Rothko and the Tate Modern

After a night of fitful sleep, we woke up late Sunday morning and had a leisurely breakfast downstairs at The Montagu (how do the Brits get their morning mushrooms so yummy?!) Then we took the tube down to St. Paul's and walked across the Millennium Bridge (also nicknamed the Wobbly Bridge after some resonance issues when it first opened!) to the Tate Modern. It was once again a gorgeous day and the river walk along the Thames was wonderful. It seemed like all of London was having a little promenade.

The Tate Modern was opened in 2000 and this was my first time there - it's located in a former power station and is a lovely and airy industrial space. We joined the queue for the Rothko exhibit which was very impressive. I'm not a particular fan of Rothko, but many elements of the exhibit certainly made me appreciate his work a lot more - there was some nice ultraviolet analysis that showed all the layers and complexity that went into the final work, which looked deceptively simple.

We had a late lunch upstairs on the 7th floor, in a light-filled restaurant overlooking the Thames and St.Paul's and people-watched all the various nationalities around us.

After visiting Waterstone's (the biggest bookshop in the UK) at Piccadilly Circus and finding lots of interesting travel books on Spain (our 2009 trip), we finally headed back to the hotel. I think my bag may be too heavy to carry-on on the return flight :(

London Calling

I arrived in London yesterday afternoon for a very quick 2 day stay before heading to Dublin, accompanying a girlfriend on her business trip. It's been about a year since I was last here and we've lucked into some fabulous weekend weather. Of course, I packed for a typical cold London fall so now I'm overheating in the warm temperatures!

We checked in to my regular London hotel, the Hyatt Regency Churchill, which is well-located near Marble Arch for walking around, shopping and lots of public transport options. So after a short stop to freshen up, we walked down the extremely crowded Oxford Street - what recession?! There was still plenty of conspicuous consumption to behold and a line to be served at Chanel and Louis Vuitton in Selfridges!

We headed to Liberty to have tea in their Tea Room again - I had been obsessing over the Burleigh Black Willow tea set that I refrained from buying last year. After multiple eBay searches, I figured out it was very hard to get in the US, so I came back and purchased a tea pot and one tea cup this time. Yes I forgot to take my own photos! Anyway, the tea service was quite nice - 4 finger sandwiches (cucumber, smoked salmon, ham and egg salad) on the bottom tier, 2 plain scones (served with the requisite clotted cream and strawberry jam) on the middle tier, plus a chocolate cupcake, carrot cake and fruit bread on the top tier. Alas, the cupcake was far inferior to Kara's and Sprinkles :( They also have an impressive tea selection - multiple pages on the menu. Of course, I stuck to the ever boring Earl Grey.

After stopping at many other shops (Jigsaw, Monsoon, Accessorize, Next to name a few of the familiar high street names) we called it a day and had a late dinner here in the hotel restaurant, The Montagu.

The new CA Academy of Sciences

We had a staff development day at school today and wandered up to visit the new and much lauded California Academy of Sciences, back at its old location in Golden Gate Park. I had thought it would be relatively quiet on a Monday - but I guess it's only been open about 10 days or so, and I was wrong. It was crowded by my standards (I heard a staff member refer to the crowd as the "lightest it has been"!)

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the city, and we ended up parking in the new underground parking lot under the concourse between the Academy and the De Young. It was $7.50 for 3 hours parking - but you can't beat the location.


If you plan to go, I'd strongly advise you to sign up for a membership. Just to skip the lines alone! We ran into at least 9 other families from Menlo Park there - it was quite the surprise.

Overall the museum was quite beautiful. We didn't see everything but since we have a membership, we'll be up there again when the crowds die down a little. We started out by having lunch in the Academy Cafe - there's also a fine dining restaurant called the Moss Room, run by Loretta Keller. We'll save that for next time.

The Cafe is run by Charles Phan and there's a nice selection of food including a number of Vietnamese items like pho, steamed buns and spring rolls (all very similar to the menu at Out The Door). There's also a pasta station, a mexican station and a grill/fry station. We had a chicken pho (excellent), chicken buns (just ok), spaghetti al sugo (pronounced great by my younger daughter, I personally thought it was a little bland), a mixed green salad and a quesadilla. Definitely above average food.

We wandered over to the large rainforest dome but it was a 20 min wait to go inside, so we decided to save that for next time. Also saved the planetarium and the 3D bug movie for next time as well. We wandered around the various exhibits for a while (some nice ones on the Galapagos and our carbon footprint) and spent a lot of time at the Philippine Coral Reef in the aquarium downstairs (we watched the Coral Reef diver talk to the crowd for a while). The albino alligator in the swamp was also a good stop, although he wasn't moving much.

We also watched the penguins in the African Hall - if you're not familiar with this museum, the set up is that there are a few live animal exhibits mixed in with a bunch of dioramas. It worked quite well and the African Hall was spacious, so it began to feel a little less crowded. Of course, we went up to the Living Roof to check out the view and the very cool garden and hills up there. That was quite impressive.

Finally, we hit the gift shop on the way - both the junior one (mostly toys and stuffed animals) and the main one (quite small, all things considered). And then we hit the road. All in all, a very pleasant day out - highly recommended (but maybe wait until the newness wears off - I can't imagine trying to go there on a weekend!)

Can't wait to dice my next onion!

Last night, I took a 2 hour knife skills class at the cooking school at Sur La Table in Palo Alto. There were only 6 students in total - they mentioned that the classes have not been full due to their relative newness in our area, and possibly the economy. It was $69 for a 2 hour hands-on class.

The facility is in the back of their store at Town & Country Village and is pretty well set up. It's a little smaller than the local Draeger's cooking school in Menlo Park, and would have been a little crowded had the class been fully subscribed.

The class was a lot of fun - the instructor started out talking about different knives, what they were used for and how they were made. Then she showed us some techniques and we julienned potatoes, peppers and carrots. We moved on to sectioning oranges and also chiffonaded (is that a word?!) mint leaves. Finally we sliced and diced an onion - the onion dicing technique was great, much better than what I usually do - I'm going to make shepherd's pie tonight to try out my new techniques! Wished we'd done some herbs as well - but otherwise, this was a fun and useful class.

Then we had a 15% off coupon to spend on anything in the store and essentially had a private shopping experience. I bought a few things from Le Creuset since it's hard to find that stuff on sale. And a new knife honer of course.

The next class is Knife Skills II where you learn to cut up and debone a whole chicken. Think I'll pass - handling raw chicken is pretty low on my list of things I like to do in the kitchen.

This whole cupcake craze is getting to be a bit much...

We've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of two gourmet cupcake places in my area for the past few months - Kara's Cupcakes from SF was opening in Town & Country Village and the famous Sprinkles from L.A. was opening up at the Stanford Shopping Center (replacing the much missed Long Life Noodle House).

Yes, we can get cupcakes from lots of local bakeries including our standby of Draeger's, the ever sweet ones from Safeway and the marginally lighter ones from Satura Cakes. But why buy cupcakes from a bakery when you can buy even more overpriced ones from a specialty cupcake bakery?!

Now I have to admit that I've fully partaken of the cupcake craze in the heartland where it all started - Magnolia Bakery in New York. And Buttercup Bake Shop. And the place next to Bryant Park where the cupcakes are almost the size of my hand. And Miette in SF. And the incomparable Sibby's in San Mateo (she only does special orders though, no storefront). But even I'm starting to choke on $3.25 for a little artery-clogging handful of cake and frosting ("but they're so cuuuute!!").

Nonetheless, I've been to Kara's three times since it opened - I blame it all on my kids! My youngest (the chocolate hater) loves the sweet vanilla (in the $2 mini size). My oldest (the chocolate inhaler) loves the very dark, very chocolatey fleur de sel (and thinks the mini size is for weenies). I enjoy both, as well as the banana caramel. The line at Kara's has never taken more than a few minutes.

We did make an attempt at the new Sprinkles on Sunday - the line was 30-40 people long and snaked down the sidewalk past quite a few other shops. I drove right on by - you want me to pay $3.25 for a cupcake AND wait 20 mins?! And we went right back to Kara's again. Sprinkles will just have to wait...

Sprinkles queue update - 6:20 pm on Wednesday night, there were still close to 20 people in line outside the store. I drove right on by. I'm willing to wait in absurd lines for an iPhone, but not for a paltry cupcake!!

OK - last Sprinkles update, I swear - a friend just gave me a box of 10 assorted Sprinkles cupcakes as a thank you gift. Score! And it was delicious. I would need to do a side-by-side tasting to assess whether I like Sprinkles or Kara's better - the kids say that Sprinkles is less sweet and has a more manageable amount of frosting.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Did you know that there's an 11-acre organic community farm located in the heart of Sunnyvale?! Neither did I until yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am. I was at Full Circle Farm to lead a 35 person volunteer project for Be The Change Day, the Bay Area-wide community service day run by Hands On Bay Area (HOBA), the non-profit of which I am the Vice Chair of the Board.

HOBA is a fabulous organization - I've been volunteering for them on and off for the past 14 years, and joined their board 2 years ago. They recognize that most people would love to volunteer but are put off by the time commitment and the difficulty of finding out where they can make the most contribution. HOBA provides a great registration system that lists over 120 projects every month in all regions of the Bay Area, making easy for anyone who has a free Saturday morning to find a list of available projects and sign up. Check it out!

So back to my bleary-eyed Saturday morning... I drive past my favorite dim sum place (Joy Luck Place) in the mega-Asian mall in Cupertino, and 2 minutes later, I'm standing between 6 foot high rows of corn and almost equally high stalks of sunflowers. It's quite the difference!

I spent the next 3 hours mulching a new tractor path and double digging trenches in preparation for some 6th graders who were arriving on Monday to prep the beds for new plantings. In between I sampled raw corn on the cob, freshly picked from the aforementioned stalks, complete with happy little worm in each one. That's how you tell the corn is pesticide-free - each ear comes with it's own worm! And the sweetest little cherry tomatoes, which I had to fight off 2 little kids for, as they were ploughing down through the rows, faces smeared with tomato juice. Hey, I'd been double-digging all morning! (for those of you who don't know what that is, trust me - it's quite the workout)

Full Circle Farm was established about a year ago, on a 10 year lease with the Santa Clara school district. They haven't quite fully planted out their space yet, and were building a greenhouse yesterday. They have 3 full time employees, and do most of their work through volunteers. It's amazing to see what they've done with relatively few resources and not much time! They are producing wonderful vegetables - about 50% is destined for the school district to be part of the lunch program, and much is sold through the farm stand. They also have a CSA program but shares are currently sold out - CSA is a way for the farm to get folks to pay upfront for a quarter's worth of produce (this helps them pay their upfront expenses). And best of all, the farm is being integrated into the middle school curriculum - 6th graders will be working on the farm on a regular basis.

So check out CSAs in your area to see if there's a hidden gem like Full Circle Farm. I left with armfuls of heirloom tomatoes, 3 ears of corn, 2 of the sweetest melons I've ever had and what smelled like a carload of basil. I forsee a caprese salad for dinner tonight...

Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival

It was a beautiful warm day in the city last Saturday - one of those spectacular SF Fall days that makes it the best time of year to visit.

We arrived in the city early afternoon and headed to Ghirardelli Square right away. Alas, the parking situation was such a nightmare that we missed the children's ice-cream sundae eating contest!
It was my first time at the Chocolate Festival where you purchase a card with a number of tastes - $10 for 6 tastes, $20 for 15 tastes. When you get a taste from a stall, they mark off your card, and all proceeds benefit Project Open Hand.It was a fun, albeit crowded, event - although most of the stalls were very efficient and knew how to keep their throughput high. We enjoyed mini chocolate shakes from Lori's Diner, sorbets from Ciao Bella and ice cream sundaes from Ghirardelli. There were also lots of cookies, desserts, artisan chocolates (the earl grey tea-infused chocolate was a favorite) and a surprising number of stalls with different gourmet toffees. Plus hokey chocolate alcohol options like chocolate martinis, chocolate stout and Irish coffee (is there chocolate in that?!)
There was live music and many demonstrations, although we couldn't get into the cupcake decorating demonstration because it was packed. We also ordered from a nice crepe stand from Marche (a restaurant on the main square) - we had to get a savory ham and cheese crepe to offset all the sweets!

And finally, half a dozen Kara's cupcakes to take home for an after-dinner dessert (the best was a caramel-filled fleur de sel one - mmmm). Overall, an excellent event - I'd highly recommend it for the fun and festive atmosphere alone. Just please don't try to park at Ghirardelli Square itself!