D is for Dining

…everywhere else but home it seems.

It’s funny. I think I’m more in tune with dining in places I visit (Tokyo, Singapore) than where I live (San Francisco).

San Francisco has lots of overpriced, “good” food. It also has a lot of mediocre and overpriced food. Why is it overpriced? A lot of it is the hipster factor, but a lot more of it is the stupid laws that restaurants have to comply with. Let’s start with the “living wage” and the city health insurance. Now add in the regulatory requirements (no formula retail) and the cost of outrageous rent. It’s amazing we have places to eat at all.

Because of these factors, the affordable gem, the fantastic hole in the wall or the latest trend skips San Francisco entirely. Ever wonder why there’s no Din Tai Fung (opening in San Jose) or Ippudo (opening in Berzerkley) in San Francisco?

And if I want to have xiaolongbao or Hakata style ramen, I have to visit Tokyo or Singapore. Which works, I guess.

C is for Caen

Herb Caen, the columnist whose column in the Comicle was a rite of passage, would have celebrated his 100th birthday today (April 3). His column was a rite of passage because if you could get the puns and understand the players he wrote about, you graduated to the grownup table from the kid’s table. Herb was known for his witticisms that could convey so much with a few specially selected words, for being the man about town and for his martini made of Vitamin V.  But he was known most for his enduring love of the City of San Francisco and it’s kookieness, especially during it’s golden age during the 40s and 50s. Reading his Sunday column was practically a history lesson when he would look back at what The City once was before.  And you understood today by reading about yesterday.

B is for Brothership

So I’ve been a bit slow to jump on board with the whole K-drama thing.  My life has enough drama without having to add more in Hangul, no less!  It’s one thing to have drama; it’s another when you’re having drama and you don’t understand it!  However, I can get into Korean standup.  Funny stuff and subtitled! Here’s a skit that addresses how men are put down upon in “modern” society and how to deal with it.  Or maybe just to make better girlfriend choices.  The second couple in the skit are (according to the internet) a real-life couple.  Yikes.

A is for Alaska…

Alaska Airlines, that is!  They’re in the news because they’re looking to buy out the airline of hipsters, Virgin America.  Don’t know how mood lighting and a Banana Republic clad cabin crew will work out with the more prim and corporate Alaska Airlines.  It’s unfortunate because Virgin America was truly an option out of SFO.  If you needed to fly to JFK or LAS, you weren’t stuck on the bus (Southworst) or on the sucky legacy airlines.

Like they say, nothing’s worse (for the passenger) than good economic times for airlines.

Blogging Challenge AtoZ

So to get the creative juices flowing again, I’m going to try the A to Z challenge in April. Basically, you write a post each day (except Sunday) that corresponds to a letter in the alphabet in numerical/alphabetical order.  So on the 1st, it’s “A” and so forth.  I saw this challenge on Dimsumdolly’s blog and decided I would try it too.  So let’s see how far I can get.