Fun times

So, last weekend I went to the Ferry Building Farmer's Market in San Francisco with my cousin, and it was a really nice day. I got pomegranates, red potatoes, kale and some apples... and with some of my ingredients I made this lovely soup.

It's got kale, potatoes, white cannellini beans, carrot, vegetable broth, a little garlic, onion and salt, zuchinni, and a little shredded cheddar ontop. Definitely a keeper!

We also went inside the ferry building where we made a visit to Miette, a cute little pastry shop where I got an amazing chocolate lavendar macaron...

...and also Blue Bottle for some coffee and cookies.

This weekend, I went to the San Jose Flea Market to search for inspiration for my Halloween costume. As I observed all the fun animal hats, I recalled that they sell a lot of those at anime conventions too... so I decided I'd buy one and be an anime convention attendee. I even have my old badge from 2011 with all the buttons I've been collecting ever since I started going to conventions. Next post I will post a picture.

They had a farmer's market at the flea market too, where I got some more pomegranates, tangerines, and avocados.

After the flea market, I visited Japantown and got some pocky to go with my costume.. and no visit to Japantown is complete without a Hawaiian shave ice.

This time I got blue raspberry and green tea. A little boy and his mom shared my table with me, they were from Campbell and super nice. We talked about legos and farmer's markets.

Pretty relaxing day so far, went to get some things at Whole Foods and just relaxing now. Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend too! :)

Friday night scene

Tonight on my way home from work I remembered that there is a food truck night-- locally referred to as Moveable Feast-- at the Curtner light rail station. A bunch of gourmet/street-food trucks get together and sell every kind of food you could want....

....from sushi, to shrimp, to burritos, to curry, to ice cream, to espresso drinks, to sandwiches of all kinds... and tater tots and french fries. Not just any fries, though. Sometimes there is also a poutine food truck.

I went to Moveable Feast last week looking for Little Chef, but it was not there. Luckily this time it was! My coworkers rave about poutine, so I thought it was about time I tried it, especially because I have two fantastic friends in Canada-- you, Meesh, and also my other friend Christian in Vancouver. :)

What is poutine, the uninitiated may ask? Well....

"A dish of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. Origin: 1980s, Canadian French, either from French pouding "pudding" or directly from PUDDING."

Now, I don't really get the "pudding" part, but a lot of different countries have different ways of defining pudding....

Anyway, this was what I got to enjoy: the classic poutine with gravy and cheese curds. They also had poutines with shredded short-ribs or duck confit.

It was quite delicious, with a delicately flavored gravy to enjoy with every bite and the perfectly melty cheese curds to enhance it even more. Add a gourmet banana white chocolate and snickerdoodle ice cream cookie sandwich and it was a lovely Friday night meal.

I think I'll start going to Moveable Feast more often! It's really a pretty nice little setup. They put out these red buckets for people to sit on as they eat, and they play music, and if it's cold out, they put out space heaters or bonfires.

Stay tuned to hear about my visit to San Francisco tomorrow :).

A Fall Weekend

This weekend I am celebrating fall. Today my housemate and I went to the Emma Prusch Farm Park Harvest Fair & Exposition. They had a bunch of neat booths, a pumpkin patch, music, and the occasional chicken wandering around. 

This hen and her chicks in front of the pumpkin patch attracted much attention from the kids. We think she was teaching her chicks how to peck for bugs or seeds. :)

Here is a glimpse of the park. It would be really nice to come here some weekend and just enjoy nature with a book and some fruit as a snack.

Here's another chicken. It's fascinating to see the different patterns of feathers that chickens have. This one is almost like a zebra chicken.

I picked out a pumpkin at the fair, and my housemate helped me hollow out the pumpkin so I could make a pumpkin stew like the one I made last year with my family. This one came out just as tasty. Later on we will get 1-2 more pumpkins, so I can make a soup or we can just have one as a jack-o-lantern.

I also went to Walgreens and picked out some Halloween themed pencils for the kids I tutor. They always need pencils to do their homework, so if they are extra good, they get to keep the pencil at the end of the day. :)