Christina Waters

Food @ 11 Jul 2012 10:56 am by Christina Waters

18 Responses to “Bastille Day - time to celebrate la liberté”

1. on 18 Jul 2012 at 3:54 pm   Bob Marsh

   You would never know it from your blog that there are other restaurants in santa Cruz County besides Soif, La Posta , Cigare Volant , and Au Midi

2. on 19 Jul 2012 at 11:43 am   Christina Waters

   Bob, you wild man, here’s the truth.
   The reason why I spend some time writing about these particular places is that I don’t have the kind of disposible income (who does?) that would let me forage on a purely experimental basis.
   I go where I know the food will reward the money I’m spending.
   O’mei is my go-to place on the Westside, for example, when I have guests I want to actually have a conversation with - AND enjoy brilliant, flavorful dinners.
   La Posta seems always fresh, always satisfying. Nothing tricky and worth the tab at the end of the meal.
   Au Midi happens to feature the work of a genuine French chef, who knows her way around fresh ingredients. So it’s a treat to stop by and remind myself why French cooking still sets standards.
   Soif needs no justification. The wine list alone rocks my world —where else can you sample varietals from Croatia, the Canary Islands, the Golan Heights for crying out loud? The food usually keeps right up with the wines.
   Le Cigare Volant now has in place a chef worth getting out of bed for, as it were. It offers exciting foods of the season & region. And that, Bob, is why I go out to dine.
   If I have had a negative experience at a restaurant — and I don’t have the luxury of unlimited $$$— then I probably don’t go back for a while.
   And - conversely - if I’ve enjoyed a meal, an experience, ambience, wines, etc. at a given dining room, I WILL go back when I crave a dinner out.
   Whew!
   I needed that. Thanks for pushing my buttons. Again.
   Christina

3. on 19 Jul 2012 at 5:07 pm   Roger

   Christina, thanks for keeping up “the faith” in O’mei.

   Like many other places, we are seriously impacted by those “thin wallets”, like the one in your possession. You are not alone. I myself confess that I just don’t “go out to eat” at places like Au Midi, and the more Westside places like the Flying Cigar bistro, and Paul’s Avanti. I have two excuses: my lady has a hard time eating anything not Chinese (Cultural Bias, or merely a biased digestive tract?), and, unlike most people, since O’mei is my place, I can get a “free” dinner there anytime I want!

   Free dinner at O’mei anytime I want ??? Well, yes, I don’t have Jie Mei bill me, but I’m not eating there as much as I used to. Why not? I’m on a diet, a “Paleo Diet” as they call it. Well, I must say, it’s WORKING! I mostly cook at home, but in the process realized that what we do at O’mei, with a few minor twists, can fit VERY NICELY into just what Paleos (Yeah, I’m that too …) want in a meal.

   We have not developed an actual menu listing these possibilities yet, but it’s already a “mental outline” … in there among a gazillion others … some of which you understand, but not as much as you THINK you understand them. (grin).

   I have a suggestion: why not you and I get together and chat about this? Maybe we could sweat out some “details” that would also work in many other places; not just at O’mei. People’s dining habits are changing, due to a variety of reasons. Money is a biggie. Health is another. In my particular case, “old age” is also telling me that I can’t live on what I used to live on. At least, I can’t do that and feel as good as I want to feel.

   I’m probably not alone in this!

   As for Bob, I concur that his question pushed some “good buttons”. I think a lot more need to be pushed … in expectation that this blog, this “foodie space”, can rise to another level, a level beyond “What Christina Likes”, and an expanded version of a newspaper review.

   I think YOU, a “food critic” (self-annointed, or not), have a much larger responsibility to the culinary culture than as a human advertising marquis for “what you like”. How about enjoining some of the culinary culture that you DON’T either like, or are not drawn to, in an ongoing conversation of “constructive criticism”. Of course, that might mean doing something like a behind the scenes discussion with cooks (you know I’ll almost NEVER use the word “chef” in public. More grins) and restaurant owners … in a “problem-solving” mode. Let them be the “drivers”. You know how dangerous a cook can be if a “mere scribbler” attempts to drive them …. (many more grins!)

   As you well know, I can write enough to totally DEVOUR your blog, and everything in it. So I’ll stop now, before that happens. :)

4. on 19 Jul 2012 at 7:39 pm   Roger

   PS: Christina, over the years you’ve reviewed O’mei, and often discussed certain flavors. I’ve always wondered how you tasted the “citrus floral essence” in the dishes we cook which use Sichuan Peppercorn! The reason I’ve “always wondered” is that, until quite recently, we’ve only had access to the RED peppercorns, the mature ones which are dried. While these do have a whiff or two of such aromas, my experience was that those got lost in the overall dish. Maybe my “smeller” just isn’t as good as yours?

   But NOW, things are different! (Do I hear a rejoice?)

   We’ve struggled (yes struggled) for years (actually decades) to source the real essence you describe. And now that we’ve sourced it, we’ve pretty much cleaned out all the bay area sources. Selfish bastards we is! But all for our flavor-lovin’ guests, of course. So what’s the secret?

   GREEN Sichuan Peppercorns. Don’t try to find them in any store in the Bay Area: They’re all in O’mei storage, at least until our secret source orders more for us.

   These puppies literally REEK of that orange-blossom perfume you once described, but not at all like say, orange-blossom water, which is way more Moroccan than Chinese. And the “Ma” (numb) flavor is even different than the red Sichuan corns.

   We haven’t made any splash about this, but it’s integrated into many dishes, especially those with Ma-La Flavors. Our “new” upcoming menu will talk a bit more about this, and highlight the dishes with this. It’s sort of subtle if you don’t make a habit of Peppercorn Whiffing, but once you sense the difference, you’ll realize something very old in Sichuan has arrived in Santa Cruz.

   Am I engaging in a shameless plug for O’mei cooking? Yeah, why not. This stuff excites me more than the latest ballgame scores or whatever is supposed to happen in London at the end of this month. Flavor Uber Alles, my friend.

5. on 19 Jul 2012 at 9:57 pm   LDR

   Christina, you made it very clear in your response to Bob that financial restraints affects your ability to experiment with unfamiliar restaurants and your not alone, even in good times I hate to waste money on a mediocre meal often poorly served and so, like you, I return to those restaurants that satisfy, both to enjoy and to support their efforts. I’m certain that the reason your blog continues to exist is that for the most part your readers identify with your likes and taste (pun intended) and look forward to reading What Christina Likes. In fact Roger chooses not only to completely ignore your explanation but come up with the ludicrous suggestion that you spend your valuable funds purposly eating food that you don’t like purely for constuctive critism. How can there be constuctive critism of something you dislike eating and to what end? Furthermore I cannot remember you ever describing yourself as a food critic, he chooses that label, I think of you more as a critic at large and that’s fine. In addition he also suggests newspaper length reviews of these forays, you write a blog! Most restauranteurs I know, the successful ones, make a practise of eating at other establishments both to keep abreast of current trends and to help them recognise areas that could be improved on in their own establishments, they also have the good sense to post their menu’s on their website. Perhaps both these enhance their ability to afford those meals in the longer run.
   Okay Roger your on a diet like many of us and you’re looking for possibilities to enhance your menu or at least attract more thinner wallets, how about offering the option of a smaller portion? I have to admit to being very negatively affected early in your first post when you used the words my lady in referring to the woman in your life. Besides it sounding sexist, it comes across as extremley pompous as does your habit of capitalising certain words and using italics improperly in an effort to highlight them. Unfortunatley, in my opinion, that pomposity continued throughout your correspondence.
   Christina, please ignore Roger, keep doing what you do. You know I don’t agree with all you write but it’s always well presented, entertaining and worth reading.
   PS.
   You don’t like her blog? you don’t have to read it, write your own.

6. on 19 Jul 2012 at 10:27 pm   Roger

   LDR, just noticed your comment. I haven’t pored over it yet, but will, and will respond. At first glance, I see two things to address:

   1. Smaller portions for less $$, and possibly a way of catering to “changing tastes” (and diets).

   2. “You don’t like her blog?” etc. Who the hell said I didn’t like her blog. Can you not discern constructive critical thinking from “not liking”? As for writing my own blog: that is in the works, on the new O’mei website. We will not be a “commenting” type of blog, because I just don’t have the time to sort out the confusion caused by minds which confuse offering critical thinking with “not liking”, and subsequent dismissal of said comments. Life is too short for that crap.

   Be back in a few with some thoughts on #1 ….

7. on 19 Jul 2012 at 10:34 pm   Roger

   “Roger chooses not only to completely ignore your explanation but come up with the ludicrous suggestion that you spend your valuable funds purposly eating food that you don’t like purely for constuctive critism.”

   LDR, where did I say that? Exactly: NOWHERE. It’s all in your interpretation, not in my words.

   What I was hinting at is something Christina and I will discuss, should she choose to talk about it. It has nothing to do with her spending money on “something she doesn’t like”. In fact, she may be able to squeeze a few $$ free meals out of it!

   After all, what is a culture critic for, if not to offer thoughts that help IMPROVE the area of culture they focus on. I (personally) think Christina is “up to this”, to doing this sort of thing, should she so choose. This cannot be done in a newspaper review, or even here, at least as a first step.

8. on 19 Jul 2012 at 10:59 pm   RCT

   What a spicy delicious conversation this has been. Food, culture, grammar, economics. I wish you all were my dinner companions — what a great discussion we would enjoy. Thanks for your posts - most enjoyable reading.

9. on 19 Jul 2012 at 11:04 pm   Roger

   Did Roger just DEVOUR Christina’s Blog?

   Oooops, the Grammar Police will probably come out with sirens BLARING because there was a shift to 3rd person narration!

10. on 20 Jul 2012 at 1:12 am   Andrea

    Ooo, this has been interesting to “watch.” So many things to comment on, and I can be as long-winded (um, busy-fingered?) as Roger, so I will try to restrain myself with bullets:

    –Sorry we missed the post-Bastille-Day festivities. Though $32.50 x3 might curtail further celebrating for some time.

    –Everyone should try to eat what they like and what makes their body feel good, as often as they can. And also try some things that are new, just to see if they might become favorites. Seems to me Christina has been doing that all along.

    –Roger, your first and second comments made me smile. It sounds as if you and Christina have known each other a long time.

    –Switching to third person is okay if you start a new comment,

    –But the Grammar Police do come out when “you are” is abbreviated as “your.”

    –GREEN Sichuan peppercorns! We are so there! Is this the kind that has the “ma” effect on the way out as well as in? I so remember that from a few places in China. Like nothing else! When’s the new menu coming out?

11. on 20 Jul 2012 at 10:32 am   Christina Waters

    Whoa there folks. This has all happened during that lull I occasionally experience called “the day job.”
    Wish I had all that extra time on my hands to devour Roger’s voracious appetite for opinion.
    I don’t.
    But I’m delighted to have the intel about green Sichuan peppercorns. (and btw I detected the Sichuan peppercorn flavor in O’mei food, whether you like it or not. If it didn’t arise from Sichuan peppercorns, I nonetheless had that flavor experience [Cf. Edmund Husserl, Phenomenology])
    And finally, R-man, I’m not ignoring you. I simply choose when and where to step into your oft-brilliant, always bombastic word stream.
    More soon - and keep the thoughts coming.
    ciao tutti!

    Christina

12. on 20 Jul 2012 at 1:19 pm   Roger

    Christina, I don’t doubt you had that “peppercorn” experience. That is why I noted that you may have a better “smeller” than I do!

    Now even those “bad smeller” types won’t be able to overlook that aroma.

    To quote Husserl’s brilliant student, Martin Heidegger, “Nothing is clear, but everything is significant.” (On the Way to Langauge)

    Now, let’s see how long it will take for “someone” to point out that Heidegger was a “Nazi”.

    Who says the book-burners and thought police are a thing of the past. They Live!

13. on 20 Jul 2012 at 1:39 pm   Dan Dickmeyer

    I go way back to the time Roger and Omei got into a lot of hot water over not wanting young kids in the restaurant. I have forgotten how Christina came down on this but it was a huge pre-blog (i.e. letters to the editor) discussion/fight. After a 3 year absence from S.C. I ate there the other night on a trip down from Canada. There were lots of kids in the place, the portions seemed to have grown from more of a tapa size to grandiose (I over-ordered not knowing this, so Roger, watch your diet), the presentation was a little less elegant, but after living on an island where the only chinese restaurant has been written up on Trip Advisor as causing food poisoning, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. But shocked to see that on a Saturday night there was no waiting line and barely one dining room full. Is the recession still going on or just too much competition? I think the latter as to me S.S. looks like no recession ever hit with new things popping up all over.

14. on 20 Jul 2012 at 4:43 pm   LDR

    Roger,

    I have never studied how monkeys interpret information or how they respond, but I have observed them in their natural environment over quite long periods of time and have never observed the behaviour you describe, so I would have to speculate that they either hate being imprisoned or took an immediate dislike to you.

    Furthermore in one of your earlier posts you deny specifically or exactly requesting Christine to spend her valuable funds on restaurant meals and food that she does not like or is not drawn to, but you did specifically request that she do so on culinary culture, for the purpose of conversation and constructive critisism. Since the subject of all this correspondence was restaurants and you refer to Christina in the same paragraph as a restaurant critic and it is indeed food that you are refering to, it’s not much of a stretch to assume that it would include actually eating some prior to any discussion. Again since the subject was restaurants, it’s a fair assumption in my opinion, that it would be restaurant food that would be consumed. Restaurant food that would be purchased anonymously if possible and paid for by the critic to remain as objective as possible. Then after consumption some intelligent discourse might be possible.

    Some years ago Stan Stenson resigned as restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle stating that after eating so many meals of highly spiced asian food his palate could no longer discriminate the more subtle flavors required in his profession, perhaps Roger that might be the reason Christine was discerning flavors that you missed.

    By the way, Gertrude Stein may have described her political identity as conservative fascist but her behaviour proved her anything but, quite a difference.

    And finally Roger, in addition to being pompous the more you post the more childish you appear.

15. on 20 Jul 2012 at 11:35 pm   Robert marsh

    Chill out everyone, we are talking food, not fascists,sexists or other horrible things. I started this thing and you all have taken it to a wierd venue. I intend to restart this conversation but for now go home, watch some TV and have a nice glass of wine. If we ever meet, I will buy or provide the wine

16. on 21 Jul 2012 at 12:00 pm   Roger

    Dan Dickmeyer;

    Your comment raises some interesting things to think about, but in a “non-Heideggerian” sense of that word “think”!

    1. “Roger etc got into a lot of hot water over not wanting kids in restaurant…etc.” Well, the end result of that media-generated “thing” was a lot of free advertising! I lost track of the number of thank-you notes from ADULT diners who were fed up with PARENTS allowing their children to disrupt others’ dining experience. What actually happened was a young mother INSISTED and changing her baby’s diapers in the dining room, but our host at that time refused to allow this. He told her to go do it in her car, or the restroom. She ended up writing a letter of complaint to the GT (I think), and opening up a can of worms. The press, of course, distorted reality by saying O’mei was “anti-kids”, while in fact our position is “Pro-Diners”: The problem wasn’t “kids”, and never has been. The problem was the type of parents who think it’s cool to have people at nearby tables watch and smell baby poop. Yeah, it’s “organic”, it’s “natural” … but I’m sure you get the point. This was a wake-up event for me regarding the media. I realized they had an INTEREST in distorting reality if that buttered their toast, or anyone’s toast who had their ear.

    2. Portion size! Dick, our system, a traditional system, of portioning hasn’t changed in 30 years. Each dish is cooked to order, and a part of the process is the selection and arrangement of ingredients on a little stainless steel dish, which is then passed to the guys on the stove to be “fired”. During the arrangement process, the “setup” as we call him, WEIGHS the ingredients, at least the meat portion. Vegetables, etc. are added “by eye”. VERY FEW of those weights have changed in over 30 years. We never had “tapas sized portions” of our entrees. Perhaps you are referring to our “Small Dishes” … the ones presented on a tray just after you are seated?

    But there’s more going on than the fact that our portions have been basically static, give or take cook “errors”, for 30 years. SOME people suggest we decrease our portion size (with related price decrease), while OTHER people insist that our portions are too small, and want more on the plate? I’ve struggled with this issue of diners having different perceptions of “reality”, and different needs/expectations for YEARS. There’s no way I can do the “right thing” because no matter what change occurs, if any, SOMEBODY will be pissed off, and you can be sure they’ll tell the world about it.

    I’m open to suggestions for cracking this nut, but I doubt there is any such thing as a “solution”, due to the nature of the problem, which is embedded in how people “are”. I/We aim to please, but you know what “they say” about pleasing all the people, all the time: ya just can’t do it. Sometimes I feel like I’m jousting at windmills … to even try.

    3. Thank you for enjoying yourself during your recent dining experience at O’mei. If you go there and that doesn’t happen, be sure to talk with Karl. He’ll fix up the problem straight-away. Don’t EVER leave with a “doggy-bag” of non-satisfaction.

    4. Regarding non-filled dining rooms on a Saturday night: Yup, I’m surprised as much as you. Great for diners, ie. no waiting for seats, less noise, etc. For about 5 years, the predictability of of what will happen on any night of the week has gone out the window. Sometimes a Wednesday will have more guests than a Saturday. A lot of factors influence guest counts, but the “pattern”, or at least our ability to predict or count on it, has gone. Hopefully our upcoming website with menu listing will help. Many people still don’t know that our dishes for “to-go” are less expensive than if you dine in. Maybe I spend too much time communicating about esoteric thinkers on the blogs, and not enough time communicating with my customers? Maybe. I’m getting old, and don’t really see the “meaning of life” as being obsessed with business any more. It’s just how life goes. That has entailed a dramatic decline in my pay, but I get by still, “with a lot of help from my friends” as they say.

    5. Regarding “too much competition”: Untying that knot would involve going into economics too much for this space. But, YES, the competitive environment has changed. It’s not about competition in our niche. It’s about those “thinner wallets”, and the fact that many people just cannot spend the money they used to spend on going out to eat. If you think of “competition” as, say, the Santa Cruz Diner, in one sense they are, but they are seeking (and getting) diners who are in a totally different segment than O’mei either seeks or gets. If you’re in the mood for a burger, or hotcakes, you can’t get them at O’mei, and even though we COULD (and have) cooked those, it’d be sorta silly in a Chinese restaurant. I think the biggest competition is many people deciding to eat at home more … but even then, have you seen the PRICES of vegetables at Safeway, or any other market. Our costs have gone up wildly, yet our prices have not followed. I really have a hard time even considering that. I’m amazed at what other places charge for a simple dish of pasta, often double what O’mei charges for the same damned thing, but with the title of “chow mein” rather than “pasta”.

    Finally, if you want to see where the “recession never hit”, check out how busy bars and liquor stores are!

    My FIRST comment, the one addressed to Christina, was about talking more about this, privately, and then “taking it public”, possibly in this space. Should she so desire, of course. This area of concern isn’t about O’mei, it’s about the whole culinary and overall “culture” in Santa Cruz. My pessimistic assessment is that it’s on the way to hell. But then, old men tend to be pessimistic, and after all, it’s “only my opinion”. Others may, and will, disagree: so be it. Maybe the conversation I wish would OCCUR will never happen, and may never happen because it opens up way too many cans of worms about perceptions of reality, ideology, etc. That seems to have already happened in this space! :)

    Thanks for the thoughts presented …

17. on 21 Jul 2012 at 12:08 pm   Roger

    Christina;

    I notice some of my comments have “been disappeared into the memory hole”. Wouldn’t that be an instance of distorting discourse and managing perceptions?

    Has someone complained?

    If so, who? Or need I even ask?

    If you or your webmaster are going to “edit reality”, may I suggest that you ZAP the whole dang thread, rather than selective editing? Otherwise, you may be involved in “culture distortion”, no?

    Zap it ALL, or just leave it alone. People are smart enough (most people, anyway) to sort out what’s going on. If you are going to zap my explanations and counter-arguments, at least have the decency to zap the ATTACKS which led to them.

18. on 21 Jul 2012 at 12:33 pm   LDR

    Robert Marsh,
    Thank you so much for your kind offer and lucid sensible to the point comments. Time to put this genie back in the bottle. LDR

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