Scharffen Berger

December 30, 2005

Yesterday, Ben and I had a wallet-taxing, overwhelming shopping day down at the Gilroy Premium Outlets. After several hours of non-bloggable shopping activities, we went to San Jose to hang out with my family and have dinner. Little Olivia was still feeling under the weather, so she was only able to provide intermittent cute moments.

Today was Day 5 on the crazy itinerary, where Ben, Key, Katharine and I headed to Berkeley. We went to Cafe Cacao for lunch, where the calories were abundant. There was the to-die-for hot chocolate, and then I had the burger with carmelized onions and cheddar, with sweet potato fries.

After lunch, I had booked a private group tour at Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory. Our lovely tour guide, Julia, explained about the origins and appearance of cacoa "beans" and how the chocolate-making process works. There were displays, chocolate tasters, pun-jokes, I loved it.

At Scharffen Berger

Kat and Key in the chocolate store at Scharffen Berger

Kat enjoying the aroma of pure cocoa butter

Getting the hairnets on for the factory tour

Ben, Bea, Kat and Key getting ready for the factory tour with their fashionable hairnets

We got earmuffs!









The Melangeur



Chocolate being poured into the molds

Delicious bittersweet baking bars

The ladies at the end of the tour

Tasting the different types of chocolate after the tour

The factory line getting everything ready for Valentine's Day

After the tour, we headed back to the city and grabbed some groceries at Trader Joe's for dinner that evening at Abe's place (where Anna and Wendy also live).

The dinner menu:
- bacon-wrapped scallops
- seared sesame-coated ahi tuna
- mixed salad with pecans and anjou pears
- roasted baby dill potatoes
- penne pasta with homemade sauce by Ben
- strawberry mochi ice cream









After a long, relaxing dinner, three bottles of red wine and a bottle of ice wine later, we had thoroughly covered the topics of civilians and ultimate frisbee, how Frodo has become the confused and guilt-ridden Jewish French-Canadian that he is, how Frodo doesn't like reggae, dancehall or country music, and famous regional Italian cookbooks. After leaving Anna's, the rest of us headed over to Lucky 13 for another drink.

Sore Feet

December 28, 2005

It's Day 3 of a whopping-jam-packed itinerary for showing Benedetta the city of SF. Well...at least the shopping...

I made a huge planning error when I had scheduled today to be the day of the SF MOMA and Union Square shopping--turns out that the SF MOMA is closed on Wednesdays....WTF!

So, we did some schedule adjustments and started the day grabbing a coffee in the Castro, and then onto the Muni to the Embarcadero.

Ben and Vulcan Street

(Note: For those of you who are unaware, my hometown is Vulcan, Alberta, Canada).

Looking down the Vulcan Street steps

We decided to check out the Ferry Building Marketplace. As soon as we ascended the Muni steps, the sun started to break out and it was looking to be a great day.

The Ferry Building Marketplace

View of the Bay Bridge from the Ferry Building

Bea & Ben enjoying the view

Ben checking out the map of SF

Ben and I spent a great deal of time in Sur La Table, where we perused every novel kitchen item ever invented and ooh-ed and ahhh-ed over the various knick knacks. It was early enough that it wasn't insanely crowded.

From there, we headed over to the Hog Island Oyster Co. bar for an early lunch. Dear blog reader, you may recall that I had enjoyed some of Hog Island's finest Sweetwater oysters at their farm in Marshall, near Point Reyes, just over a month ago. We shared a mixed green salad, and then I enjoyed a dozen oysters (Sweetwaters, Kumomotos, Effingham Islets, Saint Simons) and Ben had the luscious clam chowder.

At the counter of Hog Island Oyster Co.

Ben and her clam chowder...mmm!

After lunch, there was a quick stop at Cowgirl Creamery to pick up some of their scrumptious caramels, and then off to Union Square for some shopping. Three hours later, we surrendered to the mobs of insane shoppers and headed home.

The famous rainbow flag at Castro & Market Streets

(Note: I realized that there are some shots of the city that I don't have and I'm taking full advantage of doing touristy things to capture some of these images. This may explain the random shot of the rainbow flag above).

There was a brief breather at home and then off to Noe Valley for some more boutiques. After Noe Valley, Ben and I headed to Thep Phanom, for some of the city's finest Thai food.

For dinner:
- two glasses of pinot grigio
- Tom Ka Gai (sliced chicken in coconut lemongrass soup)
- Nang Rum "The Dancing Lady" (stuffed jumbo prawns with crab meat, broiled to order; served with spicy sauce)
- Kaeng Karee Gai (sliced chicken in mild yellow curry paste with on ions and potatoes)
- Pad Thai (pan fried Thai noodles with prawns, ground peanuts, dried radish, bean cake and bean sprout)

The early dinner was necessary in order to give us enough time to get down to the Embarcadero Landmark Theatre to meet up with Katharine and her friend, Jeff, to catch the 8:30 pm show of "Brokeback Mountain".



This critically acclaimed movie has been generating a lot of press lately, and has been immensely popular in SF with sold-out shows every night. After seeing the movie, I can see why. It was a beautiful and powerful love story that was absolutely heart-breaking. I loved it, and of course, I cried.

Ben and I were heading to my car when JonZ called and beckoned us to the Mission. So, we headed to The 500 Club for a couple drinks with JonZ, Woody, Ron (just off a plane from Chicago), and their friend Sarah.

A couple ciders and a very tired Ben later, we went home to very welcoming beds...

De Young

December 27, 2005

We wake up this morning to a typical winter day in SF--cloudy/foggy, misty/rainy, cool but not too cold.

We headed down to Haight street to grab some grub at one of my favorite all-time diners, the Pork Store. It reminds both Benedetta and I of our breakfasts in Calgary at Nellie's on 17th many, many years ago. After brekkie, we wandered up and down upper Haight and did a little shopping/browsing.

I had to scuttle back home for a bit to do some on-call safety reporting for work, but that was pretty uneventful and quick.

We then headed to Golden Gate Park, to go see the new de Young Museum, that opened on October 15, which was finally rebuilt (damaged by the 1989 Loma Pieta earthquake and demolished in 2001) after years of public fundraising instigated by famous socialite Dede Wilsey.

(Note: for a really interesting read, check out "Oh The Glory of It All" by Sean Wilsey, who is the stepson of Dede Wilsey. It's a juicy memoir that chronicles the evil-doings of Dede as the wicked stepmother. I don't care if it's true, it's damn entertaining).

Approaching the de Young Museum

As soon as we get to the de Young Museum, we see that there is a ridonkulous line of people waiting to get into general admission, winding out of the building, along the entire half of the building, around the water fountain. I quickly decide that this would be a good time to purchase a $70 participating membership to the de young Museum.

What the $70 participating membership gets me:
- unlimited free admission for me and a guest, to the permanent collections of the Legion of Honor, de Young and all special exhibitions
- personalized membership card
- invitations to members-only exhibition previews
- priority free admission (bypasses all the ticket lines!)
- 10% discount in the de Young and Legion of Honor Museum stores (it's like a sale ALL the time!)
- free subscription to Fine Arts, a semi-annual art magazine, and the quarterly Members' Guide to Programs
- discounted admission to ticketed special events, lectures & concerts
- fully tax deductible

Bypassing that stupid-long line was worth it. And I only have to go 2.5 more times to make it worth my while...anyone wanna go to the de Young?

We headed up to the observation deck as soon as we get in, which is on the top floor, level 9, of the weird twisty building. It provides a nice panoramic view of the city from the tower.

Looking down from the observation deck at the courtyard and the freaking long line of people trying to get in (around the fountain)

An eastern view from the observation deck at the de Young Museum

Benedetta enjoying the view

A northern view--you can barely see the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge over the hill

From the observation deck, we head down to the Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharoah exhibit, which was pretty amazing with all the reliefs, jewelry, ointment jars, sarcophagi, sculptures, etc. from 2000-4000 years old. We wandered around the entire museum and quickly realized how freaking big it is. We checked out the photography, contemporary art, textiles, Winslow Homer works on paper, Latin American art, etc. etc. A couple hours later, we were exhausted.

Leaving the de Young

We chilled out at home and then headed to the Mission to do a little shopping at Therapy and for dinner with Key at our standby Vietnamese joint, Sunflower. Nothing like a beef noodle soup (Pho Bo) with $2 extra beef to satiate my appetite.

Callaway Big Bertha

December 27, 2005

I was in San Jo' with the family until yesterday afternoon. Poor little Olivia had caught a 24-hour flu bug and was not having a good time for the past two days. Two pukies later, she was right as rain and being her usual cute but stubborn self.

I spent part of the morning with my Dad trying out new golf drivers at San Jose Municipal Golf Course. Ever since I tried out Susan Lavery's 12-degree Ping Si3 golfer over Thanksgiving, I realized some new technology might really do me some good off the teebox. Unfortunately, Ping stopped making the Si3 a few years ago the evolution of Ping drivers have gone from Si3 -> G2 -> G5, with many changes to the club head and to the loft of the club. So, a golf-pro named Logan helped us out for a bit. I got to test-drive the best of the new drivers for women and of course, I loved the most expensive one. I have since ordered the Callaway Big Bertha Fusion FT-3 driver with an enormous 460 cc club head and 13 degree loft. I was getting 10 to 20 yards more on this driver than the Ping G2L, and more is better...right?

Then in the late afternoon, I went to SFO to pick up my good friend, Benedetta, who was flying in from Venice for a week of good times in SF. She was quite the trooper after a long day of flying (Venice to Frankfurt to SF), and we headed for dinner at one of my favorites, Sushi Groove South in SOMA. Of course, I had to introduce her to the Mr. Dole's Mistress sake-tini, the tuna tartare salad, the california crab salad, and the scrumptious sushi rolls (techno, kamikaze, SOMA, jungle).

We crashed pretty early, Ben being exhausted from at least 16 hours of travel, and me being exhausted from sleeping at my sister's place with a little sicky 3-year old. And, we would need some major energy for the itinerary that I had already planned for the week...

Happy Merry Chrisma-nukah-olidays!

December 25, 2005

Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas!
Happy Chanukah!

Hope all is well with everyone and that you're enjoying a nice mug of spicy eggnogg near a crackling fire while listening to all your family members frolic and bicker in small quarters.

I've been in San Jose all weekend celebrating the Christmas holidays with my family at my sister's house.

My parents rolled into town late Friday night. After an hour of waiting for luggage on the one luggage carousel that Air Canada uses, Will and I finally dragged my parents and their ridiculous amount of luggage away from the madness of SFO. We made a pit-stop at Bagdad Cafe, which is an entirely different experience when you're sober at 11 pm compared to the 3 am drunken foodfest that I'm used to. It was still very yummy and now my mom is just as obsessed as Will about the Carnitas Sandwich.

The next morning, I drove my parents down to San Jose. We actually had to take two cars down because of all their luggage and the presents couldn't fit into one car with all the people. Yowza.

Dad, Mom and some typical SF fog in front of 512 before heading to San Jose

Olivia staying true to her roots in a little cheurng-sam dress

Mom & Olivia playing with the magnetic dress-up Barbie on the fridge

We had a "lazy" day of hanging out and prepping for a big dinner. We decided to have the big meal on Christmas Eve so that Will could partake, as he was taking off on Christmas day (today!) to go snow-CAT skiing in interior BC. It was a smaller Christmas than we're used to, as my Uncle Cherk (Kowfu) and Aunt Wai-Ling (Kowmo) were in Hong Kong so we weren't going to be seeing their extended family by marriage. Instead, it was down to me, Will, Mom, Dad, my sister Angie, brother-in-law Jack, niece Olivia, auntie Terrina (Olivia's godmother our adopted third sister), and Aunt Joanne (Eema) & Uncle Peter (Eecheurng) from Oakland.

The dinner menu:
- Dad's famous prime rib
- roasted baby red potatoes with dill and garlic
- asparagus
- Mom's famous fried rice with chinese sausage, bbq pork, oyster mushrooms, green onions and cilantro
- one of Mom's yummy salad recipes with grapes and pecans
- apple pie
- Clos du Bois pinot noir

Will hanging out with the "Lion"

Olivia loving her dad, Jack



Thankfully, Olivia let us sleep in until after 8 am before waking us up with a very loud 3-year old "WAKE UP!"

The breakfast menu:
- glorious bacon
- maple sausages
- potatoe patties
- scrambled eggs with red onion, tomatoes, avocado and danish feta cheese
- mimosas!

Christmas well-wishes over the telephone by the ladies of the family

Olivia anxiously waiting to open presents

Dad documenting every move Olivia makes



So, I'm off to the airport to drop Will off for his 8-days-of-skiing-extravaganza-with-the-boys. My good friend, Benedetta, is flying into town from Italy tomorrow, so I'll have a week of good times, catching up, and showing her around. Lots of good stuff on the itinerary including:
- De Young Museum
- SF MOMA
- Scharffen Berger Chocolate factory tour
- hiking in Marin (if the weather holds up)
- NYE, baby!

I Got Birfday

December 22, 2005

It was my birthday yesterday (December 21) and I'm in the last stretch of my 20's (I'm 29!).

My birthday started like most other days...ignoring the alarm until Will can't take it anymore and tells me to wake up. But I was quickly reminded of what day it was with Will's constant "You got birthday!" and my mom's annual early morning phone call of "It feels like it was just yesterday when I gave birth to you..."
(Sure Mom, yesterday + 28 years + 364 days)

Anyway, as it's the last couple days at work before the holidays, everyone is very festive and I keep coming to my desk to find piles of cookies and chocolates...mmm! We had a holiday social complete with treats and eggnog!

Wendy and the gang planned a great birthday dinner for me at 1550 Hyde Cafe & Wine Bar, a nice little joint that's on the 2005 Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area list compiled by the food reviewers of the SF Chronicle (Michael Bauer). We've been trying to go to this restaurant for a while now, but it's quaint and we never seemed to find a reservation to fit our big group.

The wine: 2003 Fritz Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley

The starter:
Bea - Curried butternut squash soup with creme fraiche
Will - Antipasto with la quercia prosciutto americano with warm bread salad and tapenade

The meal:
Bea - Hoffman Farms pollo frito with chanterelles, farro salad and baby spinach (that's fried chicken, baby!)
Will - Rabbit braised in mustard sauce with spätzle and bloomsdale spinach

Unfortunately, none of us had the capacity for dessert, so we wisely decided not to have any.

Ashley & Wendy

Katharine, Key & Bea

Courtney & Cyrus

Bea & Will

The gang outside 1550 Hyde

On a side note: at some point, we realized that we were dining in the same establishment as James Spader, the actor currently starring in the ABC sitcom Boston Legal. Although, I will always fondly remember him as the rich-prick, Steff, in Pretty In Pink.

On another side note: Did you know that December 21 is Winter Solstice? Winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year...woohoo!

High Handicap

December 20, 2005

The last night of the Fall/Winter 2005 Genentech bowling league was...well, last night.

Technically, the race for the trophies was over, and it was every bowler for themselves as we competed for "Sweeper" money. I actually bowled pretty well:

142 - 118 - 174 = 434 series

I end with a season average of 133, or something like that. I don't know if I actually won any sweeper money, as I took off as soon as my game was done to do some holiday shopping.

But, the best news is that I actually won another trophy! I forgot about the league rule that you can't win more than one individual gender trophy in the following categories:

- High Scratch Game
- High Scratch Series
- High Handicap Game
- High Handicap Series

So, I won the High Handicap Game trophy for my season-high 199 game. Ahh...one more cheesy trophy for the mantle at 512...

Oh glorious bowling trophy