Blue Steel... No, Magnum

Whole Foods had asked us to take a picture for their "Local Producers" display. Of course, we had fun with it!

1. "Are you kidding?I've been working on Magnum for the past 7 years, it's nowhere close to being ready!"

2. Masltov! So glad to be here in Amerika. Look at my vares!

3. I think this is the final version which will end up on the sign. I think I look slightly threatening...Oh well, let my competition shake in their boots.

Pictures from San Francisco

here is a selection of pictures we've taken while in San Francisco-enjoy!

When in SF, it is Das family tradition to survive on fortune cookies from SF Fortune Cookie factory. We buy bagfull and crunch our way through our visit!

Chinatown at night- that's where we hang out (again, because of the great proximity to food). We avoid the main touristy drag and head for Stockton st. By the way, at 9pm everything is absolutely deserted there and it's hard to believe that by day Stockton is so full of bustle and life. if you are hoping to grab a bite after 9pm- good luck!

Here is the yummy roast duck soup in New Moon (cafe?) on Stockton and Broadway- the duck and the broth were so delicous.

Dhruba has opted for a rice soup- not as gorgeous, but very tasty nonetheless. We found out that this New Moon place was good from other chow lovers on Chowhound.com

Muir Woods- heiress and myself- awed by magesty of giants around us

Palace of Fine Arts- postcard pretty (even better than postcard!)

...Finally- olives that grow outside one of the wineries in Dry Creek Valley.

I left my heart in San Francisco! - day 3

Day 3
So here we are heading to the beautiful Dry Creek Valley, armed with the following
Map of the Dry Creek Valley that has bee downloaded from http://www.wdcv.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=3
Our excitement and enthusiasm for wine tasting
Wisdom of all of the Chowhounds who have been to the region and provided the scoop on what’s good and where.
What we did not realize was the following
All of the wines were ridiculously over priced. I want to clarify something here: I am not a cheap skate. I will gladly pay if I believe that the product is worth it. Drinking and appreciating wine is an important part of my life. It is perhaps one of the last shreds of easy lifestyle I enjoyed for so long. Now it’s gone, but I am desperately holding on to my wine drinking habit (the other remnant of the day is my expensive Wall Street Journal subscription which I won’t give up even if I have to pick up my turkey from the local food pantry).
I sniff, examine the color and enjoy various imaginary fruits and notes. I say “blackberries on the nose”. I even buy wine by the case sometimes. However, paying $40 a bottle for a Zin that is barely passable is beyond me. The way I see the breakdown of this price: $5.00- wine, $35- setting and ambiance that ultimately suckers wine- lovers into buying whatever is put in front of them.
We stopped at the following:
Hawley- actually we did not taste the wine there because we didn’t even have a chance to get to the tasting room. As we were driving up the road, we saw the sign that clearly pointed to the small side street winding up the hill. We almost made that right turn, but something told us that perhaps it’s better to ask 1st. I saw a “native” who stopped to pick up her mail from the mailbox at the cross-roads and hurried to her to ask about the tasting room. She practically attacked me with a long and irritated speech about how sick everyone who lives along this road is of this vineyard. In fact, there is not even a tasting room there and the sign we saw was misleading. Apparently, “many people got hurt on this road” and native occupants don’t want to “be liable for that”. I promised not to drive up that road and hastily retreated. One thing for sure: it is indeed very strange that this woman who lives in such gorgeous surroundings can be so bitter. If I lived there, I would be running through the fields singing the opening song from the “Sounds of Music” all day long.
Our next stop was Quivira vineyard. The wines produced there are agriculturally sustainable and biodynamic. They’re also very pricey and fairly good. I personally am interested only in reds, and don’t like when the person who pours tries to force me into drinking some sort of Chard they happen to push today, which is what happened at Quivira. Most of all, I was sour about the fact that with our new financial situation I can’t buy anything here. Or anywhere, as it turned out. Vineyard after vineyard we went, feeling increasingly sorry for ourselves and for our empty wallets. Rita was also upset that she didn’t get to try any wines and kept pouting in the corner.
Lambert Bridge: did not taste anything because there were too many people waiting their turn and the flight of 5 wines was over $10.
Passalaqua: did not like anything
Dry Creek Vineyard: we tasted several Cabs and Zins. The best one was 2003 Meritage (award-winning Bordeaux blend) Excellent wines, but again, very overpriced. I found the same wines at around $20 at my local Binny’s Beverage Depot.
Needless to say, we left Dry Creek Valley rather earlier than expected. On the way back to SF we stopped at Muir Woods- it was truly the highlight of our trip. Majestic redwood forests made me temporarily forget about our worries and for the 1st time since the beginning of this trip I was able to breathe deeply and enjoy the forest. Awesome!
We also stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts (just 7 minutes away from Muir Woods) and took some great pictures.
For dinner we went to Pakistani-Indian place, called Shalimar on Polk street (between Post and California). The food here is truly one of the best I’ve tried either in India or outside. Check out reviews here http://sfsurvey.com/rd.asp?r=970 They’re BYOB and won’t open the bottle but will gladly provide the cups or glasses, depending on what’s available. I highly recommend everything on the menu, but if you have to choose, try Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Chops, or Palak Paneer. I did not try a lot of vegetarian dishes there, since I know that Pakistani cuisine is really big on meat, so that’s what I usually get in these places. The prices there are amazing (cheap!) and service is great. It is also Zagat rated. My kind of place, overall. We also picked up a bottle of Zin from Mazzocco Vineyard. We visited it earlier that day and were told that their Zins (2005) is only sold through their tasting room and is a steal at $38. The price we paid at Whole Foods was…. $10.99. This just shows the importance of ambiance. The wine was very good, though.

I left my heart in San Francisco! - day 2

Day 2
Morning was rainy and despairingly raw. The wind blew with sadistic force, as if to say “see, no sightseeing for youuuu”. As proper tourists vacationing in a different time zone, we woke up to our internal alarms, which is about 6:30am pst (8:30am cst). Since it was raining we decided to have a lavish breakfast in a nearby American Diner, called Lori’s Diner.

Chowhound did not offer any favorable reviews of this place, but we decided to go anyway, as if reading about disappointment of others wasn’t good enough for us. Sure enough: everything about this place, including sad and creepy Charlie Chaplin impersonator at the door was profoundly disappointing. Tacky ambiance inside (50’s movie stars and cheesy pinball machines), the menu (can you say: fat party?) and the quality of coffee. Once in every few years I decide to once again check out what authentic American diner experience is all about and most of all, remind myself why I hate it so much. Lori’s diner did not fail to fulfill this expectation: yes, I hate American diners. They are horrible and depressing places, sort of like the leprosy shelter for foods that no one wants anymore. Oh, those sad places where the food that is served is not even food: it’s feed, tasteless, and full of stuff that no one should be eating anyway. ( I am making exception here for the great southern Waffle House, however, mainly because I still hold dear memories of our very first drive from Columbus to New Orleans)
Plus any menu offering is guaranteed to leave you in lethargic coma for a while because everything is so full of fat and carbs. Yuk, yuk, yuk.
After breakfast Rita and I headed to SFMOMA: excellent choice it turned out. I was entranced by Joseph Cornell exhibit that is called Navigating the Imagination: check out for yourself here. Each box he has created is a world of wonderment.

The whole experience reminded me of starting into the night sky and thinking that each star represents its own galaxy. Rita loved Take Your Time by Olafur Eliasson: quite interactive and pop-culture-ish (in a good way). My favorite: the multicolored bridge-like structure. As you walk through you see all the beautiful colors (achieved via kaleidoscope type mural). When you turn and look back: all of the tiny pieces of glass are black and faceless. No colors, no joy. That’s how George Bush will be feeling after his presidency is over: all he left behind was a black hole of disappointment and human suffering.
It continued raining until around 4pm and then finally sun peeked through the clouds, but it was too late for sightseeing anyway. Rita insisted on going to the Floating Boat Sushi in Chinatown. I did not know anything about this place, and thought it was silly to eat Sushi in Chinatown anyway, so I abstained from eating and sat there pursing my lips in disapproval. I can be difficult if I want to prove the point and this was one of those times. The whole time, however, I sat there and thought that I wish I could be 16 again and get excited about floating boat sushi. I am just old, and can’t have fun anymore.
The day ended up on somewhat happier note when we found a Zagat-rated Thai place right around Union Square called King of Thai Noodle House. We had the very excellent Roasted Duck and Pad See Ew. We consumed everything back in our room, accompanied by an inexpensive Californian Cab.
Tomorrow we’re off to the Wine country. Our choice of destination: Dry Creek Valley (we’ve been to Napa, Sonoma and Russian Valley already). Dry Creek is known for Zins and Pinot Noirs. I can’t wait!

I left my heart in San Francisco! - day 1

Yes, even a hard working candy maker who is trying to make it is a cold, hard and highly competitive world of confections needs a VACATION! Finally, the three of us decided to take a short vacation and go somewhere exciting (and warm). So we went to San Francisco. I have been here several times and know the city relatively well, but still love coming here and get excited every time as if it was my 1st time here.
We took United flight from Chicago (once again, had some trouble checking in because we bought award tickets and turns out that the reservations agent did not subtract the miles from our account). Then Rita was searched at the gate by an over-zealous airport workers: apparently her ticket had some sort of a code calling for extra caution. Next thing you know: she is on no-fly list (who knows with us anything is possible!)
We arrived to SF around noon only to discover that it's just a chilly there as it is in Chicago. I don't know what I was expecting, but for some reason this was a disappointment.
We met Dhruba at the hotel (he arrived earlier). We're staying in Westin St. Francis , right on Union Square. Normally, we would not stay there, but Dhruba is here for the conference and his company picks up the check. I have to say: despite the "free ride" I still don't think that this hotel provides an exception guest experience. Here is why
1. No "Heavenly Bed"- whatever happened to it I don't know. Our bed is just a regular, old bed and does not have any heavenly characteristics. At least it's clean (I checked between the spring box and the mattress for the tell-tale brown dots and there are none). I am really paranoid about the bed bugs.
2. No coffee maker in the room: again, I am not sure why management here thinks that we don't really need coffee. I LIKE the option of brewing my own coffee: even when I worked for a large company and traveled on business I tried to expense as little as possible. If I have coffee maker in the room, I won't buy Starbucks or whatever else overpriced coffee is served in the lobby.
3. The wireless Internet connection: no explanation needed. There is a high speed access on an impossibly short cord located on the desk. Literally, only about 2 inches are available and if one wanted to, say, work on the bed instead of being propped next to the desk- that would not be accommodated by the length of the cord. Dhruba got really upset about this and wrestled the rest of the cord from under the table and freed it from a monstrous bundle of other cords that is hidden under the table.
4. The hotel charges $12.95 for the use of the fitness center. If there are two people are staying in the room- they are charged separately! - that is just simply ridiculous! Even Holiday Inn does not do that.
On the positive side: the hotel is centrally located and has a cable car stop right next to it. The lobby downstairs is very posh and is hopping with well to do Europeans and successful middle managers on business trips.
We had lunch/dinner at Chinatown where we filled on unbelievably inexpensive Dim Sum (mmm, delicious sticky rice and Chinese sausage!) After that we spent 1 1/2 hrs leisurely browsing grocery stores (Rita felt bad for poor bull frogs in the seafood section of the stores and refused to go inside). We also bought Dragon Pearls and Rose Hip tea in bulk. Finally we stopped by the San Francisco Fortune Cookie Factory and stocked up on flat cookie sheets.
Back at the hotel Rita and Dhruba immediately lapsed into a Dim Sum induced coma and I stayed up to plan the next two days. Tomorrow Dhruba is going to be busy all day while Rita and I will browse Castro and Noe Hill neighborhoods.

Steve: Drama in one act

Dear Steve (the Wrapping machine) has been giving us trouble for the past three weeks. At some point I actually gave Steve some undue human qualities and pretended that he (it) is actually thinking about things, quietly mocking Ryan and I while we're trying to do our jobs. Here are some examples that will actually make you think that I am completely nuts. Here they are anyway:
1. Situation 1: Steve does not want to wrap caramel (improper alignment of the wrapping fingers is the problem, but we did not know it yet). He spews caramels all over the place and jams paper feed every 2-3 minutes.
Us :"I can't believe this #$%& I just fixed the #$^& paper and here it is again jammed. What a..."
Steve (in low mumble, very Mr. Burn-esque voice) :" Excellent... You two are such angry beavers and yet nothing is wrapped yet. Perhaps some more patience would do you two some good. This is fun"
Us: "here, it's fixed again. let's try a different way of doing this...
Steve: "Different- schmifferent. I don't think so"
Us: "here, I think it's working" (peering into the receptable bin with some semi-wrapped caramel)" Crappy wrap once again!!!"
Steve: "Yep. Look, I think it's time to call it a day. I think everyone can use a beer"
Us: "Damn it, how many times we will have to adjust these stupid fingers. here, let's move them further back"
Steve: (irritated voice): "I feel violated and please take your dirty paws away from my teeth. Also, from now on I would like to be addressed as Steven if you please. No more of this "Steve" business because at 67 I believe that some respect is in order".
Katie: "He wins. Let's take a breather otherwise I'll explode"
Ryan:" I hate Steve"