FWAK!

December has been a whirl of events. I started the month by attending the Curious Creatures show, curated by my friend/toy sculptor/dj/BBQ master, Brin Berliner. Everyone had a grand time. I danced till the wee hours and slept for a whole day afterwards *yawn*.

Prior to the show, I hung out with Australian-by-way-of-LA animator, Lili Chin. Lili is the co-creator of Mucha Lucha on Cartoon Network, but more importantly is a fellow food-lover and fan of the luscious kow yuk and kang kong sauteed in garlic. Unfortunately we discovered these parallels after our tummies were filled with dry noodles from New Hai Ky on Irving Street. Next time.....

When Lili isn't Mucha Lucha-ing, she runs the FWAK! blog. It's an eclectic mix of lucha libre info, cool toys, audio robots and electronica by Eddie.

Low Gallery opening 11.20.04 - The Mission

Been trying to get around to posting pics of some of the art at the Low Gallery opening. This happened the same night as my Saturday night art crawl (previous post). It was a major people crush that night. The gallery was quite cozy with all the local Fecal Face fans and Mission ruffians alike. A 40 in a paper bag was the accessory du jour.

In the comfort of elbows and knees, I managed to snap a few pics:


This painting is by Chris Duncan, one of my new favorite artists. He has a vibrant, yet quiet, color palette and and I love his use of organic and linear forms.


SF has this movement of photography pushing forth via Hamburger Eyes www.hamburgereyes.com. It's cynical, clever, ironic and sometimes pointless. Very much about life. I think this photograph is a good example of this -- and the saturated, red blood is enticing in a corporate-marketing manner.


Todd Bratrud's "Snake Fart in a Jar." It says it all....


B & B (bananers and breasts) photo by Ray Potes (aka Hamburger Eyes). This makes me hungry....

Low Gallery - Mission District
487 14th St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.lowgallery.com

ADVENTURES IN BAHN MI - San Diego

Anyone in San Diego? Pickled Papaya chimes in with a rundown on the tastiest joints in SD-land, ADVENTURES IN BAHN MI - San Diego. The sushi place is not to be missed!

Tangerines & pepper salt

One of the things I miss from the islands is unripened, green mango dipped in pepper salt -- a mixture of salt, several fresh chili peppers (like Thai bird chilis) and a squeeze of citrus. Usually the salt mixture varies, depending on what you grew up with, or what island you're from. There's a Chamorro condiment called finadene dinanchi, which is a paste of the hottest, tiny chili peppers ground with salt, garlic and a little vinegar. My grandfather used to make his own, in the outside kitchen (outside being the only practical place to do this), by passing said ingredients plus onions through a grinder. I can feel my cheeks watering just thinking about it. My favorite pepper salt is mixing finadene dinanchi with a little salt and lemon powder.

As with most Southeast Asian dishes, I find many parallels with Chamorro food. I was in a Vietnamese grocery shop, on one of my Tenderloin days, and found a large, beautiful green mango. Now large, green mangoes are not my preference for mangoes & salt (the tiny, crispy island ones are best), but desperate times call for desparate measures, so I bought one of those babies. The store proprietor eyed me and asked how I planned to eat the green mango, to which I mentioned my love affair with the pepper salt. She suddenly jumps up excitedly and tells me how she loves to eat her green mango in a mixture of Three Crab Fish Sauce, chili peppers, salt and a pinch of sugar. We proceed to have a mango/salt geek out and I promise this woman to eat my next green mango as per her recommendation.

Many months pass and I'm at the local market picking up lovely, perfect tangerines. I'm not a big orange fan, but absolutely love tangerines! Upon peeling the first fruit, I remember the fish sauce/pepper combo and quickly whip up a batch with slightly milder green chilis. My god this combination rocks! The sweet, sour and salty flavors are just what I craved. This taste takes me back to my Tata (maternal grandfather's) ranch on Saipan, on a sweltering day sitting under the big mango tree, eating recently picked tangerines grown just a few feet away. I can almost smell the ocean salt hanging in the air....