dfunghi

Zealot, I dont think Hardneck can grow in California or at least it is not widely planted here. Mostly grown in colder climats. On Weds in SM talk to the Thogmartins (on 2nd south of Arizona) they are garlic and onion experts. They also go to Hollywood on Sundays. D

Just wondering how many farmers market shoppers are on this board and what they are up to these days? Melons, Tomatoes, grapes, figs , all happening now. Plus berries of course D

Hollywood farmers market fish??? Really? I always find John ( petes dad) to be rude and his fish to be just comercially bought and resold, not fresh catch. So many times they have fish like farmed salmon or african lobster tail, or chilean seabass, that I am sure do not come from waters anywhere near San Pedro. I prefer Anjin II at the Santa monica markets on Weds and Sat. Local fish and when its not they tell you where it is from. Also the shrimp people from Santa Barbara at S.M. markets seasonaly. I second 99 ranch market too. Harveys Guss Meats is about the best LA has to offer unless you want to order whole shells of beef or whole ribroasts. For the individual who wants a steak or 2 or 5 Harvey is the way to go. I do not believe it is KOSHER though. Veggies = Any farmers market and there are lots. When at surfas try to press them for a 5 or 10 pct. industry discount if you work in food biz. D

Dinos Burgers - Pico just west of Vermont. Although it is called dinos burgers all anyone eats there is the Chicken. Flame broiled and marinated, an LA insider place for sure. $5 Lares - Pico blvd in Santa Monica. Carnitas and good salsa! $15 Dukes - Sunset Blvd and La Cienaga (more or less). Breakfast or lunch in a coffee shop atmosphere with good food and lots of LAness. Rockstars abound. $12 Need more just ask D

Amuse Cafe: Brook is not doing anything too fancy (yet). There are lots of tasty little plates and the cooking is solid. Farmers market produce and high quality meats and seafoods. The room is upstairs with some outdoor seating on the balcony. It has a nice open homey feel to it and is filled with Venice / Main street types. Casual and comfortable. Prices are mid range at about $20 a head for several small plates, they range from about $8 up. Service is efficient and freindly. NO WINE OR BEER LICENSE so byob. Corkage is free. All in all its a go. D

Back from Canada, not much to report. Medford - Too hot (98) to walk around and look for food so we just ate in the room with our own food. Breakfast was at Rice Hill. We did stop at Rouge creamery and tasted and procured some excellent raw milk bleu cheese's Portland - No exit from 405 to Burnside so we missed it all on way up but did find Kens on way back. Really excellent food and the bread is top notch. As good as any, anywhere and better than most! All in all the drive up to Vancouver was not a food drive. D

So Sorry all, for bad info. Hua's is now also called Yuanan garden (new signage) but menu says Hua's. It is on Garfield at # 301 and the cross street is NOT GARVEY. It is one block south of Emerson about 2 blocks north of Garvey. Very sorry all. Had wonderful lunch there today Fat Pork = fresh uncured porkbelly sliced paper thin blanched and served in a sweet / soy / chili oil sauce and covered in chopped raw garlic. Served cold Cumin Lamb = As the name implys saute`d sliced lamb in cumin and sweet peppers. Yum Chongquing Chicken = This is little pieces of bonless chix diced up and wok fried with tons of dried red chili and szechuan peppercorns. You just pick out the chicken and leave the chilis. D

Dont know HK market. Hua's is directly on the corner of Garvey and Garfield with great noodle soups. But for me its the hot stuff I go for. D

SONA- Looks like mixed reviews it will be for SONA. I would like to add that the tasting menus although many courses they were all very small, more like bites. The man at the table next to us who is a restaurant owner on the westside actually ordered a steak after the degustion menu. For my money I will stick to Bistro 21 with chef Ko' doing real French cooking with that wonderful Japanese style. MUST ORDER TASTING MENU A DAY OR MORE IN ADVANCE. Bastide? Really? Having eaten at both Alains previous venues ( Lavande, Citrus) I find no reason to put up with all the nonsense associated with Bastide. Just one mans opinion. D PS Melisse is now doing $65 prix fix and $20 3 course lunch.

Guess we just disagree about this. I have not seen the piece being discussed, I would like to though. I think my point should be there are perhaps tens of thousands of servers in SF when you count all the people that serve food for a living. Everything from tiny Salvadoran places up to the top tier of Danko and others. There is a staggering number of food business's in SF. Most are not what you would call "formal dinning", however they do employ servers. As to bartenders, there are lots and lots of bars, small dark bars. I would wonder if they have $1500 day gross. Not all of SF is as upscale or affluent as those who eat at Danko's or the like. It has a large blue collar ( getting smaller everyweek) population within it's 50 sq. miles. With many, many , restaurants where $30 or so buys dinner for a family. If we take ALL the servers salaries and avg. them it is no way near $45k let alone $65k. Unless this was an article about the SF society with six plus figure salary and where they eat. Disregarding the remaining 350,000 or so people and their servers. That may explain why the servers in the article do so well.

Spending $75 is not hard to do in any big city. But even in SF $75 does not represent the avg. cost of dinner. Chapeaux on Clement has excellent 3 course french meals for around $30 and thats just one. As I said I am sure there are some servers and BK's making big money and they have jobs at busy (subjective term these days) places with high check charge. Other than those hundred or two I cant imagine it. Then when they say "the average waiter salary here is $63K; the average bartender salary is $95,000." No way. Maybe if it said the avg. waiter at SF's top 15 restaurants D

People pointed out 300 was not big enough list and I pointed out some great missing places. Let's see what else is out there. Il Grano Santa Monica Bl. just west of 405. Chef Sal is an artist and a true Neopolitan. If you go order the CRUDO plate. This is all raw seafood at a level far above all but a small handfull of Sushi bars. Sal goes to fish mkt with 2 or 3 of the top sushi chefs in LA at the wee hours of the morning, where they are ushered into private rooms of tuna and assorted other species. Last week I had Blue Fin belly from Sicily that was dressed in a warm "bath" of lightly seasoned oil served with about 5 or 6 other species and preparations on a platter done in Neopolitan not Asian style all for under $20. A steal! At dinner try the tasting menu of neopolitan delights. Seafood , pasta, roasted birds, braised meats all done in a style that reflects the freshness of the ingredients and the understated elegance of the chef. Let Sal know what you are drinking and he will give you a cullinary ride . Hua's Cafe. Garvey and Garfield Montery Park This is yuanan or sichuan food like none other. This food is not for everyone (my wife for one) but if you like heat and are not afraid of a little garlic (dozen cloves or so) in your food this place is it. It has exrtremly talented chefs and you can taste great complexity in the dishes, as long as the heat doesn't ruin your pallate. I have been going for a couple of years now so it is easier for me to take then some of my friends. It's not the chili oil or chilis that get you. It is the amazing little sezchuan peppercorns. Endorfins go racing around your brain and its a full sensory expeireince. As an added bonus it is priced right. Most dishes $5 to $8 and really , really good. Trust me, this aint like anything you ever had unless you grew up in western China or have been to Hua's D More to come.

Also have not been in awile, but did like it alot when I did. For me it is more of a lunch place then diner although the food is serious enough for diner and the stemware is fine the lack of intamcy in the dining room just seems more daytime than night to me. However it is filled with groovy AD agency and T.V. Venice folks with the obligatory stunning 6ft models (both sexes). Missed review in Times story. D

Basically its Fairfax and Olympic. Call first is good advice. D

Jim, Had hoped to get to the creamery if time allowed. It is sort of NE of Medford I think? I was looking for some sort of local microbrewery type place. Do they exist? I thought Rouge area was known for this? Perhaps Im mistaken. I've been to Ashland a couple of times and was never that thrilled especially with the dollar - delicious scale weighted towards dollars, but there are so many places maybe I just missed the best of them. Can't remeber names but I could find them if I were there. We are heading to Eugene next for a day or so, any suggestions? Living in LA and traveling to SF a lot I get plenty of "fine dining". Am looking more for great homey food. Clam chowder, fish and chips, Umpqua ice cream, etc. Thanks D

It was IMHO a poor paste and cut job by the publishers of the Times. No new reviews, just copies of old ones. And many, many ommisions. Including some of the best LA has to offer. Il Grano for one on SM in WLA. Neoppolitan cooking at its finest. Which is why you see the likes of chef Mori (Mori sushi) eating there. Axe is another on Abbot Kinney with fresh organic veggies and prime meats. D

Harvey is an LA treasure! Prime aged beef sold at wholesale to the public, cut fresh that day. Not to mention he is a character. On one trip to Harvey's Guss meats I was also on way to pay phone bill with cash (Harvey likes cash) as well. I dropped my phone bill with $140 cash inside on the floor when I left. I get home that night to a phone call ( he took number off bill) from H. saying " This is not the phone company and if you want to pay your phone bill I suggest you take it to them not me." I went back next day to retrive. We need more Harveys and less........( Fill in your least favorite here) D

I would guess there are a few servers / barkeeps making that kind of dough. Very few! To earn $60 k as a waiter you would have to avg. 20% (which is very high) tip on $300k a year in sales or approx $825 a day 365 days a year. Hourly wages are very low for servers so I would guess <$10k yearly, the rest is tips. Figuring most servers work 4 - 5 shifts a week that number goes through the roof. 250 shifts @$1200 in sales per shift. Per server ( 4 or 5 maybe). Again, it is possible. Not very likely. Very few if any restaurants gross those kind of sales numbers. D

Hi all, I will be in Medford next week for a day or two and was trying to find some micro brewpub type place with great beer and great food, bar food stuff ok. Need great local breakfast too. The big 3 egg omelette with homemade bread and real maple syrup kind of place. Ashland to Talent ok I have a car. TIA D

First let me say hello all. My first post. Farmers markets are a device to help farmers avoid being at the mercy of brokers and shippers setting prices and instead sell direct to the public by traveling to urban centers with their wares. The public helps set the price with an open market to choose from. Usually 2 or 3 times the price gotten when sold in bulk to a shipper, who by the way takes 30 days to pay versus you and I who pay at point of sale. It is not a device for brokers or shippers or importers etc. to sell their wares. There are stores for rent or shelf space in someone elses store for rent, or swap meets for the food trade. The reason you find farmers markets in the choicest real estate in town is because it is governmant agencies showing reciprosity in the form of cities charging little (5 -6 % gross) rent to the sellers and getting street closures permit free that would otherwise be very expensive. They do this because it is a program sponsered by the dept. of agriculture to support agriculture, not reselers. Call city hall see what they charge to close a street for a few hours. This arrangement is and was designed to give an advantage to farmers, not reselers. Anything other than agriculture products being sold directly by the producer, forager, hearder, etc.. should be kept to a minimum. The old joke about the farmer who wins 5 million dollars in the lottery and when asked what he plans to do with the money? He replys " Keep farming until the money runs out". Sums up why we neeed and why we must have famers markets and why they should not become a swap meet. Thank you D