PamelaF

Hi everyone, I am going to be in Philadelphia for the first time next week. I have been reading this board and getting lots of great ideas. I am looking forward to some great eating. Could someone please fill in a few details. What are the precise locations of Tony Luke's and Tony Luke's Jr.? Thanks, Pam

Menlo Park is pretty close to Palo Alto. I believe there are some nice restaurants there. Like Spago I also have enjoyed the Fish Market restaurant Looks like I am going to be spending a few days in Palo Alto next month. I would also appreciate some more recommendations for local favorites.

Excellent onion rings! There is a Fat Burger in Lincoln, in the Thunder Valley Casino. This is not too far off the beaten path if you happen to be driving I-80 north of Sacramento (Highway 65 North for about 5 miles). Because it's in the casino, it's open 24 hours a day.

The accompanying deli/lunch option, Cantinetta, looks quite interesting as well. Wood-fired pizza, panini, and so on. As reviewed in the Friday, casual dining column: Cantinetta Too bad that I do not get out that way very often. Pam

Hi Everyone, I started this thread a couple of weeks ago and then disappeared, lots of real work keeping me from eGullet, sorry. Based on most people's comments it seems like I am not alone in my opinion. I also receive Saveur and am very pleased with it, however I rarely cook any of their recipes, they are either too complex or require hard to find ingredients. (I did cook the Italian Wedding Soup from a few issues back and it was wonderful. A classic, from scratch chicken soup, with interesting extras, that took all day, but was very worth it.) My husband even likes Saveur because of the gorgeous photography. He loves food too, and even cooks a bit, but is not as interested in reading about it as I am. Another magazine I have found myself liking recently, has been EveryDay Food from the Martha Stewart organization. It has a cute TVGuide page size, very little editorial, just lots of recipes and a nice photo of almost every one. The recipes are mostly short and easy to prepare, but do not rely on convenience ingredients (no Cream of XXX soup). As Jinmyo suggested in her post, eGullet has such a wealth of information, and so many ways to access it, perhaps the traditional print media is just not going to satisfy us anymore. Pam

Happy birthday, Tana. I had my first opportunity to visit the Ferry Plaza on a quick vist to downtown SF last month. I can't wait for a chance to go back and explore in depth. It is a great addition to the city. Pam P.S. I have also really enjoyed your posts and the links you have provided to sites with your lovely photos, great work.

For many years, F&W had been my favorite of all the monthly periodicals (I am in the US). I would look forward to receiving it every month. However, I just finished leafing through the May 2004 issue and I was wondering if they accidentally sent me "Travel & Leisure" (or maybe "Shopping & Advertisements") instead of the magazine I am interested in. I understand that the May issue is published in early Spring when people are likely to be planning summer vacations, but what happened to the "cooking" part of this magazine? Recipes seem to be few and far between. What are your favorite magazines, these days?

California has so many festivals you could go to a different one every weekend from April til October. Some of the ones that I hope to get to are: Stockton Asparagus festival, April 23-25 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival, May 14 - 16 Isleton Crawdad Festival, June 18 - 20 And the best one of all: The Gilroy Garlic Festival, July 23 - 25 I have been to Gilroy the last two years (and also attended a couple of times in the distant past). This is a great event, exceptionally well run, the Gilroy volunteers make the Disney organization look like slackers <g>. If you go, try to go on the Friday, it is much less crowded than the Sat-Sun. Parking is free and admission is about $10. There is continuous entertainment all day (festival is open from about 10am - 7pm). It is held in a large park. There are some open areas where it can get quite warm, but also some tree-shaded areas for respite. Tents with picnic tables are provided as well. Most of the food stands are run by local community groups, so the money you spend for pasta pesto, garlic bread, sauteed calamari, deep fried artichokes, and all the rest of the garlicky treats, is going to a good cause. Samples of garlic ice cream are free. I think the best part of last year's festival was when a local-favorite oldies band was performing on the main stage. Even though it was 3pm on a very hot afternoon, once the band started rockin the entire open area in front of the stage was packed and everyone (all ages) was dancing and having a great time. I would love to meet up with any other NorCal eGulleteers for any of these events and I will post on the California board right before the event. Pam P.S. If you can wait until October there is the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival.

You can usually find cashew butter (and other types of nut butter, almond, macadamia) at Trader Joe's.

Hi, The Waterboy is a very nice restaurant with service and quality comparable to SF, but like most places in Sacramento a lot friendlier and a bit less expensive. Celestin's is another place that I can heartily recommend, their gumbo is amazing and they have interesting carribean seafood and vegetarian options as well. The Midtown area of Sacramento just east of downtown has many interesting restaurants, including the two mentioned above. Parking is usually not a problem, unlike SF. Pick up the local free weekly newspaper and look for what is interesting. Here's a link to the Sac Bee's list of the top ten restaurants for 2003: Sacramento's Top Ten

Somewhere earlier in the thread someone mentioned googling for an early FoodTV page. Here is a link to a 1997 page that lists the current programs: Archive.org

Trader Joe's Hawaiian Style. These are thick chips, made from unpeeled potatoes and cooked in expeller pressed oil (same as cold pressed, right?) I am having some right now. Yum.

Hi Carolyn, Thanks! Give them another try, I think they are still working hard with only one or two people to get the school established. Pam

Hi everyone, this is my first post here (been lurking since thanksgiving). I love Nugget. Every month the Shallots cooking school hosts a winemaker dinner. These are wonderful events. I went on Wednesday night. The featured winery was Grgich Hills and the guest chef was Derek de La Paz from Napa Valley Grille. The school room can seat about 30-40 people and the meal is prepared and plated in the room, so you get to watch the chef working. The demonstration kitchen has mirrors and a video monitor so you can see what's going on on the burners and and work surface. We had four courses and five wines (all Grgich of course): Seared Ahi Tuna, gingered Okinawan sweet potato puree, sun-dried cherry glaze, crispy leeks with Sauvignon Blanc. Napa Valley Grille smokes a lot of their own meat and fish, the second course was: House Smoked Salmon on a bagel chip drizzled with creme fraiche and capers, on a bed of frisee with Meyer lemon vinaigrette. Served with a beautiful Chardonnay. The main course: Cabernet Braised Wild Boar with marscapone polenta and baby vegetables, served with both a Zinfandel and a Cabernet. Dessert was Molten Chocolate cake with espresso glaze, raspberry sauce and vanilla bean gelato. The wine was Grgich "Violetta" a very unusual dessert wine made with a blend of late harvest reisling and chardonnay grapes that had also acquired the "noble rot". The resulting wine was much less sweet than a typical late harvest reisling, actually quite acidic, but with the rich body that you associate with dessert wines. It was an incredible dinner and a great showing of the wines. I also find these events to be a lot more fun than just visiting a restaurant. You sit at communual tables so you get to meet and chat with the other attendees. The winery rep (in this case Violet Grgich, daughter of the founder) discusses the winery's history and the wines. The chef talks about his dishes and how he selected them to pair with the wines. The bad news is that next month's event, featuring Robert Mondavi Winery, is already sold out. Now that I am posting this here, I guess I'd better make my reservation for March before that one sells out as well. It would be nice to meet some local eGullet folks at one of these events. Regards, Pam