Turkeys and Rice Noodles This week, I continued to see my deer friends while trail jogging up in the hills. On Tuesday, some new friends that I had never seen before appeared--wild turkeys. Jogging down a narrow trail, I suddenly saw a flock of 10-20 turkeys. They didn't stick around to look at me. Crashing through the brush as they ran away, the turkeys were gone in a few seconds. I hope to see them again.

Wednesday night found me at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House, another of my favorite music venues in Berkeley. There are two reasons why I like the Freight so much. With its small size, you are almost guaranteed to get a good seat. And the Freight attracts a wide variety of musical performers, from bluegrass to jazz to folk, with lots of traditional, acoustic music. Wednesday's program was Beppe Gambetta, an acclaimed flatpick guitar player from Genoa, Italy, and David Grisman, a master on the mandolin who plays a mix of bluegrass, gypsy, and other music styles. I really enjoyed the way these two masters blended their music together, especially the Italian-American songs that they played. One song was so soft and peaceful that it almost put me to sleep like a lullaby.

Lately, I have been reading an article about rice noodles 米 線 mai2 sin3 in Hong Kong. The first time that I tried 米 線 was when I went to 桂 林 Guilin in 2001. Since then, I didn't eat it again until I went to Vancouver last month. According to the article, while 米 線 is most widespread in 雲 南 Yunnan Province, it also can be found in 湖 南 Hunan Province and 廣 東 Guangdong Province, where it is called by different names. The Hunanese 湖 南 人 call it 榨 粉, and the Cantonese 廣 東 人 call it 米 粉. The taste and appearance are different, but all are made with the same ingredients--rice and water. In Yunnan, since each household eats 米 線, 米 線 shops can be seen everywhere, and it's common for a family to have 米 線 for three meals a day. Although 米 線 has a long history in Yunnan, it has become popular in Hong Kong only during the past 10 years. Next week, I will continue the story about 米 線 in Hong Kong.  ¶ 7:32 PM