We must live life to the fullest, extracting every sweet morsel, and just to demonstrate that it’s not by food alone i went out last Sunday evening to a Noe Valley Chamber Music concert at the little Lutheran church on the stub of O’Farrell between Franklin and Gough for a program of the music of Berkeley violist Nils Bultmann. It opened with his Homage to Bach for solo viola followed by 10 Short Viola Duets played by Bultmann and Charlton Lee. And then, after an intermission, From the Depths for viola and didjeridu featuring Bultmann and Stephen Kent on the didjeridu. It was a fascinating concert, and i have to say they pushed their instruments to levels i’d not known possible.
But it’s really mostly about food, so this morning i rode down the the Heart of the City Farmers’ Market and picked up a pound of fresh anchovies to saute for lunch. Then i spotted the fresh asparagus and couldn’t resist, thinking i could cook that with creamed eggs for a supper, and then capped the trip by spotting Erik Schletewitz at his booth. He doesn’t come to the market all that much anymore, but he was training a new worker and we reminisced about our having met back in 1993 when we were both young and skinny (OK, when we were both skinny and he was young) and he threw a few bags of his oranges into the back of a pickup and ventured to the San Mateo Farmers’ Market, which at that time was at Fashion Island. It’s just wonderful to have relationships with some of my vendors going back twenty years.
And then coming back home i realized as i hit Valencia that Dandelion would be open, so i swung by there and discovered that they finally had bars of their newest chocolate, the Patanemo Venezuela. And since i was in there went ahead and had a cup of their Mission hot chocolate, which killed my lunch hunger so i just ate the legs off a Costco roasted chicken when i got home.
And then realized that what i really wanted for supper was an order of the saag gohst and a couple of pieces of naan at Aslam’s Rasoi, so that’s what i’m gonna do.
And no, it’s not all food and flowers. Here’s an alley shot off Valencia