my friend, the bear and the magical real
David’s blog is El Oso (The Bear), and he is on a temporary hiatus from his nomatic global lifestyle for the Rising Voices outreach project he directs (inspiring work that brings new voices from areas previously tucked away from the blogosphere).
He lives in an Oakland cottage, where we sifted through e-mails as it rained, ventured out for scallop sandwiches and classic cocktails, and upped the kitchen karma cooking risotto with squash, mushrooms, and snow peas.
As the song goes (yes, Barbra), on a clear day, you can see forever. And you could sense the historic import as we walked to the neighborhood polling place Tuesday morning, that the aggregate actions of months were stacking up, overwhelming the old and ushering in the next.
Later, we happened upon this spider sculpture, yet another reason to visit the Ferry Building, which was conveniently close to the barcamp location (Google.org) and one of my favorite haunts for impressive food products.
Inside, we sampled lardo (not sure David was a fan), and I smiled at the sign for “fried chicken mushrooms” that made clear the fungi do not, in fact, taste like chicken.
The election night excitement was building at KQED as we visited the rad Tim Olson (his Flickr stream regularly features graffiti in the Mission), and we left in search of food for what might have been a long night of election returns.
The Yelp application on David’s trusty iPhone suggested Yamo, and I discovered a deep liking for Burmese food—maybe not so much the grass jelly beverage,
but certainly the fish chowder
and definitely the house noodles, which you must order at Yamo, if only to eat the potatoes (trust me).
As it turned out, the celebration started early as we toasted to the next four years on the patio of a bar called El Rio that has “no dress code, but a strong preference for tutus and wigs”—on a less crowded night, my sort of place.
And as wonderful the news, in his acceptance speech Obama acknowledged the hard work ahead; heady with the possibilities, and still full of Burmese noodles, I walked through a hushed SFO airport and thought about the places around the world that can now have hope for change…
Related posts:
- hypnagogic, peripatetic foods
- colour my world, chicago
- America Day II: Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through
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Posted Thursday, November 6th, 2008, 9:49 pm * Filed in Beauty, Design, Food, Photography, Travel, Video. * Tags: burma, burmese, david, Food, francisco, kristen, kthread, m4change, obama, oso, san, sasaki, taylor, yamo. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Next time I think you should bring Jem. :)
The cottage kitchen is going through some serious cooking withdrawal. You upped its expectations and now it’s time for me to deliver.
And I had never seen the Crisis in Burma video before. Very creative.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
If you’re ready for truly outrageous at the cottage, that can be arranged. :)
And I believe in your cooking skills. Yes, you can.
The video reminds me of magical real literature where flowers rain from the sky—the plane stands in for a weather occurrence here, but the surprise of pelting a geographic area with peaceful beauty feels timely.