My Week in Food: What's In My Belly

The weeks just really fly by now, every time it's Sunday again I can't believe it, because it felt like yesterday was just Sunday!  There was no niner game this weekend because it was bye week...and I was very lonely without my game.  It was a well-timed break though, because this Sunday was so crazy I didn't even have a spare minute!

Here's what I've been grubbin' on lately to keep me grinding through busy days and weeks...

Made some whole wheat apple muffins to share with my students...they were a hit!  I adapted it from this recipe, and substituted orange juice for milk because I didn't realize until halfway through that I didn't have any.  Extremely grateful they turned out well!  They baked a lot faster than I expected though, so the edges got a little burnt and I had to ever-so-gracefully slice them off.

The Busquat sandwich I ordered from Frjtz.  Was good, but would have been better with fries! Remember this post?!

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of some good wine, and this is one of my go-to favorites.  I had to enjoy this one on my own so sadly I didn't finish it before it turned...but I enjoyed every sip I had!

 Folie à Deux: Ménage à Trois Red

Tried out a new pho place and enjoyed it! Phö is one of my all-time favorites.  I love noodles in general, and phö just really takes the cake.

Kim Son Vietnamese Restaurant

3614 Balboa Street 

(between 37th & 38th Ave.)

San Francisco

Sometimes I just feel my body telling me that I need more veggies!  One of my most favorite salads is actually from Safeway - it's their Apple Walnut Grilled Chicken Salad, with feta cheese and cranberries. It's unbelievably delicious! This month is Breast Cancer month, so they swapped out their usual green trays for these pretty pink ones.  Love!

On Saturday I got my ultra-sensitive and damaged teeth cleaned, and was too sore to chew afterwards, so I went to King Noodle and just ordered a small bowl with the fewest meats possible.  King Noodle is kind of not the epitome of fine dining, but it's fast, cheap, and hit the spot when I was in a hurry, short on moolah, and hungry for something soft, so I can't complain!  Oh, and I saved the meatballs for a doggy friend of mine!

Over the weekend I got invited over to a friend's house for dinner and they - knowing my penchant for reds - had a delicious merlot corked and waiting for me upon my arrival.  Ahh, ma vie c'est grande!

Imperfections

This morning I woke up to this amazing post by Emily of Cupcakes and Cashmere.  It's a short two paragraphs where she candidly discusses one of her biggest faults, and states that "sometimes it’s good to simply be aware of your (not so admirable) habits, so that you can make a change."


Well, I certainly have many flaws as well, but I think my greatest one is high expectations.  I have The Highest expectations for myself, and therefore this trickles down into everything else around me as well: my life, my friends, my business, my clientele, my associates.  As a result, I become easily disappointed.  Often times I find myself having to temper my hurt and frustration by reminding myself that it's okay that something or someone didn't turn out/behave/react the way I had hoped, because no one and nothing is flawless - myself included.  


What areas do you feel the need to work on?

 as a musician, we practice for perfection

I Love You Tomorrow...You're Only A Day Away

Today was a rather disappointing day, on most fronts.  I don't know what it is about Wednesdays, but somehow they always seem to come and go with far more negatives than positives.  I guess we need days like this to help us appreciate the days that are better right?

One example of how today failed me is...I was hoping to have two excellent restaurant reviews by tonight! But yep you guessed it, I have zero.

For lunch, I hopped into Frjtz, just a few blocks away from school.  It sounded promising and the pictures looked good.

Well, it turns out, I walked in to put my order in and as I was just about to order my fries (I even had my dipping sauce all pre-picked out already too), I was informed that the fryer was broken and that there were no fries.  Disappointment!  When the name of your restaurant IS essentially a fancy foreign-sounding name for "fries," it's a total let down to not have it! Shouldn't that be illegal somehow?  Can you imagine walking into Popeye's and being told their fryer was down and they didn't have fried chicken that day?

Then for dinner, my friend and I hopped into Canto Do Brasil, because it is literally a 90 second walk away from school and she had even more of a time constraint than I did.   I actually like Canto Do Brasil quite a bit, it's a little less pricey if you go for lunch, and because it's so close and by far the most decent eatery in the vicinity of my school, I've been a few times.  The food is always good, and they give you this amazing spread with the complimentary bread (that is always oh-so-perfectly soft and fresh) that I always end up cleaning out anyway, far after the bread has all been consumed.  I like their calamari as well.

Today though, I ended up waiting 35 minutes for my food!  That's probably a bit on the long side at any joint, but particularly when you're pressed for time.  It was so bad that I had to ask for a to-go box before my food even arrived.  My friend had all but finished by the time my food/to-go box arrived.  The wait is usually never that long...I'm not sure what it was.  I guess they were having a case of the Wednesdays also.

So...hopefully I will be able to try both places again and have better results next time!  I am a firm believer in second chances because really...don't we all need it from time to time?

Food Review: Sri Thai Cuisine

The other day I had a slightly longer break so we tried Sri Thai in Outer Sunset.

Sri Thai Cuisine

4621 Lincoln Way

San Francisco 94122

Cute wine holder. Cute decor throughout. Probably the biggest selling point of this place.

I'm a HUGE Thai cuisine fan so you've got to be pretty darn awesome to stand out at this point.

We ordered the Thai Samosas, deep fried "thai-style wontons" as I call them, stuffed with pumpkin and yams.  They were ok.

The "Spicy Noodle" dish is pretty much Pad Kee-Mao at any other restaurant, but for some reason they take out the name here and just call it "Spicy Noodle." It was good, but again, nothing that blew my mind.

There was also a fried banana ice cream dessert, but sadly I forgot to take a picture.  That was okay as well. 

All in all, an interesting experiences, by no means bad, better than many other thai places, but nothing on my two favorites.

Sunday Magic With the 49ers!

So happiness hits florence and the machine like a train on the tracks, but happiness hit me today like Alex Smith's perfect pass to Delaney Walker when it mattered the most.

( credit: Duane Burleson, photos from Yahoo! Sports)

(I'm a girl so I'm allowed to talk about fashion right? Can I just say how much I LOVE these away jerseys?! And Michael Crabtree's shoes.  I kind of want that entire outfit right there.)

Niner defense was HUGE today against the strong detroit offense; Patrick Willis and Aldon Smith were all over everywhere they needed to be, the whole entire time!  I was seriously impressed.

I'd also like to shout-out Ted Ginn Jr. for all his impressive kick and punt returns, rushing and receiving yards.  Am I the only one who gets excited every time he starts to run??  You can really see the track & field training come out.

Michael Crabtree had an impressive game today with nine receptions for 77 receiving yards, and was voted MVP by KNBR's Red and Gold post-game show (which ran to nearly 4 o'clock today...it was a looong game).  During his post-game interview, he made some cute comment about being tired of always just almost getting things done and how he had to start to 'just gettin' it done already'!

It's a tough one...but I think I'd anoint my bethscetera MVP of the day title to Frank Gore.  No offense to the good folks over at Niner Nation, but I say Frank Gore is our Optimus Prime!  Frank Gore had 141 rushing yards today, and a touchdown in the second quarter.  If you watch the game you'd have seen that he helped the team tremendously to finally achieve the huge 25-19 win over the Detroit Lions, a team that has built up an impressive record for itself during these first 6 weeks.

There were 15 penalties and an early turnover that had my stomach tightening for a few moments...nightmares of last season came flooding back and my vision blurred for a second.  But then I remembered - wait, we've got Harbaugh now, things are different this year.  And sure enough, Alex Smith didn't shrink into his cave and leave us for the rest of the game like he did time and time again last year. He maintained his composure, and pulled the team through despite the deafening roar of Lions fans at Ford Field.

The only little blip the end...

So, this is what happens.  Schwartz, in case you missed it, totally made fun of Harbaugh (with profanity) for getting a penalty earlier in the game when he challenged a scoring play (which is against the rules now since all scoring plays are reviewed anyway).  Then he lost.  Sure he's pissed, instead of being 6-0 they're now 5-1.  Oh, that's right, like the 49ers.  Harbaugh, on the other hand, who kept his cool the entire time, is now just ecstatic because his team just beat one of the only two undefeated teams so far this season.  So he's happy and bouncy and he comes over happily to shake Schwartz' hand and pat his back.  Schwartz then get his feelings hurt, and decides to chase after Harbaugh for about 20 yards, yelling as he goes.  MY favorite part is when some of the players start putting their helmets on again like...I'm ready! Game on..again!  Harbaugh basically said the post-game conference, 'My bad, totally my fault, I shook his hand too hard.'

Moral of the story:  Please be careful when shaking coaches hands...some of them are of a delicate nature!

Can't wait to be at The Stick when The Cleveland Browns (who lost 24-17 to the Raiders today) come to town at the end of the month!

Summer-Back Weekend

Another great weekend gone by, and summer decided to come back and visit again for a few days.

My weekend was wonderful, I got to enjoy the world's best hot-pot with some of my dearest friends...

(with lamb, tempura, lots of tofu, lots of veggies, beef balls, fish balls, mushrooms, yam...yummmmm)

And on Sunday, while enjoying my Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup...

(In my chicken soup I usually put onions - white and green - tomatoes, half a lemon, garlic, napa cabbage, and today I ran out of cilantro so it's less pretty.)

...I got to watch these guys...

...do a lot of this...

 ...this...

...and this!

...culminating in an amazing, 48-3 win over the Tampa Bay Bucs.  Really? Let's say that again shall we?  Yes, you read correctly.  Fourty-eight over three.  Needless to say I was seeing stars for the rest of the day.  And the best part of about it was, it was a clean, solid game for San Francisco - the Niners played exceptionally today, they were every where and every thing they needed to be.  And it shows.  48-3.

In some other news on this beautiful football Sunday that was surprising to me, the Seahawks beat the Giants in New York (Seahawks?! Really?! Who saw that one coming?); reigning champs Green Bay Packers, led by Aaron Rodgers, rallied back towards the end of their game to beat the Falcons and keep their (what is it now-11 games? if you carry over from last season) winning streak alive; and the Raiders beat Houston 25-20, making it all in all, a very good day for my beloved bay.  Al Davis would have been proud.  

Hope all of you out there are doing well and staying alive in your leagues, and enjoying the month of October in your own special ways!

Autumn Hues

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my colour-of-the-hour: OPI's Oh-No, Roll Down the Window!

Despite it's less-than-attractive name, (really, OPI?! You've done so much better...) the color is to-die-for!

Lately in stores I've been seeing a lot of autumn hues that go perfectly with the sudden drop in temperatures we've had this week (and rain) - mostly goldenrod/mustard-y yellows, pumpkin oranges, and deep brick reds, but when I saw this mossy forest green, I thought it was the perfect dark complement to those colors and picked it up right away!

Here are pics in a few different lightings...

I love this color so much that, even though I can only keep it on for a few days in between lessons and performances, I couldn't resist throwing a couple coats on!