The Weekender

Sunday, April 20, 2003

Strawberries anyone??? This weekend was the Strawberry Festival in Roseville. Where the hell is Roseville???? It's about 20 minutes past Sacramento, along 80 E Reno. How the hell did I hear about this? Well if you're a member of AAA like I am, you get that magazine in the mail. I usually toss this literature away, but since i've been into traveling or wanting to get away, I thought i'd finally open this mag up. To my surprise, there's a bunch of info and deals in this magazine. In one of the pages of the magazine, it had listed a whole bunch of events goin on in California for the month of March/April. I love strawberries, especially w/ sugar. YUM!! So when I saw this, I had to go. Plus I love goin to these things...at least ONCE!

Awsome and I drove up to Roseville, leavin Oakland around 11am and finally in the Sac area around 1pm. Of course I rely on Mapquest to get there. We exit Douglas, hang a right and lookin for Donner Ave. Never find it!!! FRICKIN MAPQUEST!!! So we stop twice to ask for directions, and finally the 2nd person we asked, gave us good directions without even giving us street names (go down this street, at the 2nd light hang a left, make 2 rights and go straight, under the underpass, the Placer Fairgrounds will be on your left). I love locals! We finally get there and there's a long ass line to get to the parking lot. We decide to park in this residential street right next to the entrance of the fairgrounds.

We park and walk up to the entrance and there's another LINE! Did I mention that it in the frickin high 70's!! Goodness gracious! At least it's moving though. We get in and we're STARVING! We end up eatin some dogs (hotdogs peopel), since the ribs wouldn't be done for another 1/2 hour. At least this leaves room for all the strawberry food right??? We end up chowin down on a krispy kreme donut that's covered in strawberries and whip cream. ooooooooooooooooh man..talk about a "gourmet donut." So what's next, we ate chocolate covered strawberries, which were really juicy and a strawberry/lime snowcone.. Pretty good actually, since it was a hot day.

My girl Scrappy was goin to this function too and she and her girls just arrived. We didn't get to hook up till later though. We decided to find what else they had here. They of course had their arts and crafts and a fun zone for the little kids. We hit up Strawberry Alley which was filled with strawberry creme puffs, crepes and shortcakes. As we sat down, we caught a performance by Korr. These 3 young ladies sang their hearts out, all geared up wearing their Avril Lavigne lookin outfits w/ their Casio sound. They even had bodyguards if you can call them that. Standing their still tryin to keep the masses away..buahahha..NOT!

Anways, we were lookin for the strawberry wine, which was actually strawberry wine MARGARITA!!! hahaha It was actually pretty good. I even got a little buzz off of it. They did have strawberry beer, but i'm not a beer drinker, so I decided to pass. We were about to head out, but not before I get my big ol' bag of kettle korn. These things are so addicting that it became mine and Awsome's dinner and as I write this entry, I've been munchin on the damn things. buahhaha Our last dish we were goin to have was strawberry funnel cake, but as we stood there in line, I felt my stomach gettin sick just at the idea. So we passed up on it.

So would I recommend goin to this festival, yes..at least ONCE! But I would have to say that you either drive up hella early or sleep over the night before. I was hurtin drivin back home. I wanted to hit up the Roseville mall or the Vacaville Outlets, but "eeeeeeeeeh...I wanna CRASH OUT!" All in all, we had a great time. I didn't get to hang out w/ Scrappy too much until the end when we walked to our cars and saw a 50 DOLLAR PARKING TICKET!! WHAT THE HELL! I didn't see the frickin sign: PARKING PERMIT REQUIRED FROM FRIDAY 5PM TO SUNDAY 8PM. Frickin residential parking. I knew this parking spot had to be too good to be true. A block away from the Placerville Fairgrounds. You never care to look at signs escpecially on the weekends. oh well... UGH!!! BEWARE OF SUBURBIA PEOPLE!!!

posted by The Weekender @ 5:05 PM

Sunday, April 13, 2003

Breakfast, Brunch, lately i've had a real appreciation for this meal of the day. I've been hittin up some really cool spots. Let's start w/ the Marina area. Home Plate, this lil nook is located on Lombard and Pierce i think. All I remember is that it's on the same side and block of Uno's Pizzeria. I would say there's only about 8 or so tables in this lil ol' place. Their breakfasts costs about $6 and up I believe. When Awsome and I had gone, I had ordered chorizos w/ some potato cakes and eggs I think??? Pretty good...but of course the best part of it is..are the WARM SCONES you get w/ your meal...mmmmmmmmmm YUM!!! For 2 people, I think the cost came out to 20 bucks or so. That's not so bad is it??

Another lil ol' spot was on Chestnut, just parallel to Lombard and around the corner from Homeplate. This place is called Judy's located at 2268 Chestnut St. The Evil One, Dickhead and I had gone to have Sunday Brunch at this lil spot. It's funny. I've passed this place up so many times, but I guess this place is only open for breakfast and lunch. Anyways, we got there around 11:30am and there was a wait. Not too long thank god, but instead of eating inside, they set up outside on the SIDEWALK!!! Pretty cool I thought and we lucked out since it was sunny THANK GOD! I think they're known for their omlettes, which I had ordered the spinach and cheese one. Oh yeah..they're plates are about $8 and up. We didn't have to wait too long, but I do suggest you speak up and have them repeat your order because I wanted chicken apple sausage in my omlette and of course the guy didn't put it in. :-( My bad..next time i'll know to always have them repeat the order. Oh and the plus about this place is they serve WARM PUMPKIN BREAD!!!! Well that's if you're diggin pumpkin..but I swear you can get somethin else instead...but it's soooooooooooooooo GOOD!

Another brunch place is called Mama's Royal Cafe on 41st and Broadway in Oakland. This place is very intersting. I finally tried grits for the first time. Funky...I don't know if I like it very much, but it was okay. It's kinda dark and the place has an old feel to it. Like I was in a diner off of Route 66 w/ the interesting servers. I think this place is a must see. Unfortunately, this place didn't have any warm muffins, you've gotta pay cash and I wasn't that hungry so I couldn't say I totally loved the food. It wasn't bad though.

Last but not least is Lynn and Lu's Escapade Cafe on 3353 Grand Ave in Oakland. It's pretty close to Lake Merritt. This place has an outdoor seating area, which I have not eaten in yet due to gettin the first table available and unpredicatble weather. This place I love because you feel like you're at someone's house or kitchen having breakfast. The staff is pretty nice and they're always refillin your cup w/ coffee. Awesome told me that this is a wife and husband owned cafe and maybe you'll catch both of them working one day. Breakfast for two comes out to be about $20 bucks, if you order 2 entrees, another side plate and 2 coffees I think???? The best part I love about this place is the warm home made muffins!!! Can you tell already I dig these warm pastries that these brunch places serve??? So far this one's my favorite. So if you're ever in this neck of the woods, be sure to drop by.

posted by The Weekender @ 3:27 PM

A report on the trends, the sights and weekend nights in San Francisco, now written from Oakland!

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