La Posta blew me away last week with the best, most satisfying dinner in town, thanks to new chef Katherine Stern.
Don’t even think twice, just get over there. Authentic Italian dinners made with complete confidence — amazing value for the moderate pricetag.
For mouth-watering details, read my review in this week’s Santa Cruz Weekly.
Brad Briske (pictured here) still turns out astonishing dishes at Gabriella, which remains open (thanks to voodoo sacrifices and an astute tax attorney). We were once again rendered speechless by lunch last week showcasing designer pizza, hand-made cured meats and natural beef burgers. Oh and dessert of pound cake with orange zabaglione that was TDF.
Valentine’s Day at the Cellar Door. No prix fixe that evening, just romantic, candle-lit small plates by Charlie Parker, such as…. * Kumamoto oysters, with Meyer lemon granita & dill creme fraiche * Roasted lobster, artichokes, sunchokes & Buddha’s Hand * Bacon-wrapped galantine of rabbit, green garlic, young roots & prunes* vanilla-chocolate tart, burnt caramel ice cream & sea salt.
For even more romance, the Bonny Doon Vineyard folks are including live music by the Magnolia Jazz Band. Yes, by all means, make reservations.
Joseph Schultz is offering an intense,whirl-wind Greco-Turkish cooking course on Feb 23 at New Leaf on Ingalls St. 5:30-8:30pm, details at New Leaf website. Learn the tricks of the masters at this cooking class with the mastermind of the late lamented India Joze restaurant.
Dynamic maestra Nicole Paiement dazzled packed houses in San Francisco last weekend with a series of ingenious performances of Wozzeck, Alban Berg’s stormy psychological opera blending surrealism and modernist atonality.
Paiement and company worked with a newly-adapted score for chamber orchestra, a move that created greater intimacy of sound. The audience felt drawn into the harrowing story portrayed in the jewelbox Yerba Buena theater. Berg’s great opera of class anger and cultural schizophrenia — created in the years just after the Great War — was given a riveting (more…)
In Aptos, Muriel Loubiere has filled her Au Midi Valentine’s Eve menu with food for lovers. Foods with a provençal accent.
It begins with salad of Dungeness crab & shrimp, with lemon coulis & tomatoes emulsion, followed by wild mushroom crème brulée.
Entrees include Vegetarian Risotto: asparagus, lemon confit, mascarpone & reduction of balsamic vinegar, Or -Â rosemary kebab of Scallops: with glazed caramelized endives and orange juice, Or – seared foie gras served on (more…)
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.