today was an action-packed, not to mention snack-packed, day full of samshrew birthday fun. first off samshrew, chris, and sushi dog picked randall and i up for a jaunt across the bay. the east bay spca is putting on these special events all summer long, and today was a free kayaking with your puppins day. randall and i sadly don't have a puppins, so we paid our dues and rented a kayak.
afterwards (and before) we gorged on tasty treats from the jack london farmer's market (the fish tacos there = awesome). and then we headed back to the city where chris picked up a cake from his pals at Sugar Beat Sweets. we got stuck in a little bit of pride traffic (fun fact, i witnessed a cop break up a fight, and then take down a dude who wouldn't cooperate -- come on, he took a swing at the cop!), but eventually ended up at samshrew & chris's house.
we had many hours to kill (dinner reservations weren't until 8), so we snacked, played a round of life -- randall won, also it's pretty different to the version i had when i was growing up -- drank wine, and ate birthday cake. for the record, it was a vegan cake, was vanilla with strawberry, and even randall -- who is skeptical of anything vegan and normally only eats chocolate cake -- asked for a full slice. translation: it was tasty.
finally, after goofing about for a while more, we hopped into the car, miraculously found parking in the castro on pride weekend, and headed to frances for dinner. folks, i made these reservations weeks (maybe months) ago. it is the hot new must-eat at place in the city and after eating there, i can totally see why. the food was delicious, the service friendly and on top of it, and they even seated us 15 minutes early. plus, they knew it was samshrew's birthday, so they brought us out the most fantastic housemade salted chocolate cookies with humphry slocombe ice cream sandwiches in the end. oh and did i mention? they serve the house wine by the ounce. they bring a small pitcher that has ounce markings on the side, and they only charge you for what you drink. simply amazing. i can't wait to go back.
happy birthday samshrew!
this morning samshrew texted to see what we were up to. since the only thing for the afternoon agenda was laundry, i told her that we had nothing planned. amazingly she also had nothing planned, so we decided to all meet up and go to the beach. that sushi dog entertained us for a while, but when we got bored we left and had joe's ice cream - for the record, root beer swirl ice cream is delicious.
speaking of delicious, after beach time, randall and i came home and got ready for an early 5:30 dinner seating at baumé in palo alto. tonight was the quarterly scheelbarrow dinner (aka pitstop) and we decided to go all out and order the 15-course tasting plus wine pairing. it wasn't the most amazing meal i'd ever had, but it was definitely worth it. while i've had bits of pieces of molecular gastronomy infused meals, i'd never had one where it was the focus. i can't remember the last time i had so much fun at fancy dinner (even if it initially felt weird, stuffy, and with colorful plates out of 1997. sure it's gimmicky, but it was a blast, and luckily for us the gimmick tasted great too. plus they get bonus points for bringing us an extra dish just for photos/videos (they wanted to make sure we all ate ours right away). if it wasn't for that we never would have proof of randall the magic dragon - it was better the first time he ate it, but its still awesome, see for yourself:
okay. if i didn't make it clear earlier, i just had a 15 course menu with a wine pairing. it's time for a nap before bedtime.
but first, some random photos from today:
as you might know, i dislike washing my hair. but like all chores you dislike, it has to be done. so this morning, i washed and dried, which i also hate doing. it's not so bad now that my hair is shorter, but when it was long it would take forever, 20+ minutes forever. speaking of minutes. yes it was 8:50 when i dried my hair. i'm not proud of that, but what are you gonna do?
after work i headed down to the castro theatre for the opening of the asian american film festival. tonight they were screening today's special, a film written by Aasif Mandvi (you may know him from oh, perhaps the daily show). the movie was a light-hearted comedy with a bit of romance, a bunch of parental relationship, and a lot of food. i left the restaurant craving indian food like you wouldn't believe. the movie doesn't open until this fall, and while i wouldn't say it's a drop everything and see it, i would say that it was worth seeing. sure there were some plot holes, and sure it was formulaic and predictable, but it was sincere, and heartfelt. plus the background extras are fabulous, if not scenestealers at time. and if you're into food, you're going to want to see it. indian food porn galore.
thanks chris for the movie tickets!!
ps. if you haven't seen it yet, please do check out the brand new OnSugar homepage!
this evening randall and i treated chris and sam to a dinner at red lobster. it was chris's birthday and we thought it would be a good gift. a little while back chris saw a red lobster coupon at our house and asked if he could have it. unfortunately it had to be used with my credit card, so i couldn't give it to him. fast forward to tonight, one coupon later, and we all feasted. in fact chris had an ultimate feast. seriously, that was the name of his entree.
this morning randall and i got up early -- as in actually set the alarm on a saturday -- to head to the ferry building for breakfast. in case you haven't heard, or don't live in the area, the saturday ferry building farmer's market is a total food porn extravaganza. and the big draw, the thing that made us get up at the same time we do for work, is the fish tacos at primavera. these fish tacos are hands down my favorite fish tacos in all of the bay area. maybe it's just the primavera tortillas (which are heavenly), but i like to think the entire package is amazing.
sadly, when we arrived, we saw that the fish tacos were NOT on the menu today. it was such a disappointment. i mean, their chilaquiles are great, but it's no fish tacos. the worst part is that this let down could've been avoided, i just discovered that primavera does put its saturday menu online afterall. FAIL.
luckily the rest of the day didn't follow the fail pattern. we managed to get knives sharpened (it's been almost a year of saying "we should get these sharpened"), go to a corgi gathering in the park with chris and sam, get some comic books, get rid of some crap on craigslist, and even make time for a cat nap.
ps. if you go to the ferry building farmer's market, you also have to get the bacon from fatted calf. if you are in a situation where you can not bring home the bacon, be sure to grab some of their beef jerky instead.
pps. samshrew and chris have some big news. you can't see it in this pic, but there be some bling on it!
because i had the macro setting on still from when i was taking pictures of sushi dog, so it's all blurry but my big ol' face.
this morning sam, chris, randall and i went down to the shanghai dumpling king. it was just so-so, i don't understand the wait. the soup dumplings were good because they're soup dumplings, but they're not great. and the dirty dishes and mediocre service aren't really worth it.
what was worth it was picking up sushi and walking down to the presidio. i tried to put a treat on her nose and have her wait before eating it, but she wasn't having any of it. i couldn't even get to the put it on the nose stage.
thanks for the fun kids!
ps. here's the closeup pic of sushi after she'd been digging in the dirt.
this evening i donned a hat and coat and all the other warm accessories and headed down to the castro theatre. normally, on a drizzly night like this, especially after just getting over the superbug from hell (sidenote - i don't think i've been this sick as an adult), i would've just stayed in. however there was cause for a celebration - fruit fly (the new film from the folks who did colma the musical) was having it's world premiere, and the guy on the right (chris - aka sushi's dad) played a role in making it come to life. in fact he's so cool, he now has his own imdb page.
the film is a lot of fun - although you have to be okay for a musical with songs about fag-hags and sex - but if nothing else, the opening song about san francisco public transist (back door!) is fun for anyone who's ever had to deal with muni.
