Friday, August 23, 2019
Breakfast at home: granola with yogurt and fresh, diced green apple and a shake of cinnamon; one pint of hot water. Walked and rode Muni to work, chatting with Maria along the way. Made live a new news page for Guo Lab and informed Peter of the completion of his request. Virtual sprint standup. CSS methodologies research, Siteimprove task followup. UCSF shuttle from Laurel Heights to Parnassus with Grant. Attended Podcasting Essentials - Communicators Network Lunch & Learn with Grant B from our team and Ben M from Carry The One Radio. Lunched with Grant and Ben afterwards at Sriracha Thai. Cool winds blowing west to east along Parnassus Avenue were unusually and notably gusty today. After a fine meal, we stopped briefly at Arizmendi. They were out of ricciarelli, so I didn't buy anything. Grant got a snickerdoodle, and Ben got something else to go (scones?). Walked back to Parnassus Campus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights with Grant. Asana task followup. Walked and rode Muni to Chinatown. Met Patrick for dinner at China Live. San Pell and Gold Mountain cocktail ($15) for Patrick, still water and Trader Vic's Almost Mai Tai ($15) for me. We shared: crab spring rolls ($19), cucumber skins ($8), suckling pig ($34), duck chopped salad ($18), sheng jian bao (aka SJB) ($13.50). Patrick also had a Tsing Tao ($8) with the meal, which was seemingly timed to arrive exactly at the right time. For dessert we shared one sesame cheesecake ($8) and one tiramisu ($9). $178 after SF employer mandate ($7) and tax ($13.94) and before a $31.25 tip from Diana "Luna" G ("My name is Diana") whose service was enjoyable and whose recommendations were excellent. We sat on barstools at the corner of the dumplings station and enjoyed watching all the activity around us. We had visited only once before and it was mostly dead then. All of the food and drink were delicious. The suckling pig was served in slices with very crispy skin and very tender meat. It is very reminiscent of Peking duck. I don't recall ever having eaten anything like the SJB, which was my favorite dish of the meal. This was intentionally a splurge meal; the food, setting, and ambiance are great but the bang-for-buck value is low. We could probably have done with one fewer dish and one fewer dessert. Patrick found the cucumber dish particularly refreshing, exactly as Diana had promised. Rode UberX home. Hilariously, a woman boarded our UberX ride when we did and realized her mistake after I mentioned that I didn't order a shared ride. She alighted a block or so from our pickup.