House Wines
Our new house white wine is Southern Right Cellars from South Africa, a crisp dry beauty with a complex middle and a very precise finish that sells for $10.99 at Shoppers. This appealing wine is made one mile from the Atlantic Ocean in the stony shale soils of the...
Yes – Oswald is still open!
Relax, food fans. Downtown's cozy bistro Oswald is not going anywhere anytime soon. According to longtime staffer Janet Silverglate the restaurant will remain in its present location between Pacific and Cedar Streets for many, many months to come. "We don't feel any...
The Intimate Landscape: Opening January 2 at the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus. (image by exhibition curator, Frank Galuszka.)
Hello World – the Gloves are Off!
You are about to enter the uncensored, absolutely unrestrained world of observation and expertise known as ChristinaWaters.com. Fresh every week! Think of this as one-site shopping for everything you've always suspected about the worldly food and wine critic,...
Bites: Hula Scoop
Dear Muffie: I'm dying to tell you about the new place called Hula's I tried in Santa Cruz last week . . . - you know how Courtney Love always says that "God is in the details," well, this new island-surfing theme place (where the old China Szechuan used to be) is...
Hot Plates
November was a great month for dining around the Bay Area, and I want to praise a few special dishes served in some exciting surroundings. We made a run for Absinthe after the opera last week and were charmed to pieces by an authentic version of earthy coq au vin,...
A Different Thanksgiving
It was just the two of us this year, so we down-scaled our Thanksgiving feast into a manageable dinner focusing on seasonal, local and wild. I especially like wild dining. So I picked up a gorgeous filet of wild Alaska King salmon at Dave's, and a few russets from New...
View from the Farm
The magnificent Farm up on the UCSC campus is one of the treasures of the central coast. But it's only one aspect of the complex and multi-faceted Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Read my cover story in GT Weekly and be enlightened!
Frank Sitting at Ano Nuevo
Here’s Frank, sitting on the beach at Año Nuevo where we go every February 2 to commemorate the day the tree fell on our car.
Jack on AVE
Jack actually lives next door, but he loves AVE (Frank’s sky-blue Honda Civic) - especially on cold days when the car is still warm from being out and about.
Dish from the Farm
Think you can’t love collard greens? Think again! Here’s a seasonal specialty from Jim Leap, Center for Agroecology Farm Manager and organic grower extraordinaire. Farm Managers Favorite Collards Collard Greens as Plate Ingredients: . Freshly harvested collard...
Rants
I am sooooo sick of people who don't use their turn signals, and I've got a lot more stuff I'm pissed off about, like people who just keep eating until they are STUFFED! You know who you are. And don't blame your childhood habits, either. What I mean is I just can't...