Super Secret Sushi

April 13, 2006

Some friends of mine who I see sporadically used to talk about this little hole-in-the-wall sushi place that they would never tell anyone about because it was so small, soooo good, and they wanted to keep it for themselves. I think that Abe and I found it last night.

The place we went to is called Sushi Zone, and it is a pretty damn tiny place, similar to what Midori Mushi in Hayes Valley was like in terms of size, but far cheaper. Sushi Zone is located on a tiny street called Pearl Street, right at Market, in that nameless neighborhood that is not quite Hayes Valley, the Mission, SOMA or the Civic Center. Some people call it Flax or the Art Deco district or my favorite, the Deco Ghetto. It's right by the Octavia off-ramp from 101.

Everything I heard was true, it's tiny (seats about 15 people), the fish is really good, it's cheaper than most SF places and if you don't get there early, settle in for a long-ass wait. They have only one sushi chef and he puts in a lot of TLC, which explains the wait time. Abe and I were determined to try it and not suffer, so we got there at 6:30 pm and got two seats at the bar. We tried a couple different kinds of cold sake, the amazing sashimi plate (albacore, ahi, salmon, mackerel, shrimp, red snapper, hamachi), the mango hamachi roll, spicy albacore roll, and jalapenos stuffed with albacore...all to die for!

The bonus of getting there so early is that you're not absolutely starving yet. Once you have a seat, you can sit back, chat, enjoy some sake, and eat your food as it comes and as you become more hungry.

After our early dinner, Abe and I walked over to Hotel Biron, a sweet little wine bar in the alley behind Zuni Cafe. Hotel Biron is also known for it's monthly local art installations and super friendly staff who will help you choose your wine wisely. It's a great place to have a glass of wine with some friends and maybe would be a good venue for an art show...





Now how do I steal this sign...

Dinner for Four

April 11, 2006

Another dreary rainy night to add the record books. Last night, Anna, Wendy and I went to Kat's house for dinner, an impromptu girls' dinner. Ashley was MIA with her mom and grandmom for dinner, so it was just dinner for four.

Kat made a lovely chicken curry stew, there was shrimp cocktail, wine, and a kickass salad. It was so "Sex In the City", we talked about men/boys, life decisions, crazy stories, a great night to spend inside.



Kat's yummy chicken curry stew

Where In The World Is Frodo? An Update...

April 11, 2006

Our friend, Robert, has embarked on his 5-month travels and is currently in Wellington, New Zealand:

NZ is a wonderful place. So beautiful and the people are very cool. I'm staying with Ray Fort and his girlfriend probably until Monday or Tuesday when I head to the South Island. We are going to a "batch" on Friday for a couple of days. (Translation: a "batch" is a beach house).

Man, is NZ ever expensive. Everything costs a fortune because it is so isolated and the population is small at 4 million people. The Kiwis are great fun and humourous people. It would be great to spend many months here as there are so many things to do and see especially in regards to the outdoors, but it's so pricy that it would be hard. I'm hoping to do some blackwater rafting (cave rafting) on the South Island and I might do some parabungee or zorbing or something like that depending on cost.

This is the land of Frodo and man, do they push the "Lord of Rings" thing everywhere. Ray and I played a round of disc golf north of Wellington and there were tourist groups walking through the course because a tiny part of one of the movies was shot there, but nothing remains from the shoot. Funny.

Stay tuned for more updates from our favorite French Canadian with the Jew-fro...

A Blessed Weekend of Sun...

April 9, 2006

FRIDAY NIGHT:

Some co-workers instigated a Happy Hour movement on Friday after work, and I was happy to join them at Medjool in the Mission district. Ideally, it would've been a beautiful clear night so that we could've enjoyed the roof-top deck with great views of the city skyline. But of course, it was raining cats and dogs. Regardless, the main bar was open so happy hour was on!

I met up with my co-workers: Bao, Betsy & Philip, and other peeps that showed up: Coco, Aaron, PK, Karim, Megan and Alicia. The sangria was tasty, and we had some nibblies that included:

- Medjool sampler with hummus, tabbouleh and baba ganouj
- Grilled hanger steak with harissa and sauteed spinach
- Moroccan beef meatball, tomato and egg tagine
- Pommes frites with parsley & preserved lemon
- Lamb kefta with pinenuts & tahini

Happy hour turned into happy hours, and next thing we knew, it was 10 pm. A few voice-mails confirmed that my ultimate frisbee games on Saturday morning in Davis were moved back due to the field situation at UC Davis, so that encouraged me to stay out a little longer. After Medjool, I went with Bao, PK and Karim to Mars Bar in SOMA, just down the street from Bao's place. They were playing fun cheesy dance tunes and it was just fun to be out, despite the rain.

Around 12:30, it was time to call it a night, despite Karim and his buddy trying to convince me to go to Duplex...at least I displayed a little self-control and went home to sleepy-time.

SATURDAY

I headed up to Davis for the first frisbee tournament (Davis Ultimate Invitational or DUI, as we all call it) of the pre-pre-season with Anna and Ashley around 9 am. We were playing with an amalgamation of previous and current members of our co-ed club team, Brass Monkey. Our lucky field assignment had us on a relatively drier field, and we didn't have to deal with as much mud-guck and potential injury-inducing playing.







We played 3 games back-to-back on Saturday, and all three games were relatively quick (we won 15-6ish for each) and a nice re-introduction into playing again. We had a decent-sized squad on Saturday, but were going to be losing a few folks for Sunday due to other commitments.

On a very sad note, a female co-ed player on another team, Ana Hammond, collapsed on the sidelines with seizures and was without pulse and not breathing. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and sadly, passed away. It is very shocking, and although I knew her only as a competitor, many of my teammates knew her well. My sympathies go out to her friends and family.

After our games and the sad news, Anna, Ashley and I decided to stay at the fields to watch the exhibition games, as we weren't feeling jovial enough to enjoy the infmaous complimentary happy hour at the Hallmark Inn. We watched the women's and men's games, and stayed for the bbq.

When it got cold enough and Wendy showed up, we headed over to the hotel to find that our very happy-houred teammates had taken full advantage of the complimentary full bar. While they got some much-needed food, the girls rallied our spirits and tried to catch up.





Lesson learned by Patrick: Never try to balance a beer can on your fiancee's head while she's sleeping

There used to be a party every year at the Cantina, but this year, there was no official tournament party...but everyone went to the Cantina anyway. There was lots of dancing, drinking and socializing, and our team definitely enjoyed the evening. Let's just say that it was probably a good idea for everyone involved that I didn't bring my camera...

SUNDAY

The bonus of winning all our games on Saturday was that we earned a first-round bye and weren't playing until 11 am. Despite this, about 75% of our team was battling hangovers, general illness and sleep deprivation. A few players were only playing on Saturday (Maria, Allison and Sven), so our numbers were down as well.

We had a tough start to our first game against the Feral Cows (Bay Area), who played very well and took advantage of our lack of focus and ill play. We finally managed to get it together and squeezed out a win. We had a great semi-final game against Cannonball (Humboldt) and played well enough to garner a berth to the finals against Mischief (Bay Area). It was another great game and despite all the lactic acid build-up and the fact that Mischief had an army of a team (lots of tryouts!), we managed to win the tournament finals...our first DUI win!

The weather was amazing, considering what the foreboding forecast was predicting. We only got sprinkled on a little bit during our finals game, but other than that, the raincoat didn't get any action.

Traffic karma was on our side, as we clocked a Davis-SF drive in just over an hour, amazing for an early Sunday night...thank goodness for comfy couches and cheesy movies on TV to rest my weary body.

WAKA

April 7, 2006

Hooray! It's Friday!

Will hopped on a flight yesterday to go to Tokyo for a week, lucky bum. He's on a boy's/bachelor trip for his buddy Ath, who's getting married this summer in Calgary. But, as Wendy says, when Will's out of town, Party Bea provides good bloggable trouble.

How coincidental that we had our inaugural Kickball game last night...yup, that's right, I've chosen another new sport where the consumption of beer during the activity is considered customary!

Wendy and Ashley have put together a Kickball team called "Smash and Crash", as part of the Golden Gate World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) League on Thursday nights. We play near Hippie Hill in GG Park and Kezar bar is the sponsor bar for after-game festivities.

Smash & Crash Team Members:
Wendy Chan
Ashley Dean
Bea Leung
David Dean
Anna Hamren
Shaun Webb
Emily Wisnosky
Chris Sherwood
Eric (Emily's friend)
Jon Zalisk (showed up after our game was done; not officially on the team yet)
Sandy Angelos (absent, Wendy's sister Vicki substituted)
Will Lavery (absent, in Tokyo, the big bum)

Since we don't have our league t-shirts yet, our team decided to play in "ski gear", which involved a touque (beanie for all the yanks), a ski vest and goggles.






Our first game was a "demonstration" game, as the league officially starts next week...but we won it anyway (4-1?). It was sweet, with Wendy and Emily diving into base, and Anna learning how the rules despite everyone trying to tell the Swedish girl who's never played baseball that "It's just like baseball". I hadn't played kickball since grade-school, so it was pretty entertaining. I've come to realize pretty quickly that I should be a pitcher and not play in the outfield. My bowling arm and accuracy comes in handy (though I need to work on my speed), but I'm a crappy catcher.

After our win, we headed over to Hobson's Choice to grab a drink (and incidentally, you can order food from the neighboring Asqew Grill and they deliver!). I love their House Punch, created with Silver Rum, Mango, Orange and Pineapple juices. In fact, I loved at least 4 glasses of the House Punch last night, just in time to grab a cab home like a good girl.

Soggy Good-byes

April 2, 2006

The weekend has been on of my most productive to date, although maybe not as exciting as others. On Saturday, Will and I met up with our friends, Beth and Tony, for brunch at the new-ish location of Chez Maman in Bernal Heights (an offshoot of the popular Potrero Hill tiny restaurant). Brunch was great, with the much-needed yummy coffee and french delicacies.

Will - Croque Madam with egg
Bea - Complete Crepe (ham, gruyere, eggs)

It was great to catch up with Beth, a great artist who I met post-ACL-surgery at physical therapy. Beth and Tony have recently been dealing with new home renovation trials and tribulations (damn the city permit bureaucracy!) and have also recently gotten engaged...CONGRATULATIONS!

After brunch, Will and I headed home, where he did his taxes and I donned a filtering anti-allergen masked and cleaned en masse. We went to Target, to Home Depot, and would've gone to Bed, Bath & Beyond, but there just wasn't enough time. I shredded two years worth of old bills and receipts. I did bedding laundry. Will tried to put up the new faux wood blinds but discovered that the "helpful" Home Depot girl didn't cut them down enough. I installed the new air purifier in my "office". All in all, very productive.

On Saturday night, we were supposed to hang out with our friend, John Bromley, in town for work, but he was too busy hob-nobbing with the executive-type folks that he met that day at Google to make it back up to the city. Abe, Will and I consoled ourselves with hot sake, large Asahi beers and sushi at Yo Yo Restaurant in the mission.

I was saddened to awake on Sunday morning to realize that I lost an hour with the whole "Spring Forward" Daylight Saving bullsh#$. I love the fact that both Arizona and Hawaii do not observe DST, in addition to many regions/countries around the world (China, parts of Canada, India, Iran, Pakistan, parts of Australia). It's not confusing enough to go traveling and have to figure out the time change, but to have to figure out if DST is in the mix...sheesh! Do the reasons even hold water anymore? Talk amongst yourselves.

Anyway, we may have benefitted from the DST confusion on Sunday morning, as the line in front of the Pork Store was notably shorter than usual. John finally made it back up to SF and joined us for our favorite belly-busting diner brekkie.

The soggy weather inspired us to head to the De Young Museum in GG Park. It was definitely less busy than the last time I had been there during the Christmas holidays.

We checked out the 9th level observation deck, which looked pretty much exactly the same as when I went on a rainy day with Benedetta in December:







Other exciting favorites in the De Young:













From the De Young, we took John on a driving tour of SF, where we drove Lincoln to Ocean Beach, past the Cliff House, by the Legion of Honor and Lincoln Golf Course, through SeaCliff to see all the amazing houses, to China Beach, past Baker Beach, to Golden Gate Bridge, through the Marina, past the Legion of Honor and then for hot chocolate on Chestnut Street in the Marina at the Grove Cafe.

Onto the driving tour of SF in the kinda-rain:





John had to catch his flight back to Vancouver in the afternoon, so I enjoyed the warmth of bed and an entertaining book (Tami Hoag's "Kill the Messenger") while it continued to drizzle outside. Will decided to head up to Tahoe and catch some of the pow-pow precipitation and I headed over to Lucky 13 to an "au revoir" gathering for our good friend, Frodo, who is embarking on his own traveling extravaganza in this upcoming week. Frodo will be traveling to New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia.






Frodo has developed a fear of inadequate travel journalism (possibly fostered by Kenny's amazing and prolific travel blog), which is fueling is anti-travel blog sentiments. Therefore, I have invited Frodo to send me travel updates and I will happily guest blog for him. Stay tuned for Frodo's wacky travel tales...

Noisepop!

April 2, 2006

The state of my body at the start of the weekend coincided with the state of Bay Area weather...it was crap. All sorts of weather records are being broken with blah, blah consecutive days of rain, blah, blah. All I know is that if I wanted to live in Seattle, I would've moved there. Of course, the Sierras are getting a very nice dump of fresh pow-pow, but that doesn't do me much good when I'm under the weather (ha, ha) and not in the mountains.

Anyway, the itinerary for Friday night included a much-needed cat-nap, going to dinner at Goat Hill Pizza with Will, Abe and Key, and then onto the evening's main event, which was The New Amsterdams show at Bottom of the Hill. This show was part of the Noisepop! 2006 music festival, which occurs every spring and sprinkles great shows at all the good venues in town (Slim's, GAMH, Bimbo's, BOTH, Independent, etc.).

I managed to consume some soup and the most of the half-order of lasagne (that thing was huge! no need to order the full size!). There were three opening bands and we got to BOTH in time for the last couple songs of the second band, The Brokedown. They had some catchy tunes, but that's about all I can remember. In between the second and third band sets, we managed to weasel some space by the wood counter, which served to be a huge blessing. I was able to scoot up and sit on the ledge for the show, preserving my energy and my wits, as I wouldn't have to deal with tall people standing in front of me. The third band was Slowrunner, who also had some catchy tunes and were a very enjoyable musical experience. The highlight of their set was the cover of one of my favorite They Might Be Giants tunes "Birdhouse In Your Soul". Most of the room may have been too young to realize what song this was, and I don't think the band got the reception they were hoping for, but it sure made my night.

Birdhouse In Your Soul!

Thank goodness for seats...

And then, Matt Pryor and gang (The New Amsterdams) took the stage and played an hour and a half set mixing in new songs from their just-released album with their older songs. It was pretty evident that this band is no longer just a side-project for Matt Pryor (previously the front-man for the Get Up Kids), and that this band has matured and developed. They're mellower and more folky. They've changed the tempo and sound to a lot of their older songs (great for "California" but not as great for "Hover Near Fame"). Admittedly, Matt Pryor said he had a hoarse voice and maybe that changed how he was singing some of the songs.




It's been a while since I've caught a live show, so it was a great night, despite my illness. Can't wait for to go see Architecture in Helsinki at the end of April...