I left my heart somewhere in the vicinity of San Francisco
Before I can go any further, I have to note how sad I am to hear that Bea Arthur has passed away. One of the true greats, she had an amazing and long career but she'll still be missed. Eff off, cancer.
Moving on, what's say we check out the pics from San Francisco last weekend? As always, click the pictures for more detail.
After wiki'ing "fear of flying" the morning of the trip, I determined that at least as much of my avoidance of planes is plain old agoraphobia, as opposed to the outright fear of dying a claustrophobic death. This actually edifies things, since I'm perfectly aware of the fact that my willingness to drive on LA-area freeways is technically a riskier behavior than flying on a plane but that doesn't change the fact I haven't flown in at least a decade. Anyway, thanks to my mom picking a fight with the TSA agent over not being able to keep my 99¢ bottle of mousse, by the time we boarded the plane my adrenaline had basically peaked so I was pretty much able to deal. We had some turbulence, which was slightly horrifying, but it's literally only a 45 minute flight so I managed.
It suddenly occurs to me, perhaps that one time my mom called a flight attendant a bitch and got us stranded in Phoenix in the middle of summer might actually have more to do with all of this than I've realized. Hmmm. Moving on!
So the airport is in South San Francisco, which this elucidating hillside explains is "The Industrial City". If you got north along the coast of the bay, you'll end up in the Fisherman's Wharf area. You'll also see some nifty stuff along the way, like a giant sextant and bow and arrow.
We were staying near Pier 39, which is the epicenter of FW. We were pretty worn out by the time we made our room, but wasn't enough to prevent me from flipping out when I opened the curtains to check out the view. Alcatraz was RIGHT there!
After unwinding a little bit, we set out to explore and find some food. Thank the sweet baby Jesus for the iPhone Google Maps application, that lovely piece of software got us just about everywhere we needed to be. It was that and dumb luck that got us to Unicorn, where we finally had an amazing dinner. Speaking of the baby Jesus, since Lent's over and I hadn't really eaten all day out of nerves and was on vacation anyway, even though Unicorn had a great vegetarian menu I went ahead and cheated on my "no meat on Fridays" rule.
I have fond memories of roasted and noodled ducks from many wonderful places. Crispy honey duck from Toi in Hollywood, so savory it makes your eyes water. Duck noodle soup from Rich and Richer that makes your tummy feel like it's wearing a Christmas sweater. I swear, this was the best duck I've ever had in my life. Here's the menu description:
Five Spice Duck Mosaic
with Shang Hai Bok Choy and Orsis Mushroom
(Chao Zhou-style duck confit and duck prepared two ways in five spices with baby bok choy)
I know the picture's horrible but you'll just have to indulge me. On the left was sliced duck breast, layered between matching slices of mushrooms. On the right was a duck thigh, which was surrounded by the pieces of bok choy, and topped with what I think were strips of beets. It was either that or some kind of crispy noodle made with beets...this was the best dish in a weekend of good food, hands down.
We had a nice slow start on Saturday. I could start every morning with a sleep number bed and Spongebob episodes. I caught just a little bit of the new "Spongebob versus the Big One" special with Johnny Depp, good stuff.
Fisherman's Wharf's a bit of a tourist trap, at least as much as I was able to to see of it. Lots of tacky little theme shops (which I'm not saying is a bad thing) including a pirate one:
Do you see what the bootleggers have done to poor Captain Jack? Cut his face, knocked out one of his eyes, and most importantly given him an extra chin or three. Unforgivable.
At this point we headed out to what I expected to be the highlight of the trip, our visit to Japantown:
We checked out one of several farmer's market's we saw around the city, and then we crossed a big pedestrian bridge that leads to the Japantown mall. There was some cool Kim Jong Il street art stenciled on it:
It wasn't until we got over the bridge that we were really able to see just how much was going on...I had known that the Cherry Blossom Festival had been going on the week before, but it turned out to be a two week deal. Huge street festival! Check the crowds:
They had a whole row of stands where people could play games of chance, and get samples of various brands of snacks and drinks. I was most interested in these new Nestle treats in Mexi-fantastic flavors:
Fresas con crema, vainilla, coco, mango, arroz con leche, tres leches!!! Plus paletas! I only got to try to coco (aka coconut), but I will be looking for these flavors fo' sho. I love feeling like a catered-to demographic.
First thing I noticed was the bicycle, but as I got closer I realized I was looking at the coolest car ever, i.e. the Hello Kitty mobile. Definitely check the details on these. That matte black paint job! Be still my heart.
Japantown's a cool little place. The mall is three big buildings, and all around it are more shops. One of them is Nijiya Market, which had all kinds of funky stuff. It was overwhelming in it's awesomeness.
This is the plaza in between two of the mall buildings. The cherry trees were gorgeous! There was an equally amazing bonsai exhibit going on:
Some of the trees had cards that identified them as 100 years old or more. They were so cool!
One last little thing from Japantown...we were looking for snacks from the food vendors (ended up getting some grilled meat on a stick and green tea ice cream <3333) and these folks were drumming up some business for their booth:
I read on twitter that Mos Def was walking around the festival the next day. I think running into the Mighty Mos would have been the only thing that could have made this whole weekend cooler. BTW anybody else just start seeing trailers for the R-rated action comedy he's doing with Mike Epps and Donald Faison? Looks to have potential.
On to Haight Ashbury! All around there are beautiful Victorian houses with great details.
This one was my favorite:
Lots of funky, overpriced shops along Haight. I was intrigued by this bus illustrating how to comply with the cooking oil recycling program. Fun fact, I was throwing garbage into recyclables cans for like a day because the colors are different down here.
Kidrobot store, which made me think of Comic-Con...not sure how that's going to end up going down this year, we'll see!
We ended up at Mel's Diner for dinner. I've been past the one in Hollywood a million times but I've never actually eaten there. Had a great french dip sandwich, which my mom had to copy. I didn't mind, since I got to eat the leftover half cold for breakfast the next morning :9
Lord, the things I bought. This doesn't even include the parasol I bought despite smudging a different one in the rack with my ice cream cone (sorry parasol vendor!).
Top row: Hello Kitty Fisherman's Wharf gear and Pikachu spoon from overpriced magnet store, manga from Kinokuniya Bookstore, including Doraemon, Bleach and the first huge volume in an epic series about Buddha by the artist who created Astro Boy. A bento box and pencil bag from the Sanrio store.
Second row: Battle Royale Director's Cut DVD and Domokun bottle opener. Blind box toys from Kidrobot for my dogsitting buddy who's quitting smoking (and who also got the Bleach manga). Some cool finds from the Haight Ashbury Goodwill store, which we found after being disappointed by the insanely overpriced deals at the hipster consignment shops. Yeah, that was a great Steve Miller Band shirt, but $48?
Third row: Epic pillaging of Ichiban Kan. All the bento gear I could ever need. Plus those little doohickies that make it easier to use chopsticks, and a squeeze bottle to replace the big jar of simple syrup sitting in the fridge, and sweet potato chips...
Random observation: There are a lot of funky little bars/restaurants in San Francisco:
Sunday morning I had to get up be somewhere, which turned out to be right on the water. At one point I had a break and I went down to watch the boats and snack on some banana bread from the farmer's market. Afterwards we went back to Haight Ashbury because I really wanted to go to the Aardvark's thrift store, which had been closed the night before.
We found a couple of neat shops off the main drag, one called the Pink Lotus with lots of imported Buddhist/Hindu trinkets, and the Comix Experience, which had this cool if badly photographed Watchmen display in the window:
After that we had to get back to the Wharf for a restaurant we had a certificate for in time for our flight. Just outside the restaurant (Castagnola's) I saw a jelly fish! At dinner, like a dork, I ordered something called a Smirnoff Ice Pomegranate Fusion and actually expected some kind of mixed drink with Smirnoff Ice XD I admit that's dumb, but way to fail with your branding there, Smirnoff.
I had salmon with lobster brandy sauce, and it came with a lemon slice in a convenient and adorable little hairnet to keep seeds from slipping into your food. Usually I like to pretty well drench my fish in lemon but it made the great sauce start to break up so I had to limit it to the veggies and pilaf, which suffered from the blandness that you sometimes find in touristy places. Didn't find anything at Aardvark's that I loved, besides a great paisley silk scarf.
The spoils from Comix Experience. I'd heard about Cromartie High School but I was underprepared for it's hilarity. I picked up a Red Sonja one-shot, but later when I was reading the newsletter talking about upcoming runs, I found out there's apparently a Barack the Barbarian comic coming out where he battles a Red Sonja-esque Palin. That should be interesting.
This is a selection of the goodies from Nijiya. Unfortunately I think most of the stuff that could melt did so in transit, but it's all been decent so far. I inhaled that entire box of green tea sandwich cookies to my head yesterday, it was awesome.
Not pictured among the trinkets from the Pink Lotus is the little stone elephant I painstakingly picked out, because until I found him this morning I thought he'd disappeared. The other stuff is some incense I bought for my buddy, a necklace I suggested my mom get for someone, and a skirt, pashmina type shawl and a little purse for me. Initially I thought the image on the bag was related to the Dharma wheel but it seems to actually be a Ba Gua, which is a sort of feng shui map. I also got some beads, which I'm going to combine with some Tibetan skull beads I picked up at Wat Thai Temple a couple of years ago to make a kickass bracelet.
What a great weekend. It was definitely worthwhile, except maybe if you ask my bank account, but you only live once, right?
Moving on, what's say we check out the pics from San Francisco last weekend? As always, click the pictures for more detail.
After wiki'ing "fear of flying" the morning of the trip, I determined that at least as much of my avoidance of planes is plain old agoraphobia, as opposed to the outright fear of dying a claustrophobic death. This actually edifies things, since I'm perfectly aware of the fact that my willingness to drive on LA-area freeways is technically a riskier behavior than flying on a plane but that doesn't change the fact I haven't flown in at least a decade. Anyway, thanks to my mom picking a fight with the TSA agent over not being able to keep my 99¢ bottle of mousse, by the time we boarded the plane my adrenaline had basically peaked so I was pretty much able to deal. We had some turbulence, which was slightly horrifying, but it's literally only a 45 minute flight so I managed.
It suddenly occurs to me, perhaps that one time my mom called a flight attendant a bitch and got us stranded in Phoenix in the middle of summer might actually have more to do with all of this than I've realized. Hmmm. Moving on!
So the airport is in South San Francisco, which this elucidating hillside explains is "The Industrial City". If you got north along the coast of the bay, you'll end up in the Fisherman's Wharf area. You'll also see some nifty stuff along the way, like a giant sextant and bow and arrow.
We were staying near Pier 39, which is the epicenter of FW. We were pretty worn out by the time we made our room, but wasn't enough to prevent me from flipping out when I opened the curtains to check out the view. Alcatraz was RIGHT there!
After unwinding a little bit, we set out to explore and find some food. Thank the sweet baby Jesus for the iPhone Google Maps application, that lovely piece of software got us just about everywhere we needed to be. It was that and dumb luck that got us to Unicorn, where we finally had an amazing dinner. Speaking of the baby Jesus, since Lent's over and I hadn't really eaten all day out of nerves and was on vacation anyway, even though Unicorn had a great vegetarian menu I went ahead and cheated on my "no meat on Fridays" rule.
I have fond memories of roasted and noodled ducks from many wonderful places. Crispy honey duck from Toi in Hollywood, so savory it makes your eyes water. Duck noodle soup from Rich and Richer that makes your tummy feel like it's wearing a Christmas sweater. I swear, this was the best duck I've ever had in my life. Here's the menu description:
Five Spice Duck Mosaic
with Shang Hai Bok Choy and Orsis Mushroom
(Chao Zhou-style duck confit and duck prepared two ways in five spices with baby bok choy)
I know the picture's horrible but you'll just have to indulge me. On the left was sliced duck breast, layered between matching slices of mushrooms. On the right was a duck thigh, which was surrounded by the pieces of bok choy, and topped with what I think were strips of beets. It was either that or some kind of crispy noodle made with beets...this was the best dish in a weekend of good food, hands down.
We had a nice slow start on Saturday. I could start every morning with a sleep number bed and Spongebob episodes. I caught just a little bit of the new "Spongebob versus the Big One" special with Johnny Depp, good stuff.
Fisherman's Wharf's a bit of a tourist trap, at least as much as I was able to to see of it. Lots of tacky little theme shops (which I'm not saying is a bad thing) including a pirate one:
Do you see what the bootleggers have done to poor Captain Jack? Cut his face, knocked out one of his eyes, and most importantly given him an extra chin or three. Unforgivable.
At this point we headed out to what I expected to be the highlight of the trip, our visit to Japantown:
We checked out one of several farmer's market's we saw around the city, and then we crossed a big pedestrian bridge that leads to the Japantown mall. There was some cool Kim Jong Il street art stenciled on it:
It wasn't until we got over the bridge that we were really able to see just how much was going on...I had known that the Cherry Blossom Festival had been going on the week before, but it turned out to be a two week deal. Huge street festival! Check the crowds:
Click to viewThey had a whole row of stands where people could play games of chance, and get samples of various brands of snacks and drinks. I was most interested in these new Nestle treats in Mexi-fantastic flavors:
Fresas con crema, vainilla, coco, mango, arroz con leche, tres leches!!! Plus paletas! I only got to try to coco (aka coconut), but I will be looking for these flavors fo' sho. I love feeling like a catered-to demographic.
First thing I noticed was the bicycle, but as I got closer I realized I was looking at the coolest car ever, i.e. the Hello Kitty mobile. Definitely check the details on these. That matte black paint job! Be still my heart.
Japantown's a cool little place. The mall is three big buildings, and all around it are more shops. One of them is Nijiya Market, which had all kinds of funky stuff. It was overwhelming in it's awesomeness.
This is the plaza in between two of the mall buildings. The cherry trees were gorgeous! There was an equally amazing bonsai exhibit going on:
Some of the trees had cards that identified them as 100 years old or more. They were so cool!
One last little thing from Japantown...we were looking for snacks from the food vendors (ended up getting some grilled meat on a stick and green tea ice cream <3333) and these folks were drumming up some business for their booth:
I read on twitter that Mos Def was walking around the festival the next day. I think running into the Mighty Mos would have been the only thing that could have made this whole weekend cooler. BTW anybody else just start seeing trailers for the R-rated action comedy he's doing with Mike Epps and Donald Faison? Looks to have potential.
On to Haight Ashbury! All around there are beautiful Victorian houses with great details.
This one was my favorite:
Lots of funky, overpriced shops along Haight. I was intrigued by this bus illustrating how to comply with the cooking oil recycling program. Fun fact, I was throwing garbage into recyclables cans for like a day because the colors are different down here.
Kidrobot store, which made me think of Comic-Con...not sure how that's going to end up going down this year, we'll see!
We ended up at Mel's Diner for dinner. I've been past the one in Hollywood a million times but I've never actually eaten there. Had a great french dip sandwich, which my mom had to copy. I didn't mind, since I got to eat the leftover half cold for breakfast the next morning :9
Lord, the things I bought. This doesn't even include the parasol I bought despite smudging a different one in the rack with my ice cream cone (sorry parasol vendor!).
Top row: Hello Kitty Fisherman's Wharf gear and Pikachu spoon from overpriced magnet store, manga from Kinokuniya Bookstore, including Doraemon, Bleach and the first huge volume in an epic series about Buddha by the artist who created Astro Boy. A bento box and pencil bag from the Sanrio store.
Second row: Battle Royale Director's Cut DVD and Domokun bottle opener. Blind box toys from Kidrobot for my dogsitting buddy who's quitting smoking (and who also got the Bleach manga). Some cool finds from the Haight Ashbury Goodwill store, which we found after being disappointed by the insanely overpriced deals at the hipster consignment shops. Yeah, that was a great Steve Miller Band shirt, but $48?
Third row: Epic pillaging of Ichiban Kan. All the bento gear I could ever need. Plus those little doohickies that make it easier to use chopsticks, and a squeeze bottle to replace the big jar of simple syrup sitting in the fridge, and sweet potato chips...
Random observation: There are a lot of funky little bars/restaurants in San Francisco:
Sunday morning I had to get up be somewhere, which turned out to be right on the water. At one point I had a break and I went down to watch the boats and snack on some banana bread from the farmer's market. Afterwards we went back to Haight Ashbury because I really wanted to go to the Aardvark's thrift store, which had been closed the night before.
We found a couple of neat shops off the main drag, one called the Pink Lotus with lots of imported Buddhist/Hindu trinkets, and the Comix Experience, which had this cool if badly photographed Watchmen display in the window:
After that we had to get back to the Wharf for a restaurant we had a certificate for in time for our flight. Just outside the restaurant (Castagnola's) I saw a jelly fish! At dinner, like a dork, I ordered something called a Smirnoff Ice Pomegranate Fusion and actually expected some kind of mixed drink with Smirnoff Ice XD I admit that's dumb, but way to fail with your branding there, Smirnoff.
I had salmon with lobster brandy sauce, and it came with a lemon slice in a convenient and adorable little hairnet to keep seeds from slipping into your food. Usually I like to pretty well drench my fish in lemon but it made the great sauce start to break up so I had to limit it to the veggies and pilaf, which suffered from the blandness that you sometimes find in touristy places. Didn't find anything at Aardvark's that I loved, besides a great paisley silk scarf.
The spoils from Comix Experience. I'd heard about Cromartie High School but I was underprepared for it's hilarity. I picked up a Red Sonja one-shot, but later when I was reading the newsletter talking about upcoming runs, I found out there's apparently a Barack the Barbarian comic coming out where he battles a Red Sonja-esque Palin. That should be interesting.
This is a selection of the goodies from Nijiya. Unfortunately I think most of the stuff that could melt did so in transit, but it's all been decent so far. I inhaled that entire box of green tea sandwich cookies to my head yesterday, it was awesome.
Not pictured among the trinkets from the Pink Lotus is the little stone elephant I painstakingly picked out, because until I found him this morning I thought he'd disappeared. The other stuff is some incense I bought for my buddy, a necklace I suggested my mom get for someone, and a skirt, pashmina type shawl and a little purse for me. Initially I thought the image on the bag was related to the Dharma wheel but it seems to actually be a Ba Gua, which is a sort of feng shui map. I also got some beads, which I'm going to combine with some Tibetan skull beads I picked up at Wat Thai Temple a couple of years ago to make a kickass bracelet.
What a great weekend. It was definitely worthwhile, except maybe if you ask my bank account, but you only live once, right?