Sound & Savor: August 2014

Anyone who knows me know i love soccer. The only sport i watch and pay attention to and i love the endless improvisation, both solo and group the sport demands. The parallels of jazz and avant garde music and soccer are enormous!
So last night was the opening game, ironically, at the brand new stadium in the South Bay for the San Francisco 49ers. But real football was taking place, the kind that actually uses the foot, continuously, not just on a very special play, where a guy who is trained to use his foot comes on the field.

The local team, last place San Jose was hosting first place Seattle!

Cori and i drove down to San Jose, first to get food, trying out Falafel's Drive In, for the first time. This family operation has been open since 1966 and many people have raved about it to me for many years. And recently saw a food network clip on the place that had me drooling as the food looked so good and the owner came across as a very nice person who took great pride in the food he was serving. When we walked up to the drive in, we saw the owner was greeting customers and taking orders. We were excited as the food smelled and looked great and it was so obvious that this place was quality. From the very attractive, very community oriented mural on the building to the kind smile and attitude of the owner and the effient looking kitchen, hard at work.
We had 2 small falafels, a side of rice stuffed grapeleaves and since it was a hot summer afternoon, 2 large lemonades.
The lemonades were tart, slightly sweet, and iced cold as you want them to be. Delightfully refreshing. Friendly, smiling, hard working Mexican guy (every kitchen!!) handed our order to me through the window.
Dolmas, first. Dill, mint, parsley flavors, slightly lemony. Stunning!! Then unwrap the sandwich. Warm bread, half a pita filled with hot, crisp falfel balls which are crunchy on the outisde, incredibly green and soft on the inside. These are the best falafel balls i have found on the west coast. This is on par with Mamoun's in New York City!! Different than Mamoun's but of that level of excellence. There are so many herbs in these balls, so fragrant and delicious. The tahini sauce, too, delightful. simple salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber and a nice tomato based hot sauce! We barely said anything except moans of delight and utters of "wow", "unreal" "so good" and huge smiles at eaach other as we devoured these. We started looking at the signs and saying, ok next time we try the tabolleh, the foul, the pita chips. How good is a restaurant that you are already looking at the menu while eating lunch, to decide what to try on the next visit? We were not really full but saved room for the stadium as the new stadium is hyping its food and how much vegan food is supposedly on the menus. This was a mistake.

So we drove towards the stadium but to Miplitas to park a few miles away and take the train. Parking was over 40 dollars and very limited and this seemed like a better option, as it is only 4 dollars round trip. Silly to pay! That was a 2 dollar waste. We did not pay on the way back and walked right past the inept security that was between the stadium and the train station after the game.

The light rail, for some reason was running very few trains and very small ones. I guess noone informed the city or county that a huge new stadium had a major event going on and about 40,000 tickets were sold. Thus many people could simply not get on the trains, waiting absurdly long times to get to the stadium. Once we arrived at the stadium in a very hot and sweaty packed train, we are greeted by Department of Homeland Security goons, armed to the teeth, trying to look tough and intimidating. Then we are corraled to get to “security, or a comical excuse that may make someone feel safe. They were simply rude, condescending and completely unprofessional and inept. The woman in front of us appeared to be a Plain Jane white suburban mom with 2 young girls, about 10 years old. They interograted her to the point of bringing her to tears, taking her bag from her. The tickets did not say so nor did the website but there was a no bag policy. The bizarre policy of not being allowed to bring in any kind of pack is a little scary and perhaps absurd! Oh yeah, we live in the "age of terrorism" and must always be told to be afraid and then go through some delusion that someone is looking out for our safety.
Thus you cannot bring in water and they can sell it to you at 6 dollars a bottle. Now this is where it gets absurd. You cannot bring a bag in (We did not have any, thankfully!) and noone was informed they could not bring a bag in yet they bag check had 16 tiny lockers. the bag check had lines of dozens of people long and from what i heard from people talking around us, you had to fill out a form in duplicate with your name, all sorts of id information (Drivers license included!) and then give them your bag. But the form had no id number to identify your bag with. Must have been fun on return.

Eventually, we get through security which took far longer than necessary and appeared to accomplish nothing whatsoever except to make people wait in lines and then get harrassed for wanting to catch a good soccer game. Ok i had no metal on me. Why was i standing for minutes with noone in front of me except a scared looking and harrased mom, before someone said, "go through" rather rudely and abruptly. There are ways to make security "friendly" as i have experienced in Holland, Japan and Canada. There are ways to make someone not feel like they are being treated like a criminal. A smile and a simple, Miss, may you please open your bag so i may look at the contents can be a very quick and not unpleasant experience.

Now for me one of the great ironies was that during the star spangled banner, when the singer gets to the line, “Land of the free”, the crowd starts hooting and hollering in approval.

Bicyle paths were all shut and closed that approached the stadium. Can someone please explain that to me. Cori and i both said on the train ride in, next time (and there will be a next time as we love soccer and there will be games at this stadium that we want to see), we bring the bicycles, park 5 miles away in a neighborhood for free and bike over as there is (on the website) a bicycle parking lot. But all bike paths were closed off that led towards the stadium. Does this make sense to someone?

The stadium on the outside is very attractive. There seems to be limited approaches, though, i only counted 3 bridges. A little small in case of an actual emergency to get 60K or more people out of there. And they are obviously planning for an emergency since DHS was out in full force with a fair amount of weaponry on display.

The ushers had no idea what they were doing or where anything was. Our section 245, oddly, was not listed anywhere on any signs and we walked around the entire concourse to explore the food and beer options. They forgot to buy enough paint to put signs up for sections, apparently. But there were signs for so many sections in terms of go this way or go that way but not for 245. Luckily i know 245 comes after 244 so it was not too difficult to navigate.

First we walked around the whole stadium, to check out food and beer options.

Beer options were 11 dollars and we chose not to drink beer. Give me a rare Belgian ale like Blackberry Albert and i am happy to pay 11 dollars but not for a small glass of lagunitas or sierra nevada. And oddly, they were already running out of beer and the game was not on for another hour. Hello, didnt anyone tell these people that about 40,000 soccer fans were coming by, today? Noone informed the bars to order enough beer?

The word “vegan” is everywhere to be found and i found that nice and also rather amusing. The only place i have seen so many signs saying “vegan” is in one of the Supreme Master Crackpots restaurants, especially the one in Milpitas that has the word repeated over 1 dozen times on the outside windows. And sadly, the food, was dreadful. Now one does not have high expectations of food at a stadium. But this stadium is hyping itself in many ways, and really hyping itself to the vegan community. Do many vegans go to NFL games, the most militant of all professional sports? As this is a NFL stadium and to be mainly used for American football.

Burgers and dog options were, not surprisingly, manufactured in factories very far away by a company that one can easily by in a store. They are gluten and processed soy bombs that some people enjoy. However, looking at what people were walking around was a HUGE bun, that looked whiter than Johnny Winter and from reports around us in the stands was hard as a rock. I refuse to mention the name of the corporation that makes this processed vegan crap as they do not pay me to shill for their manufactured items.

We found a steamed bun place, not something one would expect at a stadium. Ok, this is not made in a factory, we thought. Well, perhaps it was. For 10 dollars we ordered the “vegan” dish which was called black vinegar portabello bao. Neither of us are big portabello fans but we were curious and foolishly, we did not fill up on the amazing food we experienced earlier in San Jose at Falafel’s drive in (the best falafel experience i have found on the west coast!). For 10 dollars, they give you 4 tiny bao. The bread was cold, goopy, doughy. One of the doughy things had nothing in it. The other 3 had a big wedge of portabello that had a crazy amount of vinegar in it. And it was topped with siracha and more goop, this time a white-gelatinous, sauce of some inedible sort. We each had one and tossed the other 2. Depressing! Then we found some garlic fries which were ok, not great but a small serving for a very large price and all the garlic was on the bottom. Clueless mistake. Fries and a water was 15 dollars.
Why did we not eat more at the Falafel place that was soooooo good? Next time we know better to fill up before the game!

Then the game. Well first some skydivers from the military dove on to the stadium, supposedly to deliver the game ball but none of them had a ball with them, oddly. 2 of them made crash landings and the other 2 made beautiful elegant landings. Do we really need to see military guys on parade to watch a soccer game. No thank you! then a military chopper flew right over the stadium. hmmmm

The game started and it was a blast. Seattle has been having a great season and one of the US national teams great player’s Clint Dempsey is now playing with them, after playing in England at Fulham and Tottenham for many years. I was excited to see him play in person and to see him and that young dread guy hook up together as they have been quite magical this season. And of course, i am always there to support our local team, San Jose, who are having another dreadful season and sit in last place at the start of the game. Unfortunately they have been playing a very ungraceful style of football, with little possession or passing game from the midfield and the forwards are simply not scoring. Defensively despite last place, the defense has been solid, anchored by one of the league’s finest goalies, John Busch and the beast of a centerback, Victor Bernarez, both of whom were in exceptional form, last night. Busch made at least 10 saves in the last 20 minutes as Seattle started to click and put on a barrage of shots.
The last 2 games, the team seems to be turning around with the midfield starting to control a little more and connect more passes. Last home game was a whalloping of Chicago 5-1 and prior to that an impressive 1-1 tie in New York.
Last night showed this improvement yet showed how much work still needs to be developed. The new attacking midfielder from Portugal, on loan from Sporting Lisbon, Yannick Djalo, is a crowd pleaser. He is fast and excited and is working like a fiend. However his first touches are mostly very poor and thus gives the ball away. However, just before the first half ended, Wondo made a great steal at midfield, an incredible quick turn, long pass to Djalo, who got behind the defender and placed the ball perfectly into the far corner. Seattle was the better team in the first half yet the score was 1-0 in San Jose’s favor.
Second half started with a very strong appearance from the quakes midfield. But Salinas and Harris on the wings were making horrible passes. Harris missed an open net when Djalo set him up with a great cross. There was no real attack coming from the right side all game long.

About the 60th minute, Seattle started to turn it on and were playing a very attractive style of attack. Great formations coming down in numbers but the quakes defense remained solid. Bernardez and Hernandez were pretty much flawless in the center, making up for some of the space being given the wings and attacking midfield who were setting things up. Busch was getting bombed from outside shots and crosses coming into the middle and he was exceptional as he usually is.
A nice upset, 2nd win in a row and 3 games in a row without a loss. The team is turning around, starting to play less thug-like, which is great to see.

The quakes open up a new stadium dedicated only to soccer for next season. It is way smaller than the 49ers stadium but hopefully will be a nicer experience and better thought out than this one. However, that stadium is small and it appears the plan is to use the 49ers stadium for international games and the Mexican national team plays Chile in September and it may be used for the upcoming Copa America tournament. So i hope to return for soccer games.

Sound & Savor

Search This Blog

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Thai dinner class, Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Italian dinner class September 10, 2014

Sunday, August 3, 2014

San Jose -Seattle at the new Levis' stadium, thoughts on the stadium, food and soccer

Yodo Kurahashi II dinner/concert Tuesday, August 26 in Oakland

Facebook Badge

My Blog List

Followers