Friday tally, #sorrynotsorry

Lentil salad with so much other stuff you can barley see the lentils.

I think I'm going to use Fridays to tally up some of the other tidbits I've put in my belly and in my brain. IDK, if it starts to feel boring or silly, I'll stop.

Bomb ass lentil salad, home
In it was baby kale; puy lentils; rainbow carrots; Eatwell Farm tomatoes, basil, parsley, and cucumbers; sous vide quinoa (I did it because they paid me); a 7-minute egg; garlic oil; sherry vinegar; pepper; and two kinds of salt because I'm an asshole. I ate this for several meals. It was fucking delicious.

Probably some Bulleit Rye whiskey, home
Bulleit is generally the whiskey I keep at home because it is less than $20 at Trader Joe's and doesn't taste like ass.

Green curry with chicken at IMM Thai, Downtown Berkeley
Downtown Berkeley mostly sucks at lunchtime unless you wanna shell out the big bucks for Gather (see below) or are down to eat a forgettable turkey sandwich on "sourdough." (Let's be real though — sometimes those sandwiches are an ideal 1 p.m. hunger solution.) IMM Thai, however, is totally not bad, so I'll stop in occasionally for some legit spicy green curry. They will serve it with decent brown rice, too, to make up for the abundant oil slick on top of the curry. Their summer rolls and laab are pretty good too.

Some kinda honey beer pale ale situation at Woods Brewery, Uptown Oakland
There's no picture here, but the beer looked like beer. It was a little sweet, but definitely not mead-like. A touch yeasty on the back end, but mostly a pretty mild pale ale. I was into it. Actually, what I really wanted was a pint of their ginger-infused beer. That shit is dope. It's not gingery enough to be confused with an actual ginger beer, but it has got some serious heat. Also it's like at least 7% alcohol, which means that two of them will get me pretty tipsy. Good times.

Very good falafel, under seasoned eggplant, cold potatoes.

Falafel Deluxe at Truly Mediterranean, Mission District SF
I'm working on this falafel round-up story for one of my outlets, so I had to run over to the city on Tuesday for lunch. The sandwich was pretty good; the falafel was definitely the best part, but the eggplant was way under seasoned and the fried potatoes were cold. My "official" thoughts will appear on the Internet at some point soon. Way more interesting than the falafel was my new friend "Grandpa Tupac," who chatted me up and then invited me back to his place for a post-lunch whiskey. I didn't go. Also I ate the second half of the fucking gigantic burrito of a sandwich for dinner.

Sometimes you just can't find a table at Mizz Lounge.

Two Lagunitas IPAs at the Missouri Lounge, West Berkeley
Mizz Lounge has many things that I like, including a $4 Lagunitas happy hour until 7 p.m. every day. (I also like their $5 beer and shot combos, the gross patio, all the dogs, their veggie burger when I'm drunk and hungry, Wednesday open mic night, and the nights when the DJ plays 90s hip hop because I am a millennial.) I almost always end up racing back to the bar at 6:59 to get another cheap pour and then drink it too fast. That definitely happened on Tuesday.

BBQ Seeds and Ratatouille at Gather, Downtown Berkeley
Every time I eat at Gather, I end up having a minor freak out. Why the fuck is it so expensive? I mean, I get the fact that they're sourcing good shit, but okay, my ratatouille was $18 AT LUNCH and was mostly just a few vegetables on top of a huge bed of cous cous. It tasted pretty good — better than the weird, sticky BBQ seeds — but was certainly not worth the fat stack.

Whole wheat pasta and a million vegetables, home
Somehow I managed to cook two actual meals at home this week that had nothing to do with work projects. This dinner had a mix of vegetables from my CSA and some from the sale bin at Berkeley Bowl (the 99-cent bags were ON POINT yesterday), some sad freezer-burnt but still okay Italian sausage I rescued out from under several bags of frozen chicken bones, and whole wheat spaghetti (for virtue?). IDK, I think I'm pretty good at making pasta at home — the secret is animal fat (butter, rendered sausage fat, whatever) and stirring in more pasta water than you think you will need to use.

Flying Dog "Easy IPA," home
I was trying to buy some 21st Amendment session IPA but I guess everyone else is on to my secret and drinking it. Flying Dog was a kinda meh replacement.

More falafel at King of Falafel, Lower Pac Heights, SF
Is "Lower Pac Heights" really a neighborhood? Google maps says it is. TBD on the goodness of the falafel.

Good food reads for the week
I also read in addition to stuffing my face. I liked this story and subsequent thread/feedback/commentary on restaurant kitchen culture in Lucky Peach. The most recent print issue is pretty good, actually, and I don't usually read it unless my friends are in it. Marian Bull's story about Disney World was pretty rad (and the pancake pictures on are on point). My cousin was a legit Disney princess for many years and I could totally picture her floating around the character breakfast buffets.

Also, this story is about a month old, but it is a seriously legit look at the insane diets in the Bay Area. Made me want to GTFO.

And Luke Tsai over at EBX agrees with me about Overland. He tells me he also sucks at line dancing.

Ok, also I dunno if you all follow food policy stories, but this whole thing about Coca Cola-sponsored research is just so, well, boring. Big food has been funding its own research since, like, forever, and it is no surprise that they would want to promote exercise. I suppose the backtracking on Coke's and the scientist's part is telling, but GUYS, DIDN'T YOU READ SALT SUGAR FAT?

Let's all just drink La Croix and get on with our lives.

#ateit

Friday tally, #sorrynotsorry