Vientiane in November!

 I waited so long of course I'm already forgetting stuff about my trip. Vientiane has a ton of temples. That's mostly what there is to do, besides eat and go to the night market. All of it is interesting.

A variation on these dragons were outside pretty much every temple.

 This was the first thing I ate after a 27! Hour! Plane! Ride! Lot's o lemongrass. Tasted perfect with a beer Lao too.

 That same restaurant had pretty decent Lao sausage. Not as good as Spicy Joi Lao makes, or the super affordable sausage at Longchang market on Franklin.

 So many cool looking monks! I didn't want to be a jerk and always be snapping them but the colors of the robe were a feast for the eyes.

 This one is funny because if you zoom in on the plaque you see they are dissing this cement monument. It was somewhat ugly, true. You climb it to get a view of the city and the inside is packed with souvenir stores with wonderful old tshirts. It was hot AF the entire time I was there. In the 90s with killer humidity. I remember climbing to the top of this (Patuxai) monument to be particularly brutal as far as heat.

 One of my fave dishes ever! Nam Khao Tod, crispy rice with sausage. So good

 I tried to capture that these walking guy signs never ever turn green.

 A just ok version of papaya salad.

 Here's Patuxai again

Delicious noodle soup with blood cake, crispy garlic, "napa cabbage" (as I know it)

 More temple finery

The wonder of Old Sac

I'm working on a review of Hao Bao Dumpling House on Stockton, and it's turning out pretty negative. I had more of a meh feeling when I was there, it's certainly cheap as hell, but it's one of those reviews I'm writing of a place that I know I will never go back to, so that seems pretty worthy of a negative. Why recommend it to peeps if I myself will never again darken the door?

What are your favorite dumplings spots? I like Journey to the Dumpling ok, but if I was going to drive to Elk Grove I'd probably rather eat at Kotteri Ramen, which I reviewed recently.

Liv said that the dumpling place on Freeport is better than Hao Bao, so I am hoping to get there this weekend to give me some timely perspective. I recently had a friend who grew up in Taiwan say that I Shanhai Delight in Old Sac is legit. I didn't even know there was a dumpling place there! The wonders of Old Sac.

Million dollar idea

Idea: custom kitchen wallpaper based on Corti ads. Supposedly custom wallpaper is a thing, according to Google. Any peeps with decorating knowledge want to chime in?

carplaining

I was on my way to work on the causeway this morning as the sun came up. I look to my left, a guy in a Tesla in the fast lane is on his phone. Oh well, they practically drive themselves, right? Then I look to the right and a guy has a notepad in the middle of his steering wheel that he is writing on. Look to the right again and a driver is eating a massive burrito with both hands. I feel like I'm in a comedy where I'm going to look to the left and see a woman playing a violin.

I've been commuting for 15 years, and I understand better than anyone that it's super boring, and I don't want to be doing it either, but I feel something close to despair when I see that the majority of people on the road are paying attention to something besides driving. I have to watch for the swerve that means the person is texting, and stay away from the car. All I can say is: bring on self-driving cars!!! People are idiots.

Japan musings

I'm missing Japan, since I was there exactly a year ago. I was sure it was two years ago, and that I just couldn't remember what I did last Halloween, but Scott had to remind me it was one. Shows how fast life is flying by (nervous laughter). It's very nice to go to Japan in the fall, although we did catch one night of a gnarly typhoon. That just meant we had to stay near our airbnb for dinner, nothing worse than that, unless there was and I forgot (rueful laughter).

The NY Times magazine has a loooong (and very good) piece about Japanese Kit Kats and all the special flavors. My favorite little nugget of Japan knowledge buried at the end is that in the Yamanashi region, southwest of Tokyo, she sees tourists who are there to pick fruit, and they pay a flat fee for an allotted eating time! That is amazing.

I can't wait to go back to Japan. I have a resolution to take the Monday evening adult Japanese class at Sakura Gakuen, at the Buddhist church on 10th street. I almost do it every year, and then something gets in the way. Scott and I were talking about just doing a short trip to Tokyo next time. I love everywhere I've been, but Tokyo the best.

Annual Heckasac Rant

In my last review for SNR, of Kotteri Ramen Bar in Elk Grove (which has decent ramen and really good tsukemen), I started it with a rant about how "real" cities can support listicles such as Eater.com's 13 best ramen shops in San Diego. We are smaller than San Diego, but we basically have two ramen places, Shoki and Ryu Jin.

Now they just listed 18 (18!) "splendid shakshukas" in the Boston area. Shakshuka is an egg-and-tomato dish that got trendy YEARS AGO, and a search of Yelp yields 1, that's right, 1, place to get it in Sac (Pushkin's). Oh, all right that weird Seasons 52 place at Arden Mall too. Boston is quite a bit bigger, but proportionately we should have....let me do some imaginary math....5-8 places to get this dish that has been trendy so long that it has now jumped the shark, yet never came here.

That is what bugs me, not that we are not trendy, that's fine, but that when good food and drink trends happen (like natural wine), they never come here and instead we get like 10 places riffing on the same trend or concept. And meanwhile, in the rest of the country, the trend builds, reaches saturation, is declared over, and on the the next thing, and there still isn't one restaurant where I can consistently get a glass of delicious natural wine, or shakshuka, or I have to go to the one ramen place over and over and over.

On another topic, I'm not always a fan of Marcos Breton, but this story is chilling on the subject of what sexual assault survivors go through, and also a wonderful profile of this brave woman. It is hard to take that her story was doubted, mainly because she got a ride to UCD campus from her attacker.

First post since March

AAAAHHH new post new post. Japan! Smiller and I were there from Oct 20th-Nov 4th.

 We got a bullet train pass for two weeks. That's 400 bucks each, it was hard to decide on the two week vs. one week, but I just hoped I didn't end up spending more in the end. Not having to deal with buying tickets for any JR (Japan Railroad) train is pretty sweet. You just flash the pass. The train stations all have sick bento box shops. The bento range from maybe 5 bucks to less than 15 max, for special seasonal ones. Above is the packaging for one. Japan must be heaven for train nerds. More after the jump

relevant/boring

Went to see Colson Whitehead at Placer High in Auburn on Monday night, LM was driving and let me know about it. He was super funny and rad. Beth Ruyak interviewed him and I was cringing a bit, ok that's an understatement, I was dying from secondhand embarrassment, due to the racial nature of some of the questions and her wide-eyed naivete. He handled it all with grace. He also revealed that Barry Jenkins (of Moonlight) will be directing a miniseries based on Underground Railroad. I started reading it last night. It's brutal, of course. He did say all of the brutality in it was based on true accounts. Insane.

 

 Me and SM went to Journey to the Dumpling last night in Elk Grove. We had concluded that it was too far and were going to go to Quan Nem, but then I realized that by the time we got to 47th ave we were about halfway there so why not? It was in the midst of blocks of massive strip malls and kind of hard to find. These are pan fried pork dumplings with corn. They stayed hot forever, we were warned about the possibilities of hot soup squirts. They were ok. The wrapper was too much like bread.

 Beef roll. It was ok. Not as good as Yang's and had the odd touch of lots of strong, raw red onion.

Soup dumplings. Really good. Best I've had around here. I liked the really malty vinegar that came with. I will probably go back to get these, and try the wontons. The menu was pretty boring besides the dumplings, but promised more kinds of dumplings will be coming soon.

 

I saw the move Toni Erdmann with CH at Tower. I was dreading an almost 3 hour German movie, since the preview looked terrible, but every critic was going so apeshit over it! I'm very glad I saw it in the theater. Unique and the female protagonist gives an incredible performance. There is a lot of stuff about corporate culture, and since CH and I are both enmired in it (spellcheck is telling me that is not a word), she more than I, it was stressing us out thinking of the week to come, prepping for meetings, etc. That made it more interesting, but more relevant. If you aren't in any type of  corporate culture that might make a lot of it boring.

stock image fun

I'm doing some mandatory online trainings, and of course there are some pretty good stock images.

This one is about difficult people. There is a lot of truth in there. Good thing I am never difficult, ha. They strongly delineate between whining and complaining.

That sweater should be gripe #1

Huh, they say complainers can be useful when you need critical thinking. I'm more of a whiner. According to this course, they are never useful.

"Blamers have the worst quality of whiners and complainers". So blaming is the worst of all!

"Complainers may become blamers when they think they are being ignored" I'm getting confused!

 

 

Columbus scene report

So, if you follow me on the Gram you know I went to Columbus for work. Columbus has a pop of 820,000 in the last US census (#fakenews), and Sac has 480,000. I bring this up because Columbus has an area, which stretches between Downtown and Ohio State (a mile and a half?) called "Short North", which has a lot going on. What struck me is how much retail there was, including small clothing boutiques, chain ones like Anthropologie (and I got to shop at a discount at another dying American Apparel), and furniture. We really have so little retail downtown, and it's all in little pockets here and there. Short North wasn't the be-all end-all, it just made me realize that we don't have any concentrated district like that. And its also the arts district.  At the end near the college there was an art house/mainstream theater way better than anything we have. I saw Get Out, and I Am Not Your Negro and The Salesman were both playing there. They also were playing Fire Walk With Me the night I was there, and regularly do cult films and sci-fi marathons. And had good beer on draft.

 I took a cab to the cobbled area called German Town on my last night, didn't get to stroll around, and Schmidt's Fudge Haus was closed, unfortunately (I love a good fudge haus). Schmidt's was a charming spot, open since 1886. I got a good German pils on draft and this excellent chicken schnitzel and tangy red cabbage. That other side dish is green beans and spaetzle.

 This is the Hyatt I stayed in, totally Brutalist and weird and awesome looking. No filter on this!

 The convention center is way way bigger than ours, probably due to the centralized location to so many other states, and it has this Arnold statue. Turns out he has a bodybuilding invitation thingy there. It's actually happening right now and brings a million visitors (or that's what my Lyft driver said)

 This was the view from the hotel, and this doesn't even show all the windows. They ran along two sides of the room. The hotel actually ruled for this reason. Columbus has a lot of good old buildings and neon signs. I got to watch a violent thunderstorm on the last night

Here's the outside of Schmidt's. Columbus has some things as good as us, other things not so good. The end.

Ganja/Acid

My friend Aaron Gilbreath (the guy who wrote the lengthy Tiki Men arcticle) loves traveling in Japan, and I urged him to go to Ganja/Acid in Osaka. He did and wrote this piece, which captures the vibe quite well. I almost wonder if the same guy was at the bar when we were there, except that my recollection is that that guy didn't know English very well. He knew it well enough to translate, but this guy sounds more fluent. I feel like I would have figured out he took photos for a host bar, too, but who knows?

 

Man, I really want to go back to Japan. We might go this fall. We are weighing a couple of ideas, but it's always so fun there.

I'm in it for free mochi

I did indeed make all three events, after a fashion. If the fashion is that I stayed at the last one for maybe 15 minutes. It seemed pretty windy-downy at that point.

 

There is a new proposed UCD Chancellor, if the regents vote to approve. Gary May. He received Obama's presidential award for excellence in STEM mentoring, has instituted many programs for STEM students of color, AND he credits Star Trek for sparking his interest in engineering, so that sounds pretty, pretty good to me! The fact that they are going for another person from the field of engineering (after Katehi) makes it seem like UCD would still like to be a big player in that scene. That's the direction Katehi was going.

 

Made it to the Crocker for the Day of Remembrance event. I got free mochi and sake. People were definitely tearing up during Doris Matsui's speech. Her parents met, married, and she was born in a camp in Arizona. Watched the taiko drumming but couldn't see the photo exhibit or Japanese ceramics because it was too crowded. Quite a successful event. The orange specter was hanging over everything, and was mentioned, but not by name.

Three events?!?!

I really don't want to work today. I am, but I don't want to, so I need lots of breaks. I actually started a writing exercise that isn't due until March 6th today, so I feel very proud of myself.

 

Has anyone noticed how Alley Katz has a jank plastic sign on it now that says "The Bunker" and that it's open, but that the "grand opening" is in a couple of weeks. Perhaps the owner got too much feedback that calling it "The Brig" was too similar to calling it "The Bolt" or "The Stud" or something. It's military-themed. Whatever that means. Whatever is going on there I want to check it out. And now it has wings! The real shocker is that Alley Katz did not have wings.

 

I found out there is a third thing going on Saturday, in addition to a bday party and Ganglians, and a DJ from Frankfurt, Philip Lauer, who I'm guessing is probably good. Mike C. is somehow behind it so that seems like a good bet. I guess theoretically one could attend three events in one night.

Kings blow it

I watched the third quarter yesterday just in time to see the Kings blow it big time. The Warriors went on like a 21-0 run. The funny thing is, we watched it at Bar West and it's actually a decent place to watch a game! They had multiple good beers on, tons of TVs, and it wasn't crowded at all. I guess it's my new spot.

 

I went to Bar West after seeing the Pinter play at Cap Stage. I would give it a mixed rating. It's good, not great. A bit of a trifle. The acting was solid. I think the problem was really with the play, but I guess this is the only Pinter I've seen, and don't think I've read any.

 

The Crocker is having a day-long event on Sunday (I already posted about it) to commemorate the order that led to the internment of Japanese-Americans. I just read the SNR piece about it, and was happy to see that Kiyo Sato, who wrote a book I reviewed in maybe the first thing I ever wrote for SNR, is still alive at 95, and still talking to kids about the camps. Ha ha I see that I am always looking for a way to work "frisson" into stuff that I write, I need to quit that.

 

Ganglians reunion at the Starlite on Saturday as well. With The Rippers

I love LA

I went to LA this weekend and it was verrryyyy fun. Airbnbed in Echo Park, the airbnb was cool but we didn't hang there, just used the proximity to other areas. The family lived over the studio and there was some demon child who woke up early and seemed to be at various times: playing a stringed instrument, dragging concrete blocks across the floor, etc.

 

Friday was an epic drinking sesh that culminated in a hazy trip to Jumbo's Clown Room. Other spots hit up were: Cole's, Buzzed (beer store with taps), The Last Book Store (buzzed book buying), Las Perlas (a mescal bar that always gets me in trouble, they have the best cocktails tho) and then JCR. I was not a fan of Jumbo's, but one girl did dance to the Stone Roses so that was memorable. I managed to spend every single damned dollar I had, but luckily did not hit up the ATM. I didn't eat anything after Cole's French dip at 3pm (mediocre) and then had a slice of lemon meringue pie at midnight, which I sort of remember. Hilarious night, and did not feel too bad the next day, considering.

 

Saturday we went to coffee in Silverlake, home of the felt floppy hats for both men and women, ate breakfast at Silverlake Ramen (the tsukemen was decent but not outstanding), and then went to the Broad. The Broad is great, really good collection with tons of the hits, manageable size and free! The Jeff Koons tulips piece is irresistibly fun. I don't know how it could be resisted. There were more women represented in the collection than at the new SFMOMA space, which was nice. We had to put our name in to see the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room and then leave and come back. You only get 45 seconds. I saw it (or some incarnation of it) at the Tate a few years back and I don't remember getting 45 seconds, but maybe that was the case. Anyway, it's worth it. I felt at one with the universe and very friendly towards myself, like I wanted to shake my own hand. That's not often a feeling I have.

 

Waiting 95 minutes (!) to get a table at Night Market + Song and concluded it was like Hawker Fare but not as good. But still good! But not worth waiting that long. The Kao Soy at almost any Lao place is better. Good wine list, but no good beer and to me that kind of food doesn't go very well with wine.

 

Blah blah, next day hit up Canter's. I probably should branch out and not always go to Canter's but I love it so much. A chopped liver/pastrami sandwich and matzoh ball soup was all I needed to eat for the day. Then home!

Spray the Champagne

Went to see the Kings last night with some peeps and I was all bummed that Cousins was suspended but that actually made the game super fun to watch and they blew out the Celtics! The trio of Collison, Cauly-Stein and Barnes had hustle and flow. And no babyman getting T-ed up or running off the court like a little bitch. I had two good brews (Bike Dog and Fieldwork) and a vegan sausage from Lowbrau, which was pretty good. Pretty similar to what you can get there. I was going to go with the duck fat fries, because I used to love those when I would go to Low Brau, but they looked totally different so I demurred.

 

I watched the recent Noisey episode on Atlanta rap and some observations are that Young Thug is a total dick and Lil Yachty is an actual big nerd. Their Atlanta series from a year or so ago was really good, but I'm surprised they would have this one hosted by a different generic white guy, one who really adds nothing. Why not blow minds and have, oh, I don't know, a woman of color hosting? Too crazy, right? Migos are so cool looking and I listened to Spray the Champagne today for the first time (from a mixtape from last year that I haven't listened to) and they are really deconstructing rap in this brilliant way. The chorus is like an incantation. I love it! I have to watch the series "Atlanta", I hear it's really good.

 

Aw man, I think Werner Herzog is gonna be at SFMOMA tomorrow night, but I'll be in LA. Oh well, it's sold out anyway. SFMOMA is showing a ton of good films coming up, I think I might buy tickets to see "the land of silence and darkness" just in case so it won't sell out. Driving to SF on a Thursday night is rough, though. Oh crap and it's at 6? I just watched Fata Morgana recently, or should I say, I just slept through it recently.

Lily's show

The Lilys are playing at Starlite tomorrow! Four band show (drats). I saw them in NY last year and they were super good, but that club Baby's All Right were having some kind of ventilation problem and even though it was April it was too hot for me to stand it in there. I've been to enough house shows in the summer to say that it was truly intolerable. Check out this show!

The Bananas are playing the Knockout on Saturday. I wasn't positive that was where it was, but then I found out the The List is still active. Yay for pre-Facebook resources!

SacTown Mag did a listicle for their cover story of 30 dishes in Sac you should try before you die. The cover is a squeezeburger, which is fitting, because the one time I ate one I felt like I was going to die. Overall, lists are fun, but it's too heavy on sweets and there isn't a single Vietnamese dish in there. Jimboy's taco got a great picture and a full page, though.

I like the Weeknd, but every time I hear him I think about Swifty's tweet (relayed through Smiller) that Weeknd songs are like Michael Jackson D sides and I laugh.

Art Street: is it a street

Last night I took a Lyft from Obo to my house, and the Lyft (yes I stopped using Uber) driver said, wait for it, "you are my first ride". Last time I took an Uber from my house to Obo (I don't like the food at all, but others I dine with do, and South had a line last night that looked to be about a half hour, although I wish we had just waited in it), the Uber driver said I was his first ride and proceeded to take a series of jawdropping moves, culminating in an illegal U-turn right in front, and when I got out of the car a woman outside said, "what was that damned fool up to?" Last night the guy was whiteknuckling it, literally sweating, and pulling moves like stopping at green lights on a turn. I was trying to reassure him that it's just a grid system. He was from Arden area, so I'm not sure why he was so stressed! Anyway, being an Uber or Lyft driver obviously sucks because people seem to try it out for a couple of days and then quit.

I'm hopefully going to Art Street Friday? I don't really know what it is. I thought it was actually a street. Is it a fake street? Not a street at all?

 

Aww man, Hawker Fare in Oakland is closing??? That is one of my favorite places. Scott got sick after we ate there, but since there were four in our party and we all ate the same thing it must not have been from there. I figured he would have a bad association and not want to go back. I'm gonna have to find a way to eat there one more time. I loved how they always had Faction pale on, which is great with their spicy salty fare.

it's a slumper

So guys, I'm not sure Hal Hartley movies stand up. I was reallllly into them in my teenage years/early twenties, but I watched Henry Fool the other night and thought it was terrible. Didn't even finish it. But of course that was a later one, and was never one of my favorites. I remember my house used to have a poster of it, but I doubt that I was the one who put it up. Some other Tower worker.  Has anybody watched Trust lately?  Or The Unbelievable Truth?

 

Tomorrow is the Lunar Flower Festival parade in South Sac, starting bright and early at 9am. Will I make it? Probably not. Then next weekend is the Tet festival. I don't know if these have always been separate, but it's kind of confusing. This press release explains the timing. I guess if I watched from Florin I wouldn't have to be there at the crack of nine, since it starts at Fruitridge and travels towards Florin.

 

I went to the Tet festival two years ago and it was fun. Definitely some good food, although since we can get great Vietnamese food all over South Sac at any time, it's not a must-attend like Hmong New Year. Also lacks the costume aspect. I've said it a million times, but IMHO it's events like this that make our city (fill in the blank: interesting, worthwhile, world class), not say, an arena and a terrible team led by a cry baby who nevertheless did manage to defeat the slumping Cavs the other day.

 

I'm judging Baconfest tomorrow. Last year I didn't get asked, after (I think) three years in a row judging. I love to judge (in general). I am kind of dreading it, though, as far as how I feel after. I might try to fast until then, but maybe that would be worse. It's like 30-some bites and dishes at minimum.

American Carnage: over

Trump is prez. Let the long national nightmare begin. Smiller and I were going to the coast but canceled due to the storm(s), so I'll be at the march tomorrow. My mom is going to a women's march in Mazatlán as well, pretty cool. You better believe they are just as bummed as we are down there!

I heard the new Migos hit yesterday, and as a long-time Migos fan (since right after Bando, although Bando has never been a favorite), I'm not quite sure why Bad and Boujee is taking off the way it is. It's pretty good, but they have so many other songs that are even catchier. Regardless, kudos to Migos, who I'm sure are faithful readers of Heckasac. I plan to watch Atlanta soon, I know they are in it in some capacity.

Tonight is some Leanord Cohen tribute show at Starlite that I've heard EC is singing in? I hope I can stay awake to make it.

gruesome twosome

I haven't checked the Halloween blog yet. The calling procedure stresses me out. I should look to see if I can get in on any bands, though. I can sort of sing and I once played a very simple keyboard part. Hire me!

 

Some things about the winter and my job starting really early blow, but a cool thing is how beautiful the light is on the way in over the Causeway when the sun is coming up. Today it looked like a painting, with lots of soft pastels, and an almost-full moon high in the sky still. Then I often catch the sunset when I'm in West Sac on the way home. It's nice to have a few minutes in that wide open space where I can see the whole sky, I wouldn't get that if I was already downtown.

 

Wow, Yianopolous and Shkreli (I refuse to look up the spelling because I don't want to read about them) at UCD this afternoon. That's a real gruesome twosome. What with these dudes and Trump's cabinet I feel like we are living in a Batman movie sometimes, with supervillains. Only no Batman to come save us.

Don't forget about Cockeyed

This is a reminder that very funny local prank blog Cockeyed, is still at it after 17 or so years?!?! I know the guy who does it through a friend of a friend and got to participate in a prank a million years ago where he altered a sign at the downtown plaze to include a golden banana. I will dig up my picture of that. Today I was chuckling at his post of signs he added to gun show signs and it's always good for a laugh.

 

Oh man, and I just remembered that a year and a half ago I was walking through Old Sac and he flagged me down for his age project. So there are closeups of me, including my eye that has a little skin tag ha ha. No one is supposed to notice that. My hair looks good, though! My skin looks similar to the woman who smokes a pack a day. He concluded from his project that there was no difference. I think genetics and sun exposure are equally influential. I feel like I look pretty firmly in my age bracket, which I feel great about!

for MEN

Work project that I don't want to do = looking for R. Kelly Reno tickets online. It's this Saturday! His tours get scheduled in the tweakiest way. I check often enough, so I should know. I'm bummed I missed his Christmas concerts with the giant puppethead R. Kellys on stage. His Christmas album was (shockingly) phoned in. Not any classics on there. I didn't listen to his last album, Buffet, much either. I guess his daughter was on it, under the stage name "Ariiraye". Try to say that name three times fast!

The Bee had a story about local bathhouses today, mostly about Asha, and they mentioned that Korean one in Rancho that's for men only. It's come up before when I've looked for a local Korean spa. I can't tell if it's legit or sexy, which doesn't really matter since I can't go anyway, but here was an interesting Yelp review:

It is what it is. It is a place for MEN to soak in a cool tub. It is a place for MEN to soak in a hot tub. It is a place for MEN to relax in a steam sauna. It is a place for MEN to relax in a dry sauna. It is a place for MEN to exchange massages. It is a place for MEN to relax enjoying TV And free water, sodas and some sort of food. On the days I've been, one day the food was fried KFC, one day foot long hot dogs, one day sandwiches. Always have doughnuts.

That's Fukin' Nutz

I checked in on fb for the first time in about a week last night, and I can tell you that a nice side effect of the break (or maybe the main effect) is that I have a lower stress level from not constantly reading think pieces about Trump. They are impossible for me to resist, but ultimately pointless since we don't know what he is going to do and there's nothing that we can do (or little). That's not to say I am ignoring what he's up to - I read the Bee every morning and look at the NY Times and google news. I read a few of them last night and the stress was instantly back. Just sayin'

 

OK, can we talk about this? No. Nu-uh. No nukin' way. There is so much wrong here. We were excited because we received a chocolate peanut butter beer? That's like saying we were excited when the rash flared up on our inner thighs. This is like a restaurant critic reviewing a KFC Bowl O'Sadness. I like Carla Meyer's reviews.  A lot. My main beef is that she should be reviewing Vietnamese places AT LEAST 2-3 times a year, or do a big roundup or something. But my second beef would be that there seems to be a big hole in her knowledge surrounding beer (I recall a mention of Blue Moon and an orange slice). It's easy to pick up some basic knowledge. A certain colleague of her writes about beer almost exclusively.

Looks good, despite being a cartoon

 

 The Crocker has some February programming and exhibits to commemorate the order to intern Japanese-Americans. In addition to some ongoing exhibits and other talks, Feb 19th will be an all day "Day of Remembrance" with speakers and a free screening of Day of the Fireflies. I'm hoping I can come to that. This is an important thing to remember, especially with the fuckery going on these days, but just in general. We can never forget that we locked up our friends and neighbors without cause, and then stole their property as well. I brought this up to some older relatives the other day and they started down the path of "well, the camps weren't that bad" and even "the kids liked it". NO!

 

SM will be happy to read that I pitched an article about it, and got it approved before I realized that it's the kind of project that stresses me, and that I pitch because I think *someone* should write about it, but that that someone in this case is not going to be me. I enjoy writing about food/drink much more, so I need to mostly stick to that.

 

I still get PR releases due to my old MidMo email account. I thought you might enjoy seeing the one I got today:

 

Wayne’s World 25^th Anniversary 

Panel Discussion & Red Carpet Event

  

 WHAT: Join the director and cast members for a panel taping in honor of the 25^th anniversary of Wayne’s World (WW25). 

The videotaped interviews will accompany the feature film when it returns to U.S. theaters for a one-night-only celebration in February.

 

WHEN:  Monday January 9^th, 2017 

Press Check-in – 5:45pm

Red Carpet talent arrivals – 6:15

6:15 PM: Doors Open

7:00 PM: Original Pre-show Featurette, live talent conversation, additional on-screen conversation,

followed by screening of full length Wayne's World Movie (1997) PG-13. Run Time: 1 hour 37 minutes.

 

WHO: Director Penelope Spheeris, Tia Carrere, Colleen Camp, others TBC live,

along with an on-screen presentation with Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Lorne Michaels and Rob Lowe.

 

not really, but sorta

I made hoppin' John on New Year's Day. You don't come here for professional food photos, right? I do feel like it's good luck to eat certain foods on that day. No really, but sorta. I used ham hocks I got from Taylor's. There was a lot of meat in 5 bucks worth of ham hock. And collards. And andouille from Morant's, which was really just over the top. The meat on the hocks was enough. Everything tasted better the next day, and of course needed to be doused liberally with Krystal hot sauce. Speaking of Krystal, I have been craving Souths's fried chicken ever since I had it a couple of weeks ago. Will have to go again soon.

Struggling a bit into the new year, with some bad energy happening, but I think I'm clear of that now. I'm about to go on call for a week so no drinking for a week, which is a good way to start the year. I worked out four times last week! That is huge for me. Or I should say rare. It's not really even #goals, but it felt good. I also checked out the Asha bathhouse. Pretty cool. Go when the weather is cold!

Can I recommend that everyone watch Paris Is Burning (I had to get the DVD in the mail, so I'm not sure how you can access it on your various media outlets) and follow the voguehouseofnewyork Instagram account? OK, well maybe not everyone loves that as much as me. But if you ever saw Paris is Burning and liked it, and are on Instagram, check it out.

Go to Co Do and order the Mi Quang, people

Fucking Kings! That game was pathetic. The Trailblazers were terrible, and went so cold late in the game, but the Kings were worse. They couldn't capitalize on the five minutes where the Blazers didn't score.

I had a burger at Pangaea last night, and yes, their burger is really juicy and delicious, Burger Battle winner, etc., but I just like a small burger. Hope Rodney isn't readying this. Probably not! Like one of my favorite burgers is from that beach shack in Stinson Beach and I like it because it's small and it has mustard on it. I want a thin, charred patty, a whatever bun, some special sauce and shredded lettuce. I was just writing up my piece for Edible on Vietnamese soups and as I was eating that burger I was thinking about how much more vivid and satisfying most of those soups were than just a huge hunk of fatty meat. I want some herbs, and fish sauce, and heat, not just a slab of meat. Long story short: Vietnamese food is tops.

everything's on the table

I bought some tickets to a Kings v. Celtics game in Feb. I'm enjoying the little bit o' Kings winning streak. They are pretty much the worst (cheapest) tickets possible, 25 bucks each. I think you can pretty much see anywhere, though.

I won't go into the details, since this is a public forum, and I already told some of you about this in person, but I had a coworker make a questionable, Trump-related comment about MLK day, and after letting it fester for a couple of days, I asked him about it. Let's just say we agreed to disagree, but now it seems like he doesn't like me anymore! I was willing to let bygones be bygones because I said my piece and what else can you do, and he's snubbing me! It's a strange new world we live in, where we can't agree that MLK is a hero. I feel like nothing's a given anymore, everything is on the table. Very disturbing.

Also disturbing was this Martin Amis book I just finished, "The Zone of Influence", loaned by JD. The blackest of black humor and quite good. Based on the enormous amount of research Amis has done on the Holocaust. Told from three points of view: an Auschwitz commandant, a hunky Aryan nephew of Martin Boormann who is tasked with starting a rubber plant fueled by slave labor (which was a real aspect of the camp), and a Jew whose job it is to prepare the victims for the gas (among other terrible duties). Let's just say the buffoonery and familiar human failings of the Nazis are a little too close for comfort right now. I'd recommend it, but might be better to read it in like a year to spare yourself some anxiety.

RIP

Clip of Morrissey and George Michael on TV show

 

 

 

Morrissey is such a dick! It's funny to hear him talk about how revolting he found the movie "Breakin'". George Michael seems sweet. They just don't make TV shows like this anymore! RIP George Michael. It's rad how much he likes Joy Division, while Morrissey is just a snot about them. Morrissey: I found it really quite impossible to care.

 

I went to a Kings game the other nights, the one where they beat the Trailblazers, and it was really fun. I thought there would be actual craft beer. I didn't spot any. I had a Sierra Nevada for 13 bucks and then a tall can of Modelo for 13 bucks, which was too gross for me to finish. The food seems to be pretty standard arena food, with the imprint of local businesses, but not a strong association. When I was there, I realized that, due to volume needed, the food has to all be ready to grab and go. That's a pretty prohibitive restriction as far as craft or care of assembly. Does anyone have any food or drink tips? I hope to go see another game soon.

soup soup soup

I am on call at work so I have to absolutely stay until 5. I think pretty much everyone else has left, since we are about to go into a four day holiday.  Somehow I also ended up on call on Tuesday, too?

I'm working on a really short piece on Vietnamese soups for Edible magazine. It has new owners, so I'm checking it out again. The old owners had problems, one problem being inexperience with owning a magazine. These new owners own Edible Reno. Anyway, I just keep going back to Co Do. It's my favorite Vietnamese restaurant right now. So far I've had their bun bo hue, bun mam vit, mi quang noodles (kind of a soup, more like a noodle dish) and their bun rieu. Two standouts are the mi quang and the bun mam vit. I'm going back tomorrow and then I'll write some blurbs. I thought the bun mam vit (duck noodle soup) would be boring but it had this smokiness that floored me. The duck was dry, however.

Nine more minutes till I'm off call and I can blow this dive for four days. Yay!

Interactive post

Top albums:

YG

Kamaiyah
Gucci Mane (everybody looking)
Solange (I slept on it and now I love it!)

DVSN (Mike C told me about this one and it's a real between the sheets classic)

Vince Staples EP is good

Schoolboy Q

Drake Views from the 6 grew on me, he usually starts his albums out with a couple of weak songs and this is no exception

 

Life of Pablo was a'ight, couple good songs

Wknd was weak AF!

 

Albums I will probably get into but haven't fully checked out yet:

Danny Brown (maybe - seems to rock-y for me. I like my rap and rock separate and actually I don't really like rock too much)

Beyoncé (hey, put it on Spotify!)

Miranda Lambert (on a friend's recommendation, it's a double disk and I didn't make it all the way through)

Tribe Record

Chance record (his baby talking annoys me, but he is obviously rad)

Frank Ocean (so meander-y, but I need to listen a couple more times)

 

What about you?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

Twice yearly posting whether I need to or not

So, it's been a good six months since I posted. Maybe it's time! Partially this is because my browser is having some fight with facebook and I was stymied in posting that E-40 had just posted a (fabulous) picture of himself on Instagram that he captioned "E-Feezable Belafonte Balogiono Bellwether". That's it, simple. I wanted to share that, but I might as well make a post.

 

 

Yesterday I checked out the new Kru. Man, it is fancy inside! I was actually relieved to see that the menu seems exactly the same (maybe smaller?) because I thought it might be too cool and expensive for me now. Like when you have a friend in a band and they kind of blow up and get press but then you hang with them and you're like, "Oh, it's just so-and-so, they're still chill". I started off with a drink of Nikka Taketsuru because the description on the drink menu contained the words "sherry" and "smoke". It was very smoky and Scotch-like. I ordered it with one ice cube. I had actually started the night with a Pulp from Fieldwork, which was good enough that I got a crowler of it. So at this point I'm sipping pure liquor and reminding myself to drink slowly! That's hard for me, I am a chugger.

 

We had a reservation at 8, and one thing I hate is when you make a reservation for a restaurant and then when you go it was clear you didn't need one and there are a bunch of empty tables. For some reason that always makes me feel like a rube, but in this case, not only was it packed at 8 on a Thursday, but we had to wait at least 15 minutes (maybe more?) for a table. Anyway, crowded, beautiful yadda yadda. I really like the huge black and white seafood x-ray photos  near the bar.

 

The table got the mushroom salad, which is a Kru classic. I think it's bigger than it used to be but with less mushrooms and more lettuce. The only problem was with pacing. Two people got their entrees and two people got nada for a long time. It was awkward for those that had food. And then my appetizer came out way later than my nigiri mix, but I guess the waiter had made that decision based on the heaviness of the appetizer, and told someone else. Regardless, I didn't hear.

 

My nigiri mix was good as always, but the real standout was the smoked duck skewers. Wonderful. Will order again. I want to go for omakase there, I have never done it. I'm excited for new Kru but bummed it's not in my neighborhood anymore but glad they take reservations. How much does omakase cost? Is it like "if you have to ask you can't afford it" territory?

 

Top tens? Who is interested in some top tens for 2016. I'll tell you bottom ten was either a) ovarian tumor or b) Trump.

 

Movies:

 

 

The Witch was probably my favorite. I nominate Black Phillip for best actor. Midnight Special was really good, with Jeff Nichols being a favorite young director and it's always awesome when he teams up with Michael Shannon. Not as good as Take Shelter, though. Walked out on Everybody Wants Some, was that maybe my only walkout? I can't believe Linklater made that crap. I wish I had walked out on that terrible beige Woody Allen movie, I had to look up the name just now. Café Society. Conjuring 2 was not as good as 1 but not bad. OK, I'll rank:

1)The Witch

2) Moonlight

3)Indignation

4) Manchester by the sea

 

I don't think I saw a single funny movie this year. I don't tend to go to comedies, and the ones I did were not really funny.

 

Maybe I will post about records next week. Or whatevs.

 

Boogaloo 2016

 So yeah, Burger Boogaloo. What a rad fest. Even though there wasn't a band on the bill that I think of as a don't-miss, it's still the best fest around. I think I will try to go every year for at least one day. I guess we dodged a bullet by just going on the second day (even though the lineup wasn't as good). I hear people had to wait in line for hours on the first day. It was hot, too!

 

 The last time I went was in 2014, when the Bananas played, but this year (and I guess last year), they moved to two stages, which made things run better. All the sets pretty much started and ended on time. This is the Dwarves. I had never heard them before and I only watched a few minutes. I found out that Stinky's Peepshow was going on in a tent at the same time, and MOM was in there pouring ranch dressing into people's mouths. I watched Lil Heather get a dry packet of gravy get poured in her mouth, too.

 

There were two stages, Dirty Mouth and Tassel Castle. This is Death Valley Girls at Tassel Castle. I thought they were good!

 Seth Bogart was the headliner. It was rad. I got emo about it and wrote a thing for the SNR, because he mentioned Orlando. John Waters introduced him and called him a performer of dubious distinction, putting him in league with Divine!

The original Mummies ambulance was there! I wish I could have seen them Saturday. I heard they drove it up to the stage and played on top of it.

 The Bananas played at the Starline in Oakland with Panty Raid after. I thought it would be a dive, but it actually had fancy food and biodynamic wine. I had a nice glass of Gamay downstairs.

Finally, their name in lights! Panty Raid had only practiced once but they were really fun and Seth wore a jock strap (hot!) Burger is allrightallrightallright!

Burger Box set

Burger Boogaloo was really fun! I will write more soon and post some pics but right now I am trying to get something together for the SNR, so I can get it in this week. One thing I just discovered from looking at the Burger website while I'm writing, is that the Bananas cassette box set is almost sold out! See this little clip here about it. Scott has a few, so better get yours before they are gone!

My Brazy Life

My mom's in town. She lives in Mexico on the coast but she a) hates the sun b) hates the beach/ocean c) told me this morning she never eats out because she can cook better things at home. Yep, sounds like the Mexican Riviera is the perfect place for her! She was saying the peso's down to almost 20 to a dollar. That is crazy! I have to go to Mexico at some point soon. It's so rad, I don't know why I don't go there more. JP was just in Mexico City and from FB his trip looks rad. It's been a few years now since I was there but I loved it.

 

I've been listening to the new YG Album a lot. It's a'ight. I didn't like Twist My Fingaz when it came out as a single a long-ass time ago, because it's too on-the-nose G Funk and not that creative, but in contrast to the rest of the album it's almost the best song. YG needs to get back with DJ Mustard! I was texting Nic about it and he pointed out that Mustard needs YG, too, which is true. He's getting into some like, adult contemporary territory lately and needs to get back to his roots. It's still good, but not a classic like My Krazy Life. The best part is that there's a track with Kamaiyah and Drake, but it's not Kamaiyah's best. It doesn't really showcase her talent. Still, it will bring her to the masses. Look how cute she is! I recommend her album, maybe the best of the year so far?

missed opportunities

So I like Carla Meyer as the food reviewer for the Bee. She's got a bit less of an edge than BAR, but there's still some bite (heh) to her reviews, she's no pushover. She uses a certain turn of phrase like "the celery thrills" and "the harissa tantalizes" a bit too often, but that's not too bad. BUT she's been in over a year and there is a decided lack of interest in cheaper spots and "ethnic" spots, especially in the south area.  I am getting bored with reading about some spot in El Dorado Hills I'm never going to visit but nothing surprising, no little discovery out on Mack Road. She doesn't seem particularly interested. I don't think it's out of line to point out that BAR would sometimes glean some of his tips from this very blog and go on to review the place, like with Asian Café (which by the way has different owners now and I had a very sad meal there a few months ago).

For instance, tonight I'm going to go eat at Tanoor Halal before I go see Conjuring 2 (so excited!) There's a spot worthy of a review. I'm probably going to eat this meat pie thingy that they have that is bomb. And pretty much the only Mexican she has written about it Cielito Lindo, and like, a review of Dos Coyotes for it's 25th anniversary. Little Saigon is the culinary jewel of this area, and if she's not reviewing places there at least a couple of times a year she's not reflecting the food culture of Sacramento.

long-awaited post

Yes, I am doing my first post in 5 months and yes it is a screenshot from a hearing conservation training I'm doing. Has anyone out there very washed their hands before they inserted earplugs? Well la di dah if so! How about inspecting them (step 2)?

 

 

George and Martha

I desperately needed a new banner photo and my mind was blank and I just threw this one up there, to get that other one down. Smiller and I recently watched Night Of The Iguana (I have mixed feelings about it), but I was loving Richard Burton and we talked about Virginia Woolf so I thought of this. Voila! Why doesn't anyone locally produce any Albee plays? I've never seen one live. I'm excited Big Idea Theater is going to produce The Motherfucker With The Hat in a couple of weeks.

 

OK, so this Tamaya story is just the weirdest, in that, really, you can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to a space and the cops aren't even going to investigate? It obviously looks like the Tamaya owners, or maybe employees who didn't get paid or something. They poured cement down the drains, so how about looking to see who bought cement right before this, Columbo? This story is just bizarre for what is not said in it.

 

I just noticed Eatuscany Café (not into the name!) yesterday and here is this very fun to read review. JB does well with the dis reviews, could have used a better closer but hey it's got a great opener. I just don't really eat gelato so I may not go there. You know what I do eat - Russell Stover candies that my boss gave me because I am bored at work and everything on campus is closed so I can't get a snack. I feel sick.

 

 

The Stephen Glass of chocolate

Wow, if you care about such things, this four part article on a couple of fake bean-to-bar (yes, it's a thing) Brooklyn chocolatiers is hilarious. They are accused of being the Milli Vanilli of chocolate, and even dying their beards. It's funny, just yesterday I noticed that they were selling these bars at Insight and that I knew it had some crazy backstory, and then this article came out.

 

The Four Eyes Christmas show was super fun. I did not get as wasted as past years nor freak the light up Christmas tree, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and was not hungover yesterday! One of the best nights of the year, reliably.

 

I recommend Spotlight if you like long movies about journalism. Such an honorable profession, it's too bad that it's withering on the vine.

Thankful

It's not online quite yet, but I have a piece in the SNR coming out this afternoon that's on Celebration
Arts, the African-American arts organization founded by the legendary James Wheatley. I just looked online to try and link it and I saw that besides the Kyle Kinane thing I wrote in March 2015, I haven't had anything in the SNR in over a year! Can that be true? It's really important to me to get back to writing something every once in a while. My transition to my "new" job (it's been 2 1/2 almost 3 years), and my actual new position (5-6 months) has been ROUGH. I am settling in a bit, so thanks to those who have supported me and listened to my whinging. Glad to get back on the horse, and thankful that editors still want me to write!

Hmong New Year report

Yeah, Hmong New Year! Did not roll with a crew this year, just my wonderful husband, who is my favorite accomplice for eating adventures. What more solid foundation could a marriage be built on? That's some bomb-ass Hmong sausage. Nice lemongrass flavor, and the meat was very finely chopped, so you didn't get those not-always-appetizing big chunks of fat. We also got the pork chop/rib thingy that comes all cleavered up. Both came with Hmong chile, which is mostly just chilies and fish sauce. What more do you need?

 

I was not going to get papaya salad, but then we got in a line for a place that had Kao Poon (which is a soup) that they advertised as "Changmai style". That intrigued me and the picture didn't reveal much about what it actually was. Then as we waited...and waited...and realized that everyone in line was there for the papaya salad. The woman in front of us told us it was rumored to be the best. A woman in back of us said she had waited an hour the day before and was now back for more. I am not a huge papaya salad lover, but we had to try it. And no one seemed to be getting the kao poon anyways. Guess what? It was truly the best papaya salad I've ever had. I don't know the difference, but the fish sauce had lots of little crab bits in it, and they also put an intense amount of lime. And a substance that was either sugar or a sugar/MSG mixture. I vote for the mixture because it was so savory. Yum!

 



 How rad are these Hmong novelty tees? The blow me one is for some instrument, and the Hmong Bong is, IDK, another instrument? Something that you smoke ceremonially? There were a lot of people selling herb and stick bundles that looked to be for ceremonial burning.

This year marked my second straight year of leaving my phone in the car, so not many pictures. These are cute ladies doing the cute ball toss ritual.

 

Oh man, what about that story about James Deen, the porn star? You following that? I have always agreed with something I read that James Deen is like a 4 in the regular world but a 9 or 10 in the porn world, and he's Jewish, too! But sounds like he is a rapist, crappy!

Hmong New Year!!

I almost forgot about it! That's how crazy distracted I am, mostly by work in my new #officelyfe #meetinglyfe

 

That's right, this weekend at Cal Expo (and Friday), just when you don't want to be eating a bunch, there's an event with the best festival food around. Make sure to go! It is awesome. Better even than a meeting that ends early. Hell, better than when a meeting you are dreading gets CANCELLED.