Two Lunches & a Dinner…Oliver the Foodie

Today was another foodie day. You would figure that I eat a lot. Which is true if you take all the times that I show that I’m eating at face value. One of things though that you should know is that I do eat within my means. I usually order the small portions of the meal or I take the portions that I don’t finish home for future meals. I highly believe to eat within my means and not to over indulge in food. It’s a step that i’ve taken in recent months when I learned about the Palieo diet from my friend Saviz and also from reading a blog called Nerd Fitness.

It being Saturday, I traditionally have a lung with my mom. It’s one of the things that we do. It’s tradition. It’s the time that we usually catch up on things and plan future trips. On this Saturday my dad decided to join in. We had lunch at one of our favorite ramen places in Kearny Mesa called Santoka.

Santoka is located inside the Mitsuwa supermarket. Mitsuwa is a japanese market where it seems that quality takes priority over quantity.

One of the apparent things about this supermarket is the presentation. The presentation from the neatly organized rows, fishes, and meats, is a treat for the eyes. Seriously it makes you look at food in such a different light.

Well Santoka, serves a very good ramen special.  It’s freshly made and just delicious.  You might be wondering why a person is eating ramen noodles on a warm summer after.  Well I’ll tell you, because it’s just that good.  It is worth the few minutes of feeling a bit warm to have such noodles.

After eating lunch, my parents and I, headed to the Marine Corp exchange to grab a few items that we needed for the week.  Nothing too exciting from here to report.  So I’ll just spare you the details on this.

Well after the exchange, we headed home.  It was when I got home that I called up my friend Dave to see what he was up too.  The night before, Dave mentioned that he was planning to have lunch with another photographer whom we spoke about the evening before over dinner.  I ask if I can join them since I wasn’t doing anything else for the afternoon.  So I messaged my buddy and made arrangements to meet them up with them.

The photographer that we met up with is Andy, also known as the Andy the unknowphotographer.  I know of Andy via twitter and recently learned that he moved to San Diego from Florida.  It was a couple of weeks ago that I learned this and I was pretty excited to hear that he had moved here.  So the night before I mentioned to Dave who he was and what he was all about.  And I guess later that evening he contacted Dave and make arrangements to meetup.

So we all decided to meetup in Little Italy’s Craft and Commerce for lunch.  For lunch I just had C&C’s corndogs.  They were delicious.  I didn’t eat much because I already ate lunch prior.  So I was pretty full but I didn’t just want to sit there.  During lunch we a good conversation about what we do with photography and got to know each other.  It was good afternoon of getting to know each other.

However it was after lunch that didn’t prove to successful.  So the plan was to go shooting but for the life of my I couldn’t figure what, what to shoot or where to shoot.  Then Dave made a suggestion to shoot at San Diego’s Pride.  Pride, is San Diego’s annual celebration for the gay and lesbian community.  Pride was being held in Balboa Park which was relatively close to were we where.  So we made our way to get there.  When we got there, we had to find parking.  Dave and Andy found parking relatively easily.  I on the other hand was unable to find parking.  After about 20 minutes of driving around I was unable to find parking.  It was just about then that Dave called and said that they were not going to Pride because it cost $20 / person to enter which was a little to pricey.  So once again we had to find something to do.  It also just about then that I remember that my WDS buddy Greg invited me to attend a potluck on a farmer in San Diego’s southbay.  I invited Dave and Andy to that but they declined.

So after we said our see you laters, I gave Greg a call and see if he had left and to check if he had left yet.  Upon calling him he just informed me that he just got home from store.  So I knew I had some time to meetup with him and get some food to bring to the potluck.

At first, I didn’t know what to bring to the potluck.  It was when Greg suggested that I just bring a snack food so then I decided to head to Sprouts and grab some cherries.  Once I decided to head to Sprouts to bring my contribution to the potluck.

Shortly after picking up my cherries, I headed to meet Greg.  But when I called he mentioned that he was a bit behind so I took the opportunity to fill up on gas so I wouldn’t have to do that later.  After filling up on gas, I headed back towards Greg direction so that we play follow the leader to the farm.  And after picking up Greg’s brother and getting a few drinks we were off to the potluck.

The potluck was held at Wild Willow Farm.  It was a great evening.  At the potluck everyone in attendance brought many different types of homemade food.  As always I get to place I have to get a vibe for it.  But after about 5 minutes of getting a feel for it, I jumped right in and endulged in some of the most delicious homemade food.  One of my favorite was a salad made of kale.  It was nice refreshing crunchy salad.  Another one of my favorite was the salad that Greg made.  Greg’s salad had arugula, peaches, and homemade dressing.  Very delicious and a nice treat.

After dinner, Greg, Ryan (Greg’s brother), and I join in the drum circle that had formed nearby.  At first we watched and observed what was going on.  Soon after we all sat down and enjoyed the company of the others in the circle.  Then Greg and Ryan jumped right in and started playing with the drums and shakers that we all got to play.  After sitting there for awhile Greg gave me one of the shakers and I slowly started to play.  And little did I know it, I finally got into it for a bit and let the guard down.  During the whole experience it kept reminding me of the simpler times in life and how lucky we are to just spend time with friends and hanging out with them just having fun.  Hopefully soon again I can attend another one of these amazing potlucks.  Until next time.

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *