Csquared Thoughts

a night on the town

Terry and I are going up to San Jose this afternoon. We're seeing the Star Trek exhibition at the Tech museum, having dinner at Scott's Seafood, seeing Spring Awakening, and spending the night at the Fairmont. So cool.

local restaurants

The economy has been hard on small business. That's why I'm glad to see our local restaurants continue to keep their doors open. As I've written, we rarely eat out for dinner, because we love our kitchen so much. But because we both work from home a lot, we eat out for lunch frequently.

We still miss our South Philly Cafe, and whenever we go by there Terry and I both look over at the former location as if it will somehow magically reappear like Brigadoon. So far we haven't been successful.

But other local restaurants are holding their own. Our local Thai restaurant hangs on, in spite of having laid off the waitress we loved so much last December. The manager doubles as waitress, or sometimes as cook. Our Mexican  restaurant Victoria's is always busy. I swear that half of the customers are related in one way or the other to the family that owns the place.  When Terry's not around I go to La Hacienda, a place that doesn't agree with her for some reason. They know me and know what I order, so all I have to do is sit down and wait for my lunch to arrive. From time to time we visit our local Irish pub, which excels at comfort food. Not the greatest from a health perspective, but so enjoyable!

We enjoy supporting our locally owned restaurants and wish them all the best.

hangin' with vegetarians

Remember those times when you hung out with a group of people you really liked, even though you didn't really feel you were part of that group? I remember that feeling from the food co-op people in my Claremont days in the 1970s. I respected their practices and their values, even though I didn't fully adopt them myself.

Today one can have that experience on-line as well as in person. That's how I feel about the vegetarian group on Yahoo! groups. They are a very positive and friendly bunch of people, and they accept me as part of the group, even though I'm not a vegetarian. There are those militant, intolerant, obnoxious vegetarians out there, but such attitudes are not condoned on vegetarian_group.

Members share thoughts, ideas, and experiences as well as recipes, and everyone is welcome as long as they keep it positive. My occasional recipe contributions are welcomed just like anyone else's.

There's lots of good reasons to become vegetarian, both from a health perspective and from an ecological and sustainability perspective. I continue to look at and think about those issues and will no doubt continue to bore you here with my Hamlet-like indecision.

But the nice thing is that whatever I decide or don't decide I will be welcome at vegetarian_group.

tribute to Julia

I enjoy watching Christina Cooks on public TV. Christina Pirello teaches vegetarian, vegan actually, cooking and does so with great enthusiasm. She is one of the reasons I haven't given up hope of going vegetarian at some point.

With all the hype around the movie Julie & Julia, Christina recently offered her own tribute to Julia Child in one of her infrequent blogs. It's quite moving, especially since the two are polar opposites in their philosophies.

Well worth checking out.

farmers market

After my non-coffee with Lynn on Saturday, I headed to the nearby farmers market. It reminded me of the value of supporting these local venues. As I've said, I hate getting out of bed early on Saturday, but, wow, the variety and selection and freshness of what's there almost makes it worthwhile.

There's so much to be said for supporting local, sustainable agriculture. 

still gone

If you're close to my age you may remember that in the mid-1970's Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died after a very long illness and being close to death for what seemed like forever. You may also remember that on Saturday Night Live, in his "Weekend Update," Chevy Chase ran with this by repeatedly reporting, "This just in. Francisco Franco is still dead."

I have to report to you that Nick's South Philly Cafe is still gone.

Last Thursday, in what was a totally irrational and emotional act, while in the area running errands I drove by the storefront, hoping to see what, I don't know. It was unchanged from the last time I was there: locked up and empty with all the fixtures gone.

I still crave that Philly Chicken sandwich.

Some losses, even ones that are in reality quite small in the grander scheme of things, are harder to get over than others. 

Nick, we hardly knew ye

One of our favorite places to eat out was Nick's South Philly Cafe, at the Gilroy Crossings shopping center. It opened last fall, not long before the holidays. It was run by a personable Philadelphia transplant with grey hair, a beard, and an earring. Nick served a combination of Philly-style sandwiches and Italian main dishes. We loved it, and were regulars from the beginning.

We needed to make a Crossings expedition on Saturday to hit up Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, BevMo, and Barnes & Noble. I suggested to Terry that we have lupper (I trust that term is self-explanatory) at Nick's. I was having a hankering for a Philly Chicken sandwich. We completed our rounds and headed over to Nick's. The place was locked up and empty and all the fixtures were gone. Sigh.

Nick, if you're out there, we love you and we miss you.

scotch and what?

Since I'm writing about college life this week, I'll share this memory.

Back in 1983 or so, my alma mater, Pitzer College publicized a opening for Alumni Director and invited applications. I was living in Oklahoma City at the time, and 1) would have been delighted to return to California, and 2) would have been even more delighted to return to the halls of academia. I applied. I was one of four finalists flown out to Claremont for in-person interviews.

The bulk of the interviews went great, but were tiring. The last interview, with the actual nominating committee, was brutal. And it was at a French restaurant. I don't like French food now and didn't then. As it turned out, they selected none of the four candidates and made an internal appointment instead. But that took a month to work itself out.

Going home, I was hosed. My first leg was on America West, which was a new airline at the time. In those days they trained flight attendants on board. When they started serving drinks, I ordered Scotch and Soda, my drink of choice then as it is today. Being served by a trainee, I got a Scotch and Tonic Water. Blech! But I was so tired and frazzled that I was happy to have the Scotch and drank it anyway.

But still, blech!

food and culture

Some time back Terry was up by our favorite Indian restaurant. She called and asked me if I wanted her to pick up something for dinner. I told her sure, get me Chiken Tikka Masala. She came home with Chicken Tikka. Not the same thing. I griped and groused throughout dinner, since I was really looking forward to one thing and ended up with something else entirely. However, she more than made up for the error when she did a great job of homemade Chicken Tikka Masala several days later.

I had to blush when reading in Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, that the origin of Chicken Tikka Masala came about in England when a customer in an Indian restaurant complained that his Chicken Tikka was too dry. The cook opened a couple of cans of what he happened to have on hand to create a sauce. Subsequently Chicken Tikka Masala became one of the most popular Indian dishes in England.

The book makes clear that Indian cooking as we know it is really a mixture of the tastes of conquerors and the conquered. You can't really call anything a "true" Indian dish. Nor, I suppose, could you say such about any other kind of cooking.

Makes me feel more confident in all of the improvising I do.

disappointed

Friday Terry and I went to a health and fitness expo, and we came across the booth of an organic farm that had home delivery. We signed up, and were looking forward to our regular deliveries. Then we learned that the folks in the booth were wrong about their having deliveries to our town.

Oh, well. As Terry said, we'll just need to get our rears out of bed on a Saturday morning and head up to the farmer's market.