Sacramento

[Jim Dixon]

It looks like I'll be at the Sensory Evaluation of Olive Oil class at UC Davis next weekend. Any restaurants or other food places (besides Corti Bros) I need to check out?

I'll be driving down from Portland, so roadside spots also requested (I will make the mandatory stop at Corning so I can buy olives at the Olive Pit).

thanks

Jim

[Jim Dixon]

So it really is hopeless, huh?

Jim

[miwine]

Frank Fats in downtown Sac.

[Jim Dixon]

t'anks

[Schielke]

Check out Mikuni sushi if you can. Their BBQ Albacore is to die for.

Ben

[russ parsons]

what about biba? i haven't eaten tehre in years. and also mai pham has a vietnamese restaurant in sacto, not really sure of the name, but she's a great cook.

[LaurieA-B]

Short visit in Sacramento next week; any suggestions? We're going to visit my sister, who has two little girls, so inexpensive family-friendly places would be great. Does Sacramento have any great authentic Mexican restaurants, or taco stands? I know my sister likes Indian food, too, and so do we. (I don't think she gets out much, which is why I'm asking here.)

I did have lunch at Biba a couple of years ago, on another visit, and enjoyed it very much. We may try to squeeze it in, though not with our nieces.

[mamster]

I just got back from this excursion (Laurie's still in the area) and had a couple of good meals. First was at a taco truck on Northgate in the Natomas area. This was a serious purpose-built taco truck with a chilled salsa cabinet and efficient, professional taco artists. I tried carne asada, cabeza, and carnitas. The carnitas taco was the hands-down winner, wonderfully crunchy and juicy meat. The carne asada was a little dry. If you're looking for this truck, it was parked outside Rico's Pizza on Sunday. There was another taco truck parked nearby. I would have tried both, but I have this irrational fear of walking past one taco truck with the wares of another--if they "accidentally" backed over me, what jury would convict?

We had lunch today at Biba. It's a very attractive Italian restaurant with a simple and classic menu. The homemade pastas are the way to go--Laurie had a magnificent wild mushroom ravioli with mushroom butter sauce, and she still sometimes brings up the cheese ravioli she had last time. I had penne with shrimp, pancetta, and broccoli, which was good, but I coveted the ravioli. We split an appetizer of prosciutto slices topped with figs and arugula salad with balsamic vinegar--like I said, nothing new here, but it's hard to argue with that combination. Eating the silky slices of prosciutto, I realized that there's a huge difference between prosciutto sliced two minutes ago and prosciutto sliced an hour ago, which probably explains why the guys at my local deli are always slicing off extra prosciutto and eating it behind the counter.