Sheldon just returned from a working holiday, where he and his friend volunteered as workers on a small organic farm in Ontario.
This is through a program called WWOOF (see title of the entry to figure out the initials) and he came back with a load of pictures, video, and some really interesting insights gleaned from first-hand experience.
Well worth a read here. Note that you need to have a Xanga user name and password and be logged in to read his entry.
Now that I’m all caught up on my blog entries, you’ll be disappointed because there isn’t any fabulous jet setting about which I can write. Just normal, everyday entries. Prepare yourself for the mundane!
After discovering that the NY-style pizza place was closed, I decided to walk across the street and try Mes Amis Cafe, the “down market” location of the nearby upscale Mes Amis French restaurant. To call the cafe “down market” is a bit of a stretch: white tablecloths, attentive waiters, high prices – it is still relatively upscale.
The food was good, though. Pretty authentic (for Khrungthep) French cafe food. I had roast chicken with a side of vegetables and mashed potatoes. Looks beautiful, no?
One of the waiters seemed quite intrigued by my ability to speak Thai and he kept engaging me in conversation. Or, more accurately, he would keep thinking of additional questions to ask me, which resulted in an uncomfortable (for me) desire to be able to read my book and eat my lunch in peace. Finally, dessert arrived so I had an excuse to stop answering questions.
On my trip back to the United States, I bought a Kitchen Aid immersion blender. This is an addition to my stash of kitchen appliances that I have been considering for two years, so it wasn’t an impulse buy by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve found that using a traditional blender is not very effective for things like pesto and hummus, and is downright messy and even dangerous for blending soups.
Additionally, I’ve previously owned a food processor and found that I rarely used it because of the amount of clean-up necessary. Unless I’m chopping and slicing for a dinner for dozens of people, it is faster to do the prep work with a knife.
But I have been reading how an immersion blender makes quick work of soups, pestos, hummus, and sauces – as well as how it can be used in the pot or container the ingredients are already in. Talking with several people who use them, I realized that the immersion blender would be a very handy addition to my kitchen. As for which model, I settled on Kitchen Aid because of the very high review it was given by Cook’s Illustrated magazine, who rated it their best value.
Thankfully, Macy’s had them on sale for $20 off the regular price, so only $49.99. Oddly, they only had red and black in stock although Kitchen Aid does make a white body as well. Sadly, no yellow to match my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.
Inspired by T. Susan Chang’s NPR story about chilled summer soups, I made some chicken stock and then prepared this roasted tomato and pepper soup. It was very easy to make, although I had to substitute the broiler for a grill as we don’t have a grill. This led to a less smoky flavor, but it was tasty nonetheless.
Before and after pictures, below:
Tawn isn’t a big soup person to begin with and there was a bit of cognitive dissonance as the expectation (soup=warm) and the temperature (cold) did not match. Still, he liked the flavor. I thought I could dial back the peppers a bit and find some more flavorful tomatoes. Tomatoes in Thailand aren’t as tasty as summertime tomatoes in the United States. Maybe I can enrich the soup with a little tomato paste.
Worth reading: Sonny shares a funny, true story about his trip to a Starbucks to get one of their mango-banana blended drinks, where he had to contribute the banana because the store was out of them. Link here.
There may have been a little confusion: I am actually back in Khrungthep. My vacation actually ended on the sixty. My entries are just ten days behind, that’s all.
But watch how I will now magically get caught up and condense ten days into one.
I was away from the Big Mango for something like sixteen days but am amazed how much can happen in such a short period of time:
The NY-style pizza place I like on Thong Lor has closed. Not a surprise as it was rarely busy but still a disappointment. There is now a gourmet donut place at the top of the escalators of the fifth floor at the Emporium mall. Ostensibly as good as Krispy Kreme, but haven’t tried them yet. Ben and Jason opened their cafe at the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC) and it is very cute and Kobfa plays piano there on Friday nights. And Markus and Tam are housing a friend from China who is seeking political refugee status from the United Nations, fearing political persecution.
Proof that you just can’t stay away, otherwise this crazy town just leaves you behind.
Other news:
The governor of Khrungthep (you know that that’s the Thai name for Bangkok, right?) continues to beautify the city in advance of the upcoming gubernatorial elections, in which I think he is not running. Below, Before and after… and after.
Notice how bricks are used to form the border. They aren’t cemented together, yet another sign of how the Buddhist principles of impermanence find their way into Thai culture and governance.
There are still farang here. Including some who embody, style wise, the reason that some Thais would just as soon not have any farang here.
No sooner had I returned from San Francisco than Brad came to Thailand on a business trip. Tawn and I had the pleasure of meeting him for dinner at the very fancy Thai restaurant Basil, located at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit hotel.
We got back to eating at our favorite local places, including this small noodle shop on Sukhumvit just on the other side of Thong Lor. What a great way to eat. Watch that man move – so fast!
Tawn waits patiently for his noodles.
I like my noodles with soup (left); Tawn prefers them dry (right).
So good to be back home. I feel particularly in my element and even discovered that I hadn’t forgotten all my Thai. Whew! (Actually, Khruu Kitiya is even more relieved – she’d hate to think that two years worth of work had been lost.)
In addition to eating out, we quickly jumped back into the habit of cooking at home. I pulled my whole wheat sourdough starter out of the refrigerator and brought it back to life. Thankfully, it had done pretty well and took only two feedings before I was able to bake another loaf. Here are some things we made:
A sauce for pasta made of marinated chicken breast, onions, and tomatoes. This was really good:
Tawn, inspired by his trip to Italy, decided to try making panini with our combination waffle iron/grill/panini maker. Using my homemade bread, homemade pesto, and some mozzarella and tomatoes, he produced these tasty (if not so beautiful) sandwiches. Nice salad of mixed greens, walnuts, goat cheese and apples.
Finally, no sooner had we returned then our bedroom air conditioner crapped out. We’ve had it serviced three times in the eight months since we moved in and this time, we realized it was time to replace it. Bam! There goes $1,000. Ouch.
Old unit. The mirror has been removed to protect it. Wish I had removed the sconces, too, as we now have a cracked shade.
This man has an open flame in my bedroom. Can I borrow that to try making some torched saba?
Then he stands on the narrow metal frame that supported the old condenser unit, while installing a new one. Call me crazy, but that frame doesn’t look like it should be supporting him, especially with a four-story drop below him.
New unit, significantly narrower than the old one, by about 10 cm on each side. Resulting in some unsightly areas at the back of the cabinet that had been previously hidden. Guess we’ll have to bring someone in to address that.
So that’s it, ten days condensed into one entry. Now we’re up to date. Gosh, I hope something interesting happens today so I have something to write about tomorrow.
As my trip in Los Angeles wound to a close, I found myself increasingly under the weather. By mid-afternoon Saturday I felt some aches in my shoulder and neck and popped an ibuprofen tablet to keep down a mild fever.
Whether because of a bug I had acquired or simply running around too much and not sleeping enough along the way, I was hitting that dreaded obstacle to fun travel: being sick.
After returning from dinner in Culver City, I took a light weight sleeping pill and settled in for a good night’s rest.
Zombie much?
Sunday morning, some nine hours later, I could barely pull myself out of bed and shower. I felt like a zombie, like there was a layer of cement covering my body. Bill had agreed to join me for brunch with Gary and William in Venice Beach and I didn’t want to miss another opportunity to visit with them, so I forced myself to get up. But I was so tired that not only did I doze in the car as Bill drove to the west side, I could barely function over brunch, speaking very little, not eating much, and not taking any pictures – shocking!
Embarrassed by the awful impression I made (especially as I was just meeting Gary’s brother for the first time – “Hi, this is my friend Chris, he’s a zombie.”), but too tired at the moment to care much, I spent another couple of hours sleeping in the afternoon before catching my flight back to the Bay Area. And then I slept on the flight to the Bay Area.
Returning to Life
By the time I arrived in Oakland I was starting to feel human again – a little bit – and had dinner with Paul and Anita. We ate at Chow, a long time establishment at the corner of Church and Market Streets, that has been “around the corner” from most of the places I’ve lived in San Francisco, although not quite all of them.
I made the amazing discovery that eating some dinner, overcoming the lack of appetite I felt, actually improved things for me and I started to function more normally. After a very pleasant meal and good visiting, I returned to Anita’s to finish packing and take another two-hour nap before calling a taxi at 11 pm.
My flight from San Francisco to Taipei, which left at 1:40 am, actually was quite smooth. Originally seated in an aisle seat in the center seating section, I switched to a window seat so that a husband and wife could sit together. Normally, I don’t like to be stuck in window seats on long flights in economy class, because I can’t easily get out to stretch my legs or use the facilities. This time, however, it was fine because the lady on the aisle was about one-third my size. Teeny-tiny. Very easy to climb over even when she was asleep and everyone reclined their seat.
To top it off, I slept for about six hours of the twelve-hour flight. God bless Tylenol PM, protector saint of the jet setter.
Once again, EVA is to be commended for very good service in their “Elite” – premium economy – class. The food was tasty, portions generous, response to call buttons prompt, etc. Perhaps I should sell sponsorships? “EVA Airways is the official transpacific airline of this blog.” What could I get for that?
Loooooong Transit in Taipei
The flight arrived nearly an hour early into Taipei – about 4:45 am! This gave me about eighteen hours, a long layover I had intentionally scheduled so I would have an opportunity to explore the city. Thankfully, my friend Jay was in town and had time to meet for lunch.
Knowing that it was much too early to try to head into the city – the busses weren’t even running plus there wasn’t anything to do at that hour – I proceeded through security to the departure level and checked into the transit hotel. I love transit hotels. The ability to freshen up and even take a nap makes a long trip so much more pleasant.
I booked a room for five hours and was able to get almost four hours of sleep, although a on-and-off fever had me throwing the covers off then pulling them back on throughout the morning.
At 10:00, after showering, shaving and getting a cup of coffee from Starbucks, I retraced my route back through security (“Oh, I need to go to the transit desk, please.”) and then proceeded to immigration where I threw everyone off. It seems that there is a bank of early morning arrivals into the airport and then nothing for several hours, so immigration was literally closed. Nobody at any desk.
An officer came over to her station and waved me through, and a few other officers came over, curious where this random foreigner arrived from. Looking at my arrival information, the officer took several minutes to mentally process why, if I had been on a flight that arrived five hours ago, I was just passing through immigration now.
After explaining that I had been at the hotel, sleeping, she stamped my passport and then accidentally stamped my onwards boarding pass with the arrivals stamp. Whoops! That is meant to be stamped with the departure stamp when I leave Taiwan. So she grabbed her “void” stamp and tried to undo the damage, which would cause confusion later that day when I headed through the outbound immigration line.
Customs was equally empty, with a lady officer having to set down her breakfast and jog over to my line, only to wave me through without a second glance.
After storing my roll-aboard bag at the bag check (left hand side of the terminal as you exit), I bought my bus ticket into the city and headed on my way. Below, the view from the bus as I catch my first glimpse of Taipei 101, currently the world’s tallest building.
[As a side note about how one’s English degenerates after living overseas, it took me about a minute to decide how to spell “glimpse”, above. I couldn’t remember the “e” a the end and was sounding it out and spelling it different ways before I finally looked at a dictionary. Sad, sad, sad…]
Lunchtime
By the time I made it into central Taipei, a good 45-minute ride from the airport, it was nearly lunchtime. Jay met me in the lobby of the Shangri-La hotel, where I had frittered away a few minutes reading the Sunday NY Times, which I had carried for the past thirty hours and not made much progress on.
Jay’s a friend from San Francisco who moved to Taipei to start Portico Media, what originally was an animation company but now does production, distribution and a wide range of other media-related tasks.
It has been seven or eight years since we first met through the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. If I recall, Jay worked as an intern with the festival’s former director and there was some screening at the Castro Theatre in which we were both involved.
Anyhow, it is good to know nice people all around the world. Especially nice people with good taste in food! Jay took me to Yongkang Street, in the western end of the city, where we ate at the well-regarded Yong-Kang Beef Noodle Shop, left.
The neighborhood is a web of small streets mostly filled with small buildings, a very walkable neighborhood that reminded me a bit of New York’s Chinatown, but cleaner. Along the way we passed so many good-looking restaurants and I instantly regretted having but one day to give to this city.
Beef Noodles & c.
Yong-Kang Beef Noddle Shop is a compact, clean but not fancy two-story restaurant. We found room on the second floor and set about perusing the menu, which is limited to about fifteen key dishes, many of which we had the opportunity to try:
Working from the top row, across and down: Seaweed with garlic, steamed hog spareribs, cucumber with acorn jelly, the famous spicy beef noodle soup with soy sauce broth, spicy Schezhuan style pork dumplings, stacks of the hot spareribs steaming away in the downstairs kitchen.
The food was really good and I regretted that, as there were only two of us, we left some food on our plates. The beef noodle soup is made of very tender stewed meat with lots of gelatinous fat and connective tissue. Sometimes this is a little hard for me to get used to, as this is what I learned to leave on the plate when I was growing up, but you realize just how delicious it is, you realize you have to enjoy it!
Of course there was time for some dessert at Ice Monster (below), a local chain that serves various fruits, beans and jellies over shaved ice.
We shared a triple serving of fruit: mango, strawberry and kiwi topped with a scoop of mango ice cream. Oh, that was good!
Below, we get a photographer (you see him shooting two pictures above) to take a picture of us.
About Taipei
Since Jay had to go back to work, he put me in a taxi headed to the National Palace Museum on the north side of town. Along the way, I was a little surprised to see less traffic and far fewer scooters than I had expected. My vision of Taipei has been formed by the movies of just a few directors. Most notably, Tsai Ming-Liang and Edward Yang. From these films, I built the image in my mind of a Taipei that was perpetually polluted, crowded, and a teeming hornet’s nest of scooters.
While there were a lot of scooters, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected. In fact, given that the city has much more land to work with, it was less crowded and less vertical than, say, Hong Kong. To top it off, there was a monsoon working its way up from Hong Kong so the winds were very strong, making for beautifully clear skies and a very pleasant afternoon, despite the 34-degree temperature.
Below, one of many dogs I saw riding on scooters. How does he not fall off?
The front of the National Palace Museum and below that, the view looking at the entry garden. The museum has one of the largest collection of Chinese artifacts in the world, which were moved from Beijing by the nationalists during the Chinese civil war. While controversy surrounds many aspects of the museum’s existence, much as the China-Taiwan question is a live wire that sparks many conflicts, the museum has an excellent collection that is very well presented. On a future visit I will have to give it more time, as I didn’t want to spend my entire afternoon indoors on this trip.
From the museum, I caught the bus down the hill to the nearest MRT station. The transit system in Taipei is extensive and fairly easy to navigate. There are signs and announcements in English, including “next destination” signs inside the buses. You have to watch, though, as the English flashes by pretty quickly!
The MRT system is likewise easy to use and I found may way back into the heart of the city with no difficulties. Below, my train arrives. In the main stations, there are safety gates along the edge of the track. At smaller stations, it is open.
There were two things I still wanted to do: visit the observation deck at Taipei 101 and then also take the Maokong Gondola from the Taipei Zoo station. Somewhat along the lines of the Nong Ping 360 gondola that has opened in Hong Kong, the Maokong Gondola is an extensive line, built into the MRT system, that takes you up a series of hills and mountains to a temple from which you get a good view of the larger Taipei area.
The engineering of the system is fascinating as at one point the gondola line has to drop below a large number of high-tension power lines. The view is less spectacular than, say, from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, but is still very nice.
Below: Sunset as seen from one of the gondola cars. Note that you can see Taipei 101 in the photo, which looks roughly northwest.
By the time I descended the gondola, the sun was tucking into the western horizon, ready for bed. Knowing that the airport was quite a ride away, I didn’t want to risk being delayed by going to the top of Taipei 101, which was a good thirty minutes away from the Taipei Zoo station where I picked up the gondola.
I called Jay to report my whereabouts, lest he feel responsible for having lost a visitor to the sprawling Taiwanese capital, and we agreed to meet for a quick dinner near his office. We headed out to a night market, a familiar site in Chinese cities around the world. Once again, we had some really tasty food to eat.
Above: Various meats and veggies are added to hot broth to make a satisfying soup. Below: A fresh oyster omelet is prepared for us.
Above: Our oyster omelet and zoh geng or meat noodle stew with pork sausage. Tasty, unfussy food for the market shopper.
Even though it was a Tuesday night, there were plenty of shoppers looking for bargains, below.
By this point, it was pushing 8:30 and I had an 11:05 flight. Not wanting to risk heavy traffic, we headed back to the Shangri-La Hotel and five minutes later I was on a bus to the airport. Many thanks to Jay for taking time out of his busy day to ensure I had a proper introduction to Taipei food. I’m going to pack Tawn up and head back one of these days soon to get some more.
Conclusion
The trip to the airport was smooth. I reclaimed my checked bag about thirty minutes late, but the lady didn’t charge me anything extra. Outbound immigration was a little confused why my boarding pass was stamped with an entry stamp and then subsequently voided. After a brief explanation, the officer added an exit stamp to the mess and I was on my way. Just enough time to shower and change at the transit hotel so my final flight would be made in comfort.
Eighteen hours doesn’t seem to be enough time to explore a city, but I found a lot to enjoy about Taipei and look forward to a trip back. It is much less intense than Hong Kong, a city I love, and that is a positive thing. Not everywhere needs to be so vertical and intense.
The flight back to Khrungthep was smooth and I enjoyed a long conversation with an American-born Thai from Arizona who was flying in to visit relatives and explore business opportunities. With the number of times this young man called me “sir”, I assumed he had served in the military at some point. Turns out to just be good manners on his part combined with a touch of looking middle-aged on my part.
Saturday was aquarium day. I coordinated meeting two sets of friends, one from the North County of San Diego and the other from Culver City. Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific seemed to be a great meeting place as it is central and appeals to children, which both sets of friends have.
Unfortunately, coordinating the timing didn’t work quite as well as it could have, so I essentially did two tours of the aquarium. That’s okay, though, as it is a surprisingly good aquarium and when seeing it through the eyes of children, you can always find something new to enjoy.
Danielle and Ian drove up from San Diego in the morning and were waiting for me outside the aquarium with their children, Piper and Devin. The last time I saw them was in July 2005, when Piper was only about a year old. (Trip report here on airliners.net that covers the First Class flight I took after that visit from LAX en route to BKK aboard Asiana) Needless to say, she has grown quite a bit in the meantime. Very well mannered, she shook my hand and said hello. Devin also was very outgoing. Right: Ian watches as Piper and Devin get up close and personal with the sea lion tank.
The most popular parts of the aquarium were the two petting tanks. One for the sharks and another for the rays. Below: Danielle, Devin, Ian and Piper at the shark petting tank. Remember, we use two fingers to pet the sharks, not our whole hands.
From the upper outdoor level of the aquarium, you get a view of the Queen Mary in the harbour. Quite a view and somewhere I should visit one of these days.
The aquarium was fascinating for me just because all of this sea life amazes me. Especially the jellyfish. How in the world do these things work? It seems impossible. Plus, they are amazing to watch. Put on some ambient music and just stare at them for hours.
A bit after lunch, Piper and Devin were starting to tire so Danielle and Ian got ready to pack them up and head home. Perfect timing, too, as the second wave of friends had arrived so there was a few minutes of introductions and chit-chat.
Below: We pose beneath a blue whale that is suspended in the aquarium lobby.
With that, I started my second round of the aquarium, this time with Lalima and Aaron and their son, also named Devin. Lilian and Samantha flew down from San Jose to join us, so it was a high school reunion.
Below: Lily, Samantha, Lalima and Aaron observe the rays at the ray petting tank. There was one very playful ray who liked to swim right along the edge and flap his wings and splash people. Such a character!
After a quicker breeze through the exhibits and a search for Nemo and Dory in the tropical fish section (we found them), we headed out for a mid-afternoon lunch at The Corner Place, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Cerritos. This, according to Samantha, is one of only two restaurants she knows of on the west coast that serve dong chi mee kuk sul, a cold rice noodle soup with a vinegar/ginger broth, garnished with green onions, julienned cucumbers and a slice of tomato, pictured below.
A refreshing summertime specialty, the restaurant is so jealous of its recipe that it won’t even sell you a to-go order of the soup. In fact, Samantha was once apprehended trying to sneak some of it away in a plastic container! They are serious about this soup.
If was enjoyable, reminding me a bit of khao chae, the jasmine-scented cold rice soup that Thais enjoy during the hot season. Not so much in the taste or flavor but just in the idea of a refreshing cool dish to eat when the weather is warm.
In additional to the soup, we enjoyed beef kalbi, the typical Korean grilled beef with garnishes, shown below.
What most amazed me was that Devin, all of two years old, was so adventurous that he would try each of the different varieties of kimchee that were on the table. Spicy? No problem. Sour? No problem. If he didn’t like a flavor, he would chew and swallow his mouthful and then politely decline any more. No spitting out his food.
It probably helps that several months ago his parents brought him to Bangladesh to visit Lalima’s extended family, so he’s been exposed to a lot of different types of food. But some of it must be personality and he’s just a very easy-going, open-minded sort of child.
Below, Lalima and I wait patiently for our food.
After a few hours of napping back at Bill and Alex’s place, I drove to Culver City to join the gang at Aaron and Lalima’s house. We had a very nice barbecue dinner sitting on the patio. The menu included grilled shrimp and pineapple with roasted squash and a tomato and avocado salad. Dessert was Lalima’s famous homemade peppermint ice cream. Delicious.
It was a bit late when dinner was finally ready – nearly ten o’clock! – but Devin was a trooper and stayed up to eat with us, conking out just as soon as he had finished eating. Below: Aaron, Samantha, Lalima, Lilian and Devin.
Poor Devin suffers from a mother and two aunties who like to take lots and lots (and lots!) of pictures. He must have the strongest cheek muscles of any child his age from all the smiling he’s asked to do.
It was a really fun Saturday in SoCal and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see this friends.
Friday was a day of reunions and a lot of good eating. Sounds like the same story as every entry when I’m on vacation, doesn’t it?
First there was a lunch at the Shoreline Cafe in Long Beach with Aaron and Jose, former colleagues from my days working at AMC Theatres. Aaron had just moved to Los Angeles two days earlier, after living abroad with his partner in Mexico City for the previous two years. Having followed similar paths, we have had a lot to talk about and I’m glad we have stayed in touch. Hopefully now that he is in LA, he’ll find the next path that he needs to follow.
Jose is someone I haven’t had any contact with in years, and he was able to give me the low down on the universe of former AMC colleagues (a few of whom actually still work for AMC!). My days working in the motion picture exhibition industry were formative. One of these days I’ll write more about it, to try and capture just how much fun and how difficult running a movie theatre is.
After lunch, I continued my way to the west side of LA, making a stop at the pocket park next LAX. Located across the street from an In-n-Out Burger, this park is directly under the short final approach path for runway 25R. This is where many of the large planes coming from Europe, Asia and Australia land. Great spot for plane watching. Notice that I’m restraining myself and not posting any more airplane pictures.
About 3:00, a little Xangan pow-wow began as I met Gary at Cafe Surfas in Culver City, above. Surfas is this combination of a cute cafe and a store that sells restaurant supplies and gourmet foodstuffs. Credit goes to Tony for including this in one of his photoblogs and giving me the idea. Oddly, I got into trouble for taking pictures, so I guess Tony was just more clandestine than I, as he was able to get many beautiful shots.
Below, Gary is shocked by the high price of imported Thai coconut milk. What goes for fifty cents in Thailand (or the equivalent in baht) is three dollars at Surfas! This must be designed for Angelenos who aren’t comfortable walking into a local “ethnic” market, where you could get many of these ingredients at a much lower price.
On the kitchen supply side of the store I found my dream oven: an industrial sized convection oven in which I could cook a few hundred cupcakes at once. This is where a passing employee admonished us to not take pictures. I would have been more favorable in my comments above, noting the broad selection of foreign foods rather than their significant prices, had they not been so camera shy.
We were joined by Steve. Because he doesn’t regularly include any photos of himself on his blog, I made the decision not to include any photos of him in this entry. But he’s coming to Thailand soon so maybe you can encourage him to jump in front of the lens.
After browsing as Surfas, which really does have a great selection of things, especially cookware, we headed to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. This is one of my old stomping grounds. When I lived in Los Angeles in 1995-96, I worked in Century City and spent a lot of time in Santa Monica with friends. Glad to see some things have not changed despite the continual “mallification” of the Promenade. Below, a group of hare krishna perform at the corner of Arizona and Third Street.
How do you know when you’ve really arrived in LA? When, in the course of two blocks, you hear hare krishna chanting at dusk, watch a group of youngsters break dancing for tips, get bored with a French mime doing slow motion sleight of hand, observe a man with his monkey, and are a bit shocked by a pair of books on display in the Barnes and Noble window: The Big Book of Breasts and The Big Penis Book. It is always 74 and sunny here, right?
For dinner, we were joined by William and tried Gary’s recommendation of Musha on Wilshire Boulevard, a Tokyo cuisine restaurant that also has a location in Torrance. Musha is often described as a Japanese-French fusion tapas restaurant. I’m not sure how accurate that description is. It might be better to describe it as an izakaya restaurant, kind of a sake bar that offers more significant food than your regular sake bar.
In the same way that Spanish tapas evolved from small bites provided to bar patrons to keep them from getting too drunk, izakaya serve small plates of food to satisfy customers over several hours of drinking.
Musha has received positive reviews for some of the spins it places on traditional izakaya dishes, as well as some downright non-Japanese food on the menu. We skipped the heavy drinking part (other than a beer that William and I split) and focused on the food.
The interior of Musha is small, with a bar at the front and a dozen tables behind. Lanterns and warm colors keep the space intimate and cozy. Service is friendly and efficient, primarily by a pair of Japanese-speaking wait staff that keep things running smoothly. Other than a noisy group of office workers who gathered at the bar to celebrate something, the volume of the restaurant was tolerable.
Let’s take a look at our culinary tour. We started with a spicy tuna dip served with rice crackers, something fun and tasty:
Also arriving early was duck breast marinated in ponzu sauce (the citrus-flavored dipping sauce common with things like gyoza) served on grated daikon oroshi with Tokyo leeks. The duck was very tender and the ponzu sauce really cuts through the richness of the meat.
The highlight of the evening – the culinary highlight of my entire trip, in fact – was the torched aburi saba. This was mackerel sliced sashimi-style, marinated in vinegar, then torched at your table. Here’s a video:
The finished product was a perfect balance of textures and flavors. Saba is a meaty fish with a slightly salty disposition. It wasn’t marinated too long, so it still had the sashimi texture, but the saltiness was balanced by the sweet tanginess of the marinade. To top it off, the skin was slightly crisp and had a charred smokiness from the torching.
Such a delicate layering of flavors. I’d like to try making it at home, but don’t want to buy an industrial grade torch. That’s a bit too much. Maybe I can find a pipe-fitter who will lend me a torch. Below, a closeup of two individual pieces. Notice the color of the flesh.
Next we had a grilled portobella mushroom and acorn squash with a miso-citrus dipping sauce. A charcoal brazier was placed on the table and we were able to cook our own mushroom.
I wasn’t the only person taking photos. William provides many of the excellent photos that appear on Gary’s blog. I’ve been thinking about this idea – I should have a crew with me when I’m out. Someone to take pictures, someone to take notes, while I just savor the experiences and write about them later. Applications now being accepted!
About this time, Steve had to take off for business. Sadly, he missed out on a number of great dishes that followed. Here are homemade tofu fries with a creamy wasabi sauce and a sweet chili sauce. I’m going to share a secret with you: I think the chili sauce is the same sweet chicken dipping sauce you can buy in large bottles at Asian supermarkets throughout the US. The tofu, being homemade, was very fresh and the concept of tofu fries is very fun.
We took a distinctly non-Japanese beat with the arrival of a risotto, typical ham and cheese but served from a hollowed out round of Parmesan cheese. Sadly, they didn’t leave the round at the table, but instead served the risotto and took it back to the kitchen.
The risotto was probably the low point of the savory meal. It was tasty, maybe a bit gloppy, but it was just risotto. I didn’t see how it fit into the larger theme of the menu.
Our final savory dish was the takotama. This is a two-layer omelet with chopped octopus, leeks, red ginger and bonito broth. It was very geometrically laid out, so I needed pictures from both sides.
The takotama was tasty, although a little sweet. By this point we were getting quite full and decided to share a dessert. Japanese restaurants aren’t known for their desserts. Traditionally, if you want something sweet you’ll head over to a bakery or sweet shop after dinner. This might explain why the dessert menu was lifted straight from any western restaurant: tarte tartin, creme brulee, molten chocolate cake, etc.
We opted for the molten chocolate cake, which was served on an ice-cold plate. Good for keeping the ice cream frozen but the cake didn’t feel like it had seen the inside of an oven anytime recently. In fact, given the soft exterior, I think it was zapped in the microwave. Not long enough, though, as the interior wasn’t molten by any stretch of the imagination. Molasses moves faster in a Minnesota winter!
The chocolate cake aside – really, what was I expecting of a chocolate cake ordered at a Japanese restaurant? – the meal was really tasty and surprisingly inexpensive. Would you believe that the total bill for all of the above plus a large bottle of Japanese beer, was under $80 before gratuity? A very good value.
Of course, more than anything else, the company was wonderful. Sorry that Steve wasn’t there to see the meal to its conclusion. I did enjoy visiting with Gary and William and look forward to our next culinary adventure together.
So rarely do I actually laugh until I cry, even though it is so good for one’s health.
Alex made mention of the Cake Wrecks blog on her site so I went to check it out.
Well worth a visit and take the time to scroll through previous entries about cakes that went oh so wrong.
You’ll laugh and laugh until tears run down your cheeks and then you’ll want to eat a cupcake.
Those of you who aren’t aviation geeks will be happy to know that, pretty soon, I’ll run out of blog entries about airplanes and airports and aviation. I’ll get back to normal things like food and travel and… more food.
Saturday morning I work early. Alex headed back up to the Bay Area and Bill and I headed on a secret behind-the-scenes tour of Long Beach Airport. Bill’s one of those affable people who makes friends with everyone and, as such, always seems to know just the person to help out with any need.
When I mentioned that I’d love to get a peek behind the scenes at LGB, he started putting those connections together and the result was this early morning tour.
To protect the integrity of those connections, I won’t give a any details about how we got onto the other side of the fence. Suffice it to say that we were escorted at all times and were well within the bounds of the law.
Long Beach Airport has a long history and despite having very low levels of commercial traffic (caused by some of the strictest noise control ordinances in the nation) it is also one of the busiest general aviation fields in the United States. The airport is probably most famous as the home of the Douglas Aircraft Company. During World War II, more than 4,200 C-47 aircraft – the military version of the workhorse DC-3 – were manufactured at this airport. Additionally, more than 3,000 B-17 Flying Fortresses were produced here, too.
The entire tour took place within the secured grounds of the airport, mostly following a service road that runs alongside and around the end of the runways. We started on the righthand side of the map, near the passenger terminal, and continued clockwise around the airport.
I’ll group these pictures in as logical a sequence as I can and try to make the explanations as interesting for you as possible.
The road took us down to the arrivals end of the main, 10,000-foot runway, in the lower right of the map. The road actually ran right alongside the taxiway and we stopped so I could get out and shoot some footage and take pictures. I’ll include the video footage when I write my trip report at airliners.net, but here are a few pictures. As I mentioned, LGB has very low levels of commercial passenger traffic, so there aren’t that many flights.
A jetBlue Airbus A320
Delta Connection (operated by SkyWest) CRJ-700
We stopped by the different facilities operated by Gulfstream, the manufacturer of corporate jets. Gulfstream operates a completion facility here, where planes that have been constructed are flown in, unpainted and unfinished, and then are completed here. They are pretty secretive about their customers so I had to snap pictures on the go.
Below, a new, unpainted Gulfstream sits on the ramp. I believe this is a Gulfstream G550.
On the other side of the airport, one of the Gulfstream jets is masked and partly painted.
Next door to that is a shiny new Gulfstream, just out of the paint hangar. Note the weights that are on the nose gear. Note sure why that is. My theory is that the interior is still empty so there the center of gravity is behind the main landing gears, making the plane at risk of tipping back onto its tail.
Military jets. Long Beach is still the production facility for the Boeing C-17. Boeing purchased Douglas several years ago but the heavy lift C-17 is still manufactured here and ones that have been damaged are returned here for extensive repair. There is one at the airport that suffered a lot of damage in Iraq and had to be flown back at 10,000 the whole way (compared with 30,000 – 40,000 feet normally) so that the cabin would remain unpressurized.
Below, a new C-17 is finished at the Boeing hangar on the northeast corner of the airport.
The B-1 bomber shown here is undergoing some sort of testing or modification, although of it isn’t clear for what purpose.
The legacy of Douglas Aircraft is shown by this decades-old sign that Boeing has kept on the facility where the Boeing 717 (a derivative of the MD-80, which was a derivative of the DC-9). Sadly, it won’t be around forever as I understand that this facility is to be torn down.
We saw some classic older jets, including this Grumman HU-16A Albatross. This flying boat was dates from the 1950s and its unique fuselage design allows it to land in the open ocean, handling waves better than most of its counterparts.
The following planes are two DC-3s (or Douglas C-47, as it was originally manufactured as part of the war effort) operated by Catalina Flying Boats, an on-demand operator who flies mostly cargo flights to Catalina Island. They have contracts with all the carriers like FedEx and UPS along with the Los Angeles Times to deliver copies of the daily paper to the island.
About thirty minutes after I took this picture, we were on the other side of the field and I was able to take video of this plane taking off for a trip to Catalina Island. One of these days, I’m going to fly on a DC-3. There is one that does excursion flights in Melbourne, Australia and I have my eyes set on it for a future trip.
Other cargo operators have a presence at LGB, including UPS and DHL (formerly Airborne Express). Here are some shots of a converted DHL B767-200 freighter. It started out as a passenger jet for All Nippon Airways (ANA), a Japanese company, before being converted in September 2000 to freighter duty.
Private jets abound at LGB. As mentioned, it is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country. It is kind of funny that local residents who complain about noise and don’t want any increase in commercial operations, fail to realize that these private jets – especially the Learjets and Gulfstream corporate jets – make much more noise than the commercial passenger planes that are flown these days.
Here is a small corporate jet ready for its passengers on the ramp outside AirFlite services, a fixed base operator owned by the Toyota Corporation. Toyota’s North American operations are headquartered just up the 405 freeway in Torrance, so it makes sense that they would operate a service for corporate jets at the closest airport.
A few minutes later a valet brought the luggage out of the lounge using the same type of cart you would find at a fine hotel. What service!
Some very rich people have converted former commercial aircraft to be their own private jets. Here is an MD-87 (again, a derivative of the DC-9) that is now privately owned. Compare that to the tiny prop jet next to it!
For those with truly vintage taste, may I suggest a Boeing B727-21? Dating back to 1966, this air frame first flew for Pan Am before being sold to Alaska Airlines. It now is operated by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, previously known as ICN Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of exciting drugs like the synthetic cannabinoid Cesamet. Yes, fake marijuana fuels this plane. I’ll skip the obvious jokes about getting high.
From the northwest end of the field I had the privilege of sitting at the end of the runway and watching a plane land. Here’s a jetBlue A320 in the distance with the pyramid-shaped gymnasium at Cal State University Long Beach on the horizon.
Standing near the arrivals end of the runway (close to two miles from where the picture above was taken) I get a good view of an Alaska Airlines MD-90 on short final approach as a SkyWest CRJ700 waits to enter the runway.
As one of the busiest airports, LGB is equipped with a state of the art emergency services department. Here is one of their newest crash trucks, always on the ready in the event of a crash landing.
Finally, for those of you who live in the Southland, the aircraft that brings you news and traffic, Sky Fox 11. It also brings you badly biased political views, but that’s probably not the fault of the pilot.
After the tour ended and the morning overcast started to burn off, I took this last picture from the top of the car park, looking past the overcrowded little terminal at LGB and you can see the B-1 bomber and DHL 767 that are pictured above. Based on this, you can get an idea of where I was on the field.
Many thanks to Bill and his connections for making this once-in-a-lifetime tour happen.
Arriving in San Francisco after that beautiful flight across the western United States, I made my way to Anita’s, dropped off my bags and headed to Union Square to complete some last-minute shopping.
While there, I was hungry and wanted a quick, easy and relatively healthy bite to eat. That desire made me realize another notable difference between life in Thailand and the United States. In the US, if you are out and want a quick bite to eat, it seems that more often than not you end up at a fast food restaurant. In Thailand, you can end up eating something fast, but I wouldn’t call it fast food.
My hunger led me to the only Thai restaurant I went to on my entire trip: King of Thai Noddles, the small San Francisco chain that does a good job of approximating the Thai wok-style street food experience. The surest clue is that the entire staff is Thai – my first time hearing Thai spoken in nearly two weeks. The pad siew, wide rice noodles in a soy sauce with chicken and chinese broccoli, were a flavor memory of Sukhumvit Soi 38’s night dining and a much-needed reminder that home is where the taste buds are.
After completing my dining and shopping, I headed to Newark and dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house. Like many houses around the Bay Area during summer, once the sun begins to go down the onshore breezes pick up, making a sweatshirt or even a roaring fire necessary.
Above, clockwise from upper left: my uncle Dick mans the grill; Cousin Patrick prepares hamburger patties; I try to light a fire while extended family members look on; Cousin Jackie poses with a plate of watermelon.
We had a number of extended family members in town, including my cousin’s cousins (their first cousins through their mom’s side of the family) whom I had not seen in probably twenty-five years as they now live in Arkansas. They were visiting with their respective families and it was interesting to catch up with people whose lives have taken an entirely different path than my own.
I also had the opportunity to meet my cousin Michael’s future in-laws. He and Sara are getting married next summer and this was my first opportunity to meet Sara’s parents and younger siblings. All very nice people and I look forward to them being a part of the family.
As a result of all these new people, we had a lot of young children running around. Jackie decided that smores were the answer to keep them occupied and so, ever the girl scout, she pulled out the smore making gear.
Notice that some people didn’t wait to put the marshmallow between the chocolate and graham crackers, opting to just eat it straight from the fire.
Patrick, ever the chef, made a chocolate chip and tequila bread pudding that was really tasty. The serving was also way too big!
Thursday morning I headed down to San Jose to catch my flight to Long Beach. My decision to fly out of San Jose was based both on low prices as well as a desire to see how the airport from which I flew a great deal as a child has changed. The old terminal still uses air stairs instead of jetways, something of a throwback to an earlier generation of air travel. A new terminal is under construction, threatening to modernize the airport to an entirely unrecognizable point.
Thankfully, though, the outdoor observation deck is still open and I spent two hours watching planes, taking pictures, and getting a sunburn on my forearms. The best of the shots, a Southwest 737 rotating and climbing into the sunny afternoon:
Below, my flight on a jetBlue Embraer E190.
You’ve probably had enough pictures from the air after yesterday’s entry, so I’ll ask that you indulge me with just a few more.
Below, “Silicon Valley” – the San Jose area – just after takeoff, the airport visible in the background.
Smoke from the many fires still visible as we head down the coast, just past the Monterey Bay.
The art deco terminal of Long Beach Airport, complete with palm trees. What could be more Southern California than that?
Since Bill works for jetBlue, he met me at the baggage claim and then took me on a little tour of the airline’s west coast operations center, a nondescript building near the terminal. It is interesting to see how they still have much of the start-up mentality, making it a fun place to work.
We headed to their house, just a five-minute drive from the airport in the city of Lakewood. Alex joined us a little bit later and I had a tour of their backyard, which they’ve recently done some work on.
Below, Bill (or Bill’s arm) feeds Alex some wild grapes that grow along their fence. Turns out to be pretty bitter.
After the grazing, we headed to the nearby city of Bellflower. During the summer months they do a weekly Thursday evening block party. The main street is shut down and a combination of craft fair, farmer’s market, and concert takes place. There are many people who show up, especially families, and the crowd shows the diversity that is very much a part of Southern California.
Below, Bill stands by as Alex snaps pictures.
We opted for a barbecue dinner at Johnny Rebs, a Carolina-Georgia style BBQ place that has buckets of peanuts on the table and encourages you to throw the shells on the floor. Despite this, they received an “A” rating from the public health department.
The food is good, although I think Lucille’s – another of Alex and Bill’s favorites that we went to last September – had smokier meat. Here’s what we had:
Bill had the deep fried catfish with hush puppies and fries. The tartar sauce was homemade and the hush puppies were, surprisingly, not oily.
Alex had the pulled pork shoulder, which I found a little dry and not very smoky. The sauce, which is a regional matter, is pretty vinegary but I found it lacked a distinctive flavor profile. Of course, taste in BBQ is very individual. Something that one person loves, another will not.
I chose the tri-tip sandwich. Tri-tip is a unique central California treat and it should be medium rare with lots of juicy pink in the center. Unfortunately, the meat for this sandwich was overcooked and, subsequently, a little tough.
We wrapped up sharing a peach cobbler that we barely made a dent in. Too much dessert and the cobbler itself was a little doughy and undercooked.
Overall, my impression on Johnny Rebs was that it was okay, but it was not the real deal. It was BBQ done Los Angeles style with lots done to make it look authentic but not enough to make it taste authentic.
Back at their home, we stayed up until after 1:00, visiting. I realized as I rolled into bed at 1:30, that I’ve spent too many nights on this trip staying up too late and getting up too early. Something that ended up catching up with me.
My eight days in Kansas City ended too soon. Packing my bags on a wet Wednesday morning, I said goodbye to my nieces and headed to the airport for my flight back to San Francisco. Below, see you at Christmas.
Normally, I save my pictures of airplane trips for trip reports on airliners.net, but this was such a beautiful day for flying that I want to share some of the pictures with everyone. Below, a soon to be vanished sight – Midwest Airlines’ MD-87. In the next few weeks they will be cutting their fleet by some 40%, removing all of these planes from service and cutting their staff by about the same number. Tough times in the US airline industry.
The western United States is a rugged, mostly barren land and it gives some idea into the American psyche: there is lots and lots of room, lots of frontier to be civilized, and always the possibility of reinventing yourself somewhere new.
Some of that land is flat and ugly (much of Nevada, based on having driven it) but much of it has great beauty, beauty carved by the elements over untold millennia. Much of it is hard to appreciate when you are driving across the country, because much of it is hidden. But from 35,000 feet you can see the sheer size of some of these geologic formations, a vastness of scope that is both vertical and horizontal.
Let me share these photos with you:
The Rocky Mountains just west of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
A deep glacial valley on the left, carved into the alpine mountains.
A small town lies in the valley below a mountain, somewhere near Aspen, Colorado.
A river winds through dry lands, cutting across the face of a butte.
Area near Moab, Utah and Canyonlands National Park.
West of Canyonlands National Park, heading towards Nevada.
Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Notice all the smoke from various fires. In the upper-right quadrant is Yosemite Valley. If you look carefully, you can see what I think is Half Dome.
I may be wrong (and I’m sure someone will correct me if I am) but I think this picture – a close-up of the one above – shows Half Dome in the center of the picture about one-third of the way in from the left side. Amazing how much smoke there is.
Hopeton, California in the foreground with the Merced Airport and the city of Merced in the background. This is west of Yosemite Valley where the Sierra Nevada foothills give way to the Central Valley – California’s agricultural engine.
The airport shown below is in Patterson, California, where the Central Valley gives way to the Coastal Range. San Luis Reservoir is visible in the distance.
As we descend over the Coastal Range the path of a high tension power line is visible, a clear swath cutting through the trees.
We enter the Bay Area in the Warm Springs/Irvington district of Fremont, turning northwest towards the airport and flying over the colorful salt evaporation ponds near the Dumbarton Bridge. Moffett Federal Air Field is visible in the background.
As we head for Foster City and the San Mateo Bay Bridge, I spot a United Airlines A319 slowly moving closer to us. It is clear that we will be executing a parallel approach for runways 28 Left and 28 R, something that can only be done in the right weather conditions when visibility is excellent. This is because the runways are only 750 feet (229 meters) apart. Below, the city of San Mateo with Coyote Point Regional Park just coming into view in the foreground.
What follows is an aviation enthusiast’s dream: an excellent view all the way in of another aircraft landing. I captured it on video and am including it below for your enjoyment. Rather humorously, when my seatmate, a retiree who spends her time between Milwaukee and Sonoma, saw the other plane, she announced that she hoped he would pull away soon. She apparently thought we were playing chicken for only one runway.
christao408 