San Gabriel Redux

Today was another glorious day of celebrating the slavery that is the San Gabriel Foot Massage. I picked A up in Silverlake and she showed me her favorite back street route to Ben and Kate's house, via Ben Lomond Place. On the way, we had a brief I'm-a-Porsche, You're-a-Porsche wing ding with the Dylan McKay Porsche.

We piled into the Prius and made a quick pit stop at Gelson's, where the civilized white people shop, so we wouldn't forget what they looked like after an afternoon of Asian immersion. A got stuck behind a white lady at the check stand who seemed to have never ever used a PIN pad.


We stopped in at SG Supermarket for a tiny dim summit. Ben and Kate picked up odds and ends, mainly jack fruit, oranges, potatoes. Must be making a pizza later. This is one of the menus.



And this is the line. The front of the line anyway. I couldn't get the whole line in frame. With as many people eager to get their dim sum rations, it's prison rules baby.

And this woman is the self assigned Judge Dredd and god bless her a million times plus infinity for her efforts. In her short tenure, she kept us all moving in the right direction. A middle aged woman and her older than redwoods mother walked up to the counter without any regard to the column of souls behind, and the Judge told her what time it was with a lot of back up from me. The lady and her mother did not want to comply with the Judge and I stepped up with a hitch hiker thumb to the rear - "Aaa aaa, the line starts back there, waayy back there." After that was cleared up, and our turns were up, the Judge shook her head at me, "who they think they are, I not kidding around, this the dim sum line."


And we got all of this delicious booty for 6 bucks American.

GPS guided Ben and Prius to Joyful Foot Spa on Las Tunas. It's a smaller operation than Lucky Foot Spa, and it could maybe benefit from a little sprucing up. As a matter of course, the big screen was on, tuned in to Power Rangers. To emphasize serenity, the sound was muted, in favor of Celine Dion and other Celine Dion like musak. The most wondrous elements were the handful of large Moving Waterfall Pictures on each wall. The steady, droning sound of the electric motors that drive the shimmering scrolls added much to my sense of inner peace. The stained white towels did not.

I immediately forget about all of these pesky details once the work commenced. I got an older man who, in a parallel universe is my track coach. The guy had hands like determined sausages. Go there and you'll know what I mean by this. This was an incredibly focused massage that easily relieved me of the bondage of self. As my feet soaked in the hot tea, he worked my back with his forearm, producing this crunching, squishing sound I'd never heard before. It was as if he was killing all the Jellyfish dwelling under my shirt. Thank you.

I think I might have gone into a hyper Alpha-Delta wave mode, or some kind of conscious coma. If an over boosted Power Ranger, say the green one, burst into the place through one of the walls, I would not have moved or cared. My companions felt similarly. At the end, I glanced over to A at my right enjoying a cup of water in a styrofoam cup as if she were sipping a lacquered bowl of Big Mama Takahashi's Life Giving Miso.

We oozed into the car and Ben drove us to Hawaii Super in search of cold food and hot food - something to satisfy each of our immediate and overwhelming food needs.

Here is the bulletin board outside with want ads. If I had to guess, I'd say that these are all for mandarin lessons or chinese cooking class. I took a few numbers that I'll call tomorrow.

This is the boba trailer parked directly in front of the main entrance.

And this is the Jade Van from which you can buy all things jade. Very handy.

Other than some fried cakes that Kate bought outside for 60 cents, the food we needed was not available. So back in the car, left on Valley Boulevard toward Monterey Park, Alhambra and boom - the strip mall mecca at the corner of New Avenue and Valley Boulevard. We agreed on Korean food - hot and cold food, meat and vegetarian options, in low lighting and quiet as a monastery. In this lowly lit space, with this incredible food, we allowed our comas to slowly fade.