bear

When belladonna shares a tweet that got screencapped and put up on Insta:

@ madisontayt_: imagining a vegan who won't drink nyc's tap water because of the microscopic shrimp
@ TheWappleHouse: The what now

and I was like "Yeah! There was this whole thing about NYC's tap water possibly being not kosher because of copepods in the water supply a few years back. Which might've meant that NYC bagels, whose lauded taste and texture were credited to the tap water used to boil them, were potentially treyf. But then other rabbis weighed in and said as long as the proportion of these microscopic crustaceans was less than 1/60th of the total volume, it was okay by the principle of בטל בשישים (bitul b'shishim/beteil beshishim), thank you Shabot6000."



... and then I realized "a few years back" was 21 years ago.

I started writing about our May concert weeks ago, and then got caught up in the swell of all of our June concerts. Three down, two to go!

hyounpark's mom and sister came out for our May concert - they'd wanted to come for Bocelli, but we took a look at ticket prices and required hotels and were like "even for a once in a lifetime thing like this we cannot in good conscience ask you to shell out mid-four-figures for a weekend in Napa." So instead, they came out for the reprise of Here I Stand: Paul Robeson, which also included Jasmine Barnes' Sometimes I Cry, and Brahms' 2nd Symphony. The performance went well, and was recorded! So I'm looking forward to being able to share that when it's released.

We also stuffed ourselves silly that weekend, but it was a good chance to just hang out at Leonard and Sara's and be lazy and have family time. Takeout sushi from Miyozen and wings from Wingstop while we worked on puzzles; curries for dinner from House of Curries; an excellent Hunanese dinner at Wojia the following evening.

H might have been a little more strategic on the eating front; 36 hours after we were onstage at the Paramount, he ran Bay to Breakers. I happily raced him across the city on the train per usual; devoured soda bread and a ganache cold brew on the beach at Sunset Dunes while waiting for him to catch up.

After that, we launched straight into prep for Beethoven and the symphony gala fundraiser. While we were waiting to go onstage for the gala, my little corner of sopranos was by what was very clearly The Party Table at the fundraiser. Highly amusing. We made ABC News for like half a second, and I was mostly blocked by the piano; perils of being a short soprano, lol.

Beethoven's 9th last Friday was the official wrap on our season, and I'm glad our director said what he did about it in his introduction, referencing that Beethoven was writing it in a time of much upheaval; that no matter the challenges, in our community, we seek and elevate joy; that this is our calling as musicians. An die freude, indeed.

*

We're approaching six years out here in California, now; as of yesterday, celebrating 20 years together with hyounpark. (25 years on LJ/DW, at least off and on.) It seems like the universe is recognizing it, nestling into that theme of growing community ties. Just in the last week alone:

- H and I went to an a cappella concert on Sunday at the Freight, and one of the musicians was a college classmate.
- one of the additional singers we brought on for B9? Turned out to be my elementary school music teacher, who now lives less than a mile away from us. She was like, "Oh my god, I was so strict in those years!" Me, ever the diplomat: "Eh, I'd call it orchestral." Everyone in listening distance cracked up.
- on my way to rehearsal on Tuesday, I ran into one of my biking friends as they were going into BART and I was coming up out of BART. I'm finally starting to run into people serendipitously more often!
- at bike brunch last Friday, one of my friends from the food writing class I took in March was at the cafe we'd ridden to, and apparently they bike too, so of course I invited them to join us on future rides.
- at the B9 concert, friends in the audience included new biking friends, old fandom friends, and even older elementary school friends.

And now, we just got a last-minute song added to our setlist for the Bocelli concerts this weekend about 45 minutes ago, so I go cram. And make sure my clothes are washed. And check the Wine Country weather. And overhydrate. And make sure of our carpool. And that I have coughdrops. And sunscreen. And shoes that are both concert-dress-appropriate and walkable for tromping across the vineyard grounds.

Me, paging through an internet food forum: "Oh. My."
hyounpark: "What's up?"
Me: "Er. That's a ... very interestingly shaped challah."
H: *peers at the picture* "Is that like one of those airline neck pillows?"
Me: "That was ... not my first thought, though I can see how you'd get there."
H: "What did you think it was?"
Me: "Clearly a dong and balls. See how the one side is long and a little skinnier, and the other side has multiple lumps?"
H: "YES DEAR."

Me: "... Ticketmaster decided it was necessary to send me a notification about A Flock of Seagulls tickets going on sale?"
H: "And you ran. You ran so far away."
Me: "Seagulls are evil!"

( cut for mention of calories but the main point is a pun it took me 23 years to get )

Thanksgiving happened! My parents came over and brought wine and a cheese plate; we made the rest.

* Pim Techmuanvivit's Fivespice Braised Pork Belly, a longtime fave I've been making for close to 15 years now (not just for Thanksgiving, it's that kind of rich, warm dish that's a treat on blustery Northeastern autumn days). Utterly unctuous.

* Khushbu Shah's Saag Paneer Lasagna, or "La-Saag-Na," badumtish. How did I not realize how easy making saag is? I've been eating some variant of it the majority of my life thanks to Indian restaurants, and now I live within 10 minutes' walk of an Indian grocery. Clearly, I will be cooking more Indian food from now on! I did make the lasagna aspect easier on myself by skipping the béchamel step and using crème fraîche instead, but all in all, it was pretty easy to put together. And we liked having a non-meat entree option, even though we're all omnivores.

* Kay Chun's Cranberry-Asian Pear Chutney, in perpetuity.

* Stephanie and Mike Le's Miso Mashed Potatoes, repeat from last year.

* Eric Kim's Cheesy Scallion Stuffing. I wanted to come up with a Filipino stuffing but ran out of time.

* Joanne Chang's Thai Red Curry Squash Soup, except with yellow curry paste and acorn squash and carrots because we already had all of that on hand when we were trying to fill the "orange vegetable" slot.

* Andrea Nguyen's Magical Sesame Salt Greens, this year with collards and beet greens, again because we had them on hand already. I think the collards worked but the beet greens were too bitter, but this is an incredibly easy way to put a cooked green veg on the table.

* Eric Kim's Little Gems Salad, back for year three and yet somehow nobody else on the internet has written it up to link to? Incredibly easy salad that's a fave around here. I don't just love it because it's a mashup between the green salad with nori vinaigrette from Eventide near my old Fenway apartment, and the classic Californian Little Gems salad that's on every farm-to-table restaurant menu in the Bay Area, but neither aspect hurts it in my estimation, either. How I make it for a crowd: I do make it a chopped salad so it's easier to serve and eat. I also make a vinaigrette, even though Kim likes applying each ingredient of dressing individually - for every 5-6 oz head of lettuce (if you can't get Little Gems, butter lettuce is a good substitute, as is romaine), mix 1T rice vinegar, 1T fish sauce, 1T toasted sesame oil, and a pinch of sugar, and drizzle over the chopped lettuce. Then grind up a packet of roasted seaweed and sprinkle it over the salad. Then toss and serve. Easy-peasy.

And for dessert:

* Kristina Cho's Persimmon Custard Tart. We made a hojicha whipped cream topping instead of a hojicha meringue to keep it a little simpler. I do want to try making it with the meringue next time! ... and locate our blowtorch, heh. The coconut cream we tried did not whip up, so I ended up boosting it with dairy cream anyway. That's what Lactaid's for!

* Stephanie and Mike Le's Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake. Yeah, I can't really say I'm anti-cheesecake any longer. Just anti-New York cheesecake, the taste and texture still don't work for me. But there are plenty of other cheesecakes in the world I'm discovering to like! Adding pumpkin and pumpkin spices makes it more autumnal than the straight-up burnt Basque cheesecake we did last year.

Noting things to remember that I want to try next year:
* The la-saag-na came from a NYT article the week before Thanksgiving about how immigrant Americans adapted another immigrant American tradition of lasagna on the Thanksgiving table. In addition to the recipes for a Thai lasagna and an Indian lasagna, there are references to Korean and Sichuan versions, as well as Filipinos just treating the Italian lasagna like the "American" food on their Thanksgiving tables already overflowing with Filipino food. (Mandy Lee's got a recipe for a Korean lasagna that sounds similar to the referenced one, based on tteok. And further searching brought me to Christine Lau's version as referenced in the Times, as well as Andrea Nguyen's interpretation of Mei Lin's ma po tofu lasagna (and additional ma po tofu fusion recipes, along with Anna Hezel's Lasagna cookbook that sounds worth a read.)

But you know me, I'd rather riff on the idea of a Filipino lasagna. Lalaine Manalo has a version, with banana ketchup and Filipino hot dogs; I think I'd rather incorporate longanisa, though I see how she was pivoting from Filipino spaghetti. And I'd love to incorporate Filipino cheeses like kesong puti (though finding it is the challenge), and/or Edam/queso de bola (more common, though it doesn't melt quite the same way, you need to add milk and it's more like a cheese dip). Though Rezel Kealoha is just like "whatever, make your own kesong puti," heh. Ideally, see if I can get ahold of carabao milk! ... yeah, um, maybe just buffalo milk? (The buffalo farm I knew of around here is probably moving to Santa Barbara. They have some of the best fresh mozzarella I've ever had; I hope we're still able to get it when they move!)

* I really do want to make Mandy Lee's oyster kimchi stuffing that I've been talking about for ages now! I just need to plan ahead and ensure that I can pick up the gochujang sourdough loaf I've been wanting to try it with, and have it in the house at the same time I've got oysters, heh. And it's an oyster stuffing, how much more riff on New England trad can you get?

* I also want to do a lemongrass custard cornbread, mashing up our old favorite custard cornbread with lemongrass corn soup flavors, but also adapting to our digestive systems being less happy with full dairy cream these days. I wonder if coconut cream will custardize similarly to dairy cream in the oven.

Five days to Thanksgiving, and if anything this year, I am feeling rather more compelled to double down on recipes from Asian Americans as I plan this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

High on the list of new possibilities:

* Justin Pichetrungsi's nam prik ong lasagna. Or maybe Khushbu Shah's saag paneer lasagna ("la-saag-na," as she puts it), if we do the pork belly and don't want two meat-heavy dishes.
* Mandy Lee's oyster-kimchi stuffing (especially if I can get ahold of a gochujang loaf from Rize Up, I have been swearing I'm going to make this for close to a decade now)
* Kristina Cho's persimmon custard tart and/or Stephanie Le's pumpkin Basque cheesecake. I thought that was it for desserts, but then yesterday morning, Molly Yeh posted a recipe for pistachio butter pie, and I have that jar of pistachio butter I picked up at the Santa Monica farmers’ market this summer …

As for potentially returning favorites:
* Pim Techmuanvivit's fivespice pork belly
* Kay Chun's cranberry Asian pear chutney (which goes really well with Joanne Chang's roast leg of lamb, side note)
* the Le's miso butter mashed potatoes
* Eric Kim's little gems salad with roasted seaweed dressing
* Still need an orange vegetable dish, unless I decide orange is represented enough by the persimmons for dessert
* Still thinking how I've wanted to bring in Betty Liu's lemongrass corn soup as a lighter side for ages. But that's a chilled soup, and it's looking chilly and rainy for Thanksgiving this year, so maybe I do Kathy Bui's lemongrass cornbread instead? But then also I keep thinking about how much we love custard-topped cornbread, but now have lactose intolerance issues; I wonder how well substituting coconut cream for the heavy cream before baking would go. And maybe infusing that coconut cream with the lemongrass and shallots?
* Still don't really have anything Filipino on here. I had been thinking this would be the year I would figure out a Filipino hotdish, at least before I saw the lasagna possibilities. Maybe Rezel Kealoha's Thanksgiving stuffing will get my brain in gear?

On Election Night, I went out to pick up groceries and ate an ice cream sandwich (cardamom ice cream with chocolate cookies) for dinner and then ignored the outside world as best I could. hyounpark was in San Diego for work; Elana invited me over to her friend's house, and I just couldn't with the world. I basically hibernated until Wednesday night, when I had to drag myself out for tech week for Carmina Burana.

I wore my What a Cluster! t-shirt; appreciative comments all around. Our director opened things up by leading us in Lean On Me a cappella. Reminded us that we, as artists, as musicians, were going to be called upon as "first responders to the soul." Read An Artist's Response to Violence aloud:

We loved [John F. Kennedy] for the honor in which he held art, in which he held every creative impulse of the human mind, whether it was expressed in words, or notes, or paints, or mathematical symbols. This reverence for the life of the mind was apparent even in his last speech, which he was to have made a few hours after his death. He was to have said: “America’s leadership must be guided by learning and reason.” ...Learning and Reason: the motto we here tonight must continue to uphold with redoubled tenacity, and must continue, at any price, to make the basis of all our actions. ... Our music will never again be quite the same. This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.

And then we made music.

Afterwards, hyounpark and I walked towards the BART station, and at the light, a sedan with the windows down, passengers hanging out the windows, pulled up next to us, absolutely buh-last-ing FDT. Had a little defiant dance party on the sidewalk, a moment of community, and as the light turned green and they drove away, I felt a little better.

Lather, rinse, repeat for Thursday (honestly, tech week couldn't have been better timed for all of us in need of something to focus on and not doom-spiral over), and then Friday night concert. Someone on TikTok posted the first movement of our performance of Carmina Burana; their first time at the symphony. And they got to see a professional symphony conducted by somebody like them; see a chorus conducted by somebody like them. The classical music world has the potential to be a hell of a lot more inclusive; this is proof the efforts are worth it.

Since then, it's been reassuring to see people, commiserate, talk about next steps, what was getting us through the current moment. Even so, as I put things to try to look forward to on the calendar, it all feels so tenuous. But I've also been reminded of the value of being "900% me," as Kat put it. Showing friends the ridiculous platter of pastries we've been working our way through all week (thank you Paris Bakery, Alta Bakery, Ad Astra Bread Company, and Krispy Kreme); noghri remarking on the presence of donuts from that last iconic bakery with "you still like those?" Me: "I blame my Southern husband for continued exposure, but yes!" He, smiling, "I still remember how we met all that time ago." Me: "Yeah, my reaction made quite the impression, hahaha." So then I had to tell the other friends present the story of how I introduced myself to noghri, which is basically (seriously, I didn't manage to LJ this back then?! ugh, past self, why so coy!):

Setting: elemmire7's going away party, July 2003
Me: *perusing the snacks table, wondering what to munch on next*
*the doorbell rings*
noghri: *enters, bearing a box of Krispy Kremes, which were so new to Boston at that point they'd only recently opened up their Wellington location*
Me: *spies cute guy entering with said box of Krispy Kremes, promptly vaults across the room and lands firmly in front of him* "You brought Krispy Kremes! You're cool!"
noghri: *stares at me, a total stranger, at a loss for words*

Everybody hearing this story for the first time: "... yep, we can visualize *and* auralize exactly how this went down!"

So, yeah. Being 900% me in the topics I've posted about to Bluesky, since that seems to be where people are migrating for shorter-form conversation and staying in touch with each other at least one step further removed from the control of billionaires; so far I have talked about indie bookstores and transportation cycling and choral music. Being 900% me in digging into Thanksgiving menu planning - eyeing this pumpkin basque cheesecake, but also considering a persimmon custard tart with hojicha meringue? Kristina Cho mentioned it in her Instagram stories earlier this week; the recipe hasn't been posted yet, but it sounds right up my alley. Being 900% me in pondering, as Jackie asked us at coffee ride this week, what is my actual role in my communities now and in the future.

Because all I really have control over in the big picture is being true to myself, so.

Being away for a week and then out of commission due to covid for another week plus after that means that I'm slightly confused it's November, feeling out of step with time. I mean, that's felt like the new normal for almost five years now? *shrug* We skipped Halloween because neither of us was up for fighting crowds to get last-minute candy on October 31, but at least our next-door neighbors decided to spread the quirky internet potato love to our neighborhood.

Getting back into the swing of things meant choir for the first time in three weeks, first rehearsal with our brand-new orchestral conductor. Overall, I think things went pretty well, but we have got to get our noses out of the scores because there were a couple of movements where he is clearly conducting for a faster tempo than we are keeping up with, heh. I need to email the sopranos about "seriously, we know this better than we think, EYES ON KEDRICK PLZ," and it makes me understand conductors in other choirs that were just like "nope, we are doing this concert sans scores because at least your eyes will be glued to my baton," hahaha. Carmina Burana next Friday, November 8, at the Paramount, for anyone local to the Bay Area :)

Likewise, making it to coffee ride for the first time in a month this morning. Out the door before sunrise, biking with friends through West Oakland to Proyecto Diaz, mazapán latte and a pumpkin mole tamale on the (giant!) patio. They keep improving their outdoor space - there are now *swings* there, and it's an easy ride up the Mandela Parkway, only a couple of blocks from Raimondi Park where the Ballers play. (Instagram has been the opposite of subtle re encouraging us to pick up season tickets for next year; I expect our Facebook ads to be full of this by the end of the weekend.)

I do need to get in a run or two this weekend, and probably two more next week, just to re-establish lung function dependability; I'm running the Pacific Grove 5K Saturday morning. Hopefully it should be relatively cool - not as cold as when I was running in New York, but a morning run along the coast in the high 40s/low 50s should feel comfortable. Maybe spend the afternoon at the aquarium, then head over to Mezzaluna to carbo load hyounpark for his corresponding half-marathon on Sunday. My Sunday plan is to sit on the patio at Alta at the 1 mile mark of his race. Eat a yummy breakfast and debate between the maple peppercorn latte and the passionfruit-jasmine mimosa and devour whatever book I end up bringing with me and then meander down to the finish line and stuff H full of bananas and recovery drinks. Stop by Elroy's on our way to the highway, and then make our way back up the coast, hopefully before the traffic gets too bad. (And when it does, usually by Union City, we'll hop off and go to Jollibee. :D )

Just trying to ignore that there's an - as always now, consequential - election between now and then. And that we have 300 pages of reading to do this weekend to be relatively informed for the downballot races and propositions on said ballot, sigh. At least there's new Vienna Teng music getting us through it?

Happy Reverse-The-Curse-iversary, friends!

20 years ago tonight, I made sure to miss the requisite two innings of the final game of the 2004 World Series by going out to dinner with friends to celebrate mrieser's birthday (at Dali, stuffing ourselves on queso rebozado con miel and albondigas de cordero and gambas con ajo). When it was all over, the Sox had neatly swept the Cards under the ruddy glow of a total lunar eclipse, and amid the utter chaos in the streets of metro Boston, I stared up at the moon and smiled peacefully, overwhelmed by all the changes in my life in the preceding weeks, but once again believing that change could bring good things, too, if I just had faith. And patience.

(The part where, uh, memerath and Mel called me from Davis Square to try to get me to come out to the bar to celebrate and I turned them down for alternative activities (🔒), well, chalk it up to twentysomething shenanigans. Oh, younger self. :) )

(Original post.)

I ran an entire mile without stopping this week. And then after a 15-minute break for an iced chai because it was warm out, I turned around and did it again to go home. And then a couple of days later, I repeated the process with a shorter break, minus the chai, but also in slightly lower temperatures. !!! Haven't done that in multiple decades, since when I had to run in high school.

( cut for more health improvement navelgazing )

*

Speaking of fog, Karl the Fog totally overshadowed any possibility of seeing the auroras in our neighborhood this time, so I was posting some pictures and videos to Instagram to demonstrate the difference between May and last night. I appreciate the ability to post mood music with them, so I was scrolling through the options that came up when I typed "northern lights" into the search box. One of the choices was VOCES8 performing Gjeilo's Northern Lights:

( lots of beautiful music: VOCES8 )

( and Vienna Teng! )

Dear internet, why did you stick a piece about eating nothing but sardines for 10 days in my feed? I mean, we like sardines well enough to have them regularly with rice for lunch (me adding lemon and capers, hyounpark adding kimchi). Or on Triscuits with mustard. We got into the habit of ordering them in bulk early in the pandemic, trying to reduce our shopping trips. But that's like, one or two lunches a week. Not every snack and meal!

*

In much more appetizing news, Leonard and Sara managed to snag the four of us reservations at Ja Ban Bae, Good to Eat's monthly Taiwanese banquet-style dinner. Everything was delicious, but aside from Thanksgivings where I have a long history of going all out, I don't think we've had such an elaborate meal since pre-COVID. And they weren't kidding about hospitality and abundance, I had to tetris the fridge when we got home to fit all the leftovers in!

( the extensive menu )