Dinner With Vida
Old Chelsea
It’s been a rough week. On Monday I seriously injured my back at work, not realizing how serious it was until a couple of days later. I spent half a day going back and forth between the chiropractor and the occupational medical clinic frantically filling out paperwork and panicking. On Wednesday I could barely get out of my car. I was wishing for some kind of pulley to get me out of bed on Thursday. By Friday I was feeling somewhat better. After a visit to the chiropractor I went to pick up Vida and was intent on going out to eat but I had no idea where. I drove down Divisidero resolving to stop at the first restaurant that had parking in front of it. When that didn’t work I drove down Geary in search of a fish and chips restaurant that I had heard about on Larkin. We drove around the block a half a dozen times without any luck. I finally parked a few blocks away from Old Chelsea and prayed that Vida would be cooperative enough to walk with out falling down on the disgusting Tenderloin sidewalks in heap and insisting on being carried. I think she understands that I’m crippled and more or less happily skipped down the street.
Old Chelsea was more of dive than I could have possibly imagined. It is less a restaurant than a take out counter. There were “not very many tables, only three” according to Vida. I only saw two tables each surrounded by chairs upholstered in dirty gold fabric. They looked like they had experienced a previous life in the lobby of a residential hotel. I was hesitant to actually sit in them but Vida quickly made herself comfortable and made for the refrigerator sparsely stocked with cans of soda. I ordered two pieces of fish and chips. It was already made and kept in an unusual looking stainless steel hot table with glass sliding doors. We received our order along with a plastic bottle of sweet, dark cider vinegar. Although I was nervous about the food I was happy to hand over a mere $6.25. Vida was happy with the fries but had unreasonable expectations about the fish being cool enough to eat immediately and staying neatly inside the battered coating. She had a couple of bites but then gave up. I enjoyed the perfectly white fish coated with a crisp yet chewy batter. I read a grease splattered Tenderloin newspaper from earlier in the week and watched nervously as a drug addled couple came in and ordered fish and chips and onion rings. The woman behind the counter gave them their total of $9.25 and the guy mumbled something about “she’ll get her money” and implied that they wanted to eat before paying. After over hearing a few more derogatory comments and some medical complaints we scurried off.
Maybe it was the marginal neighborhood but when Vida was settled into the car she said that she was “so, so scared”. I asked her why she was scared and she said that it was “because the sky is too dark”. She continued with a poetic description of how she liked the sky “when its blue or gray or white” and that she “liked white clouds. Despite the images that our evening was conjuring for her Vida said that she had “fun at the restaurant”. As nice as it is to hear, I’ve started to question when Vida says she “had fun” at dinner, or with Ra Ra or at E’s house etc. I often feel that it’s for my benefit—that she senses my need to be reassured. Sometimes its that slight bit of self-consciousness in her voice or occasionally the bold faced lie when she has actually not had fun at all—like at the doctor’s office.
As we drove home through Hayes Valley and up Market Street we passed near some all time favorite and occasional restaurants, Café Delle Stelle, the now defunct Zola’s, Suppenkuche, Mecca and Zuni and I thought about all the fantastic meals I experienced before Vida came along. Those meals were remarkable but there is nothing better than driving home from a not so remarkable meal with Vida’s chattering voice in the back seat.
Restaurant Total: 102
Bai Som Thai Narai Thai PPQ Dungeness Island
It’s crab season and everywhere I go it seems there are crabs to tempt me. The fish markets on Mission Street with tanks full of live crabs make me almost want to trust buying fish at one of them but I don’t know enough about the them to know which ones I won’t get poisoned by. While down at the farmer’s market I almost bought a puny crab just because ten dollars seemed a reasonable amount to spend until I saw some fantastic (and expensive) Dungeness crab. My brother, who was visiting, wasn’t in the mood for crab (maybe because in Seattle crab is so ubiquitous) so I passed by without buying anything.
Thanks to my brother and a generous donation from my father we did eat some fresh King crab California roll at our favorite sushi restaurant Ebisu but it wasn’t enough. On Tuesday night we were on our way to Bai Som Thai, still a current favorite, but found it to be closed. It seemed that during the week of Thanksgiving over half the restaurants on Clement Street were closed. We didn’t quite know what to do. We thought about going to Ton Kiang on Geary, a restaurant famous for its Dim Sum but not quite as celebrated for its evening fare. During our last visit we had some delicious, lightly battered but fairly greasy fried calamari and some oily fried rice. Everything there is delicious but you won’t get out of there without a slick coating of fat. Vida was impatient and insisted on hitching a ride on Uncle Adam’s shoulders. Since we were still in the mood for Thai food I was hopeful as we approached Narai Thai, a place I remember little about except it was decent. It was also inexplicably dark. We walked until Uncle Adam’s shoulders could no longer bear the weight and stopped in front of PPQ Dungeness Island.
The place looked familiar and I remembered another evening a couple of years ago with my friends K and S when we were in search of pepper crab. Many years ago I was introduced to Vietnamese style crab encrusted with salt, black pepper and garlic by a co-worker at China Moon Café. He took some of us to Rose’s on O’Farrell and Larkin. I was hooked. I took everyone I knew there until it seemed to me that the food took a precipitous dive—which could have very well been my imagination. When I took K there I created another aficionado and whenever she came to visit we were in search of crab. One New Year’s Day we went to Yuet Lee on Broadway and had a great meal. Our previous visit to PPQ Dungeness Island was just as much a lucky strike as it was this time. If anybody had asked me I would not for the life of me remembered the place.
My brother consented to the change in cuisine and we entered the clean but somewhat austere restaurant. Vida immediately went to the large fish tanks in the back of the restaurant and loudly identified “Dory” and “Nemo’s Dad” for the rest of the patrons. She hung out for a while watching the crabs but it was immediately clear this wasn’t going to be a smooth meal. We ordered some roll your own spring rolls with skewered chicken. The chicken kept her busy for a while but she kept yelling for me to go watch the fish with her. We read a couple of books while waiting for crab and garlic noodles. A couple of crude and jock-ish businessmen across from us were busy chowing down on two huge crabs and bottles of Budweiser.
When our crab arrived we were not disappointed. It was more than we could possible eat before Vida lost it completely. We tried our best to ignore her and dug into the crab steaming hot and covered in a salty, peppery batter and toasted garlic. The garlic noodles were delicious but it was a little overkill on the garlic. I can now rest having enjoyed crab in peak season.
Restaurant Total: 96
Tony's Cable Car
The week before last I got a call from Vida’s school to pick her up after she tossed her cookies. She seemed fine otherwise but there was no way was I going to take a chance on going out for dinner all weekend. She felt better on Sunday and just before her nap we went up the concrete slides up near kite hill. We had a great time fooling around before “somebody got hurt.” Going down the faster of the two slides Vida’s leg slipped out from my lap and hit the side. It was unfortunate since I probably won’t be able to get her up there again until she’s a teenager. The next day I tried to bring her to school but she was limping in an exaggerated way that only a three year old could get away with convincingly. She wanted go home and her teacher seemed to agree with her, much to my chagrin. We then went up to Real Foods for some magical healing balm—Arnica—a homeopathic remedy popular among the 2 and 3 year olds at her school. It did the trick and she was back at school the next day.
Towards the end of the week Vida’s lingering cough seemed to be lingering too long and we went to the doctor. It turned out that she had a double ear infection. As consolation for the experience we went to Tony’s Cable Car for a hamburger and a hot dog. It was amazing to find a restaurant with parking on Geary. We went in to the restaurant and Vida immediately crawled into a single sized booth with bright red seats. She was getting cranky and insisting on a hot dog “now” until she noticed the group of teenagers in the two booths opposite us. They were the drama, brainy type of high school students soon to be on their way to fancy schools. They were very sweet eating their greasy food in unusual combinations such as one boy who had chicken nuggets and a hot dog. They thought Vida was pretty cute too and after some eye contact back and forth she casually started singing a few songs for their amusement.
Our food came quickly and I was instantly in love with my bacon cheeseburger. The bun was huge and the burger was filled with chopped iceberg lettuce, mayonnaise and tomato. It was incredibly satisfying. The fries were good and Vida grooved on her hotdog in peaceful way I didn’t think would be possible that evening. She handed off her soda to me and took possession of mine. I wish there were more cable car restaurants with parking lots in busy neighborhoods. Although Joe’s Cable Car is a great experience as well, the burgers, for all their “fresh chuck ground daily,” didn’t match Tony’s in terms of total burger fulfillment.
Restaurant Total: 91
