I was going to present, simply, "Deli", but the term encompasses any number of cuisines in different regions, especially both Jewish (sometimes "Kosher") and the more generic sandwich bar.

Here we B's have loads of choices, but there's good news and there's bad news, staple-wise.

Staples: Bad News:

1. Grains: You'll find rye flour in your favorite breads for those famous sandwiches, and both buckwheat and barley could make their appearances. Just say No.

2. Fats: Lots of questionable oils: Watch out for shortenings in doughs of breads, cakes, strudels, knishes, pie crusts, and some blintzes, as well as for Chicken Fat in meat/other dishes. This Oil-Issue can cause some scrupulous B's to avoid mayonnaises, in which case one may request that sandwiches not be smeared with it. However, various composed salads are held together with mayo, so I've placed an asterisk (*) beside those offerings for your convenience.

Staples: Good News:

1. Grains: If you're not avoiding wheat for, perhaps, weight control reasons, you may order white, sourdough or egg breads, or bagels. More likely to be appropriate for the shortening-wary: Scones, coffee cakes, crumpets and english muffins, brioches and croissants, popovers, muffins, some pancakes/blintzes using butter.

2. Oils: If it's a Kosher Deli, you will benefit from the long tradition of "Dairy" cuisine. This means that fish and other non-meat dishes will not be using a favorite Jewish oil: Chicken Fat.

Beneficial

Proteins: Fishes: Pike (dominant or exclusive fish in Gefulte fish), Sardines

Dairy: Cottage cheese (served with fresh fruit salad or in Blintzes: Fine if composed/fried in butter). Ricotta may rear its head in those blintzes (and in a certain dessert...).

Beans: Sometimes: Lima beans, in soups or dishes

Vegetables: Eggplant (salad/spread, not to be confused with Mediterranean "Baba Ghanoush", which is "Avoid" and not available in Deli's, usually). Also: Brussels Sprouts may accompany a winter Hot Turkey Platter (wishful thinking?). Cabbage, usually in Slaw*, also in Sauerkraut. Beets, especially in "Borscht", but be careful: Some Borscht contains tomatoes, some is based upon a chicken, rather than a beef or vegetable, stock. There's also a Jewish dish called "Tzimmes", which is composed of long-stewed vegetables: Often includes Carrots, maybe even Sweet Potatoes, as well as raisins/prunes.

Fruits: Fruit salads may contain Grapes and/or Bananas. Also: Bananas may be requested over Blintzes or French Toast.

Condiments: Horseradish (If it's in a creamy spread or sauce, however, it might contain CORN syrup: Read the label), Cranberry Sauce/Relish

Beverages: Green Tea? (Even Lipton and Snapple market it, in one form or another)

Neutral

Protein: Turkey, Beef (corned beef, pastrami, sliced roast beef, "flanken", tongue, liver, nitrate-free Salami and Frankfurters); If this is a sandwich bar, and you're following Tier One, Ham might be an option; Bacon likewise, as in "Club" sandwich. Neutral Fishes, often in composed salads (and bear in mind these are usually Smoked, which feature you may or may not want to be avoiding. Salmon, Halibut and Sturgeon, though "Beneficial" when NOT smoked, show up here). The above fishes, along with whitefish and herring. Tuna Salad* and Egg salad*. Carp (in some Gefulte Fish recipes)

Omelets/scrambled eggs, in butter only. Hardboiled eggs.

Dairy: Cheeses, incl. Cream cheese (again, present in a favorite Deli dessert...), as well as Swiss, etc. Sour Cream. Butter. Cream.

Grains: Breads and bread stuffing and pudding. Rice and rice pudding.

Beans/Legumes: Split peas (in a Kosher deli, a Split Pea Soup will not contain Ham)

Vegetables: The usual. Also, potatoes (in pancakes, in potato salad*, as well as mashed when served with hot entrée). Pickles. Onion, Lettuce, String Beans, etc.

Fruit: Apple (sauce), raisins and dates, blueberries

Beverages: Coffee and iced; Tea and iced; Herb tea; Beer.

Avoid

Protein: Chicken, Chicken Fat, Chicken Broth, Chicken Livers. Beef Brisket (usually seared in chicken fat and/or stewed for hours in tomatoes). Ham/Bacon if you're following Tier Two. Lox likewise.

Grain: Buckwheat (Kasha), Rye (bread), Barley (soups etc.) Corn (cornmeal in macaroons, cornstarch in "chiffon" and some other pie fillings).

Beans/Legumes: Lentils

Vegetables: Tomatoes (watch for hidden in soups and sauces, including brisket soups/sauces, stuffed cabbage, tomato sauces, ketchup, Russian/1000-island dressing)

Spices: Cinnamon (in many pastries)

Nuts/Seeds: Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds.

Beverages: Soda.

Orders

-Gefulte Fish with Horseradish condiment
-Beet Borscht (if tomato- and chicken broth-free)
-Neutral Sandwich on unseeded bread/roll, with lettuce, onion, pickle, mustard, even cole slaw or cranberry relish. "Club Sandwich", if on Tier One
-Reuben, Patty- or Tuna- melt (Not on Rye), with cole slaw/sauerkraut (no Russian/Thousand Island dressing)
-Roast Turkey Dinner, with Baked or mashed potato or, better, yams; cranberry sauce (brussels sprouts?)
-Nitrate-free Beef Frank with Mustard and Sauerkraut
-Brioche or Challah French Toast (say, "No Cinnamon, please")
-Cottage or Ricotta Cheese Blintzes with Bananas (butter-fried)(Ditto re: Cinnamon)
-Eggplant Salad/spread, if tomato-free
- Chef Salad without tomatoes (Tier One can have the ham, or even Bacon in a Cobb Salad, in which Tier Two adherents must request a substitution for this as well as for the Blue Cheese)
-Fruit Salad with Cottage Cheese
-Condiments: Mustard, mayonnaise*, Horseradish (see "Beneficial" above)
-Serious New York Cheesecake.

Live and Be Well.

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This week in the News (Bear with me, youngsters):

As Americans celebrate the promotion of my US district's congresswoman to Speaker of the House, here's a cute response to a line I heard on the News last night:

"...the new Speaker is expected to anounce plans for the make-up of the Congress..."

Reply: "I'm thinking Maybelline's Great Lash Mascara in assorted shades"...

Hyuk hyuk. Nancy will forgive it: With the right inflection, it's a distinctly San Francisco-friendly chuckle!

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My own milestone: One year of blogging here.

Here we shall plunge into the matter of so-called "BBQ", a type of restaurant one comes across in the USA, one posing a particularly knotty problem for B's, for reasons that shall be quite obvious. "Beneficials" are usually very limited, and "Avoids" abound. Use this guide especially if you're dining with others who have their hearts set on BBQ fare, unless you've found one that allows you to order more liberally. Note that sometimes we accidentally stumble upon a "wrong"-cuisine restaurant that makes the perfect broiled beefburger or salmon sandwich!

At most BBQ restaurants, your staple starch is Corn. Cornbread is the usual mopper-up of (tomato/ketchup-based) sauce (and Corn-on-the-cob is the usual "vegetable"). Because the meat supplies its own fat, even if the sauce is tomato-free, that meat has got to be, at the very least, "neutral", which it often is not. The following is the best we B's can do at MOST Barbecue-type eateries. Do order an especially good dessert if you like.

Beneficials

Proteins: Salmon, if available

Vegetables: Cabbage (slaw), carrots

Fruit: Maybe pineapple?

Neutrals

Protein: Beef (only if NOT cooked in tomato-based sauce!), Pork, likewise, and only on Tier One

Veg: Compliant salad and/or vegetable(s)

Beverage: Beer, wine, coffee, tea; Liquor (if Tier One only)

Avoids

Protein: Chicken; Pork (if on Tier Two)

Veg: Tomato BBQ sauce/ketchup

Grain: Corn (on the cob and in bread)

Orders

Broiled or Grilled Burger/Steak/Fish, probably with baked potato (sour cream fine) or steamed rice, and compliant vegetable and/or salad.

Key Lime Pie?

Glad the series is being appreciated; More to come, and Happy 2007.

I will be presenting a series of Blogs treating of restaurant offerings suitable for B secretors, with key questions to ask oneself and one's waiter/chef at each ethnicity of eatery.

First: In all cases, decide in advance whether this is a "special treat"/once-in-a-blue-moon occasion, or a regular occurrence.

Second: Do you follow the Blood Type Diet at Tier One? or the more restricted Tier Two? or otherwise?

Having established these two personal criteria, you'll learn to evaluate a cuisine according to its two major staples: Its grain(s) and its fat(s). These will determine whether you may enjoy bread(s), noodles, and the like, and whether you may order sautéed/fried foods or must stick to grilled/roasted/broiled or steamed dishes.

Then, for each Cuisine: Beneficials, Neutrals, and Avoids will be broadly outlined, and, finally, under "Orders" will be listed some sample compliant dishes.

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Restaurant Ordering Guide for Blood Type B

Part 1: MEXICAN CUISINE

Mexican cuisine, wonderful as it is, boasts of several pitfalls for those with blood type B:

First: A staple grain is Corn, found in corn tortillas, corn chips (nachos) and cornmeal (tamales), as well as in corn oil, which brings us to ...

Second: Along with corn oil, Lard is a staple oil in most Mexican restaurants and is equally off-limits for most compliance levels for B. You may be lucky enough to find a Mexican restaurant that features lard-free cuisine. Do ask what is used instead: It might be another off-limits oil, such as safflower or peanut.

Canola is acceptable in extenuating circumstances, being an "avoid" at Tier Two, and to be used "infrequently" otherwise.

Beyond these "Avoid" staples, many more distinctives of Mexican cuisine are off-limits to the compliant B. However, forearmed with the following guidelines, one can find something delicious and nourishing to eat at a good Mexican restaurant.

Beneficials

Protein: Salmon, Halibut, Cod, Mahi Mahi -- other fishes

Veg: Peppers (bell, jalapeno, et al)

Fruit: Watermelon, Banana

Neutrals

Protein: Beef, Fishes, Pork (Tier One only)

Dairy: Eggs, cheeses, sour cream

Grain: Rice, white flour tortillas

Veg: Jicama, onion, lettuce...

Fruit: Lime, orange...

Condiment: Cilantro...

Dessert: Flan custard...

Beverage: Wine/Sangria, Beer, Coffee, Liquor (Tier One only)

Avoids

Protein: Chicken, Pork (Tier Two), Shellfish

Grain: Corn, cornmeal, corn tortillas, nacho chips, tacos, tamales

Oil: Lard, corn oil, other oils (ask!)

Beans/Legumes: Black beans, pinto beans

Nuts/Seeds: Pumpkin ("pepitas")

Veg: Tomato, olives

Fruit: Avocado

Condiments: Tomato salsa, tomato sauces, guacamole

Beverage: Margarita (Tier Two)

Orders:

Scallop Ceviche (no tomato)

Cheese Omelet with peppers and onions (no tomatoes, no salsa)(ask what oil is used)

Cheese Enchilada (on flour tortilla)(no tomato sauce or guacamole)(ask if oil is used...)

Grilled Steak Quesadilla on flour tortilla

Vegetable Quesadilla on flour tortilla

Grilled Steak or (benef. if possible Fish Fajitas (no beans, tomato, or guacamole) with peppers and onions GRILLED, not sautéed, and with rice that has no tomatoes in it: Ask!

Chile Rellenos (no sauce)

Grilled (not sautéed) Fish or Steak with (tomato-free) rice and/or salad, and STEAMED vegetables

Watermelon Aguafresca

Beer or Wine

Margarita (Tier One only)

Flan dessert

Coffee/tea

Note: I will treat Tomatillos as a Neutral until I'm advised that they carry the same/similar lectins as Tomatoes. If you find out more, contact me, and I will edit the column to reflect that.

Another note: There's a Mexican restaurant here in San Francisco serving salads with goat cheese (!) and jicama, over which one may enjoy grilled steak or fish. Many restaurants aim to please. Keep your ears/eyes open for the gems.

More cuisines to follow, B's: Stay tuned!

When I arrived, 30-odd-years ago, as a transfer student at my new university in New England, I was required to meet with my assigned Academic Dean to discuss my previous education and be awarded however many credits for it he'd deem appropriate. His secretary showed me to a chair in his office, saying he'd be back in a couple of minutes. I couldn't remain seated, however, once I'd spotted an entire wall full of artifacts on display. I was standing and examining the many unlabeled photographs, paddles, totems and what-have-you, when he entered.

"Are you interested in my collection?" he asked.

"Yes, very", I replied. "These would appear to be Kwakiutl--"

"Amazing!" he exclaimed. "How is it you know about the Kwakiutl?" (I was, after all, only 18, and hailed from New York).

We chatted of Pacific Northwest cultures, and of potlatches in particular...

There I was, the maturing child who'd loved the Addams Family in former years for the exoticness we shared (cf. 7/20/06 Blog: "Lugubreity"), grateful that my dean (whose pipe tobacco was so beautifully aromatic: "Dark berries? Blackcurrant? Maybe Fig?") recognized my every freshman credit, as well as my intelligence and potential: B-meets-B, for sure!

But the world is not always so kind to B's. We enter Modernity glowing with unappreciated desert virtues, endowed with unusual wares and talents viewed by most as odd. We can read signs and portents, knowing-what-we-know, and then: Movin' On. Yes, we move on, with the seasons (Think: Mary Poppins and the wind-change).

Alexander Besher, writing under the auspices of Toshitaka Nomi in 1983 (You Are Your Blood Type), claims that B's are romantically promiscuous, but -- in my case anyway -- that's a serious misread. I think, rather, that B's are collectors of knowledge, connoisseurs of experience: A minority of us might indeed choose the sexual realm for such exploration (à la Seinfeld), but this is by no means our "norm".

I've found that quite a number of B's have resided in at least one country other than their native one. B's may also be religious converts, and/or be a member of a family in which one or more members are such. B's can be immigrants, eccentrics, "tumbleweeds", racking up a broad range of life experience (and, in my case, books).

A TV character I'd identify as quintessentially B, as well as my own alter ego, is Wilson, next-door neighbor to the Taylors on "Home Improvement". Wilson is a scholar whose specialized interests cover a wide scope. He's not only intellectual, but creative, as well as interpersonally wise enough to deliver spot-on Real Life advice, daily, to Tim, Jill, and each boy. He's quite earthy, however, not using his knowledge to earn himself entrée into a society he prefers to, if anything, observe.

I'd welcome such a neighbor. We could quiz each other, over coffee, on History, rather than pursuing the proverbial dinner-and-a-movie...unless it were a documentary, of course. GROUP History-quizzing is covered by the game of "Botticelli/20 questions", should there be many such neighbors. Fiction-free literary Charades is another enjoyable social activity for B introverts, as is Foreign Language Scrabble or Boggle. Less intellectual B's, I grant you, certainly exist. Seinfeld would probably enjoy Superman-Trivia or Baseball-facts Pictionary. Somewhat higher-brow worldly B's might go out for Fashion-Designer Scrabble, Artist/Gallery Hangman, or Oenology Hollywood Squares.

B's in the Western World are unaccustomed to massive doses of B company, outside, perhaps, our own families. B's generally don't fill stadia. We make our own way across steppe and dune, pass and gap, with our herds and flocks, a hound or two, and a falcon. Yes, in simpler times and places, we brought these to the annual markets, exchanging news and information with fellow shepherds and with various A-farmers interested in our livestock, rugs, and crafts.

A's and B's can "do business". A's (the "research librarians") can be fascinated by/learn alot from B navigators. We dish up dirt from other lands and bring it 'round for-your-edification. O-Hunters, on the other hand, come across us Nomads and wonder how they can bag some easy loot. However, they're often surprised by, and even admiring of, our wilderness-honed canniness.

But we B's certainly have the lowdown. Some are gossips; others are mystics with the Word from On High. Some are anthropologists. Not all are highly educated, let alone erudite, but "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" we are, to-a-man: Unafraid of being found "different"/oddball in the great Hunter/Farmer crowd that populates the world.

The wandering B polishes and relishes the myriad contents of his medicine-bag: Star-crossed moments of social alignment and shared story, smells of likeminded campfire (or pipe tobacco), admirers of our artifacts and collections.

I recently saw a TV rerun of The Addams Family, a favorite program from school days. I think Gomez and Morticia were wonderfully B. Back in the 60's they fenced (as did I), did yoga (70's for me), Morticia played the shamisen (I plucked other strings), their butler played harpsichord (as did I!), they served exotic teas (ditto) and kept unusual pets (Nope.). Most of all, they shared my exquisite appreciation of Gloom. I think of Morticia every time I hear myself saying "delightfully lugubrious", which is how I define San Francisco's unique weather at its absolute densest.

This year's July 4th fireworks were visible from below for the first time in at least a decade. Normally I watch 'em from my hilltop place, whence I can see them exploding in the clear air above the fog that obscures the view from the crowd below. July 4th falls squarely within Fog Season and can usually be relied upon to be downright cold. But this year, the whole week was warm. Sunday dusk, I sat writing by the fanned window, when that deep low horn sounded long and loud, from the west, over the whole city. I actually audibly said, "Yay! Here it comes!"

The fog. The mists. (Do I belong on a moor? I have to say, the Scots are notably higher in B than are the English or Irish.) "Our natural air-conditioning", 'tis said. I'm a fool for it.