Coast To Coast

Saturday, July 3, 2021

Thanks to author and journalist extraordinaire Ralph Blumenthal for a suggested rebranding of this folly: "Whining and Dining."

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Hoohah!  What a day.  Celebrate David G.'s, Aryeh's and Nate's birthdays, a total of 230 years.

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Let's go back to yesterday for a moment.  We drove up to Sonoma County for the afternoon.  Lunch was at Salt & Stone, 9600 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood, a lovely spot with a large group of shaded tables outdoors.  We sat next to a serene lotus pond, filled with fat koi and buzzing bees.  Best bet on the interesting lunch menu was the generously-portioned Caesar salad, topped with grilled prawns (they are not shrimp out here), broiled salmon, grilled chicken breast, blackened snapper or seared ahi tuna, ranging from $18 to $25.  

After lunch, we had a scheduled wine tour and tasting at Hamel Family Wines, 15401 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma, a beautifully-designed hillside property, for members only.  The Hamels, a transplanted mid-Western family, are new to winemaking, but apparently old to moneymaking.  It's a great place to linger, if you can find someone to get you in. 

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Today, we met Jeanne Friedman, CCNY '63, for lunch at Funky Elephant, 1313 Ninth Street, Berkely, a Thai joint.  Even though Jeanne defected to the Left Coast decades ago, she still seems to have just emerged from the Bronx High School of Science.

Funky Elephant is a hole in the wall that actually takes your order and delivers your food through a hole in the plastic shower curtain covering its doorway.  The menu is very small (under Covid conditions), but the food is very good.  The spices are pronounced and pitched to an adult's palate.  I had Gang Rawang Beef, "grilled flat iron steak, house made green curry paste, yellow turmeric, coconut milk, Thai basil, Thai chili & watercress" ($19) plus a side of sticky rice ($2) to catch all the delicious sauce.  We sat on a little patio in front of the joint under bright sun and I wound up glowing inside and outside. 

Sunday, July 4, 2021
There is a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).  Its position of Chief of Equity and Inclusion was held by a Black Jewish woman.  Last month, in response to a perceived  "increase in hate speech and random violence against Jewish people," SCBWI issued a statement asserting that Jews "have the right to life, safety, and freedom from scapegoating and fear."    https://www.scbwi.org/stopantisemitism/  

Shortly thereafter, SCBWI's executive director "apologize[d] to everyone in the Palestinian community who felt unrepresented, silenced, or marginalized" and the  Chief of Equity and Inclusion was gone.  
https://forward.com/news/472289/equity-and-inclusion-officer-resigns-over-a-statement-condemning/

I don't know why equity and inclusion wasn't extended to the many other  unrepresented, silenced, or marginalized members of the non-Jewish community.

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We celebrated America's independence appropriately by going out for Chinese food at East Ocean Seafood Restaurant, 1713 Webster Street, Alameda, a highly-reputed joint, similar in size and decor to dearly departed Jing Fong.  For you geography fans, Alameda hugs San Francisco Bay southwest of Oakland.  East Ocean is known for dim sum served at lunchtime and we came for dinner, with mixed results.  60% of our party were more or less vegetarian and we ordered accordingly -- scallion pancakes ($11.95 for 2); vegetable pot stickers ($12.50 for 6); vegetable spring rolls ($8 for 4); braised tofu with cabbage and black mushrooms ($14.95).  We carnivores added siu mai ($7.95 for 4), prawns in lobster sauce ($17.95), Peking duck ($38 for a whole duck), and fared less well.  The prawns (shrimp by any other name) were cooked with lots of green peppers and onions in place of eggs and garlic.  The duck was attractively priced and served with a dozen buns already folded over a piece of skin.  However, it was bony and fatty, no slices of boneless duck breast, the heart of the dish.  

Monday, July 5, 2021
The women/ladies/girls went off to a museum, so, inoculated against puns, I went to lunch at Crepevine, 5000 College Avenue, Oakland, and ordered the New Orleans Benediction, two English muffins halves, topped by a crab cake, topped by a poached egg, topped by spicy Hollandaise sauce ($14.25).  I enjoyed the somewhat goopy concoction, although the crab cake tasted more like a fish cake, in fact, reminding me of the more-potato-than-fish cakes served at the Horn & Hardart Automat in the distant past.  

During college, I worked Saturdays in the library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.  The Automat on 6th Avenue near 47th Street was one of my regular lunch spots, where my favorites were beef pot pie, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and fish cakes, not all together mind you.  I wish I could remember even the approximate cost of any of them.  

Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Down to earth in the Holy Land tonight after a very pleasant week in the company of America's Loveliest Nephrologist and the Oakland Heartthrob.  On the other hand, I feel that I got back just in time.  Before returning, I read that there were only 1,160 public bathrooms on my home turf (https://nyti.ms/3hdpOrr), population 8,253,213.  By contrast, Oakland with a population of 435,224 listed 34 public bathrooms (https://localwiki.org/oakland/Public_Restrooms).  If you do the math, even without the help of Andrew Yang, you find that Oakland's 12,801:1 people to potty ratio seriously lags our own (woeful) 7,115:1.  

Wednesday, July 7, 2021
We're back, contemplating the changes.  The outdoor temperature increased 30° and the price of a gallon of gasoline decreased $1.50.

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There is a certain symmetry between some ideas of the mouthbreathing right and of the snowflake left.  For instance, in an attempt to protect its youth from the ravages of critical race theory, a bill in the Tennessee legislature bans any teaching that could lead an individual to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex." 

 

Meanwhile, TheBestSchools.org, advising students on academic choices, describes a safe space on campus, real or virtual.  "The goal of a safe space is to provide a place where people are not subject to the biases, discrimination, and criticism of the outside world."

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Here's a great idea, which will lead to a safer world.  "San Jose to make gun owners carry insurance, pay into public fund."

https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-to-make-gun-owners-carry-insurance-pay-into-public-fund/

The argument against, no doubt, will claim an undue burden on the right to bear arms.  However, our highly-principled Supreme Court has been very tolerant of burdens placed, at least burdens placed on the seekers and providers of abortion and, last week, the burdens placed on exercising the right to vote in Arizona.  Justice Alito blithely wrote that “every voting rule imposes a burden of some sort,” so what's a few more?  Let's hope (pray?) that the Supreme Court extends this tolerance for overcoming obstacles to San Jose when its local law is inevitably challenged.  

 

Friday, July 9, 2021

I went to be sheared by Gary on East 50th Street today (917-880-8147).  It also gave me a chance to explore Midtown East, my neighborhood for 23 years, where I have been more of a stranger for the last 18 years.  So, at times, I oohed and aahed just like a tourist and I don't ooh and aah at the drop of a hat.  

 

One significant change was the appearance of Urbanspace, 570 Lexington Avenue, a food court occupying most of the ground floor of the Art Deco General Electric Building.  Housing 15 or so vendors of pizza, ramen, poke (poh-kay), gyros, Italian hero sandwiches and baked goods, this a companion to the older Urbanspace at 230 Park Avenue, next to Grand Central Station.  Whether due to Covid-19 or a holiday week, the place was very quiet, with a majority of the food stands not even open.  However, consistent with what I frequently observed at the other place, most patrons were barely older than my oldest grandchild.     

 

I ordered from Bao By Kaya -- bao are the Chinese spongy discs folded over meat and stuff to make a handheld snack.  BBK offers 6 baos ($4.99 each, Peking duck $5.49), 6 rice bowls ($11.50) and 4 appetizers, called "sides" ($5.95-7.25).  For convenience, there are Combos ($10.95-12.75 plus 50₵ for duck).  My Combo had three chicken dumplings (smallish fried won tons) and a Peking duck bao, roasted duck, scallion, cucumber, crushed peanut and hoisin sauce, and a shrimp tempura bao, deep-fried shrimp, red cabbage, red onion, cilantro, black sesame seeds and spicy mayo ($12.25).  It made for a very good meal and probably more than enough for a person with a normal appetite.