Monday, March 3, 2008

Boat Day



Yesterday was the beautifulest day of the year so far. Tarzan, Ryan, and I took a boat to San Francisco. There were two tall ships sailing in the bay, who were the pirates in town. So cool to see two of those ships at sail right next to each other. And then we walked along the harbor to see all the boats in their slips. We looked at tourists and kind of wandered around the whole city then, stopping at watering holes along the way.

We went to Suppenkuche. It's extremely good and worth the wait and the money. The food is very nearly exactly like you get in Germany, and the draught beer is a delicious reminder of why Germany takes so much pride in its breweries. The trick is to elbow your way into a spot at the bar, befriend the friendly service personnel, find the host(ess) to put your name in, and have a couple pints while you wait. It will be a while; folks line up and wait for them to open their doors at five. It's popular for a reason, though, and like I said, it's worth the wait.
My favorite thing about Suppenkuche is the shared wooden tables. That's rather common in Germany, and it's something I wish more Americans would experience. It's not like you have to be best friends with the people at the table with you or even talk to them, but it's nice to be around other people while you're eating. San Francisco seems quite light on the whole having a community thing sometimes. It takes a village, people!

Speaking of community and the Village People, we walked onto a movie set at the civic center. They're filming a movie about Harvey Milk all over the city lately. We saw Sean Penn deliver a speech to an angry mob while vintage cops stood between vintage cars to witness the vintage drama.

Speaking of Twinkies and community, little girls standing on every corner in the East Bay are accosting me. I buy their cookies because they make me laugh. It is hard to believe that the cookies cost so little. I don't know which are which or what they all taste like, and the girls don't seem able to tell me anything about the different cookies, but that's OK. I think it's cool that people have families and do family things. I think if I had a daughter I'd like her to be a Girl Scout of America. I bought Berkeley Farms Milk at 7-11 and ate my Samoas, which are like coconut cookies with chocolate. I don't like sweet things, really, but they were pretty decent. I've always hated Twinkies, I think

I feel like I had no childhood.

4 comments:

Jennifer B said...

I was in Brownies for a day when I was seven or so. That is a lower form of Girl Scout. But I quit when they told me I had to wear an ugly brown dress as the uniform. For Halloween this year, I wanted a very similar girl scout uniform like the one in your post and then zombify it a little, but I couldn't find the right little girl scout uniform.

Sky Jack Morgan said...

I was never sure what Brownies did.

CLAY BANES said...

Brownies are like Cub Scouts.

Americans are never going to want to share a long wooden table with other Americans.

I've been wanting to try Schnitzelhaus because they've got fried potatoes and goulash and several Schnitzels and Leberkäse. The menu to Suppenküche looks like so many yuppie German restaurants.

I like the chocolate mints best.

Sky Jack Morgan said...

It's a little yuppie, but it's good food, and the service is good, and the food, not the service, is very nearly authentic-tasting.