Ciao Cali

I am back in Maine now and living it up in the thick high heady delight that is sweet, fresh, green, firefly filled summer here! But, before I get into that I need to write a bit about my last week in the Golden State. California really had quite a send off for me.

Within a few days of our personal tragedy of late being over, and me being not nauseous anymore, my friend Rinko and I went on an L.A. adventure that was so weird and great and fun, you really couldn't have it anyplace else.

It was a Wednesday. It was hot. We met in Burbank around noon, and hopped on the freeway in my old Volvo without air conditioning. In about 45 minutes of un-luxurious highway commute we were in the southeastern edges of L.A. in a neighborhood known as Little India. I'd heard about this place and wanted to check it out ever since last fall, but just hadn't made time until suddenly I was going to leave L.A., and also was really in need of some fun. Rinko and I both love to eat and cook and are both really visual people who can spend a lot of happy time just looking at interesting little things. Little India was a good fit for these enjoyments. As may be be inferred from my uninformed account here, I know pretty much nothing about Indian culture except that I find it pretty and interesting and I like the food. We went immediately into a restaurant to get some lunch, thinking along the lines of saag paneer and nan. Well, were we in for a treat! A unexpected treat but no less delightful as we realized that we didn't have to order but instead were to be served a complicated and extensive set menu on a silvery tray, consisting of an incredible myriad of strange and often delightful little silvery cups of food the likes of which I have never seen nor tasted before. There was the bean and vegetables in red sauce, something of cabbage I think, the toasty dry crunchy noodles in spicy sauce, a potato dish, a cup of sweet, vibrantly orange pureed mango, and perhaps my favorite, a bit of fried donut immersed in rich, watery yogurt with spicy mint sauce. I am forgetting a few things I think and I should also mention the refilling pile of fresh, hot flatbread. The waitress tried a little to help direct us on what to dip with what and which bread goes with which dish but it was too confusing so we just mixed and matched and tried our own combination. A culinary adventure! To wash it down we drank ice water and salted buttermilk. Yum. We did get to choose our own desserts though, and perhaps my favorite happening of the day was the arrival of the last dish that Rinko chose. I had a dense, dark yellow cardamom mousse with pistachios, but she had scoop of bright pink, flower flavored ice cream garnished with basil seeds soaked in rosewater until they resembled chewy caviar all topped with a spray of chewy rice noodles. All the floweryness made it taste like whipped commercial perfume but as far as creativity goes I have never seen the like. Soaked basil seeds and rice noodles on ice cream! It was a brand new experience for us.

Then we ogled our way through the food market downstairs, wandering through stacks of rice and lentils, 5 lb bags of turmeric, toothpaste with Bollywood stars on the label, dried chilies, strange, inedible looking silver candies and much much much more. We went to the pastry store and with the aid of the very polite and helpful young man behind the counter bought some soft milk candies and a few pieces of a complicated but delicious nutty, pistachio layer bar. I'm sure that these sweet delights have real names but I was so sensorily overhwelmed that I don't remember them. We moved away from food and browsed housewares at this point, looking through stacks of pillows and embroidered curtains and wall hangings and quilts, every inch of them covered in colorful handstitched animals, little mirrors or gossamer ruffles. I could have perused the stacks all day but our adventure was FAR from over yet, and so we bid Little India goodbye to head on down the road again.

Next stop DISNEYLAND! Can you believe it? I went from Little India and flower ice cream to Mickey Mouse and Disneyland all in one afternoon!!! I think you can only have that kind of fun in L.A.

Anyway, because Rinko's husband and our other friend, David, works for Disney she has the privilege of bringing herself and a guest for free. Thus at 33 years old, overall feeling kind of sad and old and in need of cheer, I entered a Disney theme park for the very first time in my life!! Thanks Rinko! We drove the 15 minutes further down the road to Anaheim, parked in the massive parking structure and took the tram in to the hive of fun. And it was fun! As we entered the village I had a childlike feeling of awe as we came upon the statue of Walt and Micky with the Magic Castle behind it. The remembrance that this now huge corporate empire is originally built from one animator and his creation of those incredibly endearing characters that have lived in the hearts of Americans for generations brought a tear to my eye. To create something that is so well loved, that is a great thing. At some points in my life I would have felt judgmental about or alienated by the consumer and corporate aspects of the park, and if I looked closely I still probably would, but that's not why I went. I went for a new experience and to be cheered, and it was impossible not to feel the cheer from all of the happy people enjoying themselves around us. There were so many people there, even for late afternoon on a random Wednesday! Excited children and jostling teenagers and overstimulated families on vacation. From a child's perspective there are endless delights. Every time we turned around there was a parade or a show of some kind beginning. We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which is older than the Johnny Depp movies and fun and campy with robotic pirates lighting port towns on fire and singing. We also rode a riverboat ride past characteristically Disneyish cute plaster jungle animals. Disneyland was the first of Walt's great theme parks, and it has an old fashioned feel. The kinder, gentler Disney of days gone by can be experienced there. We could have stayed for a light show, we could have seen another parade, the fun never ends at Disneyland though, so we decided to call it a day at about 8 pm. We watched fireworks going off from the top of the parking garage as we got in the car to leave. What a send off to an amazing day!

Thanks Rinko for having some fun with me when I really needed it. Thanks Walt for the inspiration. Thanks Little India for the invaluable gift of new flavors. Thanks California for my first year with you and all of the life experiences that you've given me to work with. See you in September!