Fruit Barn-Home Run Liquors

Vida is now playing at yet another soccer venue, this one way out on Ocean Avenue and Jules. I found I had only 30 minutes for the 40 minute drive to pick up Vic in between. Because I am a creature of habit I was schlepping back the way I usually do when I suddenly realized that if I went around the opposite way down 19^th Avenue I could cut maybe 15 minutes off my travel time. It’s amazing what can happen when you open your mind. Similar revelations are common when Vic and I go to new markets—it’s like visiting another world where people think entirely differently than you do. Going a different direction meant another vein of markets and restaurants to mine in an area we have never explored before.

I am always aware of the risk I take when I pick up Victor and he says “what do you have for me” and I don’t have anything for him to eat. Sometimes I can put him off with a vision of pushups to come at a nearby market but if he is in a particularly ornery mood it doesn’t work. The other night he worked himself into a full fit before we got anywhere near our destination. But amazingly he had complete insight into the fact that he was “having a hard time” and calmed down as we were approaching our destination, the Fruit Barnon Ocean Avenue. Ocean Avenue being so close to City College means that many of the businesses cater to students. The area has that run down college feel with lots of fast food. The Fruit Barn obviously has a long history and has probably seen better days. The sign is so faded it can barely be read—the stock photo I’ve included in the post has to have been from better days. This is the kind of place that people who love, or love to hate, natural foods stores point to as the epitome of the genre. The place is half open market with lots of produce, unfortunately much of it conventional, displayed outside and a large building with high ceilings and shelving from every era since World War II.

I was getting kind of hungry myself so I picked out some Murcott tangerines and Victor grabbed a small seedless watermelon. I got a mango for Vida. When we went in Victor of course focused on finding a push up but there was little in the way of frozen beyond a small ice cream freezer with no ice cream. We wandered a bit more and took a picture in front of the produce inside, displayed haphazardly in ugly plastic bins. The scruffy owner was walking around clearly the king of his dysfunctional fiefdom. He wanted to make sure we knew that he knew we were taking pictures asking if we wanted a picture of him as well. I found him to be kind of creepy—the kind of guy with a penchant for hiring young, attractive City College girls as cashiers and then losing interest when they won’t go out with him. The grocery selection was as eccentric as expected, the least popular items of most natural foods brands including Bob’s Red Mill 13 bean soup mix and million-grain cereal. We made a quick impulsive purchase of some “Got Milk” chocolate drops in a cow-patterned package but Vic still wasn’t happy. They didn’t have any beer so I wasn’t completely satisfied myself.

We wandered to the corner across the street to Homerun Liquors with another faded but fascinating sign. There were three Middle Eastern guys hanging out and talking animatedly in Arabic sitting on chairs near the front of the store. This is the kind of scene that I expect to see more often than I do. Working at a store with a limited set of customers and little to stock has to be painful. It makes sense to me that people should keep each other company in these kinds of places but usually there is just one lonely man or woman trying to stave off the boredom. There wasn’t much to look at beyond the basic corner store chips and cans but I wandered to the back and chose a 24 oz. Coors in a can. I have wanted to try Coors for nostalgic reasons. When I was little, my parents were thrilled with a new fangled 8 oz can of Coors with its introductory ad campaign boasting that it was “fresher” than other beers. When we got to the counter the friendly guy ringing us up offered Victor a Tootsie Roll sucker. As Victor chose his flavor I could see that the tide had turned for my cranky boy, the evening was saved with this small gesture.

Vic’s Snack—“Got Milk” Chocolates and seedless watermelon and a Push-Up Vida’s Snack—Mango Mama’s Snack-- Sour Murcotts Beer of the day—24 oz Coors

Wah Sing Super

On another journey down Irving Street in the Outer Sunset Victor and I happened upon Wah Sing Super. Honestly I was just interested in wasting some time before going to get Vida from soccer and I happened to find parking near the market. There are two sections to this market, a produce and meat area and a dry goods area. Unfortunately we went to the produce and meat area first and I have to say I have never seen such a strange and hap hazard market. The meat looked awful—you would need life insurance to go along with your meat purchase There were many empty deli and produce cases randomly strewn around the space making me think they were remodeling. But since some of them also appeared to be used to store empty produce boxes it made me think that wasn’t the case but that they were just painfully lame. There was almost literally nothing to buy so we ended up paying 99 cents for a conventional pomelo for Vida. Victor was asking if we could get the kind of “pomeloupe” that is “orange inside” i.e. a cantaloupe but they didn’t have any. We went over to the dry grocery store front but I was already so put off, not to mention short on cash so we left and went wandering down the block. We ran into a bulk candy store that had Western candy bins, gummies, jelly beans, and chocolate on the left of the store and Chinese treats on the right. I bought Victor a couple of chocolate coins and we made our way back to the car.

Snack of the Day--Pomelo

22nd And Irving Market

The other night Vic and I went to the 22^nd and Irving Market, a large and popular market for cheap produce. When I go to these kinds of places I always think of my Auntie Lee. This was her kind of place. There is always a bargain to be had—not that she bought more than a few vegetables. I never saw any fruit in her house other than maybe a few bananas. She was always encouraging me to go to these kinds of markets right around the time I was really getting into shopping for organic produce and natural foods.

It was 6 O’clock when we got there and they were already starting to break things down. I imagine it is a huge project every day to set up and break down. There are no aesthetic elements, just a lot of large conventional produce displays. Vic and I went into the grocery part of the store and started looking around. There were lots of ethnic foods and a very multicultural staff. Vic of course wanted to buy some pasta so I picked up some orzo and pastichio—one of my favorite pastas—like spaghetti but with a hole in the middle. There wasn’t a lot of junk so feeling nostalgic I picked up a bag of mixed nuts to take home and roast. I thought the kids would have as much fun as we did when we were kids standing around my dad while he cracked nuts for us. Victor wanted a snack too and oddly enough picked out a large bunch of celery. There was no beer unfortunately.

The cashier was very friendly, flirting with Victor a little, but he was impatient for that celery so we moved along quickly. When we got Vida from soccer she ripped into the celery too.

Vic’s Snack--celery

New May Wah Market

The other night we had some time before picking Vida up from Hebrew School and so we made our way down Clement Street to the New May Wah Market. I’m not sure what happened to the original May Wah but this one looks to have been around for a while. It is a typical Asian market with a strange combination of hand priced items and fairly sophisticated scanning registers. We picked up some Pocky but I was really interested in finding something different. Vic was attracted to these brightly colored soda type drinks. Usually I stay away from these sodium benzoate laden concoctions but this one had a marble at the top that dropped and made the drink fizz when you open it. I got an orange one for Vida and a lemonade variety for Victor. I picked out a Kirin Ichiban in a 24 oz can. When we got to the car I couldn’t figure out had to open the drink. The instructions were too small for my poor eyes to see. I finally got it open and the marble to drop in and Vic enjoyed his drink. I was very chagrined however when Victor pulled the marble out of the top of the bottle since obviously the marble was supposed to stay in the bottle in order to not be a choking hazard. When I got Vida to actually read the instructions I realized I had opened it improperly, yikes. Nevertheless both kids managed to get the marble out even when opened properly.

Vic’s Snack—Lemonade Soda with a marble Vida’s Snack- Orange Soda with a marble. Beer of the Day—Kirin Ichiban 24 oz can.

Pearl Market

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Seattle Super Sonics’ world championship win. Their coach, Lenny Wilkens, was a hero to me and I followed him with all my teenage awkwardness to his basketball summer camp outside Leavenworth for two years. I went to a couple of games that season in hopes of autographs from Downtown Freddie Brown, D.J., Gus Williams or Jack Sikma. At one of the games I won the program drawing and was inundated with weird gifts and gift certificates to suburban restaurants. The clock radio that I retrieved from the Sonics office was a particular treasure. This team was the first team I followed with any passion and I miss them still three years after they broke my heart and moved to Oklahoma City.

The SF Giants run for the pennant rekindled the same kind of excitement as we watched and listened on the radio during the exciting weeks leading up the World Series. After 25 years in San Francisco I finally had a hometown team to cheer for. The games dominated everything else we did. I had the day games on the computer during the workday and on the radio in the car. We all watched on t .v. when we were home in the evening. The kids sported their gear everyday. We were on a first name basis (or last name basis as the case may be) with Buster Posey, Juan Uribe, Lincecum and Brian “The Beard” Wilson.

The other night Victor and I had a two-hour soccer practice to get through before we could get home and watch the Giants. We played and played until I thought I would lose my mind. I finally talked him into going for a snack. We drove to Pearl Market on Eddy and Divisidero. We had actually been there the week before but lost the photos I had taken and wanted to go back. The first time we were there we walked into a slightly disturbing scene as a couple of addicts were ordering sandwiches with very precise directions. We walked around the other way and started to look around. It was a very well stocked market with plenty of groceries at decent prices. Vic already knew he wanted a Push-Up but we wandered around anyway. We bought some fruit roll ups for Vida and a Longboard Lager for me. I was severely tempted by some Jiffy Pop popcorn.

The second time we visited I noticed a fruit display with pomegranates and other pretty nice looking fruit. There were plenty of healthy snacks amid the Doritos. Vic was more comfortable there this time and picked out some shell pasta for another night. We wandered the aisles amid the cut rate orange “juice” and baby rice cereal. Cleary this market tried to serve the needs of the neighborhood since there was no other larger market close by. Vic got another push up and some eatable lanyard candy for Vida and we got back into the car to listen to the game.

Vic’s Snack—push-up Vida’s Snack—fruit roll ups and eatable lanyards Beer of the Day Longboard Lager 12 oz

Beverages and More

Typically one wouldn’t think of Beverages and More as a corner store but when you live in San Francisco and there’s one right by your house it could very well considered one. We stopped at the store on Geary and Stanyan. It was raining when I picked Victor up from school and we needed to kill some time while Vida was at practice. I still had that bottle of vodka in mind and I didn’t want to pay full price. We walked in to rows of chips and crackers but Victor’s first comment was that there was nothing for him at this store. Probably he meant that there is no ice cream cooler. We walked carefully between the stacks of wine. Every few steps I felt like Victor was going to careen into one. He is so used to helping me at work with the wine he was perfectly comfortable picking up a bottle from the stack. But, since I didn’t expect that kind of move there I was instantly put on edge. He was not happy as I picked out my bottle of Stoly and a beer. I tried to interest him in a snack but nothing appealed to him. He finally settled on a bottle of Fiji water. Obviously this was not going to a place we could spend much time wandering and we left.

Vic’s “snack” –Fiji Water Beer of the Day--Ruinator

Clement Mini Market

I’ve been intrigued by the Clement Mini Market on Clement and Arguello for many years. It looks huge from the outside since it spans half a block. I love that they have candy machines outside the front door. Not enough markets still do that. There are a lot of variety stores in the Mission that have small vending machines selling toy “Peek-A Poohs” and such but the candy machine, specifically designed to attract small children and their parent’s pocket change is becoming a thing of the past. The reason for this is all too clear to me since I have my own candy machine that takes nickels. There is no way to make even your investment back on small coins and nobody wants to feed a candy machine the same amount of money it would take to buy an entire bag of candy. I resent feeding four or more quarters into a vending machine for anything.

Walking in to Clement Mini Market I immediately felt its “mini-ness”. The aisles between the coolers and metro racks were so narrow that you almost had to turn sideways to get through them. We had to squeeze between a half empty freezer and a chip rack in order to get to the next aisle. When I asked Vic what he wanted he inexplicably went to a six-pack of small San Pellegrino waters. I couldn’t imagine that he would want to drink his share of small bubbly waters but since it was so much better than buying him junk I relented. The grocery selection was unremarkable but the beer selection was even worse. I had never seen such a limited selection in a store that size. It always seems to me that the majority of their business would be beer. Victor was helping me look and he chose a 12 oz. bottle of the wheat beer Blue Moon. I’m not a huge fan of the light vaguely celery tasting concoction but there wasn’t anything much better. They had an entire wall of liquor that you could shop on your own instead of asking for it from behind the counter. I was very tempted to buy a small bottle of vodka having run out of any hard alcohol many months ago. But when I was being rung up I balked at the cost and changed my mind.

Of course when we got to the ice cream case in the front Victor lobbied hard for a push-up. They guy behind the counter was playing around on a laptop. He didn’t seem like he worked there that much having to call the owner, whose picture was hanging above, to find out the prices. There were bars of European chocolate on the counter but I held my ground and we left with our puritan purchases.

Vic’s “snack” San Pellegrino water and a Push-Up Beer of the Day—Blue Moon 12 oz bottle