Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Weekend Wrapup: Tri-Partate Version

Crap, it’s Tuesday?  What the… oh yes, the three-day Marmoreal day weekend.  These long weekends are, by tradition, opportunities for me to fritter away my leisure time so I can look back afterwards with self-recrimination for failing to take full advantage of my available recreative options.  NOT SO THIS WEEKEND: I actually got to party party party, and here’s a brief rundown from one who is, quite literally, in run-down briefs as he types this:

Saturday: shopping on Clement at New May Wa and Haig’s, which always puts me in a good mood – exotic produce and nice cheap spices a-plenty, plus running into a neighbor on the sidewalk, which just makes the street-shopping experience more fulfilling for me.  Then, later, a small party with a few dear friends – of six adults in the room, four of us were classmates in college, which is an increasingly rare situation for us these days and a very refreshing throwback.  Jackie made a huge pot of amazing bbq-beef spaghetti sauce, of which I rather (substantially) overindulged; also, I made a now-famous chop salad that was so popular I’ll share the details:

Romaine – chopped into ½” strips (don’t strip the leaves off the head and you can do this in seconds)
Carrots – julienned (once again, get a mandoline and this takes no time at all)
Green Papaya – julienned (see above re: mandoline)
Yellow Pepper – cut into ½” strips and then into easily-munched thirds
Raw Corn off the cob
Scallions
Enoki mushrooms (the long skinny ones)

For a dressing, I got a nice lemon vinegar at Haig’s and blended it with cayenne, salt, dry marjoram, dry thyme, dry mint, ground mustard seed, ground dry ginger, and black pepper, then shook it in a mason jar with olive oil.  It totally rocked.  YES IT DID. 

Oh and Jackie had both brownies and chocolate cookies for dessert.  They were equally decadent, and I ate more than I could count. 

Sunday: Asian Pacific Heritage day at the Discovery Museum.  Z had a great time, as always, throwing little trains and crabs hither and yon till we dragged him away from the trucks for a performance – which he resented till a dozen kids strode out in karate uniforms to the dulcet, bone-rattling sounds of We Will Rock You.  They proceeded to do an excellent 15-minute tai kwon do demonstration, with some particularly impressive grade-school girls who really know how to kick and scream (with appropriate funky soundtracks, of course – my favorite was the Enter the Dragon theme, with original Bruce Lee howling).  Z went instantly from whining and fussy to openmouthed gaping.  Once the demonstration ended, the crowded site was chock-full of small, highly-energized children screaming and kicking at everything they saw.  Good times, people. 

Then, supper at M & C & E’s place, which was, as always, profoundly delicious.  Beloved old friends, and some very cool new ones, led to some fun conversations and enthusiastic imbibement of aged Spanish wines and Kentucky whiskies.  Mitch’s menu was, as I recall, a salad of arugula with scallop ceviche and pan-fried prawns, followed by roast pork (with pepper and apple?), brocollini, and a superb pumpkin risotto.  Dessert was Bi-Rite banana ice cream and freshly-baked spice cake.  He outdoes himself every damn time I see him.  The mind boggles. 

Bringing us to Monday, and a trip to the warehouse closing sale at Fumiki, where I got two free “surplus” panels suitable for nailing to a wall just as they goddamn are: one in gold-leaf with black-line calligraphy and paintings - a landscape on one side, and cranes in flight on the other; and one little wabi-sabi tansu door with elaborate rusted hardware in a vaguely anthropomorphic pattern.  This led into naptime, and then a bbq at my cousin’s family’s place in the east bay.  The occasion was the completion of the new second floor of their formerly-tiny and now palatial house, and more power to them – they did a great job and finished it in only seven months.  At least 100 of their closest friends turned the house-warming into a how-swarming, clearly demonstrating how efficient the planning was – lots of little alcoves for catching up with old and new friends, but no bottlenecks (except for those on the many thoughtfully-provided malt beverages distributed conveniently about the facilities).  The other guests were really nice, friendly people – plus, many of them brought great pot-luck additions to the chicken, dogs and burgers Billy was incessantly churning out of the big grill in the backyard.  Mine was marinated fava and tofu – sort of a fafu salad.  Tasted better than it sounds, honestly. 

Z was shepherded during these festivities by his 13-year-old cousin (technically, third cousin) who will also be looking after him this coming Friday when we go to a party thrown by her mom (my second cousin) and soon-to-be stepdad, for the express purpose of picking a mountain-dew based cocktail to be used for the toast at their upcoming wedding.  We’ve got a few working theories for a submission, but if you’ve got any suggestions, I’m listening. 

This week will feature much to be done and not too much time to do it.  I have a nice wad of stuff I’d like to post, and more yet to be written. Let’s see what I can accomplish.  After all, there’s three and a half days till my next party.