A Quick Night Tour of SF

After our early dinner at Delfina, we took Jack and Anna on a quick night tour of SF. It was a typical spring night in SF - meaning it was freezing! No matter how much I warn them to dress warmly for the evenings, New Yorkers always seem surprised at how chilly it gets in California at night. Especially in San Francisco!

We made a quick drive over to the Painted Ladies of Full House fame. While my fuzzy iPhone picture does it no justice, it was actually a beautiful view as the sun was setting.

We also made a stop by City Hall, which is beautifully lit up at night. There's currently a Fancy Animal Carnival exhibit right in the Civic Center Plaza, which we would have taken more time to explore if we hadn't been so cold!

Our last stop of the night was Treasure Island, so that Jack and Anna could experience the Bay Bridge up close and get this gorgeous view of SF at night.

Cold nights aside, it was a lot of fun to catch up with old friends and share the city we love with them over laughter and exciting news of things to come. If only we could convince more friends from NY to move here. Unfortunately, the high housing prices are scaring them all away! Luckily, we have a few trips to NY planned for this year so I'll be seeing them soon. :)

Delfina

Our friends Jack and Anna were visiting from NY so we took them to Delfina to experience one of SF's most popular restaurants. Luckily, they were up for eating early so it wasn't hard to snag a 5:30 reservation online. There was a line of people waiting when we arrived though, so I'm not sure how long the wait would have been without the reservation. Hopefully, I never have to find out!

We had some decent, if not boring appetizers so I'll skip those and dive straight into the more photogenic foods.

Delicious tender steak with frites that resemble In N Out fries 

(not my personal preference but I know others that love the fresh potato cut taste)

Delfina's famous spaghetti - one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had outside of Italy, rivaled only by Scarpetta's rendition of this dish

I love Delfina's different renditions of panna cotta! Buttermilk is probably my favorite but the jasmine panna cotta is a pretty close second. Light and delicious with just the right hint of jasmine.

Even though we were already stuffed after dinner and it was getting rather chilly, we still made our way across the street to Bi-Rite Creamery for a second dessert. I couldn't let them come all the way to San Francisco, be within a block of Bi-Rite and not try a scoop of their famed ice cream! The ice cream wasn't particularly photogenic so I didn't snap any pictures - but I definitely recommend the creme brulee flavor.

Happy 150!

Our alma mater is currently in its 150th year and we were lucky enough to be a part of the festivities in San Francisco this weekend. It's always fun for Jeff and I to attend these events together, since we met and fell in love in college. Furthermore, college is where we've made some of our lifelong friends - much moreso than graduate school, for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, our close college friends are not the types to attend alumni events so we typically network during these events, rather than catch up and reminisce with old friends.

However, this event was much more about celebrating than networking. It made me feel so blessed to have accumulated some awesome college memories with great friends at a renowned institution. It also made me a little sad to know that phase in my life is definitively over. Oh, to be 22 years old and still have my whole life ahead of me! It makes me realize that it's a bit dangerous for me to fall down that rabbit hole because if I let my mind wander too much, I'll start thinking about the "what ifs". What if I had gone down a different path? What if I had made different decisions? How would that have impacted my life today? Would I have more friends? Would I have accomplished more in my career?

Occasionally, I need to remind myself that such lines of thought are meaningless, unproductive, and downright ungrateful. I believe in the trite but very true notion that everything to happen for a reason, so there is no need to dwell on regrets. Without the decisions of my past, I wouldn't be where I am today. And while I could be anywhere else, I wouldn't trade where I am now and who I get to be with for anything in the world. :) 

Girl's Day Out Recap

Katie's girl's day out was a huge success! She didn't know what we had planned for the day so every time we got into the car, she looked for clues to figure out where we were headed. She admitted to being nervous so we took advantage of that by teasing her that strippers were an integral part of the day's activities (spoiler alert: we lied, they never showed up...hehe).

The bridesmaids plus Katie started the day with brunch at Cafe Borrone. I knew there would be much more gluttony later on in the day so I opted for a delicious, healthy-ish salad with avocado, blood oranges, and walnuts. Most of the time, I get the French dip sandwich or Belgian waffles with berries here.

From there, we picked up the rest of the girls and headed to Dry Bar. I asked for the Cosmo blowout and ended up looking like Shirley Temple...huge fail! The stylist insisted on tighter curls because they would relax throughout the day. That never happened, even though she didn't add any product...oh well. This was still a fun activity though! But you can't really chat with your friends during the styling since it's really loud and they can't guarantee that groups can sit together. 

Afterwards, we headed to La Jolie for pedicures. We were super early, since I added in lots of buffer time between appointments, just in case. You just never know with a large group! Luckily, La Jolie was gracious enough to let us lounge in the front with some champagne and soda until it was our turn. 

Once our feet were properly pedicured, we headed over to Village Pub for dinner. My scallops were fairly light so I had plenty of room for my favorite dessert - their chocolate souffle! Better than Alexander's and Cafe Jacqueline's, in my humble opinion. 

After dinner, we went back to Donna's house for some scrapbooking, gifts, and more dessert. It was super tame but we all had a lot of fun chatting late into the night. :) Katie said she had a great time, despite (or because of?) the lack of scandalous activities. Of course I'm biased, but I'd like to think this was a pretty well-planned day. Catching up with girlfriends while getting pampered is the best - we need to schedule these more often!

Housing Must-Haves

Jeff and I hate watching the show House Hunters because we get too envious of how much they can buy with relatively small budgets! Understandably, the show needs to be relatable for the majority of the country and the high cost of living we deal with in NorCal is not relatable to most of them. On the flip side, I can't relate to most of them because I've only lived in high cost areas my whole life (New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley).

When we think about the type of home we will need for the next 10 years, here are the must-haves:

• Mostly move-in ready - Good contractors are hard to come by in this area. With the housing boom, they're busier than ever and won't necessarily have time for renovations that aren't worth their while. Sometimes a home is perfectly move-in ready but just not quite our style - I'd find a way to deal with it, as long as it wasn't dirty, worn, or falling apart.
• Short commute to work - "Short" is rather relative but ideally less than 30 minutes in rush hour. Life is too short to spend sitting in traffic!
• Good school district - Our parents did everything they could to provide us with great education, and we hope to pass that onto our children.
• Good location - We're light sleepers so we can't live next to major streets, freeways, or under flight paths. Sadly, a lot of the more affordable, newer housing is situated in one of the aforementioned places. 

If we're being truly honest, even our "must-have" list is a stretch for the Bay Area, despite our DINK budget. Jeff and I are constantly discussing which of these items we're willing to forgo. I think the first would be commute length, followed by move-in readiness. I'm so envious of people who live in areas where affordable housing doesn't mean having to make these kind of tradeoffs. We have talked about how if/when kids happen, we will need to have some honest conversations to see if we should stay in the Bay Area or move to a more affordable city. While I'd hate to give up all the amazing things we have here, it's also exciting to think that new changes and adventures still await us. In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy living it up in NorCal!

A view from Twin Peaks, San Francisco

Home Alone Concert with the SF Symphony

Home Alone is one of my favorite holiday movies so when I saw that there was going to be a Home Alone concert by the San Francisco Symphony, I didn't hesitate to buy tickets! Can you believe it's been 25 years since the movie first came out?

The director of the film, Chris Columbus, kicked off the concert with a quick intro. The movie was projected on a large screen above the stage and the SF Symphony performed the instrumental part of the soundtrack live. It was such a treat to watch the movie this way - it's a good thing I splurged for orchestra seats this time so we had a good view of the screen. I typically pick cheaper seats for the symphony since the acoustics are great regardless of where you sit. There was also a children's choir to perform scenes in the second half of the movie.

Even though I've seen this movie many times, this time was different. Maybe it's because I'm hoping to be a mother for the first time in my life - I found myself reacting rather emotionally (and dramatically) to the scenes with Kevin's mom. I felt her pain and horror when she realizes she left Kevin home alone and I teared up when they reunite in the end. I was overwhelmed with a protective instinct in that moment - this instinct to protect my own children and keep them safe, even though they don't exist yet!

I can't seem to make any sense of these crazy feelings that are hitting me. This is brand new territory for me! Is this my biological clock ticking? Does this mean I do have a maternal instinct after all?

Currently addicted to...

1. Serial - I know I'm late to the party here but I'm all caught up now and eagerly awaiting episode 10. I just started listening on Wednesday so I haven't had enough time to ruminate and figure it all out yet (ha!). It's definitely made my workouts more interesting.

2. Warriors - People are always surprised that I'm an NBA fan. Basketball was huge when I was growing up in New York - I will always love the Knicks but I've really become a Warriors fan over the years. We got to catch Game 6 of the playoff series between the Warriors and the Clippers in May and we had a blast. Even though the tickets were so expensive and the seats were so bad, we had an awesome time. The intensity and energy are insane during the playoffs! I'm excited that they're playing so well this year.

Oracle Arena, Oakland, May 2014

3. 巧虎 (Qiaohu Tiger)- My friend Tzui managed to track these Qiaohu dolls online - reasonably priced ones are hard to come by for some reason. While a part of me wants to keep these adorable dolls for myself, they're actually for my nephew. 

Jeff saw this picture and exclaimed "oh no, they're suffocating!" 

Food recap: Burmese and Italian favorites

Rangoon Ruby

I didn't discover Burmese food until I moved to the Bay Area. Before Rangoon Ruby opened up in Palo Alto, we had to trek up to Oakland or SF and wait in long lines for Burmese food at Burma Superstar. Now we can have amazing Burmese cuisine closer to home without the wait, since they take reservations. Pictured below - the mango salad and the tea leaf salad. Other yummy dishes - rainbow salad, nan gyi dok noodles, and pumpkin stew. 

Delfina
Delfina is an oldie but a goodie in San Francisco. I love their spaghetti - almost as much as I love Scarpetta's rendition of this dish. I'm a big fan of simple classics that are done really well. They usually have an amazing buttermilk panna cotta but on this day, they only had lavender panna cotta so I opted for some Bi-Rite ice cream across the street instead.

Osteria
Osteria is one of my favorite Italian places in the Bay Area. The Palo Alto restaurant is unpretentious, the portions are generous, and prices are pretty fair. My favorite dish is the homemade fettucine with mushrooms and truffle oil, as pictured below. The pasta is perfectly al dente and the truffle oil makes everything taste more heavenly. I also love their calamari and I don't normally like that stuff. Their calamari comes in tender steak portions that are super delicious and completely unlike the typical fried calamari. Their hazelnut flan is pretty popular, but I normally go to Paris Baguette for dessert when I'm in Palo Alto.

Rainbow cupcakes, shaved ice, and more

Panda Dumpling

I am always on the hunt for delicious soup dumplings. Unfortunately, I didn't find them at Panda Dumpling in Redwood City. I knew something was off when I walked into Panda Dumpling on a Friday evening and saw that it was mostly empty. Worse yet, we were the only Chinese patrons. Jeff says I should have known better than to trust an Asian restaurant with "Panda" in the title. Oops.

San Tung
San Tung in San Francisco is known for their legendary dry fried chicken wings. This time, we chose to get them diced, which makes eating them so much easier. Plus, diced wings means that there's more area for batter and crispy goodness. ;)

Sno Zen

Sno Zen is tucked away in a Mountain View townhouse community by the San Antonio Cal Train station, which makes parking rather challenging. Their Mango to Tango shaved snow is super yummy, but if you've had shaved ice in Taiwan, temper your expectations. This won't compare to the deliciousness of Ice Monster.

Last week, a super sweet and talented coworker Lori made these gorgeous rainbow cupcakes for another coworker's birthday. They were almost too pretty to eat! But of course, I managed to scarf it all down anyway. Yum!

Labor Day Weekend

The previous post was pretty heavy so I thought I'd lighten things up with some pictures from Labor Day weekend. This blog will address some serious topics but on a day-to-day basis, we're pretty silly and laidback. :)

Monterey

Our church organized a group trip to Monterey this past weekend. Here's the view from the Pebble Beach Lodge. Jeff aspires to golf here one day - I'll settle for enjoying the view. Not pictured - the tandem bikes that I effortlessly rode as Jeff chugged along. Guess I'm just in better shape than him. ;)

Japanese Tea Garden

On Monday, we drove to SF to enjoy the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. It was pretty crowded but we managed to find a quiet corner for some tranquil moments. I'm not 100% sure it's worth the $8 admissions price given how small it is, but I suppose the price is on par with everything else in SF.

Sumika Grill

This was technically from the weekend before, but delicious enough to warrant a mention - a sesame panna cotta and frozen custard from Sumika Grill. They also have a delicious oyako-don (not pictured because dessert is just more fun and photogenic).