Monday, November 11, 2019
Saturday in Palo Alto proved to be far busier than we anticipated. We started with breakfast at Palo Alto Creamery, 566 Emerson Street, a/k/a Peninsula Fountain & Grill, in the company of Judy and Roger, congenial fellow Upper West Siders here for the Bar Mitzvah. The joint is in classic luncheonette style, formica tables, chrome-framed chairs with plastic-covered upholstery; it was jammed at 9:30 in the morning. I had a custom scrambled egg concoction, bacon, Swiss cheese and mushrooms. The place offers hash browns and home fries, two different things, rarely distinguished, the former grated, the latter cubed. There is also a choice of toast, all together at $15.95. Roger had a similar dish, while the ladies divided and shared brioche French toast and a chevre omelette with herbed goat cheese, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil, fruit instead of potatoes on the side.
We then walked to the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts on the Stanford campus. It is a grand building, built by Mr. Original Stanford in 1891. We took guided tours of two exhibits, the permanent collection of Rodin sculptures, displayed indoors and out, largest in the U.S., and an exhibition of the photography of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, side by side. Both docents, offered clear and well-informed explanations of these significant works. It was a successful and enlightening couple of hours for us and a good prelude to a nap.
The Bar Mitzvah ceremony was unique, beginning at 4:30 in the afternoon rather than a morning hour. It was a complete service conducted outdoors on the terrace of the Stanford Faculty Club. The young man accomplished his rite of passage in fine fashion, nary a stumble or a phunfut. What really made it special for me was my connection to the family, which reached back to the mid-1960s. It also meant that I was familiar with many other guests and had a delightful reunion with several.
We returned to Oakland Sunday afternoon, precisely at an hour that allowed me to miss the broadcast of the defeats of the New York Giants and the New York Rangers, thus preserving my mellow mood a bit longer.
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I have spent a fair amount of time in recent weeks eating at and writing about Miznon North, 163 West 72nd Street, an Israeli restaurant with some unusual dishes. Sunday night, we went to Dyafa, 44 Webster Street, Oakland, the Palestinian equivalent, which is rated as a good value in the Michelin red guide. It sits on Jack London Square, a popular destination. It occupies a medium-large space, with high ceilings and a semi-rustic decor. All dishes bear Arabic names, only a few familiar to your household gourmand. A list of ingredients is provided for each and I’ll present them exactly as identified on the menu, since I couldn’t specify each by taste.
We shared Fattoush -- arugula, romaine hearts, pink lady apple, red onion, roasted butternut squash, feta, fried pita, pomegranate ($13); Hummus Kawarma -- hummus, spiced lamb, dried lime, cured sumac ($17); Maklouba -- layered rice, roasted eggplant, cauliflower, crispy onion, herbed yogurt ($24); Labneh -- strained yogurt, shaved cucumbers, watermelon relish ($11); two Mana’eeshes -- somewhere between a flatbread and a pizza -- za’atar, olive oil ($9) and butternut squash, chèvre, crispy Brussel leaves, pomegranate gastrique, aleppo ($13). All were commendable.
We shared Fattoush -- arugula, romaine hearts, pink lady apple, red onion, roasted butternut squash, feta, fried pita, pomegranate ($13); Hummus Kawarma -- hummus, spiced lamb, dried lime, cured sumac ($17); Maklouba -- layered rice, roasted eggplant, cauliflower, crispy onion, herbed yogurt ($24); Labneh -- strained yogurt, shaved cucumbers, watermelon relish ($11); two Mana’eeshes -- somewhere between a flatbread and a pizza -- za’atar, olive oil ($9) and butternut squash, chèvre, crispy Brussel leaves, pomegranate gastrique, aleppo ($13). All were commendable.
However, Dyafa has not been free of political controversy, something always lurking around Middle Eastern matters of any sort. It opened in 2018 as a partnership of Reem Assil, a child of Syrian and Palestinian immigrants, and Daniel Patterson, a Michelin-starred chef. Assil had opened an Arab bakery/café
a year earlier, with one wall almost entirely covered by a mural of Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian activist, who was
convicted by the Israeli government in 1970 for her connection to a 1969
grocery store bombing in Jerusalem that killed two university students. She spent 10 years in prison and was released in a prisoner swap. She and her supporters claimed that her confession was produced after long interrogation and torture. Not surprisingly, Odeh's picture was not an appetite stimulant for some. https://sf.eater.com/2017/6/
This year, the partnership split up, leaving Patterson in charge of Dyafa, which is distinctly Arabic in cuisine and decor, but free of any overtly political elements.
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Although the Oakland Heartthrob gets the New York Times delivered daily, another reason we love him, my reading was seriously disrupted by this trip to the Left Coast. So, it was on the airplane trip back to New York that I read the November 3rd magazine section and learned about Ralph Drollinger, "who has spent much of the last three years teaching the Gospel to President Trump's cabinet."
Sure enough, Drollinger doesn't fall for any of that Love Thy Neighbor bullshit. On "marriage (men lead, women submit), homosexuality ('an abomination' and 'illegitimate in God’s eyes'), abortion (a slippery slope to infanticide), climate change (a radical belief promoted by 'secular fad theorists') and family separation at the Southern border (an appropriate punishment for 'illegal immigrants')."
"To Drollinger, the Bible is more than the literal word of God. It is the only defensible basis for any rational thought. The text, under the doctrine of inerrancy, is factually perfect and not open to multiple interpretations. It has one definite meaning that will offer itself up to diligent students." It is this denial of interpretation, inerrancy that interests me. This certainly applies to the Old Testament as well as the New Testament and, indeed, many observant Jews insist on the perfect authorship of our Torah. In fact, the Torah remains close to its original language, narrowing the risk of mistranslation although not of misunderstanding.
The New Testament first appeared in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, hardly the linguae francae of American evangelicals. Wikipedia asserts that "the full Bible has been translated into 698 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,548 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,138 other languages. Thus at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,385 languages." Drollinger must be a remarkably diligent student to keep up with all this. I personally never got past Afrikaans, no less anywhere near Zuñi.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
In order to hasten my return to the real world, I joined Gentleman Jerry at the Ranger game tonight, a blessed victory.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
The New York Times reports that "red and blue local economies are worlds apart on enduring, fundamental measures that determine their future prospects and their biggest economic challenges." Red state patriots, freed to mine, dredge, drill, chop, build, hire, fire to their hearts' content, must be in clover, right? Well, "education, household income, cost of living, non-routine jobs and projected job growth — are highly correlated with one another, and with voting Democratic." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/
The New York Times reports that "red and blue local economies are worlds apart on enduring, fundamental measures that determine their future prospects and their biggest economic challenges." Red state patriots, freed to mine, dredge, drill, chop, build, hire, fire to their hearts' content, must be in clover, right? Well, "education, household income, cost of living, non-routine jobs and projected job growth — are highly correlated with one another, and with voting Democratic." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Normally, the Grandpa Alan Foundation for Human Advancement deliberates privately to choose its annual awardee. However, this year we turn to crowd-sourcing, because of a deadlock in our decision making. We just can't choose between South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham and former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. Graham has consistently denied any presidential misconduct in dealing with Ukraine. Earlier this morning, reacting to the first day of open congressional impeachment hearings, he said “I’m really over with this. This whole thing is a joke. I’m not
persuaded by the quid pro quo argument . . . nothing happened here."
Ambassador Haley, viewed as a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate or even as a replacement for Mike Pence in 2020, is on a book tour for her memoir, With All Due Respect. In an interview two days ago, she said "In every instance that I dealt with him [Trump], he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with." You might enjoy Anderson Cooper's riff on this. https://www.cnn.com/videos/
We are stymied and turn to you, our faithful readers, to choose this year's winner of the Grandpa Alan Foundation for Human Advancement award. Both finalists are eminently qualified, so vote now. The cherished prize is the highly-rated EargoNeo model hearing aid, "Top of the line sound fidelity from us means crystal clear sound for you." It's likely that both of our nominees will one day want to resume acting in the public interest and they should be able to rely upon their faculties.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Stony Brook Steve and I took a walk on the mild side this afternoon and had lunch at Land of Plenty, 204 East 58th Street. It was very busy at midday, but its large space held all comfortably. It is at least five time as long as wide. The whitewashed brick walls, sparsely but tastefully decorated, lent it an open feel. Service was prompt, almost jarringly so. I suggested to Steve that he must have called ahead to put in our order.
We shared Chilled Noodles w. Spicy Sesame Peanuts (sic) Dressing ($7.95), which indeed added a kick to this typically mild dish. Each of us ordered a lunch special ($8.95 to $10.95), which included a choice of spicy wontons, spring roll or soup and white, brown or vegetable fried rice. I had Crispy Orange Chicken and Steve had Sesame Chicken (both $8.95). It seemed that the handful of sesame seeds sprinkled on his dish distinguished it from mine, which was quite ordinary but satisfying in its own way.
The regular menu ventured further, but it will have to wait for another time. Given the value of the real estate it sat on, one block from Bloomingdale's, Land of Plenty offers a reasonable deal.
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It may be too late to convert, but it is worth knowing that the most married people in America are Mormons, Hindus and Jews.
https://www.pewforum.org/
https://www.pewforum.org/
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