Ham & Cheese Deli

 Arcade, Lamenting Youth, & Fake Grass

       Chamaca sits in the stroller bobbing her head up and down as Green Onions by Booker T plays over the speakers. The bald man with a beard, who I will later learn is named Grant, stands behind the counter finishing orders. He notices Chamaca and waves hello. They begin exchanging smiles and Chamaca waves back at him, smiling with her teeth. The vibe in the deli matches the intensity of the warm sun rays through the windows and we all feel happiness together. I order a Pesto Pollo and iced coffee. Sitting on a bench by the window, I overhear Grant talking with a customer about the upcoming 49ers game and excitement fills the room as they go back and forth. I'm not a fan of the 49ers but I respect their pride and loyalty. It's nice to hear two guys talking about a sports team and being excited for the weekend. I notice a row of arcade games in the next room and make a mental note to come back with some change. It's 10:30am on a Thursday in the Richmond district, on the corner of California & 17th Ave sits Ham & Cheese Deli.
     A few blocks Northwest, there is a playground so nice, I am envious that I never had the chance to play in it when I was a kid. That is our destination for this morning, but first I had to bite into this Pesto Pollo sandwich. The bread is nicely toasted, it still has a bit of chew to it. The chicken is evenly sliced and seasoned well. The pesto and Sriracha aioli compliment each other along with the provolone. I also had the Jambon et Fromage which consists of ham, smoked pork loin, hot mustard, and pickles. The pork loin was lightly smoked and blended well with the mustard and pickles without being overpowering.  My wife gave me a sample of her Dropped a Banh on Mi which I thought was a strong contender for a lot of the other banh mi’s I've tried. Chamaca started licking her lips when I unwrapped my sandwich and insisted on having a bite, and then another bite. Everything here is quality, even down to the napkins. Its proximity to the nice playground in Richmond makes this one of my go-to spots when I'm on this side of town.

    The arcade at Ham & Cheese Deli is reminiscent of my childhood. Games like Street Fighter II, Gauntlet and Donkey Kong take me back to a time when all I wanted to do after school was eat food from the taco truck and play arcade games at the laundromat. I look at Chamaca and muse on my own childhood. When you’re a kid, you feel like nothing bad can ever happen. Even when something bad does happen, you just get up and keep going without looking back; you live for the moment. Children seem to have more patience and curiosity for the world around them. When you become an adult, no matter where you are or how much fun you're having, you seem to always be thinking about something else. Your mind stops being a playground and starts becoming your jailer. 

    A Chef I once worked for in Los Angeles loved to say, “We are just three moves away from ending up in the shit.” Chef Jason was the kind of guy that smoked cigarettes inside the restaurant and drank nothing but Modelo Negra Mexican Beer. He had this look on his face like he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when things got crazy, that’s where he shined. I thought this guy was all business, no bullshit. One day he burnt his hand real bad with hot oil and asked me to go next door to the liquor store to get him a 6 pack of beer. I came back and he pulled a chair up to the sauté station, cracked a beer, sat down and handed me a pair of tongs and said, “Have fun.” I had been watching him cook for 4 weeks. I would stand next to him and anticipate his movements in my mind, like Splinter learned from his master in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I had so much fun that night, and even when I made mistakes, he would say, “Don’t worry about it, keep going, do it again, do it better.” At the end of the night he handed me the last beer from the 6 pack and said I did good. A few weeks later there was a rolling blackout and we had to shut the kitchen down until the power came back on. The other cooks and I stood around in the parking lot smoking cigarettes and kicking the ground. The chef went to his car and pulled out a soccer ball and we started playing a quick game under the moonlight. Everyone in their chef whites kicking a soccer ball around with cigarettes dangling from their lips. We must have looked crazy but damn it was fun. Chef Jason knew the secret balance to life and even more than the cooking externship he was giving, he was giving this secret life knowledge without me knowing it. 

    When we get to the playground, Chamaca spends her time wandering around the artificial grass and sits down. I try to entice her to go on the slide, or play on the cool structures but none of that seems interesting to her right now. She begins to run her hands over the artificial grass, smiling. I sit down next to her and feel the fake grass with my hands too. It feels warm and soft, comforting. In that moment I look at her realizing that she also holds the secret to life too, I just haven’t been listening. As a parent, you call the shots, you keep things in line, the flow of information only goes one way, from you to the child. Maybe if we put down our phones and spent more time learning from our children we might be a little bit happier. Chamaca is trying to teach me to slow down, to enjoy everything around me, to stop thinking about what to write for the new article or what to say. I forgot how to play but I am slowly learning again from Chamaca that it’s okay to sit in the grass for a little while, because that’s play too. 

Ham & Cheese Deli
 5501 California St, San Francisco, CA 94121