Adventures through Chinatown

Chicken feet, also known as “phoenix talons,” are commonly found at most dim sum restaurants and are typically deep fried

On Saturday, amongst another adventurous journey into another district of San Francisco, I came across my first ever encounter with chicken feet. They were fried and soaked in a … delicious sauce, displayed on a white plate, and just sitting there, staring me down. I’ve always been an adventurous eater who loves all food, after all, I wouldn’t be nicknamed ‘meatball’ as a child if I didn’t. I’ve tried everything from Alligator to fish eyes, but surprisingly, on Saturday, I think I found the only food that couldn’t excite me, chicken feet. With that being said, I left china town extremely curious to find out more.

Nutrition Facts Chicken Feet
Serving Size: 100 g

Amount per Serving
Calories 215 Calories from Fat 131
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 15g	23%
Saturated Fat 4g	20%
Monounsaturated Fat 6g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3g
Cholesterol 84mg	28%
Sodium 67mg	3%
Total Carbohydrate 0g	0%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Protein 19g	38%

Vitamin A	2%
Calcium	9%
Iron	5%
Thiamin (B1)	4%
Riboflavin (B2)	12%
Niacin (B3)	12%
Vitamin B12	8%
Magnesium	1%
Zinc	5%
Copper	5%

---

Est. Percent of Calories from:

Fat 62.8% Carbs 0.0%

Protein 35.3%

…And in case you were curious, here is a tasty treat you can create for yourself!

Ingredients

• 12 chicken feet, declawed and skinned
• 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• 3 slices ginger
• 3 green onions
• 1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• star anise
• 1 piece orange rind
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pint water

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

It was not until I actually googled chicken feet that I realized they are eaten all over the world by many different people. I even yelped chicken feet and found 1402 entries just in San Francisco. But researching chicken feet, watching my classmates eat the chicken foot, and being around chicken feet still haven't convinced me to try them. I’m sure it is mostly mental, but chicken don’t wear socks, they don’t wear shoes, and they are still very human like even when smothered in sauce.

If you feel the same way, maybe this video will help to change YOUR mind…

Its whats for dinner ...

Moving to San Francisco was definitely an enormous step in my life. I am a small town girl who grew up with tons of land, animals, and quiet surroundings. I was nervous to move to a big city, but it wasn’t long before the comfort of west coast living settled in and I found the things that I loved most about my new home in San Francisco. The frantic hustle and bustle, the vibrant city nightlife, and among those, the small neighborhood vibes are what makes San Francisco one of the most unique cities in the world. My first house here was on Dolores Street in Noe Valley. It was an old Victorian built in 1905 and in an amazing location.

Eventually, after adjusting to city living, I decided to move to the South of Market area and experience more of a city atmosphere. After moving, I realized what it was about Noe Valley that made adjusting to San Francisco so easy, the produce market and the butcher shop. I would go everyday and buy what I needed for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I knew everyone’s name, and they knew mine.

Now that I live on Berry Street, I shop at Safeway once every couple of weeks. Although it is convenient with my busy schedule because I have the ability to buy food in bulk, it is totally against my morality. I love supporting small family owned markets, and will only contribute to corporate America for a little while longer. With that being said, I figured out a way to make myself feel better about my new habit of buying food in large quantities from a chain grocery store. It was by inviting friends over to help eat the food and simultaneously to contribute to my meal assignment for ESF. Coincidentally, it also gave me the opportunity to catch up with the people I love who I don’t see very often anymore because of my hectic lifestyle.

Initially, I thought it would be fun to have a DIY sushi night. It was perfect in my eyes because I don’t have the time to make an entire meal on my own, and of course everyone loves playing with food. My idea was immediately shut down when I couldn’t find any sushi grade fresh fish on a Sunday. My new idea was then DIY tacos. Tacos are simple to create and delicious to consume!

Mental Preparation:

The line up:

brown rice, black beans, salsa, sour cream, jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, grilled chicken, wheat tortillas

The evidence:

Overall, dinner was a success. We all stuffed our tortilla's with as much as possible, drank a bottle of champagne, and eventually passed out on the sofa. It quite possibly initiated the start of a monthly tradition.

What I eat and drink in a day...

It’s about 3:45am and the snooze button has been hit only 3 times this morning. I’m finally awake. My hair has slightly formed to the upper right side of the pillow, I can barely see because my contacts are in the bathroom and who knows where my glasses are, and of course I have an angry Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix staring me down and wondering why I wake up this early, unfortunately, he isn’t the only one who wonders that.

As I unconsciously step off the couch, which is where I wake up around 2am and realize I need to be up in two hours therefore the journey from the sofa to the bed isn’t necessary, I stumble over to the kitchen with one eye open. The first stop is the fridge, home of the only thing that can get my day rolling, espresso.

Breakfast: shot of espresso=9 calories

Ever since my trip throughout Italy over Christmas break, I have formed an intense addiction to illy espresso. The funny part is that I don’t think it’s the espresso I enjoy, but the memories that it brings back.

There are many times that I have made it through the process of making the espresso and am drinking it that I actually realize, “Its 4:15 and I need to be at work in 20 minutes.” That is usually when the multi step breakfast process begins.

At this hour, everything must be previously planned out; otherwise, it just wouldn’t get done.

• Step one: Walk to the fridge and grab the bag.
• Step two: Put a raw chunk of duck into the bowl.
  
• Step three: Place the bowl on the ground and admire the velocity at which Poncho consumes the raw meat.
  
• Step four: Realize the food I just made is for the dog, and not me, and now it is way too late to make my own breakfast.

From there I rush to work with either a) an Oreo cookie b) a banana (on a rare good day) or c) some form of leftover food that will eventually be given to the homeless man who greets me every morning.

Today, the lucky winner was the Oreo cookie.

Breakfast: an Oreo=55 calories

Tuesday, March 17^th, is St Patrick ’s Day. What exactly that means to my life.

If you didn’t already know, I work for a radio station, and it just so happens that today we will be broadcasting from an Irish pub on Polk Street, one of which I will keep anonymous...

At this point I'm going to be late and so this will have to be continued....

It's now 2pm: The bar was wall to wall people, free corned beef and cabbage, and of course free drinks for 95.7 the wolf! I was busy making sure all of the broadcasts were OK, organizing events, giving away prizes, hosting contests, and publicizing the station. Amidst all of the craziness, the only thing I was able to consume for lunch was a half Guinness/half cider.

Lunch: Guinness/ Magner’s cider=123 calories

I will be leaving for my second job in about an hour. I am working at Toast, a restaurant in Noe Valley, from 3 until about 9.

It is now Wednesday, March 18, 2009, I only went into work last night until around 6 and then got someone to fill in for me. My godparents are here visiting from home (Massachusetts) and so I decided to spend the night with them. We met up around 6:30 and I made them dinner. They can thank ESF for that! We had spaghetti, turkey balls, eggplant parmesian, and some collard greens. For dessert we had pear and cranberry pie from Mission Pies! I dont mean to toot my own horn, but I must say, dinner was delicious.

Dinner:

Glass of red wine= 140

Spaghetti= about 200

2 turkey balls= 100

1 slice of eggplant parm=220

Collard greens= 30

Tiny slice of pear/cranberry pie= 220

approximate total= 910 calories

Tuesdays total= 1097 Calories

and the best part is....

I didn't have to do the dishes!

A few final thoughts:

Documenting what I eat and drink in a day was a very educational experience on many different levels. I have not only learned that I need to take more time out of my day to have a healthy and well balanced diet, but I also need to change my schedule before I make myself sick! I have been working between 10 and 18 hours a day for the past couple of weeks and its really starting to affect my sleep, my diet, and my social life. They all do not exist anymore.

pre-production thoughts...What I eat and drink in a day...

Tomorrow morning, on my blog, I will be documenting an entire day of what I am eating. This is an assignment for my ESF class, but has potential to really be beneficial to my current eating habits. Here is the link to my professors blog which has the assignment criteria, check it out. Also, take a look at his blog, it's very entertaining!

http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-i-eat-and-drink-in-day-assignment.html

going beyond ESF:

Its funny how Professor Silver decided to assign us this project at this time. Over the past couple of weeks (after the start of my job at 95.7 along with my job at Toast and still taking 18 units at school, combined of which consume 17 hours of my day) I have really been thinking about how unhealthy my eating habits have become. I have no time to run anymore, therefore all exercise is non existent, and because of that, I try to compensate by lowering my calorie intake. Most times this means, grabbing tiny snacks on the go during the day, and realizing around 9pm that I'm starving. Then I decide to eat a full meal, go to sleep with a full tummy, and wake up feeling a bit uncomfortable. At that point, I'm still full from my 9pm feast and therefore don't eat breakfast. Its a vicious cycle.

I'm hoping that documenting this pattern and reading about everyone's healthy habits will make me realize that I need to take more time out of my day to eat healthy.

The first step is recognizing the problem, right?

ESF does The Mission

As previously noted, I am currently enrolled in one of the most amazing classes ever offered at the University of San Francisco known as ESF. Last week, we went into the Mission District to explore and eat... and, as promised, we have now created! Trust me when I say, this video will tell the rest of the story..

Enjoy!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6263329513979131672

Just another day....

I really thought my last post went through, but apparently you need to hit the "publish" button and not just the "save" button.... Anyways, everything I had written two weeks ago is no longer relevent to today and so I will write a new post.

First, I want to mention my ESF class. So, a couple of weeks ago we went into North Beach and checked out some really great places. City Lights, Bocce Cafe, and the French Italian Bakery just to name a few... Click the link below and you'll see the little video I made about our trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-q6TlUhuo8

Here are some links to a few other projects made by some of my classmates:

http://alieatssf.blogspot.com/2009/02/north-beach-photobook.html
http://firstimpressionsblog.blogspot.com/
http://joelweston.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/project-north-beach/#more-3

Tonight we will venture out to the beautiful and magnificent Mission district! ..stay tuned, there are bound to be some great stories....


On another note....

Yesterday was the first day of my new internship! I woke up around 3:40am and was out the door and greeted by a lively and enthusiastic cab driver by 4:15.
The messy hair, lack of makeup, and squinty eyes obviously were not enough to get the point accross that I was in no shape to talk, especially politics. I arrived on the 12th floor, home to 95.7 The Wolf, with a coffee in one hand, and a chocolate chip cookie in the other. Apparently that was a great way to start off my first day on the job, or so the security guard thought/noted. The day began by printing out the morning show grid, and all of the official paperwork that needs to be completed by the Deejays. I was told to go immediately to the on air monitor and make sure all advertisements were placed in the right time slots.... AT&T must air after 5:30am because they pay big bucks for that spot.... etc etc etc. A few things got shuffled during the mid night hours and so we needed to rearange some Shania Twain, George Strait, and Tim McGraw to change the fact that AT&T was going live around 5:27. Next task was to edit some clips from the previous morning and insert them into the server so that they could be added to the show.

easy peesey.

Next, was the start of the morning show! from there I logged all of the topics, screened phone calls and sent them into the deejay studio to be on air, loaded media onto 957thewolf.com, edited sound clips to be played at a later time, and basically every other job done by a producer of a radio station.... when they can actually afford to have one.

I am still shocked by how much power they give me. At any second I can hit a button, turn the deejays off, and start cussing on the radio... Live! ...pretty sweet internship and experience.

Ill definitely be updating you on that.... Especially after Jewel comes to the studio next Tuesday, and Jessica Simpson on march 16th. Ill also let you know when you can expect some appearances on air by ME!

The room the picture is taken from is my studio... The one you can see is where the DeeJays are live broadcasting the morning show. Its a lot better in person, trust me.

Its funny how things work out...

It has been a busy month. I have been back in the United States for that time, classes have started, and it seems as though life has resumed where it left off. I can finally say that I am enjoying school, and OK with being back in California.

Megan finally got back to the United States after living 6 months in Denmark. We have been chatting, but haven’t actually made the time to meet up and reminisce. Last night it finally happened, not only did we meet up, but Melanie is visiting from LA and came along as well. Melanie is the girl who met up with us in Rome, and then came along to Spain.

We thought it would be fun to find a happy hour and since I am the “queen” of 5 o’clock beverages, the responsibility of finding the best basil gimlet, dirty martini, and glass of cabernet was resting on me. With that in mind, I chose 83 Proof, It’s a little bar in my neighborhood and I’ve HEARD they have a great happy hour. The reviews must be right; we showed up at 5:15 and couldn’t even step through the door. It was slammed with wall to wall financial district professionals getting their buzz on. To make a long story short, we ended up going to Thirsty Bear. Little did I know, Thirsty Bear has a tapas menu with everything we had spent a month eating while in Spain. Surprisingly, the Papas Bravas were very similar to the “authentic” spanish food we had in Barcelona! The tortilla could have used some improvement though. Who would have thought that the next time I would be eating Spanish food was with the two girls I was in Spain with just a month ago!?

Anyways, it was a great way to reunite with Meg and Mel, and an excellent way to dive into the new chapter of this blog.

With that said, Sadly, this cowgirl will not be travelling out of the country for a couple of months, and therefore this blog is headed in a new direction…

I will be reviewing restaurants, telling stories, and illustrating the enormous diversity that resides in San Francisco. Eating San Francisco, a course I am currently taking is sending me on a whole new adventure that entails discovering the culture, food, neighborhoods, and brilliance that the city by the bay has to offer. I have spent some time thinking, and decided if there is one place in the world that can bring every aspect of culture and diversity to the table, it is San Francisco.

So sit back and dig in, its going to be one hell of a semester...