Eat Real Food. Drink Real Beer.

We checked out the Eat Real Fest in Jack London Square on what was possibly the hottest day this summer. The organization was "created to inspire eaters to choose tasty, healthy, good food. Through a vibrant, local festival in Oakland, CA, and a focus on delicious and sustainable “street food,” Eat Real puts eaters in contact with the real people -- the farmers, chefs, and producers -- who make our food." This also gave us a chance to meet some of our rockstar street food vendors who've been making waves in SF this year, see them in action, and sample their goodies.

Pretty much all of the vendors are on Twitter, and there were a few that I was determined to try. We noshed our way through Phat Matt's BBQ, the Adobo Hobo, 4505 Meats, and succeeded in finding Steve of Gobba Gobba Hey, creator and purveyor of delectable Gobs and Gobbles. We were pretty much stuffed by the time we made it to the Beer Shed to guzzle a few servings of local microbrews.

Pictures of the sweltering (but satisfying) summer day: HERE.

The Hood

I just discovered http://theoutersunset.com/ which gives a pretty good visual description of what it looks like in our neighborhood. A few more things:

• The Outer Sunset is also sometimes called The Parkside, and it's totally different from the Inner Sunset (which is East of 19th). The Inner Sunset is a bit more Old Money and also includes the 9th/Irving St strip (aka the New "Chestnut Street"). The Outer Sunset is rougher around the edges and is more old-school working-class Irish & Asian, many of whom have been here for generations.
• Everything in the Outer Sunset displays a distinct patina of rust & salt corrosion, thanks to the thick, omnipresent, and salt-laced fog.
  
• It's pretty quiet out here. We often hear the waves, & can sometimes smell the ocean, from our house. On warm/sunny days, it's a crapshoot whether the fog will actually lift from our neighborhood (and for how long before the fog rolls back in), even though temps are soaring everywhere else in the city.
• There's really no rhyme or reason to the house colors & design. Anything pretty much goes in this neighborhood. The most entertaining street has to be 48th Ave - the seaward-facing homes have the craziest nautical themes.

I wouldn't trade living here for anything in the world.

Good food = Best medicine

I wasn't feeling well today, and stayed home from work so I could herbal/vitamin-supplement myself back to normal. As I tend to do when I'm putt-putting aimlessly around with no agenda &/or feeling under the weather, I decided to spend the afternoon doing what I do best: making dishes from our abundant Terra Firma Farm produce. We were overloaded with basil, garlic, walnuts, and apples, so I made some pesto and an apple pie.





For dinner, we had mushroom tortellini with fresh Basil-Walnut pesto and sliced Brandywine, Marvel Stripe, and Lemon Boy tomatoes, and warm Gala Apple pie for dessert. Happy Tuesday!

Haute Dawgs

Lauren and Charles held a DIY Hot Dog Barbecue Party at their place today. Lauren has her own successful catering business (she makes a kickass award-winning chocolate-chipotle chili), and she put together some creative gourmet twists on these regular old turkey franks.



Ahhhh so many fond memories of partying with our girl Lauren. It's no surprise why we love her so.


More pics HERE. Congratulations to Charles and Lauren on your engagement!

Saturday Night Chicken Adobo

One of our favoritest joints of all time, Rick's Aloha, was a Hawaiian restaurant in the Sunset District within walking distance from our house. We spent many a Friday night knocking back a few pints, wailing on their makeshift karaoke stage, and cheering along with the rowdy regulars. Rick's closed last November 2008 after a couple decades of operation, and as we went through a period of mourning, we also waited impatiently for what would open in its place.

The Parkside Tavern finally opened a few days ago. Has the same owners as Foley's Irish Pub downtown, with an interesting menu featuring "upscale" pub food. Hmmmm. That's good news for my dad, who now can get his steak dinner fix a few blocks away.

So we checked it out after work on Friday. Boy was this place SLAMMED on its opening weekend! We said hello to former Rick's Aloha bartender Jason, who was hanging out at the other end of the bar. We spotted a couple other folks from the old Rick's karaoke crew. We noticed a lot of older folks like our table neighbors, very casually dressed down, who were also former Rick's regulars checking the new joint out too. In all the madness, our server forgot our order, and eventually forgot about us, leading to an unhappy word with the manager, who comped our entire meal. It was actually pretty delish, and we understood it was a crazy night for the staff, so giving us this freebie was very cool on their part.

We then strolled back home, stopping by The Spot Lounge for more booze. The beer was fine, but the soju was our downfall. Doing shots with one of the owners, yikes. This morning, I had one of the most brutal hangovers I've had in years. YEARS, mind you.

Which brings me to the topic of this post: Chicken adobo. After eventually getting back to a semi-queasy normalcy in the afternoon, I needed to make something comforting and hearty (and easy!) for tonight's dinner. I also considered arroz caldo, but Russell helped me settle on adobo. Which was perfect, since I had been craving this since I started following The Adobo Hobo on Twitter.

Throw it all in a pot

Terra Firma Farm heirloom tomatoes

Lookin good, smellin good

Time to eat!

Ukelele all-a dayday

Some friends spent the weekend with us in San Francisco for some nonstop ukulele madness