Well folks, this time I am happy to say that I actually have not fallen off the internet, but I have been CONSUMED by it instead. You see, I took a new (amazing I heart it big time, but it takes all of my time) job and am now the editor of a new food site called YumSugar.com!

Yep, someone is paying me to ramble on about food and drink and cooking. I promise that once things settle down I will definitely be updating pocketpig again, but for now, please come check out YumSugar.com and tell me what you think.

note: Just so you know if the story says it's "by YumSugar" then I actually wrote it, if it says "by ---- (anyone else) --- " then I didn't.

xoxo,
-pocketpig aka sabrina aka yumsugar

This is a test. I LOVE these cute cute things.

in just a wee while, i am going to be posting just about every single day, many times a day (although on another site, i'll list full details when it goes live). the lovely folks at sugar publishing have decided to hire yours truly to ramble on and on about things like elvis presley reese peanut butter cups, how to put together a cheese plate, specially priced tord boontje plates (seriously so cute), what food is in season, what to make for dinner, what kitchen contraptions are worth buying and all those other things i should have been telling you about but have been too lazy to do so.

so stay tuned.
and stay hungry.

and yes this means i'm leaving the cutlery. this is a full time gig!

one.
Baby Ira is born-ed! it's now the neon family!

and two.
cute with chris

i found this vlog on accident, it is the best thing i've seen on the internets in a while. it is how i imagine a cute segment on the daily show to be. all your dreams are dead. watch it and you'll get it. also on the site right now is a thing about pandas. hello!? pandas is awesome.

also i've been out quite a bit, karaoke with a live band, grant birthday party, tasty food at eos with carolyn and jalice, badly drawn boy, lunch with nick, cutlery sample sale, great finds at the design warehouse...

but anyways, i just had to share two things with you.

1- Robots can now cook chinese food - it is science and therefore you can't question it.

2- A wedding dress made of cream puffs - i would probably eat it and be half naked halfway down the aisle

also if the phone was working I could have told you about how we then ate at the food court at the fancy new mall (it's across the street from cody's) afterwards. I had the spicy pork bowl from the korean bbq place and randall had some tritip sandwich with mashed potatoes. see? what kind of food court has mashed potatoes? obviously only fancy ones.

and if i could post on the go, i could tell you how I found amazingly fitting jeans at gap's new brand "Forth & Towne." and then immediately felt sad because i keep reading that it's targeted towards older women... but hopefully by older they just mean not 18 because I thought they had some cute stuff in there. although this young (probably about 18) girl came in and very vocally declared "there is nothing sexy in this store! i am out of here." so maybe by older they just mean non-hoochie. also samshrew would probably shop here and she is younger than me although she is going to "be a lawhyer" so she dresses more grown up anyway... but all joking aside, these jeans are fitting me amazingly AND bonus! they don't even need hemming.

another thing you would've known if the phone was working was that on wednesday i went over to the loverly bapril's (bill + april) house to watch runway and lost. also to eat way too many crackers, pears and TASTY tasty blue cheese smothered in honey (soooo good) and speaking of lost. whaaaa?? do you then benry ever leaves the island, like does he go on vacation? what is going on? why do they all look like they're from a (as cindy pointed out) j crew catalog!?!

i could have also told you about how on monday i didn't have to go into the office and got to play at the photo studio. and how that's way more fun that going into the office and how really i need to figure out how to do that everyday. even if it is just art directing inanimate objects for the cutlery.

but unfortunate for everyone involved, the phone network's broken so i couldn't tell you any of those things. boo.

first of all, let me say, if the stupid cellphone could talk to the network happily i would've been posting all weekend long. now having said that, i'll also say it's probably a good thing i couldn't do any live posting. I probably would've been a bit embarassed by it all.

anyways, let's start off with friday night.

since scottel is in town we decided it would be appropriate to go to a sushi club outing. at 5pm we landed at a party of 9 with no reservations. the few places i wanted to go to hold about 10 people inside, so i figured it was going to be a night of waiting. that's when megumi (one of cindy's coworker's) suggested ozumo because it's big. so i called to see what could be done. that's when the lady told me that there was a private room for 12 that we could get, but that the minimum was $1000. !!!!

naturally i said, um, we're not planning on spending $1000. awkward pause and then she puts me on hold. she comes back about 3 minutes later and says, oh well we just had a cancellation, i can put you in the room without the minimum. so ta-da. what do you know private room.

now let's talk about ozumo.
the place was swank, like a las vegas or los angeles. that hi-gloss party swank that i rarely get to see, because let's face it, i'm not that swank, nor do i really want to be. i was the first to arrive (scottel & randall parked the car) and while i was waiting outside i totally got chatted up! this dude apparently just got in from italy where he designs cars, he got his mba at cal, owns a house (a little edwardian where he rents out the bottom floor), drives a dino, almost worked for intel as an engineer, travels all the time, etc etc. i learned all of this in about 3 minutes. i knew more about this guy than i did some of my dinnermates. sidenote: randall later saw this guy walking, no fancy car. so was he all lies? do i look that gullible??

anyways, the private room at ozumo is pretty neat, nice and big and we fit all 9 of us in there with lots of room to spare and ate a lot of fish and spent almost as much money on sake as we did fish. but fun was had and i'd say anywhere you can get a private room with good company, good sushi and nice drink is worth it. even if we did pay almost 700 bucks (which is less than 100 per person, so really it wasn't that bad).

after the sushi feast our party of 9 dwindled down to 6 (including a farewell to randall as he was feeling sick and fevery) and the rest of us ended up at the bow bow club in chinatown. the bow bow club ROCKS. candy (the taiwanese bartender is awesome). it makes me wonder what it would've been like to go out when morm was bartending. that would've been awesome. it is also a karaoke bar a la the XO lounge. just awesome made me feel at home, without being overly crowded, obnoxious or anything. down to earth dive-ish bar with with karaoke. totally my new favorite place. to sum bow bow up "j & cindy do wonderwall, i get lost in your eyes, this cliched italian stayin alive dude wanted pants to be optional, the bartender's husband going to kill him with his eyes, jowling, bubba lips, quadruple jowling with bubba lips, we get the best nut, candy knows i'm chinese. woah" and well really you should've been there.

afterwards we stumbled around drunk, got snax and sweets and then somehow ended up at the hustler club until 3:30 in the morning. go figure.

eventually i landed on his great cd for kids. it's got songs by Belle & Sebastian, Four Tet, Franz, Jonathan Richman (with a slightly depressing song about an old dog) and more. and bonus proceeds to go the save the children charity.

there are several songs streaming off their actual site, so go check them out at coloursarebrighter.com.

poop.

somehow we ended up at the hunan restaurant on sansome.

from what i understand this place used to be great, but now it is just blech & mediocre. our waitress was this cute older asian lady, with a fro-perm thing going on, but all her cuteness couldn't make up for the yucky food. Diana's meat pie (which came with the special) has to be made with spam or some sort of canned meat (not that i have anything against canned meat i just wasn't expecting it to taste so blech). and the spicy beef dish i got was just blech and the beef was overcooked. it tasted like home cooked chinese, only by homecooked i mean something my morm would make had she forgotten that we like to eat things that are tasty and also she hates us for being ungrateful and so is pissed off and isn't trying very hard, and in fact is sort of punishing with something that is only edible & filling & nothing more because we don't deserve it.

i might go back, but i can't see myself ever suggesting we go there again. which is too bad, because i hear it used to be (in the 80s) a great place to eat.

sidenote: if you watch south park, you know what i mean by city chinese.

pathetically lame excuses as to why i haven't updated:

• we moved
  
• we didn't have internet at home for about a month
  
• i got a new job (i've mentioned it before, from forever on it shall be called "the cutlery") and needed to impress them and not be that new girl slacking off on the computer
  
• we finally got internet at home and the computer desk doesn't have a chair (still doesn't)
  
• i've been busy enjoying my new life.
  

some things i've done in the past 3+ months:

• moved to san francisco, new adventures and eateries await
  
• moved in with randall full time, we don't hate each other yet - amazing
  
• got a new job at the cutlery, so far i don't hate it, but i don't love it either
  
• been to some shows including an amazing return of the rentals
  
• had a fantastic housewarming, sorry if you couldn't make it
  
• got really super sick, sorry if i passed it on
  
• got a new library card and pass time on muni with audiobooks (avoid zadie smith's on beauty, it is extremely disappointing)
  
• reconnected with some fantastic old friends
  
• missed a lot of my sacto friends
  
• still haven't reconnected with some old friends, some of whom i probably pass everyday and don't even know it.
  
• fed the wild parrots of telegraph hill (one even landed on my head)
  
• saw several lit & decorated xmas trees, and that was way back in august
  
• actually went to the movies, most recently science of sleep, go see it
  
• went to the sfmoma and saw matthew barney's "drawing restraint 9"
  
• bought a sewing machine
  
• knitted a great t-shirt material scarf
  
• wished we had a dog (landlord says no)
  
• bought an awesome angela adams rug
  
• paid to have randall buddy-punched by sarah vowell (sidenote: anyone else see her on the premiere of that six degrees show???)
  

things i'm looking forward to

• neon's baby to be born
  
• the dears tomorrow at amoeba &popscene
  
• john hodgman at cody's next week
  
• bao turning 21 in november
  
• cutlery sample sale
  
• lost premiere (which is tonite!)
  
• this work day to be over
  
• meatoberfest (this happening still???)
  
• finding some sort of entryway bench where i can sit and put my shoes on as to not get shoedirt on the awesome new rug
  
• using my new cute yellow marimekko umbrella (which is probably going to happen today)
  

great things i've eaten

• yummy $12 entrees from 2023 (only on tuesdays)
  
• great salmon at tangerine
  
• burger with a fried egg on it at grumpy's
  
• cheap tacos from my new favorite taco truck
  
• some sort of chili flavored rice chips from costco (amazing!)
  
• fresh grape salsa with mint
  
• bbq items galore (randall got a new bbq)
  
• fried tofu sandwich
  
• fuji apple mentos from taiwan (thanks bao)
  
• cream puffs at beard papa
  
• gelato at the new mall
  
• sushi rolls with mango in them (my fave)
  
• bag lunches at myth (mostly for the baked treat)
  
• humboldt fog - a great goat cheese (thanks to cindy for bringing it)
  
• the official pocketpig breakfast: sesame bagels with cream cheese and sliced tomatoes, salt & pepper followed by a glass of fresh oj

as you can see, some things never change - including my laziness.
but i promise new posts, just needed a little break to settle in.

xo
-sabs.

update: that was posted before i tasted the food. it ended up being more fusion than necessary. the added bell peppers and onions were totally unnecessary. and the curry was fast food indian style. good but not amazing.

but how many times can you say "i want to eat X" for dinner, where X is a little deviated from the norm, and have it be right there?