A recent lunch at this splendid dining room offered not only a large-scale kebab threaded with plump, utterly moist wedges of grilled chicken, but this jewel-like little mezze platter.
All of your favorite Mediterranean food groups are here in this pliant quartet of supple flavors. Babaganoush, tzatziki, hummus, and tabouli. Warm soft pita provided the point of insertion. A terrific lunch appetizer. Laili—more than a nighttime destination.
Some authors have a book signing. Others have a book signing in Venice. Such a one is Rita Bottoms, fresh from her gala reception at Bookshop Damocle on Calle del Perdon, Venezia. Bottoms was celebrated in Italy last month for the new edition of her delightful Riffs & Ecstasies: True Stories, which is smartly revised, complete with new stories, new illustrations and best of all—facing pages in Italian!
É vero! Riffs & Ecstasies is now yours to savor in both Italian and English. And is available, for $15, at Bookshop Santa Cruz, La Sirena on the Westside of Santa Cruz, City Lights in San Francisco, and, of course at Damocle in Venice. Pick up a copy, enjoy Bottoms’ inimitable way with an anecdote, and/or practice your Italian!
Yes it’s pinot grigio. Get over it. It’s also a sprightly bottle of delicious white wine for—wait for it—$7.99.
An appealling 2012 vintage, this aromatic—light yet not austere—warm weather elixir offers a drinker-friendly 12.5% alcohol. AND it won a double Gold Medal at last year’s SF Chronicle wine competition. Uncomplicated, brilliant with summer foods, just crisp enough to hold your attention. At Shoppers. Better hurry!
Yes I did say seven dollars and ninety-nine cents.
During its kitchen transition, Soif‘s staff doesn’t miss a step. Here’s an example from last week’s appetizer menu. A gorgeous plate of house-cured local king salmon, with paper-thin pickles, peppery sprouts and a swoosh of creme fraiche.
A sanguinous love letter to post-industrial ennui, Jim Jarmusch’s visually enthralling Only Lovers Left Alive is, essentially, a soundtrack with a film attached.
Strictly anecdotal, based on my own personal experience – but….I’m convinced that food overloading is really an attempt to correct a bad mood. Let me go further. People eat more than they actually need to, or even want to, in an effort to stave off depression.
But when you go on a diet, you feel deprived. Irritated. Upset. Can’t wait to reach your “desired weight” so you can go off the diet.
Okay. Simple logic—how about instead of the artificial forced march of dieting, substituting another feel-good habit for that donut? When I go out for a walk, I come back not only energized, but feeling terrific. Endorphins. Duh. Same sort of mood elevation that is produced by consuming chocolate cupcakes, or french fries. Without the calories.
So that brings me back to where I began (pax TS Eliot). Eating to the point of gaining lots of weight could become so yesterday by substituting a non-eating happy-making activity. Crochet, read, sing, paint, walk, garden, kiss.
“Dieting” is always an artificial road trip to disaster. Changing your lifestyle is just that – acquiring a new way of life.
A book of sensory adventure: The rituals, passions and discoveries of an engaged life.