Why I am Barack-ing the vote

I will likely be put on some "no fly list" soon but I just need to share as to why I am so publically voting against my party.

Reasons for Baracking the vote
1. Sarah Palin
2. Education

I think reason #1 is self explanatory. At times she basically makes me ashamed to be a woman. That folksy bullshit is exactly that, bullshit - I am afraid to the core when I think of her in an international conflict representing this country....uhhhhh. And really, when people aren't expecting much as a professional who has pride in their work...you would think any normal person would try to prove them wrong. Instead she seems to almost recoil further back into her isolated small town main street.

Education is the key to independance. It's the classic" if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life" philosophy. I am a firm believer that this is one of the few investments that will always provide copious amounts of return. Barack's voting record is very aggressive in education. Even with my conservative politics, I don't view education as a social program...it is a tool to ensure this country's international leadership. Even if you view it from a perspective of world domination...you need to arm your troops with the best weapons, etc. Educating all of America's children is the key to innovation, building of new industries, economic stability, rising generations out of poverty and creating an aware population.

Book Binge

Traveling always presents me with a unique opportunity to read...a lot. There is all that time while sitting on the plane and then there is the downtime during the vacation/travel... so I cleaned out my little library of backlogged booked in recent weeks' travels to Las Vegas and Chicago. Here are a few snippets of my favorites.

This is a follow up to the "Chinese Playground" book I had read awhile back. The author had written another book that dives into his lifelong gambling addiction and his ongoing recovery. I still can't believe that this is the same man that I know...he literally seemed like just a sweet old grandpa when I met him...because he had a head full of white hair but didn't seem geriatric, in fact he seemed very sharp and energetic. It is amazing how many layers there are to any one person.

Another returning author - apparently I just can't get enough. This is the follow up book to "The Man Who Ate Everything" by Jeffery Steingarten. In this book he is in search of the perfect cup of espresso, gratins, rotisserie and ponders the virtue of pet food and why it is the way it is.

I can't stand him on the Food Network (as a judge on Iron Chef America) but he is so much more interesting as a writer. I love how each chapter focuses on something like say, espresso...then he spends the entire chapter testing out every home espresso maker with various bean variations in search of the perfect jasmine scented cup. He will then usually end the chapter with what he feels is the best possible recipe for whatever that chapter was about. His job is fabulous...I am so jealous at times... The turducken chapter and the dry aged beef chapter was pretty awesome.

This was just an obligatory bit of chick lit. This is about some chick who graduates from Columbia but literally cannot deal with finding a job in her field (journalism/writing) because she will have to start at the bottom so she decides to be a bartender to keep her days free for writing her screenplay. She ends up bartending weekdays in Manhattan at an Irish pub and on weekends and some hot club in the Hamptons and dating some super rich kid in the Hamptons while basically becoming an insecure alcoholic. Entertaining but whatever - these kids need to get over themselves and realize that odds are you'll have to work your way up with experience and more often than not you won't graduate college and become an instant Pulitzer prize winning author or Oscar winning screenplay writer. I am obviously so annoyed with humanity - lol.

Movie Review: Rachel Getting Married

Yesterday I hit up the Embarcadero Theaters for a matinee showing of Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway. I had been hearing a lot of good things about this movie and especially in regards to Anne's performance. There were some reports about potential Oscar buzz..

Movie Synopsis from IMDB...
'Rachel Getting Married' is a contemporary drama with an aggressive sense of humor about the return of an estranged daughter to the family home for her sister's wedding. Kym's (Hathaway) reemergence throws a wrench into the family dynamics, forcing long-simmering tensions to surface in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking. 'Rachel Getting Married' paints a colorful, nuanced family portrait and is filled with the rich characters that have always been a hallmark of Jonathan Demme's films. -

My take:
The movie was good. It was heartbreaking to watch at times but it was complex, sad and hopeful. Anyone who has a sibling can relate to the tensions that rise between the sisters. Anyone who has a friend or relative who has had any sort of substance abuse issues in the past can relate to the mixed feelings of love, hope and hatred that brew amongst those who have to watch their loved one fall deeper...attempt to get better, sometimes lie and then fall again. This was the first movie in a long time that actually made me cry...not in a weepy sort of way, but in a eyes brimming then just spewing over the lids sort of way. It was so sad and painful at times to watch this family go through all of the scenes while a constant layer of happiness was painted in broad strokes with the sister's wedding. Certain interpersonal reltaionships could have been developed more, like the relationship with the mother and at some points I felt it things switched a bit too abruptly from one scene to another but...oh well.

Food of my heart

This post is entirely dedicated to the little guy....the cart, truck, stand, shop, the place that has paper napkins and plastic plates and sometimes only serves you food in a paper bag - this is the other half of food...the stuff that becomes iconic to a region. As much as I love the fancy stuff, I love this stuff just as much...and to that, here goes my tribute to humble foods.
The Chicago Style hot dog.... I only had 2 while I was out there, but since I have found an online site to sell me all of the ingredients espeically the sport peppers and poppy seed buns - I fear not that I will be unable to feed my need for dogs :)

Holy deep dish! Gino's East features a cornmeal crust (fascinating and delicious) and this gut bomb delight was fantastic. Normally I prefer the neopolitan style pizza with a nice thin crispy crust but this is local fare and something to behold....yum.
Pancakes are not a local specialty but I had to include this picture. Sunday AM we went to a place called Orange for breakfast and you guessed it, they use oranges and other varieties of citrus in a lot of different things. Forrest ordered the pancake flight above and it was super cute and delicious.

I cannot say it enough...dunkin donuts, i love you. They are awesome...and anytime I am east of CA, I hit up as many DD's as possible. Usually you have to head over at the very least to the midwest to get your hands on these...ohhhh sweet delicious fried dough...... I only ate 3 donuts while in Chicago - dangit I really should have eaten more.

Still on my list is White Castle...which has foiled me every time I have been in the midwest. I just looked it up and there were 2 in the metro Chicago area - AHHHH - next time.

Almost Home... (the saga continues)

MORE UPDATES: The sellers are basically not letting us out of this contract. They have taken the liberty to talk to other banks on our behalf and then have come back to us to say "but these banks said they can do it so..." This is getting way too complex.

FINAL UPDATE: We cancelled the contract for this place. It is sad, but after all the crap we had to go through on this place, I am totally over it. Basically the bank said "no" on the property but "yes" to the borrowers. It raised the final red flag to us that this PUD is not worth all this trouble and we are concerned that it will hurt us in condo conversion and re-sale so we have decided to cut our losses and move on to look for our next dream house.....


As of Thursday, we went into contract for a flat in San Francisco... Nothing is cojmplete yet as there are still A LOT of things to do before this place is officially ours, but still it is an exciting time and I just wanted to share. Stay tuned and wish us luck!

UPDATE - We're one week into escrow and things are at a standstill. The inspections are complete but there are snags in financing. The building is actually 3 total units... 2 are tied to a Tenancy In Common (TIC) and the third is already a condo because it was a new addition called a Planned Unit Development (PUD)... this is the first ever PUD in the city and it's causing a mild freak out amongst the loan underwriters..... stay tuned for more...

9/4 UPDATE - We have just entered the financing stage!!!! Having selected our mortgage vendor and locked down our interest rate, thus the paperwork begins. Yesterday I drove out to Mill Valley to drop off a stack of financial information to our mortgage guy....with the credit crisis, lenders are over compensating for their mistakes and asking for months and months of EVERY statement that has your name on it. So keep your fingers crossed that we'll actually get approved.

9/28 UPDATE - Thursday we heard that the bank wants to give us the money, but they are unsure of the property...the PUD is kind of freaking them out. Being the first of it's kind in the city and with the current financial climate, different = risky. This is turning out to be quite a challenge....we should hear the final news on Monday...stay tuned.

Field Museum of Natural History

I am so excited to be next to that triceratops...i freaking LOVE dinosaurs! I had never been to a natural history museum before and was so excited as the Field Museum was such a huge facility. They had an entire exhibit that was based around the evolution of the planet so ever few rooms showcased different fossils and stages of life on the planet.
The largest and most complete Tyrannasaurus Rex fossil skeleton in existence. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but really freaking awesome.... and Sue really had some small ass arms. And it is named Sue after the person who found the fossil not because they actually know the gender of the dinosaur.
Forrest standing in a "footprint" of a brontosaurus. We could probably fit 2-3 more Forrests in there and still have room for a few more feet.
Stegasaurus!!! I am still so excited about all these dinosaurs.
They even had "Lucy" one of the earliest varieties of almost humans...

They also had this huge section that featured taxidermied animals called "animals of the world" which was a little creepy but cool. Basically someone killed a lot of animals so they can stuff them for us to look at. The endangered animal section was the funniest....they had these notes that said "last seen..." and I wanted to say "last seen on it's way to the Field Museum" LOL.

Also, Africa has the most amazing variety of animals out ther...holy moly! They also have animals that apparently got stuck in between varieties during evolution because they looked like unholy combinations of convential animals. I wonder what else is out there that we haven't seen yet.

Chicago Architectural Tour

Largest Tiffany's glass structure in the world...it is the dome of the historic Chicago Public Library which now houses the Chicago Cultural Center on the corner of Michigan Ave and Washington.... they had some interesting photographic art collections as well featuring an Ellis Island project and a feature on Middle Eastern folks living in the US.

Part of the Chicago architectural boat tour...an hour of fun riding around in an open top boat on the Chicago river checking out all of the amazing buildings in the area.
These were called the Marina Towers but are more commonly referred to as the "corn cob" buildings - I loved these. They are residential buildings with the first 10-15 floors just being parking...some movie was filmed here too.

The sheer height of the buildings were crazy in Chicago. 50+ stories were on the small side whereas that is the tallest for San Francisco. Literally our current condo tower wasn't even tall enough to cover the parking levels in some of the Chicago buildings. We headed up to the bar at the top of the John Hancock building and that was about 100 stories up...cuh razy

Dinner at Alinea

My love of food notwithstanding, I have been really, really excited about our upcoming meal at Alinea. I had heard a lot about the place and what Chef Grant Achatz has been doing...and his recent battle with tounge cancer. The man lost his sense of taste then won the James Beard award - crazy. His is also a former French Laundry cook and one of the few who have left and made it big....so I was curious how he would meld his training with his own personality...



Steelhead Roe (coconut, cilantro, vanilla fragrance)
Cocktail of Louis Roederer Brut with Roussanne, Spiced Mead and Curacao

This was fascinating...the vanilla bean was the stick that had some coconut custard, roe and was wrapped in a cilantro tuille. The combination of flavors was very interesting...almost Thai inspired both sweet and savory and tangy.

Tomato (basil, mozarella, olive oil)
Domaine Sigalas Assytri "Santorini", Santorini Greece 2007

So your basic caprese salad..but completely deconstructed into a different set of textures as to play on your palatte. The mozarella was a frozen foam, the basil was presented as a gelatto and the balsamic was made into little gelee cubes. The tomatoes...now THAT was interesting - it was umami-riffic. They had regular tomato cubes, tomato water gelee cubes, a spoonful of tomato seeds AND a tomato powder that was pressed into a cube. The tomato flavors were just absolutely fascinating and different in each bite.

Cauliflower (five coatings, three gels, apple)
Venica & Venica Tocai Friulano "Ronco delle Cime" Collio 2007

Now THIS was also very interesting...the cubes there are cauliflower custard rolled in a variety of different toppings. One is cheese, and um I can't remember the rest but they were all delicious. There are also 3 different gels (one was vanilla I remember) and dried cauliflower pieces. They then poured a warm apple soud (SUPER CREAMY) at the table. It was so interestingly savory.

Alaskan King Crab (popcorn, butter, curry)
Chrereau-Carre Muscadet "Comte Leloup de Chasseloir, Ceps Centenaires" Loire 2003

So they told us to think about things that go with butter....so you naturally think popcorn, lobster, crab, corn....and surprisingly they all show up on this plate all together but some in different texture form. The ribbon you see running across the plate is a popcorn puree, there is lobster and crab on the plate along with some regular corn and curry...in the middle is a mango pudding/custard thing. On the right you see a ball, it is basically a ball of melted butter - totally cool.

Celery (pork belly, shiso, sudachi)

Crisp and delectable pork belly on the fork with a bit of shiso and celery shaving. The cup holds a little bit of shiso soup and some sudachi foam...dericious

Wagyu Beef (maitake, smoked date, Blis Elixir)
Littorai "Savoy Vineyard" Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley California 2005

So it was Wagyu....enough said there. And this was the good shit straight from Japan. they brought out the beef suspended in a pair of decorative chopsticks a few courses prior...after a quick dip in liquid nitrogen....so it slowly defrosts on the table, then they bring out the rest of the goodness..the mushrooms laying on a bed of smoked date mousse and then drizzles a little vinegar and wagyu fat YUMMMMM!!!!

Lamb (potato, sunflower, sweet spice)
Cims de Porrera "Classic" Priorat 2004

They use the same lamb as The French Laundry...there are like only a handful of places that this supplier produces lamb for..as a small outfit in upstate NY. And the verdict? It is f-ing delicious. I was a little over the sunflower puree though...it was good but for me there was too much of it for the lamb....

Hot Potato (cold potato, black truffle, butter)

Apparently this is a classic Alinea dish. In the bowl is a cold potato soup, the skewer has a cube of parmesean cheese, butter and a hot potato ball with black truffle. To eat you pull the pin, thus making all of the pieces drop into the soup and then shoot the whole thing - YUMMYLICIOUS! I think this was one of my favorites.

Duck (foie gras, mole flavors)
Gonzalez Byass Palo Cortado "Apostoles 30 anos" Jerez Spain

SUPER interesting... It had duck confit shredded in the bottom of the cup, with a nice seared foie gras cube and and mole. I don't love mole in general but this was fantastic!!! And well, the foie gras.....well I do LOVE foie gras. The seeds and goodness in the bowl were heated to provide added aroma.
From left to right:
Watermelon (fresh coriander, tamari, bonito)
Bacon (butterscotch, apple, thyme)
Strawberry (violet, nicoise olive)
Concord Grape (yogurt, mint, long pepper)

This was VERY interesting...not onlly did everything taste wonderfully interesting, they each had their own special serving piece. The watermelon on that spear was funny because you just kind of lean into it and take a bite..it was sweet and savory YUMMY!

The bacon was suspended in that little moon on a wire and was crunchy and sweet and well, you can't go wrong with bacon.

The strawberry was like a little malt ball in texture almost...melting in your mouth when it sits in your mouth and as the layers melt you taste the briny olive and the aromatic violet...crazy.

The concord grape - WOW - the little ball was so delicate so that it almost instantly crumbled when it hit your mouth releasing an intensely flavored juice and shooting that with the juice that the grape was sitting in was super fantastic.

Forrest about to fellate his watermelon.
Pumpkin (gruyere, Blis maple syrup, smoke)
Klein Constanatia "Vin de Constance" Constantia South Afria 2002

Oh yeah - this was pretty cool. They placed a pillow filled with smoke that smelled like a campfire on our table then put a plate on top. So throughout the course you are surrounded by the smell of a campfire while eating a pumpkin thing with cheese and maple syrup. It was kind of like a custard thing.... it was all very fall :)

Chocolate (fig, olive, pine) Famille L. Dupone Pommeau de Normanie France

I don't even like chocolate but I ate this. I really dug the figs and the pine sorbet in this one. It's basically a chocolate sheet over a bunch of figs and other yummy little bits.

Dry Caramel (salt)

Again WOW...it was basically a shot glass of powder but after you shoot it, the moisture in your mouth instantly turns this into chewy salted caramel...amazing. I could have bathed in this.

I was worried that Alinea was going to be "too wierd" even for me, because sometimes all the food science of playing with texture and flavors can push the boundaries to a place where it no longer tastes good....but everything was executed perfectly and deliciously. Many of the flavors were familiar and grouped in ways that felt natural but you ended up experiencing them in a manner that was new and different, thus changing your perspective. And the service was amazing...not stuffy, very efficient and friendly - it was almost if you found a middle place between Charlie Trotter and Thomas Keller's schools of thought and then mixed in a little hipster.

Wired NextFest

That's something like a "beat bot" or something. It feels like a spongey rubber, bounces to the beat of music and can record you with its video camera eyes. Wired magazine was hosting a "next fest" in a tent in Millenium Park in Chicago. It basically featured some next generation design on consumer goods, electronics, vehicles, games and city planning....

Some concept vehicle. Apparently in the future no one has any SO's or kids since all the cars are single person vehicles only....some didn't even have lids so 50% of the world can't use it 50% of the time due to weather concerns. I am most dissapointed by these as they are nothing more than glorified wheelchairs.
Again, a glorified wheelchair where you can't carry anything or run any errands on the way to and from work...all you can do is shuttle yourself and only yourself around.

Some game where the lack of brain waves will move the ball across the table. The lady who was running this station said to "empty your mind..." Forrest won this in about 2 seconds flat - ha!

The bean again - it is just so damn cool.

Putzing around Chicago

A view of downtown Chicago (The Loop/Millenium Park are) from the steps of the Adler Planetarium. Since we took the red eye out on Tuesday night, we had all day Wednesday to putz around the city.... after a brief 2 hour nap we headed out for breakfast and then a brisk walk down to the Planetarium...which was located just steps away from Soldier Field.

That's Forrest standing in front of the death star....just kidding!!!! That's the first planetarium ever made. It has holes drilled into it that look like the constellation of stars and spins around on an axis so when you are in the little cart sitting inside the ball it's as if the earth is spinning and you get to see the stars rotate.
After a brief nap during planetarium show #2 (heehee) we headed out on the water taxi on Lake Michigan over to Navy Pier. Basically, Navy Pier is kind of like the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk only cleaner and mixed in with a couple theaters, other commercial spaces and convention / meeting spaces...AND it is the home of WBEZ Chicago Public Radio!!! Sadly there was no Ira Glass for me to swoon over....he has since relocated to NYC to be all big time with his TV show.

The beginning of a love affair....the Chicago Style Hot Dog. I got this one at the Navy Pier's food court at America's Dog food stand. Even though I didn't go to some long standing local legend hot dog stand, this was pretty good... I really like having the sport peppers in the hot dog and the poppy seed bun is pretty fantastic too. I think is my love of all things pickled that makes this snack such a delicious treat....it has a pickle, relish AND pickled peppers...yummo.

I love it so much, I have been trying to figure out where I can buy the ingredients to recreate this deliciousness at home. Sadly the poppyseed buns and the atomic green relish are not locally available BUT Vienna Beef does sell a "Chicago Style Hot Dog Party Pack" online that includes everyting so I will be purchasing that shortly and inviting you'all over to watch a football game.

Welcome to the Windy City!

That's the orb in Millenium Park in downtown Chicago. The thing is HUGE and is a mirrored bean sitting in the middle of this beautifully manicured park between the city and Lake Michigan. Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the entire world.... I'm no jet set traveler but I have been to my fair share of places in the world and Chicago is my favorite. It has all the wonderful architecture of an old city plus the dramatic skyline, throw in lots of outdoor space with the parks and the lake, lots of history and culture, a diverse population, active industry and TONS of great food make this place a wonderful place to be. Now if I could just do something about those sub-zero winters and I would move in a heartbeat--wait, the lack of any relatives nearby is another knock against the place but otherwise I can't sing enough of it's praises.

Obligatory couple photo in front of the bean.
Photo of our reflection....we thought the skyline looked pretty funny all bent and rounded like that.
A view from from the underneath the bean looking up. We took three days off and headed out to Chicago for a few days in desperate need of a little R&R. Tom and Angie, my friends from Michigan, trekked it out to meet us for the weekend and we proceeded to eat, cruise around town and do lots of relaxing.