Food and Flight
To all of you who have been waiting for me to talk more about food and daily activities, you are not forgotten! I am a couple days behind for reasons which will become clear.
To celebrate the end of my first research trip on June 3rd, I decided to go out for dinner and give myself the evening off writing. So far, I had always gone home and made myself egg and cheese sandwiches for dinner, but I figured I should check out the San Jose food scene a little on my last day. I stopped by the highly recommended La Victoria Taqueria for dinner. This is a fantastic place for casual Mexican food and features their world-famous orange sauce.
I ordered a super burrito and made sure to ask for some orange sauce on the side. For some reason, I was surprised to discover that the sauce had no connection to the citrus fruit, but was simply named for its color - orange. The burrito was delicious! The flavorful combination of carne asada with beans, rice, guacamole, and sour cream completely won me over, even without the orange sauce (and I’m not usually a huge burrito fan). The orange sauce didn’t add as much to the dish as I thought it would. The low-level spiciness was invigorating without being overpowering (though I am a WIMP when it comes to spicy food), and the flavor was somewhat understated. This would be a great sauce to add if you’re looking to add some savor and heat to something plain, but on top of the burrito, it didn’t feel necessary. Of the two packets of sauce they gave me, I had one with dinner and saved the other for my eggs in the morning.
I tried their horchata with dinner, and while I would certainly recommend horchata in general (it’s a refreshing Mexican drink with rice, milk, and cinnamon), this one was a bit heavy on the spices. For dessert I picked up bubble tea from Boba Bar Teahouse for the walk home (this was excellent).
I looked forward to a relaxed evening getting ready for my flight the next day and watching the newest episode of the the Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars series (which I started at the recommendation of our friend Mr. Gjovaag from the Beethoven Center). Unfortunately, American Airlines had other plans for me. An email was waiting for me relaying the news that American Airlines had cancelled my flight to Phoenix from San Jose and had scheduled me for another flight from San Francisco. An Uber so early in the morning would have around $80. So I spent the next couple hours trying to figure out the Bay Area transit system, determining a route and schedule, buying a transit pass (for $7), and cooking all the food I would need for the next day since I would have to get up at 4:00 a.m.
After a short sleep (before which I DID successfully watch the final Star Wars episode), I was up again and walking to the bus stop by 4:50. Three buses and 2 1/2 hours later, I arrived at the airport! From there everything went smoothly and I got home in good time, but I spent most of the rest of Saturday asleep.
Today I began the first leg of my trip to Vienna! I’m currently on a layover in Calgary, Alberta (that’s in Canada, fyi). I’ll take an overnight flight to London, a train to Paris where I’ll stay overnight in a hostel, and then another set of trains to Vienna on June 8th. I’ll write you a trip update when I’ve recovered!
La Victoria Taqueria on San Carlos and 3rd St.
- Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Friday, 4:51 a.m. walking to the bus
6:30 a.m. waiting for bus No. 2