Friday, October 31, 2014

A meal in South Africa is a more leisurely affair

A meal in South Africa is a more leisurely affair than an Italian is willing to do. Dinner takes around 3 hours if you are lucky to go somewhere with an efficient kitchen. It takes more than an hour to ninety minutes to order. Your waiter will refuse to let you order the main course until you've had several round of drinks.

So when you have to work until 8pm and wake up at 5am to go to terminal, it only makes sense to have room service. But first I had to replace my faulty phone in the room- too quiet to hear a thing and without a volume adjuster. After thirty minutes, I happily dial 17 but the woman insisted on taking the order in my room and refused to take my order over the phone! After half an hour, she knocks on my door.  She goes directly on my bed and plops her elbows at the edge.  And to make sure my meal is in length of the South African style, she brings my dessert in after in a third trip.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Le Bedaine

A most delicious french take-out on Solano, Le Bedaine has all manner of joys- my favorite being the duck liver pate sandwich.
Bedaine Double Profiterole

Saturday, July 25, 2009

The new Acme Herb Slab

Since Acme was out of their cheese rolls, I was forced to make a split decision and go with the Herb Slab. The old slab used to be quite unctuous- overly slathered in olive-oil. The new slab has regular crust and makes an excellent tomato sandwich.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Berkely Bowl West

I have been waiting years for the new Berkeley Bowl opening so when I finally shuffled in, I was strangely underwhelmed. Perhaps the massive store size led me to fantasize that there would be yet even more kinds of fruits and vegetables. BBW had made a decision to segregate organic from conventional in a severe way to make it very difficult to do comparison shopping.

I haven't been back as it's just too much confusion. I just couldn't make good decisions as to what my basket needed- I was endlessly roaming around a bit dumbfounded.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Coriander Honey

I first heard about coriander honey on the BBC Food Programme. The host visited a british honey hunter and was most surprised when tasting his coriander honey from Romania- almost greenish hue. After giving up on trying to find coriander honey, a fluke search on ebay brought me to Flying Bee Ranch who I recommend highly. I used to get my blueberry and pumpkin honeys from them.

The taste of coriander honey is uniquely savory unlike any of the other honeys in my pantry. Had I been asked to guess the source in a blind tasting, I would not know it's origin. Slightly minty with a very very long tail, now I must get down to the serious business of pairing this lovely honey with a cheese partner.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Waiting for citrus

I've chewed through too many dry wedges of pomelo this year, watery Cara Caras, and just so-so Satsuma. Winter is height of citrus so I don't think I am too early.

What gives?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Maple Syrup Shortage

Maple syrup prices gave me sticker stock last fall rising 70% or $14 a bottle due to severe shortages caused by double whammy of bad wather/crop and rising demand. I was waiting until this year to replenish my stocks. Height of sugaring season is from mid-February to mid-April so I will cross my fingers until then because agave syrup is not the same on pancakes. Sadly maple syrup is going the way of luxury.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090111/NEWS04/901120299/1050