saturday night in tijuana

the poetics of food

Believe it or not, I plucked this beautiful magazine from the overgrown forest of Britney displays and Celine Dion Christmas CD's at Sam Goody on a typical weekday-in-the-life. There amongst the expected magazine titles was an unexpected cover image that was not sculpture but food! The cover image is black sesame praline sauce and chocolate mousse sitting on a chocolate sponge (Fillipo La Mantia, La Trattoria, Sicily) . No. 2 is a "Green Apple Feuillete" with puff pastry, green apple sorbet and carmelized apples (Christian Albin, Four Seasons, New York). No. 3 is a banana leaf filled with sweet rice, quail egg, barbecued pork and chinese sausage (Michael Taus, Zealous Lounge, Chicago) . No. 4 is made out of cocoa powder, couscous, chocolate, strawberries and raisins. No. 5 is a pistachio sorbet with pistachio hoop-croquant, pistachio milk foam and peeled pistachios (Albert Adria Acosta, El Bulli, Barcelona).

Ok...I'll say it, this food looks very architectural. In these assemblages the ingredients have become raw materials re-shaped, even engineered (in the case of the pistachio hoop) into new forms but with the added dimension of taste and smell! This metaphor has its limits since food works up to a certain scale and one cannot live in their food (but they can live for it).

Polar, WI

Last weekend I traversed 2100 miles by air and another 250 miles by land and 18 footsteps to the farmhouse and childhood home of my girlfriend to celebrate her first birthday over 49. It was a full house of 10 + 1 more late arriving Cousin named Joe. The midwest welcomed me with 6 inches of snow! I felt very loved and the result of making out with the cold is now a stuffy nose and cough. It was a strange switching of gears to land back in san diego and find myself having a glass of wine after shooting (and missing the non-living targets) a shotgun via the guidance of Susan's brother, indulging on three versions of birthday cake, the best lasagna ever, and sharing one bathroom with 10 people for two days -- I think only midwesterners can do that, there would have been a lawsuit in California.

Sketched over the summer, somewhere in Venice, CA

block hunter

Most of the concrete blocks I find occur all over town but so far this one has only been spotted in La Mesa. So it's herby named the "La Mesa Block".

Solana Beach Transit Station

The Solana Beach Transit Station is an award winning building by Rob Wellington Quigley. This is a really beautiful station that fits well with the character of Solana Beach. The Amtrack, Coaster and Metrolink all flow through this station. I didn't have time to thoroughly check out the place and grab a coffee or beer because it was a work-related visit but hopefully more photos and research will follow.

tijuana

The thought of an 'other' country, with other food, other language, other culture, just 20 minutes due south has always intrigued me. For a $5 trolley ride or a $5 parking fee Tijuana is available to any i.d. carrying U.S. Citizen. To get there you park and walk about 15 minutes to a surprisingly poorly identified but large concrete ramp. Steph and I had to keep asking people if we were going the right way. Maybe entering Mexico by car is much more festive because it sure wasn't on foot. You go up the concrete ramp and then over the I-5 on a pedestrian bridge where you get a nice lay of the border-checkpoint-land. The cars slowly creep towards the U.S. while Mexicans et. al. walk up and down the lanes soliciting goods and border guards search vehicles and confiscate Zanax and Churros. In TJ, the sidewalk scene is a total change from the mall we left our car at in the U.S. The TJ storefronts are close together with hand-painted signs, signs everywhere and merchandise spilling out onto the sidewalks. The Pacificos, Tecate and Corona beeers taste great for 99 cents on a sunny day on a Tijuana patio with hot salsa and fresh chips. After two of those the urge to start buying up chihauhas and inexpensive pharmaceuticals was strong but I fought it off. The walk back to the border and wait in the customs line was pretty uneventful except for the guards amusement looking at our passport photos. Steph looks like a baby-dyke and I look like a chinese exchange student. Of course, now we both look hot.

Tomorrow I run a 5K for T-day. Aside from fear of being trampled, fear of sweaty armpits, and fear of numbers, I think I'll do fine.

egg testing

Mulatto eggs laid by free-roaming chickens in Apple Valley, CA.

$3/dozen @ Hillcrest Farmer's Market

To the left is the egg from the happy free-roaming chicken that probably had a summer of love and was there for Roosterstock. To the right is an egg from a Ralph's grocery store cage-free chicken that never knew what happiness was. Notice the darker yolk of the egg on the left. It was also significantly better tasting.

(Next Post - Tijuana)

mixture

My favorite design store and the best in San Diego, Mixture, sponsored a children's art benefit for A Reason To Survive (ARTS) last night. ARTS is a San Diego based non-profit organization and together with Mixture they hosted their 4th Annual Children's Art Auction "Heart Strings, The Art of Music". The art was very impressive and the fact that they didn't have coasters for $1,500 - $9,000 showroom furniture was also impressive.

Which one...Eva, Michele or the Scavolini Kitchen?

Mission San Francisco

Friday

5:45pm - I bust out of my office and dash across the trolley tracks to catch the Skate Express curbside. Steph and Kate are excited for my trip and we power gossip for 15 minutes until they slow down and push me out of the car at Terminal 1, Southwest.

7:10pm - mufukin' Southwest is late! Delayed!

9:40pm - finally in the air and the kid next to me, Esai, says he hasn't flow in a long time (he's 9) and says he's scared. I explain that he's probably more likely to be struck and fried to a crisp by lighting than go down in a plane considering how little he flies. Now he starts to worry about lightning, I shut up. 45 minutes later, he's over his fears and teases me because I turned down peanuts from the flight attendant. He says I should've given them to him! Note to self: next time accept complimentary handouts and distribute to children and seniors.

9:40pm - I forego a $45 cab and decide to be adventurous and hop the BART. A very adorable gay guy ends up being my BART-mate. We talk about Britney's new album and the scene in Hillcrest.

10:10pm - The BART lets me go at 24th and Mission and it's kind of a rat-in-a-maze feeling getting out and up to the street. I emerge to find homeless dudes, McDonald's and hardly any cabs to get me the last 10 blocks to K + A's address. Finally, I ask two serious looking lesbians coming towards me via the crosswalk if cabs are hard to get around here. The more serious one whips around and gets me a cab in 2 seconds.

10:30pm - Having french press coffee + coffee snot + wine + leftover wasabi potatoes + one mini spare rib with long lost friend Kathryn. Their kitchen feels like a theatrical set with its right-sized wooden table and little props along the window sill. There are doors on every wall for each character to exit or enter.

(Meyer - one of the characters in the kitchen)

12:30am - It's funny to see that my friend is now a coffee drinker and she still calls me "Jenny" and nobody buy my mom and new sister-in-law call me that because they're in Stillwater and that's my name there. However, all other people are given the most menacing look I can muster. But it's oddly comforting to hear it from K. After our first real face-to-face conversation in about 5 years, it's bedtime.

Saturday

9:00am - I get up and walk the Mission neighborhood. San Francisco General Hospital is a few blocks away and there's cheerily ominous 1900's red brick buildings mixed with newer impersonal concrete and glass buildings. I return and Kathryn and I get on bikes and head to a cafe called Ritual. This is more than just her mode of transportation it is a part of her personal culture. I love the look of the blue "fixy" bike with it's thin shiny fenders that I'm given to ride or fall off of. It's called a "fixy" because of it's fixed rear wheel which means the pedals remain in motion until you stop. There is no coasting on this bike or in life. Oddly, I kind of like the constant awareness of what my legs are doing. Maybe that awareness and sensation goes away if one rides a fixy a great deal.

11:ooam - After a very satisfying pancake breakfast made by K's boyfriend Alon, Me, Blue Fixy, & kathryn head for whole foods. When I moved to San Diego I thought the Whole Foods totally rocked and made the Mpls Whole Foods look like a 7-Eleven. The SF Whole Foods made the SD Whole Foods look like a fruit stand. And, I scored an aluminum bottle I'd just seen in a design magazine, Swiss-made by SIGG. We bought a football-sized quantity of skirt-steak to make Bul Go Gi and some Irish Cheddar Cheese and tomato soup for lunch.

Noon - It's been raining the whole time we've been biking. I'm liking the rain after the wildfires of San Diego. Kathryn makes the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had. After lunch we get to work making the marinade for the Bul Go Gi, which is really just chopping up some ginger and garlic and sacrificing it to the Blender God. After several hours of marination we get to enjoy the fruits of our blending. The skirtsteak has been grilled to perfection by Alon an we sit down and make the equivalent of Korean burritos out of rice, butter lettuce and miso and chili paste. Just when I think dinner can't get any better chocolate chip cookies (a recipe from Tartine Bakery) fresh from the oven appear before us ... yum.

Midnite: We head out in the rain for a nightclub called 12 Galaxies on Mission St. How do I describe it? It's like a Punk/goth/World-music/Brass rave. There's middle-eastern sounding singing mixed with both rockish and almost polka-like riffs by the brass players. The crowd is like a bundle of pistons powered by the music. The fashion of the crowd is oddly cohesive, fedora hats, leather vests, girls in baby doll dresses, patchwork ensembles of ties and t-shirts.

Sunday

morning: I wake up early again and take another walk. Mission street is intense! It is packed with shops for everything; Two bridal shops, a latino 99 cent store, a chinese 99 cent store, fresh meat and fish market. I could buy a wedding dress, steak for 50 guests, some nice chinese party favors and 60lbs of rice for confetti all in a 45 minute walk and have everyone meet me at the Buddhist Temple for the ceremony.

(99 cent store across from 12 Galaxies Bar)

Noonish: we bike to SF-MOMA and my favorite artist, Joseph Cornell, is being exhibited. The museum has so many pieces of his work on display it's overwhelming. I think I have now seen all of his works that have ever been exhibited in public. After our art attack it's time for food. We discuss oysters. I don't really like oysters but when Kathryn starts talking about them i start to like them! She doesn't just talk, she rhapsodizes about things that she's interested in. I'm not an espresso drinker either but between our pedaling and art-going and eating K's soundbytes about the espresso drinkers in her life and the importance of burr grinders had me throwing back macchiato's after every meal by the end of the trip.

4pm: Kathryn and I go to Five and Diamonds and now I know what I want for Christmas, this one-of-a-kind leather laptop bag ($400) and holster-utility belt ($180) except with red leather trim instead of all black. Thanks Santa! (or mom and dad or friends in switzerland or benevolent internet stranger.)

6Pm:My last hours in San Francisco are being spent at a lively Mission district spot called Pizzeria Delfina where the people waiting for a seat are on the sidewalk in circles of 3 and 4 with wine bottle stuck in the tree planters and wine glasses in hands or on planter ledge. We're having Margerita pizza, grilled fennel and greens, salt cod and polenta. A glass of wine, macchiato and a couple of goodbye hugs and the trip is over.

10:40pm - mofugin' southwest is delayed again! I see someone I've met before from Minneapolis but I'm too over-stimulated and over-tired to make conversation. We finally board and I nod off (hopefully without too much drool) and after 20 minutes I awake to a fantastic show of lights outside my window. We're flying so low I can see the traffic and piers and patterns of the coastline below. The contrast of suburban and city lights against dark water has me and my nose and cheeks pasted to the window. It's a waking dream.

11:20pm - We do the 747 bounce and I get a Syrian cab driver to take me home. I lent my keys and condo to Pippi from Minneapolis for the weekend so I have to scale the outside gate in the rain as gracefully and 007'ish as possible. Kathryn gave me a book before I left - A Place of My Own by Michael Pollen - but I'm too tired to start it, the Macchiato has worn off.

Arclinea After Hours...

Last night, Eva and I checked out the new San Diego Arclinea showroom with 40 or so female designers whom as a collection were a mini-fashion show. At close range, I observed several styles of shoes, handbags and *gasp* even dresses that I began to covet by the end of the night. Perhaps I may be spotted in a dress this fall with shoes I can barely walk in. In 120 minutes I managed to increase my fashion and kitchen design awareness. The reason for the gathering was San Diego Women in Architecture's monthly networking meeting. The theme was "How to Get Your Project Published" and it was super-informative. The panel of editors was very diverse and funny! The SD CityBeat representative was a memorable quirky person and the editor of the new Luxe Magazine had a slight East Coast accent that fit her persona well. The panel was also made up of three architects, one of which was Jennifer Luce and they dished out some serious commentary: for each one of them it took 10 years to really get published. Jennifer Luce's main advice was to be patient. So, patience is going to be my new endeavor.

My favorite ArcLinea kitchen is the modular and free-standing Artusi line, described as "Tenacious, Yet Flexible" - that's me!

Except I am now, Tenacious, Yet Flexible and Also Patient.

http://www.arclineasandiego.com/artusi.html

same line, different place

morning in hillcrest

Farmer's Market Flower

St. Spyridon Greek Church - Hillcrest

Take a good look...

I think I had the last slice of pie in Julian.

This is Hell, Dude!

Today, grazing through the Rite Aid Ice-cream buffet in downtown San Diego did not bring the usual joy and satisfaction with wildfires annihilating million dollar homes and baby mountain animals being scorched less than 30 minutes away. For a transplanted Minnesotan the combination of close proximity and uneven destruction is hard to wrap my head around. I'm in the equivalent of the Green Zone: lots of readily available ice-water and fresh food while chaos and destruction is happening out there. Good thing I really love Hillcrest and don't EVER intend on living in a mountain estate or mountain shack. I'm happy with the Green Zone and I'll visit the mountains after it rains. The above title of this blog post was taken from an excellent article on the flames of southern california, specifically Malibu. It also explains Santa Anas in a little more detail which was helpful for me since I'm used to weather words like Arctic Air, Black Ice, Mosquito Pond, Sub-Zero, etc.

Let Malibu Burn by Mike Davis
http://www.radicalurbantheory.com/mdavis/letmalibuburn.html

Differing States of Emergency

It's very surreal here. I'm in downtown San Diego, half of my office was advised to stay home. Many of our clients either stayed home or had their buildings shut down and were sent home. San Diego residents are advised to stay off the highways and their cell phones. My car was speckled with ashes this morning. The whole city smells like a campfire. Every hour we're hearing of more evacuations: The Wild Animal park evacuated it's most important animals, (but aren't they all important?) the Del Mar racetrack is full of 4 legged refugees, Qualcomm Charger's stadium is at capacity with 10,000 evacuees. The fires to the north and east are encroaching upon coastal san diego. The firest to the south and east are moving into Chula Vista. If the uptown neighborhoods have to evacuate I'll have nowhere to go except the beach. I'll have to find a bunk out on the Midway Battleship in the harbor. The destruction is adding up to tens of thousands of acres. It's such a surreal thing to know that less than 45 minutes away people are losing their homes and spending the night in shelters while here in Hillcrest all are going about their nightly errands: walking dogs, grocery shopping, stopping at the car-wash, etc. It's an uneven state of emergency.

The best part about going home...

Mom's Breakfast - the best!

study on closeness

Another special day...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss's_Day

Blog Action Day - The Environment

Witch's Hat water tower, Prospect Park Neighborhood, Minneapolis, MN.

Built in 1913 and de-comissioned in 1953.

Today, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. The aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

blogactionday.com

I could talk about green building and environmentally friendly materials but I don't know many friends or family that are building or remodeling at the moment. Instead, I'll highlight an issue that we might take for granted: water. Since I was just in Mpls for my brother's wedding I'll deliver this from a MN perspective. In MN, the per capita consumption of water is approximately 731 gallons a day and 1.72 billiong gallons a year (2000 water resources study, MN DNR). Fortunately, MN does not have the acute water resource problems that CA does but it still must manage water resources sustainability to meet population growth and commercial usage for agricultural, food-related industries and breweries (beer!). So, here's a few inexpensive suggestions that will help reduce water usage in your home or apartment by 5- or 20 gallons a day.

• If you live in an older home, retrofit your plumbing fixtures with a faucet aerators - these increase spray velocity, reduce splash and save water and conserve energy. Faucet adaptors are available to retrofit an aerator onto a non-standard fixture.
• The same thing applies for an old showerhead. Newer shower heads can save as much as 25% with features such as "pause" to lower water flow while you're soaping up and internal pressure compensators, to maintain pressure without using more water.
• Leaking toilets waste a lot of water and adds to the water bill! So fix that leaky toilet if you have one. Or, retrofit with a toilet tank water saver (you can buy one for $2 or just put a jug of water in your tank, or replace the throne with a low-flow toilet. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,213021,00.html
• Fix anything that leaks.
• Don't let the faucet run if you don't have to.
• Cut down on using the garbage disposal, they use a lot of water and add solids to the septic system. Start a compost pile instead.
• Try to only do full dishwasher or laundry loads.

Hillcrest is Among Top 10 Neighborhoods in U.S.

*picture from mysandiegolife.com

Hillcrest is 100 years old and it's wearing it's age well! It's been ranked as one of the best neighborhoods in the U.S.. I feel so lucky that I live here!!! Amen to that! Hallelujah, Hari Krishna, Shalom!

Here's the San Diego Union Tribune's paltry, feeble article which is barely worth reading...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071003-0710-1bo03hillcrest.html

However, curious to know who decided what we already knew about Hillcrest, I delved a little deeper into the source, the American Planning Association and I found a much more fulfilling and informative piece of writing.
http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/hillcrest.htm

I'm inspired to find that a couple women architects have buildings in Hillcrest and the fact that "more than 1,200 businesses belong to the district, making it a major center of commerce for not just the neighborhood, but the entire city" is phenomenal. The article understandingly does not mention one oddity that occupies a prime spot in Hillcrest - Pernicano's Di Baffi. It's a slowly decaying Italian restaurant that is owned by a stubborn and allegedly sentimental owner, George Pernicano (a guy with a big handlebar moustache, "casa di baffi" means House of Moustache) who just does enough to keep the building legal. Maybe I will post a picture of it later this week.

Here's an article on the remnant restaurant: http://www.hillquest.com/archives/pericano.htm

I've been wondering if he would entertain an anti-development of sorts: an art/architecture project that would take the existing facade and transform it into an expression of the memories and emotions that keep Mr. Pernicano from doing anything with the building. Since he's wealthy enough to not develop and turn down offers maybe an action above the interests of commerce is in order? I wish I could've visited the restaurant during its heyday. I can close my eyes and imagine the atmosphere and the characters and the steaming plates of veal and pasta and bruschetta going by...how'd this post turn to food?

Food

When I first moved here I consumed 157 servings of Lean Cuisine. That's an estimate because I only saved about a third of all the plastic trays. In the early months of residency I had no friends to eat with and had no desire to prolong dinner with myself so 4 min. of heating + 3 min. of eating + 30 seconds of cleanup was drawn out enough. I've since evolved my eating habits and have had much more moving food moments. One particular moment was the first time I was treated for dinner at French Friend's house, yes, quiche that didn't come from a box and salad dressing that didn't come from a bottle. She'd made everything from scratch and it was so good that I don't think any other quiche will come close, in fact, I've had to force down every other quiche I've eaten since that day. Fantastic food experience #2 happened on Swiss National Day: a specific kind of swiss sausage hot off the grill smuggled into the country in a clever way, perhaps hidden in a David Hasselhoff doll or a bust of Elvis. I think the supply has dried up now. I will have to go to Zurich for more. Another great moment was going to Sushi Ono with a friend who's a total regular there. She got the sushi guy "Jay" to make us something unique and special - tuna roll that he seared ever-so-slightly with a small torch. That was the best roll I've ever had. I hope nothing ever happens to Jay. AND, this is the last one, yesterday I had the Zen Breakfast at the Mission Cafe - brown rice, tofu, eggs over easy and a medley of vegetables, it sounds too healthy but the combination was great! I need to stop writing and go eat now.

trying out a new color

Two months ago I finally made the switch to a water pitcher with filter and I bought a shatterproof waterbottle to port my h20 in. I will no longer be giving money to Dasani or contributing as much plastic to the landfill. I also take the bus every day to work and have not had to put gas in my car for almost 4 weeks. I've also stopped washing my hair, showering or brushing my teeth.

(Ok, I'm not that green...or, i probably would be able to grow things on myself.)

This saturday, I'm going to take a self-guided green design tour in San Diego.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070923-9999-lz1h23green.html

http://www.greenbuilt-sandiego.org/

There's also a Women In Architecture meeting next week on how to get involved in the San Diego green scene AND I found out through research I had to do at work that the City of San Diego has a Green Building Ordinance! - meaning, any new municipal buildings over 5,000 SF must meet the LEED Silver rating. Does anyone know if Minneapolis has a Green Building ordinance? Well, Mpls should get one!

The dreaded E50 error

I've had my canon Powershot S400 for less than 4 years. Last week the memory refused to work and it refused to take a picture. This has happened before so I re-format the memory card and voila! It works again! However, this time the re-formatting function in the camera refused to work and the camera would shut itself down and say E50 on the screen and then the overwhelming sense of "the world is against me" sets in. This time I hooked Canon up to my less than 4 year old laptop that's already had it's hard drive replaced and through the WinXP camera wizard, took a picture with the camera using my computer keyboard. I felt like a dangerous hacker! And, I don't know why but it worked! My camera now works again! I don't have to give more money to Canon. So why doesn't my 20 year old toaster oven ever need to be re-formatted? You just turn it on and it puts a nice golden brown on everything (unless you forget and start doing something else). Also, can I control my toaster oven from my laptop? I bet one trip to Ace hardware and some speaker wire and a phone call to my brother @ the U would make it happen.

moobs, smells, trolley

Monday - Friday I engage in a 6 minute, 1 block walk from the No. 7 to the office taking in gaslamp quarter sites, sounds, and smells. Today it was Mr. Moobs* topless and 26-34% overweight, possibly inebriated, walking down the street at 8:15am in the morning and still circulating in the same area at 5:45pm. At least he had an even tan. Last week I stepped onto the Trolley and in 6 minutes I was back on the sidewalk again but in Little Italy inhaling smells of prosciutto, pizza, and peppers floating from doorways and patios eating establishments. There was a non-descript sandwich shop that had especially good smells coming from it. Sometimes over the noon hour I've taken strolls to the San Diego library which has a terrible smelling sidewalk as one approaches. The Mpls library had that issue too. Libraries have a strange attraction. In a 1 block radius of my new 9-to-5 there's a tattoo shop, a chinese and fried chicken place, an NY style pizza place, an old abandoned theatre, a luxury condo-tel under construction (see picture below), Mr. Moobs, the red trolley, an upscale sushi bar and a Rite-Aid - one small snapshot of downtown San Diego.

*man boobs

5th Avenue and C Street

I asked one of the construction workers how much it costs to run this crane, he said about $10,000 a day.

urban markup

I'm not going to say who or why or where but this urban mark-maker's work is amongst my all-time favorites.

Silver Strand State Beach

The blog went on pause for a while due to switching jobs, fixing up the condo, going back to the midwestern homeland and acquiring a super-cold/flu on the plane ride back. Yesterday, I attempted to bake out my ailments and chose a new beach to visit - the Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado. I love going over the Coronado bridge. It's even more fun when someone else is driving because then I can look out the window and take in the views of the Navy shipyards, boats in the harbor and rapidly changing San Diego skyline. When I got out to the beach I found the south end packed with people doing something called "Kite Surfing". It looked like a lot of fun and I want to try it so I consulted with one of the born-and-raised Californians I know here and she said knowing how to surf would help and then she added that having good balance is necessary for surfing. So maybe I'll start with a skateboard and work my way to the water. Kite Surfing looks like it requires a lot of upper-body strength to control the sail rigging and a lot of lower leg strength to carve up the waves. There must be some formula for sail-size to human body weight because I didn't see anyone soaring into the atmosphere from a gust of wind but I also was not watching the whole time.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

I am small. Art is Great!