Satsuki Bazaar on Channing Way
One blue-sky Sunday in May. A section of Channing Way, between Shattuck and Fulton, was blocked. Two girls draped in summery garments danced to joyous Hawaiian tunes on a sunlit wooden stage, surrounded by a small crowd of both familiar spectators and curious passing pedestrians. The seductive smell of grill beef got caught in the wind here and there.
So it was the street front of the 61st annual Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival at the Berkeley Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple on Channing Way. Inside the temple, a multitude of items displayed for silent auction held visitors’ footsteps, starting with orchids, matted photos and paintings, gift cards to sushi bars and diving lessons…
…to porcelain sets, stuffed toys, a wooden sculpture of Daruma, and Shichi Fukujin in a glass box.
But few things can attract everybody like food. The “dining hall” was packed to the door like a beehive overflowed with nectar.
Every few minutes there were tiny old ladies weaving among the crowd with big trays of musubi and sweets from the dining hall to the “bakery”, a front desk covered with homemade edible goods, baked, rolled, fried, pickled, and jarred.
We just couldn’t help it. The umeboshi (pickled plum) was going fast at $5 per small jar and $8 per big one. Mudpie hungrily grabbed onto two jelly jars, kumquat ($4) and persimmon-pineapple-apricot ($5), which have the exact same color. Then we started loading pastries into our bag…
First came the blueberry scone, which tasted like wet sand, but we paid only one buck for it, can’t complain.
Then there were little squares of mochi (and a lonely piece of brown banana cake). Each square cost a buck too (and they are about 20 times smaller than the scone), but none was as good as the mochi cubes in front of Cafe Hana. Pretty scrumptious lonely piece of brown banana cake though.
Now these are the real disappointment. The manju, mochi balls with red bean paste, looked so much better than they tasted. Is the yellow egg-shaped pastry dotted with poppy seed and filled with sweetened taro paste also a manju? Guess how much they were. $1.25 each. Sugar excess.
Fortunately the savory side is a greener pasture. The 2-dollar spam musubi hit the spot just right (processed meat always tastes so good after you reprocess it with sugar and soy sauce). The nori was mild, thick, and moist.
We top things off with a lustrous loco moco, a burger patty squatted on a bed of extremely moist short-grained rice, covered with a runny egg and a ladle of beef gravy. After one spoonful, Mudpie couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the afternoon. The whole thing was like a peppery, creamy, rich butter boat. All for $5, and honestly it would be just as spoon-licking without the grilled meat.
And so I learned something new. At Vietnamese Buddhist pagodas, you can find only vegan food regardless of festive occasions or normal days. Here at a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple, there is plenty of meat, crackling and sizzling on one blue-sky Sunday in May.
61st Annual Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival, May 22-23, 2009
Berkeley Buddhist Temple
2121 Channing Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 841-1356
Update: I WON something in the silent auction: an adorable set of tea cups and tea bowls, notice the matching pairs with one tea cup slightly taller than the other. The visit was a success!
Great awesome issues here. I am very glad to see your post. Thanks so much and i am having a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?
1Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
2Thankyou for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info .
3Lovely site! I am loving it!! Will come back again. I am bookmarking your feeds also
4Very nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wished to mention that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your weblog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing on your feed and I’m hoping you write once more very soon!
5Hi, i feel that i noticed you visited my site thus i got here to “return the prefer”.I’m attempting to to find issues to improve my website!I assume its good enough to make use of some of your ideas!!
6Very interesting info !Perfect just what I was looking for!
7I have been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be much more useful than ever before.
8Hi there are using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you require any coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
9I conceive you have mentioned some very interesting details , thanks for the post.
10There are certainly a variety of particulars like that to take into consideration. That could be a great level to carry up. I supply the thoughts above as normal inspiration but clearly there are questions just like the one you deliver up the place the most important factor can be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if finest practices have emerged around issues like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a good game. Both boys and girls feel the affect of just a moment’s pleasure, for the remainder of their lives.
11I think you have mentioned some very interesting details , regards for the post.
12There are some attention-grabbing cut-off dates on this article however I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take maintain opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as effectively
13You have noted very interesting points! ps decent web site. “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” by Alfred Hitchcock.
14You made some decent points there. I did a search on the topic and found most persons will approve with your site.
15Only wanna input on few general things, The website design is perfect, the content is rattling fantastic. “The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others.” by Sonya Friedman.
16I conceive this website holds some very good info for everyone :D.
17That is the right blog for anyone who wants to seek out out about this topic. You realize a lot its virtually onerous to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, just nice!
18I’ll right away snatch your rss feed as I can not find your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly allow me understand in order that I may subscribe. Thanks.
19Hello, Neat post. There is a problem together with your site in internet explorer, might test this?K IE still is the marketplace chief and a big section of people will pass over your great writing due to this problem.
20Hi , I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbled upon it on Yahoo , i will come back once again. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and help other people.
21wonderful points altogether, you simply gained a brand new reader. What would you recommend about your post that you made a few days ago? Any positive?
22I view something truly interesting about your weblog so I saved to favorites.
23I have been surfing online more than 3 hours these days, yet I never found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s beautiful value enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the web might be a lot more useful than ever before.
24Yeah bookmaking this wasn’t a high risk decision outstanding post! .
25Sweet internet site, super style and design, rattling clean and apply pleasant.
26Thanks , I’ve just been looking for info approximately this subject for a while and yours is the greatest I have came upon till now. But, what in regards to the conclusion? Are you positive in regards to the supply?
27Hey there, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Chrome, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, fantastic blog!
28CleanEye
29Hello, Neat post. There is an issue together with your web site in internet explorer, may check this?K IE nonetheless is the market leader and a good portion of people will miss your excellent writing due to this problem.
30Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your website is very cool. I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this website. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found simply the info I already searched everywhere and just couldn’t come across. What a great website.
31I was examining some of your posts on this site and I conceive this internet site is real informative! Keep on putting up.
32I will right away seize your rss feed as I can not find your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly allow me understand so that I may subscribe. Thanks.
33Very interesting details you have remarked, regards for posting. “‘Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.” by Malaclypse the Younger.
34Just wish to say your article is as astounding. The clearness for your put up is simply cool and i can think you are knowledgeable in this subject. Well along with your permission allow me to snatch your feed to keep updated with imminent post. Thanks a million and please carry on the rewarding work.
35Loving the info on this website , you have done outstanding job on the blog posts.
36I am impressed with this site, rattling I am a big fan .
37My spouse and I absolutely love your blog and find nearly all of your post’s to be precisely what I’m looking for. Would you offer guest writers to write content for yourself? I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on most of the subjects you write in relation to here. Again, awesome web log!
38Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
39Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
40Very interesting subject , thanks for posting.
41Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he actually bought me lunch because I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
42Hi! I’ve been reading your web site for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the great work!
43Great line up. We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the good writing.
44I love it when people come together and share opinions, great blog, keep it up.
45Spot on with this write-up, I actually think this website wants much more consideration. I’ll probably be again to learn way more, thanks for that info.
46My brother suggested I might like this website. He was totally right. This post truly made my day. You cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
47What i do not understood is actually how you are not actually much more well-liked than you might be now. You are very intelligent. You realize thus significantly relating to this subject, produced me personally consider it from numerous varied angles. Its like men and women aren’t fascinated unless it is one thing to do with Lady gaga! Your own stuffs excellent. Always maintain it up!
48I think you have remarked some very interesting points, thanks for the post.
49Excellent site you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any forums that cover the same topics talked about here? I’d really like to be a part of group where I can get suggestions from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thanks!
50