ÉTOUFFÉE

Quite inappropriately for Valentine's Day, some pervert googled "barbide doll naked in a bow" and found my blog. Which is slightly irritating.
I would have wished that they searched for something more high-minded to find me. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, which suggests that it was a purely intellectual quest, motivated by any deep spiritual or scientific thesis.

What he found was this: " a perfectly clean post about two gay men celebrating Mother's Day in San Francisco, involving delicious food, particularly a mildly spiced étouffée, which was mentioned merely as "stew", because the culinary details were not Germane ".

In case you are interested, étouffée is described on Wikipedia as a shellfish or crawdaddy smothered dish, "made with a blonde or brown roux and sometime tomatoes are added".


SUCH LOVELY REAL-LIFE WOMEN

When someone looks for Barbie on Valentine's Day, there is something missing in his life. And conceivably his obsessions are off-target.

Rather than focusing on a biologically inaccurate and mal-dimensioned fluffhead, perhaps he should put on the old trench coat and ride the bus all day. Whether he's a studied old degenerate, or a young inexperienced one with hope and shy optimism still beating in his stifled little heart, he is bound to see any number of real women among his fellow travelers that can excite the eye and prompt the imagination.

It's what I would do if I weren't so bloody clean-minded.


Students, secretaries, nursey-wursies, successful bankers, stockbrokers, rising young venture capitalists, cops, business attorneys.......

And arms, ankles, delicate earlobes, slim fingers.......

Oh!


The other day a young lady was reading her college text-book on the bus. From my angle (standing, because gentlemen do that), I could admire her elegant hands fondling the page in anticipation of a flip, the furrowing of a brow as she pondered the multi-syllabic words strung together like an ant-caravan bearing nuggets of science, the hair that flopped deliciously on a broad clear brow, and even the defined line of a small nose above the upper edge of a finely sculpted lip.

The chin was hinted at, but not revealed; her head was bent over the volume, and as I was looking down (because she was sitting and I was standing), I could not see it.

Women engaged in thought, mentally preoccupied with serious matters, with that abstracted air of pensiveness......

They look sweet when they're like that.



Barbie doesn't look sweet. She looks like a Real Housewife.
Vicious, calculating, superficial.
Plastic.



The best étouffée in the city is down in the Tenderloin.

Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-345-8100

It ain't crawdaddy, but chicken. Evenso, excellent.

Their beans and rice, the gumbo, beignettes, shrimp 'n grits, and the oyster po' boy are all worth coming back for. Often far too crowded for a nice cozy dinner for two, and located in an area which is more than a little skeevy after dark, but still exceptionally deserving of your attention, when you and your boyfriend or girlfriend want a lovely meal together.

A first-date spot for two adventurous eaters, or some place to go after you've become comfortable with each other, for more standard souls.
Don't go there by yourself; you need to share.



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