And here are two more possibilities among the many ways (see post below re: Storrs) to celebrate our Gallic cousins in their annual Fête Nationale.
Consider joining French wine legend Martine Saunier at a pouring of old world beauties, including vacqueyras, pouilly-fuisse, and blanc de blancs, chez Soif of course, where $20 can still purchase a seat at a palate-pushing tasting.
Soif’s chefs offer a special Bastille Day menu as well, which includes tartine of lamb, flageolet bean purée and chèvre crostini, gnocchi a la Niçoise, a variation on bourride, and any number of Francoholic appetizers. The wine tasting happens on Saturday July 14, from 2-4. Reservations and details here!
Or, join Michel and Muriel Loubiere at their intimate Aptos restuarant, Au Midi, for a very special menu to be served one day after Bastille Day, on July 15.
Au Midi’s charming announcement says it all:
On Sunday, July the 15th with an extra day to prepare the party,
please be French for one night.
From 5 PM to 9 PM
Appetite and Attitude a must.
Mild French cursing accepted but no smoking…
No need to argue, except among friends. C’est magnifique!
And the menu includes a carpaccio of heirloom tomatoes, a classic beuf bourgignon with soft polenta and dessert or organic strawberry mousse with fresh berries and rhubarb coulis. Reservations only at a special price of $32.50. That price alone is reason to celebrate.
Au Midi Restaurant – 7960 Soquel Drive in Aptos. 831.685.2600.
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
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!
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.
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.
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
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 …
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.
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