I am a true election geek. While most of you have probably been feeling election fatigue, I am sprinting toward the finish line. My interest and excitement has increased as the days go on. Most days, you'll find me with my iPod on, listening to podcast after podcast of election analysis. I can't get enough of On the Media, or Fresh Air's campaign interviews, or the Slate Gabfest. Yesterday, my fun activity for the day was to analyze 85,000 campaign contributors to see what corporations were donating to a cause that upsets me greatly. As someone who has spent a lot of my life thinking about politics, election day is the culmination of watching and participating in months and months of policy discussion, campaign strategy, and grassroots activism.

"What do you actually do on election day?" a friend recently asked in an email. I was balking at the idea of planning something on Tuesday. For me, election day is a ritual of being by myself, watching election returns, and waiting for results.

I answered her, "I sit at home, watch tv, click between my gazillion secretary of state / CNN / returns sites / blogs. I was invited to election parties, but I don't do that. I'd rather stay home and not talk to anyone ... It's better than Disneyland."

While there is a part of me that desperately wants certain candidates to win, and certain propositions to lose, and certain cynicisms that I have about the electorate to be put to bed, much of my election day fun is academic. How are the vote turnouts? How did the campaigns get out the vote? What new ingenious campaign methods are taking place? What's the mood like in the country? I click through photo montages and tear up at overview videos. I make spreadsheets, and I watch electoral maps.

Since I'll be at home alone, I'm not planning on a cute election day spread. No Palin Syrah, no red state velvet cake, no "right wings", no arugula (these ideas and more via Serious Eats).

My goal is going to be great sustenance with a minimum of fuss, and a minimum of time spent in the kitchen. Yesterday, I made Suzanne Goin's spiced pork stew, which is a recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. Don't have this fabulous book? Alice Q Foodie published an adaptation of this recipe last year. It's going to be good today as I reheat it between returns.

Even election geeks need to get some fresh air, so before the 3:00 pm poll closings in Indiana and Kentucky, I'll be venturing out to Mission Pie to pick up my new addiction -- their delicious walnut pie. I have a feeling I'll be staying up late to wait for California proposition results, and my late night plan is popcorn or cereal. If things go really badly, I may be turning to my most basic comfort food: corn tortillas with melted cheddar and tomatoes.

If you're more social than I am on election day, you might want to wear your "I voted" sticker all day and take advantage of the numerous opportunities for free food around the Bay Area. You can get free sangria, free coffee, free ice cream, free doughnuts, free cookies, a free drink, and a free chicken sandwich.

Whatever tonight may bring, the drink of choice at this house will be sparkling wine -- probably something from my favorite Anderson Valley winery. It's a day to celebrate the end of this astounding election.

It didn't take long to figure out my contribution to an election night potluck: celebratory jiao zi dumplings made with bipartisan dough.

Inspiration came from the toothsome, homemade, two-tone dumplings served during a recent 9-course dinner at China Stix in Santa Clara. The meal, hosted by the Association of Chinese Cooking Teachers, included a hands-on demonstration of dumpling making with owner Frank Chang and his head chef. Tucked in the corner of a nondescript strip mall, the restaurant is nothing much from the outside. Once inside, though, you'll find some of the best northern-style Chinese food in the Bay Area.

[Photo by Frank Jang]

Instead of green and white, though, my own dumplings would promise the peaceful, delicious coexistence of Red State and Blue State in every single mouthful. For the Republicans, I still had some powder ground from trai gac, a fruit used in Vietnam to color sticky rice a lucky red.

For Blue State representation, I turned to local writer and cooking teacher, Linda Tay Esposito, for a small handful of bunga telang, the petals of dried clitoria flowers that are used to color sweet rice and other desserts in Malaysia. (Yes, Southeast Asians are addicted to brightly colored food.) The flowers are very difficult to obtain, but Linda was willing to sacrifice some of her stash for the Democratic cause. In gratitude, I passed along some of my Republican powder.

Most natural colors are not any more difficult to use than the fake stuff in those little bottles. Most flowers, leaves or barks are best extracted during a cold-water soak. If needed, strain out the solids.

If you're coloring rice, start with a smaller amount of colored water for soaking, to infuse as much concentrated color into the grains as possible, then follow with a second soaking before cooking. (This is a handy trick for deeper golden hues in saffron pilafs, too.) Beets, hibiscus, pandan, turmeric, ube -- we're blessed with many brightly hued foods to lend artistry to our plates.

As we head into the holiday season, with lots of colorful cookies and festive breads to share, it's time to stock up on food colorings. This year, try out natural food colors. If making your own is not appealing or possible, you can find convenient natural colors online. Nature's Flavors offers organic food coloring in both powder and liquid forms.

As for those two-toned, Green Party dumplings at China Stix: Round up some friends and reserve a table, as a full banquet is the best way to experience their excellent variety of dishes. House favorites include the crispy-skinned duck, the tender pork spareribs cooked and presented dramatically inside a whole pumpkin, crazy flaky thousand-layer bread, and refreshing greens punctuated with extra tiny pinenuts.

China Stix
2110 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 244-1684
Map

[Photo by Frank Jang]

The espresso ganache-based Obama chocolates that Cosmic Chocolates pours out in Oakland as part of their "Cosmic Icon" collection is old news in the Bay Area. Tasty, but old. Therefore, our Bay Area political chocolatieres should step up their game because Boston-based Burdick's is seriously outclassing them.

Check out Burdick's separate Obama and McCain chocolate boxes. Not only do you get a jean jacket-ready button touting either campaign and a festive box tied with blue or red ribbon and bearing the party's animal, but each box of chocolates is flavored in line with each candidate's history.

For example, the McCain box features an "Arizona Citrus" chocolate and a "Hot Pepper Tequila" chocolate. Separately, they are sort of a mystery -- when I think of citrus, my mind does not jump to AZ -- but together maybe they make sense. Sort of a chocolate cocktail. Try shoving both in your mouth at once and see if I'm right.

Also confusing in the McCain box is the "Kentucky Rye" chocolate, described as "dark ganache with a strong rye whiskey, seasoned with citrus." Huh? I guess it could just be one of their signature chocolates, along with the tiny chocolate mice and Kentucky Truffles also included in the assortment, but wouldn't it have made more sense to developed a beer-flavored chocolate?

The Obama box features a dark chocolate-coated Hawaiian pineapple pate de fruit and another made from Kenyan coffee ganache and coated with crushed coffee. The "Kansas Corn Crunch" -- dark Bourbon whisky ganache -- might seem confusing until you recall Kansas is his mother's home state. (Note: Obama won't do well in Kansas this fall, so Burdick's might want to rethink that one.)

In order to remain fair and balanced, I bought and tasted both Obama and McCain chocolates. (That way, their voting system could just toss out my vote.)

I grew up in a house divided, so for my parents' anniversary (September 11th, no less), I sent them boxes from each party. My Dad's a definite Republican, and while my mother has always been a liberal, I'm never 100% certain which way she'll go. She might see this as a bribe. I wrote, "Happy Anniversary to a couple who have always remained strong individuals even after 40+ years."

So, if you're undecided about which way to go in November, buy a 1/4 pound of each and let your tastebuds decide, because unlike the actual political parties, neither of these will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Can't you just see Stephen Colbert chewing these over, trying to determine which one tastes "more presidential"?

Another food purveyor tempting the nation's political palate is Northbrook, Illinois deli, Max and Benny's. They've baked and frosted cookies in the likenesses of Obama, McCain, and Biden. I'm not so sure I'd want to eat a McCain, though; check out the expression on his face! It's got indigestion written all over it.

Also, one of my favorite beer companies from back east, Magic Hat Brewing, has tricked out their 12-packs in all sorts of vote-happy colors and images as part of their get out the vote campaign with Head Count.

Seeing that the February 5th primary in California will actually matter for the first time in way too many election cycles, presidential candidates and their supporters are out stumping at key Bay Area cornerstones. Or, should I say that they're actually paying attention to us, the Left Coasties, because maybe JUST MAYBE our votes are finally going to count for something? (For instance, Chelsea returns to her alma mater, but pisses people off by making herself available only to lucky Greeks. In the hopes of being granted Chelsea face-time, some of her disappointed fans even missed out on Lake Tahoe ski trips -- oh noes!)

As a result of our becoming the girl who is suddenly hot when she takes off her glasses and lets her hair hang down, California's eating establishments have now become ripe targets for candidate glad-handing. The trite salt-of-the-earth diner has long been the choice site for retail politicking in down-home places like Iowa and New Hampshire, but it's a bit weird to think of our favorite hot spots being used for the same purpose.

For instance, just this past week, Bill Clinton was in Oakland and made national "news" because of a pointed exchange he had with ABC7's Mark Matthews. The locale? None other than Everett & Jones barbeque, where he also held a roundtable discussion, plumping up his wife's campaign while he plumped up his waistline with E&J's succulent ribs. How true to both his SNL persona and his storied connections with the African-American community for him to choose that particular location for a photo-op.

Matier and Ross also reminded us this week about the California Dem vote being split between the beer-drinkers and the wine and cheese crowd. As they report it, Hillary has the ear of the blue-collar beer drinkers (mostly downstate, they note), while Obama wraps up the liberal wine-and-cheesers.

This got me thinking, does this mean Barack Obama needs to go to The French Laundry to answer Clinton in kind? Or better yet, given his now-infamous 2007 arugula remark in Iowa, he could set up camp at the Ferry Building -- where everyone will always know the price of arugula.

But hey, what does all this mean for Bay Area beer-drinkers? See, we're a rarified lot up here, where many of us treat our beer like wine. This the crowd that goes to Suppenküche, Toranado, and Magnolia, tracking down hard-to-find Belgians, doppelbocks, and specialized microbrews. Clinton's beer is not that kind of beer. No, Clinton beer is mass-produced, domestic (preferably light) beer. And you know? There's not a whole lot of that in the Bay Area -- home of the micro/local everything.

So, if Hillary's going to find her constituency at a Bay Area noshery or watering hole, she's going to have to look beyond the beer-swillers.

She could go where Bill goes, but I don't see her pushing up her suit sleeves to chow down at Everett & Jones without him; it seems slightly outside of her comfort zone. No, I really see her at A16. Yes, I see Hillary in the Marina, I see her at a place that's a focal point for that not-too-young, not-too-edgy monied crowd. It's a popular place, it's a respected place, and it doesn't take chances.

Naturally, my mind started meandering around the city, trying to match candidate with eatery.

Barack would go to Delfina, because he'd feel the need to answer Hillary's Italian in kind, but in an edgier, hipper, younger neighborhood. Think about it: A16 focusses on a single Italian region, but Delfina is known to incorporate cuisines from diverse Italian regions and even adds their own unique California touch to each dish. And as we all know, Obama is the candidate who transcends culinary divides. (But is he Italian enough?) Plus, on his way out of town, he'd answer Bill's barbeque photo-op with a Lower Haight stop at Memphis Minnie's.

John Edwards: The Boulevard Cafe in suburban Daly City. It's always busy, it serves good, honest (if sometimes uninspired) food, and a lot of people forget it's even an option.

Rudy Giuliani: Let's give him Miller's East Coast West Delicatessen because it's the closest he'll ever get to New York on the Left Coast.

John McCain: He's a military guy and would be at home at Presidio Social Club and Top of the Mark. Right? I mean, he fought in WWII, didn't he? Failing that, I somehow think his platform might also gravitate towards Maverick.

Mitt Romney: With the hair, the suit, the smile, and the cloned kids, he's totally Cheesecake Factory material. And with such a large menu, no matter how many times he changes his mind, they'll be certain to have something for him.

Mike Huckabee: Before his salad eating days, I could see the immigrant-friendly guv hanging out at El Farolito, but since the weight-loss, he's probably looking around for healthier fare. Greens and Millennium are probably way too experimental and liberal for him, so he'd probably be holding court with a Baja Fresh veggie burrito in a strip mall somewhere.

Fred Thompson: I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about him screams somnambulistic businessmen and huge sides of beef, so I'll put him in Alfred's Steakhouse and The House of Prime Rib. He's the real sleeper candidate.

Ron Paul: As long as he puts himself as far away from City Hall as possible, he'll be good. I see Ron Paul setting up a grill and cooler in Golden Gate Park and yelling at all the kids to stay off his lawn.