Pig batons

The salamis are in! I was one of the grad students who placed a collective order of salamis at Salumi, the cured meat store Andrew introduced me to in Seattle. The fennel smell in the sopresseta now fills our entire office. Mmmm....

Tartine Bakery - San Fran 3

Tartine Bakery was by far the best food place in San Fran. We went there for Saturday brunch at 10am and the place was truly hopping. The hardest thing was to decide what to get because everything looked so good and smelled even better. I settled for a bread pudding, that included asparagus, egg, sun dried tomato and some tasty pig. Maybe I should mention that everything in the store is local slow food, a la Chez Panisse. Each ingredient is therefore full of flavor because it is entirely grown by nature in a sustainable manner (read no preservatives, no chemicals, no hormones, no antibiotics, just sun, air, water, and soil). There are no words to describe how perfect the texture of the bread was, or how piggy the bacon tasted like. I ended up going back and ordering a breakfast roll, their version of the cinnamon roll with a slight orange flavor. No one in their right mind should miss this place if traveling through SF.

House of Nanking - San Fran 2

Here's my second San Francisco food review after it all fades away in the foggy shadows of daily work.

Our first dinner in San Francisco was at the "House of Nanking", voted by different local papers as the best Chinese restaurant in town. It took us almost an hour to find it (sorry hungry/cranky Kristen) but it was totally worth it to our growling stomachs.

The restaurant is on the lower end of the spectrum, with reasonable prices and a very cramped table situation. The line out the door was a clear indication that we were onto something. I had their number one recommendation, sesame chicken and Kristen did a tofu dish. The sauces were a little greasy for my taste but very flavorful and not in that cheapy sweet and sour way. I was impressed by the greens that came with Kristen's meal, which had plenty of cillantro, chives and some sort of bamboo shoot look-alike. Overall a good cheap meal, probably the most flavorful Chinese I've had so far.

Mojo Cafe - San Fran 1

I am in San Francisco with Kristen for two days of relaxation this weekend. This is a first in a series of posts where I try to document my culinary experiences during my stay here.

We accidentally stumbled upon Mojo Bicycle Cafe, a neighborhood bike shop / cafe joint. We wanted to go to a pizzeria, but since they didn't open until 5pm and we were starving we stopped at the first taste-bud friendly looking place. From the outside, Mojo looked clean and put together.


I got excited about their bike/restaurant combo and started salivating over their bikes more than over the prospects of their food, but I was soon to be convinced otherwise. We sat in the garden, which was the best component of the experience: peaceful, cool, and fragrant. As for the food, I was impressed, mainly because my expectations were blown away. The Mojo Cafe is centered on the local community idea. They had fresh fruit purchased at the local farmer's market and the food ingredients were obtained from sustainable sources. My walnut bread had a hard crust with lots of taste. All the ingredients (including the turkey) were very flavorful, a clear indication that they were not your typical warehouse cooking ingredients. Most of their sandwiches had roasted red pepper, which was homemade and local. The potato chips were also homemade, a very rare occurence these days. Kristen had a pesto, basil leaf, mozarella sandwich and she said it reminded her of the Czech republic. All in all, Mojo Cafe is a place where I would come back. I wish somebody would do something similar in Boulder, instead of the half-ass Half Fast Subs we have on The Hill.

Another excuse not to ski

There were 17 ski deaths in the Colorado resorts this season. If you look at the list they're either middle age tourists that probably had no idea what they were doing on a blue slope or crazy ass locals that thought that death does not apply to them.