

Anyway, we're settling in and it's all good. We love our new place and are excited to be where we are now. More incentive to come visit us?

Scott Howard

April 26, 2007

Last night I headed over to the Financial District/North Beach for a work dinner at Scott Howard. It's been over a year since I've been to Scott Howard, so I was interested to see if it had changed at all.

I got there a little early and had a cocktail at the bar. Apparently, Scott Howard has a happy hour from 5-7 pm on Tuesday through Friday ($5 specialty cocktails, $2 bottled beer, $2 well drinks, $1 oysters on the half shell). From the cocktail menu, I chose the Zoe Rain (Oronoco Rum, fruit juices, Lime Zest, a float of Myer’s Dark Rum). It had quite the kick, and I sure enjoyed it.

The rest of the folks arrived and we got on with the socializing, work small talk and the menu perusing. Scott Howard's menu starts with a "raw" list, which is always appealing to the sashimi-lover in me.

Our table shared a bottle of sancerre and a pinot noir, although I'm not sure exactly which bottles they were. I love it when someone else harnesses the wine list and takes control. Love it!

I started with the Hamachi, with pickled cucumber, seaweed and truffled ponzu sauce. It was lovely, the fish was extremely fresh, with a generous slice, and the pickled cucumber was refreshing.

My boss ordered the Hama hama oysters with Serrano chili salsa, rice vinegar & sake mignonette. The display was pretty, so she offered to let me blog it.

For the entree, I ordered the one thing I could not get off my mind...the Short ribs with orzo "mac & cheese", king trumpet mushrooms, gremolata and tomato jus. Hello, comfort food! The short ribs were perfectly braised, tender, and boneless (bonus!). It was the perfect proportion. The king trumpet mushrooms were a perfect accompaniment, and the orzo mac n' cheese was delicious and a fun take on the typical mac n' cheese pairing. I would go back again and again for this dish.

I chose not to have dessert of the typical variety and opted for a glass of riesling that tasted like an ice wine. Yum!

It was a great night, the service was great and the food was right on the mark. I'm not sure if it's my bad memory, but I'm thinking that the entree prices have decreased a little since I last came. Scott Howard also offers a $60 tasting menu (for the whole table only) and a $32 prix-fixe menu and optional $15 wine pairing. All in all, many options to try good food at reasonable prices.

Check it out!

Family Reunions + Moving Prep = Exhausting

April 23, 2007

That last blogspot about the NYC trip took a lot out of this little camper. All last week, I was back home in Canuck-land for family stuff, so I took a "vacation" from blogging as well.

I headed back to Calgary on April 13 (Fri) and flew back to SF on April 20 (Sat), so it was 7 full days of pure family fun. Will and I spent the Friday night in Calgary with his folks and then headed to Vulcan for my family madness.

It was my Dad's 60th birthday on Wednesday (April 18), and to celebrate, a family reunion on both sides of my family were invited (and they all came!). All my relatives in Canada and US, in addition to a gaggle of my Dad's friends from all over came for the trip. It was insane. Terrina (Angie's best friend, Olivia's godmother and our other sister) came all the way from Dhaka, Bangladesh! Will was only around for a long weekend (until Monday night), so he got some good quality time in before the majority of the family and friends showed up.

Anyway, here's a bunch of pictures of family and lots of the cute twins. (The kiddies had to get their own passports to fly to Canada...their passport photos are soooo cute!!!).

This is Charlotte's "Joker" face that she likes to put on, so cute...



No doubt about it, going home means I get to eat great cooking from mom and dad, and no one barbeques Alberta AAA beef like Dad does. And we had King crab legs....sooo yummy...

Before Will had to take off for Boston for work on Monday, we took a cute little family photo:

On the day of my Dad's 60th birthday, we all headed up to Calgary for a really nice birthday banquet in Chinatown at Harbor City Restaurant. There were over 60 people in attendance, from all walks of Dad's life.

Look at this picture, Charlotte and my dad have the same smile!...

My sister and I gave a speech, and then Dad introduced all of the friends and family in attendance and told some great stories.




The Leung-Wu-Chu and extended families:
The rest of the week was a blur of friends and family eating...all the time. I don't think that Vulcan has ever seen so many Chinese people at one time before.

And, in case you haven't had your fill of really cute pics of the kids, here are a couple studio shots that Angie and Jack had taken...

And so, I caught the early flight home on Saturday morning at 6:30 am so that I would have all day Saturday and Sunday to prep for the impending move to our new place. It's the end of an era as Will, Coco and I move out of the 512 house. Will and I got a new place down the hill and are moving in all this week. I am overwhelmed.

Wish us luck!

P.S. I've succumbed to the Facebook craze. God help us all.

Long Weekend Re-Cap: NYC, Baby!

April 9, 2007

I just got back from a sweet long weekend in NYC with my buds, Sonia, Sarah, and Blake. We squeezed as much as we could into 3.5 days, and it culminated with some flight delays (flying out of JFK is no fun) and getting off the plane around 1 AM. Ick.

I used to geek out with Sarah at U of C in the mid 90's, and met Sonia through Sarah around then. Sarah and Blake moved from Vancouver to Manhattan last year, so Sonia and I finally managed to get our act together and visit them. I took over 100 pictures, and at least 80 of them are featuring food. And now, here is quite possibly the longest blogspot I've ever done...

THURSDAY

I owe Will a biggie, as he woke up really really early to take me to the airport for my 6 AM flight. Ick. I normally would never book such an early flight, but I wanted to get as much into a 4-day weekend as I could. I flew into JFK and opted for the transit route (AirTrain from JFK to Jamaica --> LIRR from Jamaica to Penn Station in Manhattan --> Subway from Penn Station to 72nd Street) to get to Sarah & Blake's neighborhood (Upper West Side).

In all, it took me about an hour from walking off the plane to get to the Upper West Side (well, this is minus the extra 15 minutes I took after I realized that I got on the downtown train instead of the uptown train at Penn Station and had to loop back...). The total cost was:

• $5 for the AirTrain
• $3 for the LIRR
• $2 for the subway

Not bad, $10 vs. the typical $45 flat rate taxi ride (not including tolls or tips). Main downfall is that you have your luggage with you, so this would not work well with lots of bags.

The first thing I noticed about New York was how damn cold it was. Everyone kept saying how nice it was a couple weeks ago...great.

I met up with Sarah and Sonia, and we headed back to Sarah's place to chill out. They have a great place, with brick, nice hardwood, two bathrooms and laundry (very big for New Yorkers, I hear).

We headed out to meet up with Blake for dinner in the Nolita/Chinatown area. Sarah had gotten us reservations at La Esquina, a hip spot that requires you to call exactly three weeks ahead from the day you want to dine starting at 10 am. We walk up to this restaurant that looks like a street corner diner and I'm a little confused.

Sarah walks right up to an "Employees Only" door where a big bouncer is standing guard next to a girl sitting on a stool with a pixie haircut, a clipboard and a walkie-talkie. Sarah gives her name and the girl radios to someone and the bouncer lets us through the door. We walk down a flight of stairs to a hostess stand, from where the hostess leads us through the kitchen and finally to a cool, underground space that has a funky lounge, bar, and dining area. A secret restaurant!

This underground space is beneath the subway system, and you feel occasional rumbles. We had an early reservation, so the room wasn't full yet.
As with most restaurants in NYC, they don't like to seat parties that are missing people. We were missing Blake, but we assured our server that we would order for the whole table. She kept checking in on us, as we were busy visiting, we ask questions, we try to order just appetizers, but the server finally tells us that we have to order all at the same time. Okay then.

We started with some cocktails (I tried one called the Buena Vista), and Blake showed up a little later.

The Quesadilla De Chorizo (traditional corn masa filled with chorizo queso and pico de gallo), which was really tasty, accompanied with some pickled onions.

They offered little tacos, and we chose the Tinga De Pollo (slow cooked chicken, avocado, chipotle pepper) and the Contramar (tuna, smoked chili, aioli, pepino).

The fresh Ceviche Estilo Acapulco (line caught market fish, fresh lime, avocado, tomato, jalapeno) of the day featured wahoo as the main ingredient.
Some of the taquitos looked interesting, so we went for the Lengua (veal tongue a la plancha, avocado crema, black beans) and the Bistec (grilled and marinated steak, charred onions, salsa roja), fully satisfying the meat-lover in me.
The Ensalata Mixta with cabbage, string beans, cucumber, red onions, tomato, queso fresco, mustard vinaigrette, was amazing. They also added some fresh corn, and I'm such a sucker for fresh corn in the salad.
We chose the Pescado a Las Bresas (grilled fish of the day) which was the dorado, with some grilled onions. The fish was delicious, I was really happy that we chose to try the dorado.

I was cracking up at all the references to mexican wrestling (lucha libre!), as a few years ago, Katharine, Wendy and I dressed up as mexican wrestlers for Hallowe'en.


From La Esquina, we walked a couple blocks over to SoHo and to a little tapas/wine bar called "N". (Pretend there's a little squiggle on top of the N and pronounce it en-yay).


Blake wanted to take us to this because it's a great little space and so that we could have their amazing "chocolate toast".
Fresh bread toasted with dark chocolate and rock salt, it was a surprisingly nice combination.
We had a few drinks at the bar, they were going down so smooth.

From N, we trudged in the chilly weather to the Lower East Side to the Mercury Lounge on Houston Street to check out some music. Did I mention how cold out it was?



We checked out Mahogany, whose music sounded decent, with an alternative pop sound. To be honest, I may have been too busy drinking ciders to really listen. One of Blake's co-workers, Holly, joined us for drinks and music.
The headliner was a band from Montreal called Land of Talk. This band had recently traveled to SXSW and like many bands, was going through New York after. They were really fun and the female lead singer's voice was intriguing, and I still can't quite pin whose voice she reminds me of.

After we had enjoyed some tunes and a couple ciders (on my part), we were off to find some food. Blake really wanted to go to Katz's, just down the street on Houston, and the idea appealed to my "When Harry Met Sally" fan side (they filmed the Meg Ryan orgasm scene there). But alas, it was closed (apparently they don't serve great deli meats past midnight on a Thursday...). From there, we hailed a cab to Union Square to go to Max Brenner, a big favorite of choco-holic Sarah, but it too, had closed it's kitchen. Thankfully, just down the street, was the 24-hour Coffee Shop.

Apparently, we didn't look cool enough to sit in the front room (or we were a little tipsy?), so they sat us in the back room.
So, of course, I just had to get another drink, this time a mango mojito. It was wonderful.
We ended up noshing on chicken satay, mac n' cheese, corned beef hash, meat loaf and I think Blake had a sandwich. I can't remember. There may have been alcohol involved.

FRIDAY

On Friday morning, we slept in (thank goodness). I may or may not have had a decent headache in the morning due to the alcohol the night before. By the time we all awoke, showered, and got ready, we were on the subway around noon. We headed back to Nolita, initially intending to go to the Public Restaurant, but we found that they only serve brunch on weekends.

Thankfully, right down the street is Cafe Habana, a popular cuban restaurant. There was a slight wait, so the girls went down the street to some cute little shops while Blake graciously offered to wait for the table for us. Aww....

Proof that I'm not the only one who takes pictures of food....:

The Mexican-style grilled corn was a must-order, served with chili powder, lime and cheese. It was amazing. You all know how much I love corn. This was my heaven.
I ordered the Grilled Steak Sandwich with onions, peppers and chipolte mayonnaise. Fantastic. This was one of the only meals where the four of us didn't completely share our meals. That would change. We were eating off each other's plates the rest of the weekend.

Blake went off on his own to have some down time and the girls spent the afternoon shopping in Nolita, and we tried to hit a couple stores in SoHo too, but we ran out of time. I bought some run shoes at Terra Plana. I got some good stuff (including cute onesies for the twins, t-shirt for Olivia) at Brooklyn Industries.



From SoHo/Nolita, we hit the subway back to Sarah's place to drop off our goodies and get ready for the evening. Sarah had gotten the girls tix to go see the Broadway musical "Avenue Q" at the Golden Theatre. Blake had already seen it, so he planned to meet us at dinner afterwards. We grabbed a cab and headed to the madness of Times Square.


Times Square was madness, with people everywhere. I never realized that slow-walking-oblivious people are a major pet peeve of mine...

Sarah got us incredible seats (2nd row balcony) so we were in for a great show. Avenue Q was guffawingly hilarious. I was thoroughly surprised how bowled over I was. There are puppets involved and it is definitely risque as there are some moments where I was questioning how appropriate some things were, but they were damn funny nonetheless. I feel sorry for those familes who think it would be great to take their kids to a Broadway musical with puppets and then they endure the mental battle of whether their kid should see it or not. Those songs are so damn catchy too.

After the show got out around 10 pm, we had to hightail it on the subway to the West Village, where we had to meet up with Blake for a 10:30 reservation at Po, a little Italian restaurant that Blake was waiting for us at. It was a gem of a place, small, cozy, warm, inviting, with great service.

The server brought us a little snack to start, a white bean "bruschetta" on fresh bread. Yum!

We decided to do our own little tasting menu, so we ordered two salads, two pastas, and two entrees to split between the four of us.
The Roasted Beets salad with endive, sliced baby artichokes, watercress, Taleggio crostino.
I've seen a lot of beet salads on menus lately, but this one may be the best one I've had. The crostino was covered in wonderful soft Taleggio cheese, and we were all surprisingly civil and didn't fight eachother for bigger portions of the crostino.
Organic Mixed Greens salad with fresh lemon thyme vinaigrette, roasted red peppers, and a massive piece of shaved parmesan that melted in your mouth.

We were served two pasta dishes that were so consuming, that we were almost done the dishes when I realized I had missed my photo op. Oops. They were the Orecchiette with sweet sausage ragu & broccoli rabe (zowee!) and the Black Fettuccine with fresh mussels, sun dried tomatoes, scallions & green chilies (double zowee!). Amazing dishes. The sweet sausage ragu with the orecchiete made me crave more and the black fettucine had a peppery zest that was unexpected by lovely.

Grilled Guinea Hen with butternut squash & scallion fregula with saba. The hen was wonderfully cooked and tender, falling off the bone, and we were so surprised how much meat there was on the little hen. Yum!
Grilled Pork Tenderloin, which I can't remember the accompaniments, but was very tasty. I still think that the Guinea hen and the Orecchiete were the winners for me this evening.

We closed out the restaurant around 12:30 am, being one of two last tables to leave the restaurant. We weren't quite ready to go home yet, so we walked a couple blocks to a bar close to La Lanterna di Vittorio, which has good desserts. We were also hoping to catch some live jazz music, but the music had just finished when we arrived. Boo. So, we settled for some dessert or coffee drinks. Sarah and I had the "Hot Irish Nut" (with decaf!), Blake had some gelato/coffee dessert magnificance (see below), and we all shared the Truffle Vanilla/Chocolate gelato dessert.
We were tuckered after the warm and cozy coffees, so we grabbed a taxi and headed back to crash. But, as soon as we got home, Sonia and I weren't so tired after all and chatterboxed until 4:30 am...oy...


SATURDAY

On Saturday morning, the girls got up, grabbed coffees/light bites and took the subway to the Meat Packing District, (also known as the Gansevoort Market) to do some more damage to the Visa card.

We hit a shoe jackpot minutes away from the subway, as well as some good clothing at Girlshop and Trina Turk. While the girls were shopping and spending far too much money, Blake was a sweetie and headed to the Theater District to get some tickets for an Off-Broadway show matinee. So, we headed over there for the 4 PM show of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" at the Westside Theatre. The musical was pretty funny and entertaining, but I was still reeling from the hilarity of Avenue Q the night before, so Avenue Q is still the best in my books.

The show let out after 6 pm, so we jetted back to Sarah and Blake's to get ready for dinner. We had a 9 PM reservation at WD-50 in the East Village. I had seen WD-50 listed on the New York Times list of best restaurants and is the baby of Chef Wylie Dufresne, who is known for his culinary experiments and artful displays. We were meeting my buddy, Mike Margulies for dinner as well, who's currently in law school at NYU. We go there a little early, so we were greeted with the slightly pretentious hostess who, of course, gave us a little 'tude when we didn't have our entire party. So, we had a drink at the bar and met a little 'tude at the bar. Okay then. Even after Mike arrived, we had to wait 20 minutes or so for our table.

Finally, we were seated, and our enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable server completely broke down the menu for us. Turns out there's a "proper" way to eat some of the dishes. On par with our dining adventures the rest of the weekend, we decided to create our own tasting menu, with three appetizers and five entrees.

The delicious sesame "carbs" to tide us over until we had our food...

I didn't bother posting the pics of the appetizers, because I took them without the flash and I was too anxious to try the food. So, for appies, we had:

• Hangar tartare with pickled Asian pear, amaro, and bearnaise ice cream, which was absolutely wonderful. The bernaise ice cream was a nice compliment to the hangar tartare. The tartare was also very clean-tasting.
• Smoked eel with blood orange zest, black radish, and chicken skin. Sounds interesting, right? Well, it was tasty too.
• Malted chestnut soup with salmon threads and celery root. The server highly recommended this soup, and we were persuaded, and thankfully so.
  

Skate with parsley root, swiss chard, hops, and spice bread. This was one of those dishes that the server had to give us distinct instructions on how to eat. He instructed us to eat the parsely root (sweet) with the hops (bitter), otherwise the dish would not be fully understood as the tastes on their own would not be ideal. What? Should I have to work this hard? Well, he was right, they tasted nasty alone, but prety good together.

Beef shortrib with brussels sprouts, cheddar, and Pink Lady apple. Okay, this picture sucks, but damn, this was my favorite entree. The server pointed out that it's not a typical presentation of the beef short rib, which is usually braised until the meat falls off the bone. Well, this short rib was braised, the meat was pressed with some goodies and then served. So wonderful. And the Pink Lady apple was slightly dried, with a melt-in-your mouth consistency.

Cod with baby fennel, black eyed peas and espelette yogurt. The cod was nice, and all the accompaniments went well, but it was not as memorable as the other dishes.

Lamb loin with potato noodles, mustard crumbs, and pretzel consomme. This lamb loin was cooked perfectly and the consomme was lovely. The potato noodles were also really interesting. While I was eating, I couldn't recall what the noodles were made of and couldn't figure it out. Ahh...pototoes...

Scallops with king oyster mushroom, dried apricot and tagine broth . This was also a wonderful dish, with a really nice portion of king scallops. The oyster mushrooms were presented like noodles (awesome!) and the Israeli and cilantro cous cous was fantastic. This was my second favorite dish.

We passed on the dessert with the intention to get to Max Brenner. The server brought us a little palate of sweets for the road, and I can only recall that they were some type of marshmallow with coconut and parsley? This was in alignment with the gastronomical surprises that the restaurant was serving up all night.

And as we were settling up our bill, the server brought us some additional sweet tasters that the chef was trying out. The red envelopes on the left are rhubarb paper envelopes filled with caramel toffee and rose meringue. They were amazingly good and I was surprised how well the toffee and rose meringue went together. On the right are corn nougat, which sounded good, but wasn't anything spectacular. Especially in comparison to the rhubarb paper surprises.

WD-50 was good, and I'm glad we tried it. I got the impression that the restaurant takes itself pretty seriously, so it's hard to really let loose and have fun. There are so many places in NY that serve food and still have fun, so I'm glad that our weekend had included many places that fell into that category.

And finally, we headed to Max Brenner, the chocolate mecca of NY, this time the Lower East Side location.

We waited for a table for only 15 minutes or so, which gave Sonia and I plenty of time to peruse the chocolate store.


I ordered the Choco-Pops hot chocolate (on the left; classic milk hot chocolate with crunchy chocolate waffle balls) and Mike ordered the Italian Thick Hot Chocolate (on the right; thick dark chocolate with vanilla cream). They were amazing, and so filling. Thank goodness we skipped dessert at WD-50!

Sarah and Sonia shared the Hazelnut Praline Crepe (melted chocolate chunks and hazelnut praline, toffee bananas, vanilla ice cream, warm toffee cream and crunchy bits).

Blake had the Warm Chocolate Soup (Dark chocolate soup with crunchy chocolate waffle balls, berries and marshmallows).

Sonia and raided the chocolate shop and I got some waffle balls and chocolate covered nuts to bring home. We were in major chocolate coma after Max Brenner, and we couldn't fathom going anywhere else.

SUNDAY

It was my last day in New York and I was definitely starting feel a little tired. We woke up and walked further west from Sarah & Blake's pad, en route to a place called Barney Greengrass, a good place for brunch recommended by my co-worker Todd. But, of course, we didn't even realize that it was Easter Sunday, and the place was closed for Passover.

So, we walked a block back on Amsterdam and went for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, one of Sarah's favorite places for fresh bread and sandwiches. We found four spots at the communal table.

I ordered a cup of the featured soup, a squash soup. It was really clean and tasty, with a slight peppery taste, and it was nice that it was non-dairy and vegan.

I also ordered the open face grilled chicken sandwich with pesto, mozzarella and veggies. It was delicious but I could barely eat half of it.

After brunch, we met up with my old buddy/co-worker, Karim, who is now at med school at UMDNJ in Newark. We all wandered around Central Park, amidst some light snow flurries and some music in the park.




It was great catching up with Karim, we hadn't caught up since last fall when he had left San Francisco for med school.

The rest of the afternoon was really low-key, and I caught a car service to JFK around 6 pm (there was no way I was going to tackle transit with my expanded-ready-to-explode suitcase and a long weekend of little rest on me).

Thanks again to Sarah and Blake for hosting us, it was so much fun, I can definitely see myself traveling to New York more often. It was awesome to catch up with Sonia, Mike and Karim, great to see you guys!

I'm back in SF for four days and then heading back home to Vulcan/Calgary for my dad's 60th birthday soiree/family reunion. You can count on a much smaller (if not miniscule) blog update next week after this prolific monster.

Have a good week!