15 things to do in California

15 things to do in California

1.  Eat dim sum in San Francisco with legit Chinese people.

Barrett's lovely grandma who insisted I get squid and ordered off the menu.

The menu.

2.  Explore some sketchy Battery to get a view.

I climbed to the top of this in cowboy boots.

Some popular bridge...jeez, what was it again?

3.  Scowl at hippies in Haight.  Scowl with hipsters in the Mission.

You know how I feel about hippies.

Perplexed...why does it cost so much to look cheap?  The shopping was ridiculous.

4.  Go to a food truck festival.  Eat at more than three trucks.

By the harbor near Golden Gate.

Indian curry in a burrito with basmati. SHUTUP!

I also have never seen so many Asian Americans that spoke perfect English in one place.

5.  Scoot your huskies.  Wait, you can do that anywhere.

Those Californians.....my sister in law with her huskies.

6.  Visit the Black Chasm.  A huge crack in the earth.

7.  See some of the biggest trees you will ever see.

8.  Be warned.

9.  Learn more than you want to know about wine making.

each of these barrels from France costs any where from $1500-$2000 and are only used up to three times before they are converted to a life of storage or turned into some souvenir cutting board.

10. Go to a barrel tasting.

First winery (with my in laws), not intoxicated one bit.

This guy studies wine making in Davis as well as on the vineyard.  The life.  He has plans to open his own winery.

11. Go to a super exclusive estate winery.  Taste wines they only make 74 cases of.

Casa Nueva...they sustain themselves on their wine clubs.  They do not  participate in retail.

12. Mingle with cool locals that have wineries, sheep, goats and pair food straight off the land and grill with their wine.

surfer dude who makes wine.

Funny story...the winery bought the goats to get rid of weeds, instead they ate the grapes.  Now they just live a life of leisure on the propery.

13.  Feel a mix of jealousy and awe.  Eat at the Culinary Institute of America.

14.  Take in some views.

15. Forget your sunglasses.

The Best Thing I Ate in Brooklyn

There we were...walking back from a fabulous brunch at Miriam in Park Slope, Brooklyn (and swinging the sensible shoes I had purchased at Beacon's Closet) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  Amidst the pet shops, bike shops, thrift stores, futuristic baby strollers (that is what Park Slope is made up of), I look up and see an unremarkable green awning.  "Christie's Jamaican Beef Patties" I say aloud.  Both Raskia and James Boice's eyes light up at my observation.

They insist I try one.  They are the best in Brooklyn.  I've made a cosmic connection.  Of all the stores to say aloud, I pick this one.  I had to eat one.  

I apologize for not having a picture.  I hate taking pictures of food I'm going to eat in public places.  Is that weird?  I just think it's tacky.  The truth is I was so preoccupied with this meat pocket, that I couldn't think about taking a picture.  So here's one I found on the internet:

from mightysweet.com

Anyway.  In case you don't know, a Jamaican beef patty is a spicy ground beef turnover with a flaky crust.  James and I couldn't even wait to get to the apartment (or Prospect Park even) to dig in.  We sat on a bench on the side of the sidewalk and devoured half of a pattie (this is after a full brunch mind you).  It was delicious...hints of cumin, scotch bonnet pepper, thyme...it was all there.  My mouth waters just thinking of it.

Honorable mention:  Steak and eggs at Vinegar Hill House.  The ambiance was perfect...small farmhouse out of an Anthropologie catalog.  Polite, slender, stylish, tattooed, beautiful wait staff.  French-pressed coffee, local ingredients, craft cocktails with special ice  blah blah, every foodie's dream.  Again, no pics of the food, you know how I roll.  But here's the garden patio where we sipped our coffee and waited for our table.

cross-processed for your viewing pleasure

Good bye Seoul...Ahn Young!

Tomorrow I board the plane back home.  I'm looking forward to sleeping in my bed and seeing my dog.  Unfortunately Michael won't be there when I get there, but I'm trying not the think about that as I'm trying to jam almost a months worth of clothes, gifts, toiletries back into my green suitcase.

I'm satisfied that I've been able to reflect Seoul through my eyes...mostly because I never write anything down and it's nice to leave knowing that I've documented something other than 200 photos of Namsan Mountain and Korean Folk Villages.

I'm forever grateful to my cousins on my mother's side who spend their vacations navigating me through Seoul, translating, and showing me that squid ink really isn't anything to be afraid of.  It just turns everything black.  Anyway, I was touched that they would cart around their clumsy American cousin.

I totally thought I was going to lose weight as I walked (while eating street food) everywhere (to go eat). 

Fried Chicken Thigh on a stick smothered in spicy Korean red pepper sauce.  I know you can't tell by the picture, but I am lunging in excitement.  First food lunge ever.

Since this is a cooking blog I guess I should share one of my favorite meals here.  There are plenty of restaurants here that are just like back in the states.  Wait staff (NO tipping in Korea), tables with long legs and chairs, Cokes...however my favorite were the ones that literally look like you are stepping into someone's old fashioned living room.  Heated wooden floors, heavy wooden doors that slide, short tables with mats to sit on the floor, and you must take your shoes off before entering the dining area.

We drove and drove and drove for miles until we took a sharp turn under an underpass into a small restaurant situated next to a mountain and a rabbit stew house.  Restaurants in Korea generally specialize in one thing and you will know it by the name or reputation. We stopped at a "Bo Saam" house.  This just means you will be wrapping your delicious food in some sort of lettuce, cabbage, leaf, whatever is green. We were in the country, about to eat some real country food.  Food that makes you feel so at home that you are compelled to take the dishes to the sink in the back.

I don't like to write about food because a. I hate writing.  b. Writing never does justice to what is going on in the mouth.  But I can say that kimchee was crisp, spicy, salty and sweet.  It reminded me of tasting my mother's kimchee as a kid right after she made it.  Some people prefer the stuff that's been able to sit and ferment longer.  I prefer it fresh, right after it's made.  There was a piping hot pot of Soon Dubu Chigae (spicy tofu soup) with home made tofu and a spicy broth that makes my mouth water simply thinking about it.  There's whole fried fish (guts and all, just avoid them), fermented bean paste stew, sprouts....the table is a rainbow.

Nobody speaks, the universal silence of  "this is some good food".

The machines all sing me a chorus and a real life European shoulder bag

-  My insides have finally adjusted to the spicy/unusual food, jerky taxi driver driving, the subway and buses.  Now it's time for me to leave next week.  I am finally able to enjoy myself without wanting to shut myself in a dark room.

- Nobody, nooobody ever has their cell phone on vibrate.  It is generally on the loudest setting with the flashiest song.  I was at my cousin's daughter's kindergarten recital (which was...the cutest) and at least 4 phones singing songs of techno beats, Tchaikovsky, K-Pop and the like went off.



The equivalent to our youth dressed in tri -cornered hats and bonnets. Only this is cuter.


-  Speaking of which...everything mechanical in Korea sings rather than beeps.  Why beep when you can...SING?  The rice cookers, notifications on the subway that tell you when a stop is arriving, doors even (a lot of apartment complexes have electronic doors)..they all sing a melodic jingle as they are operated.  We even went across some rumble strips on the highway and no joke the different frequencies formed a melody...Mary Had a Little Lamb.  My mom is constantly asking where that noise is coming from.  Something is usually being turned on or off.

-  5 out of the 5 computers I've used only have IE installed. One had IE6.  I expected more out of an incredibly technically advanced society.  I mean, there are automatic door handle sanitizers on some doors...yet the browser of choice is one that doesn't work.

-  Noodles and soup are to be slurped.  At first this was alarming.  However, now that I've been a slurper I understand why.  It actually does taste better this way, and if every one is doing, hey, no big whoop...I will do it too.  I think it has to do with the way the food moves across the tongue.  Have you ever been to a wine tasting class and they tell you to slurp you wine across your tongue so you can properly taste the wine in all its glory?  Well, this is what that's like.  And it cools things down quite nicely.



Lots of floor eating.  This is in a restaurant..you take your shoes off at the door and step up to the floor where the tables are.  My butt and legs constantly fall asleep.

-  I couldn't resist...though this is more of a satchel, I thought the British nationalism would be a nice touch.

-  Korean food really does taste better in Korea.  The cabbage is sweeter, which I think makes for a more balanced kimchi.  I went back to the little hole in the wall near my aunt's studio and had another piping hot (they boil the soup right at the table) pot of the seafood bouillabaisse.  Then had a cup of slightly burned rice bits (the kind that stick to the bottom of the rice cooker) and hot water, served from a small stone stove attached to a stove pipe in the middle of the dining area.  I felt like it would be an insult to take pictures...this one will just have to live in my memory.

- To clear the record...Koreans are not poor drivers, they are just really aggressive.  And they can seriously park their car into the tiniest of tiniest.  I seen it!

- My aunt is a talented sculptor.  She ever let me play with some clay...here is my masterpiece.  A naked chubby girl with a crazy perm (I copied from a picture in a book I saw of Eve).

-  I found this dog on Namsan Mountain.  I wanted to take him home.



I followed him around screaming "here doggy", there was no owner in site. My mom told me not to touch him and that he probably doesn't understand English.

- My mother just asked "what is that noise? Is some one's phone ringing?"  No...it was the washing machine.  The load is done.

Chicken Butt and Potty Humor.

- Turns out I was wrong. So wrong.  My Korean age is 31...not 30!  Give a girl a break.  However, I did get carded at the movie theatre the other day.  This happens a lot in the states...I didn't expect it to happen here.  Turns out we even fool ourselves.

-  Korea is very high-tech.  Everyone has a smartphone here.  Even the streets have giant interactive, touch phone-shaped screens that provide maps of the city, tourist attractions and will take your picture and send it to your smartphone.  This has to be the coolest/germ-ridden thing ever.




(us examining the picture and putting a tasteful frame around it before sending it to our respective phones)

 Yet, the bathroom I tried to use in the subway looked like a porcelain hole in the floor.  I had not the patience (nor the knees) for the gymnastics involved in trying the relieve myself.  I was later told by my cousin that the hole in the ground/floor was an old school thing.  I am so glad I am visiting Korea after most of the buildings caught up with more modern plumbing.

-   The cars have small wide screens for GPS...and get this...a TV.  This has to be dangerous.
 

-  I'm learning lots of good Korean cusswords.

- I finally got a night out in the city to do some drinking.  Turns out I am a heavy drinker, even for a Korean.  My cousins told me that Korea was number 3 in big world drinkers (after Ireland and Russia)....so I wore my extra thick drinking pants.  You serve yourself liquor here.  It's pretty tight...and can get out of hand fast.  Soju is a lot stronger than I thought.



In Kangnam...famous for its impressive bar (or "sul jcheep" translated literally to "house of booze")  per square foot.

-  I ate chicken sphincter.  Please do not confuse this with the delicious "Pope's nose" or the area by the tail feathers.  This is actual chicken asshole.  "Dak-Ddong-Jcheep".  This literally translates to " Chicken Poo House".  So descriptive when you think about it. 

Harness Your Chicken Butt

Anthony Bourdain ate this on the Korean No Reservations episode.  I too was downing soju (distilled rice liquor)...which I think is required to drunkenly forget that you are eating chicken asshole.



Me.  Dropping chicken butt.  A combination of inebriation and weak chopstick hands.

-  I was a little full from the chicken...so I missed out again on some street food...but it was tempting.  It's been cold out, so the venders all have thick plastic curtains around everything.

-  Irish pubs in Korean are gimmicky too. 

And holy chicken asshole are they expensive.