by Christina Waters | Jul 13, 2007 | Food |
And another thing……I’m not the only Santa Cruz resident who has to think twice about going to dinner or movies downtown. Problem is — the two hour parking meters, each one of which is attached to a predatory meter “person” with a stop watch.
How the hell are we supposed to go to a movie? Or a dinner that last longer than 2 hours?
Case in point. We went early to Soif on Bastille Day Рto make sure we could find a parking spot. We loaded the meter with quarters, and proceeded to have a terrific time with the never-better cuisine of Chris Avila (killer pork rillettes, tuna tartare, heirloom tomatoes, pat̩ de compagne) and French wines to match. We even went back out a few minutes before our meter was going to expire, and added MORE quarters.
When we left – after 2 and 3/4 hours of wonderful dining and vivacious conversation at our festive table of eight – there was a ticket on my car. Even though we’d put in enough money, the meter was programmed for only two hours. Now. I repeat my question. Where are we to park in order to spend quality ($$$$) time downtown? (And don’t tell me the “parking structure” – which for a lot of reasons isn’t an option).
Why not install three hour meters? Most people would gladly pay more (if it’s about the money) and not have to agonize about getting up in the middle of dinner just to move their ^$&*(_ car!!!
by Christina Waters | Jul 10, 2007 | Food, Home, Travel |
A few weeks ago I joined two vivacious residents of Rome (one from the US, the other originally from Canada) for a meal of stellar regional cuisine and old-fashioned, unapologetically attentive service at Zeffirino, a celebrated Genoa dining room since 1939. Utterly non-designer in decor, busily adorned with candelabra and quaint genre paintings, and complete with waiters in dark suits who expertly arrange each serving at the table, Zeffirino lived up to its advance hype as providing definitive Mediterranean seafood. This appetizer of paper-thin lasagne, sauced with saffron-tinged pesto, with scallops in their shells, asparagus and a few prawns, was a knock-out.
It was all beautiful to look at and prepared with restraint. Giant prawns, gamberoni, lightly inflected with saffron, and topped alla Cinqueterre, with thin ribbons of candied lemon peel, were sweet and tender. Another deeply satisfying entree involved fresh lobster, removed 
from its shell, brilliantly spiced in salsa diavola, and then returned to to the shell, to form a gorgeous terracotta creation. Two regional house wines easily paced the clear flavors of the meal, which began with a stupendous primo of Genoa’s gift to the culinary world — triofie al pesto. (see post below). Here the pesto is made from infant leaves of Genovese basil, which preserves a minty sparkle rather than the rather strident, licoricey tendencies of “mature” basil. “This is what pesto should be!,” pronounced one of my companions, a Rome correspondent for Newsweek. She and my other dining partner spent a good part of the next hour strategizing about where they could find such amazing basil in Rome. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Jun 26, 2007 | Food, Home, Travel |
Frutti di mare – “fruit of the sea” – Italian really does have a zesty way of describing the world. Well, seafood – especially calamari, octopus and shrimps – was on every menu I found during my trip to Genoa and the Italian Riviera last week. The first night, I staked out my local enoteca, I Tre Merli (“the three blackbirds”) and in addition to several fine meals on my own, I brought new friends from the International Dickens Conference there to sample robust Barberas and feast on prosciutto, seafood-stuffed ravioli, focaccia stuffed with melted cheese, pesto and the regional specialty, tissue-thin lasagna sauced with a supple puree of chestnuts and pesto. Outrageous. And all served inside a 16th century room with 20 foot vaulted ceilings. This is not precious cuisine, it is seaside cucina rustica with hints of nearby Sardinia, Sicily and Morocco in the spicing. Mint, saffron and nuts found their way into many of the dishes I tried — but I couldn’t get a bad, or even a mediocre meal, even at little hole-in-the-wall tavole calda.
The salumi and pescattoria shops, where cured meats and fresh seafood were sold to housewives and chefs, looked exactly like sets from a Fellini film.
At I Tre Merli I feasted one noon on a plate of salume mista, organized by my waiter, so that I could sample the house specialties. In addition to notably un-greasy salame, the plate was laden with Parma ham, wild boar prosciutto, duck prosciutto and cured hog’s belly. The latter was exactly like a slice of delicious bacon with a thick sleeve of fat. Admittedly not a vegan dish, it was heavenly with a salad of arugula and a glass of Barbera d’Alba.
by Christina Waters | Jun 26, 2007 | Food, Home |
It will take another week to sort through all of my tasting notes from the recent week in Genoa, but I can state my case in a single word — pesto. Here on the beyond beautiful Ligurian coast of Italy, pesto isn’t remotely like the rather tedious glop of green-tinged cheese we foist upon tourists here in California. Pesto is poetry composed of the tiniest, infant leaves of fresh basil, combined in harmonic proportions with lusty regional olive oil, roasted pine nuts, grana cheese and garlic. It is light, almost minty in its freshness, and highly addictive. If Genoa had produced only this one culinary icon, it would live on in perpetual renown. But of course it also managed to give us sublime salumi, a profusion of palazzi, sensuous seafood and a man named Christopher Columbus. [Pictured here is a plate of pasta, twisted into a local dialect, and bathed in the finest pesto I’ve ever tasted – at a jewel of a dining room called Zeffirino. Frank Sinatra’s father dined here often.]
by Christina Waters | Jun 1, 2007 | Food, Home |
Justin Severino is an old-fashioned food maverick. The former chef – Bernardus, Manresa – is currently into handcrafted charcuterie and traditionally butchered meats. Primarily pork, which he gets from pastured, free-roaming pigs raised on TLC Ranch. What Severino does with the dense, flavorful meat is nothing short of sorcery. The proof is in the tasting, so I suggest you hit either the Westside farmers market this Saturday, or the downtown Santa Cruz farmers market on Wednesday.
Look for Severino’s Community Butcher, Inc. And grab – with both hands – all the packages of Spicy Italian Sausage you can carry ($6/lb). I grilled a few of these last week to serve next to my favorite Pasta Mike’s raviolis. Bursting with flavor! In addition to the lean-but-delicious pasture-raised pork, Severino’s sausages acquire zingy flavor from local dried chilis, coriander, fennel, black pepper and smoked paprika. Definitive Italian sausage any way you slice it. You need to try this. Need to.
by Christina Waters | May 24, 2007 | Food |
And who isn’t on the look-out for some chewy, tender, deeply rich, barely sweet chocolate brownie? Even in a field littered with killer brownies, one stands out bigtime.
Yes, I do mean the heavy, yet tender, intensely dark chocolatey brownie from River Cafe (also available at enlightened farmers markets, like the one on the Westside, Saturdays.)
Made from the deluxe Valrhona chocolate and lightly studded with walnuts, it hits all the right spots. Just barely sweet, this plump, supple, sophisticated square of insanely good chocolate never, ever cloys.
Ever.
And it runs a mere $3 for more than you can decently consume in a single sitting.
