Walter and I arrived in San Francisco on Saturday around 1pm. After reading horrific reviews about Frontier Airlines and fretting about how miserable the trip was going to be, we were pleasantly surprised when we were arrived at SFO early and more or less without incident. John, my brother and the groom-to-be, picked us up from the airport and brought us to their condo. For the past few months he and his fiancé, Jessa, the bride-to-be, have been brewing their own kombucha and I have been excitedly waiting to try it.

In the picture above, on the left is a large tub where they are brewing a new batch. It is hard to see, but the mother bacteria is floating at the top. The mother is the key to the kombucha making process, it eats most of the sugar and yeast in the tea making it into a fizzy, slightly fermented, refreshing  beverage. If you have ever bought kombucha at the store you know that it generally runs $3.50-$5/bottle. If you drink it often brewing it at home can be much more cost effective. My brother said the biggest issue they run into is not being able to drink it fast enough, sounds to me like a good problem to have 🙂 I am adding this project to my list of things I want to do this summer! 

(Ox Tail)

We went to John’s co-worker and good friend Bing’s house for dinner. She is a great cook and loves to cook for our family when we come to visit. This time she made many delicious dishes, but the stand out was ox tail! I am not sure I have ever had it before and I was pleasantly surprised! It was surprisingly sweet and tender! 

Exhausted from our early morning flight and the time change Walter and I were asleep by 9pm. This meant we were up pretty early and able to get in a nice 5.5 mile run to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We ran down through the very wealthy area of Sea Cliff to Baker Beach. Along the way we met a 9 year old vizsla, which we were pretty excited about!

It’s a good thing we got this run in because the rest of the day pretty much revolved around eating!

First we went to dim sum… this is about 1/6 of the food we had, haha. Good thing they let you take to-go boxes! Notice the sesame buns on the left, they are my favorite and are on my list of 2016 cooking goals! 

Later in the afternoon we had to go get chicken wings and waffles from a place on my brother’s street called  “Hot Sauce and Panko”. I say “had to” because they are closed on Monday and Tuesday and Walter and I leave Tuesday morning, hehe. We got 3 types of wings and a waffle to share with everyone as an appetizer. We tried the bacon wrapped, old bay and “Green” which were cilantro, jalapeño, honey. All of them were good, but my favorite was the Green. 

When we went to pick up the wings they had this sign by the register. I think we need this for Nicecream, haha. 

We all went out to dinner to celebrate my mom’s birthday, which is coming up tomorrow! Happy Early Birthday Mom! 

After dinner I had some important market research to tend to. Smitten is a liquid nitrogen ice cream parlor with 4 locations in San Francisco. Market research called for breaking lent – I had Salted Caramel and Walter had Cookie Dough. 

We are now gearing up for the main event! John and Jessa’s Leap Day Wedding! Tune in on Wednesday for a recap of the big day!