Niall, Elle, and I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown in San Francisco yesterday. I have some images to upload, but I’ll have to do it later. We made it there in time to catch the Taiko drummers, and they were letting people up on stage to try out the drums. They had a few displays with info set out, but the only one we really spent time at was the display of weapons. I don’t have any pictures of that, there were signs all over saying not to take pictures. Of course, this being a public street I don’t think there’s anything they could have done. But I didn’t want the pictures enough to be willing to piss off the guy with swords. The food was good too, although I suspect the fact that the firemens “blazing hot” ribs not actually being spicy at all caused a bit of disappointment. They were good, just not spicy. And I don’t mean that in the sense of “I’m a manly man! I can feel my tongue! These are NOT spicy!” I’m a wuss, I can’t deal with spicy food. The ribs just were not imbued with spice in the least. Perhaps some communications misfire.

After the obligitory spin through the vendors we decided to head over to Bluebottle Coffee on Linden street at Gough in Hayes Valley. Oh dear. Best coffee I’ve had in a long time. I’m trying to figure out how I can make my daily commute pass through Hayes Valley so that I can make it a normal stop. I might have to move to San Francisco in order to do it. It might be worth it. If you have a chance, and you like coffee (I had an espresso), give it a try. It’s basically just a kiosk right now, setup in what looks like it might be the future location of a real cafe. But that didn’t keep the barista from dishing out some amazing cups. By the way, apparently the World Barista Championship is being held in Seattle and ends today (Monday). The barista said he was checking blogs to try to get some news from the competition, but no one was posting anything. Maybe they have no wifi at the event. After the coffee we went over to Fritz Fries, also very interesting and something to try out if you’re a fry fan. I am. The fries are big chunky cut nuggets of potatoe though. Like English fish n’ chips style fries, not like pomme frites. They have all kinds of funky dipping sauces for them, like roasted red pepper mayo and chipotle remoulade. Good. But not fantastic. Perhaps it’s just that it couldn’t possibly compare to something like Bluebottle, which landed so far beyond the expected that it’s not fair to expect the same from others. Yet I still do. Weird huh? Go to Bluebottle. Get coffee. Figure out a way to bring me a hot shot of espresso from there and you can be my new best friend.