Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: It’s time to host a dinner party, but not just with YOUR friends, but with another team playing the game. You will have to hunt down a secret ingredient and make a dish with it to be shared with the other team at a dinner party in a location of your choice.

Ok first. What team?

Another team playing the game? I scanned the list of the teams that were playing the game. Ok, what now? Do I try to play with the team that was at the top? Strategy. Strategy. Last year, I was able to find contact information for the teams since the photos were linked to personal sites. This year, it was all hosted on thegogame website. I decided to go for the most obvious one—Lick My Spoon. I knew that they made a writeup last year about the game…and I immediately sent off an email to Stephanie, the primary author of LMS.

Then I found Michael M whose team was Michael Eats SF. He was the first place winner of the 7×7 100 Big Eat SF Foodspotting Scavenger Hunt in February. I had been dying to ask him about his strategy of eating at 100 places in less than 2 weeks. Fortunately, I remembered his twitter name since it was all over foodspotting. Plus he used his full name as part of the twitter account. I looked at his website and confirmed that it was him…since his Japanese wife’s unique name was both present at the Go Game site and his personal site. Email sent.

Granted at this point, I had not even asked my team. I had low expectations, not certain whether anybody in the team had the desire to host the dinner party or know who to ask.

And most importantly, I hosted dinner parties in the past. I always thoroughly enjoyed cooking, serving and hosting people. And certainly didn’t think anybody else on my team would have that much energy.

A day later, I got a response from Stephanie and she CC’ed the rest of the LMS team. I was nearly jumping for joy at my desk at work. Secured! People! Guests!

In between client work, I quickly listed out several dishes that I had successfully made in the past, intended it to tempt the palate and to encourage attendance to dinner with strangers:
Corn casserole
“Boiled” water
Braised beef
Avocado tomato salad OR tomato peach salad with red onions
Gazpacho
roasted grapes and meatballs
Vermicelli with grilled chicken, cilantro, and kimchi?
Goat cheese with lemon juice, pepper, rosemary
freshly made soda water!

I quickly dashed out the email to the Lick My Spoon team and cc’ed my team. To my horror, someone replied who they loved the menu. Then another praised my incredible menu.

Then I paused…if everyone showed up from LMS and my team, there would be over 11 people. The biggest dinner party that I had served was only 4 people including myself. And it was because I had tons of leftover ingredients from a weekend party.

Would I have enough food? Better yet, did I have that much room in my apartment? I decided that Chris and I could sit out if worse came to worse.

I wondered if I was getting ahead of myself by hosting a dinner party on a short notice. I had less than 48 hours to get something ready. And there would be no way that I would stoop to store-prepared food—everything had to be made from scratch. At least most things.

I am innately a disorganized person. Physically.

Living at my parents’ house as a teenager was not a pleasant experience. Despite having lived ina place where my parents were neat and relatively organized (as much as Asians can be), I just wasn’t. Putting things back where they belonged was a concept.

However, by the time I had roommates…my own messy tendencies got out of control. Although to some it was hilarious. You could enter the quad where I lived in the dorms…see my roommates’ space and you see my space. My space surrounding my bed and desk was completely chaotic. Yet I was always respectful of others, so you could distinctly see a border around my mess and my roommates.

The same applied in graduate school. My room was chaos. However, the kitchen…the bathroom. Certainly not mine. And even now.

But the point is, computers have helped me. Phone numbers? I love that there is one place on my computer for it. Email? Easy to have them pile up and quickly sort by a search term. Tracking, money transactions, credit card bills, library due dates…all digital.

Everything is happening digitally. They take away any tendency to be messy and make it automatic. I never lose anything.

But in the real world…I still have this super-anxious side. Yet my messy side doesn’t know how to communicate with this super-anxious side. So it continues to be messy, but when I do lose something, panic. Oh utter panic. I can’t focus on any conversation. The world closes.

I just need to…find…IT!

I remember my passport drama. I remember thinking how nice it would be if everything had a tracking device. Or better yet, why not make everything digital so that everything would live in the cloud. And the concept of losing meant that someone else was at fault (a data server perhaps) and not you.

If only.

But if that were the case then I wouldn’t be able to own anything. Yet would I trade ownership for having a lifetime of not losing anything? Probably not.

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: The tamale from Whole Tortilla gives you superpowers! Whether it’s feeding the homeless or stopping bank robbers, show us your best superhero pose!

I don’t know how I got the idea—perhaps it was Cynthia. But I realized that I had to use ComicLife. I had used to previously for demonstrating scenarios while at CMU. But this…oh yes!

I investigated how to get Whole Tortilla, but to my chagrin, Whole Tortilla was only available on Sunday. At the Jack London Farmer’s Market. When I had already made a difficult slotting of a lunch with my family. It was impossible unless I sent my DFT comrades. Could I force my comrades to do such a task? But wait according to the website, they were at a local store, Lillah Belle. I rushed over in the morning. I scanned the entire store, which was full of super-expensive organic meals that I could make easier and cheaper even by buying organic ingredients. But it turned out that they did not carry Whole Tortilla tamales.

“Nobody bought them so I stopped making orders,” the woman at the counter said without looking up from her newspaper.

A few hours later, I had an idea. I called the Whole Tortilla number…and it turned out that she lived close to me. I rushed over and picked up several tortillas.

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: Show us your best kitchen disaster

I had multiple ideas after asking Facebook point blank:

However, Chris and I determined that it was either unsafe (for a real photoshoot) or required too much photochopping (how do I set my hand on fire in photoshop again?)

Cynthia suggested the idea of cramming too much people in the kitchen—the idea of too many chefs in the kitchen.

This is the process that I took:

1. Study too many people in a photo booth and too many chefs in the kitchen photos.
2. Invite people over (via facebook).
3. Buy snacks.
4. Hope that inviting people for this event would surface this hunt to their consciousness.
5. Create the picture.

Although 5 people showed up, it was a fun experience with all of us ending up watching Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef.

Along the way, we decided to make it Twinkie oriented to reflect our team’s name. We placed a Twinkie everywhere and put Toad in the picture. A Twinkie in the pan, in the blender, everywhere.

And then we finally had Jeff saute a Twinkie with everyone trying to add their own flavor to the Twinkie. Seems like Chris is the only one that got it in. Not sure what Cynthia is doing with the pineapple.

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

I don’t even remember what the original mission said. But it was first about a 80s band. Then a popular track…that somehow we figured out to be Caravan (thanks Joe). The mission said that it started with K and to go to the mobile lounge of deliciousness and do an epic scene.

When I realized that it was referring to Karavan, I knew what I had to do. I quickly emailed the friend who I planned to have lunch that Friday at the Moxise-sponsored Street Eats…because…I knew that Kara’s Cupcakes was visiting. I described my plight, apologizing that I was a little bit insane as part of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt…and that I would have to do something crazy while she watched. All for an “epic scene”.

I had met Cynthia a total of 4 times in my consciousness—at a reunion last year, once at Palo Alto Caltrain Station, another at a mutual friend’s BBQ, and finally at a happy hour. Barely what you would call “friends”…and here she was!

She emailed back shortly…with a script inspired by the first scenes in 2001: Space Odyssey.

EXT. STREET – DAY

FADE TO BLACK

I was so thrilled.

And when Friday, came around, I came with a backup plan. But we’re all set. I roped Chris into in it. I had gathered all my props—our whole collection of stuffed animals, random props…

It was warm…and I gulped down a gumbo from the Louisiana Truck. If had been any other Friday, I would have enjoyed it more, but it was up to me…to engulf the entire cupcake.

We spent several minutes behind the Karavan setting up with Chris cheering me on and Cynthia recording the entire thing on my handy Canon Powershot S90.

Because I read the rules, I decided that we could not use the 2001 soundtrack (although I balked later for other missions) and that we had to create our own. Both Chris and I “sang” the track. Fortunately, we decided that my attempt was not suitable for the general public (aka I was doing a public service for not sharing my horrible singing).

Then I spent the weekend trying to find out how I could get a cupcake flying in the air. This is why we had a stunt cupcake. Purchased for $1 two years when Mervyn’s was going out of business in Daly City.

I did engulf the entire cupcake. With paper. It was the strawberry flavor, FYI.

Photos to come shortly of course.

Last weekend was filled with:

There’s some great people in San Francisco…and then there are not some. But more to come in the next few posts about my experience on the Street Food Scavenger Hunt this year.

It suddenly occurred to me. With all this posting of wearing hats of chicken feet, of singing crazy pseudo-French songs, screaming about 364…

Wouldn’t this put me out of the running for the presidency?

Wouldn’t the opposing party…perhaps 20 years later…dig up this fantastic data—videos, photos and say to everyone…

CAN YOU TRUST SOMEONE WHO IS WEARING A MEAT HAT? CAN YOU TRUST SOMEONE WHO IS SINGING BAD FRENCH? CAN YOU TRUST SOMEONE WHO FILMS THEMSELVES WITHOUT BRUSHING THEIR HAIR? CAN YOU TRUST SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING TO MAKE A FOOL OF THEMSELVES…IN PUBLIC?

IS THIS A REFLECTION OF WHO YOU WANT TO RUN YOUR COUNTRY?

Certainly not!

Well, it’s not that I want to be president. Rather I would like to have the option.

In this amazing world of technology, my past can catch up to me. But will you find photos of me doing anything illegal? Probably not. Mostly, you will find me with facial expressions, singing out of tune, stuttering…doing things outside of my usual personality.

And thus today is the second to last day of the scavenger hunt. Yes there is craziness…yes there is ridiculousness…and major spammage of Facebook.

But hey at least I know that I won’t be president!

Be sure to vote for us by Liking us! We’re about a few hundred points from first place!

I am once again participating in the scavenger hunt. Perhaps doing what I foretold.

This year, it’s more…crazy adventures with food…kitchen disasters…puzzle solving…massive moments of embarrassment. But this time, (rather than just a piece of paper and a t-shirt) there are whispers of prizes. A three course dinner perhaps? Food? Who knows…but the most important part is that…we need you!

Vote for us here.

Click a photo, then click Like!

And perhaps you may see more of this:

Meat hat

OR

Superhero Tamale

There are some people you meet…

and…

instant connection.

You suddenly want to be around them. Because they make you feel good. Or well at least they make you want to be a better person.

But then there are other times, perhaps that it’s too loud (people talking, music, who knows…), you make small talk…it fails…it is awkward.

But the instant success is when you’re at loud party and the conversation that you’re having is incredibly interesting. This is where I want to reference the tips that I found from The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.

Suddenly with the onset of anxiety (an upcoming presentation, a person you’re potentially meeting, the dread of being blamed, the worry that you lost something)…

it is consuming.

It takes over every single through. You can’t cook, you can’t eat, you can’t sleep. The worry settles deep inside your stomach. It settles all through the muscles, cursing down your veins and then circulating back to your head through the life-saving arteries. Your eyes are bulging.

Then perhaps perhaps…something, someone helps you overcome it. Perhaps it’s a movie. Perhaps it’s a drink. Most likely, it’s an activity. You pause the anxiety for a moment. And for a moment, it doesn’t exist. Because your attention is elsewhere.

When the moment returns, it’s back. But perhaps it better now. You have better cognitive dissonance…and the anxiety hopefully fades away.

But by now, the anxiety is so consuming that it exhausts you. And you fall into a fitful sleep because you no more energy left to think about the anxiety. Perhaps the best sleep? Maybe only if in your mind, you stumble upon a solution in your dreams.