Cabo Wabo Xmas IV

It's another Cabo Wabo Xmas for the Cayco family! This year, the de Joyas & Chuidians were joined by Miko, Bea, and Monica. Yep, it was a full(er) house this year!

As usual, everyone gathered on Christmas Eve for a Filipino dinner at Tita Yeyet & Tito Pepeng's house.


Save some for the rest of us, Isa!

Christmas Dinner was held at Chris and Erica's place. Keeping our tradition from last year, the "kids" made the Christmas dinner. Everyone was in charge of their own dishes, but we all chipped in to help each other with the prep work in the morning.

(click on the picture to enlarge it)

It was another wonderful Christmas filled with Food, Family, and FUUUNNN! For more pics, click HERE to see the album.

Ramping it up

Russell's birthday brunch at The Ramp

K-O-K with JoSun & SikeMo

A rooftop barbecue and karaoke party at Joanne Sun & Mike Sowalsky's condo proved to be our undoing. These are two very dangerous people. Beware.

Sun Day

It was one of those ultra-rare days when the sun is actually shining in our usually fog-bound Outer Sunset District neighborhood. So we just had to drop everything and take advantage by having a backyard barbecue brunch cookout with Justa and Drew. And what would brunch be without bottomless bloody marys?


The weather was rather warm for Corser's taste, so he started acting like a dog (for once) and dug himself a cool little nest in the shady sandy soil.


For more mouthwatering pictures of our barbecue, click HERE.

Happy Birthdaoke!

For my 35th birthday, Russell treated me & our close friends to food, drinks, and karaoke at The Spot Lounge. It's one block away from our house, which is a very good (and sometimes a bad) thing for us because it's too darn easy to stumble home from.
That's me & big bro Roland on the mic. For more embarassing pictures of the shameless debauchery, click HERE.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Russell for such a memorable 35th birthday celebration! You are officially the Best Husband Ever!

Fugly Sweaters Galore!

"... don we now our gay apparel..."

We held our annual Tree-Trimming Party, in which our friends come over and make the ornaments that will adorn our tree this year. Taking inspiration from our 1970s-1980s childhood memories, we christened this as our Ugly Holiday Sweater party. Our guests came bedecked and bedazzled in their fugliest holiday finest (and we said, the more obnoxious, the better!)



Justa came over early to help prepare the holiday spread (thank you Justa!) There was soooo much food, which kept arriving all night long as more people arrived! Our friends looooove to eat!

Click HERE for our pics. Fa la la laaa, la la la laaaaaaaaaaa!

A Winter Wonderland

St George Spirits in Alameda is truly one of the most magical places on earth. It's a craft distillery located in an old air force hangar (next to the Mythbusters shop), where they make the most exquisite small-batch hand-crafted spirits, including eau de vies (which are like grappa) and liqueurs, single malt whiskeys, and Hangar One Vodka (we are huge fans). Last year they debuted Absinthe Verte , the first absinthe legally made in the United States since 1912. We have a bottle of that too, and it's incredibly smooth and oh so delicious.

They recently released their handmade agave spirit, Agua Azul, otherwise known to most folks as tequila. However, just like how all "real" champagne has to be made in France's Champagne region, all "real" tequila must be made in Jalisco, Mexico - otherwise one cannot call it tequila. Just like the rest of the St George stuff, it's made on-site in their hangar (with agave pinas that they exported from Mexico), and thus can only legally be called an "agave-based spirit".

St. George hosts Open House events a few times a year, and this time around the theme was "1980s Winter Prom". For $40, they gave attendees tickets for 4 cocktails, 1 absinthe cocktail, 1 photograph at the photo station, and unlimited (ahem) "tastings" of all of their spirits. It goes without saying that there was also plenty of water stations to keep everyone hydrated, and plenty of hearty yummy food to keep the spirits in check.

Russell, Alden, and I had a blast. For more pics of the debauchery, click HERE.

Booze Cruise

Some very cool friends recently got us the gift of boozin' and cruisin' with Hornblower Cruises. So we took off on a beautiful clear weekend morning to enjoy a champagne brunch on the seas. The unlimited pours worked their magic, and we couldn't discern whether it was the boat swaying or whether it was us.
For more pics, click HERE.

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.

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!

Riptide

There's this cozy dive joint about a dozen blocks down the street from our house. Called The Riptide, you can smell the salty ocean air as you stand outside its door, shivering in the misty Ocean Beach fog. They host Open Mic Mondays, which we occasionally check out due to the amazing talent displayed at this particular event. Back in March we were treated to the four-part vocal stylings of Chairman Wow. Last night we were blown away by Kerry Wing and The Love Dimension. Yes, actual pros masquerading as amateurs.

Such an eclectic range of styles and instruments, it's not unusual to have a ukulele classic-rock tune followed by a barefoot a-capella french chanteuse followed by a roots-reggae-soul-singer followed by a psychedelic garage rock band followed by a crazy-haired accordianista followed by something like this:

Maui Madness in March

We were guests at the lovely wedding of Russell's pal Jon Suzukawa to his lady love Christine Martinez, which took place on the island of Maui on Monday March 23. In true Jon & Christine style, they had a gangload of activities for their guests, like scuba diving, Pacific Whale Foundation whalewatch eco-tour, the Old Lahaina Luau, and of course LOTS and LOTS of partying!

Most of us stayed in the Wailea area of Maui, since that's where much of the wedding-related action was taking place. But many guests (including the wedding party) got to Maui the week before and several days exploring the island and meeting & getting to know each other. Russell & I stayed at a condo at Wailea Elua Village with his coworker-friend Rachel & her husband Rich Vigil, which was (thankfully) stumbling distance from Jon & Christine's hotel.

Here's a link to the wedding website for those two crazy kids: Christine & Jon in Maui

And here's a link to our pictures HERE (I only posted small pics, let me know if you'd like me to send you any of the full-size files)

We had a mindblowing time in Maui, experiencing the most amazing things, including but not limited to:
- Snorkeling with the sea turtles, and hearing the whale songs while we were underwater
- Close encounters of the baby-whale kind (our slideshow appears below)
- Spotting a playful seal next to our beach
- Having The Best Giant Mai Tai In The World at Humuhumunukunukuapua'a restaurant & feeding their humongous freshwater carp
- Frying panfuls of spam for Spam Musubi in Jon & Christine's luxury penthouse hotel suite

An awesome time was had by all. Thank you to Jon & Christine for making such an experience possible, and for sharing your love of Maui with all of us! Congratulations to the wonderful couple!

We're totally gay for Mamma Mia & HSM

Last night, we had one of our movie/dinner theme nights: Mamma Mia (the Musical) and a big fat Greek Dinner potluck. Pictures of our feast can be viewed HERE. Of course the meal was accompanied by generous servings of ouzo, wine, and beer.

We actually started off by watching High School Musical 3. I guess one could argue the Greek connection due to the latent homosexuality of the male leads, but I digress...

Here's a bit of the giddiness that is Mamma Mia:

Potluck "Off The Beaten Path"

Tu & Herman had the brilliant idea to hold a "Bizarre Foods" type of Potluck dinner. Or as they described it, "The theme behind this event is for everyone to share a dish that is 'off the beaten path', something a little exotic/fear factorish or just a little different." Everything was surprisingly delicious, even though I was reeling from all the rich fatty mystery meats the next day.

Russell & I chronicled the evolution of the two dishes we brought: Lengua in creamy mushroom sauce and Sisig, two traditional Filipino dishes that we actually had & really liked during our visit to the Philippines. Pictures of our food preparation in all its gory details, as well as the MUCH more appetizing pictures of the delectable potluck dishes, can be found HERE.

Of course no party of this sort would be complete without that Filipino party staple: The Balut (fertilized duck embryo). Here are some slideshows of balut-eating in progress:

Justa's does a shot of Balut


Tu's turn to eat Balut at her potluck


It took a while to convince Billy, Marco, and Jason to do it, but they succumbed to peer pressure and took the Balut Challenge

New Year's Eve at the Tsao-Alves's

On December 31, we were invited to a New Year's Eve dinner at Tammy & Marco's. Now, that Marco has got the SKILLZ in the kitchen, I'll tell you what! Made a Portuguese meal of fat prawns with garlic, chili, & olive oil over crusty bread and "Bacalhau à Gomes de Sà" (salt cod with potatoes, onions, hard-cooked eggs, parsley, and olives).

Plus lots of wine and cheese... and liquor... and belgian ale... which leads to all sorts of wackiness...

Pictures of the bacchanal are posted [CLICK HERE]

Crawdaddy-a-go-go!

Back in mid-July 2008, Russell & I held a crawfish boil in our backyard. The weather actually cooperated with us and it felt like summer in the Sunset District (what a rarity!). We shipped in 40 pounds of crawfish from Louisiana, and it was quite a task to "purge" and cook the dang things.
Tu & Herman made spicy fried chicken. Justa made jambalaya and cornbread. I made the collard greens. Punam & Wency made beignets for dessert. Lawdy it's good to have friends that can cook! And of course, everyone else brought BEER (can't do a proper boil without the beer!)
It was such a memorable occasion, and our friend Ryan took the most amazing photographs! You can see them on his site here: Ryan & Jen's Crawdad Pictures