Weekend eats and wines

After the Marina walk and some Safeway action, I made it home just in time to charge my dying phone and shove some food in my face before meeting a friend for our very first San Francisco Wine Market experience. If you recall, friend and I tried to do this last Sunday, but found out it was closed for Father's Day.

I got to The Cannery first and was a little surprised at how small the setup was. For some reason I expected it to take over the whole square.

Ah well. I bought my $20 wine tote and found out I am now granted free tastings every Sunday until NOVEMBER. RIDIC. I also got the market details...every Sunday from 1-4 winemakers from various wineries set up shop. You get about 30 tastings a week depending on how many wineries attend and they change every week. This past Sunday's wine makers came from Napa, Lake County and Paso Robles.

Friend and I sampled a few repeats from last week, some new wines and had a nice long chat with a wine maker originally from...New Jersey! It had to happen at some point. I walked away with these 3 bottles :\

Hey, I'm starting over! I had to leave some tasty bottles in DC! Yes, that is a Rose you see. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed the Sol Rouge Rose. Not sweet at all and very light! The Jersey native was pouring from two wineries, Hagafen (where he's a wine maker) and Stein Family Wines (his own winery). I walked away with one from each. I loved the crispness and acidity of the Hagafen Sauvignon Blanc...perfect for pairings (this is my new goal - find wines to go with food).

The great thing we learned about the Stein Family Wines, aside from the fact that the reds were pretty tasty, was that a percentage of revenue goes to scholarships for children of wine makers. Um, yes...that may have swayed me to buy a bottle. I really liked the Just Joshin Sierra Foothills Tempranillo (label AND taste!). It had just the right amount of dryness and acidity for my taste.

There was no way we were walking up the massive hill toward my apartment, so we splurged on a cab. I'm learning cabs are pretty hard to come by in this city. Sad. I know you're probably thinking jeez...just suck it up already. UM

No.

For dinner, I whipped up something super fast with my farmers market goods. Kai-lan with Tofu over Jasmine Rice

Not exactly my most exciting stir fry, but I really wanted rice. Also, Trader Joe's Jasmine Frozen Rice is not as awesome as the brown.

Kai-lan with Tofu

1 bunch kai-lan, trimmed and cut in half

1/2 block high protein tofu, cubed

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

1 tbsp oil

1/3 c chicken broth

1 tbsp mirin

1/4 c low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp chili garlic paste

Heat oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Saute garlic until fragrant and add kai-lan and chicken broth. Cover for 1 minute. Add mirin, soy sauce, oyster sauce and chili garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in tofu and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Serve immediately.

See? All the usual suspects were present. It was actually better for lunch the next day when the rice soaked up all the sauce. BUT, the rice was still kinda bad texture-wise. Bleh. No more of that.

I'll spare you the boring details of my salad-filled Monday and Tuesday. I will share that after the massage session and walking all over the city on Sunday plus a small stint in flip flops, my tight calves and achilles were SCREAMING at me. Monday was rough. I used the stick on my new hotspot and all over my calf...oww. It was a good ow, but definitely an ow. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to do Tuesday's group run, but I sucked it up and went.

As much as I hate to admit it, I dropped the mileage down from 7 to 4 since I knew I was dealing with angry legs and I felt great for the first 3 miles...I was cruising! Then I felt it...tugtugtugtight...with just a mile-ish to go :( Took my run to a slow heel-striking shuffle and called it a night. Defeat. Did I mention the ART specialist and everyone else said hills contributed to this nonsense? I live on top of a hill! Nothing but hills! What to do?!