So behind!

So many things to talk about...

First off, the newest addition to my lovely shoe family: rock climbing shoes! I got them 2 weeks ago and I love them. They're an incentive to do more climbing, which is always a good thing. They are bright green, a little too small (but I'm making them work), and awesome. My arms are definitely sore from climbing yesterday afternoon...

Next: this week's cheese class!

We tasted an assortment of delicious Western European cheeses! Tasting notes are as follows in the approximate order that we tasted in:

Mozzarella: made by stretching and kneading the curds, eaten fresh and unaged, can be made with cow's or water buffalo's milk. Sweet, grassy in taste.

French Comté: raw cow's milk, aged, nutty.

Swiss Gruyère: aged in caves (or cave-like atmosphere), high humidity and "warmer" temperature, cow's milk, more intense in flavor and smell than Comté, more salty

Spanish Manchego: sheep's milk, interesting pattern on rind used to be from the woven mats they wrapped around the cheese (now printed/molded on the rind), salty, acidic(?)

French Camembert: from Normandy, the cheese starts out hard(!), then a solution of bacteria is sprayed onto the wheels, which causes the creamy interior and the bloomy rind. I love bacteria. Stinkier and more flavorful than brie, just as creamy.

Petit Billy goat cheese: fresh goat, creamy, salty, lots of protein!

Dutch Aged Gouda: the less it's aged, the smoother and creamier the cheeses is

Dutch Aged Gouda, 5+ years: crumbly and darker in color, crystallizations galore (my favorite)

Roquefort: stinky, blue, super moldy, delicious.

Other than that, yesterday was the big bro's birthday. To commemorate said birthday, he posted this picture:

AMAZINGGGGG

So, the brosky wasn't quite as Mr. Grumpy-pants as this guy above; he quite enjoyed his birthday. With his friends in tow, we headed to dinner at La Mar in San Francisco, a Peruvian restaurant. First off, the decor was great. Bright blue lighting at the bar, hanging mocha-colored glass orbs for lighting. The 7 of us shared all the platters: cebiches sampler, empanadas sampler, grilled octopus, causas sampler... incredible. Really, really, fresh seafood in the cebiche (which is ceviche) in delicious variations on leche de tigre, which is apparently a great hangover cure: lime juice and peppers. I only tasted a chicken and a beef empanada but they were both delicious; the meat very tender and juicy, the outside nice and crispy and fried, not too oily. The grilled octopus was my favorite, and I think the favorite of everyone there. The marinade/sauce was somewhat reminiscent of a Korean marinade: sweet and spicy red paste. The meat was not at all chewy in the way it can be when you boil octopus; it was very dense. I also had one of the best cocktails ever: El Diablito. Pisco acholado, ginger syrup, crème de cassis, ginger beer. Spicy and sweet, it went well with what we ate. It wasn't too over the top to distract, which is impressive considering the strong flavors in it.

Finally, it's the weekend!

On tap:

Special dinner, studying for my LAST MIDTERM (AHH), thesisizing, sleeping, enjoying the beautiful weather...