Lost apples

Posted on 2023-09-15 by Hal

This sounds like a very interesting project:

“If you have old apple trees in Washington, Idaho, or Oregon, we want your apples! We look for apple trees planted prior to 1920 and the older the better. If you mail us your apples we will try to identify what varieties you send us. Send an email to rebeccajmcgee@icloud.com or dbens23@gmail.com and we can send you instructions on picking and mailing the apples. Thank you!”

There’s both a Wikipedia page and a Facebook page, but, oddly, no page of their own.

Bubble, bubble

Posted on 2023-08-29 by Hal

A friend has long sworn by the coffee this remarkable object makes. The Cona coffee maker. But I also find it extremely elegant to look at. The design is by Abram Games. The device is still available from Gezang.

Mr. Games is more famous as a poster designer. Here’s his work for the then-upcoming centenary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, in 1975. It uses the titles of each of the plays.

Pastry chef, 1928

Posted on 2023-08-02 by Hal

August Sander’s 1928 photo of a pastry chef (Konditor in Deutsch, which, given the business name konditori in Swedish, makes sense). This was maybe 12 feet high in sepia at… was it Old Town Bakery? in Pasadena.

Our favorite dish was their zuccotto, orange cream with a chocolate bombe-like cake around it, sprinkled with fine cocoa.

August Sander pastry chef (konditor) 1928

Hence the fucking name

Posted on 2023-03-08 by Hal

From Denis Leary’s 1997 comedic routine/record/video Lock ‘N Load. Lexicon. Re-worked from the original (“You took the donut, you dunked it in coffee. Thus the fucking title of the place!”), as he explains why Dunkin Donuts is called that.

Used when it can explain a tautology:

“Turns out Hal’s Tavern is owned by a guy named Hal.”
”Hence the fucking name.”

(YouTube isn’t letting me embed any of the many videos with his Lock ‘N Load “Coffee” segment. Hence the fucking link. [see?] Not sure why the curly quote algorithm is broken in that line above, but I’m out of spoons for what I thought would be a quick entry.)

Reflecting in the dark

Posted on 2023-02-23 by Hal

This is a nighttime photograph, by Nancy Matoba, of the soon-to-open Little Tokyo subway station in LA. It’s of the above-ground plaza used by the station at 1st & Alameda, the approximate location of where the Atomic Cafe was, and shows the very large mural commemorating it on a stainless steel building that has a staircase and an elevator. (Compare the mural to the elevator doors for size.) The image of the Cafe at night used for the top two-thirds of the mural was made by me; the bottom third is explanatory text. You won’t even need to go underground to the rest of the station to see it. I’m proud to join the landscape of LA, and humbled to pay tribute to the place and the Matoba family this way.

(All praise and thanks to Nancy’s daughter, Zen Sekizawa, for finding my photo online in the first place, and her tireless efforts seeing this project through with Metro. Zen first mentioned this idea to me in March, 2018, showing how the wheels of government grind slowly, and exceedingly fine.)

And the original image, from my photo portfolio site:

Asps

Posted on 2023-02-09 by Hal

Borrowed from our friends David Levine and Kate Yule. It’s a line from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Indy: Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
Sallah (peering into the tomb): Asps. Very dangerous. (pause) You go first.

Usage:

“That rhino snot pie on the menu looks interesting.”
”Asps.”

(Kate died in 2016. We miss her a lot.)

The Kosher Burrito

Posted on 2023-02-05 by Hal

Ah, memories. This was a small place across the street from LA City Hall (I worked at City Hall East for five summers).

This LA Times article from 2001 describes it this way:

(O)n a typical day, the stand sells about 100 namesake Kosher burritos–which include pastrami, chili sauce, dill-pickle chips and chopped onion wrapped in a flour tortilla–in addition to burgers, fries and fried chicken.

As I always relate at this point, one time I went there and was asked, “Do you want cheese on that?” Which, of course, would make it trayf (not kosher).

I declined. I wanted the original experience.

Still, for its aspirations of serving hot food to City Hall grazers for lunch, it was a great place.

Hal O'Brien 🇺🇸🇸🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴‍☠️

So many neurons, so little time.

Category Archives: Restaurants & Food