Ce n'est pas Paris

Gentle Friends... last Friday I headed over to the head office in Berkeley for my annual flu shot......  after the shot I was a bit peckish.  The office is located on Shattuck Avenue, the main street for downtown Berkeley,  I thought a quick roll and coffee would hit the spot.  Looking around at all the choices up and down the street I saw the sign for "Paris Baguette."  ... with the sign reading.... Mon Amie - Mon Amour - Mon Paris Baguette........My Friend, my love my Paris Baguette....... reading this blog you know how much I do love a good pain au chocolate and a nice cafe mocha.... I headed toward the door........

.... when you walk in PB is set up so that you pick up a tray and walk around the "pastry table" and make your choices....... and there was quite a selection.... on closer inspection I was seeing things that I have never seen in a Paris bakery or any bakery in France........ and I've been in quite a few bakeries in Paris and on my travels in France...... including Normandy, the Loire, the Dordogne, Nice, Lourdes, Burgundy and other places.......thinking about it now I've been in many bakeries all over France and never even heard of some of the things I was seeing......

......don't get me wrong, there were some things I have seen and eaten....  but lots of things I had never seen nor heard of and the pastries had an obvious heavy Asian ingredient influence.... and NO pain au chocolate, a staple in any French bakery I've been in (so long as you get there early).....  I was perplexed, and asked the gal behind the counter....her answer.. "No, we don't make those."  So I kept looking and finally found something french...  pain aux raisins.....  or as I call them and they are know here... Raisin Snails.....

.....then I went to the counter and placed my coffee order, cafe mocha..... after repeating myself twice I thought she had the correct order, I paid, found a table, then waited for them to make the drink......  what came was a cafe latte.....  It took so long I wasn't going to complain, so I drank it.....  the pastry was alright, nothing special, the coffee was fine, again nothing special.............

When I got home I did some research and found out that Paris Baguette, is not French, but French "inspired" and originally from Korea, hence the heavy Asian influence in the food.  They are also franchised cafe's so they are independantly run.    So, armed with this information, and with so many other options of wonderful places here in the Bay area, I'll skip Paris Baguette next time. 

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That's about it for tonight, sorry it's so late.  Thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Little Stitchin'

Gentle Friends, I've finally finished up the second "square" of Autumn at hawk Run Hollow.....

... the only reason I can think of for taking so very loooong to get through this square is that it is probably my least favorite on the entire piece.  Whatever, it's behind me now and on to the next one.  I am taking a little break from AaHRH to work on an Exchange piece so there may be no stitchin' snaps for a bit.

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A short post today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stops again!!

Take care,

edgar

The Birthday and a Fall Treat

Gentle Friends, since my Birthday fell on a Sunday, we started off with our usual going to the 8:30am Mass then on to a little breakfast......  after that we headed for the Farmers Market, we've not been going as much as we did in the past but with so many wonderful Fall things coming in that's going to change.  I actually went looking for some Italian/French Plums or Prune Plums - I was up for making some plum butter..... but there were none to be found.... we did find other things.....

... some beautiful onions and potatoes....

.... some really vibrant peppers....

.... a ton of gorgeous root vegetables....

......  I just couldn't pass up these cauliflower.... one of which we're having tonight steamed and covered in Hollandaise ........

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The rest of the day we sort of hung around the house and then in the evening we headed out to dinner....  we had read some very positive reviews of M.Y. China in the Westfeild Shopping Centre downtown on Market Street, and I thought it would be a fun place to have Birthday Dinner.  We made one stop on the way, at Lupicia, a favorite tea shop of mine here in SF.  They were all decked out for Fall, and of course my question was, "When are the Christmas Teas coming in.... and are they bringing back 'White Christmas?' "  To my surprise I got an actual date, November 2nd , and yes, White Christmas will be coming back....  they the gal asked me...  "We have two tins left over from last year, would you like those, they're 1/2 price."   

... I immediately said "SOLD" so now I've got a good supply of this lovely tea to start an early Christmas!!!!  BTW "White Christmas Tea" is a black tea with apricot and white chocolate flavour and is super delicious!!

After the rush of getting a bargain (their tea can be a bit on the expensive side) we headed to dinner.......

M.Y. China is located on the 4th Floor under the big dome so it was easy to find....

I forgot to take some interior shots so I lifted these from the Internet..

..  it's a really large restaurant with a large open kitchen........

.... we started off with  - Mu Shu Pork Tacos 野豬木须肉  wild boar, cabbage, egg  

 I had a nice Chinese beer and Rico got a coke.......

..........then for the main course I had - Wild Boar Scissor Cut Noodles 野豬刀剪面 bean sprouts, scallions, wood ear mushrooms - there was so much on this dish I took the leftovers and had them for lunch on Monday and Tuesday...

..... and Rico got what he always gets - M.Y. Sweet & Sour Pork 古老肉 - he does love S & S pork!!

The tables are really close together and we had the best time with the couple at the next table, Jenny and Steve, from Dallas.  They were visiting here with a conference and were just the most fun.  She had been a Stewardess for Braniff and he owns an Electrical Company and they were going on a giant Wine Tasting Tour Monday then back to Dallas Tuesday.  It really was a delicious and totally fun evening!!!!

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Now, you know I'm all for baking and making it homemade, and I do love Cheesecake, so when we saw this at Trader Joe's, I was a bit skeptical, but thought to myself, what the heck, why not!!  It turned out to be the perfect Birthday cake!!

.... the only thing I can say is - this is really a delicious cheesecake, I would have kicked up the spice a bit, but other than that, for store bought and no mess no clean up you just can not beat this pastry!!

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It was a lovely Birthday, very laid back and no stress - just the way I like'em!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks again for stopping by dos top again!!

Take care,

edgar

The Day Before the Day

Gentle Friends....  on Saturday we did our usual running around in the morning, grocery shopping, a stop at the bagel shop for breakfast..... then on to the thrift shopping....  we were back home showered and changed for a Matinee Show down at the Castro Theatre.  Friends of ours took us to a show and out to dinner for my Birthday.

The show we went to see was a parody of that classic 60's psychological thriller..."Whatever Happened to baby Jane".....this show was called...."Whatever Happened to Bianca del Rio?"

...  Bianca del Rio played the Jane Hudson role and Peaches Christ played the Joan Crawford role....  all the roles in the stage parody were played by drag performers and it was a total hoot fest!!!

.....  here are some inside shots of this 1922 Spanish baroque movie palace.....

... I just happened to get a shot of the screen advertising the next movie parody, "Addams Family Values", coming November 21st, yes, I've already got our tickets!!

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... I got a shot of Bianca and Peaches during the performance... Peaches is holding a microphone because the one she was wearing went out.....

... here's most of the performers taking a bow at the end... from left to right  Heklina - played Mrs Bates, the next door neighbor, Mahlae Balenciaga played Elvira, Bianca del Rio as Baby Jane, Peaches Christ as Blanche, Lady Bear as Edwin Flagg, Martiny as Liza Bates and Rory Davis as the Father......  it was one of the most clever things I've ever seen and a totally fun afternoon!!! 

 After the play they screened the 1962 film, and we stayed for the first 1/4 or so then left for our dinner reservation......

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They had made reservations just down on Market Street so we walked over to BizouBistronomy, a really lovely upscale French inspired place.....

... now, you know if there's foie gras on a menu I'm, gonna have some and have some I did, here's a snap of my appetizer.....  I was so excited I hacked into the foie before taking a snap...

.....  they got an order of oysters .....

... and Tom got a lovely bowl of onion soup, they are kind of know around town for this soup.....

....  for the main courses  they shared an order of Filet de Fletan - seared halibut, cauliflower puree, baby carrot rainbow chard, parsley sauce.....

... Rico had the Steak et Frites....

..... and I had Poulpe et Noix de St Jacques...  which was seared octopus and scallion, lobster croquette, Jerusalem artichoke with squid ink sauce....

.....  it was all so very delicious!!!!  We were stuffed and so skipped on the desert.......

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That about wraps up Saturday, stay tuned for Sunday........  thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

.... and the Winner is......

Gentle Friends, I put the cord in the "murse" last night and so it would make it to work this morning to download my snaps from the last few days.......  

.......I can also announce  winner of my little Gift-a-way....

... from the BOD the claw pulled...

... Sandy's name... and I'll have the package out in the morning ......

... I wanted to thank everyone for their kind wishes and let you know that over the next couple of days I'll be posting some snaps of the fun stuff we did over my Birthday weekend!!

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Short and sweet today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

Cordless

Gentle Friends, I am feeling like this morning......

... as I forgot this.....

...which lets me upload snaps from the camera.... so I will announce the Winner tomorrow when I remember the damn cord!!!!

Take care,

edgar

Thirfty Thursday

Gentle Friends.... I found some fun things over the weekend, we hit the usual shops and a couple of nice Estate sales......

.....  I found this great red ware tea set in one of the consignment shops, but the pieces were not being sold together.....  each piece was marked individually and I found them all over the store, the tea pot was in the front the creamer was in with the Christmas things and the open sugar bowl was back with the baking stuff, all three things are in super condition and each was hand made with nice slip trailing for the letters.......

... here's some of the other things I picked up....  at one the Estate sales was a nice pile of Movie Mags, I went through a picked a bunch of the better condition ones from the early 60's featuring Elizabeth Taylor,  I also found a super book about Hollywood Fashion, the bright cut glass I picked up at a Goodwill and even a $2 it was a deal, it turned out to be 1/2 off, I just couldn't believe it, a lovely, heavy, cut piece of glass that is at least 100+ years sold for a buck!!!  I found some other fun books and a couple of DVD's and two nice icons..... over all a really fun day of finds!!!

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That's about it for today sports fans, thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar