Road trip! Part 5: San Francisco

Friday was our day to wander around the city of San Francisco. We met Kent Soule at his apartment on Russian Hill to begin our tour. We were hungry and out for cheap Thai food in the city. Kent had found a Thai place within walking distance of his pad that was cheap although unknown. And so we set off, walking down lots of hills, looking at the sights. We ran into a couple guys that looked pretty hardcore and were looking for Haight & Ashbury. Kent directed them on how to get there and pointed out "St. Maytag's" to us. It's actually Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, but San Franciscans call it St. Maytag because it looks like a washing machine agitator. It's certainly a shorter name.

It was a nice 15-minute walk to Sai Jai Thai at 771 O'Ferrell. It looked like a total dive, but in we walked. It was pristinely clean inside and decorated well. Part of the specials menu was written in Thai. They had a huge menu to choose from, and all of it looked awesome. OK, all of it but the fish balls. We ordered, and food appeared very quickly. It was stellar! I mean, I like almost any Thai food, but all 3 of us were blown away. I consider Kent a San Franciscan, and he's certainly eaten his share of Thai food, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Matthew, my cousin, graduated from Johnson & Wales, a culinary school, and has been to Vietnam. Both of them were totally wowed. They both got the pork shoulder, which was outstanding. I got the house specialty fried catfish. I was a little unsure about order something without coconut milk or peanuts, and there were a lot of bones in it, but it was yummy like WHOA. What was really impressive is that (1) the flavors are so clean and clear, not muddled at all, and (2) it's cheap! I got a huge plate of catfish for $7. Really really. If you're in San Fran, please do yourself a favor and eat there.

After dinner, we meandered around the city. Matthew & I were still a little hungry and were sheepishly looking for dessert places. We ended up sitting down to some lovely dessert crepes at The Crepe House on Gough. Really really yummy stuff, even if I did eat Nutella. We really did a lot of walking after that, going down to Fisherman's Wharf to see & hear fun things: a street musician, music from a nearby blues club, free samples & fun old machinery at Ghirardelli, a cigar shop, Trader Joe's. As we headed back up to Kent's place, we stopped in to an art academy that sits on a hill. It's got a beautiful courtyard and an amazing view of the city. Delightful! (One of the students was hanging out on the fountain, and he showed up to The Rent Party the next night. How funny!)

I must say that Kent is a great tour guide! On my last visit to San Francisco, he showed me around some of the most beautiful parts of the city, and I got some really beautiful photos.

At the end of the night, Matthew and I headed down Filbert Street past Kent's place which is unbelievably steep and a little scary at first. It is occasionally used for filming. We wanted to go fast, but we would have destroyed his truck. After the steep hill, we ventured down Lombard Street, the crookedest I have ever seen. It is SO windy. And so pretty, too. According to Kent, they used it recently for Candyland's hundredth birthday party. I loved that game as a kid! I wish I could have been there.

And with that, Matthew & I headed back to San Jose. Only we passed San Jose unknowingly and wound up much farther south before we realized it. We were chatting and forgot to pay attention. I miss my cuz. :)

My Christmas in July list

Christmas in July, you know? When your church or organization gathers food and gifts and such for needy people, things like socks and beans and school supplies for the kids. I thought I'd start a Christmas in July list of my own. Why, you ask? Well...

Working on a farm is pretty awesome. It's challenging, to be sure, but it does have its benefits: stronger muscles, good exercise, character/resolve building, improved stamina, the list goes on. I'm totally down with all of these things, but they all demand FUEL. And lots of it. Holy cow, if you saw how much I eat, you'd fall down. Fo rizzle. And my clothes still fit!

But it's at this point, after a week and a half on the job, that I wonder how I'm going to be able to feed myself and continue to work and pay bills. Sure, we get some free vegetables, and we all need our greens. And we do have some money for communal food that comes out of our paychecks (yay for beans!), but neither of these things cover all of it, and unfortunately if I eat just anything, my body doesn't work nearly as well. And this job demands that my body run as well as humanly possible. I recently remembered why I like to drink kombucha: because it makes me feel alive and well. It makes a huge difference in how I work each day. I tried to ration it and cut down on cost, but it really seems like I need a kombucha every day. I'm brewing some, but it's not ready yet, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with demand, but I do have a fighting chance now that I'm brewing 3 gallons at a time! Thanks to Katherine, the farm manager here, for an extra kombucha mother!

So just in case you had thoughts of sending me a care package via the Post Office or my soon-to-be-visitors Marcia (Knoxville) or Jason (Asheville), I thought I'd guide you. Did I mention my thirtieth birthday is June 30? ;-)

• My Organic Market! My new favorite place to shop. There's one in Frederick, and it's not too hard to get to. They have gift cards. And kombucha & probiotics.

• Maple syrup, grade B. Along with tahini, it's a major food group. Lots of minerals, amazing taste.

• Lemons, organic. When combined with the maple syrup, it's a supportively yummy drink for a boost during the long hours.

• Kombucha. The best. End of story. If you've never tried one, go experience one at your local food co-op or health food store. I recommend starting with the grape.

• White ankle socks, size 9-11. I underestimated the importance of socks on a farm. There was a lot going on when I moved, and my brain fell out at different intervals.

• Nana's Lemon Cookies: Gluten-free. Fruit-juice sweetened. Uber lemony. Awesome. The oatmeal raisin, ginger, and chocolate chip varieties are also great. Clearly a splurge, but I thought I'd include it, too.

And there you have it, folks. Facing the budget can feel like a door slamming shut, so I thought I'd open a window.
If you'd like to correspond via snail mail, send me your address!

Megan Adair
38287 John Wolford Road
Purcellville, VA
20132

Jazz steps are useful

I recently started working at Trio Cafe on Market Square. I make salads.

I know, I know, it sounds simple, but it's the most high-profile job there because when you walk in the front door - BOOM! - you immediately see the salad station and the salad master (I decided that was truly the best title for the position). Everyone else is buzzing around the dining room or back in the kitchen, but I am almost always up front right by the door. I doubt that I actually grasp my place in the restaurant on a day-to-day basis, but I digress...

After learning the ropes of salad-making in my brief training, I learned the standard procedures for cleaning up the salad line. This involves the usual tasks of changing out containers, wiping down the station, and sweeping the floor. It also includes the chore of mopping... kind of. You see, I wasn't instructed to use a mop and bucket. No, no, no. This is much simpler and far less of a mess. You take a regular towel that you'd use for wiping things up and a spray bottle of cleaner. Then you squirt the floor, throw the towel onto it, and move the towel all around until the cleaner is mopped up and the floor is clean. Kind of cute, really. And a little awkward, especially to get underneath shelves and in cubbyholes. But that's what I did.

Until I realized that I could simplify the process by dancing. Yes! I don't know what this move is called, but I know that it's fun. Morgan suggests that it could be called a swim sweep or a glide. Another possible name is "dolphin." At any rate, I remember watching Bobby White do this move many moons ago in Atlanta, and the first time I saw it, I knew I had to learn it. It has the effect of an illusion. You put 100% of your weight on one foot and, shifting your weight between the heel and ball of that foot, you inch your way in the direction of your other heretofore motionless foot. With said motionless foot, you make a circular motion, like you're sweeping the floor. It looks very cool, very smooth, because of course you're barely taking your mobile foot off the ground and keeping it at a very low profile so the attention is drawn to the sweeping foot. I love it, and it's PERFECT for cleaning the floor at my salad station. It's also pretty challenging and it looks far less awkward than randomly poking my foot all over the floor. Boo ya!

Redirection: Vocation

So I quit my gig as an office manager at the end of November, and since then I've been pursuing work that I'm passionate about, mostly things with food, dance, and music. I've been writing a lot too, mostly on this blog, but a bit of a song came to me one night, and I feel like I'm moving towards poetry again.

Most of my paying gigs have had to do with food, but it's becoming clearer each day that making food my main vocation will not be helpful to me. The thing is, I need to work around people and not around food as much. For me, working directly with food is not unlike an alcoholic working as a bartender. It's funny how once I decided to pursue personal chefing, I became very focused on it, and it was really difficult for me to realize that it's not something I have to do at all. This is a recent admission, so my focus will change from working with food to working with people, and I'm happy about that. In order for me to be happy, I have to be around people.

And lately, when I'm at a restaurant, I realize more and more how much I miss waitressing. Really. I dig it. It may sound crazy, but I do enjoy waitressing. There's always variety, you're usually surrounded by people, and it's demanding. Since it seems like I'm still looking for direction, I may as well do something I enjoy and make some money in the meantime. So tonight I talked to Trace at Tomato Head about the application I already have in there, and I got an application for La Costa, so we'll see what happens. I really want to be on Market Square.

Another thought I'd like to pursue: how would I get to write for a newspaper like the Metro Pulse or Skirt? I'd have a lot of fun with that. Other than making money off this blog, which I really want to do, but Google Adsense doesn't seem to work, and I can't figure out what's wrong (help, anyone?).

Geeky food post

Alright, so here it is: I'm a food geek. It's the main vocation I've been pursuing after quitting my job. Tonight I threw a birthday dinner for a friend of mine, and I must post the menu. I haven't put this much thought and care into a menu in a long time. She's vegetarian, so that's the reason for the absence of meat.

We started with a drink called a Fresh Prince. My friend Christine Murphy shared it with me about a year ago, and I really dig it. You muddle the hell out of cucumber and fresh mint, then mix it with lime juice, simple, and lime-flavored bubbly water. Yummy, refreshing, an awesome aperitif!

Then we moved on to the first course, which consisted of a cheese platter with grapes and Blue Diamond nut thins. There was a variety of cheeses, among them gruyere, goat cheese, Gjetost, and a local sheep's milk cheese from Locust Grove Farms (the Galloway variety). I was quite pleased with all of them, especially the Galloway and the goat cheese.

Along with the cheese course, we had some deviled eggs. I planned on making this a separate course, but it just didn't seem practical at the time. These aren't just any deviled eggs, either - these deviled eggs made me remember how great deviled eggs can be, made me wonder why I don't make them more often. They're a mustard-curry concoction with other yummy things, and I love them.

Next on the menu was a Mexican-inspired bean salad. The different thing about this food foray was that I was super excited about plating things. So for starters, I took a salad plate and put on it two round slices of jicama, several long slices of red pepper, and chili-lime chips. Then, in the middle of the all of it, I put a mango-black bean salad with cilantro, scallions, and spices. Yummy! The mango was actually ripe and happy, which totally made it, and the spices from the salad went really well with the jicama (such an awesome veggie!).

Here we took another booze break - it was, after all, a celebration of Davenne's 21st birthday. I found a recipe for a Rum Swizzle and modified it. What we ended up with was fresh-squeezed Minneola tanglo juice, raspberry wine liqueur, fresh mint, lime juice, lime-flavored bubbly water, and some homemade vanilla. I experimented with adding some of the red wine from dinner, which totally made it pop, and we all enjoyed that.

The end of the savory portion of dinner came with a green salad tossed with olive oil & red wine vinegar that had been hanging out with 2 smashed cloves of garlic for several hours. I also mixed avocado and grapefruit with lemon juice and topped it all off with walnuts. A great combination, definitely one of my favorites.

Ah, dessert. This was the part Davenne had been skeptical about. The first time I read the recipe for Strawberries Balsamic, I was definitely a bit wary. I thought it would be really gross... and then I made it and didn't want to stop eating it ever. You just quarter strawberries and macerate them (add sugar) like normal, but you also add balsamic vinegar (maybe 2 Tbsp.) and some freshly cracked pepper, coarse grind. Let that sit for at least 30 minutes, then put it in a bowl and top it with whipped cream. You're done, and your tastebuds will be so happy. :) To serve it, I chose a big martini glass and alternated one layer of strawberries with one layer of whipped cream; I ended up with two layers of each. I topped it off with a small leaf of basil, and then we finished off the red wine with it.

The one thing I forgot to mention was the champagne. I found a bottle of yellow label Veuve Clicquot on sale and had to buy it back in the fall. I had no idea what to do with it. I thought of using it for New Year's, but champagne was already provided there, so I didn't want to waste this amazing bottle of champagne. Then Davenne, whose family visits France a lot, inspired me (just by being her amazing self) to throw a dinner party, and the perfect excuse came up! It's such great champagne.

This is what I love: to make a big huge fuss over someone by creating an awesome dinner and then spending time with a group of friends enjoying it all. It was a day well spent.