The Daily Sabs

I am tired and no longer having fun.

geoloc

This weekend I finished up all my chores and got a bunch of things crossed off my list. As a reward Randall and I were going to spend today on an adventure. We talked about heading to tomales bay for a hike and picnic and oysters, or just going up for a lovely drive and hike in the sonoma area. Last night I even bookmarked a few pages in the day hiker's guide to california state parks (a gift for donors) and dreamt up lunch concoctions. Sadly, when I woke and threw open the windows I was greeted with rainy sludge. Booooooo. So much for my plans. Instead I sat around pouting and waited for the cat in the hat to arrive. He never showed so I made new plans instead. Randall and I headed to hd buttercup for their big furniture sale. I didn't see anything I was looking for (or not looking for) but afterwards we hit up both sight glass coffee (it had been on my list) and goody goodie for treats. Yah i know, I've been pigging it on cookies lately, but goody goodie puts kettle corn in theirs and I never have the chance to swing by there so took advantage of the opportunity while I could.

In other news, it's supposed to be nice the rest of the week. Go figure.

Ps. This photo says it all. Randall thinks I'm nuts.

I need a haircut something fierce. When my bangs get long I stop straightening my hair because it just doesn't work out with the wavybang thing (and straightening those lasts like an hour). So this is me and my moonface and my I went to bed with wet hair and woke up and didn't run a brush through it look.

Ps. Randall says I look weird here but he can't figure out why. I think it's the moonface. Can someone explain to me how I weigh the same each year and yet my face keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger? I thought gravity worked the other way...

This morning I dropped Randall off at caltrain and decided to find an adventure. Sadly, I wasn't feeling that adventurous, and just ended up at the gym. After a 2 episode workout it was time to run some errands. I was still in my workout clothes (juju would've been appalled), but I had to pick up the bubbles for thanksgiving and some stuff for the house. Apparently I was really tired because I also felt the need to test out new pillows.

Once the errands were run, I headed home to start dinner. It was only 1pm, but I was doing a slow cooked citrus-spice beef stew. It's a recipe I made up (beef stock, oj, aniseed, cumin, white pepper, garlic and then some) and it turned out pretty nice. It stewed for 7 hours, but I wish it could've gone a bit longer. While I was dicing up vegetables for the stew, I remembered the roast chicken leftovers in the fridge and decided to cook up a batch of chicken stock too. I'll use it next week to make some risotto.

After the cooking I did a proper vacation thing and napped. I actually didn't mean to, but it was cold and there was a new pillow and the couch looked cozy (it was).

When I woke up I bumbled about a bit, then picked up Randall from the train station. We came home and uncivilly ate our dinner (meaning in front of the tv catching up on walking dead), but I was feeling festive so I decide to keep cooking and whipped up some pumpkin yogurt bread with chocolate chips. It was a hacked together recipe and came out decently. The loaf (and straggler muffins) rose really ridiculously, but the taste was there. I wasn't sure what to expect, for whatever reason, I hate on recipes these days. I think I'm turning into morm.

Overall it was an adventure-less day, but there was lots of festive aromatic tasty foods, and that has to count for something, no?

Oh what a day. This evening fresh guide hosted a party at saks fifth avenue. (Believe it or not, I occasionally shop there.) Overall it was a fun party, but the random highlight was when I ran into Russ. I hadn't seen him since the old tower days (over four years ago) and it was a nice surprise. Turns out one of his new coworkers is brothers with one of the fresh guide dudes. Talk about small world. Great to see you Russ, glad to hear you're doing well!

During the party, all of us had enough bubbly alcohol. At one point both Erin and I were double fisting and the bubbles actually made us believe that makeovers were a good idea. $30 lipsticks later we might have sobered up enough to realize our mistakes. However we were not sober enough to realize that cheesecake factory was a bad idea. We went with a large crew (thanks to stacia and Morgan for securing the tables) and it took for freaking ever. I have only been to cheesecake factory once before and I kind of hope to never go again. Our server was fantastic, but man that place is too much.

Afterwards heather dale and her pal magically appeared. It was great to see her again after all this time. All these old faces, it was like a surreal version of this is your life.

Oh and if you're wondering about the pic with Randall, he and I ran a bank errand this morning. We're fancy with a safe deposit box in a ye olde vault. Everytime we go there it's like we're in a ridiculous movie. But then again, my life feels that way too. Ridiculous until the end credits.

Morm's house holds a lot of hidden treasures. Some of them, like the
seemingly overgrown grass which is actually lemongrass stalks, are
right under your noses. While others, the usual suspects like jewelry,
are squirreled away in the weirdest places.

This evening samshrew, morm, and I went on a hunt. I ended up with a
few nice things and a huge mountain of lemongrass. Afterwards we
helped morm eat a cheesecake even though she's not supposed to.
Somedays just end better that way.

This morning miss anneh came back from her excursion to Iceland and
surprised me with a delicious kleinur. It's been six years since I
last had one and it was a super awesome treat. Anneh also brought me
back the weirdest chocolate bar topped with a strip of licorice. So
strange and yet so wonderful. I need to get back to the island.

After work, Erin and I headed out to off the grid. It was bananas
there. I have never seen it that busy before and a bunch of the trucks
were running out of food. Erin and I were really craving the bao truck
pork belly bun and decided to wait in line. Unfortunately when we were
about three people back, they announced they were out of pork belly.
We were sad and defeated, but had waited so long in line, we just went
with it. Then, miraculously, right as our orders (duck and tofu) were
coming up, they said they had a few more pork belly orders. I tried to
get our order swapped, but it was too late. Surprisingly though, the
awesome bao truck folks hooked us up and we were able to do the pork
belly dance! Life is indeed delicious.iceland

The best part about coming home when it's dark is checking out the
shadows cast all over the ground.different

This morning I picked up miss anneh and we headed out on a tasty adventure. Many months back, for her birthday gift, I told anneh that I would take her on a SF macaron/macaroon (the French kind) adventure. They're pretty popular these days (I keep seeing articles saying they're going to be the next cupcake, but have yet to see evidence of them actually being the next cupcake), and it seemed like there were a bunch of places to try. So we set out for six places to do a great taste test.

First up was the macaron triangle of Hayes Valley. It's strange, on one corner there are three macaron establishments: Paulette, Miette, and one of the many La Boulange. Next we headed to Thorough Bread and Pastry, Patisserie Philippe, and Sandbox Bakery. We also tried to get the Lady Kiss over at Noe Valley Bakery, but they didn't have any.

Once we had our treats procured, we headed back to anneh's with our winnings (two from each place, one plain and one fun) and a bottle of rosé. It was time for analysis.

We started with one we were pretty familiar with, La Boulange. Their outposts are everywhere in the city, so we'd both had them before, multiple times. This time we got the vanilla and the coffee. The vanilla really should've been called almond, it was gooey and sweet and tasted just like marzipan. Actually, it tasted more like a vanilla Tootsie Roll, either way I kind of hated it. The outsides weren't quite right either. The coffee flavored one was definitely more delicious, but the whole thing was chewy like a caramel (the inside were definitely caramely). I would eat that one again, but wouldn't touch that vanilla if i had to.

Next was Paulette. They've got an outpost here in SF, but the macarons are actually made in Beverly Hills and shipped up here. That part is kind of disappointing, as it would be nice to know what they taste like fresh. We tried three flavors here (pumpkin we ate while out and about), vanilla, and coconut. No pictures as we ate them too fast, but they were nice. Their outsides had enough crunch and the insides the right amount of chew. The pumpkin one was a bit much, in the same way that pumpkin spice lattes are. Perfect for the season, but not necessary year round. The coconut was almost overwhelming, but the vanilla was kind spot on.

After Paulette's, we moved on to another old favorite, Miette. Miette has an outpost at the ferry building also, so both Anneh and I were familiar with their treats. Here we tried the vanilla and the rose geranium. Both of these are great, and I love the way they taste. Their outsides are lumpy looking, and are lacking the smoothness of a traditional macaron. As anneh says, it looks like they're trying to trick you into thinking they're healthy, as if they were whole-grain macarons or something like that. In addition to being lumpy looking, the insides are not the same paste-like filling found in most macarons. Instead they're like buttercream. While they are delicious treats, it's almost seems like they aren't the same type of cookies as the rest of them.

Once we worked our way through the Hayes triangle, we moved on to Thorough Bread's vanilla/chocolate combo, and their lemon. They actually serve them frozen and you need to wait for them to thaw before you can eat them. The vanilla/choco combo was hard to cut through, and was sort of a chewy mess. It had a nice flavor though, but was sort of unmemorable. However the lemon was delicious. The filling was tart without being overpowering, and the outside had a nice crispness to it, but with a dry inside. This was probably my second favorite one of the day. Also they get bonus points for the awesomely bad pun.

Next up was Philippe's. They didn't have a vanilla, so we had to go with hazelnut as our plain and decided on cassis for our fun one. First of all these guys are huge. Gigantor, almost double the size of the miette. Their texture is nice though, the crust had the right crispness combined with the perfect chew, but the filling melted on your tongue too quickly. Also the size was sort of overwhelming, making the ratio of crust to filling a bit wrong. I think if the size was tweaked a little, these could be my favorite. Although, to be honest i didn't like the flavors of either of these, but then again I kind of dislike hazelnut, and the cassis was too sweet/artificial. I mentioned that the cassis looked like a hamburger, and anneh said she thought it actually tasted like one. Clearly, it's been a long time since vegetarian anneh's had a hamburger.

Last up was Sandbox Bakery, which is actually Christopher David Macarons. The ones there were hands down the most visually appealing. The tops are sprinkled with a shiny sugar, which us magpies were immediately drawn to. There were four flavor options (pear, chocolate, grapefruit with star anise, and butterscotch), and we decided to try them all. The texture was pretty good on all of these, but the flavors were a bit too sweet. The pear actually was quite tart too, in that tongue curly sort of way. The chocolate was good but forgettable, and the anise in the grapefruit was odd. If anneh thought the last one tasted like hamburger, then I have to say this one tasted like duck. Chinese duck. I'm sure it was the anise flavor, but it wasn't awesome. What was awesome was the butterscotch. I don't even like butterscotch and that thing was downright delicious. I would dare say it was my favorite of the day, but I don't know if it was the "best" macaron in SF. It was however the most delicious thing. Anneh thought the flavors were too quirky and trying to hard (she likened it to Humphry Slocombe and their weird flavors. Quirkiness over quality she says. Well i put those exact words in her mouth, but that was essentially her sentiment.

Overall, seems like the best, most traditional macarons in SF are the ones you can find at Paulette. However, i think it's fair to say there are a lot of great options. Pass on the La Boulange ones though, I went back and tried it after i ate the others and it was terrible in comparison. I was sort of surprised by that, but anneh agreed too.

And if you know of another great macaron here in the city, let me know. I know there are a few more lurking about waiting for us to nom them.

It was kind of a crappy day today, but a homemade garlic lemongrass
roasted chicken salvaged the day. I was going to eat it civilized
style, but by the time it came out of the oven it was too late for
civility. Also the knives were all dirty so barbabarian (as morm says)
style it was.