Most Productive Weekend, Etc

I'm compelled to write about my weekend, just because it was productive. A far cry from my usual weekends.

This weekend I participated in a 2-part planning session for church we cleverly named Dream and Dine. It's actually a program that the leadership group of our church, of which I am a member, came up with to get the congregation involved in dreaming up projects that the church could undertake in order to foster relationship within the church congregation and the outside community in which we belong.

The Friday night session was aimed at family friendly activity. It was our Ice Cream social night. Ice cream of various flavors were served. As you know when sweets are involved, especially ice cream with nuts and sprinkles and chocolate syrup and whipped cream, people get more relaxed and more inspired to dream of activities that they would like to be personally involved in.

What I found really inspiring about this is that people I did not think would attend such events came. Of course the kids that we pumped with sugar in their system were loud and active, but very fun.

We were able to brainstorm a bit that night after the ice cream tubs were back in the freezer. It was a successful Friday session.

Session 2 was longer, on Saturday from 9 till 2. Breakfast and lunch was provided. As expected my eyes were bigger than my stomach as a piece of uneaten muffin was sitting on my table all throughout the brainstorming session.

Lunch consisted of Kinder's bbq, a feast. I have tried one of their sandwiches before, but not their bbq. The chicken was really good and juicy.

Anyway, the Saturday session was more into making concrete plans for our projects. The entire group chose about 4 projects to undertake. The people were asked to choose which project they would like to participate in and guess who chose parties/music and entertainment program for church and community? Me and hubby both chose to be involved in it.

What was very encouraging about this whole project was the very enthusiastic response we received from church members that came. I hope that the joy they felt at planning would continue to guide them/us throughout the year.

Also happening this weekend was the annual Eat Real festival, more popularly known as food truck fest in Oakland at Jack London Square. I've gone to three of these now. It's only in its fourth year.

Hubs and I went after our webinar on Sunday afternoon. There were quite a few logistical changes this year compared to the two previous years. For one, they kept the entrance to the festival by the hotel free of food trucks. All the food trucks were farther in.

Sunday was the third day and so there wasn't as much people as the previous years. There were newcomers, but some old faithfuls were there. We tried braised pork belly slider and beef pho roll from RICE, PAPER AND SCISSORS. Both are very good, especially the pork belly. We also tried the mac and cheese, where they used garlic gouda cheese. Definitely adult flavor, it doesn't taste anything like it came from the blue box. There was this thing they call knish, which is a spinach potato filled light wrapper or light dough, I cannot determine, but it's definitely fried. It came with two sauces, one is garlic, parsley and green chili and the other is I think something like cilantro and roasted garlic. I preferred the former. It's not my fave.

Also we had the lamb poutine, which is okay. My first time to try a poutine. Anything with french fries is good.

We all washed these down with black currant kombucha.

We got full from eating those but still we wanted to try some so we opted to take the following home: a rice plate from Seoul on Wheels, Korean bbq with steamed rice and vegies with gotchujang, or Korean chili sauce, Argentinian chicken empanada, Acme bread grilled cheese panini. Those we had for dinner at home while we watched the Emmy Awards.

Speaking of Emmy Awards, I'm quite disappointed that the shows I follow didn't get any wins, I think. Well I was tuning in and out but I know that Big Bang Theory didn't get anything. It's all HBO that gets all the good stuff. Why?

Well, I've said too much. Hope all our work week goes well for everyone.

Food Craving Wednesday

The Eat Real Festival is coming in 2 weeks, but my schedule is full that weekend. I wonder if I can find a little break in my busy weekend to sample some food truck delights?

Food Craving Friday

Burgers, anyone?

Do you like burgers? What is the best burger you've had?

Of funerals, food festivals, and markdowns

Or how my weekend went.



Funeral:

On Saturday, I was dragged to a funeral of someone I don't know, one I never met. Sorry to use the word drag but that's precisely what it was. My husband's ex-coworker had expired and Saturday was the funeral. I have nothing against going to my husband's company functions. In fact I have done so many times. But this was a funeral of someone I have never met in any of these functions before. And there is something about funeral that I dread when I go. To make me more peeved I found out that I was the only spouse present. Why can my husband go to these things by himself????

And so it was a wonderful ceremony, although a tad long I'd say. It was a Buddhist rite and except for the chanting which was Sanskrit, the language used was Lao. The atmosphere was somber and me and my soft heart (pusong mamom) I shed a tear. I HATED THAT. I dislike the fact that I was shedding tear when I don't know the dead.

Anyway, it was a solemn ceremony, a first for me. I do pray that he will be with his creator at peace.

FOOD FESTIVAL:

Oakland's Jack London Square was the site of the REAL FOOD festival featuring - food trucks. Food trucks all over Jack London Square. Food trucks by the fountain, food trucks next to the waterfront, food trucks every where. How delectable is that?

I heard this was the second year in a row that this festival is being held. On Friday, they had the breweries out. Not on Sat when we went. Nevertheless we alloted $40 dollars for the event. Most of the food were either $3 or $5 each. We saw SPENCER ON THE GO at the entrance of the festival - tis a free festival, but their truck was the first one to get to coming from the parking lot. And because of that, we didn't get anything they had to offer as we wanted to round the entire place and scout which one we wanted to eat.

I saw 2-3 trucks of Filipino cuisine. There was nachos with sisig on top (did not taste), sisig taco (not technically sisig but they're calling it sisig, however it was yummy), and the usual lumpiang shanghai. There is one booth - not truck - that sells adobo over rice. The $5 adobo serving was not worth the price, I thought. Of course I didn't taste that.

Many different cuisines were there: Mexican, Indian, Mediterranean, El Salvadoran, Cajun, Chinese, Korean (they are selling the original korean taco *grin*), etc.

Our $40 dollars filled us to the gills. We had a whole lot of food. We even took home a jerk fish sandwich from the truck GET JERKED and a Cuban sandwich which we ate for dinner the next day.

Next year, I'd organize a group to go and stay longer and take more photos. I will post photos in another blog.

MARKDOWNS:

Have you ever encountered superior customer service? I have. From Fry's Electronics last week. The tv that we have been lusting after and waiting for months to go on sale, finally went on sale to a price we could stomach. So we hurried off after work to purchase said tv. We were helped by a wonderful tv guy named Pat who patiently answered every question we had and helped us with the purchase and made sure we could get the best deal possible. He was very friendly and we felt like we were treated like family. It certainly was the best we've been treated in a store before.

But his assistance did not end there. Two days after our purchase, the store brought the price down another $200. We saw the newspaper ads. And we also got a call from Pat asking us to return to store to get our adjustments. And again, when we returned he was there by our side the entire time until the transaction was completed. We really felt like we have been right all these years in patronizing this store.