April 25, 2015 Shopping and a Night on the Town.

April 25, 2015  Shopping and a Night on the Town.

I left home at 10ish and went first to Total Wine, which was having its French wine sale.  I bought 9 bottles of Côtes de Rhône, plus 2 Tavel roses, two bottles of Chabanneau VSOP Cognac (on sale for $27.95 a bottle), a 30 pack of Coors Gold beer, a six pack of Magners’ Irish Pear Cider and 15 bottles of Mendoza Santiago Station Sauvignon Blanc and Cab Sauvignon.  We are ready for summer dining.

Then I drove to Trader Joe’s and bought fresh artichokes and chocolate truffles.

I then drove to Ta Lin and bought peanut oil, lots of different types of noodles, BBQ filled buns. fresh shitake mushrooms, shallots, taka choy, sake, and leeks.

I then drove to Sprouts and bought 2 lb. of ground lamb, a corvina filet, 1½ lb. of large 20 count shrimp, milk, yellow crook neck squash, and brie cheese.

Since it was after 12:00, I decided to go home and cook lunch.  I was hungry when I arrived at home so I heated a BBQ Bun in the microwave and ate it.  Then I made noodle soup with some of the fresh rice vermicelli noodles I had bought plus a chopped up stalk of the taka choy, 5 shrimps and a slice of ham that I had bought at Ranch Market on Thursday.  I also added a shallot, a green onion, a heaping Tbsp. of white miso, PPI broccoli, and dashi flavoring.

After lunch I took a nap and Suzette arrived around 3:15 when I was sleeping and we rested until around 5:00 when we went out to the garden and planted cucumbers, squashes and eggplants for about an hour.  Nat and Amy arrived a little after 6:00 and we started dinner.  

The dinner concept was simple, to use the PPI roasted pork shanks to make tacos.  I braised red cabbage and pineapple like the dish I had at La Boca on Friday and added cumin, oregano, and a little sweet chili crab sauce. I heated up a can of refried black beans with the PPI black beans from Thursday. Suzette also mixed two avocados with crema, while I sliced up the other half of a cucumber I had sliced on Thursday, several more radishes and a tomato to make a plate of fresh ingredients.  Amy made a salad and we fetched several Coors beers and the candelabra and ate a fun meal of black beans, sautéed red cabbage with pineapple, guacamole crema, re-heated roast pork on steam heated tortillas garnished with salad in the garden.

After dinner, Nate and I went out for a few beers.  We started at Marble Brewery where a California rock band named the Witts was playing.  I drank an Imperial Red and Nate drank a pilsner.  

Then we went to Tractor Brewing on Fourth Street where I drank their hard apple cider and Nate drank an ale.  When we were at Tractor two interesting things happened.  There was a Kimo’s Hawaiian BBQ food truck parked in the parking lot and the owner gave us a warm spam sushi roll with a spicy habanero BBQ sauce that was delicious.  Then, as we were leaving a peddle driven contraption arrived with about ten people peddling it.   They jumped off the contraption and went inside for a drink.  

We then drove to Central Station near our house, where I ordered an Oatmeal stout from Chama Brewing Co. and Nate had a pilsner named Golden Elevator, I think.

Finally around 11:30 we drove the last two blocks back home after a fun night on the town.

Bon Appétit