weird

so my family had a big dinner to celebrate the Moon Festival. the first thing that came to our table was this suckling pig with blinking maraschino cherry eyes. yeah, sometimes the Chinese are weird. what. in. the. fuck? what exactly was the purpose of bright lights? so distracting. and check out the chompers on this little guy. we had three pigs (one for each table). think they were brothers and sisters from the same litter?

recent happenings

i can't say enough how much i love being Yelp Elite. the events that they throw are pretty cool sometimes, and even if they weren't who could complain really? free food and drinks or tickets to shows and events all for writing a few reviews on Yelp? awesome! i went to Yelp's Mobile Mashup the other day. it was held at Club Auto Sport, which is pretty cool if you're in to cars. they had some pretty expensive new cars and some vintage looking cars lining the place. and while that's great, what i go for is the food, but you already knew that, right? they had a ton of vendors handing out samples of good food inside the club as well as a bunch of food trucks handing out samples in the parking lot. needless to say, within an hour we were pretty stuffed. this was definitely one of the better Yelp events. 

then i took a picture with the king...

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went to a coworker's daughter's quinceanera on saturday. we pulled our money together and got her three tickets to see Justin Bieber next weekend. something a 15 year old would be ecstatic about. i hope she has the time of her life with all of the other Beliebers with that Bieber fever. 

Brigette, April, Elisa, Jinsun, Ruby, myself, Uyen and Natasha. 

Tom, Terry, Edgar, Harley, Jaosn, Tan, Chris and Steven

the beautiful birthday girl and her family 

me and Nit-Nat-Patty-Wack

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later that night i went to Sherwin's Awesome 80's birthday. i didn't want to change clothes more than two times in a day so i opted not to dress up, however my contribution to the party were jello shots. because what's more 80's than the vision of Mr. Bill Cosby enforcing you to eat some j-e-LL-o?

Sum-Yung-Guy (no idea who this first dude is), Micah, myself, Mickey, the birthday boy (Sherwin), Avery

is Avery taking a peek to see if Sherwin is about to accidentally expose his package to the world?

too close for comfort with only one layer between me and that wang

what is it about men in uniform??

he's so dark that there's no distinguishing where Shwerin ends and the cabinets begin

i loved Tony's mustache.

so i made him draw one for me too!

good times, friends!

Eat Real Festival / the weekend

by now you all should know that Marjie is one of my favorite foodie friends. so this past friday we went to the Eat Real Festival in Oakland. this was my third year attending, and Marjie's first. if you're unaware of what this is, it's a ton of food trucks/vendors that line Jack London Square to sell food items (everything $5). it's really awesome and a good way to try a bunch of stuff. the best method is to go with a friend or a couple of friends who you don't mind sharing germs with. everybody disperses into different lines to get some grub and then reconvene to share. that way you're not eating a whole burrito by yourself and left with no room in your tummy for the mass amounts of delicious that are offered up.

Gerard's Paella

i'm not typically a fan of paella because it ends up being too fishy more often than not but i enjoy this paella. it's creamy, flavorful and not in the slightest bit fishy.

Homeroom 

Gilroy mac n cheese. various cheeses and a ton of garlic. the noodles are cooked perfectly and the garlic is absolutely evident. would love to visit their brick and morter one day.

The Whole Beast

lamb poutine. holy shit this was good! tender bits of savory lamb with sheeps cheese and lamb gravy over deliciously thick cut fries. i want more!

The Creme Brulee Cart

the Yes, Please. nutella creme brulee with strawberries. the best part of creme brulee is breaking the shell, right? then you get to this thick, creamy, hazelnutty custard with fresh strawberries. so very good!

Sam's ChowderMobile

lobster roll bite. seems like the tiniest bite in the world, but in reality a whole sandwich at Sam's Chowderhouse is approximately three times this sandwich and costs you $22. here you get to sample it for $5. not too shabby for lobster and butter goodness. 

Frozen Kuhsterd

thai ice tea frozen custard with large tapioca balls and condensed milk. the ice cream was really good. it had a strong thai tea flavor.

Frozen Kuhsterd

bacon liege waffle with burnt caramel sauce and cinnamon toast ice cream. the concept to this is fantastic. all elements seem like they'd be perfect together. while the flavor is there, my only qualm with this is that the waffle is sort of too dense and breadlike.

Whole Foods

grilled figs with goat cheese, marcona almonds and balsamic reduction

i've had this three years in a row and it's always good. the combination of ingredients work really well together.

Forage SF

porcini grilled cheese. this sandwich was severely lacking in the cheese department, but the crusty buttery grilled bread and porcini mushrooms made up for the loss of ooey gooeiness.

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saturday after work i stopped by GG Park to partake in a picnic/bbq for the Radiology Dept. sadly half an hour after i got there the clouds decided to converge and the chilliness was unbearable for my pansy self. so i bid my crew adieu and left with a ton of brownies to indulge in at a later time. 

Sally (the coordinator!), Ruby, Steve (lookin all disheveled), myself, Joe, Uyen, Dr. Fisch, Natasha, Tan, Edgar, Joan (Dr. Fisch' wifey), and Clive

Alisa (who was visiting from Texas), Rubes, myself, Natty (ha!), and Nicole

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later on in the night i had dinner with my clearly preggers friend, Steph. she says that if you touch the belly of a pregnant woman, that fertile juju gets passed on to you. good thing i'm not superstitious.

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sunday, i got to briefly visit with Steffi who was here for a wedding. look at her all cute in her glasses.

Nightlife at the Academy of Science

Nightlife at the Academy of Science is one of those things you just have to experience. on it's own, the Academy is already awesome. but throw in a couple of DJs, cocktails, a band, and special themed exhibits, and you've got a perfect way to spend a night out. if that isn't already seemingly perfect, what's even better is that it's a 21+ event. this means no screaming kids running amuck or getting their sticky lollipops all over everything. this means no large moving annoyances (strollers) slamming into your toes. i mean, you still have to deal with the 21 y.o. crowd, but they're a bit more manageable. it's a great place to bring a friend from out of town and it makes for a good date night as well.

these are just a couple of pictures from the night....

the tiniest most cute starfish evaaaar!!

this is how i feel when people are wrong about thinking that they're funny.

a crappy shot of the awesome rooftop 

Locanda

i know that i keep saying with each new restaurant post that "i've been wanting to try this restaurant for a long time now," but it's always true. in SF the turn around and/or shelf life for restaurants are short because the competition is fierce. but what that means is that there are always new restaurants to check out and they just get better and better. most recently i went to try Locanda. it's a standard osteria (serving wine and simple, basic foods) with very well prepared, satisfying eats.

foccacia 

so very light and airy with a slight crisp, painted with good olive oil. i could have just eaten foccacia all night long.

rigatoni carbonara

a lot of people complained on Yelp about this dish being too salty. the "bacon" is quite salty but i don't mind that when eaten with the pasta. the chunks are fried to a crisp and was a nice surprise for me.

shelling bean agnolotti

these are like little ravioli filled with a creamy bean filling. while very good, beans aren't my favorite so i would probably never purposely order this dish. we had a vegetarian with us so this was his choice.

lamb scottadito

a very tender non-gamy lamb.

oxtail

tender. tasty. oxtail is one of my favorite protein options. very good!

lemon yogurt budino

light and creamy. a good dessert option.

ricotta fritta- lemon honey and thyme

this was sort of amazing. really simple but just fried to a light crisp with a creamy center. not very sweet.

Boulevard

have you ever walked into a restaurant and felt like your youth was pretty evident? upon entry through the revolving doors of Boulevard, i was met with a sea of shimmering white hair reflecting the lighting coming from above. the clientele at Boulevard clearly isn't your average 20something. you're guaranteed to see older white couples and a bunch of yuppies with overly gelled hair. the food matches the needs of the clientele accurately. i imagine the older crowd just wants good solid food. they're not looking for any fusion or gastronomy, so this is a great fit for that generation. while everything we had at Boulevard was prepared very well and each dish balanced nicely with flavors and textures, there wasn't anything very different or special about each dish.  still, it was a very good dinner and i would come back (but probably not until i grow some grays).

lobster soup- with petrale sole and mussel fritter

a great dish! the petrale had a perfect crisp sear to it and the capers added a unique tang to the soup. i would come back specifically for this lobster soup.

ravioli of nettles and rabbit

the nettles ravioli had a slight bitter note to them. enjoyable, but the rabbit ravioli was super flavorful. and the pasta had a nice consistency.

pork prime rib chop with "rice grits" and okra

pretty good, though the risotto was overly salty with such large slivers of cured pork. 

quail with nettle gnocchi, chantrelle mushrooms and chard

very well cooked quail which was not gamey at all. and the gnocchi was pretty good too.

sticky toffee sundae

i love a good sticky toffee pudding/cake/(in this case)sundae! this was a great way to end the meal.

Giant Race Half Marathon

ready to run the Giant Race Half Marathon for the 3rd year in a row!

remember when i ran it last year with not much training and having gone out the night before? similar story. i didn't really train this year, though i did do a 10 mile run the week before to make sure i was capable of completing the 13.1 miles. 

the crowd waiting to get running

this year i ran it three minutes slower than last year but i'm not really trippin' about it. i think running 13.1 miles is an accomplishment in itself. maybe next year i'll shoot for a better time though. we'll see!

this year they let everybody hang out on the green after the race, which was pretty cool. in years past they've only really let you walk around the green. 

ran into Tess, who completed the 10k! high five, Tess!!

hi, have you met my giant shiny forehead yet? oh, you didn't know that i morph into looking like an alien after half marathons?? well it's true. 

yeah i did!

immediately following the half marathon i went to my favorite ice cream spot, Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous because 1) it was close by and 2) i deserve it (discounting the fact that i ate all sorts of junk food at Comedy Jam the night prior haha). i got the chicory coffee and the mint fudge with their aaahhmazing hot fudge to top it all off. in about ten minutes flat i pretty much ate back all of the calories burnt running that morning.