The world cup is finally over. After Germany lost to Spain in the semi final, I thought I don’t have to watch soccer for another four years, but I watched the final match in the end. Congratulations to Spain! And Paul the Octopus, you did it too! You are so popular!
Yesterday was my first Independence Day. I baked cheesecake, decorated in red, blue and white and brought to a barbecue party at friends house. I thought there would be flags everywhere in the city, but it wasn’t like that in San Francisco. There was a big fireworks show at night but I became too sleepy, I just listened to the sound in bed…
The FIFA world cup kicked off in South Africa today. Football isn’t really my favourite sport to watch, but the world cup is different. I’m ready to enjoy this big event! Since yesterday one song got stuck in my head and repeating over and over.
This is an unofficial England football song for the world cup in 98. It’s amazingly silly and I love it. I didn’t realise that it’s made by Blur’s bassist, he did a great job! I used to live in London, so the lyrics makes me laugh a lot.
On Sunday morning, I went to the new farmers market at Fort Mason Center in the Marina District. It’s open every Sunday until October. Actually, the Golden Gate Bridge is in the background, but it’s hidden in the fog.
I arrived just after the market opened at 9:30 am.
マーケットが開く時間、朝9時30分ちょうどに到着。
There were many organic vegetables and fresh fruits in season.
オーガニックの野菜、旬の果物がたくさん。
Annie Somerville from Greens, a popular vegetarian restaurant, was signing her cookbooks.
マリーナ地区にあるベジタリアンレストラン、グリーンズのシェフ、アニー・サマービルさんのサイン会。
It would nice if the colour of pink oyster mushrooms stays like this after cooking.
ピンクのオイスターマッシュルーム。調理してもこのままの色だったらキレイだね。
I’ve never tried this vegetable kohlrabi, aka German turnip (kohl means cabbage and rabi is turnip in German). I thought about getting some kohlrabi, but I got daikon, the Japanese turnip (radish) instead. Their daikon looked really good.
I wasn’t meant to buy this much from the market. Actually the main reason I travelled to the Marina district was watching the sailboat race C participated. Carrying the groceries, a coffee cup, and a digital SLR camera and watching the race was not easy!
It was also not easy to read the number on a sail, even using the camera’s zoom lens. I felt like I was reading letters on a chart for an eye examination. But I did manage to find C’s boat!
The street looked very different because of the numbers of people. I usually don’t want to take my digital SLR camera with me on this street, I know I worry too much, and it was just fine.
Last Sunday, we went to Maker Faire in San Mateo. It was my first time to go there (it’s 40min by train) and I need to experience something tasty everywhere I go, so I searched on the internet and found Romolo’s Cannoli & Spumoni Factory near the event venue.
The Bay to Breakers, a 12km running race on the third Sunday of May is a San Francisco tradition. It was the 99th annual race this year, quite a long history! The participants started at 8:00am from the San Francisco Bay to the Ocean Beach, the breakers. I wasn’t planning on running it, but I got up at 9:30am…
There are over 60,000 runners and walkers took part in this event, and many of them were in their special costumes. This is what it’s famous for! I took this photo around noon, I thought everything was over but there were still lots of people enjoying after parties. The police don’t seem to care about every little thing at this Bay to Breakers.
Yesterday’s Dolores Park Movie Night was showing Starsky and Hutch. I don’t really mind what they show, it’s just fun to gather in a park. Sitting on a picnic blanket, sharing food and drink with friends, this reminds me of the cherry blossom viewing in Japan. Well, we can’t drink alcohol in a park in the US, so it’s not quite the same thing. Summer nights in SF can get freezing cold. I put lots of clothes on but it wasn’t enough. Next week, I bring hot drink and wool blanket with me!
It’s been a while ago that I finally managed to go to SF Underground Market. The name doesn’t mean that the market is on the underground… don’t worry it’s not illegal either.
Even we are very good at making something at home, selling foods in public places is not easy. We need licenses and a commercial kitchen to produce foods to sell. But forageSF made a good venue that we can buy/sell products that have been produced in home kitchens. We just need to sign up for a free membership to the SF Underground Market. And of course, to be a vendor we have to be approved by forageSF.
Everybody got a standard table size space. How to use is up to them.
与えられたテーブルひとつ分のスペースは使い方もいろいろ。
Some of them are professional. These macarons were nice.
お店を持っているプロも参加している。ここのマカロン、なかなか。
When I saw German Currywurst sign, I thought about C. I know he will definitely get one. But I found out that it was vegetarian Currywurst… It’s so San Franciso!
This event started December 2009, and this was the fourth one. I actually went to the third one in March too, but there were too many people, easily more than 100 people were queuing at the entrance. I gave up. This time, it was held in a bigger venue and it was on the weekday, so there were no queue!
Next SF Underground Market is on 12 May. I’m happy that it’s a collaboration event with my favourite bike-in movie screening. The market part is from 16:00 to 19:00, and the movie screening is from 20:00. Prepare to be warm!
Today is Hinamatsuri; Girl’s Day in Japan. Apparently the three colours of Hishimochi rice cake represents peach flowers, snow, and trees and plants under the snow. I liked the idea of making mixed sushi; Chirashi-zushi in these three colours, but I didn’t feel like shopping for spinach and maguro or salmon in the rain. I had only tomatoes and broccoli in a fridge, they are so non-sushi ingredients. But it wasn’t bad at all.
