Warteg Filipino di San Francisco

"Mission" haah memang 'ngga ada matinye' soal makanan. Mission district sudah sangat tersohor dengan kulinernya. Hampir segala jenis makanan ada disini kemanapun kaki melangkah. Resto kali ini sudah lama aku dan Rani kunjungi namun baru di post sekarang. Biasa waktu awal-awal kuliah di Mission, hampir setiap kelas berakhir, kami selalu mencoba menjelajahi daerah ini sambil melihat-lihat makanan-makanan unik yang tersaji di pinggir jalan.

Kali itu kami berhenti di sebuah warteg "Kakabayan." Kalau kalian pikir ini ada hubungannya dengan tokoh "Kabayan" well sebenernya ngga ada, tapi ngga salah juga jika kita beranggapan seperti itu, karena itu yang kami pikir saat pertama kali melihat restoran kecil berupa warteg bertuliskan "Kakabayan" malah kami mengira itu benar-benar warteg orang Indonesia. Suasananya mirip sekali dengan warteg dengan beragam makanan yang dipajang di etalase kaca. Ditambah wajah si penjaga restoran tersebut sangat mirip dengan orang Indonesia. Dan ternyata itu adalah restoran Filipina. Pantas saja wajah mereka mirip dengan orang Indonesia. Dan dia juga mengira kami orang Filipina dan sempat menyapa kami dengan bahasa Filipina.

Makanan disana juga tidak beda jauh dari makanan Indonesia. Terdapat sate ayam yang besar (mereka juga menyebutnya satai), sayur nangka, dan yang membuat kami tertawa adalah mereka juga menjual "piscok" namun dengan nama yang berbeda. Saat melihat piscok itu dengan refleks kami langsung memesannya. harga piscok $1 untuk 2 piscok. Not bad lah. Beruntung kami mampir di Restoran Filipina tersebut karena selera rasa makanan 2 negara ini sangat mirip. Aku seperti makan makanan Indonesia dengan bumbu khasnya. Dibanding dengan makanan Thailand, makanan Filipina lebih pas di lidah. Kisaran harga untuk nasi dan 2 item juga tidak terlalu mahal - sekitar 6-7 Dollar.

Dan sekarang setiap pagi sebelum kelas, aku selalu mampir membeli piscok atau satai jika tidak sempat sarapan di apartemen.

My First Halloween

There was another festival I had experienced during my stay here in San Francisco - Halloween. A festival that had been celebrated long time ago and very famous in United States. The first history of Halloween celebration is from Europe, but then spread through out America. It was started as a religious celebration for Christians' day of "All Saint'" Day where people honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed who had yet to reach heaven (Wikipedia : http://bit.ly/Ro8fCA)

There are many stories about Halloween. Like my Instructor's version, he said that they celebrate Halloween to chase evil spirit away with evil too. So that's why many people wearing evil or scary costume in Halloween. Here I try to tell you my experience of celebrating Halloween.

It's not Halloween if we don't carve Pumpkin. Luckily Jenny (Indonesia) has a friend (Dan, from Romania) who has a car and they brought me, Rani (Indonesia) and Shehzadi (Pakistan) to see the Pumpkin farm and buy a Pumpkin to carve. We went to Half Moon Bay - a small city about one hour south from SF. We passed a Pacifica beach on our way so decided to enjoy the view. Pacifica is the largest beach in California and the most popular beginner surfing spot in San Francisco area.

Then we arrived at one of the Pumpkin farm in Half Moon Bay to buy our Pumpkin. It was a great experience knowing how do they sell the Pumpkin. It's not just a selling a Pumpkin. They made the farm as comfortable as possible for family to visit and stay there. They built a Labyrinth, a tour in the farm, and they designed the farm so good for us to stay. 

And now there is almost no praying celebration for Halloween again, they celebrate with a costume party. And in San Francisco, Castro is considered as the best spot to celebrate Halloween. I prefer in another part of San Francisco, because Castro is famous as a place for "rainbow" people. But since I didn't know if I could celebrate Halloween anymore, so I took that heavy burden and went to Castro with all the CCIP gang.

Yes it was fun when we were arrived at Castro Street. It was so crowded with people wore their costumes. After we took a walked wondering around the street, we saw more. We saw a guy who was wearing a without costume-costume (read: naked) and I was like holding my breath for a second and then "did you see that?" and all of us, we saw that and kind of making a wanna puke face, because I was not used to that kind of view in my country. The streets were full of people walking, talking, commenting someone else's costume, and lining to got in to the bar. 

Because we started to get bored just walking in the street and couldn't find a bar, we decided to go to Downtown. While we were taking a picture at the Union Square, some random guy in a Ninja costume suddenly posed with us and then the people who's just walked there took us a picture too. I felt we were kind of famous at that time. Downtown was not as crowded as Castro, but I prefer there because there more hot girls there, and the bars weren't so crowded, so we could enter one of them. The next couple hours we spent in the bar until over midnight. 

It was quite an experience that might never happen to me anymore. Enjoy everything you have here. Maybe it would be your last. But maybe I can come here again. Happy Halloween San Francisco

Dombamu Srigalaku

wahai wanita yang dulu berjalan di lorong gelap
yang langkahnya tegap walau hatinya menciut
taukah kamu aku masih bersama sang srigala
memberi makan selagi bisa
tapi taringnya semakin tajam
matanya semakin menerawang kesana
domba putih penuh pesona
yang akan dikejarnya
namun tak akan dimakannya
tapi kenapa?
karena dia berada di ladangmu
yang selalu kau sisir bulu halusnya
selalu bersih hidung dan matanya
rawatlah dombamu
dan srigalaku yang akan menjaganya dari jauh
tak akan pernah berubah
kecuali kita menjadi salah satunya

Little Hell

Time to back to be a writer.
Baru 3 bulan disini dan dunia telah membantingku keras-keras ke tanah
Merobek kelopak mata untuk membuatku melihat!
Memukul-mukul hatiku agar menjadi kokoh
Mengikatku dengan tali dan melemparku ke jurang
Memberi makan setan dan malaikat dalam diri
dan membiarkanku melihat mereka bertarung dan terkena serpihan-serpihan api
Musim gugur ini mau membawaku kemana?
Ketika Semi ada disana menunggu
Atap ini dipenuhi kabut dingin
Terlukis wajah rupawan di dalamnya
Maaf, tapi biarkan semua ini menjadi salahku
Tidak bisa membuatmu menjadi benar
Silakan berenang sekarang
Banyak ikan menunggumu dibalik karang
Mutiara dalam cangkang hijau
Dan ini dia malam
Aku tidak ingin ada malam
Dia akan menghisap semua sisa kesenangan
Menghabiskan energi dengan menjejalkan kenangan
Dibawah kekuasaan langit aku tidak bisa berkata-kata
Ingin mati sementara
Atau mencari nama yang lain
Saat fokusku selalu diganggu

Beautiful Sacred Wedding

What should I reach when I don't know whom I should fight
The night has taken my soul
I am a knight without a king to serve
My sword has been killing for nothing
I'm so weird that I couldn't understand myself
What I did with the water? and then I felt sleepy
God please help me
There are too many person in this body
I just want to be with me
Frozen my heart with your name inside
So no evil can melt it down to water
And then I would do that again
With the water, and I felt sleepy
Or think about something that even never think of me
or doesn't exist
Why I don't run away
Standing still here confronted by heart instead
Doing things that I find out not that amusing after
The sound of Eden
Is my new spirit
But a killer as well
In this gloomy month of Fall
I will sleep outside again
With an empty stomach

El Gran Taco Loco

This was our first culinary tour. And the lucky number one was Mexican food. Just take bus #49 to City College and you can get off at Mission St & 29th St. It's around the corner from another restaurant, but we still could see El Gran Taco Loco because of the colorful painting outside. Actually it was the plus point considered that we decided to try that because of the eye catching painting.

Once we got inside, the Mexican atmosphere was so strong. There was a big painting of the Mexican flag, and the employees were all Latinos. It would be more fun if we could speak a little bit Spanish though :((

I'd never eaten Mexican food before but Burrito sounded so familiar. So I tried a Burrito, but not just a Burrito. it was a 'Super Burrito.' Busra and Rani ordered a 'Super Taco.' Then we can chose our own sauces. There were so many varieties of sauces that I disd't know all of the names. But I picked three of the spiciest looking ones. For the beverage, there were no Mexican drinks, so we ordered a soda.

 

The Super Burrito was twice my hand size!! 

The Super Taco mean double!!

One thing that I disappointed was only the sauce. It turned to be not as spicy as it looked. I'm a spicy lover

Editor: Marcia Chan