Breakfast at Mama's, and Some Photos

I had a free day, one day after the Books in Browsers conference concluded. I spent it having breakfast with my hosts at downtown San Francisco (three of the four housemates - Akshita stayed in because she had a meeting at Stanford later in the day). So we drove down - Xiao Chen had discovered this 4.5 star breakfast place on Yelp called Mama's and she chucked the address into the GPS and off we went.

The queue - true to form, as I later found out - was an hour long. Outside. In the cold.


(Those two ahpeks you see in the foreground? They were British, and as they walked by one said to another: "Boy, this place must be popular, ae?" in this Brit accent - which is very refreshing to hear, in California.)

So in the end Rollen and I decided to let Jenson and Xiao Chen wait it out in the queue, while we explored the surrounding neighbourhood. I wanted to photograph the roads. (Rollen was glad for an excuse to walk). We decided to get coffee for the other two, and stopped a lady crossing the street with a tray of coffee cups under her arm.

"Where'd you get the coffee, ma'am?" I asked.

"Oh - there's this place called Greco's. They have the best coffee in the neighbourhood, in my opinion. It's down the street, two and a half blocks down, look for the illy umbrellas out on the patio."

"What do you mean by ... good?" Rollen asked.

"Well I think -" and she paused, looking off into the distance, "this is my take, mind; but the coffee there tastes exactly like the coffee I had while I was in Europe. Love it. Only place I'd ever buy coffee, from around here."


I got a mocha for me and Xiao Chen, and a latte for Jenson. When we got back the queue was just as long, and they were in the middle of it.

"I think you should go figure out what you want for your order." Xiao Chen said, as she lifted her mocha off the cardboard tray.

I took photos of the dogs in the queue, and then stopped a lady in an overcoat leaving the restaurant -

"Was the food good, ma'am?"

"Ooh, you're in for a treat! Yes, it's good. Very, very good. First time here?"

"Yeah - from Singapore, and it's my last day in San Francisco today -"

"Right. These guys are famous for their french toast, so you'll be wanting the monte cristo, if you don't mind spending extra, that is ..."

"What's that?"

"Ahh - french toast and ham and cheese. A bit on the pricey side, but worth every penny!"


She wasn't kidding. I ordered the monte cristo, and we all agreed it was the best of four orders. The sandwiches are dipped into egg and grilled shut, and on the inside you get turkey, ham, and cheddar and havarti cheeses.


Served with grilled potatoes, orange and strawberry slices and homemade (really, in this case!) cranberry jam.

Rollen had the Sampler:


Which was banana bread french toast and fruit (he didn't like it). Xiao Chen and Jenson had crab benedict and shrimp benedict respectively:


We spent some time traipsing around the rest of the city that day - I'm surprised as to how steep some of the streets are in San Francisco, and how normal it seemed to the residents there.


It is, apparently, perfectly normal to find a 30-40 degree incline in downtown SF. Imagine biking (or skateboarding!) down one of those slopes!


And then there was Market Street, the posh financial district in downtown SF:


I took most of these on my first day in the city, because I had to buy an AT&T sim card and there weren't any at Ocean Avenue. So I took a BART down and wandered about, asking for directions.


San Francisco was ... an interesting place. But I arrived in Singapore this morning, and am glad to be back.

Photolog: Kuching on Film

Shot on Fujifilm Pro 400, Olympus 35RC. Here are things I saw during the holidays.

Photolog: Hackerspace

Photolog: The Beach

Photolog: Youth

Singapore is the victim of a grey population, which means that it has an expanding elderly demographic and a shrinking youth.



To maintain productivity (due in part to the growing grey population) the country has implemented a set of immigration policies to allow for a large influx of foreign talent. I remember a Time magazine article with a picture of an ang moh family on the cover, and the title: "Singapore Soars". The locals aren't happy about this, of course. And I don't blame them. On good days - in places like Holland V, where this photo was taken - Singapore feels - almost - like a small European town.




And that can be rather weird indeed.

Photolog: The Olympus 35 RC

These photos were shot with an Olympus 35 RC, on Superia 200 film. Feels weird to be taking DSLR-equivalent pictures with a camera that's about the size of my palm.

Taken on the bus, on my way to church.

Here's an interesting question to ask: why is she tapau-ing for so many people? Consider the fact that this is an early Sunday morning, and it's rather safe to assume that she's buying breakfast for the whole family. But why her? Why not someone else? Could it be possible that she's the only one who goes to church? Or maybe they attend a later service? I didn't have time to ask (was late for church!) and so I shot this and hurried away.

These kids were under a skylight.


Singaporeans don't have kids; they have dogs instead!

Visual pun! (Click here for a larger version, if you can't spot it.)

Colour pun!

I enjoyed the last one. More thoughts on rangefinders and film in a bit, got an exam to study for, first. Till then.