sorry

I didn't stay up late to watch Will's and Kate's royal wedding, I didn't Tivo or DVR anything, and I almost forgot to look up pictures of the dress (fantastic choice, by the way!) I haven't really caught the British fever but I can only speak for myself.

snapped on Geary Boulevard at Hyde Street

he (or she?) is a fan!

Nevertheless, congratulations to the happy couple!

la comida peruana

last month I was in Peru for a friend's wedding. But if you had seen me in action, you'd think I was just there to eat. I've done a bit of traveling and I must say that the spices and flavors and techniques that characterize Peruvian cooking make for a delectably rich gastronomical experience. It is HELLA GOOD.


So woe is me when I have to leave the land of potatoes and pollo a la brasa and purple corn. Without my new Peruvian mom around, who will make me lomo saltado? And why can't anybody in the City make a decent ceviche?


Fellow eaters, there is hope: a year or so ago, my friend Cabbage and I stumbled across Limón Rotisserie on South Van Ness Avenue at 21st Street. This place serves up the best representation of what a proper pollo a la brasa in Peru is like, complete with the 3 aji sauces. And this is one place we can't help returning to.

L: Half a rotisserie chicken.
R: "Lomito" saltado.

And talk about sweet victory! Cabbage is not a fan of seafood but she'll try anything I shove in her face at least once. Turns out she's in love with the fantastic ceviche here, too!

L: Ceviche mixto (white fish, calamari, & shrimp) in the maginificent "Tiger Milk... could not stop rawring that night!
R: Ensalata Rusa.
Top: the 3 aji sauces

In true Peruvian style, everything here is finished with a squeeze of limón (lime - no lemons here. This ain't Red Lobster!) Along with a glass of Cristal (one of the most popular beers in Peru and a favorite of Cabbage's) and a bottle of chicha morada (juice of purple corn... Limón bottles their own brew,) ¡fue una cena magnífica!

las bebidas

One notable omission is papas amarillas, the super-rich yellow potatoes that accompany every good pollo a la brasa. At Limón Rotisserie, we prefer tacu-tacu, rice and beans rolled into a dumpling that is breaded and lightly fried. Of course, they were promptly eaten before the pictures were snapped.


If you plan on going for dinner, make reservations because this place is poppin' like a cornfield in July. And fair warning: the portions have shrunk a bit since my last visit to Limón Rotisserie in February. But all in all, I never have a bad meal here... friendly service + great food = happy times!

grandpa's in town

so it's time to dress like a lady, brush off anything he ever bought me, and dine at his favorite restaurant!

South Sea Seafood Village on Irving

As the name suggests, the seafood is particularly good here. The menus for parties of 6-8 usually include a steamed fish, lobster, and some pretty fancy Peking duck. The owners here love my grandpa and littlest sister because we always get extra desserts. Today's selection got a mini-makeover:

sweet rice dumpling with a black sesame center... now on a seashell plate!

Unapologetically, I cannot vouch for the thriftiness of this restaurant. I only go here with Grandpa, and Grandpa always pays.

lines on a sphere

Daylight Savings Time... is it really necessary to have the sun set at 7:30 PM on an April evening? For the most part, no. I always feel like I'm losing an hour in the springtime but it never feels like I get anything back in the fall. Most of the world does not participate, though it looks like we have more time-challenged friends than I thought.

And then there are days when DST works in your favor, or rather, Q-tip's favor. Time for a walk!

it's windy on Ocean Beach!

windier than it looks

did you know that Noriega street is just about lined up with Sutro Tower?

.

fierce parade!

Congratulations to Raja! So happy to see that there's more - a little more - than the fierce runway walk and monotonous and androgynous voice.

Lots of hilarious moments this season - lots of hale-lu, Heathers, red velvet cake, crazy Carmen Carrera, and anything Yara Sofia said. Of course I LOVE Alexis Mateo's PSA - the origins of Bam!

But the highlight of each season's finale is always Ryan Heffington dropping by to choreograph the music video.

a peculiar genius
image courtesy of google image search

.

whoopie!

finally got my hands on some confectioner's sugar so I could make whoopie pies!

the oatmeal whoopie cookie-cakes

the blueberry buttercream filling - my first time making it!

oatmeal-blueberry whoopie pies!

Whoopie!

it's ham-mer time

Nothing says Easter like eating ham (I'm not sure why.) So I grabbed my little dog and told him "we're off to grandma's," grandma being my mom. Hey, she said it first!

my mom wasted no time feeding my skinny little Q-tip some bread and butter :/

her powers have worked on Johnny Cat, who is no longer as slim as the kitty litter mascot that bears his name

Veterinary health aside, it's always fun spending time with my mom. Our get-togethers typically include a bit of cleaning, a lot of hilarious and honest conversation, and about forty minutes of watching silly videos of animals and children online. Today we even took Q-tip for a short walk in Sutro Park!

Sutro Park offers the best view of the Great Highway and the northern end of Ocean Beach

Q-tip takes in the fresh air

it's pretty quiet at the beach for such a sunny day

But of course, nothing tops my mom's cooking. Feast your eyes on our luncheon, starring rosemary-glazed ham!

our smorgasboard

nom!

Happy Easter everybody!

sometimes even a city girl gets outta town

today I went all the way to Berkeley to visit my BFF Cabbage. That's right, all the way across the city, across the Bay Bridge, across a bit of freeway where the cars never go above 40MPH, and across congested University Avenue. ALL THE WAY!

The occasion: to dine on chicken and waffles at 900 Grayson, as suggested by Manny...

not much else goin' on in the neighborhood...

Demon Lover (spicy fried chicken with a waffle)

I got mine with maple syrup

Cabbage chose old-fashioned cream gravy (tasted like cream of mushroom)

This chicken was crispy, a little crunchy, and spiced very well... brunch at 1PM was downright scrumptious! Wish they had a place in SF - they'd give Little Skillet a run for their deep-fried money - but I don't mind making the trek out to Berkeley to get a different style of fried chicken.

Lucky us, there was a most interesting vehicle of sorts on display just down the street today:

road trip!

Gosh, almost missed the VW on top of your bus because I was distracted by the solar panel attached to the roof of your ride!

For dinner, Cabbage said I had to try the pizza from The Cheese Board. Didn't need much convincing because once we got within thirty feet of the place all I could smell was melted cheese! Gaze upon the gastronomic gorgeousness!

special for Saturday 4/23/11: roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, gruyere, mozzarella, fresh herbs, & rosemary oil

let me count the ways I love this Cheese Board place:

1. potatoes on pizza! I like the way they think!
2. they only serve one super special each day and nothing else! Just how I'd like to run a restaurant: eat my culinary creations or leave!
3. because they only serve one pizza, you get your pizza fast. As in I paid the darling lady at the register and a man handed me the pizza in a box. Right away.
4. a whole pizza is just $20 (plus tax) and it comes with an extra slice... sort of like a baker's dozen
5. did I mention the whole place smells like cheese?

The only drawback is that the folks at The Cheese Board only serve vegetarian pizzas. However, given the lip-smacking tastiness of today's special, I don't think you'll miss the meat.

All in all, today's food adventures were well worth the risk frizzing up my hair in the drizzle.

bam!

Started off yesterday with an entertaining first date lunch at a ho-hum seafood place... sorry Playa Azul on Mission, but it's hard to top Peruvian-style ceviche. Though I will say that the shrimp and octopus cocktails come in HUGE goblets and you will not leave hungry, just not blown away. Not really worth a photo, but I was also on a date and thought it might be rude/awkward/peculiar to whip out a camera and snap the food but not my date.

The drinks also come in large goblets... I thought my date had ordered a generous portion of mango juice but it was spiked with rum... sneaky sneaky, and at just 12:30 in the afternoon!

Bam #1: it was difficult to tell in the dimly-lit Independent when I first met him but RJ is 40 years old. He looks like a 40 year-old Ronnie (of Jersey Shore fame!) I've just set a personal record for greatest age gap on a date (sound the tiny bugle horn!) Unfortunately that wasn't the only red flag...

Luckily dinner was much better. Reunited with my friend Peanut and dined at Bambino's on Cole Street:

tomato bruschetta, served warm

pizza Diavolo (bacon, sausage, corn, red onions, fresh tomato, and gorgonzola)

torte del Genoise e del cioccolata

Bam #2: You can never go wrong with corn on a pizza or chocolate on a cake!

At dinner Peanut and I got to talking about the new Starz series Camelot - we're suckers for anything pertaining to Arthurian legend. This version is crazygood! I love their dark and haunted interpretation of Merlin:

Joseph Fiennes as Merlin

Even better is the devastatingly beautiful and ambitious Morgan:

Eva Green as Morgan

Bam #3: Camelot marathon in progress. Re-watching the first four episodes... don't miss the second half of episode 4! New episodes return Friday 4/29 at 10PM PDT!

Speaking of marathons and other awesome television programs, this Monday 4/25 is Bam #4: the season finale of Ru Paul's Drag Race > Season 3! Catch it on Logo TV at 9:30 PM. For those of you who missed out on all the extravaganza, there's a marathon starting this Sunday 4/24 at 10AM.

Who will be America's next drag superstar?

will it be Manilla Luzon?

or Bam! Alexis Mateo?

Raja?

 what the hell, I still wish Miss Yara Sofia was still in the running!

Yara Sofia rocks the stand-up comedy challenge!

That's enough bam! for now. Haven't heard from Emeril in years, have you?

Non-food images in this post courtesy of google image search.

zero-sum game? -1 + 1 = 0

So today none other than baby-faced wonder boy Buster Posey was making the rounds at select Bank of Americas and wouldn't you know it? I chanced upon one of the branches he was visiting, the "big one" at Montgomery and California where you can exchange foreign currency. Of course, I was there while he was at the Union Square branch and I didn't know when he was coming. And I had to get back to work. So no Buster close-ups for me :(

:( it sucked but I don't want to give anybody a reason to fire me... right? :(

so how do you make up for missing out on Buster Posey? FOOD TRUCK!

the guy in the passenger seat looks like he's sleeping - but he ISN'T!

CurryUpNow is probably my favorite little food establishment on wheels (after the ice cream man) and these chicken tikka masala burritos never fail to impress...

just a little off the top

The curried-up rice and garbanzo beans are incredibly filling and I'm not sure if I've ever finished an entire burrito in one sitting... there's some sort of satisfying and spicy quality to curry that few foods can match. But I won't lie, this bad boy had help...

will I ever show a picture of the food before I take a bite? It's a challenge!

CurryUpNow does not serve your standard 2-inch samosa, they serve HUGE samosas that are nearly the size of your fist (well, my fist.) The experience must be savored: extracting your samosa from a paper bag rifle with greasy spots, cutting through the thick doughy crust with a fork, releasing the steam from potatoes and lentils, allowing your lunchmates to "ooh" and "aah" at your treasure, and finally, tasting your first forkful of fragrantly spiced, potato-ey deep-fried goodness.

Writing this from home, I might have been a bit melancholy at the passing of another great lunch had it not been for the other half of the burrito I was unable to finish. It's lunch and dinner - for less than $10!

Also, learned a new word - or rather, a new meaning: ham is not only a delicious edible manifestation of pork, it also stands for hot-ass mess (as opposed to a simple "hot mess.") Well, I am what I am.

numbers have meanings, too

in honor of 4/20 I decided to take the 71 home from work... you know, the 71 Haight-Noriega...

you wouldn't find this many people on Haight Street most other days of the year

it was high-traffic the whole way home... cars and pedestrians. Didn't help that there was some backup on Market Street due to Obama's security detail. The final time? It took me 1:50 to travel approximately 7 miles, from Downtown to Ocean Beach. Huzzah!

a bomb-ass name

last night was CONCERT NIGHT!

What's the best way to prepare? By nourishing myself with deep-dish pizza goodness from Little Star Pizza on Divisadero!

don't forget the beer!

Just look at the height of this number, as seen on my friend Cabbage's plate. Ordered the Little Star (some sort of concoction of spinach, mushrooms, red sauce, and mozzarella.) Mighty tasty but I think next time I'll return to the meatier toppings. You know, since I'm already eating deep-dish.

Then it's off we go, two blocks down to The Independent...

where awesome salsa-reggae-hip-hop band Bayonics almost stole the show...

these guys are an awesome sound machine

and the dancing was equally spectacular... the guy in the white shirt can put Chippendale's to shame!

But Bomba Estéreo came out full throttle in all their fluidly hypnotic and heart-pounding cumbia-with-a-dash-of-electronica madness!

Simón working it out

fantastic Lili on the mic. LOVE her style!

"Niña rica," "Juana," "Raza," and "La Boquilla"... raging time.

Several other pluses for the night:

• when a fellow fan spilled his drink on my Cabbage's legs, he went all the way to the bar and back to bring her napkins! Big props to the cool crowd!
• The Independent has clean restrooms with four - count 'em - four stalls. THANK YOU!

all venues should maintain the essentials like this!

¡Qué locura!

does Washington, D.C. count as a state?

because it sort of counts in beauty pageants.

Another weekend, another missed opportunity to cook lunch for the next day. So off to a food truck we go!

so where is the 51st state? The TL? Haight Street? Forest Hill Station at midnight? Or is it somewhere metaphysical, like the heart... now I'm thinking of Captain Planet.

Plus: the guys served up my Brunswick Stew quickly, perfect for crunchy lunch times at the office.

Superplus: the cashier called me "Miss" instead of "Ma'am." Not that I get militantly loud when somebody calls me ma'am, I just think it's a bit early to be ma'am-ed at the tender age of 24.

Now the actual food...

Brunswick Stew... looks small but is deceptively filling

Can't really go wrong with ham, chicken, sausage, and bacon, and that's just the meat! Corn, potatoes, tomato broth, and green onions... the stew had this incredible smokiness, like a drinkable BBQ. It was so good that I forgot to eat my bread with it. Why can't I make stew like this!?

Anyways, try 51st State for yourself. But check the website because this truck roams a different beat each day.

Note to self: must remember to try dessert.