foody fun.

after a year and two months (!!!), i got to hang out with my friends stella and matthew again. they're in town for the week for stella's solo show at gallery 1988SF. yesterday, we met up in the afternoon and had a bit of adventure around the mission, tenderloin, and russian hill - all of which involved some sort of food (of course!)

after having some late busses and getting stuck in the tunnel on the L due to congestion at church station, we met up and wandered around the mission for some lunch. here is a present i made for the two of them the night before, i'm glad matthew didn't shave his facial hair off:



we went to sunflower vietnamese restaurant; funny that we didn't have mexican. matthew and i had two steaming bowls of pho and stella got the bbq pork and imperial rolls with vermicelli noodles. yum!
afterwards, we looked around valencia and found the alley (i forgot the name) that has been completely covered with murals - some of them are so amazing!!! i had been to the alley a few times before, because it's near my friend erik's old studio.









we dropped by little otsu to look at some super cute artsy things and then across the street to 826 for some pirate-y adventure.



i'd never been to this place before, but apparently everyone's at least heard of it. it was full of drawers and nooks of pirate treasure and goods and even had it's own fish theatre, lard bucket (from which you could scoop and purchase your own lard), and sand tub for treasure hunting.


beard or mustache, anyone?


stella and i couldn't figure out how to use the spare stuffed appendages. were they legs or arms or long, irregularly-shaped breasts?


i was COMPLETELY obsessed with this stuffed pheasant. reminded me of a rooster i once knew; good ol' robert.

for more taxidermy, we went next door to paxton gate. it was one of the most wonderous places i've ever seen and i'm sure liz mcgrath would be in heaven there. they don't allow photography, unfortunately, but the place is full of natural wonders and you can buy everything from a weasel skull to rare preserved butterflies and tropical spiders, badger claws, photographs of a woman with elephantiasis, and strange exotic pitcher plants (that stella and i were fascinated by).

we ended the mission trip with a bag of blue cotton candy. thanks matthew! then hopped on a bus back to the tenderloin for a spot of tea at a place it took us about half an hour to find. it was worth it though, because the tea-guy working there was super helpful and we asked him to choose a nice "luscious" black tea for stella and i and a green one for matthew. he gave stella and i a strong black tea with rich chocolate flavour (with a u!) and tender rose buds in it!


perfect with a few madelines. (^__^)


very serious conversation. ah, indeed.

we met up with matthew's sister carrie and had some dee-lish sushi for dinner at sushi groove on russian hill.



we had some hawaiian butterfish there that was creamy-yummy-awesome.

after our meal, we had to eat some more of course, so we went up the street to Swensen's for ice cream. this is it's original location, which earle swensen opened up in 1948 (thanks wikipedia!) in which he developed over 150 different flavors (i played it safe and had the thin mint). Swensen's is now an international chain.





we ended the night with the long walk back from russian hill all the way down to market so that carrie and i could catch the MUNI back home. it was soooo much fun to see stella and matthew again and i'm so glad that we have such similar sense of humor and can laugh and talk about the most vulgar/strange/inappropriate things (oh, and art too) for days.