Category Archive: foodie

David’s visit from Illinois

Posted by Lisa On December 13th, 2009

Our good friend David (whose wife Erin I met while studying abroad in Nicaragua and she was one of my bridesmaids) came for a weekend visit from Rockford, Illinois and it was so great to see him! He flew into SFO late Friday night so we picked him up and spent some time catching up before hittin’ the hay.

On Saturday we dropped him off at the SF Conservatory of Music…David is a trumpet player and is going to start a Master’s program in the fall and one of the schools he’s applying to is the SF Conservatory; graduate applicants are given the opportunity for one free lesson with a professor so he took advantage of it and was able to visit us at the same time! 🙂 David was at the school pretty much all day so Kevin and I just hung out around the house and then late afternoon we headed over to our friend Maya’s apartment for some holiday cheer. We made holiday cookies (chocolate chip, gingerbread and peanut butter/chocolate cookies) and watched “The Santa Claus”. David joined us later for some Serrano’s pizza and to watch “Sleepaway Camp”, a horror movie (great holiday film, eh? haha)

On Sunday we did some sightseeing…the “poor man’s Lombard Street” , Potrero Hill’s Community Garden, Golden Gate Park, Haight/Ashbury, the Castro, the Presidio, and Golden Gate Bridge (Kevin and I are becoming pros at sightseeing! 🙂 ) We had lunch at Jay’s Cheesesteak in the Mission which has great sandwiches and a ton of vegetarian meat options. Then that evening we went to Cafe Divine in North Beach (delicious mochas!!) to see the SF Conservatory professor that David met with on Saturday perform with his jazz quartet, The Mario Guarneri Jazz Quartet. It was a fantastic show and I think David’s inspired us to become monthly regulars.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well with David’s regional auditions in January and that everything falls into place so that they can move out here to the Bay Area! 🙂

Potrero Hill Community Garden, a beautiful, quiet retreat in the middle of the city


The “Poor Man’s Lombard Street”…they say it’s more crooked than Lombard, and it’s nowhere near as crowded so it’s become our go-to when entertaining visitors 🙂

Proof that David was here, haha

The Mario Guarneri Jazz Quartet at Cafe Divine

Visitors, cookies and kitties!

Posted by Lisa On December 8th, 2009

Thursday 12/3

One of my friends from Redlands came up to visit! Megan was my roommate freshman and senior year and is now going to grad school in Kansas City, Missouri. She made a trip up here to visit her friend Cori and they made a day trip to SF so met me after work. We made our way to the Mission to eat at the Pi Bar (Megan was a Math major so when I found out they opened up that bar I sent her an e-mail about it so we planned to go there together when she came to visit. They’re known for their authentic NY-style pizza and although I’m not an expert I have to say that it was damn good! Just be forewarned…the large pizza is a laaaaaarge pizza! 😉 We then decided to make a stop at Anthony’s Cookies across the street for some delicious homemade cookies. The minute the door opens we were overcome with the smell of snicker doodles…delish! The cookies were warm and gooey and definitely hit the spot. Megan & Cori had to hit the road to make the long drive back to Cori’s place near Stanislaus so we said our farewell at the BART station. Their visit was definitely a great mid-week break!

Posing in front of the cable car

Megan in front of the Pi Bar

Saying our farewells at the BART station


Friday 12/4

The Student Government Association at the university I work for hosted a holiday party for students, staff and faculty so my co-worker Maya talked me into going and I’m glad I did! Kevin went as well as Maya’s friend Katie and we thoroughly enjoyed the free food and two free drinks at the 330 Ritch bar (don’t be fooled by the name, the bar is located at 360 Ritch Street…don’t ask). Maya and I were some of the only staff there so we enjoyed blending in with the PhD students. 🙂

Maya and Katie

Me and Kev

Saturday 12/5

Jessie and I set up a play date for Saturday morning since she had to work (she’s a nanny to four adorable boys) so me and Lola met them at Dolores Park for some play time. The boys were smitten with Lola and spent almost the whole time playing with her. I think we all won that morning–the boys got to play with a doggy, Jess got a bit of a break with work, and I got my “kid fix”! 🙂

Sloan being a good boy and eating his bananer

Brandt (L), Sawyer (M) and Colby (R)

Jess and Brandt

Sloan, the future ball player, throwing the ball (while Lola anxiously waits)

Before the train came we took advantage of the cool background…the boys are natural models!

After we dropped the boys off at their house me and Jess went to pick up Kevin and then we went to the SF SPCA to look for a kitty for Jess! She wasn’t really expecting to take one home that night but she fell in love with a little cutie so filled out the paperwork and within a few hours was the proud new mommy of a kitty! He’s a six month old bundle of joy and the name they gave him was Mars and I helped extend the name a bit to Marzipan (so Jess named Lola and I helped name her kitty!) He is a total cutie and has already brought a lot of happiness to Jessie’s life. 🙂

The proud mama bringing her baby home!

What a cutie!

Thanksgiving weekend

Posted by Lisa On December 1st, 2009

This year, Thanksgiving was filled with a few “firsts” for us–first time we haven’t spent Thanksgiving in Long Beach, first time hosting the gathering, first time talking with family via video chat…but although it was filled with very new experiences, we had a really great time.

Growing up, my family was extremely close with the Julian family (Diane, Dave, Matt & Brandon), so they decided to come to San Francisco and spend the holiday with us. Brandon arrived from Humboldt (where he’s earning his degree in Early Childhood Education, should be done this winter!) earlier than the rest of the gang so he stayed with us Tuesday night. Then on Wed., Dave, Diane and Matt arrived after the long drive from LA around 11:30 so we decided to get a bite to eat. Matt had seen Cali Pho Nia which I’ve blogged about previously and was craving Vietnamese so we all enjoyed a great lunch together. That afternoon we watched a family video of us kids (the two Julian boys and the three Delmar kids) putting on skits, showing off our Halloween candy loot, and dancing the Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show…awesome! The video definitely gave us some laughs, watching ourselves dancing away in our 80’s and 90’s clothes, haha.

Thanksgiving morning Diane woke up not feeling so hot 🙁 but she was a real trooper and came to our apartment early anyways to help cook! We popped open a bottle (or two) of champagne to help us get through the hours of cooking and enjoyed some amazing appetizers that Diane and Jessie provided…

Mid-morning Kevin and I had a nice time chatting with his family via his and his brother’s PlayStation 3 gaming systems (I guess they are good for something! haha) We’ve done it a few times before but it was really special doing it on a holiday when we weren’t able to be with them in person.

Brandon cuttin’ up the sweet potato fries while Jessie and Matt keep him entertained with their story-telling.
Jessie, Matt and me

Early in the afternoon my mom and Kevin surprised us with another video chat session, this time with my mom, my Aunt Tina, my Uncle Joey and Luke the family dog! 🙂 We had a great time talking with them with the video streaming, it felt like they were right in our living room with us!

Jessie and her friend Kimberly who joined us for the holiday
Kevin and Dave (and Lola) anxiously waiting for the food to be done
Entertaining ourselves as the turkey finished cooking, playing a game that Brandon told us about called “Pictionary Telephone” (so much fun!)

So what was on the menu, you ask? Well, let me show you!

Mmm, mmm, mmm! Part one of the amazing meal
I had to put a special picture of Kevin’s homemade dinner rolls (and not just pour-out-the-box-and-mix-with-water kinda homemade, I’m talking yeast-and-rolling-out-the-dough-and-letting-it-rise-overnight kinda homemade!

And to finish off the meal…plenty of desserts! Kevin and I were in charge of the desserts and Jessie’s friend Kimberly brought the berry pie for us to share as well. We made two pumpkin pies, capirotada (Mexican bread pudding) and a tiramisu trifle dessert…delicious!

The day after Thanksgiving, instead of spending our time standing in lines with the rest of the world, we spent a quiet morning at home and then met up with the Julians at the SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) which Kevin and I hadn’t made it to yet. We went specifically to see the Richard Avedon photography exhibit but enjoyed the other exhibits as well.

Trippy.
I don’t think Kevin was too impressed, probably thinking “I could’ve done that”, haha
Kevin wanted to call this one “Pucker Up, Buttercup” and I couldn’t agree more! haha
One of my favorite pieces about African-American novelists and literary figures

Now onto the main exhibit!

He had tons of amazing portraits of both famous and not-so-famous characters. Here are my favorites…

One of my favorites, Janis Joplin

Louis Armstrong (I’ve been listening to his music a lot lately)

Marilyn

The Beatles

Malcolm X

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963. I had researched this group for my senior thesis on black and white women’s experiences during the Civil Rights Movement (one of my favorite time periods in US History), so this was really exciting to see.

After spending a couple of hours in the museum we made our way to Union Square to get a bite to eat at a small Italian cafe before heading out to see the Christmas tree lighting. After 30 minutes of holiday songs by the boy’s choir, one of the American Idol losers, and some church chorus group they finally lit the tree to everyone’s enjoyment! Then the streets flooded with people wanting to get home and I’ve never seen it so packed. Even though I joke about the annoying show they put on before they lit the tree, it was a great way to get in the holiday spirit!

Diane and Matt
Matt, Brandon and Kevin
The tree

The Julians’ last night in the city we decided to introduce them to the wonderful world of Goood Frickin Chicken which Kevin and I frequent. As expected, the Julians loved the food there and we had a great last night together hanging out like old times.

We had a really great weekend spending time with family friends and now that we’ve got a taste for the holidays, the countdown to Christmas in Long Beach has officially started! We’ll be driving down either the 18th or 19th and can’t wait! 🙂

Updates

Posted by Lisa On November 15th, 2009

This past week has been pretty stressful for me at work because it was our university’s time for review by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Luckily they’re allowing us to continue to run a teacher credential program (thank bajeezus!) though we have a few things we need to improve on, luckily nothing in my role is affected by that. I also came down with a bit of bronchitis (fun!) though luckily it wasn’t as bad as I’ve had it before and thank goodness it wasn’t the dreaded swine flu!

Lately we’ve been laying low over the weekends and just hanging out at home with Lola. On Saturday we had Jessie and the LOST fan group come over to our place for our mini-marathon (four episodes). Then that night we decided to take the BART downtown to walk around Union Square. Last week they put the large Christmas tree up and also the ice skating rink so we went to check those out and then got some yummy ice cream (even though it was pretty chilly last night!)

Kevin and I both have really enjoyed moving up to SF where living green is not only a part of the general public’s consciousness already but it’s also integrated into the law (where plastic shopping bags are forbidden to be used in major grocery chains and composting was just made the law for residents and businesses in October). Every year Green Festivals are hosted in major cities across the U.S. and this year’s SF Green Fest was this weekend so Kevin and I spent a few hours there today. There were tons of booths with different organizations and companies that are committed to sustainable living and they had great free samples and handouts. There were food booths and demonstrations and speakers and a lot of great information was being shared. Our favorite part was learning about the home composting system called the Worm Factory which seemed like the easiest and quickest way to home compost we’d ever heard of before.

When we got back to our neighborhood we decided to stop off for a late lunch to one of our new favorite spots called Cali Pho Nia. They have got some of the best bun (vermicelli noodles with veggies, a choice of meat, and fish sauce) I’ve ever had (bun [pronounced ‘boon’] is my favorite Vietnamese noodle dish ever and their grilled beef is the absolute best we’ve ever had!)

Not much else is going on in our little world…next weekend we’re going to visit our friends Stacey, Jay, Isabella and Tasi (see previous blog post about visiting them here) and we’re looking forward to having some visitors during Thanksgiving which is going to be a lot of fun. So we might not have much to blog about for a bit but don’t fret I’ll be sure to update again when there’s something worth updating you all about!

Hope all is well with you!!

Here are some cute photos of Lola to bring a smile to your face! 🙂





My first birthday spent in SF

Posted by Lisa On October 28th, 2009

My 26th birthday was the first one while living in SF and I had a really wonderful day. I went to work that day and nothing terribly exciting happened at work. But when I got home there were some beautiful flowers on the kitchen counter that Kevin got me. 🙂 This went along with the iPod Touch that he got me the night before (thanks Kevi!!)

We met up with my sister that night and went to Yo Yo Sushi for dinner (yummmm!) It was very reasonably priced for a sushi bar in SF and the sushi was delicious!


Then we decided to top off the evening with some yummy crepes from Ti Couz (Jessie had taken us here a couple of times during the last few years when we’d come out to visit and it is fantastic!)
Kevin got a fruit-filled crepe, I got chocolate mousse (but he heard me wrong at first so got me a Nutella-filled crepe with bananas on top and when I told him that the order was wrong he gave me my chocolate mousse and let us keep the crepe!), and Jessie got a crepe flambe.


So are you drooling yet? 😉

I had so much fun spending my birthday with two of my favorite people in the whole world. Thank you two for celebrating with me! 🙂

Brianne & Brian’s visit (Oct. 3rd-5th)

Posted by Lisa On October 11th, 2009

Our really great friends Brian and Brianne came up to visit us Oct. 3rd-Oct. 5th and we had a blast! We gave them the whirlwind tour of the city and I think we did every touristy thing you could think of except for riding the cable car and the tour of Alcatraz. So here’s some photos of their visit!

After picking them up from SFO airport early on Saturday morning, we headed straight for breakfast. We ate at Just for You Cafe in the Dogpatch neighborhood and it definitely earned a thumbs-up from us (especially for their Beignets, a delicious New Orleans inspired fluffy donut covered in powdered sugar…mmm…)
After hanging out at our apartment for a bit and getting them acquainted with Lola, we hit the streets by bus for a true SF experience. We took the 44 bus for about 30 minutes all the way to Golden Gate Park and strolled through the park a bit. Then we jumped back on a bus that took us to the Golden Gate bridge.

Brian was pretty hungry that day!

After that we took the bus to the Fillmore Street Festival which we were pretty excited about but ended up being a bust. 🙁 The festival was only a block long and you had to pay for tickets to do wine tasting which didn’t sound extremely exciting to us at the time. So we hopped on another bus and went down to Union Square.They were a little too excited about the bus trip, haha

Me and Kevin in Union SquareThat weekend ended up being pretty popular in terms of visitors because my friends from Redlands, Sneha and Beka, ended up coming to visit that day as well! Sneha was in town for her mom’s birthday (she’s from San Jose and now lives in NYC) and Beka is now going to school at Stanford so is in the neighborhood. We met Sneha and Beka at the Cheesecake Factory at the top of the Macy’s building in Union Square and had a great lunch/dinner together.

Me, Sneha and Beka at the Cheesecake Factory!

After saying bye to Sne and Beka, we hopped on another bus to head back home. We had a pretty quiet night because of all of our walking that day and we knew we’d have another busybusy day in store for us on Sunday!

Sunday morning we piled into the car (enough buses for the weekend!) and went to Fisherman’s Wharf. Our landlord has a friend who works at a parking lot near Pier 39 so was able to get us in for free!

Brian and Brianne ordering up their lunch

Chow time! We had fried calamari (mmm), crab chowder (mmm), fried shrimp (mmm) and garlic fries (mmm)…talk about a healthy lunch!

After lunch we stumbled upon the Musee Mecanique antique coin-operated arcade at Pier 39. From the outside, it didn’t look like much but it ended up being really entertaining!

Brianne getting her fortune told by granny

One of the many creepy figures they had there

You’ll just have to ask Kevin personally what he saw (or go there and pay a quarter to see for yourself!)

They had some of the funniest little arcade machines and we spent a ton in quarters watching them do their thing. Here’s one, the Thimble Theater, that I couldn’t resist putting my quarter in (watch the video):

And Kevin decided to go up against one of the funniest ones there (it’s a video too, so give it a look!):

The last thing we did at the arcade was take a group photo in the old photo booth they had there:

After spending a roll of quarters (not really) at the arcade, we headed out to Ghirardelli Square.





We were pretty exhausted by then, so we headed back home and relaxed for a bit. Then we decided to go to dinner at Goood Frikin Chicken (one of our favorite spots in SF so far!) and Brianne and Brian were definitely impressed! 🙂 Then we went to meet up with one of my co-workers for a weekly trivia night that she and her friends attend at Noe’s Bar. We celebrated into the late hours of the night as it approached Brianne’s birthday, so we had a few drinks to commemorate her entrance into her 25th year! 🙂

On Monday I took the day off and we did some more sight-seeing. Our first stop was Haight Ashbury and though it was pretty quiet on a Monday mid-morning, there were still some sights to be had!


We were so happy that B&B came up to visit us and we can’t wait until they visit again! 🙂

Taking a pit stop in the Presidio to get a look at the Bay

Sarah & Rob’s visit (Sept. 25th-27th)

Posted by Lisa On October 11th, 2009

Kevin’s sister Sarah and her boyfriend Rob came up to visit Fri. 9/25-Sun. 9/27. They drove up Friday night and after hanging out a bit we went out to dinner to Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack (a delicious and fun Italian-inspired restaurant whose menu changes occasionally so you can never get tired of their food and it has a great atmosphere that even includes a DJ on the weekends).

On Saturday I unfortunately had to work from 8:30am-2pm in Oakland so Kevin took them sight-seeing and then I met up with them near Golden Gate Park and we headed out to the Golden Gate Bridge to check out the sights. We made a pit stop to Bi-Rite Ice Cream Shop (a MUST for anyone visiting SF!) and enjoyed some honey lavender, raspberry white chocolate swirl, salted caramel, balsamic strawberry, and mint ‘n chip ice cream (are you hungry yet??). Mostly we just drove around the city and it was nice for Kevin and I to be tourists for a change. 🙂 Saturday night we were fortunate enough to be wined and dined by Sarah and Rob who made us a delicious dinner. And then Kevin and I surprised Sarah with some yummy strawberry cupcakes for her birthday.


On Sunday we went to our trusted brunch spot, Zazie, and I think we made two more fans outta them. 🙂 They had to leave that afternoon to drive back down to Southern California so we didn’t have a ton of time to spend with them that day. Overall it was a really great visit from them and we were so happy that they came up to visit!

A true SF Foodie

Posted by Lisa On September 4th, 2009

So I think most people who know me know that I love food. One of the most exciting things for me when we were talking about moving up here was all of the great opportunities I’d have to enjoy some of the amazing eateries in the city. I wanted to have some blog posts about some of the great places that we’ve dined at so that we could share what great places to eat there are here for any visitors who are interested in trying out something other than a chain restaurant. If you click on the Label toward the bottom of this post that says “foodie”, it will display all of the posts that have that label. Bon appetit!

Balompie #3
In Bernal Heights
Some of the best pupusas (an El Salvadorian delicacy!) we have EVER had! They’re about $2-3 each and are flat masa filled with cheese, meat, veggies, etc. Right off the grill with their salsa and cabbage…mmmm!! We found out that it’s only 1 1/2 miles from our apartment, so a walk there is definitely in store in the near future!

Goat Hill Pizza
In Portrero Hill
This is one of Jessie’s favorite pizza places and we were not disappointed! The three of us shared a large Mediterranean pizza and it was perfect. On Monday nights they have all-you-can-eat pizza and salad so guess where we’re going next Monday?? 🙂

San Francisco Meats & Delicatessen
In Ingleside
We happened upon this cute little sandwich shop this afternoon and are so happy we did! Kevin had a roast beef sandwich (he’s pretty predictable when we go get a sandwich) and I got a chicken salad sandwich. We loved them so much we got a frequent buyer card and can’t wait for our free 13th sandwich! 🙂 Next time we’re going to go for one of their daily specials: Spicy Maui chicken, Murph’s meatballs, Beef Brisket…how could you resist??

Visit from Aunt Kathy

Posted by Lisa On September 4th, 2009

August 23rd
I was so happy to hear that my Aunt Kathy (my dad’s sister) had planned a trip to SF and wanted to spend some time with us! We went to our new favorite brunch place Zazie(yes, the same place we went with Kevin’s parents!) and had a delicious breakfast. Then we went back to our apartment so that she could meet Lola and of course Lola immediately sensed that she was a doggy person. 🙂 Though the visit was only for half a day, it was so great spending some time with Aunt Kathy and having her see our new life up in SF!

North Beach & Chinatown

Posted by Lisa On July 20th, 2009

On Fridays I get to leave the office early (awesome!!) so Kevin took the bus and met me at work so we could do some exploring out that way. We took a few minute bus ride out to North Beach (it’s reminiscent of Little Italy in NY) and Chinatown.


The sights of North Beach…this is part of my favorite mural that I see everyday on the bus going into work

We ate at the Original US Italian restaurant (weird name but good food!) but were too full to enjoy some Italian pastries unfortunately! We then visited City Light Books, an amazing independent book store

Having spent a good amount of time in Chinatown in LA there wasn’t too much to look at
at SF’s Chinatown, but it’s nice to say we’ve been there!

Afterwards we met up with my sister Jessie at one of her favorite spots called Cafe Gratitude. It’s a raw food restaurant and if you were to think of a stereotypical San Francisco restaurant this would be it! To give you an idea of what I mean, all of the menu items start with “I am…”, so a salad you get could be “I am lovely” and your drink could be “I am sunshine”…then when the server hands it to you she’ll say “You are lovely” or “You are sunshine”. It’s definitely an experience! The food is so delicious (as you can see from the pictures) and you really do leave feeling good (which is a great sign for a restaurant!) We’ll definitely be going again!

L: Jessie waiting outside the cafe for us, R: Slurping down her “I am Eternally Youthful” drink (almond milk)


L: Jessie’s “I am Whole” with kale, quinoa, etc., R: My “I am Lovely” a seasonal fruit cobbler

T: “What are you grateful for?” is painted on each plate, B: I really like their sign (though I can’t take credit for this great photo, this comes from their website!)
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