In San Diego, the difference between what is "real" and what is "fake" is complicated. They're nearly the same thing.

Mark, Lester & I feasted on Hout Bi Batata Wa Tamatem (Roast Cod with Potatoes & Tomatoes) this evening. Unlike the last time I attempted this dish, I used a cast iron pan, so the potatoes didn't stick, and I used mahi mahi. Yum! Lester enjoys fish, especially a meaty one like mahi mahi or salmon or tuna.


Mark's friend Jim (of Rock Town Hall) was in town for a conference, so we met him in San Diego this afternoon for Kansas City BBQ (yes, the Top Gun place--it's really very good) and then went to the Hotel Del Coronado to wander around and have a drink. The place reminds me of Miss Marple and the Shining and also a fake fantasy version of the old colonial hotels in southeast Asia--Raffles in Singapore, for example, which opened at about the same time as the Del (Raffles in 1887 and the Del in 1888)

I liked it. The next time I go, I'll make sure to wear my gold leather sandals, a tunic, and large sunglasses. It was all very mythological and ahistoric. Well, not quite ahistoric--Queen Anne revival architecture in California has to be concerned with history and tradition, sort of. It wants to evoke history as a feeling/aura and not a fact.