San Fran by Food

Matt, Becca, Ron, Anny, Michael. We love to eat!

We did so much during our ten day stay in Cali that I was trying to figure out how to post about it succinctly without boring anyone to the point of clicking to the next blog on their blogroll. We saw and ate a lot... which makes me think I should sum some of it up by what we ate. We ate like kings all week, a wonderful side effect of visiting family who are looking for a good excuse to treat you to a week with no mandatory cooking and clean-up.

Dinner at the house one night. Ron's sauce over chicken ravioli.

We ate curry in Japan Town, crab cakes in Tiburon, salads too pretty to touch in San Simeon, Chinese at Win's, and Anny's incredible home-cooked fresh sea bass.. But the two best places we ate out at were Robin's in Cambria and, of course, Chez Pannisse in Berkley.

Salad at Sebastian's (a bistro/general store/post office) in San Simeon.

Monday night we had dinner in Cambria (South of Big Sur) at Robins Restaurant, which serves wonderful food from all over the world. I got the crispy tempeh korma, which is an Indian curry dish, and Matt ordered their lobster quesadillas (which you know I ate some of). I hadn't had Indian food since our honeymoon but was feeling adventurous, and it really paid off. Wow! It was just the right amount of make-your-nose-run spicy and I had to keep stealing bites from my fruit chutney to cool off my mouth. Let me say that this was just one of those meals where I was worthless afterwards. Something about really good food just puts me to sleep after I eat it. We went back to the hotel where I proceeded to pass out at 9:30.

Thursday morning we headed over to the North Face outlet to kill some time before a late lunch. You can't just walk into Chez Panisse. Ron and Anny made reservations a couple weeks in advance, and we still only got a spot for 2:30, in the cafe. Still, I'm not complaining! Reservations for the Restaurant (dinner only) through Open Table list the next available date for a party of 2 as September 9th. Gees.

House-made rigatoni.

It was the pinnacle of the week's worth of food... I've been wanting to eat here since Lynne told me about Alice Waters. I saw her on TV and read a little about all of the philanthropy and education that she does, and have been dying to eat at her restaurant in Berkley ever since.

We all got something different. I went with the fixed menu: garden salad, house-made rigatoni with eggplant, tomato, basil, and ricotta salata, with a bowl of local summer fruits. The waitress recommended the Chez Panisse Zinfandel with it, which was excellent. Matt had the wood oven-roasted local squid with romesco sauce and the chicken leg al mattone with romano beans (tasted like the longest, sweetest, crispest snow peas you've ever tasted) and a piece of angel food cake with berry compote and crem fraiche for dessert. (One of the many perks of being married to Matt is that I always get to taste two dishes... he's great about sharing). The rest of the group got the insalata caprese and rocket salad with figs and mint for their appetizers, the halibut, pork leg, and rigatoni as main courses.

Matt's chicken and scrumptious beans.

OMG! Every dish was just wonderful, and the prices were very reasonable - especially for the quality of the food and drink. Of course I had to take photos of everything and also grabbed an extra menu for my favorite foodie. Would I go back? In a heart beat! Would I recommend? Absolutely! If you're ever going to be in Berkley, make a reservation and eat your heart out. It'll make you wanna slap your mom (but please don't slap my mom or she'll hit you with her floppy shoe!).

Fruit bowl for dessert, half eaten.

I told Matt it's too bad I can't live out in Berkley. Something about their terrible treatment of the military just doesn't sit right with me. But, I can enjoy their food when we're out for a visit.

Too bad we don't have one here.