Sunday 30th of May 2010 - San Francisco

Up at about six thirty this morning, hadn't had a bath last night which is a little yucky, however it was quite late and I was very tired so I had one this morning, not sure why, however I really prefer bathing in the evening, still at least I was fresh for another busy day of sightseeing!

Breakfast at the hotel was something that looked like it had been scrambled eggs in a previous incarnation and burgers! So I decided to visit a restaurant called Sears fine dining that I had spotted near Union Square. Popped in there and ordered the Eggs Benedict, which appeared to please the waitress immoderately, they were rather nice, although the muffin had gone a touch soggy in the middle and the overall thing was a little sweeter than I would have chosen.

So from there I walked to the contemporary Jewish Museum which I had remembered would open at 10, I arrived outside at 09:30, and chilled by a foutain/pool, apart from fielding a bloke who wanted to sell me a rose it was very peaceful, so at ten I ambled round to the entrance, where I discovered that the museum actually opened at eleven, as I walked up and down 3rd street I spotted the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as I had a Citypass I had free entry to it and so I ambled over, unfortunately it also did not open until eleven, however it had a cafe, so I went in and had an iced tea to pass the time, on opening I went in and up to the second floor where there was an exhibition celebrating years of the museum, they had some Bracques, some Lichtenstein, and a couple of other interesting works, however for contemporary art even the Casino in Luxemberg outclasses it by a huge amount.

On the third floor there was an exhibition by a photographer who made my snaps look like Alfred Stieglitz.

Disappointed and not expecting much, although buoyed by the fact that according to Jewish law I am Chinese, I walked over to the CJM, was security cleared, paid and went in, on the 1st floor there was a fascinating exhibition on the Torah, I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know that much about it, I guess I always assumed it was like the Bible, and I was fascinated to learn more, just how important the shapes of the letters are etc.

On to the ground floor where there was an exhibition called "Our Struggle". Background - a few years ago a Jewish woman in France was given a copy of Mein Kampf (My struggle - Hitlers antisemitic rant and autobiography) I'm guessing by someone who didn't like her. She drew on 30 pages and then thought it would be interesting to see what other people would do, so she handed pages to all sorts of different people, Jews, Gentiles, Men, Women, religious, atheistic etc. and asked them to make a piece of art with it.

The exhibition is simply stunning, so moving, thought provoking, just so wonderful, so many things to remember, just one - a real physical gold tooth sitting on the page, I almost burst into tears. Why didn't SFMOMA have just one thing up to this standard?

Emotionally drained I purchased another shirt and caught a taxi up to the Nob Hill Cafe (see yesterday), got a table just next to the kitchen and ordered Bruschetta and Trancia di Calamari. The Bruschetta was good, the tomatoes weren't quite ripe enough, however it was still pleasing. Then a plate came up with a piece of what looked like floured and fried meat with capers on top, pasta and snap peas, oh well I thought and cut in, it was a wing of squid, absolutely perfectly cooked, with a light sauce that took it into the sublime category, the pasta complimented it perfectly, frankly it was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life, I cannot think of anything that could have been done to improve it, the word sublime is overused, in this case it was perfectly apposite.

Once, when I was in the student area of Hamburg, or St. Pauli I went into a cafe and said "Espresso bitte" and the chap behind the counter asked me in English if I wanted an Italian or German espresso, I asked what the difference was and he replied that they both had the same amount of coffee but the German espresso was twice the size. I ended the meal with a German expresso!

Walked down the hill a bit and stumbled into the cable car museum, which was very interesting, I find it amazing that all of those cars, on all of the routes, are run by underground cables. I then decided to catch one to Fishermans wharf and do an harbour cruise, unfortunately I caught the car going the other way! Lazily caught the car back up the hill and came back to the hotel. Last night in San Francisco so I had sushi again!