by Christina Waters | Oct 14, 2009 | Home |
That’s what my informants are telling me, many of whom had fun visiting places they’d never been to before. Ah, the allure of the prix fixe meal.
Maybe it should become a fixture on menus from now on.
At any rate, I heard great things about so many restaurants. Friends gushed about how much they enjoyed going up to Hollins House, a place they hadn’t visited before. Others said they always thought of Clouds as simply a popular watering hole, but were delighted by how great (more…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 13, 2009 | Food, Home, Travel, Wine |
At the very strategic corner of First Avenue & Union, next door to the Seattle Art Museum and hanging over Pike Place market, Union is a very smart island of low-key sophistication. Chef Ethan Stowell, whose sibling restaurants include the popular Tavolata and How to Cook a Wolf (cf. MFK Fisher), does simple, elegant, non-fussy things with regional ingredients.
I loved a squid salad (pictured here) luscious in a light tomato broth, tossed with olives, fennel, (more…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 12, 2009 | Food, Home |
You know me. Ultra organic, ultra healthy – no unnecessary fats, nothing fried (except maybe well…). But there I was a few Sundays ago, staring at the most beautiful, hot, freshly-grilled sandwich in creation. One bite and I melted – sort of like the Swiss cheese slathered all over the tender strips of skirt steak on this incredible dish.
Hot, delicious as only the beef & cheese combo can be (think glorified cheeseburger, rubbed with Cajun spices), and utterly substantial — this was a sandwich that brought me to my knees, and reminded me that sometimes the classic layerings of ingredients just cannot be beat.
The sandwich was the special of the day. The place was Scopazzi’s. (God I can still taste it, it was staggeringly good.)
Thank you Scopazzi’s!
by Christina Waters | Oct 4, 2009 | Home |
Once artichokes, now pumpkins laze in the fields we walk each weekend.
Pumpkins are another thing I love about this planet.
by Christina Waters | Oct 4, 2009 | Home |
Dining as Social Construction
Since the deep pockets at Oakland’s hot Camino restaurant won’t be fazed by any criticisms I make — the place was packed last Friday night — I’m going to remove the gloves.
A box, even a box with a high, pressed-tin ceiling, a full bar in front and an exhibition kitchen in back, isn’t necessarily a restaurant. Nor is eating at long (30’) wooden tables, communitas-style, necessarily “dining.†(Could this be the result of an entire generation eating in shopping mall food courts and thinking it was “dining out?”)
Three entrees, a few appetizers, no décor unless you count a huge wall of brick, and a kitchen so overwhelmed that dinner arrived an hour late — this is what now passes for dining in the age of recession. And believe me, I (partly) see the point.
No linens, no plants, no candles — these are all cost-saving strategies. Only three entrees means the kitchen, presumably, is cooking in earnest and without waste. Great. I’m down with that. But here’s what we actually experienced for our $100.
Simple, simple cooking. (Read between those two “simples†— what I mean is I could do this myself.) Okay, but still (more…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 3, 2009 | Home, Wine |
As always, providing crucial melodious background for the Alfaro Tasting room festivities during Corralitos Wine Trail weekend, was attorney Joe Haselton, whose operatic pipes regaled the pinot-samplers with the entire oeuvre of Elton John, with sprinklings of The Beatles and Phil Collins to boot.
The metaphorical presence of vintner Richard Alfaro kept watch over the proceedings, even though the physical Alfaro was out in the 100 degree heat working the parking lot logistics.
