i feel the need, the need for speed

I miss racing! I think I missing racing dune buggies more. I think I miss racing dune buggies, because Suzy and Damon were there! Okay, okay, I miss Suzy and Damon. (I miss driving fast too.) ed.note- that's me driving.

18th and Valencia

I am a big fan of Regalito. Go there for decent chicken mole and enchiladas. On the weekends the pozole is tops. The pork meat melted just right to fall apart in your mouth, the spicies just enough heat to get your tongue going but not your stomach to ache.



Jersey made a sunny-side up egg, potatoes, bacon taco. He says it's delicious, but I can't stand the taste of runny eggs. I used to eat them with rice for breakfast ALL time when I was a littl girl and now I hate them.



There is a bad ass mural on the side of the house before you get to Regalito. It's co-painted by a favorite local artist of mine, Andrew Schoultz.



Across the way a new store opened up. I am not really into shopping any more, but I like to give props to stores that are co-ops. Check out local designers at The Mission Statement. Very clever name.



Every month Jersey and I sit down at the table on a Sunday and he reads me ads from Willie's American Guitars out of the Vintage Guitar magazine. They are so f#^%ing hilarious. SO hilarious I called Willie a couple of months ago to let him know how much I love his ads and that one day I will buy a vintage Rickenbacker bass from him ('77 in blue under $2k let me know!) Check out my favorite ad in the May issue:

'65 Fender Electric XII
In Sunburst, split pickups, with 4-way selector, offset-contour body, early example with L-plate, very clean, all-original including tortoise guard, Kuson tuners, and black tolex hardshell case. Listen to me, Christina, it could be ours, if you let me help you murder your tyrannical husband. Come on, we can go to my childhood hometowm, give Michel some drugged whiskey, drown him in the tub, and then drive back to Paris and dump his body in the school's filthy swimming pool. Trust me, you can't lose. $3,500.

noc noc with the deli guys

I woke up this morning hungry for Thomas' chickens. I was thinking about sleeping in; Jersey makes fun of me for never sleeping in on the weekends. For some reason, I just can't. I want to, but between 7AM-9AM I am up and ready to go. I went to the Ferry Building and did some grocery shopping.

Thomas was there with my chicken at his RoliRoti stand.



I got my deli meats with the usual Saturday crew at Mastrelli's. One of the guys gave me a flyer to a show at the Noc Noc. I LOVE going to shows and this one was early enough to check out cause I already had "secret girl plans" with Jung and Divo later on.



Afterwards, Jersey and I met up with Cousin Will and Karen at Maverick for brunch. My camera died, so all I got was this donut. The donuts there are worth it. They aren't greasy, dry, yeasty, or super sugary AND to all my French friends- not too much cinnamon.



I saw that Maverick was putting out a food zine and asked if they needed any writers. I hope I can start writing for print again! Their zine is really cool, grab a free copy there.

6:30pm rolled around and I headed down to Lower Haight. $2 beers and live tunes with my favorite Ferry Building crew- I had a fun time.



It was cool to see all the guys I have come to dearly like on my Saturday mornings.
Bob plays in a band called, Boy Found Floating. They are going to be tearing it up at an SF stage soon, so stay tuned! Please take note that Bob IS strumming a right-handed guitar left-handed and upside down. He does this because he realized people in America are heartless bastards when it comes to making things for left- handed people. At least Satan has your back lefties! ;)



I think Jim is starting a band, but at the moment he plays solo. Lance used to be in American Heartbreak, but has a new band now.

Chris, an ex deli guy, played two song tonight that sounded so sweet. Let us know when you are playing more Chris!



Every time I go to a show, I feel like rocking out again. Maybe one day I will pick up my bass. For now, it'll just be duets with Jung on violin and me on cello.

puff hearted

I love random hearts. Have you ever seen one? A rock shaped like a heart, or a cloud, shell, leaves? Ropes falling in heart shapes? Here is a cream puff I made yesterday that I dipped into chocolate. A random heart appeared.

eclairs? eclairs!

I really love going to Binko's classes, especially after a stressful day. Today was all about eclairs and cream puffs.



Before we made the cream we had to prep the vanilla. I love vanilla! It's an amazing bean. When you are done using the pod you can stick it in your sugar jar to give the sugar that extra flavor of natural vanilla.



We had to pipe out the pate a choux to make the shape of the eclair. If you want cream puffs, you just pipe out what looks like a Hersey Kiss. I am still not very precise when it comes to piping.



It's pretty easy to make eclairs or cream puffs, but it is very time consuming piping in the cream. One thing you can do is cut the tops off the cream puffs and pipe in, add a fruit, and put the top back on. Piping from the bottom is very messy, but works better with the elongated shape of the eclair.



The final result gives you pastries that are much more satisfying than what you buy at bakeries in San Francisco.

anarchy park

Today is not only Easter, but the 13th annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair.



It's in Golden Gate Park, along with me lying on the grass being lazy.

easter sunday

When I was about 8 years old I drew a picture of a small house with a little fence surrounding it. The fence was covered with tomato vines with tomatoes bursting through. In the distance was the ocean. I drew this picture because of a homework assignment. When I turned it in, the teacher, Mrs. Dorey, asked what this had to do with the assignment (what I was going to be when I grew up.) I replied, "This is my house, inside the house is me and my boyfriend. We are having breakfast and coffee reading the newspaper at the table. We are going to go surf later." She then asked, "What does this have to do with your homework, 'Your Future Occupation?' Are you going to be a housewife?" I looked her and said, "I am going to be a teacher," and then pointed towards the tomatoes vining through the fence, "see this, it's a tomato, it's Summer break." I remember being so annoyed at her. I never respected Mrs. Dorey after that, to me as an 8 year old, I felt that if she didn't understand the obvious she wasn't fit to run a science club. (She was also the sponsor of the science club.)

Anyway, here I am living in a loft with my husband. I am not a teacher, I have no tomatoes, and I can't surf. But I did make pancakes and we did drink tea and we are reading. Jersey is reading BUST Magazine, cause Bret and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords are on the cover. I am reading Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami.

I was thinking about those pancakes we made a couple of weeks ago and I figured out a way to make them more scrumptious. Here's my version of Rum Chocolate Pancakes:

1 cup of organic flour
1/4 cup of organic pastry flour
1 1/2 tbs of sugar
1tbs of baking powder
tsp of sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup of heavy cream
4 tbs of melted butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract
2 tbs of dark rum
1 square block of the Scharffen Berger 62% chopped up coarsely

In one bowl sift the flours and baking powder together, add sugar and salt and whisk.

In another bowl beat eggs until frothy, add butter, cream, rum, vanilla extract and mix well. Dump this into the dry bowl and mix well.



In order to get that nice crunch on the surface of your pancake, while the pan is heating add some butter to the surface. Drop pancake batter on the pan whatever size you like. I prefer my pancakes on the smaller size. Cook on one side until you see bubbles at the surface and see the sides become stiffer, flip and cook on the other side for another minute or so.



If you have extra batter you can leave it in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and keep in the fridge for 3 days.

I really like the Marco Polo black tea from Mariage Freres with these pancakes.



I don't know if I will ever be a teacher, but I hope one to day to have a home near the beach with my tomatoes. For now, we'll just be listening to the Descendents on our record player this Easter.

bike ride three mile radius

There's a new brunch place I found boasting amazing beignets; a French Soul food cafe called Brenda's. Jersey and I rode our bikes to Polk and Eddy to check it out. I am always curious of places that label themselves Soul food. Growing up in the South and moving to California makes you suspicious of these eateries. I always complain the corn bread is too dry, the fried chicken is too greasy, the iced tea isn't sweet.



The wait was kinda long, 30 minutes to sit, it's a tiny place with just Brenda cooking. We ordered chocolate beignets, eggs bene (such a guy's brunch), Adouille and Cheddar Omelette.



I love the watermelon iced tea. It was sweeten perfectly and had a refreshing touch of Thai basil.



The food was really good, but the biscuit was divine! It had that wonderful pie crust crunch on the outside, but soft and fluffy on the inside. The homemade strawberry jam was too perfect. It wasn't overtly sweet and had a smooth texture.



We rode our bikes up Market after we ate to check out some stores. First, we stopped in Rare Device. They have a store in Brooklyn that carried pretty cool books, art, and jewelry. They opened this one last year.



A random mural outside on the construction area.



Down the way is DLX, a skateboard shop I used to hang out at when I was younger. I prefer FTC as I got older. Next door is Get Lost Books. A bookstore dedicated to traveling. I know there is a Borders that's closer, but whenever I travel out of the country I always trek up to Get Lost for my traveling needs. The staff is friendly, well traveled and always gives advice when you need it.



Jersey wanted to stop in Al's Comics.



Afterwards, we went to Grooves Inspiralled Vinyl. I've passed this record shop for over a decade never going inside. I don't know why. Maybe I wasn't ready for it, but today I felt like it was long overdue. A guy was walking in the same time I was and it turned to be an old friend of mine when I was a young street urchin skateboarding around San Francisco. He works at Grooves! I love happy coincidences.



We ended our Market Street biking at Flax. I needed a new watercolor set and Jersey needed a new architect book. By the way, I used to steal pencils and charcoals from this store when I was that street urchin.



We got home from riding around and I made a Mango Lassi dessert. Here is the recipe:

1 mango peeled and cut into cubes (remember to compost your seed and skin)
1 cup of low fat plain yogurt
1tbs of honey
1/3 cup of whipping cream

Throw all of this in a blender and puree! The whipping cream makes the Lassi more fluffier like a mousse.

berkeley day tripping

Lunch today was served at Cheeseboard Pizza. Every day is a different slice, today's was a yummy feta/mozzarella, cilantro, lemon zest combo. Jersey and I sat on the median to eat it. It was a picnic among the zooming cars.



Jersey was in the mood for gelato at Ciao Bella, he got his usual- Bourbon Butter Pecan.



After our session, I stayed in Berkeley because I had an hour before dinner so I met up with Jes. I haven't seen her in a while. Her cutie pie, Maevyn is getting bigger. I love it when she cocks her head to the side to smile at me. This guy sitting in the table next to us asked Jes if he could hold her baby and she promptly said no. Who the hell asks a stranger permission to hold their kid? Weird.



Jes brought me a cala lilly from her yard. Her cala lillies are extra special, because her father planted them. I love receiving flowers, but this one was super thoughtful and I really appreciated her giving it to me.



Ether joined me later at Chez Panisse. I was happy she was there for this special Parsi New Year dinner. Niloufer Ichaporia King headed up the kitchen tonight. I went to one of her dinners at Boulette's Larder and it was amazing. Tonight was no exception.



We started off with a Pomegranate Kir royal and an Allium confit with poached egg.




The dal and spiced ghee was served soup style.



We couldn't have the seafood dish, so they made us a grilled squash.



The green biryani with Cattail Creek lamb was so tender. It was dressed with fresh Spring pea raita and pea greens with ginger.



We ended the dinner with Passionfruit/tangerine ice and Faluda with accompanied sweets, washed down with mint and lemongrass tisane.





Ether noticed a familiar face, but wasn't sure so I nonchalantly looked over at his table when I saw him put down his credit card. Sure enough it was Hal. We chatted and he told us he was writing a sci-fi novel.

After dinner I was dropped off at the BART station in downtown Berkeley. I had such a great time and very lucky today to hang out with two of my bridesmaids who are moms now!

Walking to the BART entrance, I suddenly had a flashback of the first time I went to Berkeley. I was 18 and my friend from Charleston, SC was in town. He was touring with The Queers and had to go to Lookout! Records to pick something up for them. He asked me to meet him at the top of the BART station in Berkeley. I had never been there or taken BART but was excited about the challenge. When I got to the top of the station entrance I waited for him. Suddenly I heard a loud "KOO KOO KOO KOO" and thought to myself, "Wow, the birds in Berkeley are really loud, I wonder what kind of bird makes that chirp." Every time I heard the noise I would look up searching the trees or sky for a bird. When my friend finally met up with me, I asked him what kind of bird made that noise. He laughed at me and pointed towards the intersection. "That noise is for blind people so they know when to cross the street."

tamale tuesday

I started off the day drinking my new favorite tea, Douglas Fir! You just steep a small branch in boiled water and presto- instant vitamin C and tons of other nutrients.



I was happy about today, because it's Tamale Tuesday. It's when my friend Brevik and I can ride our bikes to the Ferry Building and get Donna's Tamales.



Sometimes when we go to TT we see our favorite birds, Ray and Renee, Parrots of Telegraph Hill. We haven't seen them in a while and I told Brevik that I wished they were here today. Brevik looked up and excitedly pointed towards the top of the building column. They were here and with some of their friends too! How auspicious!



I always get a Mediterranean or Goat Cheese tamale. Today was Goat Cheese and Brevik got Corn Chili. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it!