“Top Chef Season 8: All Stars” started last Wednesday and Brother decided to do a Fantasy Top Chef draft. There are 4 of us playing: Brother, Joy, my friend Teresa, and yours truly. We each have 4 chefs on our team and our chefs score 5 points for winning an elimination challenge, 3 for a quickfire win, 1 for cursing, and 1 for crying. My team consists of Angelo, Spike, Jennifer, and Fabio. So far Angelo has been pulling through for me with two Elimination Challenge wins while Jennifer just got kicked off tonight. Fortunately she still scored me 2 points for cursing and crying on her way out the door.
It’s been fun watching this group of chefs again and it’s even more fun watching it every Wednesday night with the family over video chat. Brother bought Joy a new macbook so we’ve been able to use iChat and we get to call out who’s cursing while posting up the scores live with shared Google Docs. I [heart] technology.
Ryan and Michelle held their 4th Annual Pie Party on Sunday afternoon and it was at Ryan’s work office down the street this year. I made two pies: a skillet apple pie and a pumpkin pie with walnut brown sugar topping. I think I finally figured out how to make a decent crust and my apples came from the Farmer’s Market this year. The pumpkin pie was just for fun since I wanted to redeem myself for the not-so-good one that I made on Thanksgiving Day.
This year, there were way more sweet pies than savory pies. There was a mac and cheese pie that everyone thought tasted delicious but didn’t vote for it because we all either thought it was cheating or we were just pulling for a sweet pie to win this year. Mine were the apple pie in the two-handled pan and the pumpkin just to the right of it.
In the end, Vyl won. AGAIN. For the third year in a row. Oh well…she certainly does make good pies. This year, she won with a chocolate bourbon pecan pie that really was tasty. The prize was a lighter in the shape of a small fish. It was pretty funny. There were 4 apple pies this year (including mine) and I came in 4th place overall with the most votes out of the apples. I guess I’m improving. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. One day I will win with an apple pie…one day.
On Saturday (12/4), we picked up our Chirstmas tree and got one that was taller than me! It was fun to actually use more than half of our ornaments in the box this year.
We buy an ornament each year to commemorate something memorable for the year. Here is this year’s ornament. It’s a 5 Euro Eiffel Tower that we bought from a street vendor. I put a hook on it and voila!
This year, our turkey was smaller and Jes made butternut squash soup from scratch.
He started in the morning and it took pretty much the whole afternoon to get it just right. It turned out really well and we had lots left over for the next couple days.
The Masayas joined us for our Orphan Thanksgiving and I had a brief iChat with the family in LA. Brother bought Joy a new macbook that has the camera built in so we can actually video chat now.
I also made my first attempt at pumpkin pie, which tasted right but the texture was all wrong. Jes thinks I just need to try a different recipe. I’m gonna try again this weekend.
Last Wednesday (11/17), Brother, Joy, and Mommy came up to visit me. The timing coincided with a bunch of things that I already had planned for the week and they somehow came together just fine. I picked them up on Wednesday night and they spent Thursday exploring the city and also went to Alcatraz. Meanwhile, I went to work and we also had our annual Craft/Bake Sale Fundraiser.
We always have a Happy Hour afterward so the family took BART over to the East Bay and got to meet the gang at work.
HH was at Marc 49 and we had a fun evening decompressing from the crazy month of planning and the actual fundraiser.
The interesting part of the evening was that I saw my mom drinking a beer for the first time! For all my life, she didn’t drink but I guess retirement has changed things.
On Friday, I already had the day off to visit the de Young Museum with Stephanie. So, that morning, I took the family to Mama’s for pancakes and waited a good 45 minutes to get in. Luckily no one was in a hurry so we endured the wait and had a feast of pancakes, french toast, eggs, and corned beef hash. Afterward, we met up with Stephanie at the mall and headed out to Golden Gate Park.
The family went to the California Academy of Science and the two of us went to the Van Gogh exhibit. It was a rainy day but it didn’t matter. We all still had a good time.
Later that evening, we met up with the rest of the girls at Embarcadero Center for Light-up Night. HH was at Osha Thai where we enjoyed appetizers and Effen drinks.
By 6:30, we paid the tab and headed outside for the lighting and caught the fireworks in the rain.
Immediately after the fireworks, we walked over to the Hyatt for the tree lighting. Unfortunately it was quite a production and we had some time to kill. That was when things got a little fuzzy since people were at the bar and bringing me tasty drinks.
About 20 minutes later, they started the countdown and the snow fell while the lights turned on.
My mom eventually got tired and took Muni home. Meanwhile, the girls took off for snacks at Palomino while Jes, Brother, Joy, and I headed over to One Market. Sometime between the Hyatt and the restaurant I fell ‘cuz I woke up the next morning with a huge scuff on my knee. Whoops. As dinner started, Joy wasn’t feeling well so we went home early while the boys finished dinner. As I was taking care of Joy, I got a text from Jes that said “Peanuts in your brother’s dessert. Hooray.” Here’s his side of the story:
Yep, he was struck by the peanut monster once again and ended up yacking at the restaurant and in the street on the way home. What a mess.
The next day we took it easy as everyone was recovering from a fun fun evening. We had porridge and fried dough for breakfast, grilled cheese and tomato soup for a snack, and then Bakesale Betty’s for lunch. Yum Yum…if that doesn’t take care of a hangover, nothing will.
Before taking the family to the airport, we stopped at Modern Mouse for Eleen’s anniversary party. We got to hang out with friends and browse the merchandise as the rain poured down. The drive to SFO was a little scary but we made it and the family got home safely after an hour-long flight delay.
The Masayas told us about this Japanese restaurant in San Mateo that serves a very small number of tables per night and is completely omakase. It’s called Wakuriya and we went a couple Tuesdays ago (11/16). We lucked out on getting in and were seated at the bar. We were the only ones at the bar and got a front row view of the chef preparing our meal. There were only 4 other parties in the restaurant and no one else entered after our 7:30 reservation. It was like going to someone’s house for dinner. There was one chef, his wife as the floor manager, and a guy in the back washing all the dishes.
We were treated to a 9-course Japanese meal that included a cold dish, raw dish, steamed dish, hot dish, fried dish, rice dish, and some stuff in between.
One of my favorites was the trio of appetizers – especially the foie sushi (circular one next to the carrots).
Another was the pork and cabbage in the most delicious broth. The chef carefully layered the two ingredients and it was steamed for 4 hours that afternoon.
I also enjoyed the rice dishes – especially the braised washu beef and egg over rice and swimming in a yummy broth. Everything was beautiful and delicious.
I also had a flight of fruit sake and Jes had a flight of the regular sake. From left to right, I had yuzu, rice, and plum. They were served in handmade glasses that are super thin and are molded to fit your fingers perfectly.
The nice woman that waited on us was really sweet and she was very enthusiastic about the food and sake. She also offered to take a photo of us. She noticed that we had the same camera that she did and also said that most people who eat at the restaurant take photos of the food and not of themselves. She was funny.
So, after 2 and a half hours, we rolled out of the restaurant happy and stuffed. That was fun. If you want to go, call to make a reservation and ask to be seated at the bar. They only seat 5 parties per night so cross your fingers.
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