This week has been a little disrupted because I went on an overnight trip to SF with my mother -- she dog sits for a friend up there -- and Brad has training this week, which means his lunches are tied up. So lunch has been a little more fast and loose and Brad had to make his lunches on Monday and Tuesday.
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The basic menu:
- Chicken garlic stew using a somewhat adapted Bittman method, accompanied with with brown rice and handy vegetables. (Steamed asparagus, spigarello, oyster mushrooms. Spigarello is a lot like broccoli rabe.)
- Lentil and tomato soup.
- Green salad with romaine, perella buttercrunch lettuce, spring onion, chives, cucumber, watercress, blue cheese, and ad hoc vinaigrettes; yesterday I used rangpur lime juice as the acid and added almond oil, and today I used balsamic vinegar and added hazelnut oil and toasted hazelnuts.
- Strawberries and mint.
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While we were in the city, we tried out an Indian restaurant in North Beach, Urban Curry, which was tasty. The next morning we attempted to go to some very popular breakfast place downtown but when we got there we found out it was closed on Tuesdays; a local suggested another place around the corner that wasn't sublime but that was perfectly good for filling our by now very hungry tummies. There was also much dog walking, a very small price to pay for a stay in such a great location.
The farmers market at the Ferry Building was nice, but I saw a lot of the same or similar things we get here only marked up a buck or two so I didn't get much other than a Mariposa pumpkin muffin (sadly, they use apple cider vinegar in all of their breads so I skipped the tempting GF baguette) and a bunch of fresh garlic with scapes. I didn't escape the Imperial Tea Court, though.
I've been trying out my new teas, as well as brewing in my new glass pitcher, which I really like for when I want to see the leaves unfold.
The Yunnan Gold Rings is a really lovely gold, though I think I like the Lion's Mane even better. The Gold Rings are very pretty, though, with their coiled leaves, and they hold up to more steepings.
The Imperial Green from this spring is fresh and lovely.
I still have one more to try, a yunnan green that like the raw sheng I have can hold up to hotter water than most greens. I also stocked up on tea tins (I can use a few more of the tall thin metal ones they have, to fit into my pantry), a glass pitcher, and some small round double-walled glass cups that I arguably don't need but really love.