4 posts tagged “california”

So yes... I have arrived safely in California, and as you can see, have already begun traveling around a bit. I find exploring the Bay Area is still an interesting experience, despite having trodden these pathways many many times in the past. Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge peek out from behind some hills, emerging from the fog, still makes me smile. If you could pan the camera left in the above image, you'll see San Francisco's sprawling metropolis.

I still really love quite a number of different things about the Bay Area. In my last post, I briefly talked about the "sense of place" and despite the things that I dislike about California (and the Bay Area), I still feel like I fit in here much better than I do Canada. Someone, a Vancouverite, told me that Vancouver is to Canada as San Francisco is for the United States. But to be perfectly honest, they're not comparable. Vancouver might have some things akin to the City By The Bay, but there are things about this place which are truly found nowhere else.

One of the things unique about this place is wine! Sure, there are wines produced in the Okanagan in British Columbia, but when you go to the government liquor stores to try and get a bottle, you're looking at $12-$15 capital outlay for what could be just some nice table wine. But down here, we have the venerable "2 Buck Chuck", some really great wine for $1.99. I mean, it's probably not gonna win any major awards for taste or quality, but it's $1.99!!! What the hell do you want?! And even if you don't feel like finishing the bottle, you can always use the leftover wine to make some really nice tomato sauce... But who doesn't finish their wine?

Anyway, one of the other things I love about the Bay Area are all the farmer's markets! The produce here is seriously some of the best! I have yet to find the same quality of vegetables that you can get here in California, in Canada. BC is supposed to be one of the more bountiful places in Canada, but it doesn't compare at all with the quality and breadth of options you can get down here. Fruits are sweet and juicy! Vegetables are a deep green and have taste! It is just amazing what you can get here, and it makes me sad that you just can't get this kind of food anywhere else. I think if people could get vegetables of this quality elsewhere in the world, more people would eat vegetables.

And then, of course, there is the Mexican food! Oh. My. God. When you get tacos in Canada, the first thing they ask you is not what kind of meat would you like, but whether you want hard or soft taco shells. WHAT. THE. FUCK. And no, I did not go to Taco Bell. After having to ask for soft taco shells, and having to specify a corn tortilla, they don't even bother to heat up the tortillas, a travesty! Thank god for places like Charlie's! I went there almost immediately and got the usual 2 taco combination platter... Carnitas, of course... Having rice and beans, after almost a year without, almost brought tears to my eyes. I actually stopped myself, before I ate my first forkful, just admiring the food in front of me, and appreciating it for what it was.

And of course, it was delicious.

A while back, I had a post about the demolition of historic Bay Meadows race track. Back then, they were knocking holes in the walls, and tearing the building apart. The horses were gone. The fountain, turned off. I never actually went to Bay Meadows, and never really had any interest in betting on the horses. But it's been in the Bay Area ever since I first moved out here. It's always been there. It's a landmark, or well... It was...

I had ridden past there a few months back, while on my bike, but didn't have a camera with me. So I went back there yesterday specifically just to snap some pics.

As you can see, aside from the historic Bay Meadows Rubble Pile near the left side of the frame, it's just a big open, empty lot now. There's a dirty pond where there used to be a sort of fountain in the middle of the racetrack. And the racetrack itself is just a busted concrete strip. I guess they're going to put in some mixed-use residential/retail spaces in here, at least that's what I thought was the plan. But maybe it'd be nice to keep it as an open space. I know they won't, but I think it would be nice. Maybe turn it into a big park or something.

But something about it makes me sad. I mean, I never went there, so I don't really have any fond memories of experiences I had at the track. But I always just passed by it on my bike or on CalTrain. But like I said, it's been a fixture of the Peninsula for so many years. It's hard to see it gone. I keep expecting to see a huge concrete building here, and there's literally nothing here but a dirty pond, and some dry brown grass and shrubs... Well, there's the rubble pile too... But that rubble pile is all that's left of the huge building which sat here for many many years, chronicling the triumph and tragedy of the winners and losers of countless races.

Well, there's still a lot of adventure ahead of me over the next few weeks. I'm on a much needed respite from my current digs in Canada. I've only been here a few days and I'm already dreading the trip back. It's sunny and warm here, and I know it will be dismal, cold and rainy when I get back. But, at least for now, it's time to live it up and have some fun.

Now where did I leave my wine glass.....

So the work has begun to demolish the facilities at Bay Meadows race track to make way for whatever crap they planned on putting there... I think the idea was to put apartments and stuff there, some mixed-use residential/commercial space.


I don't know why this seems significant. I never really thought much of the people who went to the track to bet on the ponies. To be honest, it seemed like a pretty lousy place to go. It never seemed to me like the place to go on a beautiful sunny afternoon. They had some strange promotions too, like free t-shirt or tote bag giveaways or something. The types of people that went there never seemed like they would want to advertise that they went to the track, so why give away Bay Meadows schwag? But I guess having passed by there on a daily basis as I biked to and from the Hillsdale Caltrain station, I never really understood how significant this landmark was to me. And to see it now with holes knocked into it does make me feel a bit remorseful for it. I guess it'll be just a matter of time before the whole story of the Bay Meadows race track just becomes part of history. Which makes it even stranger to think that Hollywood is now our historian, cataloging important events in human history... Tobey Maguire will forever be the person who rode Seabiscuit to all those victories.

That, and vanquishing Doctor Octopus...

On a lighter note, I had some Mexican food already. And today, I got a cheeseburger and garlic fries from Jeffrey's, which I then took home and consumed on the balcony. If you've never been there for a burger, you really ought to treat yourself and go...

Man, I fuckin' ate the shit out of that cheesburger...

(er... not literally..)

In all, it's nice to be back in California, even if it is only for a little while...

So I was totally craving pizza. Incidentally, I'm also out of beer, but that's fine. Pizza without beer is just not the same, but it's probably better to have a more unadulterated taste test. Previously, I had been really enjoying what the surrounding area has for Chinese food, which offers far greater quality of food than most every place in SF. But obviously, those places just couldn't be relied upon for a good pizza. Our favorite pizza place back home was North Beach Pizza because (1.) it was just a few blocks away, and (2.) The Cable Car!!! Mmmmm... The creamy garlic sauce with chicken and bacon and fresh tomatoes... There isn't a whole lot better. Sure, it's not deep dish like Zachary's or Patxi's, but for being close to home and what not, it's our favorite spot. The critical question, though, is whether or not Vancouver has something that measures up?



I googled around to find a place and got a listing for Bella Pizza. First of all, there don't seem to be a whole lot of pizza places around (maybe I'm not looking in the right places) particularly if you exclude the major chains, so the fact that this place seems somewhat highly recommended, I thought, hey, start with the best... They're also located pretty close to where I live which would make it a great discovery if they could produce a great pizza. I pulled up the menu on their site and ordered "The Masterpiece" and a Greek salad and I was 15-20 minutes away from my first taste of pizza done the Canadian way...



Something else to note, the page I pulled up with their menu had some special note about "10% off for pick ups over $10.00" or something. It just so happens that the deal "expired" and the discount didn't get taken off their site... Hmmm... Seems suspicious to me... Like uh... Bait and switch anyone? But whatever... I wanted to find out about how good the pizza was at this place... I do this for science!


I got the pizza home and well... what can I say about it? First, here's a photo of what it looks like:



That thing in the top left is a baked little pizza dough ball used in place of those plastic "mini-tables" you see in American pizza. It keeps the top of the lid from smooshing down onto the pizza. So I guess what I should say first is that it wasn't awful. I've had worse pizza before and this certainly wasn't that bad. But on the other hand, if this was one of the best places, Vancouver's got a lot to learn about pizza... To make good pizza you need good dough. It really should bake like a piece of good bread, sort of crispy and chewy at the same time. This was mostly just chewy and doughy, not to say that it wasn't cooked through, but it seemed a little too doughy to make a good crusty pizza. The sauce on this pizza was a little strange. I'm not sure how to characterize it, but its almost like they just took some pre-packaged pizza seasoning and mixed it into a jar of tomato sauce. The toppings were ok, and I was satisfied with how much cheese they put on it, but seriously guys... California did it better... Especially when this guy was trying to jerk me around with this 10% off deal that didn't seem to apply...

All is not lost. Nat's New York pizza seems like a solid place to go. It's just nowhere nearby... Kitsilano and the West End are a lot further away than a quick run out to get some pizza. Hopefully I can also find some other places a bit closer to home.
 
So far, at least in the pizza arena, California = 1, Vancouver = 0...

There you have it!