Faces & Places: More of My Father’s Color Photos of Southern California in the 1940’s

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Three years ago I posted a dozen or so images digitized from 35 mm colored slides my father made in Southern California in the 1940’s. Those photos were viewed by far more people than anything ever on MacroChef, and a number of commentators asked if there might be more. Having looked through hundreds of slides, I’ve found another batch of photos evocative of that long ago time and place. I hope you enjoy them.

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Photos: Top, a day at Santa Monica Pier, a destination for fishing and amusements since 1909, and more recently, also a historical landmark.  Above: Los Angeles Union Station, built in 1939 in a modernized Mission revival style, is still in use today. Amtrak, commuter rail, and Los Angeles’ new subway lines combine to make it the busiest rail station on the West Coast. (Click on any photo to enlarge it)

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Q: What Would You Do If You Had Only One Afternoon In Paris?

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Paris, ancient as it is, has endured a great plenty of violence, war and revolution. But given the relative peace of recent decades, bloody scenes from the Charlie Hebdo shooting have been shocking indeed. Once again we are reminded that even in one of mankind’s most civilized places, primitive horror can still strike. However, all that was far from my mind on a glorious day last autumn when at the tail end of a European holiday I was privileged to spend a few hours in Paris. I’d been to Paris before and taken in the obligatory sites, so with no agenda, I set out to explore once again a city which never disappoints. Paris really is as gorgeous as the postcards portray. My day ended perfectly too, with a dinner at the atmospheric Left Bank home of my friends, Annette and Robert. So, here are some photos from one afternoon spent wondering the streets of Paris…

___________ Photos: Although millions of tourists traipse through the Cathedral of Notre Dame every year, most seem to miss the lovely park just behind the Cathedral, seen here in two views. There are many more of my photos after the jump.

Journey Back in Time: Take The A Train to The Cloisters

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As a newcomer living in New York some 45 years ago, the city seemed like like an alluring, unknown wonderland, and I felt like an explorer ever ready for a new adventure. And so, one weekend day, a friend and I set out for The Cloisters, not knowing what to expect. What I found was a series of ancient-feeling rooms filled with medieval art, and set in a park on river bluffs high above the Hudson. It was magical, and I made a promise to myself to someday return. Last week, I finally did. And on a chilly, blindingly-white and amazingly clear day, it was magical all over again.

I didn’t know much about medieval art then, and I don’t now, but you don’t need to know a lot  to appreciate the beauty and mystery of the centuries-old sculptures, stained glass windows, tapestries, carvings, architectural elements and religious objects on display. To visit The Cloisters is like taking a condensed tour through medieval France, Italy and Spain, with a bit of the Netherlands added in. Last week, it was empty enough that one could have a chapel all to oneself to sit and meditate, a wonderful luxury in a city like New York.

So, if you find yourself in New York with a half day free, take the A train (yes the same train which famously goes to Harlem) nearly to the tip of Manhattan, exit at 190th Street, and step into another world.

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Life Between Snow Storms: A Wintry (But Fabulous) Week in New York City

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What kind of crazy Californian goes to New York in February? Especially this year, during one of the coldest and snowiest winters in recent memory? Well, I guess that would be me.  Yes, I’ve just returned from a week in the Big City where I had a chilly, but fabulous time. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in Minnesota that the cold in New York doesn’t scare me. I knew enough to come prepared with a warm jacket, stocking cap, gloves, scarf and insulated boots. Thus prepared, I found temperatures in the 20’s to be invigorating rather than chilling.

Fresh out of college, I lived in New York for three years back in the late sixties, and I’ve visited a number of times since, so New York is not unfamiliar to me.  But New York is so vast and ever changing that each visit is a perplexing mix of the familiar with the new and surprising.  I come as both a returning ex-resident and a wide-eyed tourist.

And as much as I love playing tourist in New York, I come, most importantly, to be with friends. Two of my dearest friendships, with Bobby Quidone and Phil Magnuson, I made when we lived, briefly, in the same apartment building at 84 East Third St., in the East Village.  Somehow, we’ve kept a friendship alive for more than 45 years, and it is a joy to see them on the rare occasions when we get together. My other dear New York City friend, Mary Morgan, is a friend of more recent vintage. Until about three years ago, she lived in the Bay Area, and she returns here yearly, so I’m able to see her more frequently.

And so when I do find myself in New York, I’m torn between rushing about to see what is new and exciting, and just wanting to hang out with friends. In the end, I do a little of each.  With only a week to spend, any rational person would compile a precisely-choreographed list of what to to and where to go, so as not to waste a moment.  That’s not me.  I tend to make it up day by day, but I manage to pack quite a lot in, even so.  Here in photos with captions are my impressions of New York c. 2014. See more after the jump, and check back tomorrow for my post on eating in the Big City.

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Photo above: I’d never been to the top of the Empire State Building or the top of Rockefeller Center (The Top of the Rock), so that was on my agenda this time. This photo is from the Top of the Rock observation deck, looking south to the Empire State Building and beyond.  I feared it would be frightfully cold and windy up there, but it was surprisingly pleasant.

A Week of Eating Out, And In, In Manhattan and Brooklyn

Food and New York just go together. New Yorkers clearly love to eat. On some Manhattan blocks, every single storefront is a restaurant. As cold weather always stimulates my appetite, you can be sure I did my share of eating. So, I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t share with you a little bit of what happened food-wise during my week in the big city.

There are not as many hip and welcoming coffee-shop type cafés in Manhattan as one might think. One that I found and liked quite a bit is Think Coffee, 248 Mercer St., between 3rd and 4th Streets. They have four other locations in the Village and one in Seoul, Korea. Starbucks is present, of course, but for a chain coffee place, I found The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf stores to be less crowded and more comfortable. One place I stumbled upon and wanted to try for lunch was The Clinton Street Baking Company and Restaurant, 4 Clinton St. near East Houston, on the Lower East Side. However, at 2:30 on a Wednesday afternoon the waiting line seemed long, so I decided to pass. I hope to make it back to this popular spot some day because it looked like it would be really good.

One of the relative new-comers to the Manhattan museum scene, is the Neue Gallerie, Fifth Avenue at 86th St., which specializes in showing art and design from Germany and Austria. I was amazed by a show of  early  20th Century German posters. The museum’s popular restaurant, Café Sabarsky, offers a Viennese menu and ambiance in a space with views of  Central Park. Photos above: My friend Mary Morgan samples the excellent beet borscht, and lunchtime in the café.

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Travel: Are Truffles Really Worth All The Fuss Made About Them?

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ROBERT BONNELL, OUR CORRESPONDENT IN FRANCE, SAYS YES

Editor’s Note: Truffles, those little knobs of fungus, have long been a prized ingredient in French and Italian cooking, and in recent years have begun to appear on more and more high-end American restaurant menus. Are they really worth their high price and do they live up to all the hype?  Robert Bonnell takes us on a visit to a winter truffle market in France, and explains what the fuss is all about. And yes, you read the above photo correctly, those lovely little buggers will cost you 700 € (about $1,000) a kilogram. Robert reports:

The black truffle, tuber melanosporum, is a devilishly expensive fungus which lives underground, associated with the root systems of oaks and several other trees. In France, truffles are harvested from late November until early March and are considered a great delicacy, their unique taste and aroma making them an exalted addition to a variety of dishes.

Commonly associated with the more southerly French regions of Périgord and Provence, black truffles are also found in the southern Loire Valley. Some are still found wild in the woods, but many come from plantations of truffle oaks, grown from seedlings whose roots were infused with truffle spores. But even in the plantations, a truffle hunter needs help to find them. Once performed by pigs, locating truffles is now the work of dogs. (As one purveyor of truffles says, it’s not easy to talk a pig into getting into the car.) At any rate, an effective truffle-hunting dog at work is a wonder to behold.

Travel: Notes From A Foodie Weekend in Portland

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It’s not exactly a secret that Portland, Oregon has become one of America’s premiere food cities, known as it is for its fresh, local, seasonal, and largely organic cuisine. So, when I made a quick pre-Christmas trip there to visit my fellow foodie friend, Adele, I knew I was in store for some wonderful eating.  I was not disappointed. I was barely off the plane when Adele whisked me to Tan Tan, a friendly, family-run Vietnamese joint in the close-in western suburb of Beaverton. This is an easy-to-love restaurant, serving really fresh food, casual and inexpensive.  Reviewers on Yelp rave about the bahn mi sandwiches, but I found the more unusual Vietnamese crepe to be completely satisfying, and not to forget the spring roll. Most spring rolls don’t get me excited, but this vegan version, stuffed with seitan, tofu, and the usual rice noodles and veggies, delivered so much clean flavor you really didn’t even need to dip it in the rich peanut sauce. Pho, the much loved Vietnamese noodle soup, is  another specialty here.

Several factors have contributed to Portland’s rise as a food city. The relatively mild climate and proximity to the fertile Willamette and Hood River vallies would be two, but also there is Portland’s comparatively low cost of living which has attracted young chefs, because the cost of opening a food business is a fraction of what it would be in Manhattan, San Francisco or most big cities. Diners benefit as well, as prices nearly everywhere seem to be downright reasonable compared to the Bay Area (and Oregonians love to rub in the fact that there’s no sales tax). It would take a couple weeks of eating and food shopping in and around Portland to even skim the surface of its food culture, but in a few days, I was able to squeeze in quite a bit.  My report is after the jump.

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Photos: From the top–1) Vietnamese Crepe with dipping sauce at Tan Tan in Beaverton, 2) Food carts in the S.W. Alder area of downtown Portland, and click on this video for a humorous, but informative report on Portland’s food cart scene. , 3) Retail store at Bob’s Red Mill, 4) Vegetarian Spring roll at Tan Tan contained both seitan and tofu, really yummy!

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Travel: Celebrating Winter Solstice Downtown (Where All The Lights Are Bright)

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I’m not entirely sure why, but this is my favorite time of year. Perhaps it’s a holdover from childhood, when year’s end meant two weeks off from school, and of relative freedom.  But I do think it’s deeper  than that. It has to do, I think, with the change of season, with the solstice, when the nights are longest and hours of sunlight the fewest. Because the sun is lower in the sky, colors are more vivid, and everything feels lighter and less tense. It’s the time of the big yin, a time to turn inward, a time for less action and more contemplation. Our bodies, whether we acknowledge it or not, are attuned to these changes. For many plants and animals, winter is a time of rest, and shouldn’t it also be for us? I wonder if some of the extra illness so many of us experience in winter isn’t partly because we fail to heed this seasonal call to rest, and instead press ahead with ever more work and social activity.

Having said that, it’s also true that there’s a great deal to enjoy now. As the weather turns colder, people seem to gather more closely, and the bustle of cities becomes more alluring. I’m not much of a shopper, but once a year or so I enjoy the crowds in downtown San Francisco, which at this time reach an almost New York-like intensity. I agreed to meet up with my friends Susanne Jensen and Sophia Hummell to take in the music, the decorations, to people watch and to have a pre-Christmas lunch. Although it was the Winter Solstice and only four days before Christmas, with temperatures in the 60’s, and a bright sun, the crowds seemed both larger and more relaxed than usual. It felt as if we’d all taken a pledge to be in a really good mood. And so, here’s a little bit of what I saw, on my own, and with Susanne and Sophia on the shortest day of year. Whether or not you observe a holiday this week, I hope you are able to slow down, take a breath, and enjoy this special time of the year. Best wishes in all you do.

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Photos: Top–The world’s largest gingerbread house? Who knows, but you can walk through this edible marvel in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel, on Mason Street at the top of Nob Hill. Occasionally, the story goes, people nibble on it and the hotel pastry chefs must make repairs.  Above: A Christmas tree and menorah side-by-side in Union Square. We were dismayed that neither this tree nor any of the the other trees we saw was real.

Panettone, the traditional Italian Christmas cake, stacked nearly to the ceiling at Molinari's, on Columbus Avenue in North Beach.

Travel: 16th Century China Comes Alive In Portland’s Magical Lan Su Garden

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Travel is one of the things in life which has brought me a lot of joy. To visit historical and cultural sites can make vivid times and places we’ve only read about–Kyoto’s temples or the old city of Venice, to cite two places I’ve been fortunate to experience. I was reminded of this last week when I visited my friend and fellow foodie, Adele, in Portland, Oregon. As a relatively new city, Portland can’t compete with the glories of  Kyoto or Venice, but as I strolled through its remarkable Chinese Garden, I did feel transported to a far-away world.

Located downtown on the edge of Portland’s small Chinatown, the Lan Su Chinese Garden dates only from 2000, but is a recreation of a wealthy family’s walled garden compound in 16th Century China. Most of the materials, including 500 tons of rock, came from China, and sixty-five artisans from Suzhou spent ten months in Portland completing the project (Suzhou is one of China’s great historic cities, and eight of its gardens are UNESCO world heritage sites). Designed by Kuang Zhen Yan, Lan Su is conceived as a spiritual utopia, a place to leave behind the cares of the harried world, and is laid out as a series of views framed by windows, doors and pavilions. Underlying its design is the Chinese concept of yin and yang, the idea that the world can be seen as a weaving of opposite, but complementary forces, such as light and dark or earthy and ethereal. As calming and relaxing as this garden is,  it is also stimulating because all the senses must be alert to fully observe the layers of intricate detail.

Portland is probably one of America’s under-appreciated cities, and well worth a visit even in winter, and it’s Chinese Garden is a must-visit if you do go. In a future post, I’ll blog about what I was able to observe of Portland’s food culture during my brief visit.

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Photos: Top–a view across the pond to the Tower of Cosmic Reflections which is used as a teahouse. Above–the Moon Locking Pavilion from which “on a clear night you can see the reflection of the moon as a shimmering spotlight in the center of the lake, locked in by the pavilions’s shadow.”–Lan Su Chinese Garden guide book. See more photos after the jump (and click on any photo to see an enlarged version).

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Travel: The Hunt For Amazing Wild Mushrooms In France’s Loire Valley

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Editor’s note: Learning how to forage wild mushrooms has long been on my to-do list, and somehow never seems to get done. It’s the sort of hunting which appeals to me, and what can be more local, natural, organic and delicious than wild mushrooms? Robert Bonnell, my friend and correspondent in France, recently went tramping through countryside in the Anjou region of France’s Loire Valley with experienced mushroom hunter, Henri de Fontanges. Here, in words and photos, is what he found:

Hunting wild mushrooms is a passion in France, and the location of a favorite mushroom hunting ground is a closely guarded secret.  Best if it’s not on private property, to avoid the risk of having your harvest confiscated or stomped on by an abuse-hurling property owner (something the author once witnessed in Brittany).

It is said that all French pharmacists are trained to tell the difference between edible and poisonous mushrooms, but this is scoffed at by many. Therefore to avoid being poisoned, the French often stick to gathering certain safe, easy to recognize genera – chanterelles, morels (which are safe when cooked) and cêpes (pronounced “sep”), above all the cêpe de Bordeaux, or Boletus edulis, what English speakers usually call the porcini mushroom.

Cêpes get fairly large, with a thick stipe (stem) up to 5 inches high and a cap up to 10 inches across. They have a short growing season in the fall during warm periods after a rain. One recognizable difference from most other mushrooms is that they don’t have gills under the cap – instead they have a spongy area there with tubes through which the spores are released. This makes identification much easier, but the mushroom hunter is not out of the woods (so to speak) yet, since there’s a cêpe relative, Boletus satanas, which can deliver a nasty stomach-ache. Luckily it’s red and bleeds blue when cut, so identification is not difficult.

Even considering their large size, cêpes can be difficult to see, since they’re close in color to the dead grass, tree trunks and plant litter of the forested areas in which they grow. When you finally do spot one, and then another and another, in a spot you’ve searched without success several times already, it can be a very satisfying experience. It’s like one of those pictures which first appears to consist only of a meaningless array of dots, and then suddenly you look at it just right and a 3-D image jumps out at you.

This year has been relatively dry in Anjou, in the western Loire River valley, so the cêpes are not appearing in the great numbers they do some years.  There are also a lot of rival mushroom hunters tramping around the woods.  And that’s not the only competition for the cêpes – beetles burrow right in, and slugs love them.  And, while we may eat snails here, slugs are definitely not considered a delicacy. It’s a rare cêpe which hasn’t had at least one hunk bitten out of it.  So we were delighted when Henri de Fontanges, the experienced mushroom hunter who had brought us to this spot, brushed some dead leaves aside and found the double cêpe de Bordeaux shown in the photo.  It was nearly perfect.  Weighing in at 750 grams (1 lb. 10 oz.), it could have fetched the equivalent of $25 at a local market.  Instead it will serve as part of the delicious topping for a homemade pizza.

When this prize was added to basket already holding several handfuls of chanterelles and a couple of hedgehog mushrooms, it wasn’t a bad haul for an afternoon’s stroll in the woods. (More photos after the jump…)

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Robert Bonnell will be publishing an eBook in early 2012 reviewing the off-the-beaten-path cave restaurants, hotels, artisans’ workshops, museums, etc. of France’s Loire Valley.

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