Category Archives: food

Memorial Day Weekend

May 28-31, 2010

Twas a great Memorial Day weekend!  It first started off with a friend’s good-bye party at 5A5.  I feel like I’ve heard of this place many times, but it was the first time actually hanging out there.  I meant to stay only an hour or so since there was a lot planned for Saturday, but… I didn’t.  The important part here is that I got home (eventually), and was up and ready for Saturday’s activities.

I’ve wanted to go sailing ever since I moved to SF and saw all the white sails  boats floating around the bay.  I finally got around to putting something together and it turned out even better than I had hoped.  First of all, I was afraid the weather might suck because it was an afternoon sail, but the weather was perfect!  It was an unusually warm weather throughout, and no fog!  Almost everybody made it out, and the two that couldn’t make it had a good excuse.  It would have been awesome to have them join us, but everybody else was a good sport and pitched in for their cost (thanks again guys!).  Capt. Kirk & crew were as nice as the yelp reviewers claimed, and everybody that wanted to drive the sail got a turn!

The Disney Family Museum before sailing was also blast.  Even though we saw a lot of kids, I felt the museum was more for adults as it chronicles the life of Walt Disney; the usual struggles & triumphs and how he eventually created the Disney we know today.  It’s a very famous museum… only to the people outside of the bay apparently… so I highly suggest a visit if you have a chance!

A summary of the day could be found in the video below:

The busy weekend continued Sunday with a spontaneous trip to the neighborhood park to throw around the baseball.  Luckily one of the softball fields were empty so Chris, Gene, and I were able to get some good exercise.  We hit the ball a couple times and disrupted the game on the other field, and although an old man came running and threatened to call the cops on us (the COPS… really?), we just kept on playing because we’re super bad asses like that.

I then headed over to Dolores Park in the Mission District for a relaxing picnic with Will, Brian, Soojin & friends.  We drank a little bit of wine/beer, smoked some hookah, was amused by some REALLY drunk people, and was offered pot many times.  Where else but Dolores Park?

Those kettles were filled with… pot!

Pascale & friends.  The hookah felt authentic since she is Lebanese ^^

Brian & Soojin checking out pictures from Caranaval earlier in the day.

Night time quickly fell, and I was off to another good-bye party for a friend.  This night also turned out to be a much longer night than planned or anticipated.  But of course, I made it back home in one piece and was up and ready for Sunday’s activities, albeit a little late…

We started the final day of the long weekend at Half Moon Bay Brewery with good food and drinks (sans the drinks for me, other than soda), then headed over to a McD’s nearby for dessert!  I’ve forgot how awesome their frozen yogurts are!  So creamy and delicious.  Chris, Doug & I were then off to golf at the HMB Ritz Carlton’s Ocean Course.

Mmmmm! Seafood yum.

This course was really amazing, and I kept on telling Chris that I felt like I was in Scotland.  The views were incredible, and there was even a trail for people to walk around.  Even if you are not a golfer, this trail is definitely one place you should check out next time your down in HMB.

I want to go back!



Spin #3

May 25, 2010

So for those that follow my blog, which is probably  nobody (not even my mom), I recently picked up spinning.  As a recap, the first class was brutal and I seriously thought I was going to die.  In fact, I told the instructor after class that “I’m going to die”.  He responded, “good”.  The second class, I found out that I am not as out of shape as I thought.  I said, not AS out of shape… I’m still out of shape, and my legs are apparently weak as a stick (I do not understand what he means by ‘hold your body steady with your legs’). I had the tension way too high the first time but now have a better feel for the “Levels 1-10″ the instructors are talking about.  In a short span of three classes I feel like I’ve already made big strides of improvement, and although I still can’t feel my legs after class I can make it till the end without feeling like I’m going to faint.

After class I stopped by Kukje to pick up ingredients for 칼국수 (kal gook soo)!  Maybe it was the rain, but I was craving it all day and was very happy when it was all done!  And yes, it was very yummy.

Mmmm~ I made it!  I think I should add clams next time to the soup though…


LA Road Trip

May 21-23, 25, 2010

Next on the agenda for quite possibly the busiest (and most fun) couple of months was a road trip down to LA.  Unlike the previous few trips where it was just me or me with another friend, this one consisted of six people!  We were to drive down in a fun filled caravan, but people’s work schedules and so forth derailed those plans last minute.  Regardless, we all made it down safe and sound, and other than the 1 hour traffic delay in the middle of nowhere, the drive wasn’t too bad.

We dropped our stuff off at Aaron’s as soon as we arrived and headed straight to our go-to Ktown bar, Gaam.  The place was packed as expected, but we surprisingly got a table for 10 in a matter of minutes.  We ordered enough drinks for 10 people, but the other half didn’t arrive for another 30 minutes or so… hence, we drank everything and ordered more.  Towards the end of the night we were joined by some more friends and we all  headed to Maitreya.  At Maitreya, we ran into the ktown cowboys actors and I couldn’t resist but take a picture with them.  We chatted for just a few moments and I wished them good luck on their future episodes.

On Saturday we headed to Father’s Kitchen for some burgers, and I guided Grace & Will around Torrance, Redondo Beach and the Friendship Bell in San Pedro.  It was nice to stop by home and drive around my home town, but the driving was exhausting.  Note to future self: don’t drive so much next time.

I recently learned that Janet Cha (now Shin) lives in LA, and Esther Ahn was also in town so we got together for some good Korean food.  Now that I think about it… we didn’t take any pictures together, bummer :(  I’m sure I had my camera with me, but I was probably too embarrassed to start taking pictures of food in front of her parents.  Regardless, we enjoyed awesome galbi & galbi jjim, and afterwards headed over for a tour of their condo nearby.  After hanging out there for a short time, Esther, her friend Jason, and I headed out to Gaam (two days in a row for me!), and then to Orange to meet up with the rest of the group.  Again, no pictures, bummer.

Sunday’s lunch was galbi tang, completing the tri-fecta of galbi within a matter of hours for me.  Dson and Koun joined us this time!  After grabbing a quick dessert at ice kiss, we were headed back for SF.  Again, I think all the driving on Saturday took a toll and made the trip feel very… tiring.  To commemorate the trip, I made a quick video to recap the weekend.  Here it is:

James visits!

May 15-16, 2010

luna parkThis weekend is the second week of a string of very busy (albeit fun filled) 8 weekends in a row.  It’s going to be a challenge to keep up with these blog posts, but at least I’ll have something to write about every week.  James Chung is making a week long visit to SF before we head together to LA for some socal fun.  We started the weekend with a trip to Toyose, then on to some other bars in the mission area.  I was incredibly tired as I usually am on Friday nights and it was a relatively calm night for all of us.

The next morning, we headed up northeast to the city of San Rafael for golf at Peacock Gap GC.  It’s always fun to play at a new course, and this time was no exception.  The last time the four of us played together was in San Diego, and playing at a new course under warm weather made me feel like I was back in SD.  The course was well maintained and fun, but the putting greens were a bit ridiculous in terms of difficulty.

Crossing the San Rafael Bridge! I’ve crossed all the bridges in SF!

I found their tee box markers to be very creative, although the silver and black peacocks were somewhat confusing.  Okay, only I found them confusing, but that’s still 1/4 golfers.

Overall, very pretty course!

Bahm actually makes for a very good golf snack.  So does beer.

This picture doesn’t do justice to how hard the greens were, but beer definitely helped (not putting-wise… just emotionally)

The greens were the least of James’ problems though.  Sorry James, had to post it, too funny.

Winning price: In-n-Out double-double w/ animal style fries. YUM =P

We were all too tired to do anything crazy after golfing, so we headed out to our favorite bar Playground.  We played some games, ate some food, drank some drinks and ended the night in relative calm once again.

Titanic!  Now that I think about it, what a gruesome name for a drinking game!

The next morning started with brunch at Stacks and we ordered way too much food as usual (I blame one particular person, whom I shall not name).  It was also the day of Bay to Breakers and since Stacks is near the route, we got to see a lot of people in funky costumes or a lack of clothes in general.  I think I saw at least 5 butts, all dudes.  I love SF -_____-…

As an homage to Bay to Breakers, I created my brunch time masterpiece.  I call it, face.

The day was just getting started and we headed over to Japantown to fulfill Ahsome’s wishes to take sticker pictures.  I was a bit blown away at how complex these machines have evolved over the past decade.  Heck… without her help, I don’t think any of us would have known where to start (we probably wouldn’t have taken them in the first place, but that’s not the point).

James looks lost with all the lights

Chris is amazed!

So many options, so little time…

After the picture session, we headed to church, then for some ice cream at bi-rite, then a tour of Twin Peaks and Fisherman’s Warf, then finally picked up dinner at Little Star and ate at home to cap off the day.  Phew~ I didn’t realize so much was possible in one day.  Now I do.

Bi-rite is just around the corner from church, must go more often!

James’ double.  Although I think this is called a single.  One scoop is a junior.

Ice cream power!

These fellas were EXTRA stinky today.

Thanks to James, we got a really good tour of Pier 39, stopping at a lot more stores today than I have all of the past 2 years.  There were definitely some interesting stores, although I’d never buy anything.  Do kids really want this?  I mean, really?

We were wondering 1. Who was honking non-stop and 2. Why people were so amazed at this dog inside a car.  Then- all our questions were answered!

Mmmm~ Now thats a good way to end the day.  I planned on eating one.  I ate two.