Come and "Eat Real" this weekend at Jack London Square, Oakland

September 23-25

Only one more day to go till the Eat Real Festival comes to Jack London Square, Oakland!

It's gonna be a "feastival" of sustainable, locally-made artisanal treats and drinks for cheap (meaning nothing over $5), food-tastic entertainment, contests and DIY foodmaking! Admission is free but bring cash

Photo by Michael Halberst

Festival hours:

       Friday 1-8PM

       Saturday 11AM-8PM

       Sunday 11AM-7PM

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Bike Love

I'd like to think of myself largely immune to the highly consumerist lifestyle commonplace here in America, but that isn't always true. Much as I hate to admit it, I am crazy over the Target-Missoni Women's bike. A Public bike is great too but - oh man - I love this! How could I not?


Did you hear about the mad rush for Missoni products at Target locations and how there was such a high demand that Target's servers crashed?

My friend Ron's been trying to get me on a bike for the longest time and while his frequent prodding and offers to help me build my bike in exchange for free meals haven't quite convinced me, this might be all the convincing I need.

Now if only I weren't a hill sissy...


What about you? What inspires you? :)

Picture by: Target

Date Night - flat broke student edition

Being a student while working means that I don't always have the $$$ to go out on fancy dates - though, I have to admit, those are few and far between - but neither does it mean that date night has to be any less special. If anything, it becomes opportunity for creativity :)

Thought it might be nice to have a "starving student/part-time working girl" dinner by the water since we'd had such nice weather lately and started crafting this card during my lunch break.

Water therapy

One of my absolute favorite things about living in the Bay Area is my proximity to water. There is something about being near water that instantly calms me. I mean, that makes sense, right? Most of the meanings of water have to do with nourishment, peace, satiation.

       Whether I've had a rough week or just need some de-stressing, one of the things I like to do is either head out to the Embarcadero ferry building, sit on a pier bench or go up to Crissy Field. It's especially nice on a sunny day, because let's face it, I'm practically a child of the sun. It also makes sense to make the most of the precious few sunny days we get out here in fog city.

Le Garage Bistro, Sausalito

We got the chance to visit Le Garage last May. I found out about the place in a slightly unconventional way. I'd been perusing craigslist for food-related jobs in the Bay and saw that they were hiring hosts. I didn't get the job but it did become a place to try on my food bucket list - a list that seems to constantly grow despite my efforts to keep up with crossing items off the list.

The interior space of the bistro looked like a converted garage with its garage doors and their mechanic uniform-clad waiters (who even spoke French! oh my!). But it was done simply enough to not look kitschy or overdone. (Then again, kitsch isn't always a bad thing - as long as done in moderation.) There was also outside seating. It definitely seemed like a great place for brunch and had a great view from both the inside and outside :overlooking the Bay and the sailboat dock. We even did a little sailboat window shopping while waiting for our table to be ready: "I want that one and that one and that one!" Since reading about Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, and his living on a sailboat, I'm convinced that entrepreneurs and highly creative people live on sailboats. Oh how I wish.

Urban Farming resources in the Bay Area

We've got some amazing resources here in the Bay Area and even surrounding cities (i.e. Oregon) to learn about urban farming. I found out about it through Hayes Valley Farm - who hosted a lecture by Cuban permaculture activist Roberto Perez Rivero here in the city earlier this year. If you get the chance, you should watch the documentary entitled, "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" which talks about Cuba's turn to urban farming after its economic collapse in 1991 following the fall of the Soviet Union.

From there I read Novella Carpenter's Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer over the summer. While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I don't see myself raising pigs in my little San Francisco backyard anytime soon. In any case, I think it's been claimed by an orange stray cat. Everytime I've opened up our blinds in the morning, he's been there in our overgrown backyard, doing what cats do, which is laze around on a sunny patch of grass and exude absolute cuteness.

BBQ at John and Anna's

Spicy italian sausage and chicken omelette hash

This was a breakfast omelette-hash of thrown together left-overs in the spirit of what my grandmother coined as "maskipops" from the phrase, "maski papano" or, roughly, "whichever way."

My boyfriend had cubes of pepper jack cheese and a Boudin bread bowl left over from work (He works for Red and White Fleet where all sorts of fun on the water abound. I hear the folks who go to the Indian Sunset Cruise know how to have a good time) and I combined his cheese donations with my own leftovers: a "Spanish" chicken dish adapted from Nigella Lawson from the day before, grated mozzarella and Italian seasoning as the filling of my omelette.

I didn't get to take pictures of the previous day's dish (too early in the morning and it was a day I had class) but this is roughly what Nigella's Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes dish should look like.

Hooray for reinvention!

I finally did it. I started a public blog.

My friends have often told me "why not start a blog?" This in response to my serial food photography, my almost daily chronicling of what I am about to eat. You know those people who whip out their phone cameras to take a picture of their meal prior to digging in? That's me.