From commentor ThalarctosMaritimus:
Here are some pictures from the Seattle meetup. We met at Indo Cafe in North Seattle for Indonesian food. There was talk of consulting Amir Khalid for real-time advice on what he’d recommend from his neighboring country’s cuisine–at UTC + 8, he’d have been awake–but Yatsuno’s recommendations were very good ones, and they were generous with their portions. I had corn fritters for the first time ever, and the satay was delicious. All in all, a very nice dinner.
Lots of talk, political and non, and stories about previous jobs and places lived. We shut the place down–admittedly, not that late, as they close at 9–and before we left, the waitress offered to take a picture of us together (front: Yatsuno; back, left to right: Mike J, Tamara, Brian, and ThalarctosMaritimus).
***********
Anybody wants to spark a meetup in your area, send me an email (click on my name in the right-hand column, or annelaurie (at) verizon-dot-net) and I’ll put up a post.
raven
Nice lookin group!
JPL
What a nice looking group. I’m so pleased that you were able to arrange a meet-up.
Major Major Major Major
What’s food #2? Looks like banh xeo but wrong country.
NotMax
@ThalarctosMaritimus
That eatery might not have been the correct place for it, but hot, crispy corn fritters with maple syrup is one of the great food marriages.
beth
Is that last photo a cocktail or dessert? Either way it looks yummy. Would love to know what it is.
Iowa Old Lady
That looks great. Did you call one another by your nyms?
Pogonip
Is Tamara the same Tamara that sends in recipes every week?
Hi, Juicers!
I am constrained to point out that there are no puppies in this picture.
Major Major Major Major
Well now I’m off to get banh xeo, thanks brain.
Gin & Tonic
@Pogonip: No dog poop either.
Pogonip
@Gin & Tonic: Not to worry, I knew somebody would bring up either dog poop, nude mopping, or nudely mopping up dog poop, and here you are!
ThalarctosMaritimus
@beth:
It’s a dessert, and it was delicious! Sweet and delicate flavor, with a wide range of textures.
Here’s their description of it:
Es Teler: Mixed tropical fruits [I recognized mango; the others were new to me, although one was sort of like clear lychees] and green jelly [gelatin, not jelly] served with milk and cocopandan syrup.
I did not “Add durian (+1.50)”, because I want the first time I taste durian to be more authentic than it’s going to be in Seattle.
True story: I was once turned into an unwitting fruit mule by some local Southeast Asian refugees, who calculated (rightly, as it turned out) that a van returning from Vancouver to Seattle would be less likely to be searched at the border for fruit if it was driven by a suburban middle-aged white woman, than if one of them were driving it.
jl
@ThalarctosMaritimus:
What, no durian!?!?
Nice looking group and delicious looking food. Hope everyone had a good time.
edit: Oh, that’s right. No poop in this thread. Sorry.
JCJ
@ThalarctosMaritimus:
Durian is either loved (the king of fruits) or loathed. My wife loves it, I find it repulsive. Maybe you had to grow up eating it.
ThalarctosMaritimus
@Major Major Major Major:
It does, doesn’t it?
Here’s the description: “Bihun Goreng Indonesia: Indonesian style stir-fry fine rice noodles with choice of chicken, beef, pork, tofu, or shrimp”.
It was good, but Yatsuno’s dish–I forget the name, but it’s the picture with the yellow rice and shrimp chips–was exquisitely tender and seasoned. He chose very well.
Morzer
Since this is an open thread not entirely disconnected from food….
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/denver-bakery-discrimination-anti-gay
I am thinking that Bill Jack is what is known to the wider world as a sad bastard.
jl
@JCJ: Tastes great. Smells…. well.. that is the problem for many. Me, I don’t care. Durian is on the menu, I will try it.
David Koch
Please proceed, Mr Speaker
Schlemazel
@ThalarctosMaritimus:
They sell some pretty good gelatine desserts in asian markets & one is honeydew that is a nice pale green. My fav is the coconut and some of the coffee ones are actually good.
They are made with agar-agar BTW so vegans can eat them
kc
Good-looking group!
That food looks yummy.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: I was waiting in line outside some kind of shake place in the Richmond and was like god, am I right by the bathroom vent? And my friend was like mmm, smells like durian.
ThalarctosMaritimus
@Iowa Old Lady: yes :)
@Pogonip: It’s a different Tamara, and she did tell me her nym as we were leaving. It’s not her fault that I have a memory like a colander, and it slipped out :( .
Perhaps she’ll delurk to wave at us.
TaMara (BHF)
@Pogonip: Not me, but what a great looking group. Good to see them! Now, someone go poke JC and get us a puppy update, stat.
JCJ
@jl:
It is hard to get past the smell. I have tried it two or three times and I just don’t like it. I always laugh when I am walking in a grocery store when visiting Bangkok and durian is out in the open. The smell just doesn’t put me in the mood to shop for food.
Schlemazel
@ThalarctosMaritimus:
I have my mom’s recipe for Nasi Goreng and I love it. But I have to be really careful with the shrimp chips. The first time I made it for my family I had to run back to the store because I ate them all, they are much worse than potato chips!
Roger Moore
@Morzer:
He’s a right wing troll, which is more or less the same thing. He’s trying to prove that anti-discrimination rules that prevent business like bakers from denying service to gay couples are really discriminatory because they still allow them to deny service to Christianist assholes.
srv
Yatsuno is shorter than I thought. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
jl
@Morzer: The great gender preference cake wars are on.
I saw that story earlier. I wondered why anyone who was mentally healthy, even an anti-gay crusader, would want that kind of cake. Unless his head looks like something by Balbi, The head of a man composed of writhing nude figures, aka, a guy with some projection issues.
I don’t think bakeries should discriminate between their clients, and a gay couple should be able to get a wedding cake anyplace. I don’t think bakeries should be obliged to make p * n * s or c * m cakes or gays frying in hell cakes either, as long as they have the same standard for everyone. Will be interesting to see how the cake wars turn out.
Though, c * mcakes has a ring to it. Too bad the fad is almost over. Probably too late. Not sure if that is a naughty word or not, so I asterisked the naughty bit.
Schlemazel
@JCJ:
Durian reminds me a lot of this French Munster we enjoy when it is warm enough we can be outside. You sort of have to get past the smell to get to the flavor. I don’t understand that as so much of taste is in smell. Durian is not my favorite but it’s not something I have to avoid.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
Whenever I hear “durian,” I think of the “Portlandia” sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmitvXIamFc
Hal
@Morzer: It gets better?
Sounds like the exorcist is trying to pull a fast one and make it so that bigots can claim religious exemptions when they don’t want to bake a cake for a gay couple.
There is a fundamental difference refusing to go along with someone’s hate speech vs. laws that ban discrimination. Oh, and where was he wanting to serve that cake?
NotMax
@Schlemzael
Durian is yummy tasting, but dog poop does smell better.
One place here (perhaps more) sells those wafer cookies with a flavored creamy filling in durian flavor*. Triple-wrapped in heavy plastic bags inside a thick metal tin.
*Odd menu of flavors they stock of those wafer cookies: plain, lemon, orange, vanilla, durian and (believe it or not) chicken..
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Morzer:
Here’s the distinction in my mind: is the vendor offended by what the client wants, or who the client is? The bakery didn’t refuse to serve the guy because he’s a Christian and they don’t serve his kind there — they only refused to make the specific design that he wanted, and even offered alternatives so he could create the offensive parts himself.
Unless he’s going to try and claim that a cake that says “Best Wishes Chad and Paul” is inherently offensive, I would think this guy is going to have a hard time winning his case.
David Koch
Obama showed up today in deep red Idaho and the hate was deep
Photo #1
Photo #2
NotMax
Fairly sure I read somewhere that it is legally verboten to carry a durian fruit onto mass transit in San Francisco.
jharp
Good looking group.
Hope to attend the Indianapolis meet up some day. And not in the winter.
jl
@Hal: @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
What Bible verses is Klingenschmitt talking about? From the TPM story:
‘…the owner … said Jack asked her to write phrases like “God hates gays” on a cake… He also wanted an image of two men holding hands with an “X” through them on the cake.
“After I read it, I was like ‘No way,'” Silva told KUSA. “‘We’re not doing this. This is just very discriminatory and hateful.'”
She told FOX31 Denver that she did offer to make Jack a cake with a blank bible, on which he could write in the phrases himself. Silva said he refused that option and told her to consult with an attorney. ‘
The guy asked the bakery to write and draw offensive things on the cake. Or is there a Bible verse ‘God hates gays’ that I never heard about?
Schlemazel
@NotMax:
We go to a place that has those too along with tamarind (which I find disgusting) and a couple I have not tried but at the moment I do not remember the fruits, they are something not common in the US though. No chicken ones, that would be fun to try.
Violet
That looks like a lot of fun! Glad you had a good meetup. And that food looks fantastic. I love those crispy krupuk udang. Yum.
Schlemazel
@jl:
If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination: let them be put to death. Their blood be upon them.
Leviticus 20:13
jl
@NotMax: Quite a few lawless Filipinos and Vietnamese running around SF then. Durians are easy to find in Asian markets here. I did read that during end of season in Singapore, when the things are dead ripe, against the law to bring them into town. Maybe those are urban legends.
Khalid in Singapore? Have to remember to ask him.
Edit: No, he is in Malaysia, I think.
jl
@Schlemazel: So, ‘God hates gays’ is from a Contemporary English version?
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Without tamarind, we’d have no Worcestershire sauce, and that would indeed be a Sad Thing.
The tins of those wafers are very big (and not particularly inexpensive) so have never tried the chicken ones, as wouldn’t know who to pass them on to should they not be to my taste.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
This cake case reminds me of when Adolf Hitler Campbell’s parents got pissed off and tried to sue because Shop-Rite refused to make a birthday cake with their child’s name on it:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/child_named_after_adolf_hitler.html
Calouste
@Hal: Smells like it is a setup, doesn’t it?
Anne Laurie
@NotMax:
Singapore forbids it, also too!
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): What I don’t get is why, if a baker is an asshole who refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple, the gay couple doesn’t simply find another baker who’s not an asshole, and get the word out to their friends and acquaintances that baker 1 is an asshole and baker 2 is cool. Most towns have more than one bakery.
NotMax
@Violet
“Krupuk udang” sounds like the noises one vocalizes now and then while sitting on the john.
Gin & Tonic
@Anne Laurie: Doesn’t Singapore forbid chewing gum?
Villago Delenda Est
I just knew the guy in the Wazoo shirt was Yatsuno!
Good looking group, indeed. Glad you all had a good time!
Gin & Tonic
Here’s what I remember about Singapore, William Gibson calling it “Disneyland with the death penalty.”
Anne Laurie
@Gin & Tonic: Yup. At least, they did as of a few years ago — when I was working for a department with a branch in Singapore, that regularly suprised new American hires about to make their first trips over.
Singapore is, well, dedicated to the concept that Everything Not Permitted Is Forbidden. It’s a crowded little island city-state, and the determination was made back when it seceded from Malaysia that the three main warring ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay, Indian) would get along best if everyone was veryveryvery observant of boundaries.
(Our English-expat SVP insisted gum was forbidden because trashy people stuck their finished wads on the ubiquitous sliding transit doors & apartment-block elevators and gummed up the machinery. But that SVP was in full sympathy with the Singaporean government’s fetish for order, so that statement was taken with whole shakers of salt.)
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s usually because said baker decided to be an asshole and make it crystal clear that s/he is refusing to do the work because s/he is More Moral Than You Disgusting Gays, so the couple decides to be assholes in return. Plus IMO it’s right to stand up against discrimination when you can.
There are a million ways to refuse to take on a job if you don’t want to do it and refuse in a non-discriminatory way, so really these bakers are being assholes to be assholes. Whatever happened to, “Sorry, we’re all booked up on that date”? Why do you have to lecture people about their “lifestyle”?
Major Major Major Major
I am so full of pho now
Fortune cookie said “an important business venture may soon develop for you,” so that bodes well for the pr0n librarian job opening. Insofar as it bodes anything.
hitchhiker
Dag nabbit.
One of these times I’m going to be able to show up at a Seattle Juicer event. I really want to meet you people!
jl
@Gin & Tonic:
From your link:
” Imagine an Asian version of Zurich operating as an offshore capsule at the foot of Malaysia ”
I spent time in Zurich, and from what I have read about Singapore, the former is wide open and wild compared to the latter.
Belafon
@Gin & Tonic: I bet most towns don’t have more than one baker that makes wedding cakes.
maeve
@ThalarctosMaritimus:
I made the mistake of driving from Juneau Alaska to Valdez Alaska via Canada (the only way you can actually drive and part of the drive is the Juneau to Hanes ferry) and stocking up on fruits/veggies in the Juneau CostCo.
Canadian border wasn’t a problem but we had fruits and veggies confiscated at the entry back to Alaska unless they were in bags explicitly marked “grown in the US”. Grown in Chile or wherever didn’t count despite the fact that it had obviously been previously approved to enter the US since we bought it in the Juneau CostCo.
I don’t explicitly object since the importation of agricultural pests or diseases is a problem – although none of these fruits/veggies would have been grown in Alaska we could have taken them to Alaska, boarded a plane to California with them etc etc – its more that I wish I’d known in advance. We were joining friends/family for “fish camp” in Valdez and that was supposed to be our contribution to the communal foodstocks.
The border guy kindly let us eat as many fruits as we wanted before we crossed the border. I asked him if they would be put to good use (taken home or donated to a food bank) but he said they wouldn’t be allowed to do that.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: the best part about Zurich is that you can drink from all of the fountains.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: I once saw some drunk guys staggering home from a beer night who might complicate that plan.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Sure, it’s right to stand up against discrimination, but I’ve also always found it sensible to not piss off people who can spit in my food.
Gene108
@Gin & Tonic:
Awfully insulting to Singapore. It is an amazing city.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: the water coming out, not the water sitting there :P they’re non-circulating
jl
@Major Major Major Major: Stuff is so expensive there, I will remember that tip. Thanks.
I can’t believe they eat all that Swiss cheese and meat stuff and most stay thin and seem to be healthy. I remember looking down aisles of supermarkets and saying to myself, ‘man, they actually eat all that cheese fondue mix and sausage. Dayam.
So as not to insult the place, I scarfed down those little sandwiches with salami and butter inside. It was a sacrifice, but I did it.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Gin & Tonic:
How are they going to spit in your food if they refuse to make the food in the first place? IIRC, if the decision goes against the bakery, they have to pay a fine. It’s not like they’re forced to bake the cake for you by the court.
Yatsuno
@David Koch: I don’t see them, but I had friends who were there!
Gin & Tonic
@Belafon: I’ve helped arrange and have paid for two weddings in two different locations, and have found that whatever service was required, there were multiple potential providers ready to bid for it.
And as a practical matter, if you have to take someone to court, or threaten to take them to court, to provide a service for you, how good a job are they likely to want to do?
Major Major Major Major
@jl: yeah we didn’t pay for water the whole time. Just have a nice durable bottle with ya.
ETA: their shenanigans with the Franc might make stuff cheaper there for a dollar-having type though.
Gin & Tonic
@jl: I can’t believe they eat all that Swiss cheese and meat stuff and most stay thin
People in Europe walk.
opiejeanne
@Belafon: Most chain grocery stores make really beautiful wedding cakes, and sell them cheaper than your local bakery does. Also, Costco makes wedding cakes, not that they are everywhere, but it is a possible option.
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: My experience with gay couples wedding is that one goes from zero to Bridezilla faster than light. So everything has to be JUST FUCKING PERFECT or the day is totally ruined. It’s probably why I don’t want to actually do the deed. I’m afraid it will be me.
Also: We missed you last night! Are you back in California by chance?
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: putting in a plug for Patisserie Norina in San Francisco for Bay Area folks, she did ours. Japanese lady with french training, very reasonable prices and absolutely incredible pastries. And it’s just her too! She’ll do custom anything. Made us a cool rainbow cake for Pride too. Great flan. Just a class act.
Major Major Major Major
@Yatsuno: my gay wedding was pretty chill, but then again it was never about the ceremony for us. Family, friends, and food is where it’s at, the rest is commentary.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Yes we are in California. Sorry to miss the meet-up, but we had some business here to take care of. We own a tiny, very old cabin in Blue Jay and now and then it needs something done to it, either because it really does or because we decide it does. ;-)
It was originally a single room with a big stone fireplace, built in 1923; one of the original cabins in the area and there are none older. There was a well on the slope above it, and an outhouse just past the place where the kitchen is now. It didn’t have one of those, either.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t know about her but we moved away from the East Bay in 2001. We knew a lovely Vietnamese baker in Hayward who trained in Paris. Her pastries were divine and I’m guessing that she’s another who would do just about anything you wanted.
maeve
@Yatsuno:
Lotsa het couples are like that – ever been in a wedding involving a mother of the bride of southern heritage — to further propogate stereotypes ……
the first gay couple in our town who applied for marriage licenses when it became legal was a lesbian couple who had been together for 20+ years and had 12 adopted children — I’m sure they were so obsessed about the cake.
Violet
@jl: What I can’t believe is we’ve gone all day without a pupdate! Where is John Cole? How is Ginger and how are those puppies?
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: None of my gay friends has gotten married, so I haven’t been to a wedding yet. Some of them were getting pretty old the last time we saw them before we moved away from the area, and some have died of various causes like old age, cancer, and the Big Thing that carried off too many friends and relatives . The partners left behind have not rushed to find new ones, either, especially those who were still fairly young when the partner died. And some have broken up with long-time partners over ideology and politics.
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: Another chance is coming up in April. Details will come as soon as I get them to AL for a post.
divF
@Yatsuno:
Looks like a good time was had by all.
Re: weddings (gay or otherwise). The advice I give everyone is that, according to Emily Post (1932 ed.) elopement is always in the best of taste. In other words, your choices are two witnesses at the courthouse, or the whole disaster.
Madame and I went for the former. Thirty-four years later, still no regrets. The only problem is that we never remember our anniversary. It was last week, we both forgot, and I’m going to go downstairs and tell her now.
Yatsuno
So did my parents, mostly because both my grandmothers were NOT happy about their choice. 45 years later still together & still annoying each other.
That is endearingly cute. MAZEL TOV also too.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: I’m fairly young, especially by the blog commenter standard.
Sorry to hear that about your friends.
I’m glad I’m a millennial in a lot of ways, gay rights being one of them. To me it was just marrying the guy I love. We started dating before Prop 8, so there was something really nice about tying the knot in CA.
ruemara
grrrr, Balloon Juice’s sexiest. Looks and sounds like a wonderful time was had by all.
I doubt anyone wants to meet up in beautiful Sac’O’Tomatoes area.
divF
@Yatsuno:
Thank you (*grin*).
In truth, we count our “real” anniversary from October 1977, which is when we first started living together. But we forget that one too.
Major Major Major Major
@divF: we did courthouse style (yall saw the picture) and then just the two nuclear families in Honolulu since we would both be there for New Years anyway. Pictures forthcoming. Less than 1k, including everything but booze and airfare.
divF
@Major Major Major Major:
Two of our best friends got gay-married in the 2008 window between the first CA Supreme Court decision and the Prop. 8 vote. There was a certain sense of relief when Hollingsworth v. Perry was tossed by the USSC due to lack of standing of the proponents, making gay marriage in CA legal. Now, no one has to worry in California, and hopefully by next July, anywhere else.
Morzer
@jl:
Isn’t that pretty much the selling-point of the Atkins diet over the years?
divF
@Morzer: Yes, but …
I have a colleague in Zurich that I visit from time to time. The hotel breakfast has a large component of crusty, wholesome bread. Not exactly low-carb, and I have to work off the weight I gain after every visit.
ETA: that’s breads, plural, in copious variety and quantity, and you serve yourself.
Morzer
@divF:
Odd fact: there is a bakery on pretty much every street corner here in Seoul, almost all of a French variety, although baguettes with green tea flavoring might be a surprise to Parisians. Two of the more popular ones are Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours, although Jean Boulangerie seems to have slightly more cachet overall.
divF
@Morzer: Seoul – are you there short-term, or long-term ?
I have my doubts about green tea baguettes, though.
cckids
@David Koch:
Lookit at all the white people lovin’ on the President! Always makes me smile.
Oh, but remember, he’s “unpopular”. Bullsh*t.
Anne Laurie
@Morzer: The (Korean-founded) H Mart here in exotic suburban Massachusetts has a patisserie in its food court — mostly classic French croissants & etc, but also red bean buns if you get there before they sell out!
cckids
@Gin & Tonic:
I believe at least some of the cases around this have involved the bakers agreeing to make a cake for, say, Sydney & Beth; they assume that Sydney is a guy. When they find out it is a same-sex couple, they try to back out, leaving the couple with insufficient time to find a backup.
Villago Delenda Est
@cckids: He’s unpopular with the vermin of the Village. Which makes him unpopular everywhere.
Or so the vermin of the Village believe. They really do live in a bubble, one with cocktail weenies and tiger shrimp.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: I was so charmed by the weddings at the courthouse in LA when it was legalized at first, and it looked like all of the clerks were too. Everyone seemed happy, delighted.
YellowJournalism
That’s a fine-looking sweatshirt that one guy has on.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: I think as bad as losing friends to AIDS was, somewhat worse was when a total stranger chatting to us on the sidewalk outside our house mentioned that someone with our last name that they worked with in San Diego had died of it. My husband knew it was his cousin, but no one in the family had told us because of some nonsense about Grandpa finding out, since the cousin was named for him.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: there’s nothing wrong with dying of aids. Excerpt for the dying part but you know what I mean.
Sad story.
ETA: re-read. Insanely sad story. I’m so sorry.
Morzer
@divF:
Longterm, I believe, barring some unforeseen event. Madame Morzer’s parents are elderly and in questionable health, so we shall be spending part of the next few years being filial and possibly pious.
NotMax
@divF
Friend here got hitched last month, ceremony held over on Oahu – where all his family are.
The ceremony was originally supposed to be on a Saturday, but the bride insisted on moving it to Sunday because Saturday was the 13th.
Didn’t know of this until afterwards, and when I pointed out to him how easy 12/13/14 would have been to remember for anniversaries, he did a classic slap to his forehead.
Repatriated
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): I concur with the distinction you’ve made between the customer’s speech and the customer’s identity. And it sounds like they’re trying to sue to coerce the vendor’s speech — I’m pretty sure that’s not a viable case.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
Late to the post, so you might not see this. But actually, Singapore has the distinction of being the only state ever expelled from the Federation of Malaysia — a month shy of its second anniversary as a state. Sabah had a Chief Minister who used to hint at his state seceding, but that never got beyond hardball negotiating tactics with the federal government in KL.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Ah — thanks for the correction!
tam o spam
(Waves), ThalarctosMartimus, you probably missed my mumbled name because it was SO PAINFULLY COLD OUTSIDE (45 degrees!), and I was rushing to my car before I became a tamsicle. Also, I am the non-cooking Tammera.
tam o spam
How do I get out of moderation?
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: What bothered me was the hideous shame that people attached to it, for the dying.