Further down the street we stopped by the post office which was housed in this huge building with a lot of art deco motifs such as this:
I can't remember the name of this building but it also had Yank Sim restaurant in there. According to Bert, this building used to have this waterfall cascade from the ceiling. He had been here years before for a visit.
We bought more postcard stamps and took off once again in search of Arkipelago Books. Here's a really vibrant piece on Mission St...
Right next to this was a series of these funky looking sculptures:
We took turned mimicking the expressions...There was another one with a "fish lipped" expression!
There were two addressess and phone numbers given for Arkipelago. The first one we went to was the original location at the Mint Mall. Unfortunately, Arkipelago was no longer at that site so obviously, it was at the other location which was 5 or six blocks away! By this time, my feet were killing me!
Arkipelago used to be on the bottom floor next to Bindlestiff Studios, which a Filipino company that focuses on the arts (music, theatre, film, etc).
Here was a poster depicting the International Hotel (better known as the "I-Hotel") in the late 1970's. In Filipino American History, the I-Hotel is a symbol of the burgeoning Filipino American/Asian American movement, when activists got together to protest the forced eviction of the elderly Filipino manongs and Chinese immigrants who called the hotel, located on the outskirts of Chinatown, their home. The Hotel was eventually torn down but lay empty for decades before redevelopment finally took place.
On our way to the newer location of Arkipelago, we passed by this restaurant which was next to a Filipino market (we could smell the fish!).
Arkipelago is located in the "Bayanihan House", which is an all purpose center for the residents of the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood, the majority of which are Filipinos. There is a meeting room for the youth, another room for senior citizens to exercise, as well as the bookstore itself. This building serves all people and not just Filipinos based on the pamphlets I picked up here.
We were greeted warmly by Marie whom we hadn't seen in at least 3 - 7 years. I first met her years ago at an educational conference for Filipino American educators. She and a few other women who also are in the same business of providing Filipino books/materials, respected author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard of the Philippine American Literary House (PALH) and Linda Marie Nietes of Philippine Expressions (based in Los Angeles) have been instrumental in expanding my library and my personal knowledge of all things Filipino American and Philippine as well. These intelligent and strong women provide a valuable service not just to educators like myself, but to anyone who wants to learn more about our culture.Do you see the painting behind the counter? That is Marie - she said she got it done while she was in the Philippines. It's in the style of Amorsolo, a famous Filipino painter, The painting was actually 95% done - the only "blank" part was the face, which the artist painted in. That is so cool - I'd love to have a painting like that!
Her store was jam packed with all things Filipino/Philippine/Filipino American...From woven baskets, backpacks, t-shirts, handcrafted knick knacks, and of course, books, books, books! Of every topic imaginable - poetry, short stories, gay lit, martial arts, colonial era post cards, cook books (and dammit, she was out of one I wanted, "Kulinarya"!), novels, jewelry and so on! My mind was racing because I didn't know what I really wanted to focus on - I used to collect books big time but have kind of cut back drastically over the years. However, I have been known to snap up a few things here and there for my collection...I ended up buying a lot of jewelry sets from Mindanao (seed beaded necklaces with bracelets) for gifts and a Tagalog word book that I used to have but was never returned to me by this deadbeat teacher who has since left my work site.
Isn't this funktastic? I'd never seen a lavender capiz lamp before! THis is so cute because it's so tiny! It's going in my office at work people!
Marie was so gracious and kind and even gave us a mini tour of the Bayanihan Center...It was really heartwarming to see that the center was being put to use for the various community members. It was multigenerational too - one room had a group of high school youths while downstairs, there were Lolos and Lola's exercising, playing the piano and singing!
One look at my watch and I nearly freaked! It was 4:45! We were supposed to have diner by 6 pm but I called my friend to make it a little later. We were going to walk back to Thane's place and while the distance looked short on the map, it was, in reality, a lot of fkg blocks to walk! I felt so grimy walking around in the city - yes, I'm a suburban Princess. I wanted to take a long hot shower to wash off all the smoke and shit that blew onto me from cars and people. On our way back to the Embarcadero, we saw a few more art pieces. This one was a reclining woman made of metal atop a building...
There it is from afar...
This reminded me of Keith Haring...
Not sure what this was but it looked quite graceful:
We barely had time to relax and clean up before we headed out to Daly City to meet my friend. She's the other one who lives in the Sunset District. She gave the keynote speech for the Fiipino American Scholarship luncheon that we did a few months ago. She had a few places to suggest, like Kuya's and Patio Filipino but we had already eaten there. So, we ended up at Sinugba which is in Daly City. Talk about Filipinos - this is like National City, Paradise Hills and Manila Mesa (I mean, Mira Mesa) rolled into one. Anyhow, Thane was with us as well as his GPS dashboard thing. We almost missed this place because it's on a wierd street and you have to go around another building to get to it.
As you can see, it's not too fancy but it's not a hole in the wall either, although I am not averse to eating at hole in the wall type places. I'm just astounded by how many Filipino sit down restaurants there were here. In San Diego, there are only a few - the vast majority are steam table places where the food's been made hours ag. I wish there were more sit down/made to order Filipino joints in good ole' San Diego.
Click on photo to enlarge menu:
Appetizer - Lumpiang Shangai with sweet and sour dipping sauce:
Garlic Fried Rice! Did I mention that we came here to EAT? My friend also brought along her former student, a young lady who just graduated from University with a degree in architecture. In fact, she was honored with the winning design to build a community center in Nicaragua! Awesome! And to top that achievement, she was going to travel there for a few months to oversee the building process!
TC's calamansi drink:
We ordered family style - This was the Pork Tocino! This was so good - see the burnt parts? Even better! That was the burnt pork fat, nice and caramelized!
And next was the Pork Longganisa which was butterflied - Yes, BABOY rules!
Here's yet another pork dish - the Sisig! And thank you Sinugba for not making this with slimy egg!
This was a dish I was so excited to see - Bittermelon sauteed with onions, garlic, tomatoes and egg. My mom can make this really well and it's one of my favorite dishes.
Here's the last dish - Chicken Adobo. I don't know about you, but I like my chicken pieces with the SKIN on. I didn't even bother trying this because I was too full but also because of the lack of skin! My adobo looks better than this and according to Bert, my adobo tastes better too!
Out of all the dishes, I liked the Pork Tocino and the Bittermelon dish the best. It was almost as good as my mom's. Tocino is something I rarely eat. We hardly eat pork in our household and I rarely buy it or cook it. But man, three pork dishes in one night was total pork overload! "As Travis Kraft (white guy who can speak Tagalog and cook adobo - look him up on Google), "Ang sarap sarap (delicious!)!!!
Filipino food in the Bay Area is the shit!
No comments:
Post a Comment