The Little Chihuahua Dos Pinas Live Sushi Taco Loco
Vida started “Hebrew school” a couple of weeks ago—they call it “religious education” in an effort to distinguish the program from the tortuous ones experienced by most Jewish kids. There are quite a few longhaired adolescents with guitars and even a bleach blonde teen with Hebrew letters tattooed on her back. The rabbi wears colorful ties and is a more cheerleader for G-d and Jewish youth than an autocrat. Which is not to say that they aren’t serious. On Simchat Torah they had an impressive service rolling out torahs around the room in a visual display of the torah cycle. The synagogue has Sephardic roots so some of the tunes were familiar. They talk a lot about G-d, which will probably get me into some troubling discussions. But Vida is mostly excited about learning about Judaism so I’m thrilled. It helps that her friend M from school is going with her. It also helps with the driving since I can drop off and M’s dad can pick them up.
On Wednesdays while Vida is at Hebrew school I signed up to take Victor to swimming lessons. Things kind of fell apart today when M was sick. I couldn’t both take Victor swimming and pick Vida up so I had to skip the swimming. I was sad I could swish Victor around in the water and I shaved my legs for nothing . . .I didn’t feel like cooking so I drove down Divisidero in search of a new burrito place. The old Taco Loco near Haight is now The Little Chihuahua. (H says she got me a burrito from Taco Loco when I was in the hospital having Vida so I’m going to count it on the restaurant total). I’m not so sure about naming a burrito place after a dog but they must have their reasons. I found parking almost in front-- my main criteria for finding food. The restaurant is clean and pleasant—I was just going to order our usual rice and bean burritos but I noticed they used Niman Ranch meat so I went out on a limb and ordered the carne asada for myself. When they started reheating the meat on the grill I was impressed with the extra effort but worried the meat would be tough. The pinto beans were somewhere between whole and refried which I thought would please Vida. The service was a step above the usual lost in translation experience of many burrito joints.
On the way to Temple Emmanuel I was feeling pleased and organized and I popped open a coke to celebrate. That feeling quickly evaporated when I spilled half of it on my seat and soaked my pants in caramel colored crap. My punishment for my diet coke addiction I guess. Practicing positive thinking, I pretended I didn’t look like I wet my pants when I went into the synagogue. Besides I’m sure everyone was looking at Victor rather than my butt. The kids were all sitting on the floor in front of Jonathon with the Guitar and he was talking about the Baal Shem Tov and about how knowing the words to songs is less important than praising G-d through song so there were lots of li-le-li’s and hand waving.
Vida and I happily ate chips on the way home and looked forward to our burritos. When we got home I put Vida’s burrito on a plate and mine in the oven to warm. I puttered about the kitchen until I heard “it’s spicy” from the other room. Having had experience with spicy burritos masquerading as regular burritos at Dos Pinas at 15th and Rhode Island I had a feeling this wouldn’t end well. Vida was in a little bit better mood than that night so she gamely continued to eat—I peeled away the tortilla for her since she thought maybe all the spice was in the wrapping and slowly ate all the rice and beans inside. When I finally got to my burrito I was actually pleased. It wasn’t that spicy for me and the carne was tender and delicious. I guess the run of the mill burrito places don’t risk alienating their clientele by hiding the spice—as bland as possible with as many condiments as you need seem to be their modus operandi. Given that burritos are popular with children this is a much smarter strategy. But, I was happy with my slightly more challenging burrito and pleased as well that I had ordered something different.
The Dos Pinas evening was another story. We were hanging out with B and R and hoped to have an easy burrito meal from their favorite place just down the hill. The rice and bean burrito we ordered for Vida was very spicy--lots of tears and hungry frustration led R to go down the hill to Live Sushi to try and salvage Vida’s evening with a couple of avocado rolls and shrimp tempura. While R was going down to Live Sushi Vida discovered that my burrito because it had cheese was less spicy so she ate some of mine while she waited for some sushi. Vida loved the sushi and everyone calmed down and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
A few weeks later we thought we would try actually going to Live Sushi for a real meal. Vida was very hungry and not happy about going out to dinner so we entertained her with hangman while we waited to order. The service was on the slow side and our server seemed to know very little about the menu—I asked about an octopus salad and she said she didn’t know what it was like and didn’t offer to ask anybody else. We ordered the usual shrimp tempura, avocado rolls and California rolls along with a tempura sweet potato roll. B had an unexceptional chicken teriyaki. R ordered some rolls that didn’t show up but then the server showed up with rolls we hadn’t ordered. They belonged to the table next to us but they informed her that they had waited too long for their rolls and didn’t want them anymore. We were the happy beneficiaries of the screw up. There was nothing really wrong with the food but the service was so mediocre that I wouldn’t be in a hurry to go back.
Restaurant Total: 239
