Then Martin sat down, and with Jay pulling out the stops, he played at some length some mix of music that could have come from a organ but only after the emergence of ambient. Annick over his shoulder, admiring the giant old wood machine and the music it made. Listen for yourself: singalong (123 kb .wav file).

Anil and I had both been to, and admired, House of Nanking. I asked Alan for a good alternate recommendation. He advised us to eat at Yuet Lee - excellent seafood. Here, Anil photographs the fried squid, the garlic ginger crab, and the pea sprouts in garlic sauce. The fried squid grew on us, the pea sprouts were great but seemed more like spinach, and the crab was tasty but testy. Anil was shocked at how difficult and slow eating crab was. I think crab is my current favorite sin food.

Then we strolled about Chinatown and North Beach, ending up near the excellent bizarre colonial Dreaming Room, just down the street from City Lights, next door to Vesuvio. The Dreaming Room has a mix of ethnic and religious totems from nearly all continents and eras, including Lois Anderson's Altar (which is soon moving to the Oakland Museum). I love the place because they have things that look like they just don't belong in this dimension - items that were supposed to have been hurled into the volcano to keep the human race from being consumed by demonic fires. Here, Anil prepares his camera phone to snap a shot of a human skull with horns lashed to it using leather thongs. He later snapped a photo of me sitting in Union Square. Note to self: improve posture.

Chris reduces vermouth in a pan coated in pork chop, with garlic and butter. Chris makes an excellent saucier. Jen reaches for something in the cabinet; wearing a Tokion t-shirt, Alan looks on, preparing his vast appetite.