Do cheese stuffed Super Pretzels still exist or did they disappear with the green ketchup and dunkaroos post Y2K? I found myself thinking about these cheesy pretzels the other day and then dreaming about how I might recreate them. I remember "making" them after school, popping a few from the freezer into the microwave and sprinkling the salt packet on top, which made me feel like I was cooking or something. Then I'd turn on the TV and watch Degrassi with Aubrey Graham (aka Drake) in Canadian high school. These were formative years.

A list of all the food consumed and places visited in no particular order, excluding (approximately) 64% of it due to negligence and/or laziness:

A winding, foggy road to Point Reyes where we found empty beaches, highly aggressive miniatures crabs, sea cows that didn't comprehend how spectacular their surroundings were and much needed pilsners at the most random Czech restaurant called Vladmir's. Sadly we were too full on shitty sandwiches for goulash.

Heath Ceramics is an institution in San Francisco when it comes to trendy tile and dinnerware, which are both, naturally, in high demand in SF. I knew very little about Heath before visiting the factory except that I knew I loved all of it and wanted to drink everything out of one of those sweet taupe colored mugs with the single finger handle. We drove over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito to get a tour of the original factory and to buy some rumored seconds pieces on the cheaps. The seconds, as it turns out, will still set you back $25 a mug, but I managed to find a few adorable brown speckle stacking mugs that were supposed double seconds (not good enough for Heath but good enough for me) and only had to suffer mild judgement from the pretentious cashier who reminded me they were "not returnable." 

In college, I used to have this east coast/west coast battle with my roommate where I told her all of the reasons why New York was so much better than California. There are droughts, I would tell her, and forest fires that consume mansions, and earthquakes, tsunamis, and chihuahas in handbags. Plus the weather is comfortable all the time, which makes you soft! But the truth is that California is like a highly addictive drug that makes all other landscapes boring an inferior. It was alarming and sad to come home and find that the Blue Ridge was less impressive than I originally thought.