Friday at the crest

Thumbs up on Hunger Games! Not the most exciting action movie, but it's really good.

I had the best meal at Kru last night! The mixed seaweed salad is really good and healthful (is that the right way to use that word?), although way too big for one.  That I got chef's choice nigiri, which is what I usually do, and one of the pieces was this cute little gift piece topped with uni and pork belly.  I also got local sturgeon nigiri, which was topped with thin slices of red onion and sitting in a pool of chili oil.  MH got ankimo, monkfish liver, which is served on a big bowl of ice with three tiny, tart Japanese peaches on top.  Now that I say that it seems weird, they weren't plums, were they? I think she said peaches.  Anyway, top notch meal.

MOM and one of Charles' many bands, Rad, is playing at Axewave Manor tonight.  Early show, starts at 7pm.
How do I find this place?



Do you guys know about the screening of The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye at the Crest this Friday?  Here are the details.  I'm excited to see it.

Bananas at the wedding

I have been too busy to post!  The Bananas played a wedding in San Pedro on Saturday, for Kid Kevin, one of their oldest and dearest fans/friends.  Pictures after the jump

idea

Pink Floyd won for best Halloween band, followed by The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I had an odd fascination with Spaghetti Westerns as a kid, but have not watched any since then.  What's the best one.

Al and I came up with the idea for an awards ceremony for the Halloween show, and of course the bands need to play at it.  We tried to come up with a catchy name and settled on....the sammies.  Or maybe the hammies?  Moons over my hammie?

sorry, Charlie

Wow, Pink Floyd is demolishing the competition.  I'm surprised OMF isn't stuffing the ballot box.  I really got nothin' to post besides that.  Unless you want me to talk to you about yoga or the movie Meek's Crossing.  Here's goes:
most hated pose: Hanuman or  possibly revolved half moon, anything revolved, really
thumbs up on Meek's Crossing.  It wasn't that boring. I get far more bored at a big, loud blockbuster than when watching a woman in a bonnet knead bread.  And if fit in perfectly with the Donner Party podcast I listened to recently.

Ramtha

I don't usually write that  much personal stuff, or at least not about my (non-sordid) past, but a podcast I was listening to yesterday got me thinking.  The woman on the podcast was talking about how she was a Buddhist in the late 80s/early 90s, but how this brand of Buddhism was all about chanting "nom myoho renge kyo" to get what you want.  So, like the opposite of what Buddhism actually teaches, as far as I know.

My aunt and my mom were totally into this at that same time.  They both set up Buddhist altars (and spent a bunch of money on them, because the idea is that you would get more stuff if you had a sick altar) and would chant all the time with something in mind that they wanted.  These could be things like health, or actual material object, sometimes specific ones, sometimes just chanting for money.  I, of course, was cynical and sarcastic about the whole thing.  And bitter that my mom was spending money on that crap.

Around the same time, my mom and aunt also got super into Ramtha.  They would watch grainy videotapes of her/him.  What's Ramtha?  He's a spiritual warrior from Atlantis who is channeled by a women named J.Z. Knight, which is obviously a fake name.  That a picture of here above, and here's a clip of her on the Merv Griffin show, rocking her super fake Ramtha accent. I like that Merv Griffin is busting her chops.

Other things my mom got into in the 80s/90s: feng shui, herbal medicine (including trying to start an herb farm at our house). Her and my dad took a ton of St. Jon's Wort for a while, to try to cure their depression.  There's probably other stuff I'm forgetting/blocking out.  Oh yeah, way earlier, maybe 1984 or 1985 my parents tried writing a romance novel together.  They wrote some steamy scenes.  I remember a line about a man cupping a woman's buttocks.  In a real shocker, they fit perfectly into his cupped hands.

Halloween show poll

At right.

handle yourselves

Holy crap did you guys venture out on St. Patrick's Day?  It was terrifying out there.  The town was taken over by sloppy, wasted zombies.  What the fuck is wrong with people? Handle yourself! There were cops everywhere and I'd love to know how many DUIs were handed out.  I'm pretty sure I saw one go down on J st.  I saw the cop turn his flashers on.

Woah, someone got killed right near McKinley Park on Sunday? I went for a walk around there yesterday and didn't see anything.  Well, I saw some crime tape but I thought it was from a car accident.

It's really starting to sink in about MidMo now.  Nothing else is going to come up for me, writing-wise.  I have a couple of things lined up for the SNR but they don't really need food-related stuff very often and I like writing that the best.  I don't feel like pitching other pubs.  Anybody got any ideas?

absolutely anything

Oh boy, this picture is kinda ugly.  The corned beef was delicious, though! We busted out the electric knife, because that's what our dads would have done.

This guy will solo on anything!

NH is requesting that people send the best photos and videos of the Halloween Show to her so she can aggregate them and post.  rosalitahead@gmail.com

Do it! Some people aren't on facebook, remember.

Mariscos Mazatlan

Do you guys know about the SLA/English Singles show on Saturday at Luigis?  The Singles haven't played in forever!

 Dang! Look what Morant's has right now!  St. Patty's day sausages filled with potato, corned beef and cabbage.  I got a couple, and I got a big slab of brisket from Corti's.  Morant's is selling corned beef as well.  We're having it tonight. Psyched.

 I think Mariscos Mazatlan is criminally underrated.  I think it feels the most like chilling in Mazatlan of any place I've been outside of Maz.  This is a Mazatlan tostada.  It has shrimp, octopus and I think the dude said abalone.  It had hot salsa on it and strips of red onion, so quite different from the usual ceviche.

God they make a great torta.  Their bolillo is my favorite.It's small and they grill it perfectly.

blast from the past

You guys probably read this on fb, but here's a link in case you haven't.  An outsider's opinion on how bad we're getting screwed with the new arena plan.

So, here's some photographic proof that I often lose my shit at the Halloween show.  This is me ripping Joel's shirt off as he performs as George Michael.  This picture is pretty awesome.  I don't know who took it.  Does anyone know what year this was?  Sorry Joel.

Now that there's no MidMo, I guess I will be writing about food more.

 Went out for breakfast at OneSpeed.  It looked beautiful but tasted just ok.  Everything needed salt.  This carnitas breakfast needed hotter salsa.

 This is my dish: roasted chicken hash with shitake mushroom and peppers.  It was kind of cold, one of the eggs had a jellied white part, which grosses me out, but that I know is hard to avoid if you're trying not to over-poach.  It was bland overall.

 This is bun bo hue from Pho King #2.  This place seems awesome.  It has some unsual dishes on the menu, like a duck salad and an ox pizzle (dick) salad.  I did not try those yet.  EC got the grilled pork chop and it came with a really pretty little egg cake with jelly noodles and ground pork.

a few Halloween show pics

 Cute!  J.K., I was at the show! I remember...most of it.  Pictures after the jump!

hmmmm

Wow, I'm really bummed I didn't make it to the Halloween show this weekend.  Darned hangnail.  I heard it was really good.  It's weird that even though I didn't attend that I woke up in the morning with bruised knees and every muscle in my body was sore.  A real head scratcher.

you oughtta know

Well, it's official.  The people have voted to bring blueberry back.  He's right, it certainly upped my blog hits.  For a couple of days there I was getting like 450 hits a day! And I don't know if you guys know this, but I've worked out this deal with blogger where I get ten dollars a hit, so let me just say I've built a tidy little nest egg in the last few weeks.  And let me also say that I have spend most of it on nuts.

You know what's going on this weekend.  I don't have to say a thing.

Ella!!!!!!

Here's a clue to the SECRET PLAN.

Wow, so Ella last night.  I didn't take any pictures.  Here are some of the things:

Best Gibson ever on the menu.  Made with Junipero gin (the stuff that Anchor Brewing distills) and dry vermouth and a cipollini onion sprig.  Man, I keep thinking about buying some gin and I thought I might get Right gin, but I am getting Junipero for sure.  The difference between a good martini (or gibson) and a bad one is as wide as the Pacific Ocean.  They are two different beasts.  That reminds me, my cocktail article is in the SNR today, but it looks super weird on their website.  My intro is not there and neither is about half the article.  Check it in the print edition.

Started with a beet salad, which I had at the bar a couple of weeks ago.  First of all, it's beautifully assembled and looks like a little work of art.  A few different colors of beets, some roasted, some shaved raw.  A micro cipollini onion with tiny little roots intact.  Can you imagine cleaning the dirt out of the tiny roots to serve?  Crazy.  Micro beet greens included too.  Sitting on a pool of fenugreek aioli.  The awesome thing is that the earthy flavor of the fenugreek makes this salad like a distillation of eating the earth, if that makes sense.  It's like eating delicious dirt?  Or sticking your tongue into fresh spring garden soil?  Or going down on Mother Earth?  Have I gone too far?

Then he gave us some crudites, with romesco, and a cucumber blossom attached to a cucumber the size of a gnomes pinky.  With avocado puree for dipping.

The large portion of mussels (18 bucks) which I ordered as an entree was much too large for one person, even as an entree, so you could definitely economize by splitting that.  The mussels were very smoky because they are roasted and there is smoked olive oil in the mix.  I think they were the best I've ever had, and the roasted shishito peppers add such a wonderful bitter, verdant flavor!  The pork belly was tough and dry and didn't add a lot.

What else, oh yeah battered and fried frog legs with big sprigs of rosemary.  They were perfectly salted and the rosemary was a great flavor combo with the legs.  Thiemann is a master of salt.  This dish was so good with a delicious glass of Vouvray.

Sweetbreads with celery and dates.  The celery flavor was strong.  I love celery.

I advise you to go and focus on the vegetables and small plates.  I don't think chefs get that excited for entrees, in general.  Everyone liked their entrees but it's more fun to graze than end the meal with a big heavy slab of meat.

I had dessert in a glass: the Pedro Jimenez Lustau sherry, which was really raisin-y and viscous.  I really wanted to end the meal with the Cocchi Barolo Chinato, and I should have done that!  I always prefer the bitter to the sweet.  Just like life?

The end.  Wonderful evening.

dese nuts

I am  getting excited about the Beatles, er, Halloween show.  Me and some other ladies have a SECRET PLAN.

Have you noticed how expensive nuts are these days? It's crazy.  Nuts are a central feature of most salads I make, as well as the granola I eat every morning.  The price of nuts is too damn high! Gripe of the day.

Do you guys think I should have told Blueberry to go away? Poll at right.

I am going to Ella tonight! Stoked to see what vegetable wizardry Thiemann will pull off.   Make sure to buy the Lucky Peach that he's in, his part is really good.

siiiiicckkkkk

Hey guys, remember this? What a rush.

SacPress published a MidMo story.  The quote at the end is really funny!  Better to just pull a quote from FB rather than use that one.

Well well well.  The No Bunny/MOM/G.Green show...I am so mad at myself that I was in a bad mood and couldn't enjoy it to its fullest.  I guess I did go out four nights in a row, and maybe tonight, for the La Sera show.  Anyway, G. Green was tight.  Really good.  MOM let it all hang out and I always think she can't surprise me and then she does.  She started into her Spirit In The Sky jam, and she was swinging her mic around, and exactly with the beat she accidentally cracked the light fixture over her head and glass rained down.  Then she danced in the glass (people rushed to cover it up quickly) and starting spreading bloody footprints through the crowd.  There were some pretty bro-ey college students there and it was fun to watch their horrified faces as they tried to figure out what was going on.  Then Tony from No Bunny's band painted Dan's (ex Makout Party RIP) with MOM's blood.  That was pretty siiiiiiiickkkk.  No Bunny was a phenomenon as usual, although it got so fucking hot in there I had to bail for a minute.  I love when he mixes Surfin' Bird in because I feel like it's a mini Cramps tribute.

Pictures after the jump! Sadly, not of the show!

hello darkness my old friend

JK with that header, kind of.

Well, it's true.  MidMo is dead.  I've known for a bit that it was a possibility, ever since Capitol Weekly really suddenly pink slipped everyone and went to online-only.  OMF has been trying to hold things together and shop it around, and there were some good prospects but nothing came through.  So it wasn't from lack of profitability, it was because we lost our infrastructure (ad staff, designer, etc.)  We were actually growing a bit every year, and in the last couple months had gotten a lot of ad interest.  We had just started running Closet Case, which I thought was a great fit for us.

I'm really sad about it.  It's going to be really different for me, since I have been writing about 3 restaurants per month for over five years.  Think about it!  Plus, other features every other month or so, plus doing associate editor work for the last however many months.  I have a lot of free time now, I guess?  I can't wait to start...yarn-bombing?

I'm really sad because I'm going to miss the writing of our contributors.  It is a crying shame if there is no outlet for MH to write about wine, or BB to write about history.  I love the voice of the Sactorialist, this one is my favorite one.  I loved our music and arts coverage, too, and the other food contributors.  I love Tim's art writing, and always wished he had more time to do it.

I think it's a sad day for Sac.  I know it was only a little free weekly, but it really was a unique voice in our community.  Silenced.

brew excitement

Duuuuuudes, ransacked broke the biggest beer story of beer week.  Kupros (somehow) scored a keg of Pliny the Younger and became the scalpers of the beer world and tried to completely gouge people for it.  Now they are banned from Russian River Beers for life!  Swift justice.

I am so stoked about the event at Pangaea tonight (see list of beers below), starts at 6.  My only qualm is how I am going to try all the beers I want on this list without getting completely trashed.  That calls for willpower that I really don't have when confronted with so much delicious brew.  I want quaff the Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek,  the Jolly Pumpkin Maricaibo Especial, at least one of the Mikkeller collabos, the very delicious smoked beer from Norwegian brewery Haanbryggeriet, the classic fresh, hoppy brau Taras Boulba, fuckkkk. All of them, just about. And the keg of Younger might still be in effect.   I will fortify myself with a sandwich from Gunther's first.

Or maybe a sandwich from Fat Face, because Bows is having an art opening tonight: Verge artist Ianna Frisby's embroidery pieces.  Also, bathroom polaroids by Sarah Barkawi.  

I might be at Bows a lot this weekend, cuz Hummel's hangover waffle brunch is on Sunday.  Also on Sunday, Rob is doing a very smart thing at Pangaea and having a keg blowout of all his leftover stuff from Beer Week.  Hopefully there are some discounts to be had?  At least he won't charge you 45 bucks for a glass of Pliny the Younger!

still knocking

I got nothin' today except a couple of links.

This is the guy I get my coffee from. He delivers it to my lab every week.  Looks like he's starting to deliver to Sac.  Contact him at coffee@thepepperpeddlar.com if you are interested.  He delivers it in mason jars and you can choose the roast you want.  I think it's 13 bucks a mason jar, which lasts me and Scott a week drinking coffee at home every day.

This is the band I get my music from. The record is solid as a rock.