Photo, above: German (pronounced Her-Mann) and his Yelp 4.5 star rated food truck at the border in San Ysidro.
Deep fried fish, assorted seafood including mussels, octopus, shrimp and clams, and marlin on the menu.
The American Dream at work: creativity, innovation, and efficiency
“The grass is always greener on the other side”…view of Tijuana, Mexico from San Ysidro, California.
Our trip begins in Oslo. We had a day-long layover on our Norwegian Air flight (the airlines was voted the best in 2014) here, so I made reservations at Nodee Asian Cooking in advance. Fascinated by the Chinese diaspora, Gee Kin and I always like to visit Asian restaurants when we are in Europe. I decided that trying a reputable sushi establishment with emphasis on fresh fish in Scandinavia would be a good alternative to heavy meat-based Nordic food. Another couple we met on a similar escape from the airport were searching for good moose and reindeer.
We weren’t able to get reservations the last time we were in Copenhagen to Noma, deemed the world’s best restaurant. I researched comments on Eater.com, a website for foodies. I settled on Nodee based on fairly good evaluations and the fact that it was open for lunch. Although not intended to match the standard and quality of Noma, we weren’t disappointed. After a healthy 20 minute walk to whet our appetites, we found the restaurant adjacent to Frogner, a city park.
Painted in soothing mute colors with a Zen influence, the restaurant served attentively prepared and beautifully presented sushi. We chose a mixed plate of sashimi and nori sushi, and tempura-wrapped maki that you see in the photos. We easily whittled away our jet lag and time away from the din of the airport.
The restaurant staff was speaking both Cantonese in Mandarin in the background. Our waiter was a native Norwegian Chinese, whose parents immigrated to Oslo from Shanghai. It’s always intriguing to encounter Chinese in these far-flung places, and to find out what motivated them to live there. Despite their being amusing to us, we realize that we are novelties as well. Our accents and mannerisms are quickly detected as being different from native Chinese or the locals.
Going to Nodee was a great respite from the bustle of the city. We got a glimpse of the city and daily life in Oslo, and made good use of our down time while waiting for our connection to Prague. We were able to create a destination event to entertain ourselves and enjoy a decent meal without breaking the bank! You can see the menu and more at http://www.nodee.no.
I’m on a long weekend to La-La Land, with planned visits to a couple of galleries and museums.
After locating a cozy restaurant in the neighborhood (see photos of our focaccia bread with tapenade and ahi tuna appetizer) and delighting in a meal of watercress, pine nuts and parmesan salad, angel hair pasta, and hazelnut ice cream in a waffle tart, my next venture was “cruisin’ along Wilshire by foot the following day.
The LA Metro, located within one block of our hotel near Universal Studios, turned out to be a great option and asset. It allowed us to maintain our public transit-first approach to travel. Gee Kin took it to his business meeting and I took the red and purple line to the museum. The La Brea Tar Pits and the LACMA are located along the Museum Mile on Wilshire Avenue. The 3-4 mile walk from the Wilshire-Western Station to these destinations got me back in the groove of getting exercise while “cruisin’ along” plenty of new shops and sights. The screen shot shows the Metro route in red (without the purple extension that I took one way); the blue dotted line is what I walked.
The Metro in LA, while a fairly new invention, is very accessible and easy to use. Most tourists would not consider using it, but it in fact does its job in a very modern, non-LA sort of way. It may not be your first thought, but if you give it a try you will find it’s a pretty good solution to getting around LA. While it’s still not a natural thought and takes work, it gets everyone out of their cars! So, why not??
Starting my walk with Korea town, I traversed the residential area of Wilshire Park, where the golden 30’s era chateaux and mini mansions seemed frozen in time and space. All the stars of yesteryear felt at home here. Amidst tree-lined streets (reminiscent of those in Sacramento from my November post last year), stripped palm fronds lay at the foot of stately trees like abandoned children torn from their parents. Similarly, stumpy, sagging and dated Art Deco buildings bleated for love but got little attention.
Just as I wondered if anyone had the uncool nerve to carry an umbrella in LA for sun shading, I suddenly saw someone doing exactly that. Finally, I thought, some practical minds at work. You wouldn’t be caught dead doing that in San Francisco with its perpetual foggy bottoms and rare temperature highs. The irony is that I dived into a Rite-aid to buy an umbrella but not for this purpose. I had lost an umbrella last year and heard from Gee Kin that the coveted little device came from Rite-aid. The design, size, sturdiness, and all features were priceless. (Tip for today: get one of these in your travel repertoire!) So much so that I beat it to the first Riteaid I have seen in 9 months (which happened to be in LA on this walk), faced the wrath of the cashier who stared at me like I was a stark raving idiot, and carried it around for a day in 90 degree weather (with no intention of using it for sun shading–I’m from San Francisco, after all!)
But I digress. See the next post for what I really did.
Although Billy Joel has been performing at Madison Square Garden, I wasn’t able to see him because he’s off during the time I’m here. Nevertheless, the weather, cultural riches, and access to all forms of public transportation have sucked me in to see it, do it, and think it just like a local New Yorker.
On a recommendation from New Yawka Peter (who lives in HK), I was inspired to head back down to Nolita’s neighbor, Chinatown. The new Museum of Chinese in America was recently coined by Maya Lin, the young architect who designed the Vietnam Vets Memorial in Washington, DC. Tracing Chinese American history and seeing the Chinese diaspora felt like going home to an old but familiar story. Just like popular Italian operas, you recognize the tunes, the stories, the characters. Only the comedic element was missing.
Nevertheless, the timeline was well presented. The history of the railroads, promises of gold, through days of war, Nationalism, and Communism in the home country were captured efficiently. I learned about the achievements of many Chinese Americans whose names were not familiar to me. They included an astronaut, a prominent AIDS researcher, and a female pilot. Maya Lin and the museum curators did a decent job highlighting the right amount of information for visitors.
Photos, from top, left to right:
1. Display area
2. Restored storefront of Chinese shop
3. Sign that bears a chilling similarity to the anti-Islamic protests currently in Germany
This museum is worth a visit, for content and the Maya Lin oeuvre. You can see and hear her talk about it at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=976o62w45zg.
On a lighter note, the rest of my afternoon was devoted to seeing another theater production, “It’s Only a Play”, with Martin Short, Stockard Channing, and Matthew Broderick. Sorry to say, (to friend David, who was anxious to hear), that despite the big names, the script failed to keep the audience engaged. The actors were skilled at their craft, particularly my favorite Stockard Channing (from Grease and Six Degrees of Separation), but the story of the failure a Broadway play felt weak and contrived. It’s sad to think that the talents of so many were put to the task of delivering an uninspiring story, that ironically was the topic of the play.
The highlight of the evening was having a delightful dinner at Blue Hill on Washington Square with fellow architect Rik. We shared stories of being in the “order”, keeping up with the new techies, and fast-forward Chinese students. The food and service were impeccable, so definitely worth the cost of being entertained. Highly recommended.
Photos, from top, clockwise:
1. Thousand Year-old Egg and Pork Congee, Chinatown lunch
2. Mustard Relish for Bread, radishes from Stone Barn, and kohlrabi with cheese at Blue Hill;
3. Blue Hill dessert, sponge cake , apple crisp and ice cream
Coming up: Natural History Museum, Manon, and maybe the Neue Galerie on the final day in The Big Bad Apple.
I was up early today, and had a light breakfast in the hotel. The Cafe serves pastries and bagels from Balthazar and Ess-a-Bagels, both famous institutions in themselves, so I am in breakfast heaven (ironically I ordered steel cut oats!).
I headed down to Le Labo in Nolita for custom mixed fragrances from Grasse (the home of French perfumes) and ordered two scented candles and a musky flavored spray.
Next I managed to get a seat at Balthazar for a bar lunch of scrambled eggs and mushrooms in a puff pastry and a glass of champagne.
I ripped back up to the Theater District to catch “the Heidi Chronicles”, then returned by subway with relative ease to the Ramen Lab for a quick dinner. After waiting outside in line for over an hour, I finally was able to get a seat at the bar at the Ramen Lab (what’s with these “labs”?). It was worth the wait, since I wasn’t dying to get home or go anywhere else. The noodles were decent but the miso soup and the pork belly were superb. The seat at the bar was moot, as the restaurant is so small. All 10 seats are “at the bar”, with no chairs, no stools, nada.
When the chef heard I was from San Francisco, he asked me if I had heard of the Ramen Shop in Oakland. He had worked there last summer for three weeks. The hostess told me she loves Tartine and Bi-Rite. She goes there every time she’s in SF. I was tempted to ask her if she had imported the idea of long lines from there to create hype for this place.
People in photo above showing the noodle bar appear to be seated, but in fact they are standing. The bowl of noodles looks innocuous, but was delicious, particularly after waiting in the cold outside for so long. A guaranteed thumbs up no matter what the food tastes like, eh? All of these food and mood shops are within walking distance of the Spring Street Station Number 6 line near NY Chinatown.
My last destination, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, was no where to be found. In its place, I discovered a spanking new building just before hitting Nolita. It looked a little out of place among the old brick warehouses along the Bowery. It turned out to be the new campus of the Cooper Union.
I ventured inside and asked whether anyone knew who the architect was. The guard and a student shrugged their shoulders and one finally out of desperation uttered that they thought it was some blankety blank architect from CALIFORNIA. The style and design looked familiar, but the name danced on the tip of my tongue. When I found out later who it was, it seemed obvious. Anyone willing to guess?!? (Hint: we have a building in San Francisco by this well-known architect).
Photos above: exterior and interior of the Cooper Union, by___.
Footnote: the Heidi Chronicles started out on a light note, but ended up being emotionally draining for me. In that respect I enjoyed it. It’s a boomer story of a woman who studied art history at Vassar (hmm…). After recounting each decade of her life with familiar friends, the lead character tries to make sense of being a woman in a male-dominated world. Maybe not for all, but I could relate to this story.
On the menu tomorrow: “It’s Only a Play” with Martin Short” and Blue Hill with Rik
The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is and was overwhelming, so it required an advanced tactical maneuver (I was trained over twenty years ago during visits to Disneyland with kids). I had been here a few times before so I was prepared for the onslaught. I spent the better part of the day at the museum, from first arrival at 10:30 opening to a German film at 4pm, honoring this high Temple of Art.
As recommended by the museum to visitors, I duly focussed on two exhibitions only. One was the special exhibition entitled “The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World”. Pretty vague title, but it basically tackled how artists are pretty eclectic, borrow from various sources such as the Internet and art history, and make art. In the photo below, you can see a pretty amusing pile of canvasses on the floor. The artist invites viewers to touch it and interact with it in ways you aren’t allowed to when it is displayed on the wall. A visitor got pretty creative with it, using the canvasses as a blanket!
Below is a painting I like by a black artist, Rashid Johnson. He painted a canvas entirely in black, showing his moods as he made strokes on the canvas. The black color also depicted the historical moment in Berlin when Europe decided to colonize Africa.
The second exhibition and tour at the Design and Architecture Gallery was exhaustive and addressed “Uneven Urbanization” in four major cities: Hong Kong, New York, Istanbul and Rio. Mega cities are defined by having a population over 8 million. HK and NYC are considered one of the smaller cities in the spectrum of mega cities. The exhibit was put together by various consultants who tried to come up with small-scale solutions that people could do themselves. Building urban gardens and small cafes are examples to reduce alienation. Obviously this was a very tall order to try solving, but the exhibition was very thought-provoking. The tour guide, who teaches city planning, was very informative and packed a lot into a one-hour tour.
To recover from the heavy morning’s brain dump, I decided to lunch at the Modern, a Michelin-star rated restaurant at the MOMA. You can see the white glove service in the pictures and the menu below.
1. Main Course: Branzino steamed in spinach with trumpet mushrooms and orange zest
2. Starter: Grilled Fois Gras with quince
3. Starter: lobster and turnip
Starters were prefaced by an acorn squash soup with roasted almonds and sabayon. I chose a nice glass of French Chablis to complement my selections, after the wine steward failed to convince me to try a California Chardonnay or a NZ Riesling!
The finale at the MOMA was punctuated by a film “Left-Handed Woman” by Wim Wenders, a well-known German director (he did Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas). The most amazing part is that HE was actually at the film showing as part of a retrospective on his work and HE presented the film! This is what NYC gets that little specs like SF don’t. Thus my title for today’s posting.
Here’s a fuzzy picture of THE man on the left in front of the podium…
If this weren’t enough, I dashed over to Bouchon at the Time-Warner Center for a quick dinner of warm olives, broccolini and salmon terrine (all appetizers), then hiked my way over to Lincoln Center for my first opera evening. Despite already seeing a half-dozen opera movies filmed from here this past season, I still felt excited to be at the MET in the skinny, particularly at a sold-out performance of Carmen.
Sadly, however, Jonas Kaufmann, my favorite performer who was scheduled to sing, was sick tonite. He was replaced by Yonghoon Lee, who did a pretty decent job as his understudy. Fortunately, I’ll have another chance to see Jonas, a German version (with a real operatic voice) of Andrea Bocelli in August.
The opera only had limited seating in the rafters (dead top of the stadium, last row). It wasn’t the best experience, but I was able to witness a signature performance at the MET. Below are a couple of shots of the dated lobby interior and the opera house. The chandeliers inside the opera hall move up to the ceiling automatically when the lights dim so they are out of the way–well appreciated for the bleacher seats where I was located.
Photos above:
1. Lobby of the Metopera
2. Stage from very tippy top (opera glasses are useless from up here– you need a telescope)
3. Curtain Call with Elina Garanca (Carmen) and Yonghoon Lee (Don Jose)
Good Night!!
Up Next: Serafina and the Audience
Resource Tips
You can find more MOMA news on their awesome website at moma.org. When you visit MOMA, you can track your path and send emails of items you like to study further to yourself! The site also allows you to search and copy images of many items in the MOMA collection architectural models. Ordering tickets online in advance is also a timesaver.
You can book Bouchon (the inexpensive cafe related to Thomas Keller from French Laundry) and the Modern (very expensive) on opentable.com.
Those of you who have been checking my blog might be noticing a dry spell. I am planning a few upcoming trips this year, but I thought I would share a few recent activities with you. This weekend, we hosted some very good friends from Vancouver. Bennett and Colleen were arriving with some very serious dining plans that included Delfina, Mourad (the new Moroccan restaurant where Melissa works) and Nopa. We were to fill in the gaps between dinners, with epic walks, sights, and activities to justify the indulging among San Francisco’s best eateries.
The long weekend began on Thursday am, with a pickup at the airport. If you are coming from Canada like our BC friends, beware of the confusion between domestic and international airport locations. Customs and immigration might occur in Canada, but the airlines might still arrive in international or domestic, depending on the airline.
After hugs and greetings, we eventually set off on a specific shopping pursuit. At Bennett’s request, we ventured to Noe Valley to the Union Made store where Bennett and Gee Kin have bought elegant and hip men’s clothing. It didn’t hurt to have a 40% off January sale. Gee Kin likes to shop there (on Bennett’s recommendation) to keep up with the techie world, even if the prices are a bit steep. He found a great jacket there with super long arms that suited his proportions and was flattering for his next step out into Techie SF.
After this purely hedonistic venture, we recovered at Kasa on Eighteenth Street. Regarded as one of the best meals in town under $15, the home headquarters version on the food truck, this spartan shop eventually served a line out the door after we purviewed the menu of Indian specialties and ordered. Three of us ordered a “Thali” lunch special of pork or lamb and three sides for $11.50. I had the “Kati” roll with lamb. You can check out the menu at http://www.kasaindian.com/indianrestaurantsf/kasa-menu/.
We drove our guests home via the upper Market area and made a quick stop at Twin Peaks for a view of the city. Being a perfect day of 65 degrees, we had no problem with the usual windy bluff it normally is at the top. To top it off, it was reasonably clear and we could see Mt. Diablo in the East Bay, 50 miles away.
After a nap back at the ranch, we headed back to the same neighborhood in Noe Valley for dinner at Delfina. We enjoyed the banter with the waiter over the descriptions of wine and food we eventually ordered, and the meal was predictably delicious.
Day 2 started off with a morning walk down through the Inner Sunset to the DeYoung Museum to see the Keith Haring exhibit. While not particularly my thing, Haring had a following in New York and used spontaneous, street art to make his political statements. He covered many contemporary issues, including the Aids Crisis, racism, and world hunger.
We brought a picnic lunch to enjoy in Golden Gate Park in the unseasonably warm January weather. In the backs of our minds were the worries about the lack of rain that gives us beautiful guilt-ridden days of summer in the middle of winter. We skipped the wine but toasted our friendship on tofu and cloud’s ears, an ethnic dish, beet salad, sauteed kale, and fresh bread from Tartine (earned the night before).
After breezing past the adjacent Academy of Sciences, we headed over to Green Apple Books in the Richmond District. Another venerable local institution, this bookstore has expanded its footprint to the Inner Sunset where it shares space with LeVideo. It helped to bail out another well-loved service that has seen better days from a bygone era of VCRs and DVDs. I bought another used copy of “The Orientalist”, one of my favorite books, and a signed copy of a dessert book by the pastry chef at Chez Panisse for Melissa.
Our dinner that evening was a stunning introduction to Mourad. This new restaurant by Mourad Lahlou at 140 New Montgomery in the renovated AT&T building, is where Melissa works as pastry chef. We were lavished with new menu items produced by Mourad’s new Chef de Cuisine, Chris Kajioka, and our own Melissa. After being warmly greeted by Mourad, we were treated to a back-of-the-house tour of the kitchen. It was exciting to see this new venture long in the planning stages come to fruition, and we are so proud of Melissa’s dedication and success to her craft.
Day Three on Saturday was occupied by a walk from home to the North Side of the city to Chestnut Street. Gee Kin led our guests through Golden Gate Park. By pure accident, they found the sculptured heart painted by their friend Hung Liu perched along the Broderick steps leading to the Marina. You’ll hear more about this artist momentarily.
We regrouped just before dinner to drive over to the East Bay via the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. We could still see the remnants of the former Bay Bridge alongside the spanking new version, to explain the reason for another bridge. Being seismically compromised, SF Bay Area residents recognized the importance of sustaining this vital transportation link between two major cities in California. While it was originally estimated at $1 Billion, it ended up costing $6.4 Billion and several years longer than anticipated. Oh well, a bit off.
Our dinner with Hung Liu, a Chinese artist living in Oakland, was very illuminating. She and her husband Jeff shared with us their experience doing and selling art in the US. She is an accomplished artist and was teaching at Mills College until recently. You can see a sample of her work here, that represents a young Chinese bride with a bird in a cage superimposed on the image. We visited her studio in East Oakland after a classic meal at the Bay Wolf Restaurant on Piedmont Avenue.
Day Four started with an early morning tour of Alcatraz Island, with a featured exhibition of Ai Wei-wei’s work. While the location may have been perplexing to many, it was a fitting venue for highlighting the issue of political dissidents and the importance of activism. Ai Wei-Wei used his expertise and talents as an artist to convey this message to many who would not otherwise attend an art museum nor a prison. He cleverly and adeptly combined the two experiences into one to convey an important message. Below is a picture of the kitchen at Alcatraz.
Believe it or not, this day was capped by SuperBowl Sunday! No, we were not above succumbing to social influence. After lunch at Nopa on Divisadero and a quick tour of the neighborhood market, we hunkered down for the afternoon and pigged out on beer, guacamole and chips, finger food, and split pea soup. What more could you ask for on a lazy Sunday afternoon?
Our final day of the endless weekend was topped by a final walk from home to Hayes Valley via Upper Market. We shot past UCSF at Parnassus to Seventeenth Street, and then down the hill. Bennett and Colleen did some serious shopping on Hayes Street. I managed to get them to the Glen Park Station to head to the airport at the end of the day just in time for my final German conversation class on time!
A few notes:
Urban walking is one of my passions! You can find out more about 5 day sagas from San Francisco to Napa or San Jose and more at http://www.crazyladywalks.com
You can see some of Melissa’s amazing desserts on Instagram at _melissachou.
For followers: Look for new postings in Early March for a week in New York City visiting museums and the New York Metropolitan Opera (Carmen, Don Giovanni and Manon). Another trip to Germany for the Dresdenmusikfestspiele in May is upcoming, and another world trip is in the works for late Summer. Stay tuned!
Returning home creates a yearning to reproduce some of the delicious dishes I ate on the trip. This reminds me of the appetizer I had in Samarkand, with beets, carrots, cilantro, meaty peas, and a light dusting of diced pickles. I noticed in these cold starters that making tiny morsels seemed to make each bite more meaningful, more delicious. And thus more attention to detail makes the journey of eating more exciting.
Photos:
1. Home made version, with celery and carrots instead of peas and pickles
2. Restaurant version, with a few wiry cabbage strips, peas, beets and pickles
In my initial plan I overlooked the possibility of capitalizing on the theme of 80 days around the world. I also thought that many of my friends outside the US would like to see what “home” here in San Francisco is like. So, let’s make it an even 80. I am attaching the next 12 days back in San Francisco as an addendum to my blog for my German, Chinese and friends of other nationalities so they can appreciate what home here in the US is to me.
Day 69: San Francisco Sunset District Steps: see the following for a project in our neighborhood:
Gee Kin was part of the planning and implementation of two beautifully designed tiled steps in the Sunset District where we live.
On my first day back, we decided to keep the Asian influence alive so we had lunch at King of Noodle.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/king-of-noodles-san-francisco-3
to be continued…
This is Chinatown reinvented by Chinese for the Chinese. Despite being Disneylandish and very crowded, this recreation of an old street in Chengdu maintained some of its old buildings, walls and facades. It looked like a winner to the Chinese tourists, who were curious about all the vendors displaying their crafts and willing to try different food. There were plenty of demonstrations of brush painting, shadow puppets, Chinese instruments, and food preparation. I found quite a few new presentations of snacks that I had never seen before, so for me it was a worthwhile visit. And of course I was momentarily distracted by reproductions of original Chinese architectural features in the fretted windows of the shops and dining establishments.
1. Oysters and pearls
2. Jellied pudding with spicy dressing
3. Rolled rice noodles with spicy dressing
4. Bamboo with sweet rice stuffed in stalk
5. windows along restaurant
6. Hand painting
7. entrance to Jinli Street
8. vendor selling meat on skewers, dim sum and sweet rice dessert
9. Traditional windows
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