Week In Review: 4/29-5/5

Hello friends! Lots of yummy food and adventures this week. xo!

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Clockwise from top left:

  1. Homemade marinated tofu spring rolls with leftover brown rice and lots of veggies. 
  2. Beautiful steamed bok choy at work - love the sheer amount of produce that is everywhere right now!
  3. Banchan at Pyeong Chang Tofu House. 
  4. Dumpling & beef soondubu at Pyeong Chang Tofu House. Bliss. 

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Clockwise from top left:

  1. Ingredients for sev puri: sev, chaat masala, mint chutney. 
  2. More ingredients: puris, potatoes, red onions, cucumber, chickpeas, and cilantro. 
  3. An assembled puri. So delicious. 
  4. The setup - for more info see here. 

This Week’s Food Lessons:

  1. Make stuff ahead of time that is easy to grab and go. When I’m tired or in a rush, the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time assembling something. 
  2. Always check for product preservatives & dyes. Don’t want that stuff in my body!

This Week’s Food Successes:

  1. Making pani/sev puri!! The kids loved it. 
  2. Sticking to a menu plan, for the most part. 
  3. Getting excited about cooking more from unfamiliar (to me) cuisines - Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican/Hispanic.

What did you eat this week?

Trying out a new format. Click through for photos and captions!

Food Lessons:

  • Order way less Chinese food than you think you want. 
  • Freeze leftover Chinese food if it’s tasty.
  • Taste any pre-cooked protein *before* adding it to a salad of perfectly fine veggies and beans. A protein like fish may not look moldy but it may taste like it. *sigh*

Food Successes:

  • Rice bowls are super easy and tasty and customizable. I’ve made Vietnamese- and Mexican-inspired versions just this week.
  • Salsa is amazing and wonderful. I love it. 
  • Dining out at wonderful places means more when it happens slightly less frequently - and when your dining partner feels the same way about food that you do :D

What did you eat this week?

Tuesday Newsday: Do you have skillz?

Lotsa stuff happening this week. See below for more, especially an awesome gif tutorial of some essential knife skills :) 

News

  • Restaurants across the country talk about what they do about no-shows [Eater National]

Bay Area Happenings

  • Oakland North (which, by the way, is a UC Berkeley School of Journalism project) has a great photo essay on Oakland’s Chinatown [Oakland North]
  • The Oakland HUB launched a Kickstarter - I suppose this is startup- more than food-related, but foodies with entrepreneurial tendencies, take note! [Oakland North]
  • OH NO!! Berkeley schools may lose funding for cooking/gardening programs! :( [Berkeleyside]

Bay Area Restaurants

People

  • Neato knife skills tutorial in GIFs with Henry Molina of Mission Chinese [FirstWeEat]

Tumblr & Blogs

  • Game of Thrones cocktails - you’re gonna need one, the third season is gonna get real, real quick. [The Kitchn]
  • 50 Drinks from 50 States - CA’s is from Trick Dog! [Grub Street NY]
  • DIY Alcoholic Dippin’ Dots - this is the only thing I have ever wanted ever [Gizmodo]
  • Interesting piece about cocktail prices - how high is too high? [The Kitchn]
  • I totally do this! Hangover = drink soda with bitters = tummy healed [The Kitchn]
  • For my sis - 6 Caesar Salads in SF [7x7]

Lolz

  • Second breakfast isn’t just for hobbits [Textfromdog]
  • Wait a second, those aren’t real roses… [FoodGifPorn]
  • LOLZ - fake restaurant pranks [Eater SF]

Week in Review: 4/15-4/21

Good morning! Here are this week’s foodie delights courtesy of yours truly.

The Eats:

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Clockwise from top left:

  1. I can’t get enough of spring’s fresh berries.
  2. Edamame and beef coconut-lime udon (not pictured) at Noodle Theory.
  3. Homemade chicken tacos.
  4. I found my new favorite soondooboo haunt - Pyeong Chang Tofu House. Get the beef and dumpling tofu stew, mild. And take your leftovers home ;)

The Dranks:

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Clockwise from top left:

  • Happy hour at work to celebrate a friend’s new home purchase. Mazel tov!
  • Passionfruit ice boba at Sweet .
  • Rum punch by Miss Suzanne at The New Easy (every Sunday!).
  • Homemade sangria - this shizz is BANANAS.

What did you eat this week that knocked your socks off? Let me know over on Facebook!

Tuesday Newsday: I Should Be a Location Scout

Hello readers! Lotsa links this week. 

 

A note for the links: I’ve linked the actual sites where possible, and you can read full articles by clicking on the source link in brackets.

News

Bay Area

  • Guys, I CALLED this - vacant spot in Temescal/Auto Row becoming the newest Blue Bottle outpost. I literally drove by last week and thought, “Dang that would be a great spot for a cafe or small restaurant.” They should pay me for these things. [Grub Street]
  • Homeroom is publishing a COOKBOOK! Eeee! [Grub Street]
  • 49 Square Catering Launched by SF Food Lab people - neato! [Grub Street]
  • West Oakland to FINALLY FINALLY lose its food desert status and get a real supermarket in Fall 2014 [Lettuce Eat Kale / Edible East Bay]
  • Check out the restaurant at the new SF Exploratorium location [Grub Street]
  • Outerlands starts taking reservations - reaction to Michael Bauer’s complaints? [Grub Street]

People

  • Talk about inspiring - Melissa Danielle is reinventing local grocery purchasing at Bed-Stuy Bounty [Gastrognomes]
  • Olga Massov of Sassy Radish dishes about her blogging start, being a cookbook author, and making the switch from corporate finance to full-time foodie creative [Pantry Confidential]
  • Jennifer Goggin, founder of FarmersWeb, talks about her first real “good food job” and how she made the switch from finance to food distribution maven (am I sending a trend here?) [Gastrognomes]

Tumblr & Blogs

Food Lolz

 

 

Week in Review: 4/8-4/14

Good morning! A little break felt really good last week. Whew.

Things I’m currently obsessed with:

  • Cooking with Dog. I love this cooking show! Must find takoyaki somewhere.
  • Getting cookbooks from the library. Check your local branch - they probably have lots of amazing cookbooks if you want to test drive them before buying.
  • It’s All Good. My copy is already plastered with post-its and penciled notes, ready to cook some recipes this week.
  • Fish tacos. I made some last night with tilapia and avocado but was so excited I forgot to take a pic. Such is life.

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Clockwise from top left:

  • Giants’ game with my coworkers. Of course I got garlic fries, although we almost unanimously agreed that they were not garlicky enough. Next time I want whole cloves of roasted garlic on there, you hear me AT&T Park??
  • I’ve been cooking a LOT at home in the effort to save money and connect a little more with my home. Here I made roasted veggies; salad with strawberries, walnuts, & lemon anchovy dressing.
  • Annual Tomales Bay oyster picnic with Miss Morgan & co!
  • Frittata with turkey, edamame, and leftover roasted veggies (TJ’s 21-spice salute seasoning is MAGICAL); kale salad; pilaf.

 

The weather has been beautiful this week - definitely looking forward to more spring produce and cooking a lot this week! On the menu: chicken skewers, kale salads, red quinoa, eggs. Welcome, spring!

Tuesday Newsday: SPRANG

Good morning! Here’s a weekly dose of food news, recipes, and lolz.

Peroni @ Hot Italian last July - love this time of year leading into summer! 

News

Bay Area

People

Tumblr & Blogs

Food Lolz

Happy reading! xoxo

Week in Review: 4/1-4/7

Good morning! I’m enjoying the sunny weather in the Bay today. It feels like spring might actually be showing up, and with it my favorite season for veggies. New potatoes, avocados, peas, asparagus, lots of new tender greens - April and May are two of my favorite months for produce, simply because the abundance of locally-grown produce is a relief after the grey, rainy months of January and February. (March is an in-betweener, I guess.)

Right now, I’m loving homemade lemon-anchovy salad dressing, smoked salmon, La Brea french bread toast with Earth Balance, and blackberries (it’s too early for them but I cheated and bought some from Mexico, eek).

I’m also FREAKING OUT because this amazing cookbook will be in my mailbox tomorrow!! I have been super skeptical of Gwyneth Paltrow’s celebrity-cook image so far. And I’m still skeptical of a lot of her rave reviews of fad diets. But I flipped through the cookbook yesterday and was so inspired by the beauty of the book, the joy expressed in the photos, and the simplicity of the recipes (none of which include any cow milk products!) that I had to order it from Amazon immediately. I can’t wait until it arrives! It is exactly the kind of food I like to eat and make. I’m trying to reduce my dairy intake to make my tummy happier, and saving my dairy karma points for doing things like going on creamery and ranch tours with my dad ;)

Clockwise from top left:

  1. Monday I spent at San Pedro Market Bar hanging out with my coworkers and doing a pub quiz. This tri-tip sandwich from On a Roll was divine!
  2. OK, don’t laugh, but I think one of the best fish tacos I have ever had is the grilled tilapia taco with guac from Rubio’s. I know it’s a chain, but damn they make good fish tacos.
  3. Fruit plate - mmm spring/summer fruit.
  4. Chocolate tartufo cake from Rulli - happy birthday to my little cousin turning 4.

Clockwise from top left:

  1. Beer list at Stein’s Beer Garden in Mountain View. Yum!
  2. Spice rack at Monterey Market - my happy place.
  3. Red Russian kale salad with avocado & lemon anchovy dressing. So excited to learn how to use a new ingredient! (anchovies)
  4. Perfect light dinner - avocado toast with O&co sea salt (my go-to coarse salt for seasoning), fried egg, berries.

I’m really feeling the love for food this week, especially fresh, bright, colorful, and homemade foods. It’s a change from how unenthusiastic and sick I’ve been feeling and I LOVE IT!

What foods make you feel GREAT? Tell me on Facebook, I’d love to know.

Pub Quiz: San Pedro Market Bar, San Jose

I have never really done a pub quiz before (except at Sports Page and that doesn’t really count because we left halfway through) and was talked into it this week by my dear friend Liz. Liz is doing some work for Brainstormer and was substituting as Quizmaster this Monday night at the San Pedro Market Bar in San Jose. Some coworkers and I got together to go out and support Liz’s awesome quiz-hosting and music selection skills. It was definitely a very Bay Area experience, and it was awesome.


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The pros:

  • The food. San Pedro Market Bar is in a sort of gourmet food court down near the Shark Tank, and the whole space was surprisingly uncrowded for a game night. This was a tri-tip banh mi from On a Roll, and it was delicious.
  • The quiz! Super fun, not too difficult but definitely challenging.
  • Our quizmaster :) It was nice knowing the person who was running the quiz, although she definitely didn’t pad our score. What’s the deal?! :P
  • The space. Usually pub quizzes are super crowded and in dark, low-ceilinged, smelly bars - but the San Pedro Market Bar is in what looks like a converted firehouse, with tall ceilings, lots of light, and lots of space.
  • Delicious beers. We tried: Stone Pale Ale, Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’, and Boont Amber.

The cons:

  • Our group held our own but we would have done better with some folks from other generations :) This would be a great pub quiz for people to bring their parents and grandparents to see if they could donate some old-timey knowledge.
  • Easy to get a beer, and a great selection, but no pitchers available. Sad day.

All in all, I will definitely be back! Hopefully when Liz is hosting ;)

 

Do you like pub quizzes? What are your favorite pub beers?