What to roast next? Ah, the paradox of choice.
A selection of 13 different types of beans from Sweet Maria’s. There’s a healthy Ethiopian component, some El Salvador, one from Sumatra (guess which!) and some Guatemalans. I ended up choosing the El Salvador Siberia Estate Bourbon.
I did a short but intense solo training ride on Sunday. The weather was cold and I thought it’d be a good idea to try some intensity workouts as opposed to just putting in the miles. I ended up choosing a 32.7 mile ride with 4527 feet of climbing. I went up Claremont, along Grizzly Peak, down Euclid. Then I rode up Centennial, took Grizzly Peak to Skyline and went down Tunnel Rd. Tunnel was full of all kinds of stuff from the 3 weeks of rain. An entire portion of the road was covered with mud and gravel. There was debris in a bunch of places, which made for not such a great descent. Then, I rode back up Claremont and went down Grizzly Peak and Euclid again. Then I went home and took a nap.
I don’t have any photos from this ride as I just wanted to get a training ride in.
Vienna sausage cans in the rain on a paper Trader Joe’s bag
Another great drink from MA’velous: Stumptown Hairbender Cappuccino
A walk up polk st
bike lane, covered.
WE ROCK HARDEST – Ben Eine – bad ass.
Giraffe
googly eyes on BART
got off at ashby bart
I got out early this morning to check out the 2011 Oakland Marathon. I didn’t have it in me to try to try to run it again this year (especially with all of the cycling training) but it was really exciting to see the runners. I got out to around the 4.5 mile mark on College ave in front of Crossroads Trading and across from Toast and near miam miam (expensive, but probably the best frozen yogurt I’ve had)
This is Tegenu Beru from San Jose. He won the race wish a finishing time of 2:30:08. Damn.
He had a small entourage of cyclists surrounding him and preceding that were some police motorcycles and an official pickup truck.
Ivan Medina from Hayward finished 5th with a time of 2:44:33, but was in 2nd place at this point.
These guys were running together at this point in the race, but eventually Jesus Campos (#1003) pulled off to capture 2nd place with a time of 2:37:31. Tony Torres (#1000) still finished strongly at 4th place with a time of 2:38:45.
Anna Bretan took 1st place for women and 11th place overall with a strong finishing time of 2:53:19. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, this was her first marathon ever and the longest distance she’s run in her life.
Lori Buratto from Washington finished 2nd among women with a finishing time of 3:02:53.
They look happy!
Suet-Fei Li finished 3rd among women with a time of 3:03:25.
This guy was awesome.
By the way, she is ripped
Hawaiian shirt
This guy ran the marathon with a hemp shoulder bag.
Hard to see from the photo since I had switched out to a wide-angle lens, but this guy is “Endorphin Dude” and ran with a cape. Pretty sweet. Check out his website.
This is the second set of pictures from the Eating About Beer Winter 2011 dinner. The first set is available here.
Plating the third course: Guatemalan longaniza sausage with a roasted tomato salsa with fresh (homemade) cheese, grilled scallions and a black bean puree.
The evening’s wonderful guests
Sausage links. Tied with corn husks ties.
The third course. The cheese was a homemade queso fresco.
Plates lined up, almost ready for serving.
Describing the course and the beer to everyone.
This was a posed shot. “Act like you’re eating”
A lemon sherbet intermezzo.
Sherbet on plates
Lobster. In butter. lots of butter.
Prepping the lobster for serving
Crispy potato pyramids. Szechuan lemon pepper gastrique also went with the butter-poached lobster. The beer pairing was a Belgian pale ale.
Describing the dish and the beer
Plating the Fifth course: Beer-braised duck leg with a potato-celery root puree. Paired with a Belgian strong dark ale.
The sixth course: A bananas foster brulee.
The dessert was paired with a dunkelweizen.
the end. I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos. If you liked them, leave me a comment or something (unless you’re a robot who will leave a spammy message). If you’d like to know about the next event, check out Eating About Beer’s website or their twitter feed: @EatingAboutBeer.
We rode in one of the official ALC training rides last Saturday. I took the GF1 along on what turned out to be a gorgeous day. Grand total: 92 miles of training ride, 108 miles total and I felt pretty good.
We started off in Portrero hill. We rode through Mission bay just after sunrise en route to the meeting point at the Presidio Sports Basement
Sun over mission bay
Riding along the Giants Promenade by AT&T ballpark
Fast forward to the climb up White’s hill from Fairfax along Sir Francis Drake Blvd.. A huge group of 20+ cyclists powered past us on the climb.
The always popular Rancho Nicasio. Lots of Dolce Vita riders representing.
I forget where this was – probably Point Reyes Petaluma Rd / Red Hill Rd
Beautiful shadows on the rolling hills
The cheese factory – Marin French Cheese Company
At the top of Wilson Hill Rd
Lunch at the apple box
ALC TRLs
Climbing back up the hill on Petaluma Pt Reyes Rd
I treated myself to an It’s It at the cheese factory
The view of San Francisco from Sausalito along Bridgeway
Looking west from the Golden Gate Bridge
Always a spectacular view
The 2011 Winter Eating About Beer dinner was held at the Commonwealth Cafe and Public House in Oakland this past Sunday. Here are the photos that I took of the event.
Terrariums in the window. It was a rainy sunday but the lighting in commonwealth was great.
Preparing endives for the first course
Kitchen knives
On the wall
Frying pheasant skin
Those glasses need an anti-reflective coating
Potatoes being cut prior to frying
Crispy pheasant.
Commonwealth’s coffee condiment counter
Discussing pre-dinner activities
The Eating About Beer crew in the kitchen
Awesome flower arrangements.
game face.
Chives
Frying the “belgin-inspired crispy potatoes”
Scallions to later go with cheese and sausage
Commonwealth’s storefront, telegraph side.
The menu
The first guests start checking in
Plating the endives
seated, awaiting the first course
handling the marinated daikon
the plating continues
First course: Endive with roasted pheasant and hazelnuts – paired with a scottish heavy 70 shilling ale
The chefs discuss the first course
toast
Pouring homemade sake
plating of the onigiri
second course: a deconstructed sake bomb with umeboshi onigiri and marinated daikon
Guatemalan longaniza sausages, cooking
describing the second course
more photos to come. If you need more of a fix, check out the last eating about beer dinner.
Mac n cheese (“the exchange student”) plus egg at homeroom in Oakland
I don’t even remember what kind of citrus fruit this was anymore. I was standing in the produce section of Berkeley Bowl. I saw it, picked it up, stared at it for a while (another shopper even stopped for a second to stare at it with me) and then I bought it. Then I took a picture of it and ate it. It was decently sweet and easy to peel. I wouldn’t necessarily buy one again except for its looks.
