The food in California has but one theme, due to the diverse races and the number of people passing by and staying in California. That theme is, fusion.

Fusion cooking integrates different styles and different ideas of cooking which span around the world, using California-native ingredients. This defeats the barrier of substitution. Presentation and over all ‘oomph’ is important to California cuisine. Same goes for innovation and for over all taste.

The restaurant credited for starting California cuisine would be the Chez Panisse, by co-founder Alice Waters. The restaurant is found in Berkeley, California. Story tells that Water visited south of France and had discovered the joy of cooking using fresh herbs, vegetables and oils. Her taste for what good food was cemented in this belief that the road restaurants served a better sense than those of the predictable menus of high-class Parisian restaurants.

She was a chef, and with her aspirations and dreams of steeling a cooking style that would cater to the taste buds of a demanding customer demographic whose demands are good food, fast service, and fresh, garden-fresh, ingredients. The garden-fresh criteria might be too much, but market-fresh and farm fresh certainly do fit the bill.

The restaurant was credited in making some of the more staple foods in most restaurants today. One example is the California-style pizza, or the ‘gourmet pizza’ as they call it. California pizza uses non-traditional toppings taken from other cuisine styles, like artichokes, infused olive oils and peanut butter. The usual California pizza might have barbecue bits, curry sauce, oven-baked sunny-side up eggs, goat cheese, spinach, herbs and carne asada. It’s actually more like a buffet pizza than a typical-put-everything-here pizza.

They also created the original Goat Cheese Salad and carbonated tap-water, a good alternative to soft drinks and soda.

Well, what is mayhaw? If you’re not a wildlife buff, you wouldn’t have a lamb’s idea what a mayhaw is, technically speaking. They taste putrid, but darn it, those little things make for some good jelly. And I ain’t bluffing about it.

I came across this particular jelly when a neighbor brought some back from her trip across Texas. Said it was good ‘pikin’ since these bottles don’t come often. Most of the folks don’t have an idea how to make jelly, much more mayhaw jelly. Well, what in tarnation is a mayhaw?

Mayhaws are fruits (berries?) about an inch big. It’s red or yellow when ripe, but darn it, does it taste foul when eaten raw. They’re harvested from the middle of April through May, growing in trees. The trees reach at least 20 or 30 feet, often found in low, wetlands, on usually acidic soil. They grow well in soil found upland though, an irony in most cases.

These trees used to grow in the marshes, sloughs, swamps and in rivers. Harvesting was hard, and had to use boats in order to have access to the fruits. It was an informal ritual to harvest mayhaws during early spring till summer. The ritual does not leave you unrewarded though. The rewards for the deserving are the bucket loads of fruits that fall off the tree, right into your boat or your nets.

Mayhaw may suck in the fruit category, but they make one of the most heavenly jams. The taste is uniquely divine, inspired by at least three or four flavors most Americans would be aware of. It is a southern delicacy, a preserved ambrosia, a jam of ages. Well, putting it bluntly, it tastes good and I’d be willing to spend my bottom dollar so I could get myself one bottle of it.

The Moody Gardens can be found in Galveston, Texas and is hard to miss if you’re looking well enough. It is owned by the city of Galveston but funded, supported and operated by the Moody Foundation. The agreement must be really that complicated for this to happen.

The gardens are divided into three features, all of them pyramids. The first one being the Aquarium, a pyramid that hosts aquatic life, whether freshwater or not. The second, the Rain forest pyramid contains tropical plants and animals, some coming from the other side of the world. The third attraction, the Discovery pyramid, acts like a museum that hosts branches of science and its wonders. Currently, there’s a fourth attraction, the Palm beach, where a sandy lagoon could be seen, most children preferring this over the first three.

The Aquarium pyramid is a blue pyramid that rises above 12 stories high. The 8000 species that can be found here, fishes, plants, mammals, vertebrates and invertebrates alike, are gathered from all four corners of the world. The four corners being the Caribbean exhibit, the South Atlantic exhibit, the North Pacific exhibit and the South Pacific Exhibit.

The Rain forest pyramid, currently closed but will open on April 25, hosts at least 2000 species of plants and animals found in rain forests across the world. There are three rain forests being currently hosted by the pyramid, the Asian Rain forest, the African rain forest and the American rain forest. The Asian rain forest includes the forests of Australia and the Pacific Ring of Fire. The African rain forest exhibit has some commercial plants that can only be found in the area. The American rain forest, meanwhile, stretches its reach from South to North.

The Discovery Pyramid is just that. It’s all science. Not to put it down, but you’d find your kid dragging you back to the other exhibits even before you probably step on this one.

Never has there been a park with an attraction as mundane and as common as the California Devil’s Punchbowl. This county park is found within the Los Angeles County, Angeles National Forest on the slopes of San Gabriel Mountain, in the course of Littlerock. There are short trails leading towards the park, and driving is also an option.

The whole area is almost threadbare except for the miles and miles AND miles of jumbled, haphazardly lying, and overgrowing rocks. Yes, the park’s attraction is a mess of rocks. You can stop wondering why it is free now. The center focuses more, now, on its geographical condition, as well as the flora and fauna rather than just the rocks; a welcoming point since the area offers, and provides, a rich biodiversity of plants and animals that can adapt in the arid desert of mismatched boulders.

The Punchbowl is actually a deep gorge, a canyon of sorts, that have been cut through the mountain. The peaks reach around 8000 feet whereas the parks natural height is half of that. Because of fault action and such, the tiltation and squeezing caused the crags to lift into the familiar spikes of rocks today.

Native vegetation is stiff, with the flora varying from the degrees of water needed by each plant. There are the resistant trees (like the Joshuas) up north and down near the streams, the willows and the cottonwoods stick by the banks to drink what water is available. There is some shrubbery and small bushes nearby, but not much of unique or endemic plants that are of note and special attention.

The animals that live here are nocturnal by nature (they only come out at night). Gray foxes, chipmunks and squirrels are the common residents, snakes usually aren’t as sociable and the insects and birds usually stick by the plants (find a few shrubs and you’ll get what I mean). They’re usually around summer and spring, when the plants had newly bloomed from the fresh storms that pass by the area. The punchbowl becomes more of a fruit bowl when that happens.

The Geyser of Calistoga, dubbed the Old Faithful of California had been faithfully belching out steam and scalding vapor ever since man had first witnessed this miniature wonder of the world.

Geysers do like heat driven fountains. You have an underground river (cool or not, its still the same) that touches hot rocks (usually from a magma source). The ensuing pressure from the steam and superheated water causes the whole thing to shoot up via a small nozzle-like feature from the ground. And this is how geysers do the gush.

California’s Old Faithful is one of the three geysers in the world that have an internal clock inside of them. They are able to shoot out their deadly steam at timed intervals (this one has a set interval of 45 minutes, while the one in Yellow Stone had an interval of 80 minutes). Magma location, precipitation and the stream that flows into the chamber (an earthquake might break or improve the fountain’s height and length of gushing).

The geyser has its own park, is fenced off to protect the public and to at least get some profit. The geyser has been marked as a must-see attraction when passing by the Napa Valley. Most of the visitors that came here to see and taste the wine, often make a stop here to enjoy the sight of a large, gushy, geyser.

Nearby, there are llamas and fainting goats to keep you entertained if you had the bad luck of entering the park just as the geyser had stopped gushing. 45 minutes of boredom is hard. And when you do hit the 45 minute mark, you have 20 seconds to enjoy the buzzy, aerial hydro-ejaculation. Miss it, and 45 minutes of anguish again. Droll.

The performance time of the geyser today has been influenced by the drought. Hopefully, with the rainy season, we could gain a few more seconds with the geyser’s gushy-gushy.

Nisei, in Nihonggo, means ’second generation’ (’ni’ meaning two, and ’sei’ probably meaning generation). This month-long festival is held usually in August, with the main attractions heralding the first two weekends of the fest. Nisei Week draws the attention and the support of both Japanese and non-Japanese festival goers, due to its grand floats and parades, and the month long activities that soon follow. This 2009, the festival will be celebrating its 69th year.

The festival grounds of the Nisei festival is tremendous. Following the original structure of the Japanese matsuri (or festival), the streets are lined with booths that are filled with food, games, prizes and others. There was once a free-admission carnival and art show, but they were removed, and/or changed. Up 2006, an eating contest consisting of Japanese pot stickers or “gyoza” was added. The attraction was tremendous. Contestants each ate as much as nearing 200 or so.

The Tofu festival of Los Angeles was added. The festival was once a self-standing fest of sorts, but after the greater success of the tofu festival (beer was a factor that helped); it was now a festival that was held after the Nisei month.

They also have the Nikkei games, an open competition for everyone with running, martial arts and exhibitions. The Little Tokyo Anime Festival, another crowd bringer that spawns a massive amount of audience, most usually fans of Japanese animation. Cosplays and booths were comics are sold are usually rampant.

Ondo dancing, were people dance to the tune of an announcer (sometimes lyrics being read off a magazine!) happen too. The choreographer has the dancers carry chochin lanterns as they will the night away, dancing in the streets. The audience can dance too, with little supervision as the dance is often times just easy to follow and easy for the aching bones and joints. (Really!)

The name is synonymous to Pepsi or even Coca Cola. Almost everyone has had Dr. Pepper once in their lives (with some carrying the obsession via privately sent bottles to their homes). But Dr. Pepper transcends the flavors of normal pop or soda. W.W. Clements would say that “I’ve always maintained you can’t tell anyone what Dr Pepper tastes like because it’s so different. It’s not an apple, it’s not an orange, it’s not a strawberry, it’s not a root beer, it’s not even a cola. It’s a different kind of drink with a unique taste all its own.”

Interesting, if Coca Cola has its “7x formula”, what is the thing that makes Dr. Pepper distinct and unique then? It’s definitely not influenced by the former brand because, contrary to popular belief, Dr. Pepper was served to the public ONE YEAR before Coca Cola was released. The creator of Dr Pepper was Charles Alderton, who personally served the drink to Wade Morrison, owner of the store that had released the prototype into the public.

Today, Dr Pepper (yes, that’s a Dr without the period) has gone with preserving the past of what soda pop was back then. It does not enjoy the celebrity status of Coca Cola or Pepsi, nor is it extensively being shipped across the world (only in select countries).

There are many types of Dr Peppers, depending on the factory that manufactured it. The most famous one for its continued use of cane sugar is the Dr Pepper of Dublin, Texas; dubbed “Dublin Dr Pepper”. Where other manufacturers had opted for the use of the more readily-available high fructose corn syrup, they still stuck with the use of original cane sugar.

Perhaps, one day, Dr Pepper will rise again in their bid for dominance in the soda industry.

There are four sculpture-type pieces of art hanging around Texas, if anyone doesn’t know. The Beer Can House, the Blueprints, the Broken Obelisk, and The Orange Show.

The Beer Can House, a structure inspired by the thought of beer (more probably by inebriation caused by said drink) was created by Houstonian John Milkosvich. An eccentric piece made up of beer cans, marbles, brass pieces, wood and cement; it now stands as Texas’ monument to the folk arts. The house is now operated by the folks of Orange Show Center for Visionary Art.

The Orange Show was what had started and inspired the above mentioned organization. It was the work of one man who had the inspiration and creativity to transform his home into a labyrinth of walkways, paths and arenas decorated with paintings, mosaics and metal sculptures and figurines. Today, the mentioned organization, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, had grown from this tradition and had become a non-profit organization dedicated for the promotion, preservation and presentation of modern pieces of art and that of pieces people have created to express life, emotions and fantasy.

The Broken Sculpture is one of the six sculptures of by Barnett Newman. It is the in image of “Cleopatra’s Needle” except for the fact that it is…well, broken. The sculpture is displayed in the Red Square of the University of Washington.

The Blueprints are one of the more eccentric metal works. Designed to be like oak trees, the metal poles manage to hold at least five different metal panels designed with the original blueprints of the municipal building, the park, the bridge and the water pumping facilities. There’s two municipal building blue prints there.

The Texans sure do have a lot of love for pieces of art.

The very word ‘barbeque’ commands awesome respect and effect that it leaves most stomachs growling, and mouths watering when their thoughts fly off to a sight of hot, steamy, juicy, and sauce-laden, meaty goodness…broiled perfectly in slow-charcoal heat and browned to perfection. Texas has complex knowledge with barbeques, after all, the Lone Star state is known for its love of anything meat.

Barbeque has a big differencefrom grilling or broiling. It is the unique way of cooking over fire by indirect heat (either coal or wood). Because it is indirectly cooked, the flavor and aroma tends to develop and contributes to the overall taste of the meat.

Texas barbeques are unique from other barbeques, and can be easily recognized by several of its traits. Firstly, meat often used wouldn’t be chicken or pork, but beef; since the state is less hostile to the growth of cows. That and beef is a manly meat. Although there’s not much of the sexual discrimination there, the tougher the meat is, the more exciting it is for the Texan gastronomist.

Meat used in Texan barbeque is heavily spicy and heavily flavored. No herb, rub, marinade and juice is spared to help contribute to the deep and smoky taste of Texan barbequeing. You could just imagine the very herbs popping and sizzling on top of the oils of the thick slab of beef.

The sauce is the pride of Texan cooking. There’s the Texan barbeque sauce, a unique blend of herbs and oils, something hinting to a tomato scent (ketchup maybe?); all sweet, spicy, thick and filling. Heavily scented and finger-licking goodness. Be careful not to eat your finger.

Barbeque is without a doubt, the most popular in Texas, and every family, every clan, every restaurant has a secret recipe of their own. Barbeque is a legacy, most tasty, in the Lone Star state.

The name brings thought to some kind of paganistic ritual set out to worship the sun god. But no, it’s not that, and it certainly has nothing to do about the actual sun.

The Sun God festival is a yearly festival held at the University of California in San Diego that usually occurs during the sixth or seventh week of Spring. It is held by the members of the Associated Students Programming office. The event is usually held with a large concern of independent bands, mostly amateur, novice with some mid-level bands. One or two mainstream bands are also in the festival to kick the intensity up a notch. Some of the popular people and groups who were able to earn a name for themselves were Busta Rhymes, Social Distortion, Gwen Stefani and My Chemical Romance.

The festival was held to provide a venue to let the students socialize to the point of bacchanal revelry. For a school that fails at socialization, it is a welcoming point to an almost-dead school. Still, there’s the authority to keep people (and substance abuse) in check. Beer drinking and public displays of affections are just some of the few things you might see during the festivities; testaments to the pent up frustrations of the students (and some of the teachers too).

The festival usually has booths made up of the different student organizations in the area. There’s food (for those lazy to bring their own), drinks (common fan favorite), information (if you get lost) and games (fairs usually have them).

A lesser known event is the Junkyard Derby Downhill Race, where both student and faculty can create downhill racers from old rust buckets.

The festival happens around Mid-May. Don’t forget to bring the usual anti-mosquito lotions and jackets. It’s highly unlikely to get cold, as the heat and the action gets intense as the night turns late.