May

BK & La Caja China
We got off to a great start in May with the celebration of my brother Brian's birthday. Once again, Andrea and I threw down a grand birthday bash. This time, we reserved a picnic spot at George Washington Grove in Golden Gate Park for a pig roast. I've been wanting the Cuban pig roaster called La Caja China for a few years now. Recently, it seemed like the Caja China has been getting a lot of airtime... and rightly so. So this was the perfect excuse to finally pull the trigger and order this magical box. We invited about 50 friends to this pig roast and hoped for good weather. I'm not sure if it was actually Brian or the roast pig, but almost everyone we invited showed up... including a few of our Jewish friends (I'm not going to name names to protect their identity) and the weather turned out to be one of the nicest days so far this year. To feed a hungry mob of 50, Andrea and I ordered a 45 pound whole pig from our butcher, Ver Brugge.

La Caja China works like a luau pit, except that you don't have to dig a pit. The charcoal goes on top of the box and uses convection to cook the pig. It took us about 4 hours total to cook the pig. As you can see above, the hungry mob of people were patiently waiting as their appetites were fueled by the smell of the roasting pig. I used a Cuban mojo recipe similar to this, much to our Cuban friend Victor's approval.

The 15 minute wait time for the pig roast to "rest" was the longest 15 minutes of my life. Not sure if the picture above completely captures it but the skin was nice and crisp and the meat was falling off the bones. We had the butcher remove the head and the hoofs prior to us roasting it. As soon as the 15 minute of rest time was over, it took about 15 minutes for the whole pig to disappear into nothing more than a pile of bones. I was really surprised at how many people ate the skin!

Sara's Boring Weekend

Andrea's cousin, Sara, who lives in Portland, Oregon, came down and spent the weekend of the 18th with us. The weather in Portland was just beginning to rain (rain in Portland?) when Sara left and she was greeted with a sunny and warm weekend here in the Bay Area. Her timing couldn't have been better as there was absolutely nothing going on in the Bay Area that weekend.

On Saturday, we drove into San Francisco and hungout, ate, and drank in the Haight. I used to live in the Haight a few years ago, so I thought I knew all that there was to know about the Haight. We ate tapas and drank sangria at Cha Cha Cha, picked up a few hip t-shirts at Villians, and stopped for a refreshing afternoon cocktail at Hobson's Choice. Now this is where I got another bit of street knowledge about the Haight. I've been to Hobson's Choice many times before. Hobson's Choice markets itself as a Victorian punch house. They have wonderful Planter's Punch, Victorian Punch and Hobson's House Punch, in addition to the largest collection of rum in the country. I usually order the Planter's Punch, or beer, or my standard, Makers and Ginger Ale. As it was a warm day, I ordered a Planter's Punch and Andrea ordered the House Punch. Sara, on the other hand, ordered a Dark and Stormy. And I was glad she did! What a great drink. Now I really know all that there is about the Haight!

We rushed home from the Haight, packed our car with tailgating gear and headed to the Oakland Coliseum for the A's vs. Giants interleague baseball game. Eventhough Andrea and I live in Oakland, we're still diehard Giants' fans! The Giants lost the game but we still had a great time.

The next day, we got up early and headed up once again to San Francisco for a little morning walk we like to call Bay to Breakers. It's your typical leisurely Sunday morning walk through San Francisco with 60,000 of your closest (and not so closest) friends.

Over 60,000 people participate in the Bay to Breakers ("B2B"). Its a 7.5 mile footrace across the city from downtown to Ocean Beach. The "elite" runners usually finish, get back into their hotel rooms, shower and nap before most of us casual walkers even get past the START line.

This year, we were truly blessed to walk amongst Cheesus, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and of course the Running Elvises.

After about 4 hours of walking across the beautiful city, we arrived at the finish line... just a head of a group of nude runners.

Since the day was so nice and it was still early, we decided to show Sara the other side of the bay. We hopped into our car for a nice drive across the Golden Gate Bridge into the countryside. We headed up the hills of Mill Valley and stopped at a little trailhead which leads to the Tourist Club. During the summer months, a thirsty hiker, trekking on this mile long trail on the west face of Mt. Tam on a selected Sunday, will find him/her self greeted with a cold German brew and a delicious bratwurst sausage upon arriving at the Tourist Club. You see, Tourist Club is the beautiful import from the Austrian hiking movement ("Naturfreunde"). This old mountain home is one of many hike 'n drink destinations established by some polka-loving folks back in the old country which can be found all over the world. To enjoy this unique and fun experience, you only have to follow two simple rules.

• #1 The first rule of Tourist Club: you do not talk about Tourist Club.
• #2 The second rule of Tourist Club: you DO NOT talk about Tourist Club.

Oops... I've said too much.

Our friends, Leslie and Todd, joined us for this pleasant hike to the Tourist Club.

We were joined by a few more of our friends. We were early enough that there were still no lines at the beer stand. It's a good thing that everyone fully obeys the two rules of the Tourist Club. Otherwise, we'd have a harder time with the pitchers. The Tourist Club also served hearty German meals. Steve (above right) had a hard time trying to tackle a bratwurst hotdog as big as his head.

There was also a German polka band playing nothing but polka... umm-pa-pa, umm-pa-pa. Of course Andrea and Sara, being of good Norwegian and German stock, jumped right in. Not sure if Leslie has any German blood running through her veins but she definately part Chicken!

We sincerely hope that Sara wasn't too bored. Maybe next time, she'll do some planning on her own before coming down and leaving her travel fate in the hands of us, the boring married couple.