Bacon and Butter

Sharing another foodie escapade story, this time I went on the adventure with my husband. "Bacon and Butter" the name doesn't sound appetizing and was not on my list of restaurant to visit even though I see it often on my drive around town. My husband had heard good things about it and we were looking to try something different so we decided to stop by.

The décor was clean and industrial but not overtly so and even though it has the diner vibe to it, there is a very different energy in this place. There is a parking lot next to it and the wait wasn't too long.

 

The menu was single paged and from the dishes offered you could tell it was very seasonal.
DH ordered Billy Club, chicken breast, jalapeno aioli, bacon, avocado, lettuce and mozzarella cheese along with fries, which was finger link potatoes sliced in half and cooked in fresh butter. I try to avoid white bread but after a bite of that sandwich and potato fries, I was ready to order a second lunch. There is something absolutely heavenly about butter and all things cooked in butter.

I ordered a very healthy seasonal greens salad with fresh sliced and grilled asparagus. It was served with poached egg and grilled cheese (possibly burrata cheese coated with parmesan). It was so fresh and delicious that I was convinced that it can not be as healthy as the other salads I have been eating all these while.

Needless to say, we were impressed by the freshness of ingredients and the unique preparations. We started talking to our server and was blown away. He was passionate about the food he served us, he knew the farms where our food grew, their locations and their owners. The way he conveyed all that information, you could tell its not a marketing tactic, he totally has bought into the farm to fork movement and takes great pride in it.

The last wind that blew us over the top was that the check was brought in an old book. What a wonderful reuse of these old books and best thing, you could totally browse the book while you wait for your server to process your check.

When I went in the restaurant, the name 'bacon and butter' conjured up an image in my mind and as I was leaving it, that image was completely changed. Such a great experience, wonderful fresh food and people who believe in sourcing and cooking from the best local ingredients.

Let it be...

Its been almost two years since we moved to California and as I look back at all the decisions that brought me to this juncture in life, I struggle with the direction of a few of those decisions...
All those what ifs in life, all those moments that seem so huge retrospectively but I had hardly paid attention to those moments and the over arching effects they will have on my life.

I think it would be unfair to say that I don't regret any of the decisions and yet I wouldn't have gotten here without those decisions. Life's precious moments seem to be constantly straddling this dilemma, hurting, analyzing and acknowledging the series of decisions that brought me here.

It seems this isn't an isolated phenomenon, others suffer from it as well and during a discussion on this topic with a friend, she introduced me to a new way of thinking about the things in life. She mentioned that often people say you have to 'Let it go' to come to terms with any loss but that's not true. If its hurting you can't let it go, you need to let it be.

One needs to acknowledge the loss, the pain and frustration that is hurting us. We need to look back and review those moments when we picked a path on the fork of life and closed the door on everything that was possible on the other path, acknowledge the fact that you can never go back to the dilemma again, the hurt that's lingering would likely stay there for a long time to come. One possibly needs to go through negative emotions to acknowledge it and express the anger and frustration through bad words and physical retaliation but don't feel guilty about your behavior.
Guide books often guide you to feel zen and above the situation in order to achieve peace but to achieve the calm, your heart needs to agree, you can't just impose the logic of the brain and pretend like things aren't bothering you anymore. If you'd want your heart to come along, you do need to go through the pain, acknowledge its presence and 'Let it be'.

My mom quoted something from an article the other day, "if you want to understand life look to your past but if you want to build a life you need to look forward". I realized that every single moment I'm making a decision and I'm not even sure which one these moments with turn into those life changing events that I'll look back on and ponder over. I can only try and detach the emotions that I am acknowledging as a consequence of a previous decision, from the decision that I'll be making next.
 

My first time trying El Salvadorian cuisine...

Birds of a feather...
I'm so fortunate to be able to connect with my foodie co-workers, so here's sharing another food adventure story. I call myself an adventurous eater and have tried quite a variety of cuisine but every so often, I come across that I never knew existed and I'm humbled. I guess, I don't know what I don't know until I know about it...

One of my south American friend asked me if I'd be interested in trying El Salvadorian food. We had been working out on the field all morning so a sandwich and iced coffee in the shade of a tree would have been good but actual real food in an air-conditioned restaurant seemed like heaven and could not be refused.

Platano's grill was off interstate I-5 along the frontage road in Lathrop in San Joaquin Valley. I'm pretty sure, I'd not have picked this place on my own but now that I know about it, I'll take my family there.  

These in the picture above are Pastelitos our appetizer. It has a pastry dough shell, filled with chicken and veggies and is deep fried. Really yummy and even though I've had the combination of these ingredients, the flavor was very distinct. I'd recommend sharing as the amount of oil that was soaked in the shell was very evident.



This is what our main course looked like as we started to dig into our food. The small round stuffed bread are called Pupusa. It is flour dough bread cooked on a skillet and comes filled with a variety of flavors. We ordered Chicken and cheese, cheese and vegetable, cheese and beans and cheese and loroco (edible flower from Mexico). They were all extremely fresh and wonderful. I have tried pupusa before (not knowing that its el Salvadorian food) with corn flour dough and I liked those better for the nutty corn flavor but these were so fresh off the skillet that I didn't even remember the other kind till much later.
The black rice dish is Casamiento which is black bean and rice dish and is close to flavor as the rice and (red) beans but the black beans were much firmer and held their distinct taste.
One the on right is Platano (Plantain) served with sour table cream. The plantains were caramelized without any additional flavor and I really liked that. Usual flavoring of cinnamon and sugar makes it too artificial in taste, this was subtle flavor and went very well with the table sour cream.

The cabbage dish is called curtido, to me if felt like a cross between coleslaw and kimchi. Cabbage, carrots and onions are marinated in some vinegar based dressing and has a strong flavor of oregano but the veggies are still crisp and fresh. They served us a jar of it and we promptly gulped it down... one must eat their veggies, right?

We loved their salsa as well. It has robust roasted pepper flavor and was very spicy.
All in all, a wonderful food experience and even though it is a little out of the way from Sacramento, it would be a good family stop as you are heading into or out of town for vacation.

SMART Rail Service...

SMART- Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit service starts tomorrow between San Rafael and Santa Rosa in Northern California. It is an exciting moment for all working in the transportation industry.

The first day of revenue service begins on Friday 25th August although if you are from the area you are probably already used to seeing the train running through its various test phases.

 The first day of service is free for everyone to try and I'd highly recommend it. They are Clipper card only system so for anyone coming up from Bay area, it would be a breeze but for people new to this cashless ticketing system it would be a bit of learning curve.

 I really like that their platforms are high and afford on level boarding rather than climbing into the coach car. Designers often think of level boarding as an accessibility issue for those who use wheel chair but I think it is good for all travelers specially moms, kids, elderly, people carrying luggage... so many reason to provide good accessibility.

 After the first free day on Friday, the service is discounted 50% till the labor day weekend. So, if Friday is a working day for you and you can't make it up there, hit it over the weekend for all the wineries and breweries that scattered throughout the rail route.

 The interior is very comfortable and equipped with a snack bar.

 The views are breath taking and there are walking/biking trails along the train route that would be good for exploring the area.

 Please keep your dogs on leashes and collect your trash after you. Its a beautiful setting and it would be a shame if humans with their negligence ruined it for the flora and fauna and of course all the future humans as well.

All these pictures are straight out of my camera phone, I didn't have the time to edit them and also share this post by the time SMART starts its service so timely sharing won over perfect pictures.

 Hope you have a pleasant ride and next time you'd consider transit (train/bus) over highways for your family vacation.

 

Visiting Beijing in Winters...

Late last year, my husband casually asked me if I’d like to go to Beijing for my birthday. It was winters, there was no tour available, we don’t speak mandarin, and we had very short time to prepare but those are not the kind of details over which you’d refuse a trip, right?

I asked friends who had lived in China, I perused over travel articles, I read through blog posts but nothing much (positive anyways) was said about traveling to China in winters but we (a family of four) went anyways. It was much easier to travel in winters than to change my birthdate and thus began the journey. I thought I’d share my experience for any future travelers who’d like to explore China during winter holiday break.

The last organized tour to China was offered during the first week of November and after that the tourism industry goes into hibernation. That just means better travel deals and less tourists. We booked our hotel and flight package through Expedia and chose to stay close to Forbidden City rather than Olympic Village which was the other option in this bundle and is a much modern area compared to the heart of old town.

Since, it was low tourist season once we arrived at the hotel, we got to pick between two very modern and beautiful suites after taking the tour of each room and besides that our breakfast was included in the room price. We like to find hotels which include breakfast during our vacations since it sets us up for the day ahead for sightseeing/hiking as the case may be. The breakfast room wasn’t crowded even though it was holiday season in the western hemisphere and the chefs could easily entertain our requests for omelets and soups.

Low tourist season meant that we could negotiate better deals on local travel, we booked a package for visiting the Great Wall through our hotel concierge. Before visiting Great wall, I had imagined it to be an overly crowded section of an ancient, crumbling wall but thanks to our visit during the winter season, we hardly had any folks with us on the wall. It is huge, magnificent and beautifully restored. And best of all, no photo bombers in any pictures. I could have sat and meditated there for hours before being disturbed by any other visitor, and that is not the case in rest of the monuments that we visited.

One of the biggest threat that our friends’ warned us against was cold. Well, we knew it won’t be a problem with us being from Minnesota. Our key pieces of clothing were long underwear (a couple of sets) and lots of layering. Malls, Taxis and Subways are all air-conditioned so you need to take off a few layers when you are indoors. Also, lots of walking (for us) meant that layers were mostly off and sometimes on. Scarves, hats and gloves were big help after the sun went down and if there was a breeze.

One big concern that DH had was the air quality. He researched and found that air quality is bad during winters and smog lingers on so he ordered these 3M masks from amazon to take us along the trip. They were comfortable and we used it for the first couple days while walking on the road. Most people tourists and locals alike wear masks so it wasn’t too awkward to wear them all the time. But I took them out often since I didn’t want them in all my pictures. Once we were inside a monument, building, I took them off completely. On our third day in Beijing, there was a strong breeze that blew the smog away, it made the air quality much better but the weather considerably chillier.

The best part about going on our own rather than being part of a tour group was authentic Chinese food. The couple of bad food adventures we had were when we were part of a tour (Great wall) or took a guide’s suggestion for a restaurant (Xi’an), it was hugely overpriced, bad strip mall Chinese food. Otherwise the food was excellent and local eateries are very helpful and would like to serve you their best dishes. We had some very fun experiences when the locals suggested to us the dishes we should order while at the restaurant. Will share those in subsequent posts.

All my friends’ who have gone to China with a tour group complain about the food, one experience that we can’t identify with. Food in Beijing was excellent! The air quality issue persists during spring and summer as well, so winter wasn’t really making it much worse. We also heard a lot from friends about overcrowding and people rushing and pushing at all tourist places and not being able to enjoy the sights because of that. Based on these inputs, we are glad we went in winter and didn’t go with a tour group.

We made all our transportation bookings (High speed Rail and sleeper rail) ourselves, there was always one window at the station ticket counter where they spoke English. We mostly traveled in Subway train within town and sometimes took Taxis. It was a great trip, where we were able to enjoy food, sights and shopping at our own pace without any pressures and create some wonderful family memories.

Please feel free to ask any specific questions if you are planning a trip but I do plan to share pictures of all the sights we saw and the experiences we had…

Quintessential Indian Summer Pt-1

Sharing a few glimpses from my recent Indian trip...

Most likely

Left to my own devices in a new place, I'm most likely to:

• Order white wine (Chardonnay) at the bar
• Share/offer appetizers with aquaintances
• Walk around town to get familiar with it 
• Skip the ice cream shop
• Carry out food from Whole Foods
• Sip non caffeine warm tea with dinner
• Look out the window till light fades away
• Light a candle and enjoy a book
• Eat breakfast bar for dessert
• Take a bath instead of shower
• Listen to 60-70s bollywood songs
• Type random stuff while I wait for my family to call me
• Sleep on left side of the bed, even when I'm the only person on the bed

Disclaimer: Observations based on average behavior during solo business trips… 

My Friend...

Do not keep to yourself

the secret of your heart,

my friend.

Say it to me,

only to me, in secret.

You who smile so gently,

softly whisper,

my heart will hear it,

not my ears.

The night is deep,

the house is so silent,

the birds' nest are shrouded with sleep.

Speak to me through hesitating tears,

through faltering smiles,

through sweet shame and pain,

the secret of your heart!

Poetry by Tagore, translated by Gulzar

Happy Rakshabandhan...

Celebrated Rakshabandhan today, its a special festival for celebrating the bond between a brother and sister or as I like to celebrate it, its the celebration of bond between siblings…

I made these Rakhis with the help of my little one and was so happy and thankful for the technology that I was able to chat with my brother. It was the next best thing after celebrating in person.

I am NOT Color Blind

It is so important to acknowledge our differences in thinking, in approach and in perspective to appreciate the colors that this world was created with. 

I think just saying that I'm color blind and I don't see differences is unfair and a bias. We need to see the colors that each of us bring to this world and acknowledge the differences to appreciate our uniqueness…
I don't believe that we should not wish people 'Merry Christmas' and instead label is as Holidays so we don't hurt the sentiments of others who don't celebrate Christmas. I think we should care enough to find out when Diwali or when sukkot is being celebrated and wish people for what they are celebrating and not shun others for celebrating their festivals.
In this fast changing world, we can't afford to be color-blind, we need to be artists and see colors and value them.  

Options for printing picture

When I started out writing a post this morning for today it was on a completely different topic but as the day progressed my thoughts and energy was consumed by a lack of options for printing pictures. You know the one hour kind that was part of growing up and pretty much most of adult life until recently.

We used to get films printed at our local grocery stores and then at some point the service and quality of grocery store prints got so bad that we started using mail service. I forget the name of the company but it was Oregon based and had most beautiful metallic and pearl paper print options. The best thing about them was that they stored the digital version of the film on their web server so that you could order prints from them or even share them electronically. As digital cameras became more popular, the film processing and the uniqueness of storing film digitally wasn't a unique feature at all. Needless to say the company went under… 

So in the recent times, I have been using three services for my basic picture printing needs. 

I used to have extensive albums on Costco but since their servers were hacked a couple of years ago and the website was closed for quite some time, I stopped maintaining my albums on their site and now I just upload the pictures that I need printed. Because of their limited hours they aren't a good option but if I can plan in advance it works out pretty well. 

The other option that I use very regularly is Shutterfly but they become expensive with 2-day shipping so I usually use their standard shipping which including printing times can be upto two weeks delivery from when you place the order. I get a lot of my photo books done from them and print pictures for scrapbooking when I know well in advance. 

For my quick picture needs I used to rely very heavily on Walgreens but based on my past four experiences with them and three different locations, I'm loosing faith in their ability to continue doing a good job. I dropped off a disposal camera with them and since they now process film remotely it will take them 4-6 weeks to get my pictures back. Since I was not in a hurry I went with it but what concerns me most is their one hour print service that they advertise so much and then don't deliver on it. Sometimes I get the message that my pictures are printed and they are actually not done when I go to pick them up. Or sometimes they ignore orders all together. One time a store clerk changed the aspect ratio on my print and when the well edited pictures came out wonky he said who gets 4x6 pictures anymore, its all 4x5.5 these days with digital prints. Mmm… well I do print it 4x6 specially when I said so on my internet order. The other time I placed an internet order to print a picture collage on poster board for a friend and when I went to pick it up on my way to her home, my order wasn't ready although I got the email confirmation that it was ready to be picked up. Worse still they couldn't print it right away and asked me to return in an hour. Guess what, I ended up taking wine and flowers for my friend that night. And today was another one of those times when my prints and enlargements weren't ready. Luckily the store manager was proficient and printed out the entire order in 15 minutes which was wonderful except that the family waited in the car for all that time and our carryout pizza got cold in the meanwhile.  

That leads me to ask the question, where are we headed when it comes to printing pictures. Is a home printer our best bet or are there services out their that can still do the job for us.

Norcal Beaches: Stinson Beach

Stinson beach is one of our favorite beaches in northern California. It has good road access, plenty of parking and very family friendly.

We discovered it by accident one time when we took a turn in the wrong direction heading out from Tamalpais State Park and reached the Pacific Ocean.

Pardon the fact that the pictures are unedited but I really am trying to post something everyday and even though its hard I'm choosing regularity over perfection and consequential delays.

The water at Stinson beach like all Northern California beaches is cold unlike the Southern California Beaches or that of the tropics. But once you get over the fact that the water is cooler than typical beaches, it can be a lot of fun to just wade in water, splash in it or go for body surfing.  

There are a lot of coal barbecue grills for open use and there were large outdoor tables and benches for family picnics close to the parking lot just beyond the beach entrance. Pets are allowed in certain portion of the beach only and are required to be on leash.

It is a good spot for picnic, people bring tents and hammocks and picnic blankets. You can either bring food from home or carry out from the eateries on the road. The road had breweries and sandwich places along with coffee and ice creams too. 

Spotted these beautiful sunflowers at the entrance of the shops and restaurants.

We bought ice-cream for the ride back and one of the option was to have a shot of espresso over vanilla bean ice-cream and that of course was my favorite...