It's no secret

I'm giving up some secrets here today. My wife loves shoes and I like to indulge her shoe habit. We don't have a Sex in the City Dolce & Gabbana budget so we stay on the lookout for bargains. One unlikely store we found for bargain stylish shoes is in the Nordstroms shopping center on Market in San Francisco. This whole mall is a salute to expensive fashion but down on the BART level next to food court is a Payless Shoe Source store. I know they are everywhere but this particular one has a collection not seen at their other locations. We never pay more than thirty dollars and normally much less. This day we scored three pairs for less than fifty dollars.

After we shop it is normally lunch time and the ritual dance of deciding on where to eat begins. I say what do you feeling like eating and she replies " I would like a nice salad." This phrase in the past has caused some trepidation because in San Fran a "nice salad" comes at a price. The shopping center has food courts galore that are jammed with hungry hordes. A short elevator ride up to Nordstroms Bistro brings us to a more calm and civil place. The Bistro overlooks the Powell Street cable car turnaround and offers sit down service, a bar and most importantly nice salads. The prices are less than some of the food court offerings and we get to eyeball some of the really expensive shoes in the adjacent ladies shoe department.

fancy ham and cheese sandwich

A "nice" salad indeed!

It's only April!

We scored some free tickets to the Giants game Saturday. I am not huge fan of baseball but my wife's enthusiasm makes up for me and then some. The weather is incredible. It is like summer in April. The team ended up taking a loss but the experience was wonderful. Why? Here's why.

The incredible Gumby like pitcher Tim Lincecum


The views along the way

Oh man the garlic fries!

We decided to extend our adventure with dinner at Perry's new Embarcadero location. There we had great food, huge portions and reasonable prices. Saturday is half off bottles of wine night, nice!

Cheese burger and onion strings

Corn crusted calamari

Runaway Weekend Napa

We decided to runaway to Downtown Napa last weekend. In the name of full disclosure it was only one day and not the whole weekend but it was great fun anyway. We arrived mid morning, the sun was shining but very few people were out and about. We checked out Oxbow Public Market next to the now shuttered Copia. The stores there were in the process of opening and it seemed a little sleepy. We walked across the Napa river and strolled the downtown area. A small town feel with loads of restaurants and stores ready to greet you. I had my camera at ready and it seemed like everywhere I pointed it, I came up with stellar photos. We jumped into the car and took a short ride over to the Embassy Suites Napa. From the outside it doesn't look special but once inside, the huge ranch-like lobby and out to the interior courtyard; this place rocks! Two swimming pools, ponds with Swans, ducks and statuary make it seem like a private hideaway. Word of caution, the black swan does not like his picture taken! The Embassy's rates start around $189 at this writing. This rate includes a full breakfast daily and an evening manager's beverage reception so it seems like a value to me.

We returned to the Oxbow Market and wandered about admiring the many gourmet shops and restaurants. The smells alone would make me want to return here. We decided to have lunch at Rotisario. I had the Porchetta plate with green salad and french fries ($12.50). So much porky goodness! We will definitely be back here to check out the other stores with special note to Five Dot Ranch, that has the most beautiful looking meat case, and Picapica Maize Kitchen for some fine looking arepas.

Hedge Fund

We are living in new times and everything is being redefined. Hedge fund was a term that applied to aggressive investing. These days I have my own personal hedge fund. Last season we planted a number of herbs in half wine barrels. They provided fresh and and tasty additions to our dishes. Most of the herbs died off during the winter but the flat leaf parsley, not only survived, but jumped barrel and took root in most any small area of soil it could find. It is now literally a hedge of parsley and we have been investing in it aggressively.


One of our favorite uses is in a concoction called chimichurri sauce. Many versions are found but ours consists mainly of chopped parsley, olive oil, Meyer lemon juice and salt and pepper. A little chopped garlic, fresh oregano and pepper flakes wouldn't hurt the recipe. Traditionally this sauce is used on beef but adds zest to most anything. Pictured below I added a dollop of chimichurri to a bacon, cheese and tomato frittata I made for Sunday Brunch.