Bites and Bolts

What better way to break into blogging productivity than with a food photo meme? After all, I have to give credit where it’s due–without photos my posts would be (even more) meaningless. It’s not every year that I complete a meme, but Dennis at Radiused Corner is a chill lad and I obliged. Besides, it couldn’t have come at a better time since I am in the totally mind-blowingly awesome process of re-catologing my digital photos.

Here are the rules:

1. Post 10 of your own favorite food shots.
2. Pass the opportunity on to others by leaving a message on their comments page just so they’re aware of it.

Like those who have gone before me, I also had a tight time of trying to pick only 10 photos. So I just started from the beginning of when I began taking food photos and picked 10 that evoked strong memories for me…err…11. Tee-hee.

Also of note, I have way too many photos of dim sum and tacos and really once I’ve seen 1 har gaw, I’ve seen ‘em all. I think the most interesting(and ironically worst tasting) dim sum picture I have is a “rabbit dumpling” from Mission 261. But I digress…

And the winners are:

1. This is a picture at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway from July, 2006. Although I lived in Phoenix for a good *almost* 4 years, I will always remember this as THE hottest day of my life. I had driven out from LA to support friends drag racing at the combined NHRA Sport Compact Drag/D1 Grand Prix event. The air temp was about 115 that day with track temps supposedly at about 150 degrees. 115, 150, eh, it was just effing hot. So hot that bottled water and snow cones were the best selling items of the day. I remember this picture fondly as one of the first where I tried to learn about aperature with my semi-new 350D on that scorching hot evening.

 

2. This is a shot of the rock crab special at Santa Barbara Shellfish Company. I can’t remember if this was the 1st time I had it, but it definitely wasn’t the last time. Fresh crab and panko fried onion rings–delicious!

 

3. I can say with confidence that this was the 2nd time I’d had xiao long baos. Something about the solitary dumpling nestled in a spoon caught my eye. I still love these meaty morsels, and look back fondly at the time when I first discovered them.

 

4. A bowl of garlic ramen from Chabuya on Sawtelle. Sure, the ramen was good, albeit a perfectly small bowl. Topped with all those crispy fried garlic pieces and chock full of delicate handmade noodles, this bowl was satisfactory. However, I recall waiting far too long for dinner that night smashed up against the wall with a handful of other strangers and then again subsequently squeezed into a tiny 2-person table against the same wall. I remember comically busting out my camera and shooting a few food shots before nervously bagging it and self-consciously sucking down my noodles.

 

5. It took a good year or so to finally get the courage to order one of these, simply because I didn’t really know how to eat it. That and you become your own little freak show when you order one. Small children point and adults stare at you like, “Oh.my.God. They’re eating that spikey thing and it’s still moving. Gross.”

Now, I bask in the seeming weirdness because the golden goo that’s within these poor little sea urchins is the freshest most flavorful uni I can find. The only thing that really sucks is that once you have live uni, everything else is just kind of…meh.

 

6. Reasons Why I Gained Weight #24: Donut Man. I don’t eat donuts. No really, it’s like one of those foods I happily swore off forever. I’m not really into the dense cakey sometimes overly dry dough, nor the heartburn and subsequent sugar crash afterwards. If donuts are one of the foods I don’t care about, strawberries are on the opposite end of the spectrum. So when I saw pictures of Donut Man’s whole strawberry glazed exloding donuts I saw it as an opportunity to give donuts another chance. The result? A long drive and about $15 too much spent in miscellany donuts. And some really good glazed strawberries. A once in a year trip to discover what I already knew: strawberries make everything taste better.

 

7. A trip into the Buena Vista Cafe in San Fran out of the windy biting cold brought inner harmony and warmth by way of their famous Irish coffee. Luxurious velvety cold heavy cream floats whipped atop a concoction of singular sugar-cube infused hot coffee with a proper dousing of Tullamore Dew whiskey. God bless the Irish. 

 

8. Exhibit #8. The steak that ruined (most other) steaks for me. This is the delicious oak-grilled top sirloin at Hitching Post 1 in Casmalia. Also totally useful for providing a solid meal at the end of a day of wine tasting.

 

9. It’s not often that I take pictures of food I prepare at home. This was one of the 1st times I was inspired to make paprika garlic aioli dip and artichoke at home instead of paying $10+ for it at a restaurant and then being pissed at the tiny size of the ‘choke. I swear I ate this every week for a month straight when ‘chokes were on sale at the grocery.

 

10. Half-drunk cocktails from the Tiki Ti on Sunset. Ah, those were carefree times when I was unemployed and could enjoy refreshing cash-only beverages at 4pm on a weekday afternoon.

 

11. A fresh pallet of Santa Barbara uni–mission accomplished! For years I’ve been hearing about how badass Santa B uni is. Apparently, it’s so badass that we ship most of the good stuff to Japan and then smush the rest into a gooey mess to be sold in jars at Mitsuwa. So when the Santa Barbara Harbor and Seafood Festival came around last year, I said, “Self, they just HAVE to have uni there. If there’s one time to find uni in Santa B, this’ll be it”.

Turns out I was right. Kinda. The main stars of the show were lobster and crab(divas..psff), but there were a row of booths on the pier for other foods. They had super-Americanized versions of uni rolls in one booth “showcasing” uni. However, a stone’s throw away from the booth, there’s a tiny seafood store that sells fresh fish and shellfish. Sometimes they have live uni there throughout the week, but upon asking, they said they lack the permits to actually crack them open to sell them. Out of curiosity, I went in that day and I’m glad I did. I came out with one of the freshest pallets of large uni I’ve ever had. Way better than anything the festival was dishing out. Moral of the story: festivals are whack, however you may find uni. Be prepared.

 

If you’ve *skimmed* this far, why not do your own food photo meme? It could change your life. Or your eating habits.