The Delta does strange things to men. Time may not behave quite like you once thought it did. The flow of the water through every pore of town washes away any preconceived notions. Up might be down. Savory might be sweet. Open might be closed, or even stranger closed might be open.

Case in point: Collins Music & Collectables. Four dudes in a car, of which I was one, decide to quest up north to find some gems in the Bay Area outskirts. But when we got there, the store was closed. After milling about for a while like confused city folk, somebody had the great idea to call the storeowner. In this recession weather, he might just be stoked to open up for a while. Hell, he was probably just upstairs watching the ‘niners game.

We decided food came first. With our sights set on a sit-down Mex place just up the road, we headed to La Cabaña. We entered and were greeted by a busty pirate at the front of the room. Unfortunately, the sexy buccaneer was just a statue, but the presence of the strange mascot seemed to be both a warning and a welcoming. More welcoming than warning, even though we were heading into uncharted waters.

We sat down at our table and Forest called the storeowner, who was willing to open up for a while. We told him where we were, and said we’d meet after lunch. Things work differently in the Delta, although chips and salsa work the same. Average chips and average salsa, but we were all starved and finished them off all the same.

When it came time to order, I noticed something called a Burrito Bowl that I had to order. I hadn’t seen it before, but Cory mentioned that it’s been popping up as of late, yet hadn’t had one. We reasoned it was probably a carb-conscious way to eat a burrito, and when it arrived, we were right. It was a burrito in a bowl; no tortilla. Weird. Most of the standard stuff you find in a burrito, nothing crazy, but there was corn and tortilla strips. There was a good amount of chicken, which happened to be delicious. It was seasoned and grilled just right. The bowl format is a loser though. By the time I got to the bottom, everything was soupy and had an odd off-taste as if for some reason the ingredients didn’t belong together. It was probably a texture thing, but I wouldn’t order it again – even though that chicken was really good. Real burrito next time….

…or a carne asada plate like Forest got. Grilled steak, served with all the stuff you want to see on a plate: beans, rice, grilled onion, guac, salsa and cheese. Nicely done, and the reports came back as delicious.

Not quite so for Mikel’s taquitos he ordered. Here was another left turn. They weren’t bad, they were just wrong. When the plate arrived, the presentation was sufficient enough for suspicion, as they were cut in half into bite-size pieces. As they resembled hors d’oeuvres, he passed ‘em around the table. They were for some reason, sweet. Like noticeably sweet. We imagined they made their corn tortillas with masa spiked with sugar. Weird, not bad, but definitely not good.

For some reason, Cory ordered shredded chicken nachos, which didn’t look good or look bad. I mean, they were just nachos. The only time they should be consumed, Cory, is when watching baseball or football. (To be fair, the ‘niners game did happen to be on). But like I said, the Delta does strange things to men.

After lunch we headed back up to the record store, which turned out to be as awesome as we hoped. Records without price tags, guitars, electronics and pop-culture detritus. A fitting mish-mash of weird to finish out our day.

Brian:
Best of Herbie Hancock
King of New Orleans Jazz – Jelly Roll Morton

Mikel:
I think I ordered taquitos but meant flautas. big mistake. sweet and strange.
the photo of us walking looks like a minor threat alameda county gang.
I purchased Led Zeppelin in through the out door.

Cory:
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates LP
KRLA radio comp LP from ’66
Archie’s ‘Sugar Sugar’ 45,
Sir Douglas Quintet ‘Mendocino’ 45,
Tornadoes (Joe Meek) “Telstar’ 45,
And at least 5 other records that I forgot, and yep, chicken nachos

Forest:
45’s:
I got a killer chuck brown classic go-go record “bustin loose”
paul revere and the raiders “kicks”
the monkees “I’m not your steppin stone”
tommy james “bits and pieces”
george harrison “my sweet lord”
eddy grant “electric avenue”
hot sauce “bring it home”
conan the barbarian comic with story record

12″s:
rodney dangerfield “the loser”
a really weird richard pryor record

should have got:
george carlin record with “7 things…”

plus:
choo choos for evelyn