Justin Lin

Gotta love Chinese restaurants!

Enjoyed our BBQ w/ @eekim for @DavidChiu for #SFMayor Impressed w/ his vision re: tech, families, diversity

Hmm, I guess this isn’t gluten-free.

Wow, this is sweet

A friend of ours recently asked for our recommendations on diapers.  Figured I’d share our answer for posterity…

“As for diapers, I think it can often depend on the baby’s shape in terms of fit.  Pampers underwent some changes recently with their new “Dry Max” chemically stuff that a lot of people don’t like.  However, Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive (which still DO NOT have Dry Max) were our favorite for Sizes N, 1, 2.  Super soft and convenient wetness indicator on the outside.  However, once your get to Size 3+ even the Swaddlers Sensitive use Dry Max (and lose the wetness indicator). 

So at Size 3 we tested a whole new round of diapers.  Ultimately we went with the Earth’s Best diapers and have been using them since (now on Size 4).  However, close second were Huggies Pure & Natural (though they are pretty expensive).  It was more about the fit at that point, esp. since the baby is crawling, walking, and generally moving around by that point.

But for nighttime, we highly, highly recommend Huggies Overnites, which start at Size 3.  They last all night, and probably contribute to Serena still being able to sleep a straight 12 hours through the night.  I think a normal diaper would get overwhelmed (which did happen when I accidentally used the wrong one).

Anyway, there you have our wisdom on diapers!  Probably more to add when she gets to potty training and pull-ups stage.”

Pictured above:  The Pizza Romana at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in North Beach.  Each third of the pizza has a different topping combo.  This was:  a) proscuitto, arugula, pamigiano, b) white cream sauce, chopped garlic, meatballs, c) gorgonzola, dates & pecans, apples, honey & nutella.

We love Gialina in Glen Park but Tony’s may be our new favorite pizza place in SF based on number of recent visits.  Award-winning Margherita is a must-order; he’s imported all the same ingredients (and oven!) that he used to win the World Pizza Cup.

The place has five (!) different pizza ovens:

• 900 Degree Wood Fired Oven for Napoletana and California styles
• 550 Degree NY Flat Top Gas Brick Oven for Classic American and Sicilianstyles
• 650 Degree Domed Gas Brick Oven for Classic Italian style
• 700 Degree Italian Electric Brick Oven for Romana style
• 1000 Degree Coal Fired Oven for Coal-fired pizzas

By now, we’ve compared and contrasted pizzas from all the various styles, and differences you might not ordinarily notice are readily apparent when compared head-to-head.  You can start to taste the differences from wood vs. gas as well as the different types of flour used.

One more thing to recommend about Tony’s: the Meatball Gigante, with the mushroom sauce.  It’s quite frankly the best meatball we’ve had in the US (it’s just really hard to beat Umbria where they can use wild boar, venison, rabbit, and other game in their meatballs though).

Only downside:  Tony’s award-winning success and exposure on Food Network means the place is a lot more crowded than when it opened, and now he’s also going to be opening a place in NYC…  Happy for him, but there’s the eternal scale vs. quality debate, which is a topic for another day.

Japanese take on macarons @ Mitsuwa Marketplace in San Jose