New Year's Feast

New Year's dinner: it all starts with a bottle of bubbly...

This year, we decided to take it easy. No family, no parties, just me and J and a fantastic meal. He's been really overworked this week, and I'm busy all day dealing with contractors and packing up our old place, so we just wanted to pamper ourselves with a night in. So I opened up a bottle of Laurent-Perrier I've been stowing away for a special night, and got busy in the kitchen.

Fire! Flambe is always a celebration in and of itself. I set some sauteed onions and parsley on fire with a healthy dose of vodka. This formed the base of our simple holiday meal. I scooped these onions into a pan with about a centimeter of water. Once the water was boiling, I got busy steaming seafood!

I went to Sun Fat in the mission to day to buy our dinner: a crab and some cherrystone clams, Manila clams, and PEI mussels (har, Pei and PEI).

Cherrystone clams, done! When steamed correctly, these meaty clams are truly divine. They're often steamed until they shrivel up into dry lumps, so if you cook these keep an eye on them and remove them right when they open wide! You might even have to remove the faster cooking clams while the slower ones cook.

The rest of the meal included a heaping bowl of mussels and Manila clams steamed in onions, parsley, thyme, and lemon; and a whole crab steamed in herbs and black peppercorns. Who could say no to all this! But...it gets better.

Had to take a picture of the aftermath.

I stopped by Tartine! J's been so stressed at work, a banana cream tart was in order.

And for me, a passionfruit coconut bavarian cake. If you like very tangy, lemony desserts, this is the one for you. Even thinking about it makes my mouth water! And a pleasant surprise: this cake is GREAT with champagne. I should have bought a whole cake!

Happy new year, and may 2010 be full of tasty eats for everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year, everyone! And here's a bit of San Francisco fun: look what I found on the corner of 19th and Guerrero during my last run of 2009!

Yup, A Saturday in the Park With Friends, by Georges Seurat--but not! I could not find a signature, but this is a San Francisco artist's take on the famous Seurat, using Dolores Park as the backdrop and populated with modern San Francisco characters--hipsters with boomboxes, modern strollers, people of color, an obese American, the churches of the Mission and Downtown San Francisco in the background, etc. I thought it was really fantastic! He/she managed to create an amazing level of detail on the side of the building, to the point that I wasn't the only one repeatedly walking towards and away from it to appreciate the effect of the pointilism.

Here's the original, for comparison's sake, courtesy of kmkz.com. Pretty cool, huh?

Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation

DONATION COUNTER: $ 215.00
LAST YEAR'S TOTAL: $ 631.00

Remember how I said NYOF is really great about keeping in touch with its donors? Well, after posting last week about starting this year's charity drive, I got this lovely letter in my e-mail from Janis Olson, NYOF's U.S. Executive Director. C'mon, everyone, even $5 helps!

Dear Pei - Thank you so very much for choosing to support NYOF again this year. We love your invitation to your friends to join you in your fundraising efforts.

We are truly proud of the recognition we have received for our good governance from Charity Navigator. Only 12% of all nonprofits are efficient enough to receive three consecutive four star ratings.

We really appreciate your efforts on NYOF's behalf. Thank you again. Our best wishes to you for a lovely holiday season.

Fondly, Janis.

Janis Olson
Executive Director U.S.
Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation
"Changing the world . . . one child at a time."

Remodel Update

Happy New Year, Everyone!

In addition to trying to raise money for NYOF, I'm trying to find some really cool tiles for the bathroom. I thought going into the remodel that with so many tiles out there, I'd quickly find something I liked. The more I looked, however, the more everything looked boring and uninspired. That is, until I found these!

Not only is this a fabulous combination, each piece is really cool. The dark gray floor tile is streaked with varying shades of lighter gray, the clean white tiles are oversized interlocking subway tiles, and the tiny mosaic tiles? Well, let's just say they are perfection. They are stained glass with varying shades of blue, purple, green, and gray depending what angle you look at them from. They have a pearly sheen to them, and they're just absolutely mesmerizing. I'm really hoping to make this combination work!

Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation

DONATION COUNTER: $ 215.00
LAST YEAR'S TOTAL: $ 631.00

edit: I've decided to leave this post at the top of the blog so everyone can see our progress. I'm going to set a tentative deadline of January 1, 2010, but donations are never turned down even if they're tardy!

Merry Christmas, everyone! And in the spirit of the season, I want to announce that my partner in charity fundraising and I have decided once again to organize a new year's fundraising drive to support the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF). We were drawn to NYOF last year because we knew they had a great track record and that an extremely high percentage of their donations go directly into the hands of the children they serve (as opposed to administrative costs.)

NYOF has a lot of programs, but we were especially moved by their efforts to free girls from indentured servitude (click here for an article.) In a nutshell, many Nepalese families are so poor that they rent their daughters out as manual labor in order to feed the rest of the family. NYOF offers families a piglet or a goat, which they can raise for income, in return for a promise not to indenture their daughters. Allowing the girls to go to school on NYOF's dime is also part of the deal.

In the year following our first donation, NYOF has diligently kept me posted on their progress, through e-mails, newsletters, and even the occasional handwritten note. For the holidays, they sent this little gift package with crafts made by the kids. Despite the terrible economy and the massive spending we've been doing lately, I feel it's important to give at least once a year, and I think NYOF's message is one we can all get behind.

Last year we received individual donations ranging from $5 to $150, so this is something everyone can participate in! Even if you can only afford to give a little, you can be a part of the big picture. In total, we raised over $600--almost enough to free two girls from indentured servitude and support their high school education! These girls often go on to run small businesses in their village, or join NYOF to help girls in the situations they escaped. It's a cycle of giving that really works, and of which I'm proud to support

To learn how to help, e-mail me at chezpeiatgmail.com

Happy Holidays!

Mapo Tofu

With Christmas and all, it's been a pretty bad eating week. Lots of food, lots of fat, lots of restaurants (not even all good!) But tonight we got back on the horse with a nice homemade meal.

I made some mabo tofu with leftover ground beef and tofu (duh). I always use a ton of green onions both in the sauce and as a topping, so this isn't completely protein.

Then we had a nice assortment of blanched vegetables. It sounds bland, but if done right the vegetables can be crisp and sweet, needing nothing more than a touch of hoisin.

This was from last night, but it's so colorful I thought I'd include it in tonight's post. This is (mostly) a lovely winter fruit salad. Tangerines, apples, and pears are all at the height of their seasons right now, so enjoy while you can! And excuse me for including the non-seasonal blackberry. They are a weakness.

Patiserrie Philippe

Patisserie Philippe has been on my go-to list for quite some time, but it's out of the way and not open every day. Today, I was furniture shopping down in the area and happened upon the store while the owner was preparing a sheet of croissants in the front of the bakery. What a treat to watch him as I decided what to order!

For breakfast I ended up having a croissant topped with bacon and filled with gooey, savory, caramelized onions. The one thing that would have made this perfect is if it had been slightly toasted, but I couldn't resist digging into it as soon as I left the bakery.

The macaroons at Philippe's are probably the best I've had in San Francisco, and a nice size too. The champagne is a seasonal specialty, but I think bright green pistachio macaroons are still my favorite.

Chomp chomp! The champagne was filled with blueberries! Delicious, with a little tang of wine in the aftertaste.

The rest of my Philippe's bounty will have to wait until tomorrow: an apple tart, several macaroons, and a chocolate chip cookie (not everything is in the photo). I didn't bother asking for individual prices, but overall it was a very reasonable purchase.

Taqueria Vallarta

Aha, a photo found on my Blackberry from a few weeks back, taken at my new favorite taco joint in the Mission. The appeal of Taqueria Vallarta lies in the taco assembly area at the front of the store. There's always a person there grilling tortillas and scooping meat fresh off the grill as quick as he/she can. And, depending what day you go, there are half a dozen or a dozen meat choices. So far, the barbacoa (barbeque goat) with chipotle salsa is the best combination.

Two or three tacos is enough for a nice lunch, and after you're handed your plate you can dress the tacos with a choice of three salsas, onions, cilantro, radishes, and limes. At $1.50, nicely sized, and packed full of flavor, these tacos are hard to beat at even twice the price.

Spicy Everything Soup

Well, I've been a very poor cook lately, but today's dinner wasn't half bad. This really was "everything" soup. I cooked down a leftover hunk of pork and used the broth along with a can of chicken stock ginger, kimchi juice, Korean chili paste, and Hondashi to form a soup base. Then I added shitake mushrooms, frozen fish balls, sliced napa, sliced green onions, sliced napa kimchi, and Korean "dough flake" noodles. With a side of kimchi and Chinese pickled vegetables, and some pineapple for dessert, this really wasn't a bad meal at all.

Kitchen Faucets

Ack, there is such a thing as having too many choices. Anyone care to weigh in on which faucet looks best? I know it depends on our kitchen, but we have no photo so far. Let's just say it's a smallish, contemporary kitchen. Espresso flat-front cabinets with an off white Caesarstone countertop, stainless steel appliances, and a touch of the retro with a white apron front sink.

Everything Gumbo

I do 99% of the cooking in our home, but when J decides to step up to the plate, he does not mess around. This weekend he decided it was time to revisit one of his favorite foods: gumbo.

The result was smashing, and we are not lenient judges around here. J achieved the perfect consistency for spooning over rice, and the gumbo had enough soup for sipping while still being full of Dungeness crab (two whole ones!), chicken, shrimp, sausage, okra, celery, onions, and green bell peppers. The only thing it lacked was a hint of smokiness from a smoked ham hock and/or a little blue crab flavor, but given what's easily available in SF it was a phenomenal showing. What a treat to come home to after an afternoon at the gym!

Sunday Brunch at Home

It was tempting to loll the day away at home, but we promised ourselves we wouldn't let another weekend pass without hitting the gym. So after one extra large egg white omelet and some garlicky haricot verts, we're off to pump some iron!

Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe

More home supply shopping brought us into the Bayshore neighborhood again today. And boy, we just keep finding good food down there! Today, we went to Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe for the first time. I was extremely pleasantly surprised.

First, the space. I was expecting a hole in the wall, or at best a tidied up older space. That's what you usually find in this part of town. But Queen's is a completely renovated space: clean, open, inviting, with tasteful decor and a great staff. Everyone was very friendly, and after being asked if we were first time customers we were offered free samples of the sweet potato fries and the gumbo (both delicious). This is obviously a family-owned neighborhood establishment, but it's clear they took the effort to make it a place that could compete in SF's tough food scene.

J had an oyster po-boy. Yum. I would only say that the bread was a waste of stomach space, because the fried oysters were done very nicely indeed.

Gumbo: YUM! One of the best gumbos we've ever had. Some people might take issue with this gumbo being more like a soup and less like a thick stew. However, I liked being able to sip it, and the flavors were amazing. The soup had an intense crab flavor and light smokiness, and it was chock full of crab meat, shrimps, chicken, and sausage. There was some rice and beans at the bottom too. This would be a great meal on its own.
I had the fried catfish, which came with two sides; I picked hush puppies and a potato salad. This picture was taken after I was more than halfway done, so you can imagine how much food there was. The catfish had a fairly substantial cornmeal crust, but the crust was hot and crispy and the fish was moist all the way through and tasted very fresh. There's nothing worse than muddy catfish! And the hush puppies were a revelation. I don't usually like these thick balls of dough, but these were garlicky, oniony, herby, and had corn kernels embedded in them. And with honey butter? Perfection.

We'll definitely be back at Queen's sooner rather than later. Yay, Bayshore! What a fun neighborhood it has been to explore.

Remodel Update

Phew, what a week. The remodel is charging full speed ahead, the bills keep coming in, and every day is a struggle to keep this monster within budget. I'm happy to report that so far we're doing okay (not great, just okay), and that we've selected shower fixtures.

Ah, Grohe, the king of bath and kitchen fixtures. I picked my shower fixtures in a hurry, but the more I think about how fantastic it's going to be to have contemporary yet Victorian-inspired fixtures with a full-sized rain shower, the happier I am with my choice. Here's the matching showerhead:

And oh, what the heck, here is the matching tub faucet with diverter top. I know, so exciting.

Tropisueno Happy Hour

Happy Hour with the happy couple! N&E swung up to the city with one of their groomsmen today, and we had a fun-filled city day. We had lunch at the Academy of Sciences, wandered the museum completely crowd free, had ice cream at Bi-Rite, and ended the evening with margaritas and happy hour snacks at Tropisueno. I'm really starting to dig Tropisueno's grub. If you're ever free between 4-6pm, swing in for a bite. And on certain days after 10pm, I think snacks are free!

Nodaji (Rowland Heights)

I ate a LOT of Korean food when I was in LA this weekend. It's kind of what I crave when I've been away for awhile, and it was also the best choice at 11 p.m. after a flight on a chilly, rainy night. My sister and b-i-l took me to Nodaji, a little Japanese and Korean pub (read: comfort food!). It was delicious.

We started with corn cheese, which is just canned corn sprinkled with melty cheese and baked until crunchy around the edges.

Then we had a huge omarice, which is fried rice wrapped in a big flat piece of egg and topped with ketchup. They served it with over half a dozen Korean side dishes, which was just perfect.

The photo doesn't do this justice, but my favorite dish of the night was the black goat stew. It was boiling hot, quite spicy, surprisingly herby, and full of falling-apart-tender chunks of goat meat. With a perfectly cooked bowl of rice, it was the perfect thing to eat on a cold night--really unique but also really comforting. I felt ten times better after I was done, and we spent under $40 for all three of us.

BBQ Chicken (Buena Park)

In case you hadn't heard, the Koreans are all about fried chicken. There are Korean style fried chicken places like Kyochon, and then there are Korean-owned places making traditional Southern style fried chicken, like at BBQ Chicken in Buena Park.

A fellow bridesmaid introduced me to BBQ Chicken this past weekend, and we shared a whole olive oil fried chicken. It took awhile to arrive at the table, but in exchange it was fresh and piping hot. The crust was perfect, the chicken was juicy, and because of the olive oil there was a slightly distinct flavor to the crust. It somehow tasted more fresh and less greasy. An excellent choice for a pre-rehearsal meal!

Congrats N&E !!!

Well, audience, there are weddings--and then there are WEDDINGS. My friends N&E got married this weekend, and it was definitely THE BASH of 2009. Guys, I'll be seeing you in January's copy of InStyle (no, seriously). Congrats again, it was a beautiful day. Now, the food!

Pelican Hill, Orange County's biggest most newly remodeled resort, is known for quality banquet dining. They did not disappoint. This was my favorite dish of the night: prawns in coconut curry soup. The prawns were plated on a bundle of noodles, and then waiters with oversized silver tureens of soup came to each table and ladled steaming soup into each bowl. Lovely presentation and service.

Salad with Asian pears and roast tomatoes. This was so incredibly refreshing after a weekend of eating out. But since a salad is just a salad, I'll take a moment to mention that all this food came after a lengthy and impressive cocktail hour (during which I was too cold to remember my camera!) Highlights for me were the grape soju-tinis and crab salads on little spoons. There was also some great truffled mac n' cheese, carpaccio, seared tuna, fruit and cheese, guacamole and dip, a trio of water dispensers flavored with different fruit, and free flowing alcohol.

Entree time! We had seared duck with mole, green beans in a little house kimchi, and a bowl of dashi broth with sea bass and bok choy. Can you guess that the bride and groom come from a big mix of backgrounds? The chef did a great job of melding Asian and Latin flavors. And we really enjoyed all the Riojas!

There were two choices of cake: lemon or chocolate with raspberry filling. I definitely preferred the lemon, which I kept stealing off J's plate. And that leaf? It's white chocolate!

He stuck me with the chocolate, which was fine but not as amazing as the lemon. Maybe I just wanted zingy flavors after a long day, or maybe the tanginess of the jam threw me off. Still, any complaints I had about it were minor. After a long day of bridesmaiding (yup, I made my big bridesmaid debut) I ate every last bite.

The wedding was an incredible way to kick off the holiday season. I think the bride and groom must still be off somewhere recovering, but congrats you guys! Good job, happy holidays, I'm so happy for you, and I'll see you soon.

10 Days Til Christmas!

Just 10 more days until Christmas, and SF is in full holiday swing.

Here's the Macy's Christmas tree a few weeks ago when it first went up and had been lit but not yet decorated.
And here's our very own building's tree, which I get to see every time I go check on our remodel. So far so good! Happy Holidays everyone.

Caesarstone

Okay, someone wanted to know so I'm posting this sooner than I wanted. No, it's not my finished bathroom (mon dieu, I wish it were), but check out the Caesarstone countertop:

The current debate over the "best" countertop material currently is a Caesarstone vs. granite debate. It's up for grabs which is really superior, but I decided on Caesarstone for several reasons:

Stain repelling ability: Caesarstone is much denser than granite, meaning fewer stains and less upkeep over time. Granite is a porous, natural rock, meaning it needs to be re-sealed every year or it will get dull over time and absorb stains.

Durability: Caesarstone performs better overall in high impact tests, though the highest quality granite probably fares better. Caesarstone also tends to have a better warranty. They are both fairly heat resistant, though you should never put a hot pot directly on either. That's just common sense

Overall appearance: since Caesarstone is tiny bits of quartz stone mixed with resins and other manmade materials, its appearance is much more uniform than that of granite. Of course, some people love the variations in granite. However, my space is too small to show beautiful variations over a large piece of stone. It would just look like my granite was uneven.

Cost: the costs are about the same. Caesarstone is about $60-100 per square foot, installed. Granite is $50-150 depending on the quality of the natural rock.

Green factor: some people deplore the mining of granite, others deplore the manufacturing of Caesarstone. I'm too poor to buy countertops made of recycled glass and concrete (can you believe they are twice to three times as expensive as Caesarstone?), and I don't think cheap countertops are green at all because you have to throw them away in a few years. So I'm going with a relatively green product that uses at least 20% recycled materials in addition to quartz, which is more plentiful than granite. And I hope to not have to replace my countertops for years to come.

*photo courtesy of caesarstoneusa

Fagor Fridge

More appliance lust fulfilled.

Today I'm posting about our future fridge, the counter-depth Fagor from Spain. No, it's not actually double-wide, that's two fridges placed side by side. This fridge was the only appliance that was sort of forced on us: it's very narrow and very tall, which allows us to have a reasonable amount of storage on a very small footprint. Compared to other fridges with a similar shape, I liked the Fagor because its freezer is much smaller than its fridge. That just makes more sense for the way we eat. But for others who are looking for tall, narrow fridges, LG, Summit, and Conserv make similar models.

Some of Fagor's more nifty features include an open door alarm, a holiday setting which keeps the freezer on but keeps the fridge at a higher temperature to save energy, and my favorite: FastCool and SuperFreeze features that give the fridge a power boost when you put in large quantities of food. They also claim to use better lighting and unbreakable glass shelves. So exciting!

One Medical

Well, this is sort of about food, and it's definitely about health and wellness. As J says, "Leave it to an SF doctor's office to pass out schwag."

J and I see physicians who belong to a boutique practice in San Francisco. There is a small membership fee per year, in exchange for stellar service. The group is called One Medical, and they have a few offices downtown and one in Noe Valley. They are a small, expanding group that employs general practitioners, ob-gyns, chiropractors, acupuncturists, nutritionists, and an array of other kinds of health experts.

We're not at the age where we need a huge variety of specialists, but since we've decided to settle in SF we thought it was important to have doctors who know us by name and are familiar with our medical history. It's long-term planning, you know? So far, it's great. The doctors are friendly, they don't rush us, they're good about following up with us or being reached by e-mail, and the times I've gotten a referral for a specialist my GP has been good about coordinating and sharing information back and forth. They are good about arranging things so that I don't have to do much legwork, which I really appreciate. And just to point out one of the little things that count, they always fax my prescriptions ahead of me so that by the time I reach Walgreen's, my meds are ready for pickup.

Osha Thai (Geary)

Mmm...Osha. This small San Francisco chain is on my short list of lunch spots when I don't have leftovers to eat. It's close by, there's never a crowd, and I don't have to make J come along (because he doesn't like Thai food).

I love pad thai. It's cliche, but a nicely prepared plate of pad thai is spicy, salty, tangy, and just a little sweet. I'm a noodle lover, so this rates fairly high on my list of comfort foods.

Remodel update: we put our first drops of sweat equity into our new home this weekend. J and I spent the better part of the weekend visiting hardware stores and Home Depot so we could start restoring our bathroom. Short explanation: a LOT of paint stripper was involved. Anyone who's worked with the stuff will understand our pain. The fumes are vicious, it makes your skin feel funny even through gloves, it's tedious to work with, and it's a p.i.t.a. to clean up afterwards. We're not quite done, but I think the worst is over. We are very proud of our first foray into DIY!