May, 2010

Cooking / Treats — 9 Comments
31
May 10

Iron Cupcake

The contenders...

There have been many takes on the infamous television show, Iron Chef, which requires acclaimed chefs to square off and use their ingenuity to create a unique dish with a theme ingredient.

This past holiday season, I was treated to “Iron Liver” at my friend Dave’s house where secret ingredients including thyme and cranberry sauce were skillfully combined with a variety of hard liquors and assorted mixers to (mostly) palatable results. Now, there’s Iron Cupcake – a monthly event I recently discovered thanks to Leland Tea Company. This wonderful gem of a place deserves its own blog post so I won’t elaborate much about the venue beyond this point.

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Arts & Crafts / Science & Technology — 5 Comments
25
May 10

Highlights from Maker Faire, Bay Area

The League of S.T.E.A.M. or (Supernatural and Troublesome Ectoplasmic Apparition Management)

This past weekend, Maker Faire descended upon the Bay Area (specifically the San Mateo Fairgrounds) for the fifth year in a row. With over 600 exhibitors, performers, and makers, in general, the festival, created by MAKE Magazine to “celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset,” attracted thousands of attendees of all ages and did not disappoint.

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Science & Technology — No Comments
21
May 10

Music Hackday, San Francisco

San Francisco's first installment of Music Hackday took place on May 15th & 16th at Pier 38.

San Francisco’s first installment of Music Hackday, a global event that attracts some of the best and brightest minds in the music and technology space, was, as one of the organizer’s put it, “the most productive hack day yet” with 35 new creations or “hacks” materializing over the course of 2 days at Automattic‘s headquarters.

One thing my review is missing is another cool invention that came out of the brainstorming sessions this past weekend – a steel drum (iSteelPan) created for the iPad. The video below demonstrates how it works while this article shows you how to make drumsticks that can be used on any touch device. Whether you like it or not, the iPad is going to play a significant role in how people create new music in the years to come. Click here to read my recap of the event on Spinning Platters.

Science & Technology — 2 Comments
19
May 10

SF MusicTech Summit #6

Michael Tilson Thomas is currently the music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

One of the greatest things about living in San Francisco is the access you have to pretty much anyone and everyone. What exactly do I mean by this? I worked in the music industry for years during and a few years after I graduated from college in Los Angeles and felt that many of the big names were elusive. There’s no way I would have ever mustered up the courage to approach the president of Warner Bros. Records when I was an intern even though his office was right down the hall from where I sat.

However, over the past few years, I’ve had the great fortune of meeting some of the brightest minds that are setting the standards and shaping the future of the music industry including but not limited to Ty Roberts, Ian Rogers, Tim Westergren, Corey Denis, Lee Martin – and SF MusicTech Summit was the forum that made all of these connections possible.

Link to the full set of photos after the jump….

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Dining — 10 Comments
17
May 10

Brothers Korean BBQ

Firing up the grill...

**Update** Earlier this morning, my friend, Andrei, was bold enough to challenge my declaration that Brothers is the best Korean BBQ restaurant in San Francisco and even suggested that his Korean friends may have more sophisticated palettes than our very own Terry. While I was quick to dismiss his claim, Marie was resourceful enough to do some online research and her findings were quite telling. On Yelp, there are over 664 reviews of Brothers while Wooden Charcoal Barbecue House has a mere 56 reviews. Both establishments have a 3.5-star average rating. While you could argue that word of mouth favors the former, it has also been around a lot longer than the latter which is something to consider. What do you think?

I feel like it is my duty to start this post off by formally apologizing to any Vegan followers I may have acquired in the past week with my recent coverage of the local bakesale. While I do enjoy the cuisine and desserts, I also indulge in meat on occasion and this post exemplifies that to a bit of an extreme. This just serves as a warning for anyone that is sensitive to the issue – please do not click “Continue Reading.”

Also, I’ve received a few e-mails asking how a blog about San Francisco can possibly exist without including a post about Bay to Breakers? Well, I’ve been there and done that. Anyway, SFist has it covered as usual. Moving on, last weekend, my friends and I were lucky enough to experience some of the best Korean barbecue located in the Inner Richmond and I documented the experience for your viewing pleasure.

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Overall / Shopping — 5 Comments
14
May 10

Please Dress Me

That's me leaning against the couch wearing a dress from my favorite new designer, Yumi Kim.

A while back, my friend Fiona posted an update that made more sense than most things I read on Twitter: “A girl can never own enough dresses. Ever. It’s a life long pursuit.” As I wholeheartedly agree, I conducted a search for some pieces to femme up my wardrobe a bit for Spring and Summer. Here are some of my finds/recommendations in a variety of shapes, styles, and price ranges:

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Health and Wellness — 17 Comments
10
May 10

SF Vegan Bakesale

Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes garnished with cinnamon sticks.

Once upon a time, six years ago, when I first moved back up to San Francisco from Los Angeles, I decided to adopt a vegan diet. I thoroughly researched the process of converting my eating habits and found great success with my new way of life….for about six months. Gradually, my veganism morphed into vegetarianism and, finally, back to normal – though I do eat less meat than I used to.

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Dining — 6 Comments
7
May 10

Red Door Café

Red Door Café is located on Bush and Franklin Streets in Lower Pac Heights.

The great thing about walking around your neighborhood, as opposed to driving, is discovering cute little establishments like Red Door. Last weekend, as I was making a trek to Whole Foods for coffee and groceries, I noticed a huge crowd outside of the place and decided I had to try it out for myself after reading all of the favorable reviews on Yelp.

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Treats — 2 Comments
5
May 10

Lovely Macarons

Beautiful, vivid macarons in all sorts of colors and flavors.

*Update* I could blame it on a day of being frazzled from photo editing but it didn’t occur to me that I should just Google it, already; then I would have discovered that there is also a Paulette location right down the street from me. So, if you live in SF, do check it out. In the future, I’ll be less entranced by the pretty postcard the nice lady behind the counter gave me and thoroughly research it online. Thanks, Chia.

My Mom likes to send me on a hunt for good macarons whenever she’s having people over. In fact, she’s given me the challenge, which I have yet to meet, of finding ones that rival those we had the last time we were in Paris together. Since we live close to each other, it’s easy enough for me to drop them off and catch up with her and my Dad. However, besides La Boulange, I don’t really know of any other good places to get macarons in SF.

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