I'm sitting outside Peet's at the APL building in downtown Oakland. Four flags are out for the Oakland police officers that were killed this past weekend. We sometimes take for granted that there are people whose sole job is to make sure our streets are safe. Even though there are the occasional black stains, I am thankful for the job that police officers and all the emergency and armed services personnel perform for us normal citizens. Next time you get pulled over for not coming to a complete stop, just remember to be respectful and understand that writing tickets is a very small portion of what these brave men and women do for us.

I'm getting lunch in Chinatown today and saw this on the street outside a grocery store. This ain't the snow crab tank you see at Costco! Couldn't tell if they were live or not. Still, I'll file this in the "You See Something New Everyday" category.

We were eating at Sura on Telegraph the other night and as usual ordered soon dobu (Korean Tofu stew) which is accompanied by a raw egg you crack into the bubbling pot. Lo and behold, we got a two-fer! I knew something was up because the egg we were given was huge.

One of the great things about going vegetarian is that I get to binge on soon dobu. Though Oakland has a growing and thriving Korean community (mainly up and down Telegraph Avenue), the best Korean Tofu house we've eaten at in the Bay Area is Sun Tofu in Palo Alto. I usually get the vegetarian mushroom tofu. Best kim chee I've ever had.

On Saturday we had the great privilege to join our old friend Rich and his wife Melinda for a private tasting at the new location for their winery, Stage Left Cellars. They moved it from Paso Robles to Oakland, about 2 miles away from Centrro's offices. I used to work with Rich at Experian and knew him to be a great wine connoisseur and it was only natural that he start making wine. We're happy to welcome him and Melinda to Oakland and wish them nothing but success. By the way, his 2005 Viognier (white) and 2005 The Breadwinner (red blend) were both amazing. They begin selling in April!