6 Days in Tahoe

We set out for our annual ski week trip on a day when the National Weather Service had a severe winter storm warning for the Sierras. Even so, with chain control for about 50 miles, we still made it up to Northstar in about 5.5 hours.

We've been coming up to Northstar for many years now, and have rented all sorts of properties from houses on the golf course, to rustic condos and now, the new large condos located directly in the Village. They are practically ski-in/ski-out, with nice and convenient large ski lockers to dump all our gear. We usually come in for lunch so we don't have to deal with all the lines and crowds. After all these years, we've finally perfected all the elements of the trip!

The snow was wonderful, the weather was great, the kids were thrilled and we had the same lovely ski instructor as last year - the incomparable Alina. Our condo overlooked the ice skating rink and we learned after we arrived that the Dew Tour was taking place that weekend. Don't worry, we had no idea what it was either!

We were a little apprehensive when we learned that about 20,000 people would be pouring into Northstar to watch stars like Shaun White compete in freestyle and half pipe events. And there was a concert. And music. Lots of music. Music that started at 7 am. Right. Out. Side. Our. Condo. The Friday night concert was like having Common rapping to us in our living room. A minor inconvenience.



The Village at Northstar has been upgraded over the past few years - other than a quick supermarket run, we never had to leave. We had dinner at Mikuni twice (loved the japanese fries), pizza at Rubicon and a fabulous but excrutiatingly slow meal at Baxter's Bistro (their fromage frites - fries with truffled cheese topping - was out of this world). As you can see, fries featured prominently in my diet for the week. We tried to dine at a new place called Chocolate Bar, which sounded fabulous, but the too loud, thumping techno beat chased us away. I definitely felt old...

Our drive back clocked at a remarkable 7 hours of drive time (for those who are unfamiliar with this area, a reasonable drive is around 4 hours). It took us 3 hours to get down the mountain alone while the storm surged around us. I comforted myself by the thought that California needs the water.

Humphry Slocombe - what kind of name is that for a gourmet ice cream shop?!

Ever on the alert for new places where I can gain weight, I've been waiting for a new ice cream place to open at 24th and Harrison in the Mission/Potrero area of San Francisco. It was really the unusual name that first caught my eye in a magazine article, and it finally opened a few weeks ago.

Not letting the freezing temperature and bone-chilling gusts of wind dissuade us, I persuaded a group to trek down to try out Humphry Slocombe last weekend. It was packed so I guess I'm not alone in my crazy-new-ice-cream-hunting fanaticism.
The staff were super nice and let me try 6 different flavors - I was being a little indecisive that day, primarily because their flavors were so unusual. I tried out:

• Balsamic Caramel - the balsamic flavor was a little strong for me, I still prefer the salted caramel at Bi-Rite Creamery.
  
• Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee - if I liked coffee ice cream, this one would be a winner. Alas, I don't.
• Pistachio Bacon - it was kinda good in a weird way, but I didn't think I could stomach a whole scoop of it.
• Valrhona Fudgisicle - this was a sorbet as opposed to an ice cream. It was a little icy for me.
• Hibsicus Beet - this was a beautiful color but to be honest, I can't remember what it tasted like.
• some swirly pink and white ice cream that had rose petals (not listed on the board) - odd.

I finally picked the Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip - the flavors were very clean but I wasn't wild about it after a few bites.

So my Bay Area gourmet ice cream favorites stand in order at:

1. Ici in Berkeley with its special cones with chocolate on the bottom
   
2. Bi-Rite for the best salted caramel
   
3. Sketch for vanilla with olive oil swirled on top
   
4. Humphry Slocombe for its fascinating selection of flavors.
   

More cupcake mania...

I was disappointed to figure out a few months ago that Kara's Cupcakes doesn't do special decorations even if you special order a batch of mini-cupcakes - other than frost them in a particular color scheme. When I ordered 2 dozen minis for a Halloween party, they told me that their special Halloween sugar cutouts were only available for the full sized cupcakes and not the minis. Now, as much as I like the cupcakes, the full-sized ones are just too big with an inordinate amount of frosting. And I like my decorations...

So for my niece's 1st birthday party, I decided to forgo Kara's and go with a special order with Sibby's Cupcakery. I've ordered from Sibby's quite a few times in the past - for both business and personal events. For a past birthday at the Marine Science Institute, they did a tray of delightful marine themed mini cupcakes with little fish and whales everywhere on sky and sea blue frosting. I've been in love with their decorating ever since.

This time, they did a pink and brown carnival/candy theme for my niece, incorporating her name and the number 1. It was adorable. I ordered 12 chocolate tea cakes, 6 vanilla and 6 lemon drop. They were all gone extremely quickly. Order yours at Sibby's today!

At last, I get to try Pinkberry...

I love the new natural tart froyo that's become all the rage due to Pinkberry's enormous success in Southern California. I do find it kinda humorous that when I first started eating froyo in the 80s when in college, all the purveyors would try to get rid of that tart flavor and now, 20 years later, it's totally back in style.


My first experience with froyo V2.0 was down in L.A. about 4 years ago at some place in Little Tokyo (might have been IceBerry but I can't quite recall). It was really good. Then a few months later, Pinkberry (plus many others of that ilk) became the froyo sensation of SoCal, with stories of people risking parking tickets to hop out and get their yogurt fix. My sister (never one for moderation) used to get Pinkberry EVERY DAY when she worked down in Newport Beach.

Then two years ago, we finally got Fraiche in Palo Alto with the tart flavors made from organic local milk. And then Red Mango opened, by the Korean winner of Survivor, no less (the main purveyors of froyo V2.0 are all Korean enterprises). I've also had it at Cafe Delatti in Los Gatos, plus some obscure place in Chinatown in San Francisco (which was the cheapest of the whole lot).

And finally, the original trendsetter Pinkberry opened in Santana Row in San Jose last month and I tried it out today. They have three flavors - original, green tea and pomegranate. I had a small half original, half green tea with strawberries and mango. Next time I'll stick to original only - the green tea was initially good but got slightly gritty. The toppings were generous and oddly enough, I finished the froyo first, and had leftover toppings. This has never happened before.

So was Pinkberry worth the wait? Oh yes - count me as a newly minted fan. The shop was super cute, almost sparklingly white and the toppings bar was the most attractive that I've seen. The original flavor was nice and tart, but not wincingly so (pomegranate was too tart for me). The strawberries seemed to have been marinated - it was a great topping.

In the froyo2.0 wars, I'm going to have to rate Pinkberry tops for now. With Fraiche coming a close second (but that may be because it actually has shaved Callebaut chocolate as a topping - and it's 5 mins away from home). Red Mango was just not tart enough, even though I did meet the Survivor winner/owner at his new outlet in Valley Fair a few weeks ago.

I wonder how often I can make it down to Santana Row to visit Pinkberry...

A Touristy Day in SF

After a great tea at Crown & Crumpet (see previous post), we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf, amidst all the tourists. It had been a while since we've done that and it was remarkably fun! There was a ton of energy, lots of street performers, horse-drawn carriages and people taking photos.







We made a stop at In-n-Out on the Wharf for some french fries (to counteract the sugar?! again, see previous posts about love of french fries) and then walked over to the Musee Mechanique. This is a small private museum filled with little modern and antique amusement park machines that used to be located at the by the Sutro Baths on Highway 1. The new location on the wharf is equally scenic but the warehouse decidedly lacks at atmosphere. We put lots of quarters into skee ball, fortune telling, a sticker photo booth and a mechanical fun fair that comes to life. Then we watched the sunset over the Bay.



Finally we finished up with clam chowder in a bread bowl at the new and fancy Boudin bakery - we ate in the cafe area (not the upstairs restaurant) and their grilled cheese served with tomato soup was a wonderful end to the day.

Crown & Crumpet

It was an unbelievably gorgeous day in San Francisco last Saturday - high 60s, sunny and warm. This is why I live in this part of the country. We headed up to Ghirardelli Square to try out a new adorable tea room called Crown & Crumpet. Open about 4 months, it serves, breakfast, lunch, dinner (on weekends) and of course, my personal favorite, afternoon tea.

I seek out afternoon tea with a passion - I'm a big tea drinker anyway and I love the three tiered cake stands, finger sandwiches and scones with clotted cream. My two favorite places in SF are Lovejoy's (but too busy, always need a ressie) and the Neiman Marcus Rotunda at Union Square (afternoon tea is just so-so but they have good scones and the best view).

I may have a new favorite now - C&C did not disappoint. Not only is the decor lovely, they have customized dishes and the best teapot with a built-in strainer that you can raise out of the level of the tea with a small adjustment of the end. And a lovely bay view with Alcatraz in the distance.






We were a party of 3 adults, 2 kids and one baby - so we ordered the afternoon tea for two (one pot with Earl Grey and one pot with their house blend), plus two nursery teas for the kids (served with a rich hot chocolate). It all arrived on tiered cake plates, with finger sandwiches (the egg salad was delicious but the best was a lovely pear and blue cheese sandwich), nice crumpets, 3 small scones and some desserts including small cookies, brownies and an odd bright pink cupcake thing.

I preferred the savouries over the sweets, which is actually a common occurrence. I would have ordered their sausage rolls but they only serve those on Fri and Sat evenings - will have to make a special trip to try those sometime soon. The house blend tea was just ok but the Earl Grey was exceptional (sourced from the Tea Palace in London and available for sale at a rather exorbitant $5-6 an ounce). In fact, there was a delightful little shop just off the entrance that sold the aforementioned cool teapots ($48 but I didn't pull the trigger just because it was such a large pot), all the dishes and cups and lots of other cute little gifty items.

The service was welcoming and friendly and the owner seemed lovely in my short little chat with her. This would be a great place for a birthday celebration or a shower (one was taking place in the corner when we were there). There's patio seating available in addition to the indoor space. And finally, they brought two cute candy bracelets for the kids with the bill.

I can't wait to go back!

Fries for Dinner

After taking a bit of a break for the holidays (Why do I need a break, since I'm not exactly employed right now? Don't ask...) we're back to eating our way through the Bay Area, since I don't have any travel plans for the next few weeks.

Last Friday night, we were debating where to go for dinner. Hubby wanted a burger and for that, we usually head to Jeffrey's, a casual dining joint that serves a perfectly good burger, and makes a nice chocolate shake for older daughter. Alas, the main drawback to Jeffrey's is that their fries are just so-so. And I like fries. A lot. If I'm going to expend valuable calories on fries, I want them to be goooood. Unfortunately, I also have no self-control around fries, so even if they're just so-so, I will continue to consume them at an undeserving rate.

Then I had a brainwave and suggested that we go to the newly re-opened Left Bank in Menlo Park, which had been closed for a few months for renovation. It's a reliable standby and has a good burger and most importantly, EXCELLENT skinny cut fries.

Hubby had a cheeseburger, served with fries. Older daughter had steak frites, which were of course accompanied by frites. Younger daughter had the chicken tenders off the children's menu, served in a silver bucket, sitting on a healthy bed of fries. And I ordered the moules. Alas, while on their lunch menu, the moules are properly served with frites, they are served alone for dinner. So I ordered a side of fries. Yes, 4 servings of fries for 4 people. Just so you know, we don't usually roll like that.

My moules were excellently plump and juicy, and the fries were glorious when dipped in the white wine juice at the bottom of my bowl. There was even some sort of altercation at the other end of the table when a party, who shall remain nameless, finished his fries first and tried to scam some from his daughter, who was remarkably uncooperative.

When asked the next day what she had for dinner, my younger daughter replied, "French fries!" Alas, I may have damned them to a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits...