It's not all high cost in the Bay Area

One of the major gripes people have about the Bay Area is the cost of living. It's definitely higher for some things than the other cities I've lived in (Denver, CO - Columbus, OH). For example, I pay about $150/month more for an apartment that's just a tad bigger than my place in Denver and that I have a housemate for (instead of living solo).

On the other hand, certain things are undeniably cheaper.

The cost of fresh produce for one. For commercial produce, the cost of transportation to get things to the Rockies really added up. Quick example, conventional tomatoes out here were last seen at 50 cents/pound as opposed to over $1.50 in Colorado.

It's a good deal for organics from the farmers markets too, though. Organic heirloom tomatoes at a Colorado farmer's market will likely set you back $5/pound. This morning, I bought a pound of organic heirlooms for $2 at the Noe Valley Farmer's market.

Transportation is less of an issue because both farm markets draw local vendors. In California, there's more competition on the supply side, which means better pricing.

Something else I'm amazed by is the value at my climbing gym. I joined the Mission Cliffs rock gym (about a mile from my place) in June, when the $100 initiation fee was being waved. My monthly dues are just $65. This includes:

• Unlimited Climbing in a gorgeously spacious gym
  
• Unlimited Fitness Classes (Yoga, Spinning, Cardio-boxing) offered daily
• 1 Guest Pass
• Full weight room, treadmills and ellipticals (think boutique gym as opposed to Holiday Inn)
• Sauna
• Lockeroom, showers with towel service
• Use of the company's four other rock gyms in the Bay Area
  

Contrast this with the last place I had a membership in Colorado, Rock'n and Jam'n - $70 for a "primetime" membership. This includes a gym about 1/2 the size, minimal weight equipment, no fitness classes, etc.

An experiment of sorts...

For the month of August, I'm going to keep track of every single penny that I spend. I've always kept a pretty good eye on things financial, but never to this degree of precision.

I'm kind of curious to see how things track against my budget and if pennies, nickles, and dimes are slipping through the cracks.

Tortillas...

I had great success with the recipe featured in this video:

Almost a month...

Since the last post. Didn't realize it had been that long.

What has been happening: Dicker was out for a few days to check out the SF scene for Geeks. We had a spectacularly unremarkable meal at Greens in Fort Mason, but some good Indian grub over at Shalimar on Jones just south of Geary.

Next, my older brother was in town for about 10 days. We trounced on some of his old haunts, including: El Castillito, Papalote, Casa Mexicana, El Toro and La Cornetta. He had even more burritos on his own.

While Joshua was here, I had the best meal to date at Millenium. The atmosphere is a little vegan-stuffy for my tastes, but the food was outstanding.

I've been in Colorado for about a week. The trip there was really therapeutic. Though I'm settling in to SF well, I got to spend 7 days surrounded by people that are the most comfortable to me.

Beka and Tara both met me for coffee -- people I didn't get to spend enough time with before I moved. Many beers were poured at Vine St. pub, and I did my first alpine start to hike the summit of Longs Peak.

Now that I'm back home I feel more focused and productive. I'm dividing my time a little better, and not worrying about doing everything at once. There is time for everything I'm doing out here.

Life is good.

Overheard at Philz...

I don't think this needs the barrista's replies...


"Can I get a coffee?"

"Is there a flavor that you can put in it? I don't really like coffee."

"When I drink it at home, I have to put a lot of flavors in it to hide the coffee."

"Can you put some vanilla in it?"

"Oh! And can I have decaf? Caffeine will give me a heart attack."

"Goodbye! Thank you, this is good....It's too long for me to drive to come get this all the time."



It's the caffeine. Totally.

Lunching...

It's pretty easy to eat well here. This is what I had for lunch today:

• A slice of challah that I made yesterday from eggs raised by a friend of Brooke Ray's. The topping is made from goat's milk chevre mixed with chopped barhee dates that I got at the UN Plaza farmers' market on Sunday. The barhee dates are practically candy -- richly sweet and creamy.
• Reheated pizza that BR and I made last night with caputo "00" flour, pizza sauce from scratch (red onion, tomatoes, rosemary, oregano, olive oil, wildflower honey, california syrah) topped with thai basil, mozarella, manchego, parmesean/reggiano, and garlic powder.
• Tomato salad (heirloom tomatoes), thai basil, mozarella dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

The entire cost for this lunch was in the neighborhood of $1.50, a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Google reader drummed up an interesting article about food stamp programs as the pertain to the federal stimulus package. The profiled a guy who was on the cusp of food stamp eligibility and because of the extra $25/month he would be receiving (and the fact that stamp eligibility has a hard, non-graduated qualification criteria) he would lose approximately $300/month in food stamp benefits. I don't have the link handy to this but you can probably google it from the details above.

Tonight is "Porkapalooza" featuring a heritage breed hog butchering demo followed by samples.

Events like this are cool, but at $30, they're still only able to demonstrate the value of sustainable farming (and eating) to people with disposable income. You can buy a lot of crap from the fast food value menu for $30.

Speaking of which, I haven't posted about going to see Food, Inc. last Friday.

This movie is a great summary of some key food issues (subsidies, immoral business behavior, food safety, environment) and is perfect for people who can't read "The Omnivore's Dilemma." All of this comes at the cost of a lot of non-starting. Most of these issues are just skimmed, but at the same time they may be covering too wide a range of them to get people interested.

I don't know what the answer is. How do you help people convince themselves to care about eating and how their food gets to them? Especially when so many people (perhaps the vast majority) treat it as a mundane, functional life non-experience.

A friend of BR's did thesis work on making high-quality produce (locally grown and seasonal) available to poorer communities. I'm excited to meet her and discuss it because most of the educational efforts I've encountered are aimed at either the overfed wealthy, or people who already get it.

Movie Night At Dolores Park

Dolores Park is a cool place. Covering about 4 square blocks just east of the Mission, it has a lot of grass and a hill from which you get a spectacular view of downtown.


A group of residents who live nearby have organized a summer series of free movies. The bring a screen, sound system and the permits necessary to host the outdoor screenings. Brooke Ray, her friend Joel, Cynthia and I all went to check it out tonight.

They were showing "Sita Sings The Blues," but we got there late so we didn't really watch much of it. The screen is small and placed uphill so anything beyond the first 100 people and I don't think it's as much about the movie as it is about enjoying great pizza and fresh loquats.

After the movie wrapped up, some random dude started juggling fire. Sometimes (always) the city is pretty random.

SF Mandatory Composting Law Heading Toward Passage

This one nearly flew under the radar until I picked it up on Eating Liberally.

On Tuesday, the SF board of supervisors overwhelmingly approved a measure that will not only require residents to have three separate bins for trash, compost and recyclables, but will also allow for fines if people throw compostables in the trash.

I'm not sure where I stand on this. Composting is a beneficial, and the city waste managers are claiming that they aren't going to go around doling out the $100 fines unless offenders are egregious.

On the other hand, once this law is on the books it can be easily applied to the letter as a revenue generation tool should economic conditions warrant. Once the city gets a taste of that money I think it will be very difficult if not impossible to repeal. (See: traffic ticketing)

My friend Mike told me a related story yesterday. The cost of SF street sweeping had gotten out of hand so the city went to a bi-weekly schedule for it. Very quickly they realized that sweeping less frequently was actually costing them more money.

The culprit? Lost revenue from issuing citations on street sweeping days.

Municipal economics are a tricky thing. The city makes their final vote next week.

Philz Coffee Tour: #10 Dancing Water

This is the first time I've gone to Philz after 9am. I've been running at Golden Gate park most afternoons, but decided to switch and did 8 and a half first thing.

I was home in time to sign for the FedEx package I missed yesterday. A liquor distributor we're working with sent me a very generous housewarming gift -- so if you like whiskey, stop by. On a side note, the FedEx walk-in pickup facility is way down in San Francisco. Reachable by public transit, but it requires investing at least two hours of your life for the roundtrip.

Ah, where were we? Yes. The coffee.

About Dancing Water, Philz says: "A medium-light blend that is as smooth and delicate as the water that sustains life. Graceful tones of complete satisfaction can be found in a cup of this masterpiece."

Without the embellishment, it's an accurate statement. The coffee has a light body that makes its way to the back of your throat imparting hints of chocolate and caramel and finishing like a light mocha. (To my knowledge, there's nothing chocolate in it)

They threw a mint sprig in the drink and I wonder if that helps it along a bit. I'm not a huge fan of mint in conjuction with java flavors but it's subtle enough to work.

Free Bi-Rite Creamery Ice Cream this Saturday!

From an email I got today:

Support a Local Non-Profit and eat FREE BI-RITE Ice Cream!

Saturday, June 13th 2009
Bi-Rite Market (18th St b/t Dolores and Guerrero)
10-3pm


Shop at Bi-Rite on June 13th and 5% of your food shopping will support Nextcourse's innovative food education and peer leadership program at Mission High School. Students will be on hand to talk about the importance of local and healthy foods.

Enjoy:
* Cooking Demos and free delicious samples
* Free tastings of Bi-Rite Creamery Ice Cream
* Win a gourmet food basket

www.nextcourse.org

Philz Coffee Tour: #9 Canopy of Heaven

Was back at the original Philz in the Mission to meet Mike about 'bidness.

This was a solid cup of coffee. Right in the middle on cream and sugar, it tasted rich and deep without any lingering acid or fruit in the finish.

Would recommend to a friend, though I still think I prefer the Wonderbar slightly more.

Guidelines for Exploration

Here is my work-in-progress list of things I am making an effort to do once a week:

• Pick out an unfamiliar fruit/vegetable at the farmer's market and learn how to prepare it.
• Go on an SF Guide walking tour.
• Visit a new restaurant/bar that is recommended by a friend, SFWeekly, or Yelp!
• Pick an entirely random restaurant to try.
• Go in every shop on one block of a street.
  

It's going to be a very busy summer...

Inbound: Edible and Useful Plants of California

I've spent some time lately trying to gather information about foraging for food in San Francisco. There is wild fennel everywhere out here, and I saw a huge grove of nasturtium while I was jogging through Golden Gate park today.

Rumor has it there are giant bushes of rosemary growing wild on Twin Peaks, something I aim to investigate soon.

And then, there are the mushrooms. Supposedly there is a friend-of-a-friend connection to someone who hunts them regularly and may be willing to take on a novice. That'd be pretty sweet.

To my surprise, there's no foraging map accessible via google. By reputation, mushroomers are notorious for guarding their favorite spots -- but I'm surprised people with less mania haven't put something together for the less endangered species. I guess I'll start:


View SF Urban Foraging in a larger map

While googling to find some help, I ran across a book the UC Press published in the late 70s called "Edible and Useful Plants of California" that has recently been reprinted.

Scored a copy on half.com and am hoping to learn a little more about what's wild and good eatin'.

Philz Coffee Tour: #8 Anesthesia To The Upside

Two words: tripping ballz.

Philz claims this is one of their more caffeine-rich blends and I have no problem believing it. It's enough juice that my stomach is feeling slightly queasy after half a cup.

The flavor is pleasant -- slightly fruity with a hint of acid. There are rich, almost chocolatey undertones and the aftertaste is buffered by medium cream and sugar.

I'd finish the cup if the flavor were orgasmic. But alas, it isn't.

Philz Coffee Tour: #7 Ambrosia - Coffee of God

Location: Castro
Cup: #7 Ambrosia
Cream and Sugar: Medium

I skipped the iced coffee that was #6 on account of the chilly weather this morning. I'll save iced for a hot afternoon in Dolores park.

This is a good cup of coffee. It's in their medium roast category. Like most of their other blends it's full-bodied and smooth with very little acidity -- slightly fruity on the finish. Couldn't taste any cardamom in this, don't thi

The cafe was more or less empty when I arrived at 7:30. It's usually teeming with people, though I'd been getting here earlier.

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