Bottle This

[naomikritzer]

I live a stone's throw from the Mississippi River; the Highland neighborhood of St. Paul is on the other side. At the intersection of Ford Parkway (named for the soon-to-be-closed Ford plant) and Snelling Avenue, there are three watertowers, which the girls are fascinated by. Anytime we drive through St. Paul, they want to drive past the watertowers so we can see them. Two are boring new blue ones; one is beautiful old vintage watertower, built in 1928. You can see a picture of it here. This weekend there was a little neighborhood festival in the Highland neighborhood, and they opened the water tower for tours. We took the girls today, and climbed up to the top.

It's still in use -- I was surprised to find that out. The staircase to the top winds around the tank. Below, there are two enormous green fields that are apparently covering reservoirs, also used by the St. Paul Regional Water Services.

Drinkable running water to every house is one of those everday miracles that people don't tend to think about. It requires a truly staggering level of civic infrastructure. At some point they had to tear up all the streets to put these pipes in in the first place, and right now in Minneapolis they're tearing up all the streets again to replace them, because they've been there so long they're wearing out. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, most (maybe all, I'm not sure) of the water comes out of the Mississippi. It goes through a treatment plant, gets purified so that it's safe to drink (and actually tastes pretty decent -- the people I've heard complain should try drinking the water at a certain summer camp near Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, where it smelled and tasted like rotten eggs). It gets piped to houses, where most of it goes down the drain along with soap, ground-up foodstuffs, and bodily wastes -- it goes back to a treatment plant, gets purified again, and gets put back in the river, to be used by all the people downriver. Only a small percentage of our water gets drunk, but it's all purified, and no matter where you are in the metro area, you can turn on the faucet, fill a cup, and drink it.

When I went to Nepal (where the water is teeming with microbes -- unless you're on top of Everest, you are downstream from someone in Nepal, and that water is not being purified), one of my weird fears was that I would forget I couldn't drink the water and just grab a cup after washing my hands or something. (There are plenty of places where you'll find running water -- it's just not drinkable.) I never made this mistake, but when I got back to the U.S., I felt distinctly weird about just brushing my teeth with the water straight out of the tap and even rinsing my mouth with it. And drinking fountains! I drank out of a drinking fountain at the airport when I got home, and it freaked me out a little. There's a level of trust with drinking water, too. You have to believe that the government employees really are doing their jobs. (Ironically, the regulations on tapwater in the U.S. are a lot stricter than the regulations on bottled water, and tests done on both have generally shown tapwater to be safer. Not that you're taking your life in your hands by drinking bottled water, but unless your water smells like rotten eggs, or you're drinking from a somewhat dodgy private water supply, or you have lead issues, it's probably not really necessary.)

*

We went to Highland Fest (the neighborhood festival) twice this weekend. I took the girls on Friday afternoon, and we took them again today, after climbing up and down the water tower. Kiera begged on Friday to go on the "really cool merry-go-round!" and today to go down the giant slide (I said yes to the giant slide, no to the centrifugal force-based thrill-ride).

Also, Coastal Seafoods was having "Sushi Days" on Friday and Saturday, with all sushi-related stuff (including the fish) available for 20% off. Molly spotted the sign and got all excited, so Ed took the girls back on Saturday, bought fish, and made sushi. I've never tried to make sushi, but Ed has made it a few times now. The results with the nigiri were tasty but unstable -- the rice had a tendency to fall apart. Kiera prefers hers as sashimi anyway; handed nigiri, she pulls the fish off and eats the rice separately. Molly likes it all -- rolls, nigiri, sashimi, bits of leftover cucumber, whatever. I like sushi in part because it's such a fabulous vehicle for that blend of soy sauce and wasabi, but the girls are purists; wasabi is right out, of course, but they don't even dip it in soy sauce. We had tuna (Kiera's favorite), salmon, and marlin (Molly's favorite).

Sushi tends to be one of those dishes that small children either love, or hate. I know plenty of kids who would not eat sushi if you offered them a trip to Disneyworld in exchange for choking down a single bite. I also know other of kids who love sushi and would eat it every night if they could.

*

We spent enough time at Highland Fest (plus it was hot enough) that we didn't really want to cook; we ended up having dinner at El Nuevo Rodeo, a Mexican restaurant not too far from our house. Ed and I split a parrillada -- this was the same basic dish that we'd ordered at El Gaucho, but with a different selection of items, including some vegetables (grilled cactus! I'd never had a grilled cactus before) and chicken. The meat itself was not as outstanding, but El Nuevo Rodeo's version had more variety of flavors. Rice, beans, and tortillas also came with the meal; the waitress also brought us two baskets of fresh tortilla chips. I think we could have fed two extra people and still gone home with leftovers.

El Nuevo Rodeo is full of TVs tuned to Univision. As we were finishing up, a show called Cantando por un Sueno came on. (There should be a tilde over the n, but I put that in, and it didn't display right.) It seemed to be an American Idol knock-off. I was curious about it, so I looked it up when I got home and found a Wikipedia page describing the show. (I love Wikipedia. It's one of those things, like Google, and the Internet itself, that at this point I have a hard time remember how I ever got along without.) It started off with a long speech from someone (a judge?) while the contestants clutched hands and looked tearily at the camera. Ed thought it must be some sort of religious show. (I may be totally wrong that it's a knock-off of American Idol; for all I know, American Idol is a knock-off of Cantando por un Sueno.)

Comments

[jimlawrence.livejournal.com]

Have never been to Nepal (although I did eat in a Nepalese restaurant in Sydney -- The Yak and Yeti -- and enjoyed the food -- sort of vaguely Indian but with yogurt if I recall after nine years or so) -- but I have been to Mexico and Montezuma did indeed wreak revenge upon me. I was so sick. I had been drinking bottled water... but did I always remember to use bottled water when I brushed my teeth? Did I always remember to avoid salads. Uh, I guess I didn't and oh did I pay for that.

Amoebic dysentery is not fun.

There is so much we take for granted.

Hmmmm, wasabi! Yum! (I also love that ginger they usually seem to serve with sushi.) Wasabi will certainly clear your sinuses. I'm not a big sushi fan (not caring for raw fish -- and yes, I know, sushi does not mean raw fish) -- but I enjoy things like eggplant sushi. (There's a Japanese restaurant in Providence where my daughter and I eat at least eight or ten times a year and since she does not like the ginger, I'll eat it all! And I'll make some inroads into the wasabi also.)

[naomikritzer]

Ed even bought pickled ginger to go with the sushi. He was the only one who ate it, though.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Have you ever been up at the top of the Witch's Hat Tower in Prospect Park? That's my default icon. They open it once a year, for the Ice Cream Social, the first Friday of June. Since it's right after Wiscon, I don't always remember. Forgot this year, but last year we climbed the winding metal stairs to the top. I think it's the best view in the whole of the Twin Cities, since you can see both downtown Minneapolis AND downtown St Paul from the top.

[naomikritzer]

I haven't. I know it opens once a year, but I didn't know which (and will probably now proceed to forget, next June). You can see both downtowns from the Highland Water Tower, too, but you can't see the Witch Hat tower (I looked for it). I love Prospect Park; Lyda used to work right across the city boundary from there, and we used to meet for lunch every week. A few times on nice days we had picnics near the tower.