Going Local - Food Fun & MG Adventure On Nomi's Birthday plus Ross, Kentfield & side trips to Berkeley again & again...
Delirama on Solano Avenue, Berkeley, CA.
I loved the light show in that speaker.
The Christmas trees in Flowerland are all named. Here’s…
At the entrance to Flowerland was Gigi's One Bite Wonder - gourmet doughnuts & more SINCE 2020.
These pillowy, filled, donuts could have passed for the Chanukah treat sufganiyot. Gigi had never heard of them.
El Cerrito. I'd never been there.
MG Owners Club (MGOC) long time member, 91 y.o. George, was divesting himself of MG collectables & ephemera. Delirama was 8 minutes away from his collection; who could resist?
MGA, early MG TD & a very early MG J.
The TD had been a frame-off restoration. Every was panel painted, sanded, painted, sanded… They’re all show stoppers.
Years ago the MGOC would have group car washes. The brass faucet adapter allowed four cars to be hosed down at once.
Walking along Laurel Grove Avenue & through the Marin Art & Garden Center, Ross, CA.
Ross Valley Players' Barn Theater.
Perhaps you were fooled & thought this was New Hampshire or Massachusetts?
A walk in north Berkeley while Nomi met with Deborah.
Here was a happy school bus driver driving the streets of Berkeley in a brand new electric bus.
Then this apartment house appeared.
I had to look further.
1240 Milvia St. at Berryman.
“This 7406 square foot apartment home has 14 bedrooms and 14.0 bathrooms.” c. 1906.
Berkeley politics but they still have Halloween decorations hanging.
“Much like Barragan's modern architecture, which in its purity and simplicity was respectful of tradition, we wanted to create a taqueria that paid respect to traditional dishes such as: sopa de tortilla, tacos al pastor, and tamales con verduras. Tacubaya has allowed us to recreate the beloved dishes usually found in Mexico at street vendor stands and in home kitchens and family taquerias.”
Excellente.
Tacubaya - Quesadilla en nogada..
And the frijoles con todo was also delicious.
Great food spot but it doesn’t hold a candle to the former tenant, Café Rouge.
Mr. Sun, the reason why we were in Berkeley again.
“Mr Sun Plays Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite”
“Mr Sun took the opportunity to salute and re-invent this wildly multi-faceted work anew through the lens of the American String Band, a musical format which encompasses myriad styles and is engaged in a marathon upheaval of innovation and expansion. In Mr Sun's new reading, the pieces of the Suite range from close interpretations of Billy Strayhorn’s original charts to intense extrapolations based on the spirit of the material.”
“Mr Sun is legendary fiddler Darol Anger (founding member of the hugely influential David Grisman Quintet, Turtle Island String Quartet) mandolin master Joe K. Walsh (Joy Kills Sorrow, the Gibson Brothers, Danny Barnes), guitar hero Grant Gordy (David Grisman Quintet, Karen Casey, Danny Barnes) and the great bassist Aidan O’Donnell (Maeve Gilchrist, Steve Kuhn).”
They took turns creating new arrangements of & titles for the songs from Tchaikovsky/Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite:
1. Overture 05:13
2. Pea Shooter Parade (March) 04:49
3. Reedy Rootin Tootin Pipey Gripey Waltz (Dance Of The Reed-Pipes) 05:17
4. Yangtze Dawdle (Danse Chinoise) 02:43
5. Sugared Rum? Spare Me! (Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy) 05:29
6. Entr'acte 01:43
7. Shovasky's Transmogrifatron (Ballet Snow Scene) 03:49
8. (don't) Walk On The Flowers (Waltz Of The Flowers) 05:24
9. 100% Arabica (Arabian Dance) 05:52
10. Russian Fox Chase (Trepak) 03:19
And a little spill over into San Francisco.
Café de la Presse.
I had just finished reading The Missing Piece: A Novel by John Lescroart.
Several scenes took place on Green & Octavia Streets in San Francisco; maybe in this building??