There’s a food truck at the Lake Merritt farmer’s market every Saturday that sells blisteringly hot, sweetly caramelized Belgian waffles, best eaten out of hand with a scrap of brown paper to collect the crumbs. Jen and I stumbled upon this little treasure a few weeks back, and since the discovery I’ve counted my busy weekends out of Oakland a waistline preserving blessing. Continue reading
Well, here we are folks. 2013. It’s resolution time, people. Be resolved.
This year, I resolve to not freak out about turning 30. Let’s not talk about how “shit, I turn 30 this year” was pretty much the first thing out of my mouth around 12:02 am.
Let’s also not talk about how I talked to my best friend Lindsay, in Amsterdam, on my lunch break today (Dear iPhone, I love you, thanks for everything you do. Alex) and the first words out of my mouth were, “Hey Linds, we’re turning 30 this year.” Needless to say, she appreciated the reminder. Continue reading
First thanksgiving happened. Now it’s Christmas. I fly to Edmonton on Saturday to spend some time with my mom and dad for the holidays. Mom sends me daily messages warning me about the cold weather up there, concerned that 5 months in California has washed away all my memories of real winter. Continue reading
I saw the following sign this weekend:
“Artichokes. 10 for $1.”
As you can imagine, my Northern blood about stopped pumping at that moment.
This was outside Castroville, which I learned this weekend is not a smaller gay-town, but rather the artichoke capital of America, complete with an real live artichoke festival. Yes, you heard it here. Continue reading
The recipe for the banana version of this cake comes by way of Bakesale Betty, a small bakery and sandwich shop in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. Betty, I’m told, makes a fried chicken sandwich that is nothing short of transcendent. On the subject of this sandwich, one of my normally jovial and joking colleagues became suddenly very serious: “Oh hell. That damn sandwich brings tears to my eyes. I’ve tried to quit it, but I just can’t.”