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Bishop Ranch Food Trucks

Posted by Michelle on Dec 31, 2011 in Featured | 0 comments

Mmm, food trucks. I’ve always loved them but I’m pretty late to the party when it comes to the not-so-recent phenomenon of awesome gourmet food on trucks. They just started getting big right around the time The Little Empress was born. Alas, a lack of funds plus a very cranky little one doesn’t exactly make a great food truck stalking combination.

My friend Shiny decided to take a Bueller Day recently and invited me along to go visit one of her favorite food trucks Chairman Bao during one of its weekday stops at the Bishop Ranch business park in San Ramon. When we arrived we were happy to say that there was not just Chairman Bao but Arki Truck, Cabana Dave’s and That’s Sweet! Dessert Truck there as well. Lunch AND dessert! Awesome!

Shiny and I pulled up to Bishop Ranch a few minutes before the trucks officially opened for business. Chairman Bao already had a queue going; Shiny told me that when she had visited the truck at Off the Grid and a food event in Sacramento, lines for Chairman Bao could get epic. She had even witnessed one lady who had gone so far as to take a folding chair to wait in line! Talk about hardcore!! Luckily, we only had to wait about 5 ~ 10 minutes in total. I couldn’t help but notice that the line was slow going mostly because of some glitches with the iPhone based card reader. (Wouldn’t investing in a more stable payment system be prudent? Hrm.)

I am of the belief that God put pig on earth for man to eat and be happy. My love of pork and all the goodness that pork can be is the single thing standing between me and a life of vegetarianism. Seriously. I could pretty much happily give up just about any other animal-based protein out there but man oh man, let me keep my oinky. And of all of the parts of the pig, the greatest parts are a toss up between the crispy skin of lechon or the striped lean and fatty goodness of pork belly.

So naturally when I saw “braised pork belly” on the Chairman Bao menu, I couldn’t help but order it, right? I was tempted to order two but I figured that would be too much of a good thing so I decided to go with what my friend Shiny recommended — the garlic tofu with miso greens.

Imagine my surprise when I wanted seconds… of the tofu, not the pork belly! Yeah, it amazed me too. It was a fantastic combination of flavors, textures and temperatures: soft, sweet and chewy bun, hot, savory, crisp AND creamy tofu, the cool crisp slightly bitter but moreish miso dressing on the bok choy.

Truth be told, two of those Chairman Bao buns should have been more than enough. They were tasty and I wanted dessert, too. But I couldn’t help but notice that Arki Truck sold a fried chicken sandwich that somehow seemed to be calling my name. I decided to get it anyway, just for a taste, and I would wrap up the rest to take home to The Hubs ™.

Can I just talk about the donuts for a second? These were two beautiful pillows of butter and sugar soaked ethereal GOODNESS. OH MY GOD. These pictures don’t do them nearly enough justice.

Food truck survival guide:

Get there as early as possible!!

Bring a bag.

Bring something to drink. Most of the food trucks will sell something to drink but unless the truck is selling something they made themselves, you’ll find most of it to be way overpriced. (Um, $1.50 for a can of Coke? Seriously? No. )

Happy TARDIS Day!

Posted by Michelle on Nov 23, 2011 in Featured, Geekery | 2 comments

The 11th Doctor and Pudsey with the TARDIS

It’s T-Day today! Not the American Thanksgiving, of course, which is tomorrow but something just as awesome…

Happy TARDIS Day!!  48 years ago today, the iconic British show Doctor Who — which you may know I am a  downright obsessive fangirl of I like a lot — debuted on BBC. And in 2008,  two fans decided to declare it a “Who-liday” dedicating it to the Whovian fandom.

Whovians are a darned crafty and creative lot and today, they’re sharing and exchanging Doctor Who themed crafts and stuff to celebrate. Aside from my take on the 11th Doctor’s Fish Fingers & Custard, I am afraid that I  don’t have anything new of my own to share. (Honestly, did not know it was TARDIS Day until, oh, about 5:00PM yesterday! This is my first TARDIS Day. Forgive me.) I did consider making up some TARDIS sugar cookies but, alas, real life commitments come first.

Luckily,  I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to finding awesome Whovian related stuff so I can share some food related awesomeness by others

May I present, the TARDIS teapot. This is so damn British, it almost hurts.If you’d like to buy one, they’re handmade to order by jadeflower on Etsy.

TARDIS teapot at Craziest Gadgets

This is quite possibly the most awesome wedding cake ever. If I could convince my husband to marry me for a third time — yes, we’ve technically been married twice to each other –  we’d have this as our wedding cake.

TARDIS wedding cake - Imaginative Icing (UK)

Keep on going for more awesome Whovian delights…

FoodBuzz Festival 2011 in Review

Posted by Michelle on Nov 11, 2011 in Adventures, Featured | 12 comments

Whew! It’s been almost a whole week since I attended the FoodBuzz Festival in San Francisco! Since I live in the Bay Area, I figured I’d commute to the festival. On the upside, the festival’s venues were either accessible via transit or transportation was provided; on the downside, commuting was a major PITA, even with accessibility. Next time, I am totally making this a staycation for the family! The Hubs and The Little Empress can go buzz around Union Square while Mommy pigs out!

Friday was a fun day. Once I got on site and picked up my goodie bag, I got to meet and chat with some other bloggers. The food blog world is full of really fascinating people and I got to meet a bunch of them! FoodBuzz provided a shuttle bus to the reception at the Terra Gallery.Oh, there was so much good food to be had! The first part of the reception was hummus and hummus-based appetizers (sponsored by Sabra) along with a selection of local wines and beers. The second part of the reception was the dinner. Sadly, not many of my photos came out as well as I would have liked (even with color correction). But at least I have dessert?

Breads of Panem: District 4

Posted by Michelle on Nov 3, 2011 in Breads of Panem, Featured | 2 comments

A few months back, my friend lent me The Hunger Games, the first novel in Suzanne Collins’ fantastic young adult trilogy. In a nutshell, The Hunger Games is set in a distant future, in a country called Panem, situated in what used to be known as North America. Years ago, there was a war between the Capitol and the 13 Districts of Panem, most of the Districts kept in poverty by the oppressive Capitol government. As punishment for the rebellion, very year, a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18  in each District are selected through a lottery system to participate in the televised fight to the death. The trilogy The Hunger Games is the story of a girl named Katniss Everdeen who volunteered to become her District’s female Tribute when her younger sister’s name is pulled from the lottery.

I love dystopic science fiction and The Hunger Games really delivered a hell of a page turner. I literally could not put the books down! For a series called The Hunger Games, there’s a good amount of food described. And well, of course food always gets my attention so I figured I’d try my own hand at making some of it.

Breads of Panem

I decided to start a series featuring The Breads of Panem, featuring the different types of bread that are described throughout the story. Bread is symbolic throughout the story, from a form of sustenance to a symbol of the country itself. Each district has its own distinctive bread though not all the breads were described in detail. To lead off this series, I’ll start off with the bread that captured my imagination the most: District 4.

A salty, fish shaped loaf, tinted green with seaweed