Roadtripping on the Coast of Cali - Post 1

While there are those who cherish raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, I hold recycling on street corners and composting in restaurants in special favor.  As I become more and more steeped in food reform as a result of my current line of work, I am feeling captivated and intensely concerned about food waste and sustainability.  The whole recycling bit goes way back...since I was very young, if green bins were nowhere to be found, I would haul stacks of paper with me until I found an appropriate home for them. Unsurprisingly, I thought Al Gore was THE man.  More recently, on a trip to India, I was struck by a simple act of recycling - while visiting my mother's village, when I couldn't find the "dustbin" after lunch, I handed my plate to the servant and watched as he tossed the chicken bones and inedible stems of spices in the backyard.  Of course!  Was I ever a fool.  There was no sophisticated system of garbage disposal there.  Return what comes from the land to the land.  If you choose to bring in products wrapped in the likes of plastic from the city, then take it with you on your way out or risk "soiling" the pristine land - this observation made my own footprint so easy to understand.

I wince every time I throw a banana peel or apple core in my kitchen garbage bin.  I want to catch up to those progressive utopias where this "waste" is reused as fertilizer.  And this is why I love San Francisco - and respect the cultural shift they have sparked to create awareness, engagement and action to consume, dispose, and live responsibly.

It goes well beyond recycling and composting.  Blink an eye, and you will see new bikers and runners.  Unhealthy food feels like the anomaly, not the norm.

I dare say, as a diehard healthy food aficionado, SF trumps NYC.  Last week, hubby and I embarked on a road trip down Route 1 in Cali and we started our sojourn in none other than SF.  I find myself frequently thinking of Nopalito where it felt like no time had elapsed from the guava juice being transported from tree to table and the ceviche from sea to plate.  I want to relive eating at Burma Superstar where the striking taste of red chilies was subtly infused into each dish without sending my taste buds into a tailspin.

I love learning about new ways of living.  This is one I hope to integrate in my own.