These are teh cuuuutest sandwiches I’ve ever seen. The creators are hoping to publish a book showing you how to incorporate new foods into a child’s meal by distracting them from what they’re actually eating.
I dunno, I think I’d be a little afraid to eat winnie-the-pooh. That could lead to years of bad karma.
Filed under: cuuuuute, food · 0 Comments
We switched to Blue Bottle beans at work. Just look at this giant bag of Giant Steps!
Filed under: archive, bluebottle, coffee, food · 0 Comments
My friend michelangelo and his family are in New Zealand for two months. This is what’s for breakfast…
An ostrich egg apparently equals 30 chicken eggs!
Filed under: bobslobster, food · 0 Comments
TikiRobot is donating $100 to the SF Food Bank this winter. They feed 132,000 people every year, and this year their dry good supplies are down 15%. If you are in town over the holidays, they need volunteers.
Every time we get a check from Amazon for having their widget in our sidebar, we’re rounding it up to $100 and donating to a worthy cause.
cc by-nc picture by Veronica Belmont
Filed under: amazon, donation, food, san francisco · 1 Comment
No human or god can match Nature’s simultaneous 4 flavor revolution in 1 Earth plant.
Thyme Cube would make a great Halloween Costume, but no one would get it. I wouldn’t get it, because I am seasoned stupid.
Filed under: cuuuuube, food, timecube, wtf??? · 0 Comments
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: bernal, BernalingMan, food, san francisco, wine · 1 Comment
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, indian food, naan, pizza stone, video, zara · 3 Comments
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: diner, excursions, food, san francisco, silver crest, why are we here? · 3 Comments
(via)
Filed under: all talk, DavidSedaris, food, pizza, video · 0 Comments
Found while searching for something South Park related:
Filed under: chilis, food, video, wtf??? · 2 Comments
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: activated carbon, food, howto, san francisco, water filter · 1 Comment
I wish I could say I made these but I didn’t . A genius named “hello naomi” on flickr did!
Filed under: cupcakes pacman, food · 4 Comments
Filed under: Armour, chatlog, food, hotdogs, medicine, random crap i learned from obscure simpsons references · 2 Comments
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, mission, pies, snacktime · 0 Comments
A Thanksgiving Pie, made with the apples from our apple tree:
A Thanksgiving Prayer, by William S. Burroughs:
Filed under: food, old timers, pie, prayer, Thanksgiving, video, WilliamSBurroughs · 1 Comment
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: bollywood, food, india, pizza, video · 0 Comments
Jess and I went to the Samavor Tea Lounge at Yerba Buena Gardens a few weeks ago.. Here are some pictures!
Filed under: brunch, food, photos, samovar, san francisco, yerba buena · 1 Comment
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 :-)
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: bernal, food, san francisco · 2 Comments
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, coffee, food, tikibar · 0 Comments
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 ·
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