Fierce Hot Mess

This weekend was RIDICULOUSLY hot! I think Saturday was almost 90 in Berkeley, and SF wasn't much cooler. Times like these are rare (I think 2007 there were maybe 2 or 3 days in the entire year that were comparable in SF), so I spent the entire weekend outdoors and sweaty... definitely a hot mess.

Here's what was on the menu this weekend:

- First time at Herbivore
- First time at Genova Delicatessen
- Homemade butternut squash lasagna
- Late night run to CJ's
- Cherry Blossom Festival

So Mike works near Shattuck, where the new Berkeley Herbivore opened a little while ago. Now after my experience at Cafe Gratitude, I wasn't exactly jumping to try this place, but I soon noticed a ton of locations popping up in the city. Mike and his friends went and said it was pretty decent, so I thought I'd give it a try instead of my usual salad fix at Intermezzo. I got the wasabi soba noodles which were ok, but Mike's shawarma was actually really really good. Their soy chicken was quite tasty (who knows if it's actually good for you though since there are probably a lot of preservatives and chemicals in there), and I'd say it was comparable to, but not better than, a normal meat shawarma. I would go back for sure, and maybe try their other middle eastern inspired dishes.

Saturday we intended to take it easy, but ended up stuffing our faces with Genova Delicatessen. Erina had been lauding this place for awhile now, so we decided to give it a try. It's in the Temescal area off of Telegraph, in the Walgreens plaza across the street from Bakesale Betty. The line was ridiculous, but we passed the time by ogling the hordes of meat in their display cases. I ordered specialty sandwich #2, which was prosciutto, anchovies, and mozzarella, and it was pretty amazing (pictured below). Mike's Genova salami mix was a little disappointing, but there are so many choices we'll have to come again. One yelp review said their cucumber salad was really good, but it was way too sweet for our tastes.

We also had the privilege of enjoying Erina's home-cooking! Among other things, she made this really light and tasty butternut squash lasagna, using a bechemel that didn't require THAT much butter and low-fat mozzarella, so it wasn't that unhealthy =)

Mike has also been craving Carl's Jr.'s Cap'n Crunch shake, which sounds disgusting to me, so we made a quick run. Man, watching the lady make it made me really uneasy! It was basically a vanilla soft-serve, some kind of brown syrup (flavoring? who knows!), and actual Cap'n Crunch cereal, all blended up. It wasn't bad, but I didn't want to take more than a sip. Mike, on the other hand, drank it all and even saved some to put in his cereal later on. Yes, he is gross.

Today I met up with friends at the Cherry Blossom Festival. It's continuing next weekend, but who knows how the weather will be (rain on Wednesday??) so a ton of people were out. I went a few years ago and got more traditional food like takoyaki and stuff like that, but this time I just really wanted ribs, so we waited in the 30+ min (I might be exaggerating) line for them. I'd been craving BBQ all weekend!

I think I'm more tan now, but it'll probably fade in a few days once SF returns to 50 degree weather =P