Monday, April 18, 2011

Poetry - Jack Kerouac

remember?

"To Edward Dahlberg -

Don't use the telephone.
People are never ready to answer it,
Use Poetry."


1970


 ----Jack Kerouac

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Art at the Huntington - John Frame




Here is the exhibition that words will not define. Here is the sun, the moon, the caress mother did not give you, the spikes of grass, the sea of green, aligned with a magnification of blinding surreal little whispers that we all have inside of us if we only listen. 
Listen, 
Listen.











http://johnframesculpture.com/the-tale


Food as Art, Providence

Spaghetti with Sea Urchin

I don't know how long I can go on like this. It's so good, and it's so rich,
and this one is sooooo good
and sooooo expensive,
but worth it.
They deliver, the taste is sublime.

Providence on Melrose.






Back in Los Angeles

God of Carnage at the Ahmanson
This is Virginia Woolf, Martha & George cloned in another couple. For 90 minutes the bullets of language pass back and forth between the couples, punctuated by the long stretches of necessary silence.
Funny. Hilarious. Real.
When the bottle of rum is cracked the gloves come off.


Boulevard heaven

Boulevard
It isn't a hamburger, it is an experience. Go to Boulevard, sit at the counter, have the best burger on a brioche bun of your life.

Enough said. http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/main.html

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Blue Bottle Breakfast

poached eggs

capuccino
I think to myself: how can they improve on coffee? And they do.

The Blue Bottle Coffee company is all over San Francisco, but the shop at 66 Mint Plaza is fun and modern and overlooks the plaza and the back of the mint. This is what Blue Bottle has to say about this location: http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/



66 Mint Street, San Francisco
M-F 7-7, Saturday 8-6, Sunday 8-4.

We opened our Mint Plaza cafĂ© in January of 2008, in the rear of the elegant 1912 Provident Loan Building in downtown San Francisco. In stark contrast to the old limestone-clad Mint just across the street, we’ve loaded this shop with our prettiest, most delicate gear: Perhaps the most compelling, is the five-light siphon bar, manufactured by the Lucky i. Cremas company of Japan – the first of its kind in the United States. Here we feature a menu of three single origin coffees which changes weekly. Next is the Kyoto-style iced-coffee apparatus, which produces a delicate, refined, fragrant cold brewed coffee.
Last but not least is the one-group San Marco lever machine. Clad in glorious rounded copper, it was our first machine. We think was built in the late 1970s. Sometimes it breaks, and sometimes it breaks our hearts. An aura of doomed romance, frustration, and beauty surrounds it, which makes us think of youthful love. The selection of single origin coffees changes weekly.
At the other end of the shop (and spectrum) is a thoroughly modern four-group La Marzocco GB5, with which we make our17 ft. Ceiling espresso blend.
We grind and brew drip coffee individually on a drip bar of our own design.
Desserts are made at the Blue Bottle Kitchen in Oakland.
We have a small selection of high quality coffee makers, grinders and espresso machines for sale.
What a way to drink your coffee. You will not be disappointed.

San Francisco Ferry Building Farmer's market

pork sandwich at farmer's market rotisserie

oysters at ferry building fish market
Ok, it's Saturday morning. How to begin? Walk to the ferry building, get a cup of blue bottle coffee, and wander through the stalls, past the Massa Almonds, past Sciabia olive oil, past Ghandi to the very back to PRIMAVERA and have their chiliquilles. I think that is how you spell it. The BEST scrambled eggs with avocado, salsa, chips. I ate it so fast I did not get a photo.
Watch the sailboats drift back and forth under the bay bridge. Admire how the locals  juggle their purchases with trolleys that have multiple spots for hanging bags on either side. (BRING BAGS) listen to jazz floating out of the saxophone nearby.
Then gather yourself up to buy little gems lettuce, the sweetest carrots on earth, lavender, apples, goat cheese, tomatoes, the flowers! eggs, chicken, fresh fish, it's all there.
If you need kitchen equipment, go to Sur La Table, if you need books, the Book Stall is there, if you need a taste of France, there is Miette for darling pastries. Of course there is Heath Ceramics, and Cowgirl Creamery, and Hog Island Oyster Co., and the Wine Merchant, and the Slanted Door, and a google of other things you need to experience....the drummer outside on the plaza, the stalls selling jewelry and funky hats across the street, and of course the trolley home with all the heavy bags. 

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Food - San Francisco

Eating in San Francisco is a joy. From the Saturday morning Ferry Building farmer's market to all the speciality stores such as Bi-Rite Market in the Mission, which fortunately is in the same block as Tartine Bakery where people line up around the corner 45 minutes before the country bread comes out of the ovens at 5 p.m.
Lunch at 54 Mint where the best Italian food is also reasonably priced, I mean $18.00 for a two course lunch of cream of broccoli soup & the ribbons pictured below. 
Heaven, absolute heaven.
Ferry Building

Sciabia Olive Oil

Tartine Country Bread

54 Mint Fettucine with mushrooms