On Sunday, we went to Baker Beach

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and grumbled at the Blue Angels flexing their military muscle all over our supposed-to-be quiet day. Eventually, they landed and we were able to take a nap that left us hungry.
Hungry and near Clement Street


(which might as well be China Town West here in San Francisco) meant that we were on a hunt for noodles. Part of the hunt included trying to find noodles to cook at home.

And boy did we find them! The May Wah Supermarket made our night. We got oodles of noodles, veggies, soy milk, tea, a wok cleaning brush, some nice porcelain soup spoons, lots of different versions of bean paste filled cookies, a small bottle of sake and one small can of basil seed drink.

Below, you’ll see two photos (I have SUCH a hard time deciding!!) of me and the latter two Asian market finds.

Ahh, basil seed drink. I was pretty nervous to try this stuff, hence the drink not quite hitting my mouth.¹

Mmm, nigori sake in a pretty pink bottle. It was a half bottle so my huge hand is actually not huge.

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¹Once he did it…

…I couldn’t back down!

It’s actually filled with these little gelatinously coated black seeds that taste vaguely of basil. The juice that they float inside tastes mildly of banana flavoring and the fun part was chomping down on the strange little seeds – it was easier to do so when only a small mouthful is ingested at a time.

The technique of filling the mouth with a big gulp and then trying to catch the seeds between the teeth…

…didn’t work so well.

Yay!

I love food and I love photographing food and I love taking self portraits. I’ve just never focused on doing them together so this is super fun for me (rubs hands together with glee).

The hardest part of this challenge is choosing only one image to post here.
I’ve narrowed it down to just two¹ and if you feel so inclined, I’d love to hear which is your favorite and why.

These two are from my “candy obsession” session. Feel free to click to see the image larger.

I like this one best for the composition overall, but I don’t like that the Cyprus Delight² I’m pulling from the shelf is cut off.

I like this one best for the look on my face, the fun, sharp perspective and the fact that the Cyprus Delight is shown off better, but I don’t like the overhead light that’s, well, directly over my head.

¹Actually, I wanted to share this one too because I felt like a 10 year old when I was shooting this part of the “candy obsession” series. I was giggling and trying to get the chocolate to show without it looking too gross. Then my man walked into the kitchen and said “are you taking pictures of yourself stuffing chocolate into your mouth?” and just kind of shook his head and laughed as I cracked up. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was a super deep, belly laugh and it felt really good. Be forewarned, if you click thru to the larger image, it might gross you out like it did him. I think it’s hilarious and it makes me giggle to look at it.

²similar to Turkish Delight, a la The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, only made in Cyprus instead. I got it at Bi Rite Creamery and it’s got lots of yummy bergamot flavor – deelish.

i found the bathroom topic to be intriguing for a few reasons.
the first being that i love the bathroom here at my boyfriend’s apartment and was excited to photo-document myself in it.
the second being that scene in Say Anything when James Court gets into his empty tub, with all of his clothes on to cry about how his world is collapsing around him. that scene has always made me cry with empathy.
the third reason takes the second reason into consideration. i’ve been going thru a lot of changes emotionally and mentally and find that i gain solace when in the bath.

in these photos, i attempted to capture the strong, yet emotionally challenged state i’ve been existing in for the past few months. it just so happens that these two images were, respectively, the first and last photos i took for this challenge.