Weekend Re-Cap: SJ Farmer's Market & A Good Ol' Hockey Game

March 12, 2007

There's some wackiness going on at Blogger, so loading pictures is a total pain in the bum-bum at this time, as I need to go through a site like Photobucket. So, let's just say that it took some time...

FRIDAY

Key and I went running at Kezar on Friday night and then got take-out sushi from Kiki Sushi, a good place for cheap-ish sushi in the Inner Sunset. They've slowly gotten busier and busier over the years, and now, it's much faster to do take-out.

I'm not sure why I always do this, but I always start massive projects late at night, so that I can't go to sleep until it's done. It must be hereditary, my mom does it all the time. So, I started doing a bunch of paperwork and went to sleep late...

SATURDAY

Part of the massive paperwork started the night before was in preparation of doing my taxes. I had alotted Saturday morning for this arduous task. I always use Turbotax, and it's a good straight-forward way to ease the pain. It took about 2 hours and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it turned out to be. Apparently I did not complicate my life too much last year by selling any employee stock. Way to go Bea.

After that, I tried to go downtown to run errands, which was a really stupid idea. Everyone and their dog decided to go downtown in the gorgeous Saturday afternoon. I really should apply rational thinking more often. It might ease my looming ulcer.

Will had gone up to Tahoe for a couple days and came back on Saturday night. We met up with Abe for a couple drinks at Hobson's Choice in Upper Haight, a nice stroll down the hill for us. We didn't last very long, as we managed to down a few drinks pretty quickly, and we weren't really in the rallying mood.

SUNDAY

Will and I headed down to south bay to hang out with my sis and the kids on Sunday. We met up with Angie, Olivia, Charlotte, Simon, and some of Angie's friends at the Farmer's Market in downtown Campbell.

It was another beautiful day and it was great walking down the street and sampling the yummy goods. I got some great toffee from R&J Toffee Company and some super sweet oranges.

We had lunch at the Sonoma Chicken Coop, a great place for families, as there's plenty of tables and good food at a reasonable price. I had the quarter chicken with Rooster Booster BBQ sauce (chipotle pepper & brown sugar BBQ glaze) and grilled veggies. I spent most of lunch holding 8-month old Simon, who managed the hat-trick of: puking down my cleavage, throwing food at me, and peeing all over when I changed his diaper. Good thing that kid is so damn cute. Charlotte was an angel hanging out. And Olivia was in heaven playing with her little friend Sarah.


(Notice that Simon is wearing a different outfit, this would be after he peed all over himself and on me...)




The rest of the afternoon was spent back at Angie's house, with Will showing off his artistic side by succumbing to Olivia's request for butterflies and flowers on her hands and legs.



We met up with JonZ and his dad, Rich, at the HP Pavilion for the San Jose Sharks vs. Edmonton Oilers hockey game. These were great tix (Section 116, Row 14), behind the penalty boxes.




In the second intermission, there was a little scrimmage between two little junior hockey teams...so cute!

In the end, San Jose shut out Edmonton 3-0, with some great saves from Nabokov in the Sharks' net. Too bad, I really like Rollie (Oiler's goaltender Dwayne Roloson).

Thanks again to JonZ and his papa for bringing Will and I to the game, I love me a good ol' hockey game.

Chez Panisse...At Last!

March 7, 2007

Three days in a row of blogging!?!?? Inconceivable!

Will and I have been wanting to catch up with my aunt and uncle (Joanne & Peter) from Oakland for quite some time, but with my aunt and uncle traveling to China and Will's insane work travels, we've been on hold.

Finally, we managed to nail down a date, and that was Wednesday. And, the location for dinner was Chez Panisse. Yes, the infamous Chez Panisse, the restaurant that I've been dying to try forever. Chez Panisse is located in the "Gourmet Ghetto" of Berkeley and is known as the cornerstone of a culinary revolution and was co-founded by Alice Waters, guru of California cuisine.

We had reservations in the elegant downstairs restaurant, with a great view of the infamous open kitchen.
The restaurant has a nightly prix-fixe menu (ranging in price from $50-85 per person, $65 on this evening) that is posted on the Friday of the week before. Our server also offered us wine pairing for the evening, consisting of three 2-oz pourings matched to the first three courses for $18. This seemed like a good opportunity to enjoy some nice wines that were expertly paired with the dishes for the evening. I tried to remember what the wines were and wrote what I could remember here, but I was a little distracted by the food...

First course: Green asparagus salad with Serrano ham, Parmesan, and black truffles.

According to the server, this was the "first asparagus of the season". And damn, was it ever good. The asparagus was perfectly cooked and even though I love me some meat, the Serrano ham wasn't even the best part. It was the truffle oil. Little slivers of truffle in oil drizzled over the asparagus. I couldn't help myself from taking some of the fantastic table bread (from Acme Bread Co.) and sopping up as much flavor from the plate as possible.

Wine: 2005 Odysseus Pedro Ximinez (imported white wine from Spain that was light, fruity and complimented the asparagus nicely).

Second Course: Atlantic skate wing with capers and savoy cabbage.

Oh my, can I tell you how much this dish impressed me? I've had skate wing before, but not like this, it was so deliciously cooked and melted in your mouth. It probably had something to do with the buerre blanc. The savoy cabbage was also delicious and the capers were so subtle and complemented the fish so nicely that I barely realized that they were there (and that's in a good way). I also utilized the Acme bread once more to ensure that no drop of that wonderful-but-I'm-sure-it's-bad-for-you buerre blanc would go to waste.

Wine: Chardonnay, I think

Third Course: Grilled Wolfe Ranch quail accompanied by salad with chicories, Banyuls vinaigrette, roasted celery root, carrots, and turnips.

What amazed me so much about this dish was how tender and lovely the quail tasted. I generally don't order quail because it tends to taste a little game-y to me, but this was wonderful. And I was surprised at how much meat there is on such a little bird. The roasted vegetables were also mouthwatering.

Wine: Syrah (a nice full-bodied wine that did not overwhelm the quail).

Dessert: Pink Lady apple and huckleberry tart with Calvados sabayon

This was a divine end to the meal. The apple and huckelberry tart was savory and the crust also melted in your mouth (I imagine that the butter had something to do with this). The berry sauce was a nice addition. The Calvados sabayon was the only thing in this entire meal that I wasn't crazy for. Although I think the slightly acidic contribution of the apple brandy to the sabayon was intended to complement the tart, I didn't quite get it. Don't worry though, I ate it all.

Peter, Will and I finished with a French press of decaf from the Blue Bottle Coffee Company, which was lovely.

At the very very end, they brought us some homemade dark chocolate truffles and candied tangerine peel. I thought it was a nice last touch.

Of course, it's hard to be disappointed with such a nice meal with charming company. I'd definitely like to come back, particularly to try the more casual and slightly more affordable upstairs cafe.

Chow Does SF

March 7, 2007

Wow, check out all the action on the blog this week...all courtesy of the Chow in town from Vancouver. This was a good excuse also for me to take off half of Tuesday so that I could hang out with Steph before she took off.

So, after a few hours working online at home, Steph and I left the house and headed down the hill. Steph had already checked out Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, the cable car from Powell, North Beach, and the Marina. I wanted to take her through my favorite neighborhoods. We walked through the Castro and grabbed a chai latte for the road. From there, we headed over to Dolores Park and checked out the phenomenal view of the skyline. Did I mention how nice it was on Tuesday? I wish I had brought my camera.

From Dolores Park, we walked to 18th Street, where we stopped at Pizzeria Delfina for lunch and sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather. Steph and I shared the Insalata Tricolore (arugula, radicchio and endive with lemon, extra virgin olive oil and grana padano) and the Margherita pizza (tomato, fior di latte mozzarella, basil and parmigiano). Man, I really wish I had brought my camera for this lunch. Delish!

We spent the afternoon hanging out in the Mission. I took Steph to my fave stores and checked out a few new ones. I had to take her to the famous Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia. We had an afternoon drink at Papa Toby's Revolution Cafe. We checked out the furniture at Therapy. I bought some hot eggplant peep-toe wedge heels at Sunhee Moon.

We headed back home around 5:30 pm and chill-axed until dinner. For dinner, Will, Coco, Robert, Steph and I went to Yo Yo for sushi. I love this place. It's always great and the service is awesome.

After dinner, Steph and I went to meet up with Wendy, Frankus and Woody at Cassanova Lounge.

There was lots of reminiscing from the days back in Calgary. Some of these stories included references to "incredibly uncomfortable hugs". Here is Frankus demonstrating "incredibly uncomfortable hugs" on Wendy.

On our way out of Cassanova, we ran into the infamous Tamale Lady. So of course, Steph had to get a tamale. She chose the pork with the spicy red sauce.

Good times! Steph, we can't wait for you to come back to SF!

Monday Marina-Style...Kind Of...

March 5, 2007

Last night, we headed over to the Marina district for some dinner. Yes, I know, I know, the Marina. The intention was to take Steph Chow out to different neighborhoods while she's in town being young and hip (and sassy!) in SF. Wendy had taken the afternoon off and gotten her all liquored up in North Beach at O'Reilly's, so that was a good start.

We wanted to check out Pacific Catch, as the rumor is that this little place puts out great noodle bowls and rice dishes. But of course, it's tiny and doesn't fit a table of 5 very well. We also felt out of place that we weren't coming from a workout and wearing cute LuluLemon work-out clothes like everyone else was in that neighborhood.

So, Will, Wendy, Steph, Woody and I wandered around and finally found ourselves at La Barca. This place cracked me up with it's festive decor.

I had a beef taco, which was quite tasty. I also thoroughly enjoyed my strawberry daquiri...yum!

Damien showed up a little later to be social, but the crew was pretty tired, so we called it pretty early. It's perfectly fine to be boring on a Monday.

Weekend Re-Cap: Off the Deck or Bust

March 4, 2007

The "gentle" dusting of snow in the Sierras was enough motivation to head up to Tahoe this last weekend. As a result, I was abandoning my SFUC winter league team during the season-ending tournament, but this would be one of the last couple of weekends left for me this season due to travels in the next month. (Sorry Seymour Butz! I hope you guys kicked ass this weekend!)

We've been thanking our lucky stars or the good traffic karma we've been experiencing lately, as we clocked another just-over 3-hour drive to South Lake on Friday night. Sweet!

SATURDAY

I woke up relatively early again so that I could go to the hill with Jojo and Chevy. Those two always aim to get a full day of skiing and do a pretty good job of cramming as much into each day. We were all over the Nevada side. We intended to go check out the Firebreak backcountry but Olympic chair was on hold for most of the morning, so we stuck to the Milky Way-Mott loop and dabbled in the North Bowl trees. By the time we got over to Olympic, there wasn't quite enough time to do Firebreak and make sure we could catch the lifts before they closed to get back to the car at Stagecoach. Oh well. Good day nonetheless.

Back at the cabin, plans were percolating in Will's mind for doing something stupid involving launching off the stairs/deck at the cabin. Every year it's something silly, like a tow-in booter or pond-skimming.

Prepping the stairs/deck for the jump:

Notice how there's a tree in front of the take-off spot off the deck...

Here's Will flattening/packing down the snow on the stairs.

I trekked out into the big yard to record the events. Check out the snow shoes I borrowed from Chookie and Martha:


The paparrazzi...

The pit crew



Here is a selection of videos of Will, Wendy and Chevy launching off the deck at the cabin:

The rest of the evening was pretty mellow following the silliness of the deck jumping. We ordered pizza from Lake Tahoe Pizza. My favorite pizza is the Tahoe Delight (sausage, beef, mushrooms and onions) and we add sundried tomatoes. Well, we usually add sundried tomatoes but they forgot to actually "add" them.

We also watched Christopher Guest's newest release on DVD, "For Your Consideration". I'm a huge fan of Christopher Guest's movies (Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting For Guffman, This Is Spinal Tap), but his latest wasn't close to being on the same level as those great films. Same great cast, but it was a little flat. Too bad.

SUNDAY

I woke up on Sunday morning relatively early again, but Jojo was eagerly off to the mountains and I had no energy to rally in 5 minutes. In the end, Will, Kenny, Ashley and I had a lazy Sunday morning, culminating in brunch at Ernie's Coffee Shop.

Will and Ashley had been raving about a dish called the Huevos Ernesto since the last time we came here, so I had to try it. It's like having nachos for breakfast.

There's spicy beef, over-easy eggs, avocado buried under that mound of home-made salsa and sour cream. It was really tasty, but I was terribly full after eating about 2/3 of it. Maybe it's even better when you're hungover...

Will and I got back in the car shortly after brunch and clocked another whopping 3-hour drive home...this is the best driving season ever! Will had just gotten back from work travels in Dallas and Chicago last week, so he was psyched to get home early (4:30 pm!) and catch up on life. The weather was beautiful in the city!

It was perfect timing to come home early too, as our good friend Steph Chow was in town and was coming into SF to stay with us for a couple days. She coaches the UBC girls' frisbee team that was in town for the Stanford Invite.

We headed down to the Mission, and ended up at Ti Couz for dinner. It's been ages since I've had some good food from this well-known creperie.

Steph had the savory scallops crepe...
...while Will opted for the savory sausage and cheese crepe...

...and believe it or not, I had a salad. I think I was still full from that damn Huevos Ernesto! This was a great salad, with shrimp, scallops, and lightly-seared tuna, topped with egg, tomatoes, corn, rice and capers. Yum!

From Ti Couz, we headed to the 500 Club, one of the best dive bars in the city, for drinks with Abe, Woody and JonZ.

We called it a night around 11 pm, as it is a school night!

More Pics From Key: Stinson Beach Hike

March 2, 2007

Key sent me a few pics that he took when we went hiking in Marin during the President's Day long weekend. Enjoy!