Morning flan, coffee and noir

Slept in rather late again today, my body must need it. Starting out today with flan, coffee and one of my fave film noirs - Scarlett Street.

Yesterday, I went to late lunch at Taqueria in Little Mexico with a former coworker. Her husband is vegan and she is from the Philippines. She misses the fatty meaty foods from her homeland and is an adventerous eater like I am. So she loves it when we can go out to eat. I am pretty much 85-90% plant based myself, but I do like to try different foods from everywhere. I think one of the ways to understand a culture is to eat the food. It is unique and there is always history behind it. Besides, I enjoy going out of my culinary comfort zones and I will not turn down the hospitality of others. If they prepared it, I will eat it. If I do eat meat I know the farmers are organic and the animals were happily living like they should be and not in some factory. Anyway, we went to try this place out and it was wonderful, I had the tongue torta and a mango horchata. It was wonderful. FIrst time that I have had tongue. Afterwards, we went across the street to the bakery and I got some flan for this morning. I love flan and could eat it everyday if I could.

One of my fave film noirs is Scarlett Street. Edward G Robinson (who is also in another fave, Double Indemnity) plays Christopher Cross a lonely man who works as a cashier, paints to escape and is in a bad marriage. One evening he meets a radiant beautiful young lady and becomes smitten with her. The problem is, is that she and her low life boyfriend Johnny are con artists who use poor old Chris. Chris gets tangled up in a mess, is blinded by loneliness, infatuation and being worn down by life, a perpetual door mat.

Film Noirs are one of my fave genres. I fell in love with the style, the mood, the tone they set. It was the art of making do with what you had and using that to enhance a story; the Chiaroscuro lightening and edgy storylines normally based on pulp fiction. There are some central themes and styles that came out of the noir's from the late 30's -50's. It borrowed from German Expressionism, Fritz Lang's M could be considered an early noir. There are doomed characters, a femme fatale, plot twists. I just love them. Some of my faves are Night and The City, OUt of the Past, Maltese Falcon, Detour, The Killing, Gilda, Double Indemnity, Scarlett Street, DOA, Kiss Me Deadly,Touch of Evil, The Big Sleep... I could go on.

I am always going back to watch old films, indie and foreign films. I love them. If I could watch Turner Classic Movies all day, I would. There is so much schlock and drivel coming that has come out in the past several decades from American cinema. Everything has to be bigger, better, a blockbuster, flashy, CGI all over and the story and the characters suffer. I don't go to movies anymore, I enjoy live theater when I can.

I do watch netflix for docus, british telly , sci fi and some foreign movies. Hulu has the Criterion Collection which I adore and I have several DVD's from their collection. One of my fave Akira Kuroawa films in their collection is Ikiru. It is a beautiful film about a Japanese buereacrat who has a terminal illness and is searching for meaning. Anyway, check it out.

I have rambled on enough about flan and movies. I should go do something with my Sunday. Maybe read a good book.