Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The story of Sy and Sel


Today I had the honor of serving Sy Berkovitz oatmeal. Sy is 87 going on 67 and eats oatmeal every morning. His daily vegan breakfast dish consists of oatmeal cooked with rice milk topped with a sliced, ripe banana. Before serving, he adds one tablespoon of flax meal and one tablespoon of cooked Quinoa to the bottom of the bowl. No sugar necessary- yum. I can't wait to try this.

Sy polished off a cup of bloop's simple oatmeal with apples, bananas and raisins. He said it was good, but he prefers his oatmeal with less "stuff" in it.

We got to talking while he ate his oatmeal. His story is truly beautiful so I thought I would share. Sy is visiting Portland, celebrating his 65th wedding anniversary with his wife Sel. They have celebrated their wedding anniversary in Portland every year for the last 11 years traveling from the Sonoma Valley.

Sy and Sel love jazz and you can find them at the best table in Jimmy Mack's every year during their anniversary week. Sy casually mentions that his wife enjoys visiting Powell's bookstore as she worked for a writer for many years. When asked who she worked for, he replied, without the slightest hint of pomp, "Oh, just this writer, Maya Angelou." Inbetween bites and other banter he discloses that Dr. Angelou's book, "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' merry Like Christmas, is dedicated to his wife Sel.

An hour later, after I left for my day job, Matt called me with Sel on the phone. Sy was back at bloop with his wife. With dignified grace, she sat and chatted with Matt giving him business tips for good portion of the morning.


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

bloop in the news

A writer from Tasting Table national working on a story about the resurgence of oatmeal contacted me a few weeks ago. bloop garnered some national attention in an article posted May 3 titled, "Oat Couture."

That article spurred some bloop buzz on Eater PDX, a site that obsessively covers restaurants, bars, chefs, etc in Portland. The site also covers edible worthy news in LA, San Fran and New York.

And today my heart sang with joy when I saw "Oatmeal on Wheels" printed on the cover of the Willamette Week (WW). I feel bad for anyone who was within 50 feet of me on the corner of 5th & Morrison this morning. I did a jig while screaming gleefully, wildly waving 5 copies of WW in my oatmeal-slinging hands. This was before my Stumptown coffee.

Yea, so if you live in Portland, get up and go to bloop.