Front porch

We met up with friends last Thursday for dinner at The Front Porch, a newish Caribbean/Soul Food restaurant in the Outer Mission, which is just a 20-minute walk from our house.

We didn't have a reservation (only large parties get those), and were told to expect a 45-minute wait. The crowd was mostly twentysomething, lots of Mission Youth and budding yuppies. It was noisy and crowded and my first thought was, "I'm too old for this."

Yes, too old. This year, my imminent birthday feels like the brick wall in one of those car crash tests. I guess that makes me the dummy? Or the car? In either case, it's clear to me that I've exchanged one phase of life for another. The upsides? Some more stability. Better understanding. We don't have to feel silly about enjoying our dinner-and-Cranium nights. We can take vacations that I couldn't swing 8 years ago. But these thirtysomething birthdays have their own challenges. We begin to face our fears of middle age, and try to forgive ourselves for not hitting all the marks we thought we'd have hit by now.

I was ruminating along these lines when our friends showed up. "Let's go in to the bar." said D, who is not facing a birthday and isn't too worried about her age. And so we stood around, cocktails in hand (can't remember the name, but mine was cider, lemon, pomegranate and very good), like we had every right to be there. Of course we did. Silly me. We weren't even the oldest people in the room.

As for the food, the fried chicken was good, but not my favorite. Though juicy and crisp, it lacked flavor. I like my chicken quite salty and peppery, with a bit of buttermilk tang. This was milder.

I did love the creamy grits with crab, lemon, scallion, and chiles. A good dish for sharing, since it's so rich. But very comforting on a chilly winter night.

Aloha

Long time, no blog. Turns out that "write about the book while also writing the book" plan was too meta for me. Instead, I'm going to go back to a more general approach. This is just a little online journal, after all.

So...now that it feels like winter, even in California, let's pay a visit to the islands, shall we? Scott and I spent the holidays in Hawaii, specifically Oahu, Kauai, and Maui. I now take you to Mama's Fish House in Pa'ia, Maui.


This is the view from the dining room. Someone recently told me, "The thing about Hawaii is that it delivers." It's true. It's everything I had hoped it would be, and how often does that happen?



This was my lunch, the Pua Me Hua Hana special: Mahimahi sautéed in coconut milk, Kalua pig, grilled banana, Molokai purple sweet potatoes, poi, tropical fruit (lilikoi, papaya, star fruit, mango, rambutan), and fresh coconut. All that, and I didn't have to sit through a bad luau. I even liked the poi, which should be familiar to anyone who grew up eating Cream of Wheat. Same pleasant, slightly bland, slightly creamy profile, but smoother.