The News & Review’s annual Best of Sacramento lists are out today, and while yours trulys got the shaft this year (well deserved maybe?) I’m sure there are some interesting picks on the list. It seems like the Reader’s Picks have finally made a hard turn toward the local, and it lifts the spirits to read the listings and see how many great local establishments are out there that people love.
What do you think? Any picks that you’re pumped about? Anybody else left in the cold?
I’m fine with the fact that Tahoe Park will never have a four star restaurant in its boundaries, or even really a restaurant where you don’t eat with paper forks. However what we do have is good cheap eats. From Tallac Village Donuts to Boon Boon Cafe, the Stockton/Broadway/14th Ave area has its fair share.
We can add one more to the list: M’s Teriyaki. Opened just recently in the small strip that formerly housed “Juan in a Million” taqueria, M’s is your typical cheap Japanese takeout joint. Local real estate agent Pat Vogeli, a Tahoe Park specialist and a loyal reader (Hi Pat!), tipped me off to the place and last night I gave it a try. It is comparable to the Teriyaki Grill place in Market Square — if you’re there, and you’re kinda hungry, it can be great eats. But if you’re looking for ambiance or to eat sushi, it’s probably not on your list.
Chicken teriyaki with a California roll is great comfort food in my book, and the fact that I was able to get 2 hand rolls and freshly grilled teriyaki for under $7 made me pretty happy. It’s probably not a destination for anybody outside the zip code, but it’s good takeout if you find yourself in the area.
M’s Teriyaki
5780 Broadway
Sacramento, CA 95820
(916) 739-1888
My new blogging friend Nick from NickOnTheTown.com totally hooked me up with some tickets to see Anthony Bourdain tonight! Nick runs a great blog about local eats and drinks with lots of info about special deals and tons of reviews. And I especially love his “Stuff I Ate for Lunch” section which reminds me of something I used to write on my first website BLUE MAG. Holy shit, I was doing that in 2002.
An just now I read that Bourdain is writing a graphic novel about “ultraviolent food nerds” for DC’s Vertigo imprint. He was already super cool in my book.
Radio 94.7 emails:
RADIO 94.7 welcomes Smashing Pumpkins in concert on Monday, September 6th at the Crest Theater.
Before the show, Billy Corgan and band will visit the RADIO 94.7 Video Lounge for an extremely intimate plugged in set that only a very few select fans will see!
RADIO 94.7 is using Sacramento’s fastest growing Facebook page to giveaway the spots in the lounge, where you’ll be so close, you’ll be able to put your drink on Billy’s amp!
Because Billy Corgan definitely seems like the kind of guy who loves when his fans get up close like that. To win this chance to see the Pumpkins, you have to do some Facebooky stuff on Facebook. Details here.
Reminder that ESPN RISE will feature Grant High vs. Folsom High tonight at 7pm on ESPN 2.
The RISE site has a nice feature on Viliami Moala, Grant’s 340-lb lineman.
The big question is whether you’ll be listening to the coverage with Slammin’ Sammy on “Panther Radio” or getting En Fuego on 1040 a.m.…
Saturday is the first annual “International Read Comics in Public Day.” The idea is to be caught reading comics you know, out among the public, with the hopes that somebody will ask you what you’re reading and allow you to start explaining until they and their jock buddies start wailing on you.
August 28 is coincidentally the the birthday of the late great Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel Comics famous characters including Captain America and the Incredible Hulk.
Just read “A letter to my students,” a blog post from UC Berkeley professor of public policy Michael O’Hare. In it, prof. O’Hare apologizes to incoming freshmen for the “swindle” that has wrecked California over the last 30 years and exhorts them to start working to change it.
It’s a blog, so he gets away with a generation-sized straw man — at one point literally putting words in the mouth of millions of voters — because it’s such an impassioned piece. He places blame for our current predicament solely on tax-hating voters (even, mind-frakkingly, safe districts!?), ignoring the generation-long dearth of sanity in the Capitol building. I wouldn’t give Abel Maldonado or Darrell Steinberg an extra $1000 even if it was to get them to fight each other to the death. But everything he says about the current situation, especially as it pertains to education, is undoubtedly true and his piece is definitely worth a read.
A letter to my students, by Michael O’Hare, from The Berkeley Blog
I know this is only tangentially local, in the sense that it is local news to a bunch of different locations, but I just enjoyed reading this piece in CNN/Fortune Magazine about Trader Joe’s. Full of interesting tidbits (they sell chips made by Frito Lay! It is owned by “the Germans”! This one guy’s name is Burt P. Flickinger III!), it won’t change your mind about the famously tightlipped corporation or anything, but it is good reading and of interest to anyone who is a fan of the Joe. By the way, if they did sell secrecy on aisle five, it would it be Thai-chili-infused.
What do you think? Does the corporate secrecy enhance your love for TJs or does it put you off?
I love Funderland, so I am there all the time, and yet somehow I have always missed the awkward punctuation of this sign.
Unless of course it is not referring to the state park, but rather to another fort owned by a married couple as community property, in which case I suppose it is technically correct!
You heard about the high speed chase that ended inside the Sacramento Zoo, as a trio of car thieves drove through the back gate of the zoo. Mrs Cool and the young’uns were on the scene! They were headed toward the giraffes, when suddenly it became clear something was wrong. Then they were herded into the gift shop by very helpful and quick-acting zoo employees, and spent several tense minutes inside on lockdown, waiting for it all to play out.
No photos — even if she had been able to snap them she says she probably would have refrained, as the kids were not exactly loving this. They didn’t see the perps, but they did see police storming the place. Plenty of folks in the gift shop were crowding near the windows (the dudes were not armed, but what if they had been?) snapping photos. That would have made a great photo — folks grabbing shots for the Facebook page while their kids cried in strollers.
My kids pointed out that “it had a happy ending,” and the oldest declared it “the coolest thing that has ever happened.”
The Sac Rag 