A few weeks ago, we hosted wine tasting at our house.
50 bottles of wine were consumed.
This is the only picture I took:

Filed under: food, san francisco | 1 Comment
Tagged: bernal , BernalingMan , wine

We made some FAIL mugs:

You might be able to order your own here.

Filed under: food | 1 Comment
Tagged: coffee , fail , mug

We don’t have a tandoor, so when we have a craving for fresh-baked naan, we have to improvise. Here is some video showing how we made naan using a pizza stone in our regular oven.

(click play to start) (link to other sizes)

The next step is to build a tandoor in the backyard.

Filed under: food, video, zara | 3 Comments
Tagged: indian food , naan , pizza stone

The Silver Crest is so sketchy. It’s like Sketch Central. I’ve lived next to it for six years and had never been inside. But look at all that great neon! Their sign proclaims: “We Never Close”. We decide we have to go.

Friday night Sam was driving us back from the spaz party at the Li Po Lounge, and we pass the Silver Crest. We’re full of Mai Tais and thumpy beats, but Bob and I have the same thought. We have to go.

We walk in and transported fifty years into the past. There is a bar in the back with a crowded pool table, but it’s 2am and the bar is just closing. We grab a booth in the front. These jukebox things on every table:

It doesn’t work and and eats Bob’s quarter. That probably for the best, since the jukebox is full of with Greek waltzes.

The menu is written on the wall. The food isn’t cheap, but we hope it’s good. The coffee is a ridiculous $2.75. Even for diner coffee, it tastes like crap.

They have these old pinball machines, which mang decides to check out while we wait for the food. There is a sign saying you have to be over 21 to play. We ask the server why, and she says they don’t want to encourage the kids to gamble. Whatever. The kids are all at Li Po, anyway, playing dice for drinks.

The food comes out. I’m surprised by how bad it is, but I don’t know why. I guess I expect shitty diners to have great food. That is not the case tonight. My hotcakes arrive with an entire stick of “butter” on top, which promptly slides off onto the table as soon as the server sets them down.

I’m disgusted but Bob thinks we need to come back. The Silver Crest has donuts, and they might actually be good. Maybe we’ll bring our own coffee next time.

Filed under: excursions, food, san francisco, why are we here? | 3 Comments
Tagged: diner , silver crest

(via)

Filed under: all talk, food, video | 0 Comments
Tagged: DavidSedaris , pizza

Found while searching for something South Park related:

Filed under: food, video | 2 Comments
Tagged: chilis , wtf???

Background
Our water has gunk in it (possibly due to this construction). This gunk gets caught in our kitchen faucet’s aerator, and if we don’t clean it out, the water flow will stop completely. Here is what the gunk looks like:

So we decided it was time to install a water filter. The easiest way to filter drinking water is to use a Britta and Pur pitcher, but these don’t work for me. I use them for a bit, and then get tired of changing the expensive replacement filters every month.

The water filter industry has a standard size for under-sink adsorption filters: 9 3/4″. These filters are similar to but much larger than the standard Britta pitcher-style filter, and they only need to be changed every 4-12 months (depending on filter type). You can buy 9 3/4″ filters from several different manufacturers, which helps keep the prices down.

Choosing a Filter

Deciding what kind of filter you need should be easy. In theory, you can call your water utility (or check their website), find out what contaminants are in your water, and then check which filters are certified by the NSF to filter out those contaminants.

I did a bunch of research and found that SF tap water is generally safe to drink. It is disinfected with Chloramine and contains trace amounts of parasites, copper, and lead. The SF PUC monitors Cryptosporidium and Giardia levels every two weeks, and their 2006 Water Quality Report (published 6/07 PDF) shows that all measurable contaminants are below maximum contaminant levels.

Even after finding that SF water is safe for us to drink, I decided to get an activated carbon filter in addition to a sediment filter, because I’m worried that chemicals might enter into the water main during construction, just as visible sediment enters into the water main. Also, I decided that activated carbon was really cool (one gram has a surface area of 500 m² - 1500 m²)!

Choosing a 9 3/4″ Filter Housing

My first thought was to get an OmniFilter OT32 for $140. This unit has a double housing that can fit 2 9 3/4″ filters, and it comes with a string-wound sediment filter and an NSF-certified 0.5-micron enhanced carbon block filter.

After some digging, I found I get a cheaper 2-filter housing from Pentek Filtration. I bought a BFS-201 housing (PDF) from FiltersFast for $57. It’s seems well-built and looks like this:

Installing the Filter Housing

The recommended way of using under-sink filters is to install a second, low-flow-rate faucet to get the maximum effect from your filter. I didn’t want to do this, because I didn’t want to drill a new hole through our granite countertop, so I investigated splicing the filter into our cold water line.

If we only wanted to filter sediment, we could easily add the filter to cold water line, because sediment filters can handle 10 gallons per minute, and our faucet only had a 2gpm flow rate.

Unfortunately, activated carbon filters only work at reduced flow rates. If you only want to filter for what the NSF calls “Aesthetic Effects” (Standard 42), then you can buy a carbon filter that works at 2gpm. But if you want to filter for things like lead, mercury, VOCs, asbestos, MTBEs, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia (what the NSF calls “Health Effects”, or Standard 53), then you have to reduce to the flow rate to 0.5-0.6 gpm.

We decided that it was OK to reduce the flow rate of the cold water at the faucet, since we will still have the full hot water flow rate for washing, and the dishwasher cold supply is already split off. This means we don’t need to drill for a new faucet.

The Pentek filter housing has two 3/8″ female NPT water connections. Our cold water line has a 1/2″ IP straight thread on the faucet side and a 3/8″ compression fitting on the other. To splice the housing into the cold water line, we need to add two 3/8″ NPT to 3/8″ compression adapters to the filter housing, using teflon tape to ensure a good seal:

Choosing a Sediment Filter
Now comes the fun part! We get to choose some filters. Since these are a standard size, we can choose from a bunch of brands, and mix-and-match. Sediment filters are very inexpensive. They are usually made of wound string, last for 10-15,000 gallons, and cost under five bucks. I got the Pentek CW-MF from FiltersFast for $3.30. Looking at the spec sheet, I should have gotten the WP-5 for $5.60, since it has a 5 micron rating instead of a 30 micron rating. It might not matter, since the water will be flowing through a carbon filter anyway. This filter is mostly to lengthen the life of the carbon filter.

Choosing an Activated Carbon Filter
The OmniFilter CB3 seems pretty good. It costs $36 dollars and has NSF Standard 42 and Standard 53 ratings to reduce Asbestos, Atrazine, Cyst, Lead, Lindane, Mercury, and VOCs, as well as Chloramine and Chlorine.

I found Pentek CBR2-10R, which is basically the same thing as the OmniFilter CB3, but it lacks the NSF Standard 53 rating. However, it costs only $17 at FiltersFast, and I decided it was good enough for me. It also has a built-in 0.6gpm flow restrictor, which makes sure you get the full effect of the filter.

After installing everything, this is how it looks:

The water definitely tastes different; it has a slightly-metallic aftertaste, similar to distilled water. I’m interested to see how much stuff the sediment filter catches after 3 months.

Costs
This is my bill from FiltersFast:

Filter Housing BFS0-201 $56.99
Carbon Filter CBR2-10R $16.95
Sediment Filter CW-MF $3.30
Filter wrench SW-1a $2.70
Shipping $1.99
retailmenot.com coupon -$5.00
Total $76.93

I also had to buy two 3/8″ compression to 3/8″ MPT adapaters for $4.79 and a couple hoses from Cole Hardware, bringing the total up to a hundred bucks.

Filed under: food, san francisco | 0 Comments
Tagged: activated carbon , howto , water filter

pacman cupcakes, originally uploaded by hello naomi.

I wish I could say I made these but I didn’t . A genius named “hello naomi” on flickr did!

Filed under: food | 4 Comments
Tagged: cupcakes pacman

hi

the simpsons were singing the jingle for “armour hotdogs”

so i read the wikipedia entry for armour hotdogs

apparently the armour meatpacking company was one of those truly evil companies that you just can’t get today what with labor laws and such

they even sold 500K pounds of tainted meat to the army and gave food poisoning to soldiers during the spanish american war

that is some pre-halliburton war contract profiteering!

it was a family business of the armour brothers from chicago

they were the real hot dog kings of chicago!

it gets weirder

with you, it always does

they made lots of stuff as meat and animal byproducts

like dial soap!

then their profits went down

and the company was bought by greyhound bus co.

which is actually a canadian company

wtf

the name was changed to the dial corporation

then it was sold to some german food conglomerate

the song the simpsons were singing is the actual jingle that was apparently very popular

Hotdogs, Armour hotdogs.
What kinds of kids eat Armour hot dogs?
Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks.
Tough kids, sissy kids
Even kids with chicken pox
Love hotdogs, Armour hot dogs
The dogs kids love to bite!

there is another armour reference in the simpsons where principal skinner is wearing a bunch of hotdogs to look like a guy with bombs strapped to him

and chief wiggum says “what kind of man wears armour hot dogs?”

and that is all i know about armour hot dogs.

what is up with u?

oh wait, one last thing about armour hot dogs!

some really old patients i saw in KC took a thyroid replacement called “armour thyroid”

its not used anymore because the dosing is unreliable

it comes from pig thryoids

i never made a connection between it and the hot dogs, but there you go! one more weird thing about hot dogs.

Filed under: food, medicine | 2 Comments
Tagged: Armour , chatlog , hotdogs , random crap i learned from obscure simpsons references

A place devoted just to pie! They’ve been around for a year on 25th and Mission but I never knew. I came across it on my way home the other day so I stopped in and had a slice of banana cream pie. It was yummy! Creamy but not too heavy or sweet with small banana chunks. Also, what’s really neat about this place is that the proceeds from the shop support a farm in Pescadero which in turn supplies the ingredients for the pies…and the teenagers who work behind the counter also work at the farm once a month to grow the ingredients and help make the pies. It’s an inspiring project!

Filed under: bay area, food | 0 Comments
Tagged: mission , pies , snacktime

A Thanksgiving Pie, made with the apples from our apple tree:

A Thanksgiving Prayer, by William S. Burroughs:

Filed under: food, old timers, video | 1 Comment
Tagged: pie , prayer , Thanksgiving , WilliamSBurroughs

This video is from a Pizza Hut. Can you imagine what Zante’s would be like in India???

Via this Mefi post, which links to lots of other dancing pizza videos!

Filed under: food, video | 0 Comments
Tagged: bollywood , india , pizza

Jess and I went to the Samavor Tea Lounge at Yerba Buena Gardens a few weeks ago.. Here are some pictures!

Filed under: food, photos, san francisco | 1 Comment
Tagged: brunch , samovar , yerba buena

Last night I had dinner at Estampas Peruanas, which is my favorite place in the Bay Area to get peruvian food, even though it means driving all the way to Redwood City to get there. It’s not a fancy place - the restaurant sits on a block that includes a XXX porn shop, a smoke shop, a liquor store, sad and empty looking dive bars, a tacky lingerie shop, and a really big costume shop…kind of like a slice of the Mission minus the scene. But the food is awesome. I had the Picante de Mariscos which is a plate of seafood (fish, octopus, squid, and giant shrimp with their heads still on) in a chile tomato sauce on rice and it was great. I’ve also had the lomo saltado before (grilled steak, tomatoes, onions and french fries on rice) which I highly recommend. yum.

Filed under: bay area, food | 3 Comments

I know East Germany doesn’t usually bring to mind images of tasty cuisine, so I’m happy to say that the food at Walzwerk is uneqivocally tasty. It’s one of my favorite restaurants and I was reminded a couple nights ago how much I like it. That’s saying something since I’m not a meat-and-potatoes kind of person and well, you’ll find a lot of meat and potatoes on the menu. But all SO good. Recommended - the chicken breast stuffed with apples, bacon & sundried cherry sauce, potato pancakes, the garlic roast pork, the mashed potatoes (make sure you get mashed potatoes!!!) and the apple strudel. yum! The restaurant is in a pretty small, laid-back space and there’s also a room in the back you can reserve for large groups. I had a birthday dinner here a couple years ago and it was great.

Filed under: food, san francisco | 0 Comments

So, I don’t think there’s really anything weird about this restaurant, but I can tell you that it’s quickly become one of my favorites. This place specializes in all things deep fried! but also has plenty on the menu that’s not deep fried for the health-inclined.

I had dinner there last night and boy did it hit the spot. We ate deep fried oysters, deep fried green beans, calamari, jamaican catfish and then a chocolate torte for dessert. Pretty much all of my food cravings were satisfied :-)

Here’s a link to their menu!

Filed under: food, san francisco | 0 Comments

We had dinner at one of our favorite Bernal Heights restaurants a couple weeks ago… can you guess where?

Filed under: food, san francisco | 2 Comments
Tagged: bernal

At the Can’t Fail Cafe in Emeryville there’s a super yummy milkshake made with guinness stout, chocolate ice cream, and espresso. I think they gave it the perfect name.

Filed under: bay area, food, tikibar | 0 Comments
Tagged: coffee

A couple people have asked me where I got the cupcake caddy that I brought to brunch yesterday, so here it is. The Oneida 24-count Cupcake Carrying Case.

I got it because I wanted a way to transport cupcakes on my bike rack and with this, I can cart up to 24

Filed under: food | 0 Comments

I forgot to post about the mystery package that I got labeled FRAGILE LIKE EGGS…

A lifetime supply of biscotti… each one broken into at least two pieces!

Filed under: food | 0 Comments

Our neighbors dug a hole in their back yard, and um… roasted a pig in it. I didn’t realize “pig in a blanket” meant acutally wrapping a dead pig in a blanket and then throwing it in a hole in the ground along with some coals and rocks! I brought over a couple pitchers of mai tais, which didn’t last too long!

Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.

photo linky!

Filed under: food, san francisco, tiki lifestyle | 0 Comments
Tagged: bernal

Bob was in town for my B-day, and Tyrone’s band SABRETEETH happened to be playing at El Rincon, so we went out for birthday drinkies.. May and Peliom surprised me with CUPKAKES!!!, which we ate in the back of the truck, due to an extremely loud opening band.. photo linky!

Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.

Filed under: beats, food, old timers, photos | 0 Comments

As noted a few weeks ago I went to an awesome seminar by Dr Clyde Wilson about nutrition for endurance athletes. Though I’m not much of an endurance athlete myself, I found this material pretty useful for day to day life. I’m typing up my three pages of notes so I can recycle the paper.

Energy Storage. We can store:

• about 2,000 Calories in our muscles. Muscles can absorb only glucose sugar. Maltodextrin is broken down to glucose in our saliva and is the only sugar form that can go directly to muscle.
• about 500 Calories in the liver. Liver breaks down larger sugars like fructose into glucose.
• about 200 Calories in our blood/circulatory system. Blood sugar is down to about 80% after waking up in the morning.

Burning Fuel

• Before training, stock muscle with Calories
• Muscle can burn up to 1,000 Cal/hour (intense running) but can only absorb 250 Cal/hour
• Proper hydration is critical for digestion and converting glucose into energy. Sugars need to be surrounded by layers of H20 molecules.
• The rate at which fuel enters the body is critical. Even eating the proper foods, if it is eaten all at one sitting in a day whatever cannot be converted to glucose immediately will go into fat storage.
• Body burns fat at 1/3 the rate for sugars: up to 4 Cal/minute from fat
• Compare with 10 Cal/minute for maltodextrin (direct to muscle) + sucrose (liver, then parallel delivery)
• Taking in Calories too fast will cause upset stomach.
• 250 Cal/hour works out to 4 Cal/minute. Consuming 40 Cal and then waiting 10 minutes is close enough.
• Every 1% of dehydration is a 5% decrease in performance.
• 50% of glycogen is gone from muscle after a workout

For Peak Performance

• stable blood sugar (no spikes, corresponding insulin spike will put you to sleep)
• stable fatty acid levels
• muscles fully stocked with glycogen

General diet

• We must eat protein, body can’t make it (doesn’t have to be meat though)
• Only need to eat protein 1-2x per day
• Caloric absorbtion rate: excess Calories are directed to abdominal fat (vs. subcutaneous).
• monounsaturated fats send 20% more Calories to muscle (vs saturated?)
• Fiber helps slow down digestion, this is the key to rate-limiting Caloric intake
• Spiking blood sugar -> Insulin rises to suck blood sugar out of bloodstream
• consume unsaturated fats
• consume (moderate amounts of) protein
• eat whole grain starches -> direct to muscle
• eat fruits + vegetables -> liver, then muscle
• 1/3 of Calories should come from (mostly unsaturated) fats
• dried fruit is better than nothing, but take advantage of fresh fruit whenever possible
• cook vegetables a bit to soften cellulose etc, but just a bit they should still be crunchy
• bananas are great in the AM, but get small ones or eat only half (see insulin, above)
• primary ingredient in a sports drink should be maltodextrin
• optimum is 3:2 ratio of maltodextrin to sucrose

Post Workout

• Best to take in Calories within 15 minutes after exercise
• recovery window is very important
• It takes a lot of water to digest food
• We need 1 Liter of water for 1,000 Calories
• We sweat 0.5 - 2.0 Liters / hour when training
• Need about 1/4 teaspoon salt per Liter of water
• sleep is very poor if you are dehydrated (neurons)
• Omega-3 fats, highest concentration is at synapse
• get your DRI for Omega-3 (1.5 grams/day), limiting factor for recover is the nervous system
• breakfast should have as much fiber as sugar (grams)

phew! Ideally our dietary economy and/or my cell phone would keep track of all of this stuff for me. Until then, I find Clyde’s tip sheets to be extremely helpful. Using them enables me to get relatively close to the above without thinking too much.

Link to Dr Clyde Wilson’s Blog
Link to Dr Clyde Wilson’s website (check the downloads)

Filed under: cycling, food, science | 1 Comment

Rajbot recently sent out an email asking for suggestions on good brunch places that can easily accomodate 10+ people so I’m going to list some places here.

• Pomelo (on 30th and Church) is my very favorite place to get brunch in SF. Seating 10+ people inside might get a little tight but there’s sidewalk seating that can accomdate 10 and it’s hardly ever taken. My favorites on the menu are the eastlake (smoked trout and red potato hash w/ wild rice and horseradish cream, two poached eggs and toast) and the makena (banana stuffed brioche french toast w/ roasted macademia and warm coconut syrup). It’s the best way to start the day! (although I frequently need to take a nap after eating here)
• Samovar Tea Lounge in the Castro has an eclectic menu and a table that can accomodate 10 as well as a back room for large groups. It’s also a great place to get loose leaf teas and I go pretty regularly to stock up on their Lichee black tea.
• Dim sum is a logical choice for seating 10+ people for brunch since most chinese restaurants have big round tables meant to accommodate large extended families. Unfortunately the best dim sum places tend to be further from home in the sunset, the richmond, or on the peninsula and can be pretty crowded and chaotic. But dim sum is yummy and well worth the trip I think. My favorite places are Fook Yuen in Millbrae and Hong Kong Flower Lounge, also in Millbrae. Koi Palace in Daly City is known for having some of the best dim sum in the bay area but it’s a mad house if you get there after 10. Not really closer to home, but still in the city is South Seafood Village in the Sunset which I also really like. I haven’t been to any other dim sum places in the sunset but we should probably explore some that are closer to us!

Anyways, I’m sure there are lots of other places that I’m not thinking of right now…feel free to add to the list!

Filed under: bay area, food | 3 Comments

I saw an awesome pickup truck this morning … sorry, no picture. But it was an old school pickup, teal colored with “Tiki Go Go” in fabulous Tiki fonts. It turns out to be Chef Kelley Hawks. The food looks super good, but at $350/person for 5 entrees, I think I’m going to stick with almond butter on a whole wheat english muffin. “A thoughtful gift for new parents or newlyweds” … Neither of those are on the horizon but feel free to buy it for me anyway!

Filed under: bay area, food, tiki lifestyle | 2 Comments
Tagged: family