I'm in San Francisco and it's awesome! Unfortunately the move didn't quite go as planned. I won't go into detail here, but talk to anyone who has ever tried to get a TN Visa to work in the US and you'll probably hear a story similar to mine. Anyway, the four day delay meant I got to hang out in Toronto with friends for a bit more time which was great. Special thanks to Chris and John for letting me stay with them since all my stuff was already packed and taken away by the movers.

I had my first day of work on Friday and it went pretty well. My co-workers are all super friendly and were very welcoming. Plus it's just amazing being in the ILM buildings. I don't think I'll ever get used to walking past all the awesome stuff they have there.

On Saturday I did some grocery shopping at the Ferry Building (San Francisco's equivalent of Toronto's St. Lawrence Market) and also hung out with Mike, Michal and Alex. It's great having friends here in the city already. I signed up for a bank account with Wells Fargo in the afternoon, did a Costco run with Mike and Michal around dinner and saw a movie with Mike and Alex in the evening.

Today I started looking in earnest for apartments. I went to an open house up in Russian Hill and discovered that neighbourhood is likely too expensive. The place I saw was not very nice, was priced right at the upper end of my budget and the open house was totally packed with prospective tenants. Right now I'm thinking the Richmond District will provide better value and perhaps be a bit less crazy. I've also sent an inquiry to an agency to see what it would cost to get a little bit of professional help.

So far the biggest win for me on the logistics front has been around banking. Royal Bank has a brilliant cross-border banking platform and they were extremely helpful getting it all set up for me. Royal Bank in Canada is associated with an American bank called "RBC Bank" and so before arriving in the US I was able to create an American account at RBC Bank and link it to my new Royal Bank account in Canada for easy cross-border money transfers. I even received a US-style "Visa Debit Card" before leaving so that when I arrived I was instantly able to get cash from ATMs and pay for things without incurring hefty foreign transaction fees or currency exchange fees. Best of all, RBC Bank is issuing me a real US credit card based on my Canadian credit history.

The only unfortunate thing about RBC Bank is that they have no branches on the west coast. Wells Fargo is common here though and I had no trouble setting up an account with them. It was also trivial to link that account to my RBC Bank account so now I can move money back and forth between the US and Canada very easily and very cheaply. I'd say that as of 2014, Royal Bank/RBC Bank is the best way to deal with money as a Canadian living in America.

This week things will get a bit more real at work and hopefully I'll make some progress on the apartment front. I also plan to go climbing at least once. Onwards!

As the countdown to my departure continues I've had to make some decisions on which food in my pantry/freezer to eat and which to give away. It was not a hard choice to keep the 1.5kg of beef cheek in my freezer as it is one of my new favourite cuts of meat.

Beef cheeks are literally the cheek meat of a cow. The cut can be very tough and tends to contain more sinewy and fatty bits and so it tends to be cheaper. A long slow braise turns the meat into a uniformly soft and delicious hunk of protein. As I usually do, I cobbled this dish together based on a few different recipes from the Internet.

After patting dry the beef cheeks and seasoning them with salt and pepper, sear them in some olive oil in a dutch oven on the stove-top. Remove the meat and add some chopped onion, carrots, celery and potatoes to the pot. Stir and heat until the veggies soften. Then add equal amounts of cocoa powder and smoked paprika. Mix it all up nicely and then pour in a pint of beer (stout is perfect for this). Bring the mix to a boil and let it reduce a little. Return the beef cheeks to the pot and add some canned tomatoes. Get the heat back up again and then cover and transfer to the an oven (preheated to 325F) for three hours.

When it comes out of the oven, the meat will be tender and amazing and the veggies will have picked up tons of flavour. The sauce can be further reduced if desired. The meat somehow gets even better after sitting for 24 hours so definitely plan on leftovers (or make it ahead of time and just reheat when ready to serve).

On Saturday my favourite organic produce vendor at St. Lawrence had rainbow chard on sale in honour of pride so I grabbed a couple bunches. I've only recently started using chard (swiss, rainbow or otherwise) but I wish I had discovered it earlier. Raw or cooked, I love the texture of the leaves. The fact that the stalks cook up well too is a bonus. No wasted material.

My favourite way to prepare chard at the moment is in a coconut curry sauce, which I guess is a bit reminiscent of creamed spinach (a dish I've never had).

First, strip the leaves from the stems and tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Wash the leaves and dry them (salad spinner is great for this). Wash the stems and chop them into centimetre-sized chunks. Chop up some onion too. I've used actual onion, shallots or even green onions for this.

Heat up a big frying pan and then add a very generous chunk of ghee or cooking fat of your choice. Once the fat is hot, add the chopped stems and onion and stir-fry until soft. Next add the spices: curry powder (I use Penzey's Hot Curry Powder), Aleppo chili pepper, garlic and ginger. The garlic and ginger can be powdered or fresh minced. I've also used onion powder when I didn't have any actual onion. Mix the spices in well and fry until fragrant.

Next, add the leaves. Really pack them into the pan, add way more than you think appropriate as they'll cook down a lot. Cover the pan well and allow the leaves to wilt and shrink (at least five minutes maybe more). Don't worry about the spices and stuff sticking to the bottom of the pan. When the leaves are done wilting you mix them in well with the stems and spices and the moisture from the leaves will deglaze the pan to pull up the crusty delicious bits.

Continue cooking and stirring for a while until a good bit of the moisture of the leaves has boiled off. Then add enough coconut milk to make it kind of soupy. Mix well and then simmer for a while stirring occasionally until it thickens a bit.

Serve warm with other food. It's also good cold the next day. Last night I ate this with leftovers from the best roast chicken I've ever made and the extra coconut sauce went great on top of the moist lemony chicken meat.