slo_ted

Should you be hungry driving between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, I would recommend a stop in the tiny town of Los Olivos. It is maybe 3 km east of hwy 101 in the beautiful Santa Ynez valley. If you take hwy 154 going north from Santa Barbara you will pass through Los Olivos. 154 is also a beautiful drive and is shorter than sticking with 101. There are four restaurants there and you can't go wrong with any of them. I like to stop for lunch at Patrick's Side Street Cafe. If you saw the movie Sideways,it was filmed in Los Olivos and in the surrounding wine country. I concur with the Firestone Grill here in SLO and the Taco Temple Morro Bay now located alongside hwy 1 in the parking lot of Spencer's Supermarket. You'll see it on your right as you drive north. Dorn's Original Breakers in Morro Bay overlooking the waterfront is one of my favorite breakfast places. Martin's Tortilla Soup on Main St. in Cayucos is also great for breakfast, especially if you like huevos rancheros, and sometimes they have excellent menudo on weekends. Cayucos is about 10 km north of Morro Bay and is the last funky beach town in California. Have a great trip!

What I would do is to get them a nice chefs knife, and maybe a paring knife. These will hold up to the years of abuse that they will endure before their owners realized the treasures they really are. They can then be restored, and you will again be a hero. Best of luck.

I admit to being hooked on Iron Chef (Japanese). I've watched re-runs of shows I've seen before. There was an ernestness there that one rarely sees on TV. I loved to watch the cooking techniques, and the tools. Too bad it's gone. the ICA is not the same, though I watch it also. About RR. I once enjoyed her 30 min. meals show, but she seems to have hi-jacked this network now. Where are the "how to" shows that really made this network great? Ming is gone, Sara is gone, I don't even see Bobby Flay doing much anymore. I'm sure they listen to their focus groups and polls, but to those of us who want to cook better and looked to this network as a resource it is a loss.

Road trips within the state we travel relatively heavy. Coffee, venerable polypropylene percolator, canned milk, wine, fruit, crunchy snacks. Lots of bottled water. Also the usual tools-- Chefs knife, paring knife, utility knife, cork screw. Cheese is nice and I love some jalopeno and serrano peppers. We stuff all this stuff into the car. For airline advendures, we must pare it down severely. Some prepackaged snacks, fruit, peppers for accenting the food purchased on the fly. Oh, and some bottled water to wash it down.

Thank you, John. I'm a SM fan and I miss her presence on the Food Network. You are a lucky guy!

Blue Moon Belgian White. A wheat ale. Extremely smooth. Have to admit that most of the time it's Bud Lite.

I always thought it was Mario Batalli's fault.