Okida Hall nearly burns to the ground

Loyal readers will remember our former studio, Okida Hall, located conveniently in the heart of Japantown and across the street from my apartment building.







Sadly, we had to move to another space back in August.













Tonight, the old wooden building that was behind Okida burned to a crisp and very nearly took Okida Hall with it.






























Okida Hall itself didn't catch on fire, but there's going to be a lot of smoke damage and maybe some water damage. If we were still in there, we would've lost a lot of stuff.






Firemen broke down the front door and took hoses into the building. It hurt just a little bit, watching them hack at the door with a giant ax.






Can you imagine how beside ourselves we'd be, if our drums, costumes, and everything else we own were all still in there?

Oy...



UPDATE:
One person died in the fire.

Sad...

Happy Turkey Day!

So Cal

LA: the tail end of our Fall '07 tour.

Our final concert was at the JACCC's Japan America Theater in Little Tokyo. Since there was also a North American Taiko Conference Advisory Committee meeting the following day, there were an awful lot of taiko people in from out of town. All at the concert. No pressure.

Yurika, workin' hard:


Of course, the lovely people at the JACCC spoiled us rotten with tons of wonderful snacks.



My favorite: the chocolate mochi. Fudgy! And locally made!


An even bigger treat: the newly published cookbook from Senshin Buddhist Temple!



Church cookbooks aren't usually all that, but this one is gorgeous. Lots of recipes (including the chocolate peanut butter mochi from Maui Specialty Chocolates) and fabulous photos. This would be a great addition to any cookbook collection, especially if you're in the biz and need to poach recipe ideas from a different cultural demographic! (Becky? Joanne? Adam R? Hello?)

The concert was okay. I tried not to look directly at the audience, since it was filled with taiko folks, and the last thing I needed was Shoji or someone looking at me cross-eyed during the out-of-tuney parts of Kin.

The next day, we stop by Rob's studio for our second visit this year. Loyal readers will recall our first visit to his super-schmancy studio back in May. This time, we had more people and actual drums with us, so we played around a bit with his equipment. And Adam just about had a stroke when he found out that Rob wrote the score for his favorite show (Buffy, final season).

Yurika cleaning poo from her shoe outside Rob's studio:

Franco plays with Rob's toys:


In a few weeks: Monterey!

I had no idea...

... that writers don't get paid for web content, because it's all considered to be "promotional."

Every time I watch Heroes episodes online, I have to sit through many commercials.

Promotional? Hmph.

Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica): "... the studio's position was they didn't want to pay anyone to do it (webisodes) —they considered it promotional material. They weren't going to pay any of the writers or the actors or the directors to do it, which we thought was crazy. We refused to do it, and eventually came to an accommodation where they said they would pay us, but then when we were almost done, they decided they weren't going to credit anybody... Ultimately, that's why we're here, because that's just wrong."


On a completely unrelated note, the Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking issue includes two of my recipes that formerly ran in 2002/3. And no, I don't get paid for stories they reuse.

Hmph.

Napa recap

Saturday, October 27 - we play at the Napa Valley Opera House.

The concert goes pretty well. But how were the snacks, you ask?

Well, we are in Napa...

We tried to have dinner Friday night at Mustard's, but it was full. So we went next door to Brix.




The food was lovely, but the desserts were amazing, with simple, seasonal ingredients and not too many flavors on one plate. Trish and I split the apple/currant tart with vanilla gelato. There were also flights of creme brulee, gelati, and sorbetti.











On Sunday, we went to Bouchon Bakery!





Trish has been here (and to the restaurant) before. Ask her how much she likes the Bouchon chicken.



Have I adequately expressed my love of good bakeries?




Everything is beautiful and exquisitely planned and constructed.

And unbelievably tasty!!!


































We had quite the pastry binge...















... as you can see.










Go to Yountville, and go to Bouchon!

Tomorrow: leaving for LA...

Happy Halloween!

Now go eat candy.

My first seismic event

Earthquake!

5.6!



No damages to the apartment or the studio. But it felt really strange.
















Hm. Look at those fault lines.

It's going to suck when the Big One actually happens.

What curse?

Mmm hmm.

Home...

... for 2 days.

This was pretty much my morning:



Updates to follow...

Lidia's

Lidia Bastianich: veteran PBS cooking show host, author of many cookbooks, and owner of four restaurants.

This is hardly an adequate description of the venerable Mrs. Bastianich. Check out her recipes for more of an insight.

Today, we made our second trip to Lidia's Pittsburgh restaurant in as many years. I was skeptical during our first visit because:
- am suspicious of celebrity chef restaurants
- decorations seemed too $
- and we were in Pittsburgh, for pete's sake.



But it turned out to be awesome.











So we went back for brunch today, which included a mimosa or a bloody mary and unlimited trips to the antipasti table: salami, ham, Caesar salad, panzanella, risotto salad with peas and pancetta, baby potatoes with more pancetta, roasted acorn squash with balsamic, roasty parsnips with garlic & parm (my favorite), butternut squash & apple salad, prosciutto & spinach frittata, and assorted olives.


















Most of us then had the pasta tasting, which included endless amounts of linguini with green beans, butternut, garlic, and butter, ravioli filled with roasted chicken, pork, and beef, and rigatoni with tomato & vodka sauce.

















After that, there was the dessert table: roasted pears with grapes and vanilla syrup, an incredibly tart apple crostada, a coronary-inducing tiramisu, chocolate mousse cake, cannoli, and lots of cookies.



Alex was batting clean-up, finishing all the leftover desserts.
























If you are ever in Pittsburgh (or near any of her other restaurants), you must must MUST go to Lidia's!!!

Pittsburgh, PA

We are in Pennsylvania, the state of my youth.

Last night, we went to the Byham Theater (where we played 2-ish years ago) to see Mickey Hart and the Global Drum Project.



Basically, it was four guys (all with mad skills) with lots of toys, having a jam session onstage.

Interesting audience, not really the same as ours. Though there was a huge ad in the program for our concert, so we may have a bit of a crossover.





And to prove that we do other things on tour besides eat frozen custard, here are some photos (from some random blog):

Required Reading

Thanks, Becky, for showing me this.

Am crying.

We Eat St. Louis

Of course, our first priorities are always to put on the best performances and educational programs that we can and be gracious taiko ambassadors to all the communities we visit.

















But we do need to eat - and by that, I mean go to Ted Drewe's as many times as we possibly can.















































































The current seasonal flavor is The Great Pumpkin, which is an actual slice of pumpkin pie mashed into vanilla frozen custard and whipped into a concrete.

And we are treated do dinner at Saleem's Lebanese Restaurant by our friends from St. Louis Osuwa Taiko.


















PJ gets a stewy lamb dish with figs.

















This is eggplant with tahini sauce and garlic mashed taters. I think.

The food was yummo. I don't know much about this kind of cuisine, but it was all fabulous.












And there was even a little after-dinner entertainment.



















WARNING: There will be a video posted later, as soon as I can figure out how to do it (yes, I know it's easy, but my camera is not cooperating, possibly because it doesn't approve of the contents of this video).

Why a warning, you ask? Those of you who know Our Boy Alex can probably figure it out.

A bit of history

What:
The old St. Louis Courthouse, located conveniently near our hotel

When:
Built in the early 1800's




Notable fact:
Location of the Dred Scott trials of 1847 and 1850

If you, like me, were napping during your American history classes, read this.





















No, really. Go back and read the stuff on the link.

Seriously.

And now, for something totally different:

Loyal readers will know of my obsession with Cute Overload.

Now, does this not remind you of Totoro?






















And is this the real pikachu? We heard one of these on our Montana hike.





Just wonderin'...

Lap of luxury

Westin Hotel, St. Louis, MO.

Am in the swanky hotel lobby. From here, I can see the St. Louis Cardinals baseball stadium and the arch.




This is across the street.












The rooms are even nicer, with bathrooms that remind me of the Hotel Patee.

So far, we have been to tiny, charming towns (I'm including Billings in this category), which is great, but it's nice to be in an actual city.

And yes, we have been to Ted Drewe's. And we are going back. But under no circumstances are we going to have any St. Louis-style pizza.

On our schedule: 6 concerts, 2 kids' workshops, dinner and workshop with St. Louis Oswua Taiko. And another visit to Ted Drewe's.

We eat our way through Tahlequah

Sam & Ella's Chicken Palace.

It's actually more of a pizza place, since they say that they don't sell a lot of chicken. (Say the name of the restaurant 3x, fast.)







Yurika gets a sundried tomato, green pepper, olive, and mushroom pizza with no cheese, which initially confused the waiter, but it turned out to be a yummy pie.
















These four ordered a large pie. The waiter was sure they wouldn't be able to finish it.

He didn't know who he was dealing with.



Cookson Smokehouse, which is in a log cabin, waaay in the middle of the woods.










I had the pulled pork dinner with onion rings, Texas toast, and spicy beans. The pulled pork was slightly smoky and awesome, and it wasn't drowned in bbq sauce.



Pammy had the frito pie with a salad garnish.

















Next:






















Every dinner comes with endless beans, hush puppies, slaw, and a pickle plate (sour garlic dills and green tomato pickles).





PJ got frog legs.

It does indeed taste like chicken.















And finally, the from comedians who own Sam & Ella's, we have Ernie Coli's Chili & Burrito Emporium:





Burrito likes her burrito.
















Good chili & burrito fixin's. Not authentic at all, but yummy.











Yurika's giant veggie burrito with grilled onions & peppers, both fresh and pickled jalapenos, spinach, rice, beans, cilantro, and pico de gallo.




Remember this?

How times have changed.










We all feel like this: