Eating About Beer 2012 Homebrew Dinner

January’s 2012 Homebrew Dinner hosted by Eating About Beer was another great evening of good food, good brews and good company.

I arrived early to take photos of the set-up.  Erin’s place in San Francisco had beautiful natural light and nice floral arrangements.

 

 

 

And a big dictionary.

 

Dishwashing, viewed through the window into the laundry room.

 

This sauce was for the Yakitori

 

There is an equal amount of beer in bottles and in kegs these days

 

homemade pickled mangoes

 

and carrots

 

They have a lever that opens the front door.  What are these called?  The internet isn’t helping me.

 

Yakitori and dipping sauce.  Chicken hearts and “regular” chicken too.

 

Cast iron coming out of the oven

 

Guests await more food and beer

 

Seitan

 

“Inside-out stuffed duck”  – Ground duck wrapped in dressing with a cherry molasses reduction.

 

9Sev Brew – Born in Maine Brewed in  Cali.  This pumpkin spice ale was paired with the inside-out stuffed duck above.

 

Ginger cake with a poached pear and whipped cream.

 

The chefs and brewers came out at the end for a toast.

 

Photos of the Eating About Beer Summer homebrew potluck in Humanist Halll

This summer’s Eating about Beer Summer Homebrew Potluck (2011) was hosted at the Humanist Hall this past September.  It was a festive event, but I was struck by how simple, peaceful, and colorful scenes were in the venue.

 

Berry pies

 

Proceeds went to the Alameda Point Collaborative.

 

Behind the curtain

 

Homebrew by Eric

 

hops in jars

 

and homebrew in a bucket

 

there’s a little kitchen at the Humanist hall, which maintained the same bright, solid colors of the rest of the venue.

 

donation money jar

 

peephole

 

Eating About Beer Winter 2011 Dinner Part 1

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rainy ride through Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Valley Ford, Bodega, and Occidental

Saturday’s bike ride was super soggy, cold, gritty and toe-numbing, but felt strangely rewarding. Here are some photos from the ride.

bikes lined up, pre-ride. lots of blue and white/silver going on. and gold handlebar tape.

the grand cru rolling through santa rosa, en route to sebastopol

joe rodota trail for the win! a pretty sweet, flat, fast trail between santa rosa and sebastopol.

on Sparkes rd, headed away from sebastopol.. things are getting a bit wet!  most of the weather forecasts had called for just a cloudy day.. but this day was mostly mist.  (toes partially numb at this point.)

our crew split up a bit further. here’s a foggy shot from a climb up burnside rd.  (toes mostly numb at this point.)

almost all fog.  but pretty.  but also chilly.

this photo sums things up pretty well.  (toes all numb.)we took barnett valley  down to bodega highway to freestone valley ford rd.  then we took the valley ford cutoff to bodega.  here’s the church from “the birds”

then we began our ascent of joy rd.  I didn’t think it’d be quite so intense.  Though, in retrospect, I do remember seeing a lot of wrinkles on the relief of the terrain map.  I didn’t remember the altitude profile looking so crazy though.  a quick glance at the topo lines shows only 800 feet of climbing?

we took bittner rd down to another small down – occidental – and then descended a chilly and wet graton rd.

I was pretty worn out from the climb and kind of put my head down the rest of the way.  luckily, it was mostly flat.  rain was spotty but there were patches of blue in the sky.

here’s the reward: taps and tastings at russian river.

photos were taken with the gf1 which survived its soggy stint in my back jersey pocket.

Amsterdam: Day 2

Every trip I take somehow ends up becoming a bike and coffee (and sometimes beer) tour.  We did some preliminary research on chowhound and coffeegeek for the coffee and beer and found a place for bike rentals.  Also handy was this interview of Stumptown owner Duane Sorensen by Oliver Strand of the New York Times It’s been a couple of months since our trip so my memory is a bit hazy but I’ll try to piece things back together with the help of these photos and the internets.

Die Koffie Salon Storefront

Coffee was my first priority.  We walked from our hotel to de koffie salon (Utrechtsestraat 130) based on recommendations from one of the above threads.  Patisserie Kuyt is across the street and these two were probably taking pictures of the storefront.  I did the same later, of course.

Impressive looking lever machine at Die Koffie Salon.

not as impressive-looking espresso from Die Koffie Salon

The espresso from Die Koffie Salon was pretty disappointing.  Light-bodied and not so good.  Drinkable though.  I don’t remember much else about it.  We moved on to across the street.

Patisserie Kuyt storefront

Patisserie Kuyt was a treat.  We ended up getting a variety of sweets, including the famed Appeltaart.

Bike rentals were from Dam Bike (New 26).  Cheap bike rentals, pretty crappy bikes.  But most bikes in Amsterdam were crappy.  We had some brake and wheel-truing problems, but hey, we didn’t expect much.  Another factor in choosing this bike rental place: we didn’t have to ride the super touristy orange bikes.  We were still touristy of course.

Nespresso storefront

I stopped in here to see if there were any Nestle-fueled single serve espresso innovations.  I didn’t see any, but I did see some (apparently top secret) designer Nespresso machines.  There were patterns screen printed on some of the plastic panels.  They kicked me out of the store for taking photos.  First time for a coffee shop – in the past it’s usually been for taking pictures in churches.

Lots of orange going on – we were nearing the quarterfinals of the the world cup.

women walking along albert cuypmarkt

After hanging out for a bit in Vondelpark, our next stop was Stumptown Amsterdam.  The market was super crowded and the actual store front was obscured by tents.  Lots of semi-crappy stuff but it was all interesting nonetheless.

an overexposed view of stumptown amsterdam

stumptown amsterdam: cupping station

Stumptown Amsterdam had a similar feel to other Stumptown locations but also had a more boutique-y feel to it.  The barista was a bay area guy (if I remember correctly) and it sounded like a pretty sweet gig to be working at that pop-up coffee spot with an apartment paid for by the Stumptown folks.

stumptown espresso

The espresso was predictably good, of course.

Bazar

Dinner was at Bazar (Albert Cuypstraat 182).  We got some sort of kebab platter and though I was stuffed afterwards, I was intrigued by their mint syrup + ice cream + fruit dessert combination.

dessert at Bazar.

Canteloupe, honeydew, apple, grape, ice cream, whipped cream, mint syrup, pineapple, and strawberry.  The mint syrup was too sweet for my tastes but it was an interesting combination made a bit refreshing by the mint.

Albert Cuypstraat, post market

The market had shut down and the cleaning crews were tidying the street as we walked out of Bazar.

Albert Cuypstraat, post market

biercafe gollem

A recommended beer place, Cafe Gollem (Raamsteeg 4),  was nearby, so we sat down and had a beer.  Good selection with a very low-key vibe.  The only thing that sucked was a woman sat down next to us and started smoking.  The breeze was blowing all of her smoke right at my face.  She must have had about 3 cigarettes while we had about 2 beers.

biercafe gollem – at the bar

We left Cafe Gollem to return our bikes to Dam Bike and then walked home.

dam square at night

kind of a sweet bike design.

It doesn’t look very practical but it’s kind of cool how the rack is integrated and how there’s tons of standover clearance.  The decal says “Nationale Postcode Loterij”  Not sure why they’ve branded a bike with their decals or who the manufacturer is though.

the intercontinental amstel amsterdam hotel

The last shot of the night was of the fancy-looking InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam Hotel (Amstel Hotel).  FIVE STARS PLUS!