by Christina Waters | Nov 17, 2010 | Home |
I’ve already been getting emails about this new place — Laili — across from Annieglass on Cooper Street in downtown Santa Cruz. Billing its menu as “silk road flavors” – I’m feasting my eyes on a menu loaded with foothill India, Pakistani and Afghan flavors.
Beef kofta, aushak dumplings with Persian chives, pumpkin boranee, lamb kebabs, pomegranate eggplant, chicken with pomegranate sauce and roasted potatoes.
Immediately after Thanksgiving, I’m there.
by Christina Waters | Nov 9, 2010 | Home |
By now you all know that Charlie Parker is leaving The Cellar Door’s exhibition kitchen to work at Daniel Patterson’s new Oakland eatery Plum. A big loss for all of us who had been pampered by Parker’s nuanced dishes at the Bonny Doon Vineyard cafe. . . . Rocco’s on Water Street is now featuring an offer few can refuse – beer and burger for $9.95. All day. Check it out. . . . Peter Kumec of Mission Hill Creamery says that he’s in discussions to move onto Pacific Avenue, which I believe would be a much better location for his outstanding artisanal, organic ice creams. Stay tuned. . . . And even though Chris LeVeque‘s new salchiceria next to Kelly’s isn’t quite finished, the tilework is in, gorgeous, and so are the front counters. . . .
by Christina Waters | Nov 9, 2010 | Home |
Before I dive into the one-man circus of insanity that is John Malkovich, let me quickly set the table.
If you don’t like Bruce Willis, you will not like Red. He’s on-screen 200% of the time, doing a variety of improvisations on the theme of John McClane two decades past Diehard. Oh he still has a few cooler than a glacier moves and his head absolutely gleams. But those pursed lips. We’ve been there.
Then there’s Helen Mirren, highly acclaimed (and thereby patronized) for “looking so sexy” for her sixtysomething age. She looks fine, but she also walks through her role as a simulation of a simulated aging great actress. And if Mirren can, from some angles, look youngish for her age, poor Morgan Freeman (trotted out to join the team of retired CIA assassins known as Retired Extremely Dangerous -“red”) looks like his own father. He must have needed the paycheck – recent divorce perhaps?
Red contains a few nice surprises. For example, the indestructible Ernest Borgnine (yes, he IS still alive) does a crafty cameo, and the RED team’s CIA nemesis is played by the very tasty Karl Urban who rivals Daniel “James Bond” Craig in the “don’t bother to wrap it” department.
Having said all of this – yes the film is diverting, but no it isn’t memorable – let me now turn to the main course — John Malkovich, (more…)
by Christina Waters | Nov 8, 2010 | Home |
For under $8 – including beans, rice and pico de gallo – this fabulous plate full of creamy, cheese-infused, cactus & eggs absolutely cannot be beat.
La Mission is next to Yogizmo (sensational organic yogurt) on Mission Street. You knew that.
by Christina Waters | Oct 28, 2010 | Home |
The vehicle for legendary tenor Placido Domingo‘s final salvo with the SF Opera, was a rarely-performed Cyrano de Bergerac. Composed in 1936 by Franco Alfano (a second tier workman known best for his underwhelming completion of Turandot after Puccini’s death), the opera swoops and froths its way through Edmond Rostand’s classic play. It is a delirious and often silly pastiche of between-the-wars musical schizophrenia, but there are about 25 minutes of breathtaking musical lines in all of this — and they belong to Domingo.
If his voice has been stronger, the highest registers more brilliant, c’e niente. Domingo’s voice is a wonder of sonic architecture and in this first performance of the season’s Cyrano, he showed why he can’t leave the stage just yet. With a gorgeous Roxane (more…)
