Thanksgiving 2013

Note: that is chicken, not turkey.

The Popcorn Diaries

I hadn't seen Popcorn since April and had forgotten how adorable he is. Cutie pie.

Boots

After a long search, I finally found the boots of my dreams. Happy happy.

Sourced Cities: San Francisco

And then I'm reminded why I heart San Francisco.

via Sourced Cities: San Francisco

Recipe: Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese

Maybe because I've been eating so many burgers and meat lately, I was really craving something fresh tonight. With leftover Trader Joe's steamed & peeled baby beets from this recipe the day before, I tried a different take on the beet salad.

Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese
Adapted from The Kitchy Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 8-oz package steamed & peeled baby beets, sliced
1 oz goat cheese, crumbled
pistachios (optional)

Mustard and Lemon Vinaigrette
½ tbsp lemon juice
½ tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp mustard
¼ tbsp garlic
black pepper

Instructions
Combine lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, garlic, and black pepper and mix well.
Place sliced beets in a bowl and drizzle vinaigrette on top.
Add goat cheese and pistachios. Eat!

Treasure Island Flea Market and The Chairman Truck

To keep with the mellow weekend theme and because the weather was way too beautiful to spend indoors, two friends and I went to the Treasure Island Flea. I had never been before to Treasure Island, let alone know where it was, and so I was pretty excited. It was pretty easy to get to via bus. We didn't find anything interesting to buy and ended up just getting lunch from the many food trucks and sitting by the water overlooking the bay. It was so nice to eat, get some sun, and just talk.

I've been wanting to try The Chairman Truck for a long time now because I've missed the gloriousness of pork buns since the time I visited New York. I decided to get a variety of baos so that I could try different ones: Pork Belly with turmeric pickled daikon & green shiso, Coca-Cola Braised Pork with savoy cabbage & preserved yellow mustard seeds, and Spicy Chicken with toasted sesame puree & pickled carrots-cucumber & cilantro. My favorite was the braised pork bao and while good, it was nowhere nearly as good as Ippudo's pork buns.

Waraku

Tried a new ramen place for dinner tonight that's located across the street from Japantown Peace Plaza. There was a minor wait around 6:15pm on a Saturday night but no biggie. We started off with edamame and a bottle of Asahi. I got the Tonkotsu Ramen with chashu pork, green onions, bamboo shoots, kikurage-mushrooms, bean sprouts, and smoked egg. No photo evidence but just imagine a big bowl of ramen. It wasn't as good as Izakaya Sozai's but still acceptable.