Foodie – Portmanteau Suitcase

Aaaand…we’re back! Second half of July! On Saturday, I decided to treat ourselves by booking tickets to Hamilton! I have wanted to see the show for a really long time. I was excited to take SMS to a show since it isn’t something we have really done together before. Actually, we had seen Wicked and that was pretty awesome but that was six years ago!

In the spirit of a decadent night out, we went to Rich Table in San Francisco for an early dinner. Jyotsna raved about the place and she was right- it was exceptional! The menu changes often but there are a few regulars. We ordered two: the dried porcini doughnuts, raclette and the sardine potato chip with horseradish. The former was sublime and the latter was interesting but not worth ordering again. As I type this, I’m getting a case of serious deja vu…wait! I wrote about this in June! But we went in July! Oh, the perils and trials of writing too late. But this was definitely Rich Table. June was State Bird Provisions, now that I think about it. I am writing this correction here because who knows if I’ll get to it in the actual post. I can’t even blog on time! Anyway, between the two restaurants, I would go to Rich Table any day but both are gustatory treats!

Hamilton was awesome. Wow, such an original opinion and so cutting-edge! I had listened to the soundtrack prior to the show, but the experience was elevated by the incredible staging. My favorite aspect was the rotating stage that was particularly effective during a slightly dream-like, time-and-perspective shifting scene during the song “Satisfied.” I also liked seeing King George III on the sides of different scenes with his snarky expressions and body language even when his songs weren’t featured.

Guess who Ishann loves the best? Ok, ok, it’s *probably* his parents but it’s hard to tell when SMS is around!

The next day, we met up with Jyotsna and Akshay for our long-planned Pt. Reyes picnic and outing. We went to Tomales Bay Oyster Co for several dozen oysters. Unfortunately, they no longer have picnic facilities there so we went to Pt. Reyes Station and ate in the small garden/picnic area of Cowgirl Creamery. There, we supplemented our picnic with cheese, bread, and a few other delicious things like…wine!

After our picnic, we decided to go to Heidrun Meadery, a favorite of A&J. We had gotten a late-ish start so we didn’t have it in us to head out to the lighthouse, although it is a great place. It just adds a fair bit of car time to take the backroads to the farthest parts of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Sitting on the kid’s chair outside the “secret door” to the picnic area underneath the tree canopy. Pro tip: don’t cut to the right because there is a branch that will try to impale itself into your head. Trust me. It doesn’t tickle.

Ishaan takes half the tree home to plant as a sapling. Don’t worry- this sapling harvest was supervised and approved by a meadery worker!

After an awesome house-hunting leave (and I did find an apartment on Craigslist for Coronado!), I went back to work. I really worked until the very end, seeing clinic and even operating on my very last day (31 July) because a patient really wanted me to do her tracheostomy. She said I “didn’t bullshit her” when talking about medical care so chalk that up to good bedside manner (I think!).

Before that last day, however, I spent the last weekend of July in Belmar, NJ where I got together with my college friends whom I’ve kept in touch with for the last 18 years and known for the last 21! Ooo, I just noticed those years are very college-age lengths of time. I drove from Norfolk to NJ via Philadelphia to pick up Gisele and her sons. My brain was a little fried from PA traffic and the stress of being late, but once we arrived in NJ, things were pret-ty perfect! The six of us hung out all weekend long and were fairly mellow. I had the best time and feel so lucky to know these wonderful women. We were missing one of our “group,” who’s on the West Coast and recently-ish had a baby but six out of seven isn’t bad. Keeping in touch doesn’t seem to be anyone’s strong suit in the group but we write and get together just enough that I feel we are still in each other’s lives. Four of the seven live in the NYC area so they’re in more frequent contact (lucky!) but there’s still room for the three of us who aren’t local!

Argh, I hate being on the end for photos! But I’m glad we got an adult group shot!

Finally, after a month of highlight upon highlight, it was time to leave Norfolk. SMS flew in on the 31st in preparation for leaving 1 Aug. Our trip will be featured in next month’s highlights but a teaser photo is below.

Time to keep the birds alive in the Summer heat of the Southern Interstate cross-country route! The little birds did not do their fair share of driving, spoiler alert!

Day 9 started out on the drizzly side. After waking up and saying goodbye to Ricardo and Brady, I headed out to teamLab Borderless in Odaiba. SMS and I had seen an exhibit in Palo Alto and thought it was pretty cool. I had slight regrets in pre-purchasing my tickets since I now thought I’d rather get to Kanazawa earlier but the money was spent and off I went.

When I got there, there were hundreds of tomodachis already in line. There was an employee holding a multilingual “End of the line” sign far from the entrance, which was simultaneously helpful and depressing. Eventually, I got into the exhibit which was really crowded. This is in contrast to the fake! news! website which features solo visitors only! Of course, I wasn’t really expecting to be on my own. It’s popular and very cool. I do think that once you’ve seen one exhibit, that’s kind of enough since essentially, a large part of the exhibit consists of fancy light projector effects.

Part of my meh reaction to the exhibit is that I really had not allowed myself enough time since I had picked the time I wanted to leave for Kanazawa. I wanted to arrive mid-afternoon so I could see a sight or two before closing. I took a crazy tight schedule of two subways to Tokyo station and just made the shinkansen. Running was involved, which always makes me feel like a crazed tourist godzilla but it’s an acceptable trade-off at times.

Kanazawa was overcast and beautiful. I saw one of the few sakura trees still in bloom, since the area is cooler than the East Coast around Tokyo. I bought a bus pass and headed over to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. When searching #kanazawa, I had seen pictures on Instagram of Leandro Erlich’s “The Swimming Pool” and I had to see it!

A different way of hanging out in the pool!

It really looks like a normal small pool.

Am I swimming through the water or jumping around like an IG influencer?!?!

It’s a really neat installation of a limestone pool with a glass bottom over a room painted aquamarine. It’s a very playful way of tweaking assumptions of what we think we see in common objects and what they actually may be.

The whole museum was quite cool. There are only a few exhibits but that allowed me to focus on them rather than have many go by in a blur. There was a love exhibit that consisted of paintings that looked all the world like neon signs.

An added museum bonus goes to lockers that, while mandatory for larger bags, have a refundable Y100 charge. Travel tip for people with hand luggage in Japan- lockers are everywhere and are awesome to avoid lugging bags around. Even light bags can be heavy! Just have several Y100 coins in your change purse!

After the museum closed, I walked back to the bus stop and headed towards my capsule hotel. I had made an online reservation, which I feel is the way to go! Especially since capsule hotels for women are not as common.

The capsule was clean and, since this was only my second time staying in one, a really unique experience! I was given a goodie bag of towels and pajamas for my stay.

Towels and pajamas. There are also toiletries in the bathroom, including single-use toothbrushes. A person doesn’t have to bring a thing!

Now, it was time to plan for dinner. Kanazawa is known for being a foodie town, so I wanted to have something delicious. I found an amazing sushi place online, but the it was small and I felt it was unlikely I’d get a seat. Then I found Iwashigumi, a restaurant specializing in sardines. This sounded so niche and quintessentially Japanese (focusing on one thing and doing it really well), that I decided I was in even though my familiarity with sardines is limited to Caesar salad dressing and occasional forays into trying to up my Omega-3 intake by queasily eating small fillets.

I walked down the 157 towards the river. The restaurant had the type of wooden slated door, which always seems like such a commitment when I enter that I almost chickened out. But I went in, sat down, and ended up having the most incredible dining experience!

There were two main people I interacted with, an older man and older woman who worked there. They didn’t speak English and I hardly speak Japanese so there wasn’t a lot of verbal conversation, but we still communicated with each other throughout the night. It was an atmosphere of such warm hospitality that I felt at ease and at home. I loved it!

There was an English menu, which was very helpful. I decided to go all in and get the extended tasting menu. I was hungry and I felt that I was in for a singular experience. I wasn’t wrong!

The first three courses were a sardine salad with assorted sashimi, followed by a sardine croquette. Next was a larger sardine served whole. Given the size, there was a good amount of fish to eat. I did not eat the whole thing- the head stayed!

After that was a sardine chawanmushi, which was delicious! It’s one of my favorite dishes. Sardines in wonton-like wrappers were next, with a sardine “meatball” tofu soup to follow. Finally, the savory dishes ended with assorted sushi.

The last dish was a little ice cream sandwich. I do not think it had sardines in it but, given the theme, who knows!? It did taste like fairly straight-forward vanilla. During the dinner, I had sake served in a small pitcher shaped like a fugu. It was very cute.

Afterwards, the chef gave me a little goodie bag with a box of sardine prep mix to cook at home. I have instructions and I’m saving it to cook for SMS. I’m not sure if it’s curry, soup, etc at this point but one of these nights, we’ll find out! I also filled out my address and several weeks later, I received a postcard. It was such a wonderful experience and I would recommend the restaurant to anyone (other than vegetarians!). It was such a warm, kind-hearted vibe that I absolutely loved the place!

On my walk home, I walked past Mariya, a shop my Dad had told me about. The temari balls were beautiful and I resolved to go the next day when the shop was open.

Category: Foodie

Highlights: July 2019 (Part 2)

Sisters in Japan, Day 9: teamLab and Kanazawa