In a shameless attempt to attract more page views to my little blog, I am posting three live tracks from the Fresno art-pop band Fierce Creatures here for downloading, courtesy 90.7 KFSR. They have a pretty loyal local following for being such a new band and that’s sure to be stoked by the release party for their debut EP, I Mostri Feroci, on July 6 at The Captive, a new Tower District venue run by Johnny Quiroz and his hard-working Love The Captive promotions crew. I recently had the band live and unplugged in the studio on my Evening Eclectic show and they were a real treat. RIYL Arcade Fire, hand claps, sunny afternoons.

Fierce Creatures – Phantom Athletes [Live on 90.7 KFSR]

Fierce Creatures – The Great White [Live on 90.7 KFSR]

Fierce Creatures – The Brut and the Beast [Live on 90.7 KFSR]

Note for hardcore FC fans: If you tried listening/downloading these before on KFSR.org and they didn’t work, you might have to empty your browser’s cache before trying to listen/download to these. The previous files have now been replaced.

I’ve always kind of wanted a brother, someone to talk to about dude stuff. I already have a little sister who is a schoolteacher in Las Vegas. But she and I don’t talk much. So when Eric Parker came along a few years ago, I got my wish. Not only does the guy wash windows (above), write a great blog (here), and regularly rub elbows with literary greats (here and here) but he has also has been just about the best brother I could have asked for.

Eric grew up in Clovis, lived in San Diego, and got both his BA in English and his MFA in creative writing here at Fresno State. He currently lives in San Diego where he blogs and is working on a book project. Ever since I met him in 2004, Eric and I have talked about doing some daytime tours of the little towns that surround Fresno. Even though both of us have lived in the central San Joaquin Valley off and on for most of our lives, there are so many people and places right under our noses here that we want to check out and immerse ourselves in–a la Gay Talese or Susan Orlean, two of our favorite writers–just to see what we find.

Eric was in town this past week or so doing research for his book. We had a couple chances to get together for meals and to catch up. This past Tuesday afternoon, Eric and I went on a quickie tour of spots in Minkler, Reedley, Dinuba, Kingsburg, and Selma. Our first stop was the Minkler Cash Store on Highway 180 northeast of Sanger. We bellied up to the bar and visited with the owner, Mary, whose mother Sylvia knows my dad from his days as a truck driver at the former Central Valley Ready-Mix, and a local, Jeffrey, who was playing the piano when we got there. Mary said she remembered me from when I was a kid. We had a great visit with them and loved the organized clutter of the store.

Next stop was Uncle Harry’s restaurant on G Street in Reedley. This is not the Uncle Harry’s that most people know as a bagel shop. This is the Uncle Harry’s of Harry Horasanian, a longtime restaurateur and a friend of my mother’s family for generations. His Armenian food is well known by folks all over the valley and even my vegetarian brother Eric went animal style with the turkey kabob sandwich during our visit. He said when you’re going local, you’ve got to do what the locals do. I’m pretty sure he didn’t regret it.

We motored into Dinuba to visit my parents next. Eric snapped this shot of me and my mom before we left. But mostly, Eric and I hung out in the garage with my dad, playing billiards and ping pong. The results? Well, my dad did a lot of shit talking and beat everyone in billiards. But no one could touch me in ping pong. Eric held his own in both and he even shared a can of Olympia with my dad. I’ve never been a beer drinker and I think my dad has sometimes wished I was. But two out of three dudes (67%) kicking back an Oly on a hot summer day worked better for us than one out of two (50%).

We rounded out the tour with a stop at the Sun Maid raisin plant just outside of Kingsburg and a quick drive down Golden State Boulevard through Selma, past the famous Wilkins Drive-In, on our way back. The Sun Maid plant was a little disappointing because only the gift shop is now open to the public. No tours inside like back in the old days. But at least there were free samples, good conversation, and a few photo opps for two brothers who made time to take their own little tour of a couple places that had always been there.

Tracy and I spent most of our weekend hanging out at home. We’ve thankfully found ourselves with a couple weeks off between spring and summer teaching terms. So what’s the first thing we do when we’ve got any free time on our hands? Eat out, of course! On Saturday, we were craving something fresh so we decided to hit our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Jasmine Garden at Shaw and Woodrow near Fresno State.

I ordered my old stand-by: the house special no.7, which is called kra-tiem prik tai. It’s a Thai black pepper and garlic dish with green onions, sauteed in a brown sauce and served over a bed of romaine lettuce. This day, I ordered it with chicken and at medium hot. (I’ve also had it with tofu and with beef, each good.) When you tell the folks at Jasmine Garden that you want medium hot, I’ve found that most of their dishes aren’t very hot. But with this particular dish, because of the combo of pepper and garlic, a medium hot order will set your mouth on fire for a while.

Tracy ordered the C2 chicken pho, a hearty noodle soup that’s pronounced kind of like “fuh” and is served with rice noodles, broth, and a selection of the diner’s fresh ingredients. Here, Jasmine Garden offered Tracy a bunch of possible additional fixin’s for her pho including mint, basil, bean sprouts, jalapeño peppers, and lemon. The broth included lettuce, green onion, pearl onion, and tons of slow-cooked spices.

A fair number of reviewers on Yelp and similar sites give Jasmine Garden a bad rap because their food is apparently more pan-Asian than it is pure Vietnamese. The owners, reportedly, are Hmong. But to me, that’s Fresno–a place where flavors and influences come together in unusual (and very American) ways. Hardcore pho enthusiasts in town would point to the central Fresno area roughly bounded by Clinton Avenue to the north, Fresno Street to the west, Olive Avenue to the south, and Chestnut Avenue to the east, where there are at least eight pho restaurants, as the best options to find the classic Vietnamese soup. But Tracy and I love the comfort of Jasmine Garden.

Jasmine Garden
2633 E. Shaw Ave., Fresno, CA 93710

For a long time I’ve had a hypothesis that a person’s tea or coffee order had some kind of unintended deeper meaning, a sort of predictor of the drinker’s personality. Earlier this week, my wife Tracy and I had a chance to meet up with a trio of friends at the Teazer World Tea Market in downtown Fresno. Since it was the Memorial Day holiday, it turned out to be an unusually quiet afternoon at the normally bustling Galleria center, on Capitol between N and O streets. It was the perfect opportunity to not only enjoy some good company but also to get back into the swing of observation and test my theory.

Our friend Marcus wasn’t quite sure what to order, overwhelmed a bit with Teazer’s impressive tea selection. With input from Tracy and the bartender, he picked an elephant chai, which is a vanilla chai drink lightly spiced with cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves. Marcus, who is a graduate nursing student at Fresno State, was kind and gregarious enough to share a sip of his drink for anyone at the table who wanted one. Someone said that Marcus’s drink was the best at Teazer.

Tracy ordered her usual: the razmatazz, a black tea drink with raspberry, key lime, and lemongrass. I also ordered my usual: the limey, a black tea drink with lots of key limes. Tracy and I do love to try new local places to eat out all the time, but we also tend to stick to our comfort orders when we return to those places. I think I’ve ordered the limey every single time I’ve been to Teazer, in fact, even though they offer more than 200 teas.

Our friend Reaz told the bartender that he wanted a drink that was more like a dessert. The result: the monk’s blend, a black tea drink infused with vanilla and grenadine. Reaz, who teaches journalism at Fresno State and is also a classical music composer and short-story writer, powered down his drink efficiently, a clear nod of approval to our hosts at Teazer in his first ever visit.

Our friend Susan ordered a tangerine dream, a drink known for its tang and vigor. Susan, who teaches journalism at Fresno State while also knitting, spinning, and researching social media, perhaps summed up the day best with her response to my question of how she picked her drink. “I wanted something cool and refreshing on a hot summer’s day.” While her thought initially reminded me of an old Nestea Plunge commercial, I later realized that my afternoon of observations made a lot of sense.

Teazer World Tea Market
2405 Capitol Street, Fresno, CA 93721

One of my longtime favorite Fresno lunch spots has to be Eddie’s Bakery Cafe on the northwest corner of Cedar and Herndon. My good friend Kelly Paramo first took me there circa 1995 when we were Fresno State undergrads and I’ve been loyal ever since. I like to go to Eddie’s with my wife Tracy (pictured above) to watch happy people walk out of the place while delicately carrying giant decorative cakes and fruit tarts in their arms.

I always like to order the grilled chicken panini. It comes with a thin-sliced, grilled chicken breast, caramelized onions and fontina cheese, on a panini. They even cut the crusts off to make a fancy line and include a big pickle spear. I always order mine with the seasonal fruit salad.

On this day, Tracy ordered the caesar salad and added a grilled chicken breast. It comes with chopped hearts of romaine, caesar dressing and shredded parmesan, with a slice of freshly baked sourdough on the side. Eddie’s also sells their homemade salad dressings.

And when you eat lunch at Eddie’s, make sure to leave room for dessert. On this day, Tracy and I split a piece of chocolate cake. I asked the baker what the name of this cake was and he said it didn’t have one. But then he made up the name “sprinkly shoelace chocolate cake” just for us.

Eddie’s Bakery Cafe
7089 N. Cedar Ave., Fresno, CA 93720