Catch up

There have been too many meals that have gone unwritten about, so here I am, again, trying to play catch up of some of the more memorable ones. Rather than the usual list of food devoured, this catch-up entry will be of things I learned.

Memorial Day Barbeque
Potatoes in potato salad can absorb an ungodly amount of salt. Vodka and rum mixed with red wine and fresh fruit makes a potent and tasty cocktail that goes surprisingly well with burgers. Colin likes his burgers absolutely unadorned, Ben recognizes the beauty of a hamburger patty lightly packed, I can only handle half of one of Eleanor’s ice cream sandwiches, Jon has spectacular charcoal gloves, and squeezing thirty people into a patio space twelve feet by ten feet is a difficult, and messy, maneuver, especially with two hot grills in the mix.

Mormon Country
In Mormon country, you can’t get a decent beer, even if you’re eating at a couple of the best breweries in the entire state of Utah. Budweiser there contains only 3% alcohol, and you have to be a member of the club (their term for bar) in order to enter--so, no membership, no entrance, no drink.

East Bay Suburb
Orinda is great for a backyard barbeque, where a meal of decadently delicious ribs, grilled oysters, and mac-n-cheese is enjoyed sitting in the backyard sun, as it rains across the Bay. The hard-to-judge-how-old bartender at Casa Orinda doesn’t appreciate the business of some young hoodlums like me, Scott, and his friends. Although, they don’t care over at the Round Up, where some tough-looking men take shuffleboard very seriously.

Nopa
Apparently, the area north of the panhandle has been ridiculously deemed Nopa by who knows who. Also, where Divisadero and Hayes intersect, which is where that new restaurant Nopa stakes its claim, can also be referred to as Nopa (although I think that’s more west of the panhandle than north, or maybe it’s a little north-east of Western Addition).

Divisadero, the New Valencia Street
Divisadero is becoming the new yuppie Mission. With Blue Jay Café, Little Star Pizza, Madrone, and Nopa, among other places, where a youngish, hip-ish crowd with not so many bicycles and not so many hoodies are hanging out, there might be a new scummy hot spot.

More Tacos
The 36 count package of corn tortillas is a much more manageable size than the 50 count one.

Mayflower
My Cantonese skills are only good enough to wrangle me a table and a pot of tea at Mayflower. It’s either that I have poor language skills or that our waiter was incompetent, since two wrong dishes were brought to our table. Also, “fried scallops” on the menu really means sautéed scallops.

In-N-Out
Not only can you get an animal-style burger at In-N-Out, you can also order animal-style fries. French fries covered with thousand island sauce, cheese, and grilled onions have never more appetizing as when eating them on a grassy knoll by the bay on a field trip from work.