Lunch at the Masters
The Masters of Food & Wine, which has brought the most celebrated chefs and winemakers in the country together each February for a week of lunches, dinners, tastings and demos— is folding its designer tents after 21 years. At least it will no longer be held in the...
Oswald: The Last Supper
Hopefully there will be more, once co-owners Keet Beck-Brattin and Damani Thomas, settle on a new location. The old brick bistro was the place of many memories, so Jack and I made the most of our "farewell Oswald" dinner last week. A gorgeous Cabernet Sauvignon from...
Portion Control!
Prince Charles wants to get rid of all the McDonald's franchises in England. Why? Because of the obesity epidemic in the Old Country. Finally, somebody's getting the hint. If you insist on super-sizing fast food portions, you end up super-sizing fast food patrons....
Le Bernardin: Is it the best restaurant in America?
In a word, "yes." But I already knew that, having been lucky enough to dine in the original Paris version of Le Bernardin, as well as the Manhattan one twice before. Perhaps only Jules Verne has done more for seafood than Le Bernardin chef Eric Ripert. But then the...
New York for Foodies
Manhattan - where the national color is black and the diversity is abundant. You can tell the tourists immediately - they are not wearing black, and they aren't wearing one of those big, cashmere mufflers that are required in the City. In an effort to stretch my...
New York: Tales of the City
Yes, it was snowy in Manhattan last week! Beautiful, crisp and COLD. But that didn't stop me from devouring all the food and art the law would allow. Central Park, as you can see (that's the Dakota, where John Lennon lived, in the background) looked gorgeous. I drove...
To Eat or Not to Eat . . .
Quickies: Sitar, at 1133 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, is flashy and it's open. Malabar ditto, fresh and sparkling in its new Front Street location. I'll let you know what I think in a week or two. . . Hula's is still a good place for high-performance theme...
Restaurateur Sounds Off!
Time for a little grousing about rude restaurant behavior — from the management's point of view. Ted Burke has been running a mighty successful establishment — Shadowbrook Restaurant — for decades. He's seen it all in the rude patron department. But here's...
Hearts & Amuse Bouches
Immodest Proposals: Where to go for romantic V-Day dining? Here's my answer. Gabriella Cafe chef Rebecca King and her sous-chef, Ben Howard (both veterans of Chez Panisse) offer lovers a four-course Valentine’s odyssey, accompanied by two glasses of Italian bubbly,...
Sampling Sestri
Dining with two friends last week, I sampled the inviting Early Bird Prix Fixe menu at Sestri. On Tuesdays the $19.95, three-course special runs all evening, (usually it's a Mon-Fri deal, from 5-7pm). Also - head's up - there's no corkage fee at Sestri, which means...
All Wine All the Time
Discovering wonderful wines may not be the answer to world peace, but it helps vamp for time until that day arrives. My house red for the past year has been the sensuous 2001 Carignane from River Run Vintners. Made by the skillful, non-invasive hands of J.P. Pawloski,...
Tricks of the Masters
Restaurant reviewers over the ages have figured out a few tricks to make their jobs go smoother. Sometimes it happens during the actual review dinners – things like asking for copies of the menu, wearing wigs so that we won’t be recognized, making reservations...
Gourmet Quickie
I accidentally struck gold the other evening when I had no time to cook, but refused to jump in the car and head for KFC. So I picked up a package of Santa Cruz’ own Pasta Mike’s fresh Three Cheese and Spinach Raviolis ($4.89 for a two-meal package). How could I...
Rude Behavior, Restaurant-style
Has this happened to you? We're sitting in the boisterous interior of Sushi Totoro, on the Westside of Santa Cruz, winding down a dinner of saba and hamachi, listening to Bob Marley. All was well. But just as I picked up my last piece of nigiri, chopsticks still in my...
What’s not to love?
Cynthia Sandberg, heirloom tomato queen and agri-artist, is the entrepreneuse of Love Apple Farm. You knew that. But what you didn’t know is that Love Apple has been chosen by David Kinch to be the exclusive kitchen garden for his two-Michelin starred Manresa...
Food for Thought
Now is the best time to dine out at your favorite restaurants. Am I crazy? Nope. Restaurants are in deep fiscal misery, feeling the pinch due to rising fuel costs, lowering dollar and grains being used up for ethanol or shipped halfway around the world. That means...
True Confessions
Barstow is one of those places whose very name sounds like the middle of nowhere. And it just about is. However, if you pass through there at lunchtime — as we did last week — you can do a whole lot worse than pull into the parking lot of IHOP and head for one of...
Try This at Home!
You've noticed that food prices have gone up, up and up? So do something about it! *Stop eating so much meat. Just stop it! Think of chicken, fish, pork and lamb as protein accessories, with fresh, seasonal veggies and whole grains as the main attraction. *Only shop...
Quickie
Farm & Garden Organic Produce Cart - Summer's here and the bounty from UCSC's Agroecology apprentice program is back at the corner of Bay & high Streets, every Tuesday and Friday, noon to 6pm. Flowers, herbs, infant lettuces, chards, onions, strawberries — the array...
Holy Molé!
Cooking adventuress Diana Kennedy will spend three days in the Santa Cruz area - on a lengthy West Coast junket celebrating the long-awaited re-issue of her definitive, and much-loved The Art of Mexican Cooking. It's all here - myriad authentic Oaxacan molés, chile...
Real Strawberries
The Best Strawberries of the Season! Whatever we were eating before, whatever those other little red orbs were that people were trying to call "strawberries," well - this is the real stuff! At New Leaf, look for the little container of RMS Farms Organic Strawberries -...
Bistro Breakfast?
Ham & eggs & a little light bubbly – sounds like breakfast doesn’t it? But it was bistro appetizers at Soif last week. Let me explain. A “small plate†order of salumi caught our eye – but so did the evening special of a poached egg over shiitake mushrooms....
Gabriella: the Never-ending Story
Fresh seafood gets star treatment at the hands of Sean Baker, who makes beautiful food at Gabriella Cafe. Baker is currently running a variety of sculptural crudo appetizers involving artworks of oysters with baby fennel mignonette, uni interspersed with tart minced...
Feel Good Foods @ Vine Hill
The visually delightful, all-organic catering group founded by Heidi Schlecht and Amy Linstrom (who also operate the inviting River Cafe) continues to fuel some of our best parties. Platters lavish with edible flowers, opulent proteas, and other eye-candy adorned the...
Choice Bites
A girl's gotta eat, right? And in this region, that can be a delicious prospect. Over at River Cafe - I do love that place - I drifted into an altered state over a brilliant "salad" of quinoa, that soft, fluffy, Inca grain. The pale yellow quinoa was tossed with...