26 |
Local
the
AU G U S T 2 9 – S E P T E M B E R 1 2 | 2 0 1 5
5 ThingsYouDidn’tKnowAbout:
L
ike so many Santa Barbarians, we are in lust with the Empty Bowl. When we’ve tried to recreate the Northern Thailand Curry Noodle at home, it is, of course, never the way coowner Nui Pannak does it. Not even close. Nui’s cooking talents began during childhood, growing up in a small countyside village just outside of Bangkok, Thailand, with five sisters and one brother. About 15 years ago, she moved to Santa Barbara. The rest, you can say, is SB Thai food history. 1. I graduated from University with a visual communication art degree. That’s what I wanted to be. But life is about change and sometimes you just don’t fall into your career path. I had a visual communication art job for about two years after graduation. One day, I got a call from a good friend of mine who was living in Vancouver studying English. She asked me if I wanted to come over to study English. I joined her and was in Vancouver for about a year to learn English. I was having a good time, learning a new culture. Then my friend who was living in SB called me one day and ask me to move to Santa Barbara. At that time, I really didn’t have much going on in Vancouver so I said, “Okay, why not?”
2. I learned (to cook) from watching my dad and sisters while they would cook and harvest our organic farm. My mom and dad are both farmers. I grew up surrounded with fresh herbs and vegetables. I learned a lot while watching my dad and helping him prepare big family meals. Since our family is so big, we would have to cook a lot of food in big batches. Most of the time, we would pick from our garden to make our family meals. We will also use all the herbs to make different types of curries. All I can remember were all the fresh herbs and vegetables when I was harvesting it. Everything was organic. That was normal at that time.
the
NUI PANNAK, CO-OWNER OF THE EMPTY BOWL
Q&A GEORGE PENDERGAST of
I
DISHWALLA
t’s been 20 years since Santa Barbara’s own Dishwalla released the album Pet Your Friends, which is home to the hit single “Counting Blue Cars”. Wanting to share a love of rock ‘n’ roll, drummer George Pendergast began a non-profit music program in 2009 called Rockshop Academy, offering lessons to kids and adults alike. George takes a moment to catch us up on his SB life.
3. Empty Bowl Gourmet Noodle Bar is my first commercial kitchen – I’ve never cooked in a commercial before. I (used to work) as a server in a Thai restaurant (and learned from). But I love to cook at home. Sometimes I think I don’t know that much, but when I cook, I have a pictures of my dad doing something and it pops up in my head. It’s kind of like learning from watching. After that, your brain gives you memories and everything comes together. 4. I have a son. He’s 10 years old and his name is Tan. He’s in fifth grade and goes to SB Charter School in Goleta. He is so proud of me. He wears Empty Bowl T-shirts all the time to school. People ask him about it, and he says, “My mom owns the Empty Bowl. You should try my mom’s food!” 5. I love to do meditation and spiritual practice. This is a part of my life, to keep learning and personal growth. I practice “Anapanasati” from Buddhism. The way Buddha taught is keep breathing in and breathing out, and if you think to something else, you have to cut off and come back to yourself. Stay with yourself, stay in that moment. I use that for work. Some things come up very fast, and meditation helps me stay in a peaceful state. I do sitting meditations, and then I’ll I do it when I’m working. I can’t let things overwhelm me, so I have to come back and breathe. Empty Bowl at the Santa Barbara Public Market 38 West Victoria Street, #109, Santa Barbara • (805) 335-2426 • www.emptybowlnoodle.com • Instagram: @EmptyBowlNoodle.com
Sublime Spaces
by Andy Wood
AN URBAN OASIS
T
wo blocks off State Street – bounded by Santa Barbara, Micheltorena, Garden, and East Arrellaga streets – you can find the Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a space reclaimed from urban development. In 1975, Alice Keck Park gave the land to the city as a park in perpetuity to be, “rural in feeling” and to be designed by a landscape architect chosen by the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Today, it has winding paths through areas designed to bloom with the seasons. Visitors can stop at the gazebo to get a view of the pond full of ducks and turtles or visit the meadow to watch the butterflies, all while taking in aromas of a variety of trees and plants.
Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden 1500 Santa Barbara Street, Santa Barbara • (805) 565-5484
Q. What is your best memory of making the album, Pet Your Friends? A. They sent us to the East Coast, because at the time you were supposed to be angry and angst and have something to be mad about. And we’re from Santa Barbara and we weren’t mad about anything. So they sent us to Philadelphia to kind of toughen us up. There was a deli that was basically like the “Soup Nazi” on Seinfeld, where if you weren’t ready... I walked up to the counter and said, “I think I’ll have...” and he said, “If you want to think, go to the back of the line. Next!” And that was just kinda funny. We were just a bunch of nice guys from Santa Barbara that hadn’t really been subjected to any of that before. What local bands are you listening to? There’s a band called The Caverns, which 2/3 of them are kids who grew up here and literally started playing the instruments they are playing in that band here at the shop. If you’ve ever seen a band jam – and I don’t mean a “jam band.” It’s a little heavier rock than a jam band – these guys go so far out, it doesn’t seem like there’s any possible way they could land it, but they do every time. Our first band through Rockshop is a band called False Puppet and they are on the Warp tour, so I have been kinda checking them out. Rockshop Academy Studios 1109 De La Vina Street (310) 463-3653 info@rockshopacademy.com www.rockshopacademy.com Instagram: @RockShopAcademy