Friday, March 20, 2009

Pasadena Lifestyle

I am in search of "Patio Furniture", yesterday evening at dinner I got the right keyword. The site of the revelation was an Afghani restaurant in central Pasadena, which is a lovely and lively little centre. "you are looking for Patio Furniture...."
One of the problems of everyday life, even if you master the language decently, is how to ask for... So as I want a confortable chair to sit and enjoy the afternoon shadow with a book or write the blog, etc. How do you ask for it? I need soemething to lean in the courtyard, I want a reclining chair, a rocking chair, either too generic or too specific, the attendant looks at you with strained eyes and slowly says, no we do not have those.
They really did not. I went around three Antiques shops, they do not sell old beautiful furniture, but just old, second hand stuff, but they did not have anything for outside. Thus today I will probably go to Home Depot a chain of department stores specializing in everything for the house.

In the meantime I am trying to find my way around the lifestyle in this area of california, of Los Angeles.
Yesterday I went to visit a piece of history of Southern California, the first Trader Joe's store ever opened in 1958. Trader Joe's in a sense stands to Southern California as Dunkin' Donuts stands for New England, a philosophy of eating. But Dunkin' Donuts is a fast food chain providing caffeine saturated fat and sugar, Trader Joe's is a chain of quality and foreign food supermarkets dressed in hawayan shirt. It started in the sixties to market food from abroad with a focus on quality. They have a Hawayan logo and shirts that was introduced to distinguish the company from rival food chains.
I was not particularly impressed by the store itself, but I suppose that forty years later all chains have learned to have their quality section...
Open food market with fresh product is a political statement. http://www.pasadenafarmersmarket.org/ Every tuesday and saturday there is a farmer's market. I long to go and have a look. They say that tomatoes are tasty, I want to check that out.
In the meantime at the Huntington, this morning upon entering the library there was a basket of free lemons, very tasty and juicy, from the botanic garden.



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