Quite a pleasant evening. Went out to Mission Chinese Food to meet Jeff for an early dinner. Got there quite early and to combat the heat and kill the time sipped a “Come Hell or High Watermelon” wheat beer from 21st Amendment while i read a few pages in Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival. The cognitive dissonance between trendy eateries/effete microbrewery beers and Chomsky’s radical leftist prose reminded me of that marvelous scene in Wolfe’s Radical Chic in which he depicts Leonard Bernstein’s friends nibbling canapes while they socialize with Black Panthers at his home:
“Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. These are nice. Little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts. Very tasty. Very subtle. It’s the way the dry sackiness of the nuts tiptoes up against the dour savor of the cheese that is so nice, so subtle. Wonder what the Black Panthers eat here on the hors d’oeuvre trail? Do the Panthers like little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts this way, and asparagus tips in mayonnaise dabs, and meatballs petites au Coq Hardi, all of which are at this very moment being offered to them on gadrooned silver platters by maids in black uniforms with hand-ironed white aprons . . “
We had the Sizzling Cumin Lamb and the General Tso’s Veal Rib. Cold Dan Dan Noodles for a starter. The lamb was divine, the veal was very good, the conversation sparkled over a range of topics, and i forgot all about Chomsky.
Here’s a land side shot on SF’s houseboat row