Bourdain: Ugly Crying

Not real. Not real. Not real.

In celebration of food, community, and life, all the food pictures self can pull from her archives in 15 minutes:

Home-Cooked Food, with Lots of Fried Garlic

BATCHOY: Super Special Bowl of Heaven

1. Cherries, Belmont Farmers Market, May 2018
2. Leeks, Palo Alto Farmers Market, April 2018
3. Giant Tomato, Mendocino Art Center, March 2018
4. Buko Pie, Philippine Airlines, January 2018
5. Dearest Mum’s Lunch, Manila, January 2018
6. UP Town Center, Diliman, Quezon City, January 2018

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

More Rounded: Scythians at the British Museum and a Cake Decorated With Chocolate Flowers

So many grrreat examples of ROUNDED, everywhere self looks.

First, this from the Scythian Exhibit at the British Museum (The special exhibit is 16.50 GBP, but the rest of the museum is free. This beauty is just standing in the lobby, next to a concession stand):

The Scythians, self learned from the exhibit, were nomads who roamed the wild Russian steppes. Everything of value to them was either made of fur or minted of gold. There are the most intricate golden belt buckles, as well as gold appliqués on thick fur coats.

Moving on:

Last night, self watched a play at The Gielgud: The Ferryman. The play was three hours and 15 minutes, one proper intermission, and a three-minute break to allow the audience to get up and stretch. During the first intermission, they sold Haagen Dasz caramel salt ice cream bars in the stalls (3 GBP)

Searing. The women actors were amazing. As was a live baby, who got onstage to get a diaper change and whose part was very nicely done (Baby never cried)

Display Window, Caffé Concerto, Across from the Gielgud on Shaftesbury Ave.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Elemental in Pasadena

This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is ELEMENTAL. Erica V. on The Daily Post describes her response to experiencing the American Southwest for the first time: “I was both confused and in awe of this extreme landscape.”

Last month, self was in Pasadena. Her first visit south in three years. She Airbnb’ed in the Pasadena hills. The house was at the very top of a winding driveway. Behind it was nothing but steep, scrubby hillside.

Just inside the front door was a rock, a very heavy rock. Self should have asked her host about it, but she never did:

There was a chameleon that kept trying to get into self’s unit. It was a beautiful thing. Every time self left the apartment, the chameleon would be clinging to the screen door. One day, self decided to photograph it:

Finally, a slice of green matcha tiramisu from Urth Caffé, in downtown Pasadena, a block from legendary bookstore Vroman’s. It looks for all the world like moss!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

“Gelato” by Gerald Stern: The New Yorker, 10 April 2017

Here’s an excerpt from a poem she encountered today in The New Yorker, one in a huge pile that gathered dust while she was on her latest trip:

we turned to Chinese poetry and Kenneth Rexroth’s
“Hundred Poems” and ended up
talking about the Bollingen and Pound’s
stupid admiration of Mussolini
and how our main poets were on the right
politically — most of them — unlike the European
and South American, and we climbed some steps
into a restaurant I knew to buy gelato
and since we were poets we went by the names,
instead of the tastes and colors — and I stopped talking
and froze beside a small tree since I was
older than Pound was when he went silent
and kissed Ginsberg, a cousin to the Rothschilds,
who had the key to the ghetto in his pocket,
one box over and two rows up, he told me.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Cups and Saucers

Self originally posted a different photo for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, but that was because she hadn’t read the prompt, only looked at the title, boo.

The prompt is supposed to be about finding Photo Ops In Your Own House.

Since self hasn’t been in her own house in years, here are the closest things to it:

1. Her writing table at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, with her cup of coffee next to her MacBook Air. She always starts the day with a pot of coffee.
2. A friend’s house in San Gabriel, CA

Crushing the Writing: Thursday, 2 July

Having breakfast outside with Connie Ignacio Genato, friends since grade school in Manila

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

More Names

Self’s second post on this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge: NAMES

Dragon Papa: Grant St., San Francisco

What Self Read, Summer 2016

Iconic Chinatown: San Francisco, Fall 2016

Names: The Daily Post Photo Challenge, 6 January 2017

• Humans love naming things — look around you, and I bet you’ll see dozens of names. This week, take a photo of one!

— Michelle W., The Daily Post

Well, this is an interesting prompt.

Last Thanksgiving, self was in Capitola. There’s a small ice cream parlor selling local ice cream, Marianne’s, which just so happens to be self’s name:

Ice Cream, Locally Made, in Capitola

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The lines in front of this bubble tea place in Stockton are ridiculous:

There are two Boba Guys in the City. Self took the picture from the Stockton site.

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And here’s the name of a beautiful bookstore in Cork:

One Other Reason to Love the City of Cork in Ireland

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Anticipation 2: SFMOMA, Hometown Creamery, London’s Millenium Bridge

This week, share a photo that says ANTICIPATION. — Michelle W., The Daily Post

Art excites self, it always has. Here, people milling about in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, level 2:

When you are in Hometown Creamery on Irving Street: Mango sorbet and fig tart excite.

Hometown Creamery, Irving St., San Francisco: November 2016

And nothing speaks of anticipation more than crossing London’s Millenium Bridge (aka the Harry Potter Bridge) towards St. Paul’s.

London’s Millenium Bridge: No better approach to Saint Paul’s

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

A Sweet Affair, in the Depot Building, Fort Bragg

The first three months of this year, self spent in Mendocino and Fort Bragg.

Below, a window display in the Fort Bragg bakery A Sweet Affair, in the Depot Building. Their cakes and pastries are exquisite, real works of art. Plus, not to mention, yummmy!

Self wishes she were there. Right now.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

LOCAL: 14 October 2016 Daily Post Photo Challenge

. . . show us where your heart is.

— Jen H., The Daily Post

Dragon Papa!

Order your own hot (delicious) candy fillings.

752 Grant Street, Chinatown, San Francisco

Lillian’s son Tien is filling out college applications. To help him through the stress, self took him to Dragon Papa.

They make the candy, hot and fresh, just for you!

Only place in the San Francisco Bay Area where you can get your candy fresh! The original Dragon Papa is in Hong Kong.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.