Swimming And The San Jose Farmer's Market At Cambrian

I returned to San Jose on the same day that my favorite swimming pool in the whole world closed for a month for renovations. Bad timing.

So today I tried out another pool that I have access to. I don't like this pool nearly as much. A few years ago, a man punched me in the face one night for having the gall to get in the fast lane as a woman when there were only men in it. I was in fact the fastest person in the pool, and I think I hurt his ego. I am usually the fastest person in this pool, whereas the Campbell pool is mostly triathletes and they push me and kick my butt, not the other way around.

The pool was as I remember, crowded, and I got pushed around. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of running for the next month or so. Bummer.

After my swim, I headed just down the street to the Cambrian farmer's market. Fortuitous timing here. It turns out this farmer's market has more free samples than any farmer's market I have ever been to and I was ravenous after my swim. I had mouth-watering mouthfuls of every kind of peach, pluot and plum imaginable. And there was also spicy ethnic food, my favorite. For all the diversity in DC, I still think San Jose has DC beat. At least at the farmer's markets. First I sampled two different Afghan spreads, the eggplant one was heavenly. Then I had Indian food. The woman looked me up and down, sizing me up as if to determine whether to believe a white girl like me would really like something very spicy, which is what I requested. She obviously was not sure as she first gave me a mild dish, then medium, the finally super spicy. Delicious. There was also Mexican food, but I held off on that as I was no longer starving.

I am now cooking the green beans I got at the Seattle farmer's market, just as my aunt N taught me in Quincy this summer. I will have that on a bed of San Jose farmer's market greens for dinner. In the fridge is rainbow Swiss chard for tomorrow night.

There's another farmer's market Sunday, at Princeton Plaza. I can't wait. If there are half as many free samples there as there were today I won't need to eat breakfast!