Trip to Angel Island

Last Saturday, I went with some friends on a hiking trip to Angel Island, in the bay just out past Alcatraz. It was a very fun trip. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

http://min.us/mIAtYd

I had a great time, but ended up with some mild sunburn. Oh well.

Why I am no longer hungry: a happy story

I wanted to tell you about something that happened today, because of how amazing it was. I had been assembling furniture all morning -- so far, I've got a nice couch and a really recalcitrant bed frame -- and I discovered that it was 2:00 PM, and I really needed to have lunch about two hours ago. I decided that preparing a lunch of sufficient magnitude to refill me with energy was not something I was quite ready to try on my own, so I would go out to a restaurant and get a hot meal.

As I descended the stairs to the street, I was gently surprised to find that I was feeling a bit dizzy. I was actually faint from lack of food! This clearly would not stand. I meandered southward until the lettering on the shops was mostly in Chinese, and looked around for restaurants, figuring that this was my best bet at finding a restaurant that wasn't going to charge me $11 for a salad and call it a "bargain." (I'm not exaggerating; along the way, I actually did see a restaurant advertising that exact thing. I think it was an Italian place.)

The weather was sunny with a cool breeze, ideal walking conditions, so I didn't mind wandering farther and farther south in search of a good place. And wander I did, past shops selling dried mushrooms and discount scarves and the like, until I looked across the street and saw a beautiful sign. I use the word "beautiful" in a peculiar way here, because the sign itself was as plain as could be, simple black letters on a white background, but the beauty was all in what it said. "Dim sum buffet," it said. "All you can eat, $5.99." My eyes widened, and I strode over there immediately. "Yeessss!!" I murmured happily.

The restaurant was as plain as the sign: a buffet counter on one side of the room, and cheap white tables on the other side. At the head of the room was a counter where you paid. I forked over the six dollars, and received a paper plate, and a styrofoam cup and bowl. I certainly wasn't going to complain about the ambience; if anything, it felt refreshingly honest. Like a place the Great Pumpkin might visit, if it were a pumpkin patch rather than a dim sum restaurant.

The food bears mention, here. It reminded me a lot of the non-regional food in Taiwan, which makes sense as they have the same origin. There were dumplings and buns with really tasty meat-based fillings. There was a mild chicken curry dish. There were tempura pork chunks with sweet and sour sauce. There were egg rolls with enough sauce inside them that you didn't need dipping sauce. There were several different soups. There were green vegetables, because it just isn't a proper Chinese meal without some steamed greens. There were some sesame balls, which were good but hard to describe in writing. And, as the sign advertised, there was a lot of everything.

As I walked back home, to let the food settle while I digested and wrote about it, I was pleased to notice that the feeling of faintness earlier had completely subsided. Maybe I'll have the energy later today to set up a desk lamp, or something.