Menagerie

Went to eat at Show Dogs.

I was unsure if I could write a review for this restaurant, since it’s located on Market at the intersection of Golden Gate and Taylor. The neighborhoods and districts run together in San Francisco. Since Show Dogs is on Market, I was trying to decide if it is in the Tenderloin, but after eating there today, I am convinced that it is indeed in the Tenderloin.

Sausage dogs, beers on draft, burgers, thin onion rings and fries, and pickles. Order at the counter and pick a seat. I usually get the Merguez dog with mustard and arugula. They were out of it this time cause it’s awesome. I ordered the Maple Bacon dog instead. It was so good that I was happy they were out of the Merguez. Eating habits can be hard to break. The boyfriend ordered the pulled pork. I didn't have any, but it looked yummy. On another visit I ordered the burger. It was delicious and juicy. It has a special sauce, but I like to put extra mustard on it too. Lots of spicy mustard! It drips, I need lots of napkins. I’m super messy. They use quality products, makes everything taste better.

One of the best parts about eating here is the people-watching, so choose your seat facing the window, or better yet, sit outside on a nice day and watch the spectacle in 3D. Bikers whizzing by, pink helmet. Watching people walking by while I’m sipping a coke with lemon, and my favorite part, crushed ice! On this visit after munching for a bit, I looked up to see a bum walking around outside, he looked a little dazed. He was clutching dirt stained jeans to hold them up while blood dripped from his nose and mouth. This is how I knew that the restaurant is indeed in the Tenderloin district. There was a man in an ill-fitting suit, smoking, trying to get people to buy his…lotions. It was a set of three. He kept lifting the lid of the box to give people a glimpse of the goods. So back-alley transaction. He made a sale! He had a friend on the other corner in a similar ill-fitting suit. There was an older couple, worn by the passage of time, and maybe, one too many acid trips. She was wearing a teal tank top, no bra, her buddah-belly hung over the top of her jeans. Highly entertaining people-watching.

The staff is friendly and competent. The food is good. Bonus: They have a television! Get a beer and watch one of the NBA playoff games, or just the foot traffic.

Movies and Minestrone Soup

I'm sick today. I've been laying in the own filth until recently. I watched Eat Prey Love, and I've decided that I'm over Julia Roberts. I'm not entirely sure I was ever into her, but you know, the whole, she was so cute in Pretty Woman thing. And when does she NOT laugh in a movie. Maybe my mini-rant has to do with the fact that it's hard to get much needed R and R when you're ill and live in the Tenderloin.

Must rely on self-medication, which includes, but is not limited to: Wal-dryl (the cheaper knock-off brand of Benadryl from Walgreens), tissues, hot tea (usually left on my kitchen counter until cold and is in need of a warmup), lots of blankies, movies and soup.

Halfway through my movie the Vietnamese men who work on the building started to drill or pound, which vibrated my walls. It didn't last for long. But neither being in bed, which is in the closet, or on the couch, provides good quiet rest time in my apartment. These are times when I wish things were different. Like, if I lived in the country away from everyone and everything it would be quiet. I would only hear the rustling of the wind through trees outside my window, and not cars with horns, and trucks rumbling by, buses loading and unloading, or people talking loudly. Nor, would there be conversations that include Jorge, and songs like "My Girl," or people yelling for each other, affectionately, using the word I have to refer to as, the 'N' word.

When I'm sick I always think I should buy new living room curtains, because these sheer cream colored ones don't do the job for a mid-day nap. I would read, but my head feels too clogged up to put any words into it. I would try to lay down in bed, but it's in the closet, next to the hallway where people run up and down the stairs. I would try and sleep on the couch, but it's just too loud, because I can hear a transvestite asking, "Where you goin' gurl?"

In a place that's too noisy the best bet for me to get a nap is to drown out the noise with more noise. Instead of the country, I'll wish I had a machine that I could pick out a bunch of movies and it would play them for me in an uninterrupted succession, a Pandora for my Netflix. Because I'm like a little kid in the backseat of a car, if the car stops moving, I wake up. If the movie stops playing, the hustle and bustle of outside creeps back in, and I wake up. Because, I don't want to live in the country, I like it here.

I think my next movie will be GroundHog Day, since I watched it yesterday! It's only appropriate.

So, This is Exciting

For April 7th, 2011...

Saigon Sandwich has a sign posted stating they will indeed be open tomorrow for business! Come one, come all, get your banh mi and check out the new digs.



Also, there's a new tree in my life...



Earlier in the week I saw a group of people planting some trees down the street, with my investigative powers at work, I've discovered this group of people are called, Friends of the Urban Forest. Okay, I have a confession to make, I found out by reading the note attached to the tree. Welcome to the neighborhood lil tree. You are already sprucing up the place, with your little pink blooms. Thanks, Friends of the Urban Forest. I wish I could call you like Captain Planet, with a ring, yours would be green!

Our Bums Could Beat Up Your Bums...

If they could only see straight.

I'm obsessed with a show called Portlandia, that Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are involved in, about Portland, Oregon. They nailed it! It's great, you should check it out. I have a bunch of friends and family that live there, so when I visited a few weeks ago, I was excited.



One thing I noticed while I was there is how friendly people are. Walking into a store I would be greeted with smiles and a how are you. They talked to me about their products and would ask if I needed any help, but in an unobtrusive way. When I patron stores here, I’ve been followed around, as if I’m some kind of specimen being analyzed. Of course, they’re worried I may steal something, but I don’t like being glared at and followed. I tend not to spend my money in a place that is so unfriendly.

Being on vacation makes me realize I attract bums and crazies everywhere I go. Moth to the flame baby! Moth to the flame! Who is the moth, and who is the flame in this situation, is unknown to me at this point though. My working theory is that they can smell the other bums on me. My sister, and the friends I was visiting, took me to a Karaoke bar called, Chopsticks, one night. As soon as I sat down, the one and only crazy drunk guy in there (I'm gonna call him a bum, since if you're drunk AND crazy in the Tenderloin, you're probably a bum) made a beeline for me. He started asking what I was drinking. I reverted to my normal response, ignore, ignore, ignore, and hope he goes A-way. The next day, while on Hawthorne, I was asked if I wanted to hear a poem for twenty-five cents. The bums in Portland want to sing me a song or read me a poem for 25 cents, while the bums in San Francisco want to throw things at me and punch me in the face.

The day I was leaving for Portland, I had lunch at Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers. While enjoying my delicious burger, a man in green pants, a blue sweater, backpack and bicycle helmet came into the restaurant demanding to get a replacement order of “Fringes,” a combo of onion rings and fries, since, (as he explained to the manager) when he came in three days ago and got takeout, his order of frings were missing. To sum up the situation, the manager explained to the man that he should have a receipt to show that he did indeed place an order, and suggested he should have called the same day and they would have replaced his order that day, not three days later, with no receipt. The manager explained that since the restaurant is on the cusp of the Tenderloin, they have many people coming in to try and garner free food. The bicycle helmet man argued with the manager until he called him a dumb-ass, and was immediately escorted out of the restaurant by the manager, who was significantly larger than the other man.

Our bums may be more direct and meaner, but coming home is interesting, experiencing the familiar smells and sights...B.O. and pooh, the bums at the civic center BART station, singing, and “playing” the violin. Oh, how I miss thee. Coming home, I wonder why I would ever want to leave, everything I could ever want is here. And you never know when your next meal will come with a free show!