Today I had an excellent taco

New favorite taco

I don’t know what keeps most taco stands from having amazing vegetarian options: it isn’t “authentic”, there’s no market for it, nobody wants a lame zucchini taco…whatever the reason is I usually call bullshit and pout.

Today I stumbled across the Cholita Linda stand at the Farmers Market. They had the usual no thanks offerings and when I saw the veggie option I initially scoffed at it as another pile of roasted veggies that I didn’t really want. But what was this? Fried tofu? Salsa roja? Two for seven dollars?! The line was very short but grew quite deep as we waited a brief moment to order. I started to feel bad for the neighboring stands: nobody wanted a calzone today. Everyone was already in the know about this amazing taco spot. I was about to become initiated on a bed of cabbage.

I watched my tofu get fried to order and killed the time by drinking watermelon juice in a cup. Moments later, to my shame, I had inhaled two folded friends and debated getting back in the now absurdly long line for two more.

Cholita Linda taco

Samantha Savage Smith

Like clockwork, just as September rolled around (a traditional time for me to become cozy and contemplative about approaching fall), Rdio was gracious enough to throw an album by Samantha Savage Smith my way. I like her soft but huge 1920′s voice. A lot of it is on the crooner side, and there is some meandering in certain songs, but that merging of The Reindeer Section’s simple, heavy beats and a smokey voice sounds to me like leaves being raked near huge suburban oak trees and it getting dark at 4:30pm. Also, the drums are super crisp coming out of my Shure SRH840′s. The delicate cymbal details make some of these songs.

If I’m reading my internet research correctly, Ms. Smith is an “emerging artist” that will hopefully visit these great United States from Canada so that, unless she is playing in my house, I will make plans to see but then try to get out of them because being out late is boring.

Zoe & The Philz Coffee Cup

We took it to the old neighborhood last weekend, where Elephant Pharmacy is getting increasingly run down, Starbucks is now a crêpe place, and most importantly: Philz Coffee blasts its deep roasted goodness from Cafe Gratitude to The Cheese Board and every nook in between (even that new title place, whatever that is).

Then Zoe did something cute:
Zoe and the cup

Rosstralia: 2011

[Historical note: there was an immense gap of over eight months between entries.]