Jack's for Latte and Pastries in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Jack’s for Latte and Pastry in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Jack’s in Salinas, California is located on a small business island in the parking lot of Nob Hill Foods by Weinerschnitzel.

Jack's is a drive-thru, locals place for strong espresso-like lattes like the ones I drank in Germany with cinnamon rolls and other pastries for sale.  It is a little less expensive than other local coffee chains and has many of the same kinds of products. 

When I go to Jack’s, I like to think that I am doing a Swedish fika or coffee break. The cinnamon rolls at Jack’s are flavored with cinnamon, cardamom, and sugar like the ones in: 

Fika: The Art of Swedish Coffee Break with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall (Available on Kindle) 

The only thing you have to know about Jack’s Drive-Thru is that you order, pay, and get your coffee at the same window. The first time I went to Jack’s, I ordered and pulled around to the other window. I got my coffee, but not without a little giggling. 

Once you have your coffee, you can drive down Blanco Road to get your oil changed at Valvoline (you can sit in your car while they do this and sip your coffee) or go to the self car wash next to Valvoline and reward yourself with sips of coffee.

If you do an oil change or car wash and still have energy, you can return down Blanco Road back towards Main Street to do recycling of plastic, aluminum, and glass beverage containers in the Star Market parking lot or drop things off at Goodwill behind Ace Hardware, also in the Star Market Plaza. 

Jack’s is open till 2 pm in case you need to get another coffee after doing errands in town. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Surviving Babel - a review by Ruth Paget

Surviving Babel – a review by Ruth Paget 

Babel by R.F. Kuang is a highly readable story about how racism in 19th century Great Britain affected its foreign policy. 

Kuang’s anti-hero is Robin Swift, an Anglo-Chinese student at the Royal Institute of Translation, called Babel, at Oxford University. Kuang’s novel is set in 1830s England where silver makes the British Empire run. Babel’s translations create magical silver that fund the student stipends and contribute to the British Empire’s wealth. 

The British Empire’s problem in Babel is that the silver is running out due to buying luxury goods from India and China. These two countries want nothing that England produces making the Indians and Chinese accumulate vast reserves of silvers as the British silver funds are being depleted. 

This situation creates the need for certain languages to be taught at Babel and the economic argument to promote the Opium Drug Wars between England and China. 

Robin Swift and his classmates learned languages to fill needs of the British Empire with no other perceived alternatives offered for employment. This negative learning environment brings in Babel’s crime element, which is threaded throughout Robin Swift’s student years and “career.” 

Learning about the traditions and lifestyle at Babel and Oxford University keeps Kuang’s novel from being a pessimistic reading experience. I liked learning about the insider names of the various academic quarters at Oxford and about the third and fourth year qualifying exams, the internships, the immersive language experiences, and profitable languages for translation. 

That students could work during the social upheaval of 19th century Great Britain illustrates the strength of Oxford University as an institution that it still benefits from today as the training ground for the United Kingdom’s leaders.

Readers who might enjoy Babel by R.F. Kuang include: 

-diplomats

-translators 

-economists 

-students applying for fellowships to study at Oxford 

-travelers 

I enjoyed Babel by R.F. Kuang because I was an undergraduate student in East Asian Studies. This novel is definitely a book I would have discussed with my classmates over coffee and pastries at the University of Chicago in the Regenstein Library’s coffee shop. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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