tanabutler

I always feel so wistful when I read your posts, Jim. But in a good way.

Another place to consider (I haven't been, but would go): Grasing's. Check out Narsai David's Private Cellar. (Unfortunately, the website design is very unattractive.) The Prix Fixe menu looks pretty good.

For food: Tarpy's Roadhouse in Monterey: foodie friends (including my friend, Joe Ortiz, who is one of the owners of the legendary Gayle's Bakery in Capitola) love it. I can't find a link to it, but in the very lovely hamlet of Pacific Grove, there is a good place called "Peppers Mexicali Café." Mexican, loosely, with Caribbean influences. Well-priced, great chow and good wine/beer offerings in a pleasant, warm atmosphere. Exxxxxxcellent salsa. I can't find a link except to Frommers. In Monterey, do visit "A Taste of Monterey" on Fisherman's Row, about two blocks up from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (if you haven't been, it is one of the best ways to spend a day...promise). The tasting room, with a more-than-180-degrees view, overlooks the Monterey Bay. To your left, you can see seals basking near the aquarium, and kayakers braving the Pacific Ocean. ToM offers wine tastings from Monterey Vineyards...last time I was there, it was $6 for six tastes, and you can choose all white, all red, or a 3/3 combo. Other options are available, but I don't see them online. It's a very pleasant place to visit. All we ever do in Carmel is hit the galleries and leave, then drive out Carmel Valley Road, usually to visit the nurseries. (I find the town oppressively Kinkadian and snooty, and prefer the country lanes, myself.) If I were going, I'd stay and eat at Bernardus. I was going to suggest going to a nursery that has been featured in Sunset and visited by Martha Stewart, growing thousands of roses, but have just learned from another nursery that she is no longer open to the public, but is selling all her flowers to Bernadus. So that is one more reason to go to Bernadus. I went to their website and found it lacking in description about the food. The menu changes daily, and I know it to be of the highest caliber...but I telephoned them to suggest that they just take menu samplings and post them online, since we eat with our eyes before we visit, and we're looking for the flavor that way.) Friends who have dined at Bernadus (at Marinus, which serves dinner, as opposed to Wickets, which is breakfast and lunch) have raved, in worshipful tones, about its quality. Hope that helps! Enjoy your weekend.

pasta

That's about 96 too many, if you ask me. Or maybe they need to have 23 clubs with 23 members.

Trish, make a trial run of each. I think (no insult to the Union Café) you will find the five herbs and maple syrup to be a fabulous combination. Even my nut-loathing girlfriend will eat some of these if they're around. Well, only the hazelnuts.

If only you were in NY, I'd share some of the catch with you. Thanks again. I'm about to book a trip for this spring! Maybe two! (Seriously. United Airlines has a deal where, if I fly from San Francisco to NYC twice before April 15, I get a free ticket anywhere in the world. I need to come on business at least once...if I can line up some more web design work, I'm all over that second trip.) You're sweet. Keep us posted. I wanna know how you cook what you do.

That's pretty similar to the recipe I linked, except mine has five varieties of herbs, and uses maple syrup and olive oil instead of brown sugar.

Sounds like a good price to recreate Italian food, if you ask me. I'm jealous.

Spicy Herb Roasted Nuts They do have maple syrup, but the cayenne, herbs and salt balance it out. They are so so so so so so so so so so good. (I did not make the recipe up but I scrawled it down and forget the source.)

That's interesting, FG. Hmmm, there are tons of wild boar here in Santa Cruz county. They ravage the fields of some farmers I know. One, Andrew Griffin, of Mariquita Farm, wrote an article about them. (Hmm, I think he means "discreet.") Discrete Pig Service (Emphasis mine, below: the sentence is just too good not to point it out.) Joseph, I wonder if Andy could put you in touch with some of the people who get these boars. I'm telling you, they are rampant. In fact, at two of the Outstanding in the Field dinners, wild boar was on the menu because pig vigilantes had stayed up all night to bring them to the table. Good eating, those boar. GOOD eating.

I will make a mess of Mexican home fries (potatoes with red bell peppers, onions, jalapeños, tomatoes, corn tortillas, salsa, cumin and lime). I'll probably also marinate skirt steak in teriyaki (Soy Vey is good stuff) and make sandwiches on sourdough rolls. Tons of mojitos and wine. We're not a beer-drinking group. Go, Patriots, indeed! Tom Brady is the best! (I'm lucky to like lots of teams...I'm just happy that those unctuous St. Louis Rams choked at home!)

Yep.

I just read How Green Was My Valley for the fourth time last month. Richard Llewellyn's descriptions of food are so gorgeous--I loaned the book out just last night, or I'd have some quotes here. Early on, he describes a full table and says that no one ever talked while eating, because he never met the man whose conversation could stand up to his mother's food. There are some wonderful food descriptions in Gone with the Wind. And two books, anthologies, come to mind. (I own the first and have just ordered the second one, for which I am paying one cent. One penny.) The Ravenous Muse Food Tales: A Literary Menu of Mouthwatering Masterpieces (out of print but widely available)... Includes these and others: Yesterday's Sweetmeats -- by Robert Benchley A Vitcomte's Breakfast -- by Alexandre Dumas The Luncheon -- by W. Somerset Maugham The Man who Loved to Eat -- by William Maxwell The Spoiled Cake -- by Jules Renard (trans. Ralph Manheim) Tortillas and Beans -- by John Steinbeck The Power of Cookery -- by Sylvia Townsend Warner His Father's Earth -- by Thomas Wolfe How about Anthony Bourdain's top ten food books? Jim Crace's books are often food centric. From The Devil's Larder: And I agree about all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, especially Farmer Boy (Alonzo Wilder had a more prosperous upbringing than his wife, and she really went to town describing their meals). EDITED TO CORRECT BAD LINK FOR FOOD TALES.

I forgot to mention this: it was much cheaper to use my ATM card for purchases than to go to the hassle of exchanging money. I don't know if that's the case now, with the Euro. Beward unscrupulous rates on exchanging money, if you go that route. Places near the center of touristy hot spots (think Siena and the Duomo) charge much more for the "convenience." And I mean a lot more.

Write up your meal for me, okay? I might be headed up next week.

Are you going to do the prix fixe lunch, jschyun?

This movie is so dreadful that I did something I rarely do: turned it off after twenty minutes. Let's just call it "unappetizing." And it left a bad taste in my mouth. "Woman in Flop" is more like it. Blegh.

Hey, January is the month for cheap prix fixe lunches and dinners at these places. These are some of the best places in town...Farallon, RNM (Justine Miner's place...she did one of the best Outstanding in the Field farm dinners EVER--Patricia Unterman wrote, "Right now I would drive across town just to sit in front of Miner's calm kitchen and work my way through the menu."), Grand Café, Absinthe, Greens...tons of great bargains. I'm headed up this week myself to cash in.

Those silicon gel ear plugs work great.

Pink lemons? Boy, are those two of my favorite words. Me want!

Woo hoo, we're headed back to Las Vegas at the end of the month, and I'll finally get to go to Lotus of Siam!

Had a fantastic, fabulous, frabjous meal at Café Terra Cotta a few years back. The garlic-hazelnut custard with warm salsa-vinaigrette was outstanding. My sister and I enjoyed it so much we both came away with her cookbook, which is something I've never done in my life. We stayed at the beautiful Arizona Inn, and the dining there is lovely as well. I don't know that the meal itself is a destination (though it was voted one of Tucson's Ten Best), but the Inn is one of my favorite places on earth. You might enjoy visiting and wandering through the gardens...14 acres of beauty. Please go to Café Terra Cotta have a garlic custard for me!

Mmm, now I'm inspired to make Patricia Wells' recipe for lemon risotto with the Meyer lemons off my tree. Whee!

Oh, sure. Her? Absolutely. "And always remember, sugah. Men date blondes, but they marry brunettes." My mother, the strategist.