Friday, November 18, 2022
Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, roasted and unsalted slivered almonds, toasted and unsweetened coconut flakes, cacao nibs, flax meal, diced half banana; water. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. Updated a page for Pam (Withdrawal, Leave of Absence, and Readmission Policies). Followup with OSACA about white coats and logos. Eric and I met with CPCS team to discuss the future of their Pills vs. Candy site. Added markup for names in the French language to a news story from October. Small lunch: leftover stir-fry and rice, water from my water bottle. Met with Sushil and Eric about recent events—still no clarity. Long chat with Eric and Levi about recent events. During a break in the middle I got a small meal from Moffit Cafe: turkey and cheese sandwich, french fries with ketchup. Returned to inbox zero. Rode Muni to Duboce Park, walked to Peet's in the Castro. Large Mighty Leaf Winter Solstice hot tea. Around 7:00 p.m. Patrick met me after meeting with Lori and Anne. Patrick and I walked to dinner at Dumpling Kitchen II on Castro Street: hot jasmine tea, glass of Bogle cab sauv for me. We shared steamed giant crab dumplings, steamed shrimp har gow, pan-fried pork buns, shanghai style green onion pancake. The quality of the food was excellent. The giant crab dumplings were awkwardly too large to eat comfortably, but they tasted good, and I'm glad I tried them. We briefly imagined eating them with giant Chinese soup spoons, but of course those don't exist, and you couldn't eat these in one mouthful anyhow. Everything about the har gow and the green onion pancake was perfect. The pan-fried pork buns were not what I expected. I expected dome-shaped buns soft on top and crispy on bottom. These pork buns were cylindrical with a quarter-inch lip on the top, creating a rim to the top into which were sprinkled black sesame seeds and sliced scallions. They were delicious even tho not what I had expected. To me they seemed unique, which is a good thing. The restaurant was busy at 7:00 p.m. on a Friday night—a good sign. I don't recall any music playing. Noise level was moderate. Service was noticeably slow at times but friendly and knowledgeable when it arrived. Double-check your order with your server before they leave to avoid miscommunications. About $60 before an $11.00 tip. We rode UberX home.