Weekend Wrap-up
Nov. 4th, 2019 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerIt was a busy weekend, even though objectively it wasn't actually hectic.
Saturday we did our usual farmer's market and other shopping. In the afternoon I went to Omnivore Books - Fuschia Dunlop, a British author, has a new cookbook out. She was the first Westerner to be admitted to one of their prestigious cooking schools and Land of Plenty (her first book 20 years ago) has been a perennial best-seller. It revolutionized the way I do stir-fries; I am now far more likely to cook Szechuan-style than American/Hunan. The latest book is an overhaul of LoP with a lot of new recipes. It's a gorgeous book (with travel photographs by a former flatmate of hers who was a finalist on British Bake-Off a few years back). I am looking forward to reading it and trying out the recipes.
Also, she was a good speaker and an interesting raconteur with a lot of fascinating stories. The bookstore was overflowing, which is obviously great to see.
Sunday we drove down to Santa Clara to pick up quinces from Cariadoc's house. The ones I got at the market were disappointing; somehow they never ripened even after four weeks, so they never got any flavor. That's not a problem with these! The car smelled like quinces the whole way back.
While we were down there, the wife wanted to revisit the Falafel Drive-in. They've been there since 1966 (when fast food falafel were a novelty). The wife used to get them regularly when she worked down there. They're still much better than any I've tried in SF! Also, the house special is a falafel pita with a banana milkshake. That sounds odd but it goes very well together. If you've ever tried Sonic's banana milkshake, this is much higher quality. Also, it brings all the boys to the yard.
On the way back we stopped at yet another appliance store. The wife has been spending a lot of time over the last couple weeks researching ranges. Of ranges. (Side note: "The cooking appliance so called since mid-15c., for unknown reasons" saith the OED.)
Anyway, we had identified a few final candidates that we liked enough in the intersection of quality/price - and that met our absolute space limitations. We had nixed all the low-end ones, deciding we were willing to pay a bit more for an upgrade from our existing bargain model. One of the three was around my mental budget, one was somewhat above, and the last was (choke) more than double. That last was a professional-grade, though, and while we don't need that level, we really liked the look and specs. It also came with a new dishwasher (which we will need sooner rather than later, although not right now).
Unlike several of our other visits to other appliance stores, we got a salesperson right away. Maybe because this one was a bit higher-end? We made it easy on her since we had already triaged our list. We just asked her where the three were and then debated back and forth. We ended up with the #2 choice. I liked the style of #1 the best, but the oven was smaller than our existing model. While we haven't run into any problems with having too small an oven space I didn't want to drop it any further. #2 didn't come with a "free" dishwasher, but it did offer 50% off one. We took it. Their dishwashers aren't anything special, but it'll still be a big upgrade from our also-bargain model of 15 years ago.
Delivery and installation should be in ~two weeks. With a bit of luck it'll be in place before Thanksgiving.
Saturday we did our usual farmer's market and other shopping. In the afternoon I went to Omnivore Books - Fuschia Dunlop, a British author, has a new cookbook out. She was the first Westerner to be admitted to one of their prestigious cooking schools and Land of Plenty (her first book 20 years ago) has been a perennial best-seller. It revolutionized the way I do stir-fries; I am now far more likely to cook Szechuan-style than American/Hunan. The latest book is an overhaul of LoP with a lot of new recipes. It's a gorgeous book (with travel photographs by a former flatmate of hers who was a finalist on British Bake-Off a few years back). I am looking forward to reading it and trying out the recipes.
Also, she was a good speaker and an interesting raconteur with a lot of fascinating stories. The bookstore was overflowing, which is obviously great to see.
Sunday we drove down to Santa Clara to pick up quinces from Cariadoc's house. The ones I got at the market were disappointing; somehow they never ripened even after four weeks, so they never got any flavor. That's not a problem with these! The car smelled like quinces the whole way back.
While we were down there, the wife wanted to revisit the Falafel Drive-in. They've been there since 1966 (when fast food falafel were a novelty). The wife used to get them regularly when she worked down there. They're still much better than any I've tried in SF! Also, the house special is a falafel pita with a banana milkshake. That sounds odd but it goes very well together. If you've ever tried Sonic's banana milkshake, this is much higher quality. Also, it brings all the boys to the yard.
On the way back we stopped at yet another appliance store. The wife has been spending a lot of time over the last couple weeks researching ranges. Of ranges. (Side note: "The cooking appliance so called since mid-15c., for unknown reasons" saith the OED.)
Anyway, we had identified a few final candidates that we liked enough in the intersection of quality/price - and that met our absolute space limitations. We had nixed all the low-end ones, deciding we were willing to pay a bit more for an upgrade from our existing bargain model. One of the three was around my mental budget, one was somewhat above, and the last was (choke) more than double. That last was a professional-grade, though, and while we don't need that level, we really liked the look and specs. It also came with a new dishwasher (which we will need sooner rather than later, although not right now).
Unlike several of our other visits to other appliance stores, we got a salesperson right away. Maybe because this one was a bit higher-end? We made it easy on her since we had already triaged our list. We just asked her where the three were and then debated back and forth. We ended up with the #2 choice. I liked the style of #1 the best, but the oven was smaller than our existing model. While we haven't run into any problems with having too small an oven space I didn't want to drop it any further. #2 didn't come with a "free" dishwasher, but it did offer 50% off one. We took it. Their dishwashers aren't anything special, but it'll still be a big upgrade from our also-bargain model of 15 years ago.
Delivery and installation should be in ~two weeks. With a bit of luck it'll be in place before Thanksgiving.
