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: This quintessential high school “Betty” might not have the greatest M.O. for landing a guy, but when it comes to her choice in friends we approve 100%. Unfortunately, our favorite recently passed away, leaving behind a repertoire of cinematic gold. One we find especially delicious is a kind of Karate-Kid-meets-food deal. Find it, watch it, and revel in the delectable cheesiness. In the film, she finds solace in learning to that “perfect bowl of soup.” It just so happens that we know another hot Japanese “dish” that has mastered it. Any ideas who we’re referring to? (We’ll give you a hint: he comes from the same “stock” as people like Keanu Reeves, Rob Schneider, Sean Lennon, Tiger Woods.) Perform a scene from the movie.

Eric figured this out. Brittany Murphy. And the dish? Ramen! And…the movie? Ramen Girl! Apparently Cynthia had watched it on Netflix Instant (it was one of those American-made movies that did well overseas but was determined that it was fated to doom so was just straight to DVD).

We determined that it was Hapa Ramen. The owner is in the “stock” that people like Keanu Reeves was from. And I had been dying to try their ramen! So off we went to Off the Grid at Fort Mason on a Friday. So we unfortunately couldn’t find the guy that created Hapa Ramen. The mission at the time was to perform a scene from the movie and we would get a password.

Cynthia pin-pointed this one:
Brittany (realizing she really wants to cook ramen, runs back into the restaurant to talk to the owner): I want to cook ramen!
Owner (in Japanese): Ashita denaosu. (“Come back tomorrow.”)
Brittany (not understanding Japanese and looking confused): Uuuuuuuhhh . . .
Owner (in Japanese): Ashita, ASHITA. TO-MORR-OW.
Brittany (finally getting it, smiling and looking elated that she gets to learn how to cook ramen): Tomorrow!
Owner (holding up his right hand): Go ji gozen. (“5am”)
Brittany (totally not understanding what he means, still smiling, gives him a high-five)

Hilarious in context!

Wanting to decrease our effort, we decided not to shoot it and did our selected scene quickly. We got the password and attempted to enter it in. “La Cocina” was the word that the girl gave us—which is the name of the non-profit running the entire Street Food Festival. So we tried it multiple ways, especially knowing that Go Game has had history of not knowing how to spell words.

So we tried:

No such luck. But in a few days, the mission page had changed to requiring a video! But we had not recorded one! And there were less than 2 days before the actual festival! So I hatched a plan and made it to during-the-day farmer’s market and re-enacted the scene from Ramen Girl. Fortunately, this time, I had watched Ramen Girl (I give it only 3 stars out of 5 stars). I do love my ramen.

With only two of DFT available…we did some camera trickey. Chris was the cat and I was the…ramen girl! He would be the chef! And so we did it! It was one of the lesser creatively-acted-upon videos. And I uploaded it in a record time!