pot Luck

The sky opened up on Sunday and with that an idea emerged: Pixar exhibit at the newly renovated Oakland Museum of Art. After a hearty breakfast we drove down to Oak street. there was anything but a light rain and after we zipped up our rain jackets, we emerged street level to find a line down Oak and around the block. People were huddled under umbrellas (we didn't have one), waiting for the museum to open.

Apparently I had tapped into the collective consciousness of all of Oakland - this was clearly the place to be on a dreary Sunday. We assessed the line, felt our legs getting cold and wet and unanimously aborted. Next stop: Lucky's.

John said we were "going ghetto" - not exactly - but Lucky's isn't Safeway, nor is it Trader Joe's and it certainly isn't Whole Foods/paycheck. That said, this is probably the nicest Lucky's around. We needed to bring an appetizer to Kaya's for a pot-luck. This crowd is probably the most low-key, down-to-earth group of people I know (and love). Nothing snotty here - just plain 'ol good people. Now... what to bring. I reached deep into my early childhood memories, certainly not upscale as we were growing up (early in my youth), and I remember: weenies wrapped in Pillsbury dough (with ketchup and mustard). Yum. Then I thought, fried shrimp - well, I was kind of thinking catfish, but catfish can be challenging, so shrimp it was. I was also thinking, "rain, cold, football... fish 'n chips!" As we were waiting in line, an older black dude was pondering the same, "I really want fish 'n chips today - give me some catfish!"

Um, wow, was my brain truly in sync with the rest of Oakland? How random was that? So we started chatting him up and sure 'nuf - football and fried fish. We settled on cod and home we went.

I made a beer batter and plunked those bad boys in the vat of hot oil - YUM. I made a home made cocktail sauce (that was new too) and yum-me!

That evening we schlepped our Fry Daddy and a pound of shrimp over to Kaya's and chowed down on those little weenies and fried shrimp. Good times.