On Sunday, September 16, 2007, I drove up the bay, over the bridge, through the tunnel, to the Concord Greek Festival. It was held outdoors nestled among some tawny, rolling hills. The weather was perfect for an outdoor festival: sunny (but not blinding), warm (but not uncomfortable so), and with a pleasant gentle breeze.
At first I thought the festival had more booths than most Greek festivals, but I realized I was wrong. It was merely that being outdoors made the festival feel more expansive and that the booths that were there interested me more than usual. There were two booths with high quality paintings and one with a guy selling face jugs that I saw previously and liked.
Greek festivals are often held at the local church, provided it can accommodate the crowds. They usually offer tours, but I've rarely gone on one because I haven't been at the festivals at the right time. This festival, however, allowed one open access to the church--one could look around on one's own. I appreciated that.
These movies capture the feel of the festival, the music, the dancing, and the church; the pictures show what I ate.
The menu was pretty standard for a Greek festival. I had lamb shank, the only item I hadn't seen offered previously. I forgot how great lamb can be. The tomato sauce topping it was entirely unnecessary. I also had a spanakopita. Filled with warm spinach, my mouth filled with warm liquid each time I took a bite. This was definitely better than the usual Greek festival rendition.
Both of these were really good. At Greek festivals, the gyros are usually the best, and departing from them is often is a mistake. It wasn't a mistake this time--at this point, I wrote down this was probably the best meal I've had at a Greek festival.
Desserts, however, weren't as good as usual. From the traditional wide selection of Greek festival desserts, I had a half-order of loukamades. These doughnut balls with honey weren't on the same scale as those as I've had elsewhere. These were denser than others, not light and airy, and were not uniform in color and texture even within a ball, implying temperature differences within the cooking oil. Further, I didn't even like the honey, walnut, and cinnamon topping.
While I drove home, the sun was setting. As I descended from the east bay hills, I saw a fantastic sight: above the bay and the distant San Francisco, the sky was a continuous gradient of colors, from light pink, through reds, blues, and violets, to black.
Sadly, by the time I decided I wanted a picture I'd descended too far and it was less impressive. And then I realized that, while I could turn around, by the time I returned to where I wanted to be, the vision would be gone.
Concord Greek Festival
Armenian Food Festival 2007
On Saturday, September 15, 2007, I headed to an Armenian Food Festival in San Francisco for a late lunch.
The festival is aptly named. It sells a large variety of Armenian food, especially pastries. And, in fact, there isn't much at the festival besides the food. There were about a half dozen booths not selling festival-affiliated food. Even some of these booths sold food, such as strange cheeses, many varieties of grapes, and various dried fruits and nuts. Sure, there was a stage for dancing and the schedule listed many bands who'd play in the evening, but, while I was there, the music was simply a DJ's selections and the stage was unoccupied. Not too exciting. There was also a kids' zone, which included an inflatable slide, an inflatable castle, and assorted carnival games. Nevertheless, it was clear all these things were secondary: the purpose of the festival was the food.
I ate
- Kufta, an Armenian meatball. This was the main reason I went to this festival. I have fond memories of the amazing kufta I had at an Armenian festival two years ago. It's a moist meatball in a thin, meaty (meat and bulgur) shell. And it was nearly as good as I remembered! I think the meat inside was freshly ground by the festival and tossed with spices, onions, and parsley.
- Iman-bayildi, eggplant stuffed with red and green bell peppers, onions, a few herbs (parsley?), and spices. Decent.
- Salad with "Armenian dressing", a sweet, Italian-dressing-style vinaigrette. Decent.
- Sha-abiat, a triangular dessert of filo dough filled with custard. Fairly good, though too sweet (from honey) for my taste. Due to the sweetness, it would've gone great with tea. Even the slightly cheesy custard didn't help cut down on the sweetness much. Sprinkled with ground pistachios.
I also picked up some food for later in the weekend:
- sou-boerge, filo filled with cheese and parsley. Quite good. I appreciate the lightness and mildness of cheese; most cheese-filled items are overwhelming.
- Another kufta. I was surprised and delighted to learn it reheated to be as good as when it was fresh.
- Armenian apple delight. Okay. An Armenian version of an apple strudel, only with relatively little apple and lots of filo dough. Topped with powdered sugar. Nothing much substantial inside.
- Bourma, a rolled version of baklava. Decent. When I saw these next to the baklava, I wondered why the bourma, at half the size of baklava, cost the same amount. Now I know. These rolled desserts are so dense with crushed walnuts, they probably have the same quantity of ingredients as baklava, simply compressed into a much smaller space.
San Mateo Farmers Market
On Saturday morning, September 15, 2007, I woke up early. Out of milk, I decided I might as well go to my local farmers market and grab some form of breakfast while there.
Apparently I wasn't yet entirely awake--I missed the exit for the farmers market not once but twice!
Once there, I got in the long line at a baked goods shop, Crepe & Brioche. It always has a wide selection of breads and pastries. I got a huge, incredibly moist, mixed berry muffin. It was thoroughly satisfying. By the time I was done, I think my lips were stained a bit from all the raspberries and blueberries. It was almost too large to finish.
I also left the farmers market with
- two flavor queen pluots
- an "Indian red fruit" (not unlike a pluot; I don't know the real name)
- a small basket of raspberries (pesticide-free though not technically organic)
- a bag of English shelling peas. (I've seen these often at markets and decided I was in the mood to experiment with them.)
- a mini loaf of vegan pumpkin bread from Alonso Baking which I'll use for breakfast this coming week
- an assortment of Top Nosh's pies . (I often pick up a few when I make it to this farmers market. They make a nice component of a meal.)
On the way home, I stopped by Safeway to pick up some things, such as milk, on my shopping list. Why is it that I get such a simple pleasure from leaving Safeway with a receipt that says I saved 24% by choosing Safeway select discounted items?
Interesting Articles: August 2007
Sociology:
* Weighting for Friends: Obesity spreads in social networks (Science News). In short, if your friend becomes obese, you become more likely to gain weight as well. While not surprising, it's cool that they actually gathered enough data to prove it. What I found more surprising is that (i) the effect is equally strong regardless of distance and that (ii) the effect doesn't appear for people you're around a lot but don't consider a friend (e.g., a neighbor). It's also neat that obesity mainly spreads via same-sex friendships. Although the Science News article is freely available online, if you desire you can also refer to the source article, The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years (New England Journal of Medicine).
* Oldest siblings show slight IQ advantage (Science News). Note that the effect, though small, comes from social birth order, not physical birth order. (I.e., children who become the oldest after the death in infancy of an older sibling also display the advantage.) The source article, Explaining the relation between birth order and intelligence (Science), has the full details.
Maintaining Health:
* Lobes of Steel (New York Times). Exercise: it'll make you smarter.
* Easing Jet Lag By Resetting The Body Clock (New York Times). A handy, though old, article that describes how to carefully control exposure to light in order to reset one's circadian rhythm quickly and thereby avoid jet lag.
Food:
* Sour Genes, Yes—Salty Genes, No (Science News's Food for Thought). Liking of sour foods is mostly genetic, yet liking salty foods is more environmental. This partially explains similarities in taste within families. Incidentally, I'm surprised to read sensitivities to these flavors can differ up to two orders of magnitude between individuals. I know (and am jealous of) people who are substantially more sensitive to tastes than I am, but wasn't aware the differences could be that large.
Biology:
* Bad News for Cats: Cat allergen hits all allergic people (Science News). In short, even if you're not specifically allergic to cats (but are allergic to other things), something about cats will aggravate your other allergies and impair your lung function. Hmph. The abstract of the source article, Bronchial responsiveness in atopic adults increases with exposure to cat allergen (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine), is available online.
* High Volume, Low Fidelity: Birds are less faithful as sounds blare (Science News). Noise pollution has some subtle, unexpected effects. The abstract of the source article, High levels of environmental noise erode pair preferences in zebra finches: Implications for noise pollution (Animal Behaviour), is available online.
Climate:
* Summer Reading: The Heat Is On (Science News). A concise summary/review of the book Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate by William Ruddiman. Ruddiman's theory is thought provoking: that humans have been affecting climate for millennia through activities like rice farming, deforestation, and, well, mass human deaths through plagues.
Physics:
* Dropping the Ball: Air pressure helps objects sink into sand (Science News). About what happens when one drops a ball into sand at various air pressures (e.g., on other planets). I find the results pretty surprising. I can't explain the results concisely. If you want a copy of the Science News article, do as you would with any other Science News article and simply ask me. Or you can read the dense and technical source article, Gas-mediated impact dynamics in fine-grained granular materials (Physical Review Letters).
Education:
* More math helps young scientists (Science News). If only the study were causal. The one sentence abstract of the source article, The two high-school pillars supporting college science (Science), is available online.
Belmont Greek Festival 2007
I'd planned to eat fruit and a piroshki for dinner. However, as dinnertime approached, I realized I felt sick thinking about eating more fruit. Yes, it's possible to get sick of eating fruit.
Not wanting to make dinner, I decided to go out. I recalled the Belmont Greek Festival was happening this weekend. I'd gone in previous years (2005, 2006). I could get food there. And, as an added bonus, I saw there was a cooking demonstration on the evening's schedule.
This year was just like it's always been. I wandered around, listened to a mandolin orchestra, and watched a dance performance in which the dancer lifts a stack of tables with his teeth. Sadly, the cooking demonstration was misprinted on the schedule and thus didn't occur. I took my past advice and had a gyro (still pretty good; the most appealing part is the bread) and a Greek salad (good; still, oddly, lacking feta). Despite fond memories, I skipped the desserts in favor of a mooncake at home.
Mountain View Farmers Market
Although there are many festivals on this labor day weekend, I wasn't that excited about any of them. To prevent myself from hanging out and reading in my apartment or the park for the whole weekend, I decided I ought to go to something to get myself out of town. Hence, on Sunday morning, September 2, 2007, after having woken up unusually early (perhaps due to the heat), I found myself on the 8:34am train to the Mountain View farmers market.
I enjoyed it as much as my previous visit. It's a great market. I left my camera at home. Only one time did I miss it. That was at a booth that sold heirloom tomatoes: they had an impressive array of fifteen varieties--I counted--, each distinct in color, shape, texture, pattern, and size.
While at the market, I bought:
- A melon with white flesh. (I think it's a casaba but it may be a crenshaw.)
- August glo yellow peaches.
- Flavor king pluots.
- Strawberries.
- Raspberries. (Did you know there are tan raspberries? Funky, though I didn't buy any.)
- Pumpkin bolani.
- Two piroshkis: one mushroom and onion, and one broccoli and cheese. I bought them from a different vendor than the last time I bought piroshki at the market. (Those were disappointing.)
- Two mini mooncakes: one black bean, and one lotus. (For these, I had to venture away from the market to a Chinese bakery I like in downtown Mountain View.) I intended to order something different, but I became flustered when asked what I wanted and that's what came out of my mouth. Since these were fine with me, I didn't bother correcting my mistake.
SF Shakespeare Festival 2007
I headed quickly back to San Mateo from the Arab Cultural Festival in order to arrive in time for the SF Shakespeare Festival's free performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream in San Mateo's Central Park. While in the city, as I walked to my car, I spotted Arizmendi bakery. Despite the name, it's the sister bakery of the Cheeseboard in Berkeley, a bakery I loved stopping by en route to early morning classes. I grabbed some items--no pizza, however--and headed home. Once home, I packed some supplies (blanket, jacket, utensils, etc.) and trotted over to the park, arriving five or ten minutes before the show was to begin. My arrival roughly coincided with the arrival of the friend I was meeting.
The performance was pretty good, though the costumes were, at times, odd. It felt like Shakespeare padded this play to make it long enough; the sub-plot with the actors performing for the duke seemed superfluous. I don't believe I've ever seen this play performed before. I may have read it in high school. Watching it made it more obvious what the slow and mostly irrelevant parts are.
While watching, we ate the Arizendi goodies. The focaccia with tomato and melted cheese was fairly good. The focaccia bread itself, however, wasn't very noticeable in this form. The raspberry scone was very good, in fact better than most scones I've had at the Cheeseboard. (I know scones are supposed to be dry but the Cheeseboard's scones tend to be drier than I like/think is appropriate.) The brioche was okay. I bought it because the Cheeseboard's brioches, when hot, tend to be a delightful combination of lightness, sweetness, and a bit of stickiness. This brioche wasn't hot and had become merely a medium density, slightly sweet bread product.
I'd grabbed a bottle of wine but forgot a corkscrew. Furthermore, I didn't see many other people drinking wine so I didn't put much energy into tracking down/borrowing one. Hence, we left it untouched.
Arab Cultural Festival
[Sorry this is sloppily written. I'm behind schedule.]
On Sunday, August 26, 2007, I drove to an edge of Golden Gate Park for the Arab Cultural Festival. With one food booth, one dessert booth, one stage, and a kids' zone, it was a cozy festival in a small community center. Perhaps its most interesting aspect was the contents of the various tables.
Organizations represented:
- the Egyptian consulate
- the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- community groups:
- a social group
- a group for legal help
- a group that organizes a film festival
- an association of technical professionals
- learn Arabic
- learn about Islam and Muslims
- fight Islamophobia
- photos
- shawls and pillows
- Arabic books
- candles with farsi on them
- jewelry
- tiny magnificent metal models of mosques
- shoes
- music
- shirts: "Got rights?" (in similar font to the "Got milk?" shirts)
- another shirt and bumper sticker booth. Some of the messages seemed okay to me; others seemed crassly undiplomatic. You be the judge.
- U.S. out of Iraq
- Stop Israel's War Crimes
- Stop U.S. Aid To Israel
- Hezbollah 2, Israel 0
- Free Palestine
- Buck Fush
- I am democratic. I voted for Hamas.
- satellite Arabic television stations
- Qatar airlines
While at the festival, I took a few photos of the hall and the food and a few movies of performances. The performances were good. I'm sad I missed the comedian. (Because I was eating, I only caught the very end of his act.) The performance hall was nicely decorated with flags of many Arabic nations hanging on the wall. I recognized very few of them.
As for lunch, the hummus was terrific. I can't imagine more perfect hummus (that is, once I pushed aside the oil drizzled on top of it). My chicken skewer ("tauouk") was decently grilled, though it could've done with a squeeze of lemon. The accompanying rice was moist and slightly creamy. The tabbouleh was fine: mostly parsley. The lavash was generally reasonable. I made sandwiches with the lavash; these were no more than the sum of whatever ingredients I decided to include.
Unusual for a festival, there was a coffee stand with an extensive menu. Too bad I don't drink coffee.
The dessert stand had some items I'd never heard of (kinafeh with cheese, hareeseh, halkoom), but, due to prior plans for the late afternoon, I decided not to partake.
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