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Coronet RIP
Sadly, the venerable Coronet Theater has closed. We all knew it was coming, but it still hurts. One of the last "event theaters" left in San Francisco is now gone.

Aishwarya Rai doing the local thing
Ash has been in the Bay Area shooting THE MISTRESS OF SPICES. There was even an article this week in the Chronicle. Sightings include Old Oakland and the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. If anyone knows of other shooting locations or has stories to tell about the filming, send them on: redbean@hkinsf.com -- laura irvine, 03.25.05

Restaurant recs near the Kabuki...

Thought I'd list a few favorite places to eat in the neighborhood:

Okay I've never been able to pass up the all-you-can-eat buffet at India Palace Restaurant 1740 Fillmore @ Post, so it's all I can recommend here. It's not that I can ever eat much at one sitting it's just that it's so convenient and fast and you get to sample new dishes and have desert & chai tea waiting for you instead of the other way around.

Taste of Thai 1560 Fillmore @ Geary is not only one of my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood but in the whole city. Here you’ll find a very friendly staff and a large menu of all the standards. At the top of my list is the sweet & savory vegetable curry. The Som Tom salad is one of the best I've ever had. Other favorites include the fresh spring roll, the fried roti appetizer with green curry dipping sauce and both of the vegetarian eggplant dishes.

If you're looking for something quicker head next door to the Japanese Cultural Center's Kinokuniya building, go up the stairs, and straight into Sophie's Crepes. Here you can get a quick crepe snack to go – fill it with cheese and tomatoes or ice cream and Nutella or my personal fav strawberries and whip cream. You can walk around the outside of the Kinokuniya bookstore looking at their impressively large window display while you chow down.

In the mood for a giant steaming bowl of Japanese noodles at a reasonable price? Then head across the bridge and into the Kintetsu Bldg for Mifune 1737 Post. I love their soba salad & the udon's good too.

Looking for some decent dive Chinese then try San Wang at 1682 Post @ Buchanan. Meals are started with a very tasty bowl of kimchee (go figure), and I'm obsessed with their deep fried green bean dish (definitely not healthy but gooood). -- jennifer young, 03.12.05

SFIAAFF Gala Party, Thursday, March 10, 2005:
Ah the best laid plans… Well Laura and I had hoped to be doing a daily blog starting opening night of the fest but here it is Saturday and thanks to allergies, day jobs, necessary life chores, attending events/movies and mad insomnia our world has been rendered writingless.

Due to being overbooked we missed the opening night of the film at the Castro. Even though we saw a press screening of Alice Wu’s wonderful debut film Saving Face it would have been too fun to see it with the Castro crowd and hear the cast & director speak. (Next year I’m taking vacation days during the fest so I can catch more of these cool happenings.) Later that night I talked to festival director Chui-hui Yang who said the house was packed and the crowd seemed to really love it. Well drop us a line if you caught this showing to let us all know if anything cool happened and what you thought of it.

We did pull it together enough to make the groovy gala party at the beautiful Asian Art Museum. As we walked up Larkin Street the banging sounds of SambAsia started rolling towards us. After a kick-ass mini concert and dance on the front steps outside, we finally pulled ourselves away. Inside there were enough delicious delicacies to feed Mao's army. Also, since I'm highly susceptible to suggestion, I had to try the neon blue beverage everyone seemed to be sipping – it was damn tasty.

SambAsia

After spotting a few local celebs like Roger Garcia and the gruff Castro Street dude that sells Laura her eyeglasses we headed off for a look around. The first thing we saw was Alice Wu and her two young leads being whisked up the main staircase. As they were stopped for a few photos Laura ran up to try and grab a couple herself but being out of position and rushed they didn’t turn out so good.

Bad photos of Lynn Chen, Alice Wu, & Michelle Krusiec

In the DJ room the mellow tones of DJ King Kong were just giving way to Dhamaal; it was a pleasure to hear all those familiar Hindi beats tossed around in a funky fusion salad. We found last year’s SFIAAFF Outreach Coordinator and current chocolatier diva Joyce Guan sampling the finest in Charles Chocolates at the dessert table. I passed up the carrot cake for a heavenly slice of the Sugar Bowl Bakery’s tiramisu.

Dhamaal

Sated we decided to check out some art and marched off towards the elevator and as the door was opening I glanced behind me and saw Joan Chen. Just as I thought to myself ‘shit we missed her’ she and her party of friends climbed into the elevator WITH US! She seemed exuberant but had that ‘please don’t bother me’ aura about her. We couldn’t help but hear their conversation as they made plans to go to one of their homes after the party. I glanced over and spied them passing around a plate of the carrot cake I’d just passed on so I gathered my courage (helped by several sleepless night and the vodka I just drank) and asked them how it was, saying I couldn’t resist getting the tiramisu instead. Ms. Chen smiled politely as her friends extolled the cake's virtues. The ride was suddenly over and off they went. What fun. She’s absolutely gorgeous and quite petite. I wanted to ask about her upcoming Chinese project but she really looked like she wasn’t in the mood. Oh well. I should’ve requested an interview when I had the chance. Just not enough time for everything this year…

So we did a quick tour of the large, almost empty museum (the best way to see it) and landed back in the DJ room just in time for Dan the Automator’s move bustin’ set. Quite a night and if you didn’t make it this year I highly recommend getting to the opening gala next year. -- jennifer young, 03.10.05