Spam Musubi

Touché my feline friend. I see your Coffee Rant 1.5 and raise you a Spam Musubi! That's right! This shit is "This is Why You're Fat" status. A certain K friend and I have been waiting to satisfy our musubi cravings for months, but every time we head to May's Coffee Shop in Japantown, they're sold out. We be sadpandas. So tonight, we made our own with special spam musubi mold, twice-fried Spam, and a couple diy musubi tats included.

If you are interested in taking part in the musubi madness, several recipes can be found online, but make sure you don't make too much rice! We cooked 3.5 cups and ended up making some makeshift Fried-Rice Musubi.

Fun Fact: There are quite a few stories for the origin of the word "Spam," but one explanation states that the name is actually a portmanteau of "Spiced Ham".

Coffee Rant #1.5

hello! rp is absolutely right about her coffee recommends, and also about the fact that she is not to be mistaken for a coffee connoisseur. naturally, rp is one of the most epi-curious personalities around these parts, but she is far from an authority in the art of The Coffee.  let us all stop for a moment and take a look at a real coffee wizard: me!

allow me to introdue The Trio.  each of these is an absolutely essential piece to the development of a java virtuousa such as myself.

1. Y U B A N: words cannot express how... useful this vivid roast is in the groggy mornings. top-notch!
2. M A R K E T   V A R I E T Y: my pride and joy, suffused with a sweet french vanilla essence, and may i point out the double- no, triple -redsticker markdown.  this, friends, is a treat reminiscent of the very finest exotic coffee served at the silken-clothed tables of royal French cafes.  a masterpiece.
3. C O F F E E   M A T E: coffee, mate. fairly bursting with its own cunning description.

of course, all this is brewed to perfection in the most elegant of glass/plastic fusion tea pots. and, YES!, i am fully capable of the most imaginative of combinations as well! ah, please, sit everyone, sit back down. leisurely applause will do just fine. i am but a humble maestro, but call me a savant if you REALLY must.

luv.

Coffee Rant #1

Let me start by mentioning that I am by no means a coffee expert. I drink things, and if it tastes good, I like it. I didn't become a coffee lover until recently, and I blame various friends for it. :P

There are a bajillion San Francisco based roasteries, and I will try to rank and comment on some of the local coffee that I've imbibed. This will be the first of a line of posts covering coffee.

1) Blue Bottle: Words cannot explain how amazing Blue Bottle is. Subtle sweetness in every sip, I keep going back despite having experimented with other coffees. Blue Bottle is actually offered in various locations around the Bay, especially the College/Rockridge area of Berkeley/Oakland. But for the full experience, head to one of the "official" locations in SF. The Ferry Building is still my fave, since it was the first place I ever had Blue Bottle coffee. (And also because I just heart the Ferry Building and hang out there as much as I do in the Mission.)

2) Ritual: Definitely a close-second, Ritual offers some hard-core coffee. We're talking you drink coffee because you like the coffee taste. Like you would be fine with nom-ing on coffee beans. And, I mean that in the best way possible. If I'm in the Mission, I definitely head here to re-energize myself. Warning: As with any of the other coffee shops mentioned, the second you walk in be ready to face a room filled with macbooks, hipsters, and at times an air of pretentiousness. Just get past all of that and grab a Heavy Drinker card when you pay because you'll probably want to come back whenever you're in the area, so you might as well get your 10th drink free. And yes, I carry one myself along with a bright red Ritual business card. To be fair, one of my friends works at Ritual...so I'm not totally some crazy coffee chick.

(on the left)
Blue Bottle Coffee
Ferry Building Marketplace, Shop #7, 1 Ferry Building
Check out the other locations on their website!

(on the right)
Ritual Coffee Roasters
1026 Valencia St.
If you are in wine country, check out Ritual in Oxbow Public Market, 610 First Street. I like to call it the mini-Napa version of the Ferry Building. :)

Mission: Ice Cream

Hihi. I be radpanda, and a ravenous one at that! The Mission is one of my favorite spots in SF, so my première post will concern one of the major ice cream locales in the area. Bi-Rite Creamery offers different flavors daily that range from classics, like Mint Chip, to not-your-run-of-the-mill flavors, like Balsamic Strawberrry. Checkcheckcheck it out:

Bi-Rite Creamery
3692 18th Street(@ Dolores)

• Coffee Toffee

RC presents: RP

MEET RADPANDA!

summer squash

and, while i do my best to frown upon late night eating, there has been something magical about my dad's garden anyways.  i don't know how it's possible to have a continuing crop to harvest every day.  this is a summer squash, and i think it's still semi-charmed.  it finished cooking exactly at 11:11; how can i possibly frown on it?

summer squash and its mushroom friends

members only

CN and i went on hiatus with a vengeance today, slouching in (accidentally) perfectly coordinated black and beige around the Mission in SF. we thrifted some and resisted others, we walked and (half of us) skateboarded, we ogled haircuts on BART.  and, we ate:

F R J T Z (590 Valencia)

• Belgian Frjtz french fries, with barbeque sauce and spicy honey mustard
• 'Pissarro' savory crepe (artichokes, cheddar cheese, green onions shallots, fresh basil, chicken sausage)

 R I T U A L (1026 Valencia) --> Gibraltar, twice over

H U M P H R Y   S L O C O M B E (2790 Harrison Street)

• Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee
• Secret Breakfast
• Lagunitas hop stoopid ale

P H I L Z (1600 Shattuck)

• Philtered Soul/Silken Splendor
• Turkish/Sumatra

   it was a very good day. not to mention- at last, -MEMBERS ONLY!

riesling, &c

some great moments this night- CH/SC/JJ/RK/&co...

a nice layover in berkeley, reunited at last!

mama's minestrone

summer bits