Neptune Landing

         Known as the new Chinatown, San Francisco's Inner Richmond district has become the darling of the culinary scene. Located north of Golden Gate Park and south of the Presidio, the Richmond lies on a suburban grid but the blocks contain a few real gems. Not least of these is SF's answer to NY's Strand Bookstore. Ours is known as  Green Apple Books . It's a wooden and creaky wonderland with dozens of shelves of new and used books and a lovely shelter for our monsoon winter days. For fun I picked up Llewwllyn's 2013 Witches' Companion , a perfect purchase preceding The Hobbit which we enjoyed tonight in Japantown.         Afterwards I spotted the inimitable " Burma Superstar " on Yelp and knew we had to experience the legend. Burma is known as one of the ten best restaurants in San Francisco and is a mere two blocks away from Green Apple. For a total of about $40 we savored the Burmese Veggie Samusas, the Sesame Chicken, the Spicy Chic

December 21, 2012 is fast approaching and I still haven't picked out my apocalypse outfit. But what's the deal? Should I spring for that new pair of kicks? Is the Mayan prophecy real or just another way to waste time surfing the internet? I like to think of "the Mayan subject" as the menacing end of the internet spectrum; if you get bored of cute kittens you always have your dueling doomsday psychics. Is 2012 just another way to avoid cleaning the bathroom? There are serious questions and I'll need a bit of time and space here to answer them. Sure doomsday is a sexy topic but it sucks all the air out of the room. And it largely misses the point. I believe that on a ground level, what we need to focus on is loss of biological diversity and ever increasing public health threats. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the one nonprofit to which I regularly contribute, "The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,0

Who knew that the month of November would prove so achingly beautiful to Boston, Massachusetts? The fall colors were supposed to elude Mauricio and I but global warming had extended October's palette into the week of Thanksgiving. Upon his first time in my base city, he opted for us to stay at the Park Plaza and I said nothing to discourage him. The neighborhood surrounding us was placid and squeaky clean. In fact our afternoon walks convinced us that we could dine off these Back Bay streets and trust in the power of civic government. Tis true that Boston is quiet, classy and pristine with a pace that is sleepy and a confidence that is earned. Boston is superior in at least one area of dining; good Indian food. There is a dish I discovered years ago at Jamaica Plain's Bukhara Restaurant which hugs the corner of Thomas and Burroughts Streets. The dish of the devas is called Malai Kofta and it doesn't seem to exist in San Francisco.  Malai Kofta, also known as veggie b