Cocktail Experiments

I have been on and off experimenting with cocktails since last year. Thanks to friends who introduced me to the world of Vesuvio on Santacon Day in San Francisco. After hours of waiting outside Vesuvio (only the awesomest pub in SFO) and literally making my way through a mob of crowd much like we do in an extremely crowded bus, we found ourselves a small spot at the end of the bar with every table filled both in and out. My friends being gentlemen obviously gave the only seat available to the lady and surrounded me in a semi-circle. We started to order our drinks.It then struck me that me and K were only experimenting with beers that cocktails never crossed my mind.

I have heard from a lot of my friends that cocktails are pretty good for evenings and not to forget “Sex and the City”. I read up the menu and spotted a particularly interesting drink named “Jack Kerouac”. I told myself this was probably SF’s way of thanking the progenitor behind the hippie movement that originated in and around San Francisco. I ordered the drink – I honestly don’t remember what was in the drink except I kept drinking it a lot. And then it started – this curiosity to experiment with different kinds of spirits.

Last year I made a cocktail and named it Fraulein Maria. This year — K was fixing somethings at home and there was a lot of hardwork and sun involved. Unfortunately there wasn’t any beer at home for him to keep cool. So I decided to make him a summery cocktail. He normally would never drink anything girly but this new cocktail concoction of mine is as girly as can be but with surprisingly neutral flavours!

So what am I going to name this pretty drink? Pink Pearl – because the color reminds me so much of a delicate pink pearl.

Pink Pearl

0.75 oz – Tanqueray London Dry Gin

0.5 oz – Jose Cuervo especial tequila

0.5 oz – Triple sec

A splash – Lime concentrate

0.5 oz – Raspberry Lemonade

A thin peel of Navel Orange

Awwwsome Tamalpais

I don’t know if it’s just me or if there are tons of people like me on earth who get frequent bouts of confusion on planning the weekend. We were always able to come up with something during major chunks of last year and it was all worthwhile. Every camping trip, hike, gambling @ the casinos, going to shows, clubbing and pubbing… every freakin’ thing was (in a supremely high pitched voice) Awwwsome! Of course, things would be awwwsome in that insanely amazing voice if only there were ideas that flowed around like free air.

There it was before we knew it had happened, we were stuck. Out of ideas. Had no clue what to do. Spent a LOT of weekends ( Sooo many that I can’t even count!) doing NOTHING. Not that that’s any inferior. The art of sleeping loooong hours on a Saturday morning or a Sunday is bliss better than the so-called heaven. So anyway, we were out of ideas on how to spend our weekends. We had visited relatives, friends, gone clubbing and pubbing, visited an awesome place and with camping that will start only around May or June, we had nothing else to think of.

Suddenly… Eureka! I realized that a lot of our sightseeing was majjjorly done around the bay area but never in here. Google I did and voila! there it was. A website that had a page long description of the hikes in Mount Tamalpais in Tamalpais Valley just a few miles north of SF.

Tamalpais is so serenely beautiful and less crowded compared to the nearby attractions – Muir Woods and Stinson Beach. We took the easy 1 mile walk and the diamond-in-the-rough 20 min hike right to the top of Mount Tamalpais. The drive up to Tamalpais Valley is needless to say, breathtaking with beautiful views of mountains, lakes, the golden gate bridge and plenty of tiny waterfalls. Once we reached the parking lot of the Mount Tamalpais East Peak, there was a gust of fresh mountain air, so unpolluted and clear.

The Mount Tamalpais East Peak is divided into 2 parts. One with a paved path that makes up for almost a mile’s walk loop leading back to the parking lot and second, a rough climb up that takes about 20 mins to reach the east peak of Mount Tamalpais. The 1 mile walk was super easy to complete as opposed to its sister and offered brilliant views of the golden gate bridge, bay bridge, the waters in between and the gazillion skyscrapers of SF Downtown. The 2nd path does not offer too many views as you go but gives you everything the 1 mile path gives you once you are at the top – a 360 deg view of Mount Tamalpais.

Anyone interested in hiking in the bay area, visit www.weekendsherpa.com.

Stay at Ukiah – Conditions Apply*

So recently we had been to a few small towns north of San Francisco. It was super cute and gorgeous up there. We stayed at this cute little town called Ukiah.. Oops! Not town. Cute little city called Ukiah which has a total of maybe 30 streets altogether. Staying at Ukiah was a lot of fun. There are many small shops each specializing in something – prom dresses, shoes, beads, coffee, dutch bakery… so many shops and selling products of high quality and unfortunately for the size of the town straying their focus on the quantity they sell.

There are three shops in particular I want to talk to you about. One was this beads store. One a pasta-ish very American-Italian place. One a coffee shop (obvious for my love of coffee).

The Beads store – Beads Fever – absolute brilliance. Locally owned and sells beads imported from different parts of the country. The people there are very friendly and helped us a lot even though most customers are jewelry makers. We bought a few strands of different beads and left the place to visit the famous Fort Bragg Glass Beach and to pass by the famous Redwoods forest.

Next stop – North State Cafe – this American-Italian restaurant. The owner reminded me a lot of Aaron Eckhart… Very cute and super friendly. On our way back from Fort Bragg, it was already getting late and this was one of the few places open in the city. It looked very decent and so we stepped even though we saw they worked only till 9pm. They still had the open sign on and we wanted to check if they would still serve us. The waitress seated us at a table, asked us in an almost loud-rude tone if we needed some drinks. And when we said yes, she stomped herself all the way to the front counter of the restaurant and back indicating some sort of irritation at us. A few minutes later, the owner himself came and started asking us for our orders. He was very pleasant. Patiently answered all our questions and told us we were in no hurry. The girl in the meantime was stomping hard on the floor while she walked back and forth throwing cold looks at us. We found it very uncomfortable. And me being me, I was on the verge of asking her if there was a problem when she came out of the restaurant’s kitchen bidding goodbye to the owner throwing us another cold look and went out the door. The food tasted great. Although I had ordered for a pasta which I’m sure others with a strong flavor for sun-dried tomatoes and garlic would have loved. Kar’s cajun pasta was very very yummy and probably one of the best pastas I’ve tasted. And the merlot was hands down the best I’ve had (considering I’m not a great fan of the merlot… and the menu otherwise had the cab which I absolutely detest)

Third stop – The coffee critic – Me and Kar love our coffee. Infact our love for coffee is sooo crazy that anyone coming to our place will always find 3-4 different kinds of ground coffee powder. Currently we have a dark italian french roast, viennese, italian espresso and our very own Indian Leo coffee and coffee day. Please feel free to drop in for some of the best coffees in Sunnyvale So anyway we found this huge building almost in the heart of Ukiah with a large board titled the coffee critic. The two of us raised our eyebrows. As usual our love for coffee and the need to have only good coffee urged us to go in. Alas the place had already closed for the day. So we left and came back the next day. Early in the morning for that hot cup of coffee after the unusually good bed & breakfast’s black coffee. The coffee critic is a huge place. Boasts the ambience of a place that truly knows their business well. Has extensive menus. Friendly staff… but wait except for the one who served us. This girl was probably racist. I don’t know why but she kept throwing smiles at all customers except us. We were super friendly like always. We even got the attention of one of the other waitresses in the shop who was super friendly with us. There was no reason for anyone to get so cold. This black-haired girl literally threw the receipt on the counter asking Kar to sign it. The coffee was good but the experience was not. Our expectations of the place crushed after being treated like that. The Coffee Critic serves some of the best coffees in the US. Although I pity the owner who is probably losing a lot of business coz of some silly young girl.

Overall, our dining experience during this small trip was good. I even got Kar to get lunch at Denny’s one day. We saw the best and the worst parts of Ukiah. Ukiah is a sweet little town despite our dull moments in the place.