Saturday, February 6, 2010

An Aztec valentine with many connections.

Dark.
Dark.
Did you know the Aztecs are behind that sour bitterness you love so much?! The word chocolate is brought to you by the Spanish tongue which derives from the Nahuatl word "xocolatl" (ref.) Anyways, not my favorite piece of the Aztec heritage because I am no sweet-tooth, but history facts are always fun. And with this chocolate-heart infested holiday around the corner, here is a little event I found via the SFBC's chain of events:

Love of Chocolate Ride *
SUNDAY February 7th 11:30am | Meet at the Panhandle Statue (Fell & Baker)
Join SFBC member Robin and other cocoa-crazy cyclists for an afternoon learning about, eating, and drinking
chocolate, just in time for Valentine's Day. Route is around 10 miles, some hills. We'll end the ride with a chocolatey picnic, so pack a lunch if you wish. Bring cash for sweet treat purchases. Happy couples as well as those hoping to meet a new Valentine are welcome! Rain cancels. Info: robin@biteback.com
* Events notofficially sponsored or organized by the SFBC are marked with an asterisk.
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And here is a picture of my rad italian road bike. Which hardly gets to see any daylight, in front of the local cute little TCHO store. Which means my knee is doing really well and I'm ready to ride longer distances. This day the picture was taken I rode with Eric around the city and stopped on the way back to get some treats for my friend Stephen because was not feeling well with his shoulder injury (♥get well soon!!). They have the cutest little squares to convince even a non-sweets person like me to try their samples.

tbike
tbike

Of course they have me over the fact they offer coffee but that is not all. For Valentine's Day, this company, which I suspect has some connections in the San Francisco design world (...) TCHO is currently featuring their Artist Series with Love Connection by Max Kisman.

from tcho.com
Really?!?! Do you know how super nice this is – He is a cookie-cool Dutch professor of mine that used to draw each one of us in class while we were drawing in his class.
Here is a blast from the past:

here is Wishimi and Max. I think these pics were taken by my crazy cool friend Sandi.

and here is the friday morning faces of art school ca.2004. This class was just way too early, apparently.


Anyways, I was happy to visually come across mr. Max Kisman.
He has done some pretty amazing designs and graphics including a poster he made in 2003 for the del hel van het noorden ( The Hell of the North) Paris-Roubaix ride in Northern France, which now lives in my house, thanks to Jay. ♥ Skulls+bikes+fire= awesomeness
The hell of the north

10 comments:

  1. That Roubaix poster is cool! If there are any leftovers around please let me know. I'd like to buy one.

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  2. You might like it the way the Aztecs drank it (if you haven't tried it before), which was not sweet--like the wikipedia says, it was the Europeans who added the sweet. I've had some variations, but the rich, bitter, spicy-hot version is very distant almost alien experience to what most Americans get in a milk chocolate bar. In the movie "Chocolat", it was the spicy drink made with chiles and spices that awakened the appetites of the villagers.

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  3. myles/ I will keep my ears open ;-)
    Poster came from a very random happy encounter with a friend of mine across the globe who had 'parked it' here for awhile before it eventually made it to my house. Funny how things work, took me going to the shop to get clipless pedals, to connect all the dots. thx for stopping by, always nice to hear from you!

    JohnRA/ well knowing my affinity with my roots and history, I'm glad you bring this up. Also you gotta remember that in SF is almost easier to come across gourmet anything, than a finding a plain bar of 'hersheys' whether that is a good or bad thing. That said, a friend gave me dark sea-salt and these exquisite chile tiles as a gift, also by another nice local SF company. We are lucky to have cool little businesses like that around the city, for when you visit
    thanks for the always pleasant comments JRA, made me smile - good stuff :D

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  4. i have such a bitter/savory tooth it's nuts. the idea of milk chocolate is pretty yucky to me, but give me super dark chocolate with spices and i'll give you puppy eyes. nomnommy.

    perhaps then my taste buds may descend from the aztecs. my dad will be glad to know since he always said we were their descendants. however, my taste buds are the only form of definitive "proof" that i have found of that ;)

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  5. Chocolate and chiles. Two of my favorites. I hope we'll hear more about non-sweet chocolate at some point.

    FWIW, sugar-free chocolate coffee syrup is one of my favorites. I like to call it a "poor man's mocha," but really it's much better without all the sugar.

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  6. Meli,
    Your post that made me smile :)

    I am not ashamed to admit that I have a sweet tooth. I still like bitter/dark chocolate. Once I had Mole sauce which was made with chocolate but it was quite spicy.

    If only there were edible posts...

    Peace :)

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  7. Meli,
    Wow , Herb Caen! That takes me back, cool.
    There's a place here that sells dark chocolate
    bars with bacon. I've had one , they're pretty
    good I have to say. mmmmmmm
    Cheers
    Jon C

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  8. ahhh.. art school grads always seem to make the best bloggers. I remember back in 2004 when I was at about the same point in my undergrad career.

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  9. hey meli,
    another [hand in the the air] for when that poster goes into production...

    ace!

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  10. calitexican/ he hee we are living proofs– ithink porter is my chocolate...

    Steve A/ yes, not a chocolate person at all, but im gifted them here n there ill try them ya know :D

    chandra/ oh wow, mole is such a celebration of the spices, who wouldvee ever thought anyone put chocolate in the mix ;-)

    jon/ herb, yea you know - you will love this then: caliber | the loyal

    erik k/ yay for exacto cuts and picas :D

    placid casual. ah super, ok ill keep my eyes peeled ;-)

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with coffee in hand, sincere thanks for your readership ×