Trek to Plant Cafe

On Thursday, went to SF to have dinner with my friend at THE PLANT Cafe Organic on the Embarcadero, Pier 3. It was such a great place that serves organic food with sustainable ingredients and runs on solar energy.

I took the BART from Union City. I'll miss taking the BART, but won't miss the fare price. Roundtrip from Union City to Embarcadero was $10.50. Seriously, BART needs to get their budget deficit fixed and stop penalizing the commuters with increased fare hikes.

In SF, walking along the Embarcadero. I saw the decorative detail on Pier 1 and needed to take a picture of this. Quite nice and simple.

Restaurant front for La Mer.

Walking through Pier 1.

Pier 1. The pendant lamps are beautiful and quite unique.

My dinner at The Plant Cafe Organic. I ordered the California PLANT burger, a veggie burger with a delicious garlic aioli. This was my first veggie burger and I was quite impressed. I also had my first Blue Bottle Coffee and was delicious b/c there was a robust and nutty flavor. I like how the coffee was individually siphoned giving it a different taste than I'm used to at coffee shops.

The view from where I was sitting. The upstairs dining room is cozy and loft-like. The view wasn't too shabby!

Art work in the dining room. Pretty, colorful, and simple!

An empty Ferry Building.

Elephant abuse

I am quite saddened by watching a PETA video that has been spreading in the worldwide web on circus elephants being abused. I always thought there was abuse, but have never seen it b/c I can imagine how disturbing it is. And, watching the video, it was truly disturbing! I'm not a fan of circuses that uses animals b/c they need to be in an environment that is natural instead of being used for entertainment purposes. I wonder what sort of training the people have in the video who are striking the elephants with a bull hook? I question if other employees of the circus have said anything or how they feel if they've ever witnessed animals being abused. It's quite sad. I think I will take what I've seen from this video and donate money to an NGO that helps orphan baby elephants in Africa. I am truly disturbed right now!

Renegade Craft Fair

A pretty great weekend filled with lots of mischief, food, and spending time with friends. So happy I got to go to Renegade Craft Fair on Sunday at Fort Mason. This year, it was definitely much bigger and lots of interesting stuff to look at.

Saturday - Won ton mein from King of Won Ton and Noodles in the Sunset. Noodles great, soup not so much.

Sunday at Fort Mason for Renegade Craft Fair. Just standing outside of food stand for my taco.

That's my taco! Yummy! It was small, but left room in my tummy for "Tasty Chinese," or San Tung Chinese Restaurant.

Entrance to Renegade. Super excited.

A very cute and colorful way to hold jewelry. Who doesn't love rabbits?

Renegade was exciting and always excited to see fellow crafters, illustrators and designers. Some of my favorite vendors:

*My Associate Cornelius : illustration and design

*Seattle Show Posters : posters

*Paper Parasol Press : paper goods

*Carrie Saxl : jewelry

Friday recap

Friday is finally here. Here is a picture I took of our neighborhood's fruit stealing squirrel. Since I picked the last of the apricots, he won't be eating anymore of those, but can move on to our our apples and plums. Still keeping up with my tutorials and getting into learning more about web design.

Yesterday, I tried a deep friend Twinkie and PB&J. It wasn't bad, but I think I want to compare it to the one in Park Slope. I can't wait for Sunday for the Renegade Craft Faire at Fort Mason! Happy weekend!

Snuffles

I heart Snuffles. Here's a graffiti image I did through Photoshop.

Apricots

It's apricot season. Hooray! Unfortunately, this season is not a great season compared to a few years ago where we had plenty of fruit. These are the apricots I picked in the morning and I just love the colors, from yellow-orange to blush, to a red-orange. I have to pick a lot of the apricots b/c they're getting pretty ripe and our chubby squirrels are stealing them. Boy are they tricky little things! Oh how I will miss the chubby squirrels in New York.

4th of July

My 3-day 4th of July was pretty relaxing. On Friday, I went into the city to run some errands with my parents. I ate an early dinner in Chinatown and met some nice tourists sitting next to us. They were very sweet and offered me their dessert, pumpkin cake. Unfortunately, "pumpkin cake" does not translate to what they thought they were going to get, in the tradition of what they think a cake is. Instead, they got gluten rice cakes stuffed with pumpkin that's fried. I get my penchant for talking to strangers from my parents as they were talking a storm with them.

Muni sign. I took this as I was sitting in my car in Chinatown.

For 4th of July, we didn't BBQ b/c its too much of a hassle and in the end, mostly my mom does all the work. Instead, we went to dim sum for lunch, and for dinner, I got to choose where to eat. We ate at a Fremont restaurant called, Chuan Lu Xiang Qi, a northern Chinese restaurant. I had to order their special, corncake with braised beef, vermicelli noodles, and green beans. My brother and dad said it reminded them of the Muslim cuisine in Xian. And, instead of corncakes, they have a flat bread that you break up and soak into the broth. It was delicious, and it's priced at $7.95.

On Sunday, July 5th, we went to the Fillmore Jazz Festival. It was really nice and expanded to 13 blocks. Lots of walking and eating. Huge crowds. I think there were more vendors than jazz.

I took this picture outside the apt. complex b/c I really liked the typography.

This liquor store was making bank at the festival with just beer sales.

Fried food galore!

A papusa. I've never had one before, and it was pretty good.

Red velvet cupcake from Marita's Sweet Potato Pie Co. in San Leandro. It was quite delicious and enough to share with three people. The man at the booth was right, pecans in red velvet change your eating experience. Pictured above is red velvet w/o pecans. I will definitely have to stop by their bakery in San Leandro.

Do you see something wrong with this sign? Thanks G for finding this at Tapioca Express in the Fillmore. We only counted two groups of people that noticed there was something wrong with this sign. Maybe I should notify corporate?

Here's the sign up close. Hilarious. Brings me back to London's "Juicy Buns Fever" poster in Chinatown.

Random pictures

Random pictures I took in the past few weeks.

Graffiti in the Castro.

I finally went inside the Farmer Joe's grocery store in the Dimond District near my gram's house. It's sort of like a Whole Foods, but more charming. I really liked the painted signs outside the store.

Nicely bright kiwi/lime color front door in Lower Pac Heights.

Beach ball lamps

This made me smile. Beach ball lamps by Toby Sanders.

Hello Kitty house

Oh my world! A Hello Kitty house in Shanghai! I think if I was little, I would go bonkers. But now that I'm an adult, I'm sure I would go bonkers but in a mature way. I'm sure my little cousins would love this place.

Happy July

photo source I love minis!

I can't believe its already July. Wow, a month goes by so quickly. Still sticking to my summer goals. Dad is recovering well from his eye surgery but he's still not able to do certain things. This weekend was super nice. I helped my uncle with his computer problems to the best I can. And, on Sunday, celebrated my gram's 93rd birthday.

I am keeping up with the local, national, and world news. I am completely disappointed with our state's budget deficit. I have no idea where the money has gone. And, I feel the same way with BART now that they will raise the fares, again! On a brighter note, the EU has decided to lift the ban on wonky vegetables and fruits. What a waste if they decided not to lift the ban. We shouldn't waste good food even if it looks strange. I'll eat the fruits in my backyard even if it is a little wonky.