Here Ya Go, Mom!

I talked to my mom on the phone this morning and she mentioned that she loves the blog (she has to though because I'm her son) and especially likes the pictures of buildings in SF that we've posted.  So just for you mom, I spent my walk to and from lunch today snapping some pics of old buildings which I present for your viewing pleasure.  I miss you!  Come see these in person ASAP (that goes for the rest of you too)!

The other side of the tunnel where the food carts setup

The Tempest Bar makes an amazing hamburger

The side of The Chronicle building that said "Go Giants!"
before they cut it out recently

I am fond of this picture

Pickwick Hotel

Foodcartopia!

Wednesday was the day the food carts came to the San Francisco Chronicle tunnel on Minna as part of the Off The Grid mobile food service. There were six carts all told - Curry Up Now, Seoul on Wheels, Southern Sandwich, Kung Fu Tacos, Hapa SF and Cupkates. There was a bit of a festival atmosphere when I emerged from the building. There was a brass band playing under a tent (video at the end of the post), people from all walks of life downtown sitting on the curb or in chairs eating the wares of the truckers, talking and laughing, it was pretty cool.

Here are pictures of each of the trucks:

Southern Sandwiches

Cupkates

Hapa SF

Curry Up Now

Kung Fu Tacos

Seoul On Wheels

Those who know me know that Gemini + Foodie = I demand variety so of course I had to try more than just one cart. The offerings will change every week so I really wanted to try them all, but time, money, and a lack of a third arm to carry everything back upstairs kept me down to only two carts this week. I decided to try the BBQ offerings at Southern Sandwich and was undecided on my second choice.

I wandered along the row of trucks and decided to check the menu at Curry Up Now which had the longest line. They had a Tikka Masala Burrito on the menu with either chicken or paneer cheese. I have had Indian Chicken Tikka Masala several times at many different places and thanks to our friend Anita, I've even made it, so I'm well-versed in the dish for a Florida-born cracker. I love it. It's a thick, creamy, tomato-based red sauce with chicken pieces over rice. That, coupled with the long line sealed the deal and I decided to wait. I finally get to the front counter after about ten minutes on line (and freezing by the way because as I've mentioned before, shade matters a lot more here and the tunnel is all shade) just in time for the guy to stop his money-taking duties to start handing out some dishes to waiting people. Apparently the dish of the day was the butter chicken burrito. It was $1 more and wasn't ready to go (maybe they had more demand than they planned for). So I wait another couple of minutes until he finished handing out food and then he takes my order for the chicken tikka masala burrito which he then hands me from the ones in the hot glass cabinet. I take my two dishes and tea back to my desk and dig in.

I started with the BBQ. For $7 I got a nice, big, smoked, pulled pork sandwich with spiced vinegar and rustic coleslaw. The coleslaw was on the sandwich and consisted of really large thick strips of purple cabbage and smaller chopped green cabbage. It was not overly mayonaisey and may have been vinegar based like the sauce. The sandwich was really delicious and most of the meat was super moist and tender. There were a couple of bites that were on the dryer side and the pork was just barely pulled, leaving quite a few big chunks (I'm not complaining, just explaining). They also had sweet tea which was strong and not over-sweetened. The tea was self-served from the side of the truck and they had retrofitted the normal pull down taps with some "American Cross" bathroom faucet handles, which I thought was a nice touch. I ate half of the sandwich and saved half for my better half to try.

Then I unwrapped the hefty $7 "tikka masala" burrito. I put that in quotes to say "the so-called tikka masala burrito". I don't know if perhaps this wasn't Indian curry, or if it's some different region where tikka masala means something entirely different, but this was not what I thought it was going to be. It was a yellow curry chicken and rice burrito. It was not red or creamy and I fully expected sauce to be dripping out of the burrito on my first bite. It was not dry, but it seemed as though the rice had been sauced and spiced and then added to the burrito shell along with your choice of protein (chicken or paneer). It was tasty, don't get me wrong, just not what I expected and not what I was looking for. Another unfortunate thing was that one bite of my burrito included a black spice pod of some sort. It was bitter and crunchy like a nutshell and was black and slightly scarab-like. I'm sure in the no doubt HUGE pot of rice or sauce that pod added much needed and expected flavors. However in a single burrito unexpectedly chomped down upon, it was a less than pleasant surprise. I save half of that for Traci and she liked it but thought she tasted more of a tikka masala undertone than I.

I hope they keep this up at our location because if they do, this will be a weekly happening for me and if not, I'll have to get directions to one of their other locations! My only regret is that I didn't make it back down for a cupcake!

Street scene pictures:

Video of the band:

More Chronicle Adventures

It's Monday which means back to work (thankfully). I am starting to get my bearings inside the SF Chronicle building and I keep finding out about other locations we service which are nearby. Today I got to go to the Chronicle office in the City Hall building!
Sagar, one of the network guys here (and a fellow contractor I found out today) was working a ticket in tandem with me for loss of network connectivity and he was planning to go down to take a look so I asked if I could join him. He was glad to have the company and the extra hands and brain. It's about six blocks to that building from the one on Mission where I work. An interesting fact for all my Floridian friends - shade matters a lot more here. In the shade of the tall buildings at 10AM, it was rather chilly and I was glad to have my leather, but as soon as we broke free of the shade, the 62 degree temperature was perfect sans jacket.

We entered the building which is gorgeous inside and out and had to go through a metal detector. Then we entered the main area of the building which is really ornate and beautiful.




While Sagar was troubleshooting, I stepped outside to make a phone call. Check out how awesomely old school their doors are:


They were the same inside as well. Very Bewitched, don't you think? Darren would be happy to call that his office door!

Once we fixed the issue, we were on our way for the walk back to the office. As we left the building and stopped for coffee, we couldn't help but notice the HUGE and decidedly odd looking sculpture nearby.

It's hard to see in that picture, but trust me it's big and weird. We decided to walk back via a different route which was fine with me, and on the way we stopped to get a closer look.


Here is some information about the statue:

Three-story, 15-ton "Three Heads Six Arms," by artist Zhang Huan in Civic Center Plaza. Three Heads Six Arms was inspired by Zhang's discovery of the fingers of ancient, partially-destroyed Buddhist sculptures on sale in a Tibetan market in the wake of China's Cultural Revolution. The fingers of Buddhist deities are full of different spiritual meanings depending on what gestures they are making. Zhang felt that combining these desecrated parts would alleviate the pain their destruction caused, so he created one large deity based upon the fragments he had come upon in that Tibetan market so long ago.

I read the plaque at the statue and it sounded more like these were actual remnants of destroyed Buddhist monuments but now I'm thinking he based the idea upon actual fragments he found. The point of the piece is unity and that seems like a good reason to make art. There's always something new and interesting happening in my life lately and that's a good thing!

Sunday in the City

Because I started working right after we arrived, there hasn't been much time for me to get to the City.  We righted that wrong today.  Conery drove his car which meant I could pay attention to everything but the road.  

We crossed into San Francisco via the Bay Bridge, drove through Union Square area, and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.   

Crossing the Bay Bridge into the City

Downtown/Union Square

From the vista on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge

We crossed back into the City and headed to Mission and 5th to park in the garage by The Chronicle.  The first stop was The Cravery, that hand-held pot pies place Conery talked about.  Flaky crust done right is one of the greatest things on Earth.  We got a chicken and mushroom pie and a beef and curry pie.  Those didn't stick around long enough to be photographed.  I'll be going back there. 

As we were talking, we saw an Urban Outfitters.  This place had a basement room dedicated to sale items.  This room was filled with all the stuff that most hipsters won't buy.  Obviously a wreck that no employee wants to tackle, this room was filled with racks that were easily 10 feet long, so imagine that this chaos extends to the right for 12 - 15 more feet.   

The Carnage

If Conery had played his cards right, he could have gotten a fake fur vest to go with those red denim cutoffs.

oooh-emmm-geee

We ended our excursion back at Conery's building.  

The San Francisco Chronicle

The paper contracts out its printing to a Canadian company which is located in Fremont.  Convenient, eh?  Conery scored us a tour of it Wednesday night.

This is an early morning view on my way into the office.


This is a close-up view of the SF Chronicle building on Mission and 5th St.

Food & Wine Department

Yesterday the lead tech here came back to work from being ill so that he could help with the workload and training me. He took me on a little walk to show me where the Food & Wine section of the SF Chronicle is produced. It's behind the main building in its own little space in a three story brick building with a metal staircase inside. Upon entering the second floor from the landing I was greeted with the delicious aroma of something sweet being cooked. That's because off the landing, you walk right into the test kitchen. It's a nice setup with a big island and good counter space all around, plus one of those cool racks that hang above the island and hold all manner of kitchen device. Speaking of which, they had some sort of purification device for food that I'm guessing uses UV light or something. It looked like one of those steam shark things or a big soda water bottle you would spray someone in the face with a la the Three Stooges. But I digress.

We went in and met the editor and some of the other writers and delivered the equipment which was our actual reason for being there. The desks were cluttered with all sorts of tomes on cooking or by cooks (I saw an Anthony Bourdain book) and lots of old newspaper clippings showing previous stories they'd covered. It was an amazing mini-adventure during my work day.

As we left I stopped in the kitchen and asked the two women working there what they were up to and what exactly they do. They informed me that they take chef's recipes and test them then report on them as well as making up their own recipes and preparing them and reporting on that. On this particular day they had just finished making some beautiful almond cookies which were covered in sliced almonds and a bowl of some sort of chocolate substance. They told me to help myself so I actually got to taste an almond cookie! I passed on the chocolate as it was an odd looking not well incorporated clumpy bowl. Maybe there was something else in it but since I had no direction I just opted out and ate the cookie. It was delicious!! Maybe if this IT thing doesn't work out I can score Traci and I jobs as writers at the Chron.