Education of the Modern Doctor: Marcus Welby vs. House 
Home Ec Studio’s workspace
Plenty of purveyors ’round town offer such an experience. Wanna learn how to brew beer? Home Brew Mart (5401 Linda Vista Road, No. 406, homebrewmart.com), owned by the same folks who make Ballast Point beer, has all the goods one needs to get started. The kits start at just $132.95 (and go up and up to more than $400) and have everything you need to become a master homebrewer—from the fermentors to the bottling buckets and hydrometers. They also also carry a wine-making kit that they themselves put together. And the quality is better than those cheesy beer-in-a-box kits you see in the back of men’s magazines.
Visual Art Supply (3524 Adams Ave., Normal Heights, visualartsupply.com) sells a screen-printing kit from Speedball that helps you can make your own T-shirts, cards, wrapping paper, pot holders, tote bags or hang-able art. Everything you need comes in one box. New Etsy venture anyone?
On the same art tip, you can craft your own books with the Hand Blank Journal Books Kit that comes complete with book boards, writing paper, cover paper, book cloth for the spines, needles and thread. All you need to finish them up is glue, which is also available at Blick Art Materials (1844 India St., Little Italy, dickblick.com) alongside the kit.
Discount Hobby Warehouse (7644 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Kearny Mesa, discounthobbywarehouse.com) has all the DIY kits to make mini planes, trains and automobiles. Boats, too. In business since 1972, they know their RC cars, Super Cub RTFs, Moon Mutts and Balsa flyers. Plus, the website lists all the San Diego model clubs, so you can find other people who are making their own big-boy toys.
Perhaps you’ve always yearned to make tiny palm trees out of crunchy vegetables? Or petite roses out of sushi tuna? Great News (1788 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach, great-news.com) has a kit that includes a handful of fancy garnish-creating tools and a book right out of the ’80s that will teach you how to make miniature, edible creations to impress your co-workers and housemates.
Wanna skip the garnish and go right for the sushi? Try famed local seafood purveyor Catalina Offshore Products (5202 Lovelock St., Bay Park, catalinaop.com). It sells several sushi- and sashimi-making kits. For $35, you get all the ingredients (except the fish—that’s extra) to create sushi rolls at home. For just under $150, you can get the Sashimi Kit that does contain the fish—sashimi-grade tuna, farmed salmon, tuna loin, hamachi, unagi, ebi, plus wasabi, tobiko, calamari salad and a few other condiments. That’s an impressive party for 10 people at home crafted by your own two little hands.
Perhaps you need a place to serve your sushi? Palapas San Diego, located near the Costco off Morena Boulveard (5151 Santa Fe St., tropicalshade.net) sells all the materials you need to make your own backyard thatched-roof tiki bar. Umbrellas start around $400, and palapas are well over a $1,000, but that’s far cheaper than if you bought it from some finished tiki-bar superstore.
While it’s not a kit you can take home, the Home Ec Studio (2225 30th St., homeecstudio.com) in South Park has complete one-day classes for kids and adults that allow you to start and finish a skirt, dress, apron and other items in a single day. learn how to use a sewing machine in a small, urban and friendly setting and walk away with an education in sewing and something new for your closet. See—two gifts in one.
Looking for something? Write to clea@sdcitybeat.com.
