Homecookin' in South City, Browsing through Lunardi's & Asian Am Fest in Japantown

Homecookin' in South City, Browsing through Lunardi's & Asian Am Fest in Japantown
Current mood: amused

So, before I put down the nitty gritty of another memorable weekend, I just read this magazine article from this interesting indie zine called "Hypen" where the subject is an editor-in-chief, Raj Jayadev, of a Silcon Valley indie zine called "De-Bug". He wrote the magazine for those who actually built the computers on the assembly line not the multi-millionare CEO's who get all the ink in "The Valley". Anyway, good story about the people again who do the "manual labor" in one of the biggest industries in this area; how they can get slighted/ overlooked in that industry, too & he is quoted as saying that his publication gives a voice to this group & that , "...[writing] allows people to meditate deeply on their lives and environment and the world they live in, and then create a story. The process of reflection is transformative." I think that's true...that if one stands back & tries to analyze everything , figure out what's going on first a bit before jumping in...then, I started thinking about this phenomenon of blogging, why people are writing & I think it's essentially simple, that if there were no people living lives, telling their own personal stories this thing simply wouldn't exist...

Anyway, I spent most of my Saturday hangin' out w/ my roommate @ su novio's house in South City. It was a get together to see if we can scrapbook some photo albums together of our trip & also, catch up with our other friend; actually, it lets me catch up with Annie & see how her happy, happy (knock on wood) relationship is going...it was a fun, cool night of recreating the tapa recipes we were spying on in Espana, drinking some good Spanish wine we found at Lunardi's nearby (which has all kinds of interesting products in their aisles, did you know that they make their own Cioppino sauce in a jar? I LOVE Cioppino!) & then samplin' a white sauce, seafood pasta that was concocted by all of us...consquently, I spent way too much time there b/c that combo of tapas, pasta & cava can be lethally slumber inducing...I had to rush to one party & jump into another that night. There were a lot of parties going on Saturday & I'm surprised I even made it to one ;-) I ended my night at a club called "Element", at the latter part of the night there, my friend commented that it was starting to look like that "Star Wars" bar that Luke entered with like a rag tag group of different characters who all came from different planets & were just lettin' their hair down...I mean at one point some guy was rapping live with the dj & then this one guy started busting out with a saxophone doing what sounded like to me, scale riffs...that's when that scene in Star Wars popped in my head with that crazy song that was being played by the band's horn section when they walked in...ha! Anyway, as long as my friend had a great birthday, it was all worth it...btw, everyone & their mama has caught the new Star Wars movie; from my boss, to my nephew, to my friend who I made pasta with, to about 5 friends that I saw at these various parties...all rave reviews from them, too...hmmmm, I'll see it, I just want to wait a bit until the hype dies down...I get a lil' nervous about the people who get sort of fanatical around it, no offense, I mean my most vivid memory of seeing the 1st "Star Wars" was me in my pj's in the back of our family's van, jumping up & down when the good battleship scenes were going onscreen...ha!

I saw instead "The Interpreter" on Friday night, starring Nicole Kidman & Sean Pean...it was a good movie, if you like mystery thrillers & esp. if you're fascinated in espionage...it had a theme of political asylum, the power of words in international diplomacy, the reflections of what is "home" when you never really were made to feel at "home" to begin with, feelings of the eternal displacement if you're an "immigrant"...it's a great movie...you have to pay attention in this movie & concentrate though, b/c I was feeling sleepy on some bits from my good meal before it...which leads me to another restaurant rave...Mochica...

Mochica, is a great, great, yummy Peruvian restaurant in South of Market...we had some yummers calamari in a good sauce with red onions. Then, we shared this weekender platter (the waiter let us order from it b/c I said, "It's already Saturday in London" & he laughed) that had pork, beef and chicken plus liver ( I know most people don't like liver but I'm used to it so, I ate it) and then I shared my NY Skirt steak with patatas and tomatos. While my other friend had a seafood platter. Everything was flavorful, every bite, every morsel...go, go, go if you want something that's different & it all taste light & good on a warm Spring night. If anything, go for their sangria, it was pretty slammin' comin' down with all the food we had...

So, today after all this activity this weekend, I got the luxury of sleepin' in today...I slept until noon & it felt goooooooooooodddddddd...I love it, love getting real deep sleep. There is a book called the "Tao of Yao" which is an autobiography of Yao Ming that the way he deals with pressure is by "sleeping"...ha! Sounds just about right to me...maybe, I'm just sleep deprived most of the time...that's all I need to beat all that stressin'...

So, I woke up did a bit of laundry & cleanin' up of the apartment...then I headed off to the Asian American Festival in Japantown...it's the first ever & I think it was a huge success. I didn't realize how big it would be though...lots of food, craft & community booths. The funniest ever is all the rice rockets bookending the booths, total "Fast & the Furious" style with the young bloods checkin' out each others' rides...

There were numerous BBQ on a stick booths, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese & Cambodian ones all selling meats on sticks! Baha! Which made me laugh & of course, I had one ...let's see, well, it was charcoal tastin' good...hee...it reminded me of summers on the beach in Port Hueneme, 5 years old with my aloha wear bikini & sandals; runnin' in the sand, spalshin' in the water, trying to help my mommy & daddy roast bbq sticks while the ocean was crashin' near by...nice, good memories...it's funny how food can do that, how , I know this is true for everyone but food is cultural; food can be associated to a place and that tapping on the immigrant experience again, how it can be a truly holy experience because it can recreate a past, a locale, what the body politics are even in the ingredients of one's ancestor's dish...not to beat the point to death...but it can be ritual to people b/c it took so long & the energy/ struggle to to get them to a certain place which is their "new home" but at the same time they don't want to lose something along the way, making that "signature dish" for us lets people keep something from their homeland here with them...that's why when people try to "play" or "tamper" with the original these days, it can be a little disheartening...just sticking with the original/ basics sometimes is just fine...also, it irks when the media tries to portray something as a trend or something new...like I saw an article on "fish sauce" in the paper a coupla' weeks back & they tried to pump it up by saying all these "fancy shcmancy" restaurants use as their "secret"/ "special" ingredient in their dishes & that they don't really tell most people b/c they wouldn't understand why they would need it in the 1st place...hmmmm, fish sauce, is like the foundation to most Asian dishes but it's also like a basic condiment in my household...so, when something so familiar to you is suddenly put out as a "new trend" it's weird...just plain weird...again, it reminds you of the certain differences we have but then again, if people are likin' it maybe the space between our palates & maybe other ideas will be less narrow...now, that's a good positive thought...

Anyway, here's the line from "There's Something About Mary" about meat on sticks that just make me laugh all the time & the first time I heard Cameron Diaz say it, I couldn't agree with her more; I'm a gal who absolutely loves meats on sticks...(hey, they had corndogs there too at the festival...another food on a stick I like!):

Meats On Sticks from "Something About Mary":

Mary: You know I don't think that they have enough meats on sticks. No, seriously.
Ted: Really?
Mary: If you think about it they have plenty of sweets right? They have lolli pops, they have fudge sickles, they have pop sickles, but they don't have any other meat on sticks.
Ted: Yes, you don't see that many meats on sticks. You know what I would like to see? I'd like to see more meat in a cone. You don't hardly ever see that. That's an idea that I think is waiting to pop. Just like a nice big over stuffed waffle cone full of chopped liver.

http://www.reelwavs.com/movies/theres_something_about_mary/aboutmary22.wav

I ended the day seeing my birthday celebrant friend from the Star Wars Bar in one of the booths at the festival, too ;). It was totally by pure happy coincidence that I saw her there; I just bought some cool Filipino jewelry & three booths down later, I see her beating drums in the Dragon Boating booth...ha! They had rigged a rowing machine with a paddle tied onto it for people to try rowing while they beated on the drums & called out strokes...of course, they talked me into doing it...it brought back my outrigger canoe days...hmmmm, I looked down the whole time b/c if I looked up I woulda' kept laughin' at the crowd that was staring at me...ha! It was good, clean fun I must say & "Birthday Gal" cheering me on was crackin' me up...anyway, "Hawaii 2005 here we come!", as she would say ;) Ahhhhh, yes, we're planning on our now official, annual trip to Hawaii in August...my whole group is excited, I really, really can't wait...it's the one thing that will keep me afloat all summer & when we go, I'm going to be the epitome of the phrase, "Footloose & Fancy-Free" I tell ya'...so watch out for more photos of me wearing that flower behind my ear, soon...

Anyway, my weekends always make-up for the weekdays, this one was no exception...

I'm going to pray for an uneventful week, that I can just coast through...wish "buenas suerte" to me...

Currently listening: She Will Be Loved Pt.1 By Maroon 5 Release date: By 23 August, 2004