Satsuma season begun

Eat More Pie

How else to convince husband to go to Berkeley Bowl on a Saturday. The Bowl had the first crop of Satusuma, slightly green tinged but juicy tart good as ever.

Market One

I am in ever pursuit of a serious lunch and the other person on my team T who is serious about eating needed to celebrate a Virgo birthday. T is perhaps the only truly picky eater I know and perhaps the only person I would take to lunch who would refuse to try out my beet carpaccio. As you can see, those carmine slices are throwing a full-on party for rock shrimp, radishes, sprouts and deep fried ginger. If I wasn't in a public restuarant where people are expected to eat with a fork, I really wanted to rearrange it into a lovely landscape, clump those sprouts into a wild field.

You could not fault any of the food, which was savory and well-prepared; I just found it lacking in gusto and feeling. No matter how humble or lavish a meal, I want food which tugs at memories and emotes feelings which only good food can. My last lunch with T, I enjoyed the raw saltiness of Kumamoto oysters at Hog Island. Whatelse can carry the intensity and essence of the sea but oyster juice. From all the oysters which must have passed my lips, I know raw oysters on the half shell can never be boring. They only come in two categories, fantastic or suspicious.

The boar sausage at Market One which I had been anticipating all day was nice but mild with none of the wild nutty flavor I've loved in boar bacon.

Pretty Good Eclairs

Although I'm not too keen on Scharffenberger Cafe Cacao's brunch service (I'm a townie not a tourist to suffer that kind of bad service), their bakery scones and eclairs hits the spot. Not too sweet egg custard with vanilla seeds, it is really too bad they don't make profiteroles. I bought six long ones this morning although I wanted to buy the entire dozen behind the case. I didn't want to be too greedy and have the lady behind the counter tell me they can't sell me all of them. I love sharing the bakery goodness to people I like at work and need a hearty supply.

Bakery Blueballs

After a mediocre experience at the Inverness Busy Bee Bakery* yesterday and Crixa being closed on Sunday, I had no choice but to go over to 4th Street. I normally rely on the Pasta Shop for their buttery blueberry scones and cream cheese pumpkin muffin as their glass case goods have been less than stellar.

Happily the Pasta Shop makes a pretty respectable Boston Cream Pie, the custard fresh and light.

*Busy Bee had mostly sugary and expensive stuffs; we had an uninspired lemon poppyseed cake which hunger alone drove us to finish.

Hooray Blueberry Season

The true pleasure of late July is eating double fistfuls of blueberries. This is the one time of the year I fight through the parking lot at Berkeley Bowl to procure gallon clam shells on the best blueberry deals in town. For whatever reason, Monterrey Market has sad moldy shrivelled or overpriced specimens. But this year, they've done good and have brought to market plumpy bluets noone need be ashamed of.

Pretty Good Bagels

Every Sunday, C and I mosey over to Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy to get our asiago cheese bagels. This must be the one of the most satisfying things one can get for less than a dollar. We sit in the adjacent garden under the apple tree munching on the dense chewy goodness and reading leftover SF Chronicles.

Pork Hunting at the Epicurious Garden

After a hard day of digging and turning compost, we bathed and made ourselves clean and squeaky behind the ears for Saturday date night. Of course I had one thing in mind.

All week I had been craving porkalicious dumplings at Imperial Tea Court. The ITC at the Epicurious Garden is an ill conceived tea house with less than five tables and indifferent service. I'm not too keen on their tea selections, and really no tea can stand up to so much clanking and obnoxious Berkeley chatting going on. I'll tolerate anything for their pork creations. Poor C had to make do with salty vegetarian noodles while I luxuriated in plump pork won tons in a savory jasmine tea broth. Oh how I would love another bowl.

Down home neighborhood favorites

Picante
I go there to chow down on the hearty Sopa Azteca. I don't know how to get that deep flavor at home, they must put the grill scrubbings in. But when I'm sick, there is nothing else I want to eat more. Spicy chicken soup with avocados and fried tortillas.

Jimmy Bean's
I use to be a porkchop regular. Tender juniper brined pork chop with the comforting scoop of mashed potatos and thickly sauced caesar salad. Them pork chops have gotten me through some pretty tough times. Kitchen is not always regular and sometimes the chops come a litttle red.

Crixa Not Just Best Bakery in Berkeley

Crixa versus Tartine. How can one decide? The two bakeries shine equally at different categories of buttery goods but if I had to pick only one bakery, it would be Crixa. La Farine and Massas are also likeable bakeries, respectable in their own right but I just have sentimental tug and feeling for Crixa's pastries which are strangely rustic and refined at the same time. Elegant Boston cream pie and world's best ginger cake. When I taste her ginger cake, life is good again. Moist spicy dark buttery happiness with a dollop of chantilly cream. If there is any better, I don't want to know.

If you love Tartine, don't send me hate mail. I dread the long lines and hard work for a seat at Tartine although they make fabulous cream tarts. Who can resist the house pickled baby carrot served along side their tasty savories.

(Even though Crixa has a very fine pave which looks like a poofy sofa, I prefer the flourless chocolate cake from Betty's ToGo which they only make on Sundays. The absolute most technically excellent pave I've found at Fanny's which I am suppose to be boycotting.)

Not as good the second time

The first time is the best. You return again only to be disappointed. What happened?

Dona Thomas
Everything prepared with the finest ingredients- heirloom tomatoes and house cured anchovies. Corn pudding was dreamy but the noise can wear you down.

Overrated

You know the restaurants- everybody gushes about them. When you make the effort, you wonder what the fuss is about. Don't send me hate mail. My opinion is my own.

Citron
Expensive and mediocre, not the worst quadrant of restaurants. The amuse-gueule was a creamy salty asparagus soup. I couldn't force myself to finish it. Zagat ratings are never to be trusted.

Zachary's Chicago Pizza
This should go in the overrated and plain bad section. Twice I've confirmed that this is a soppy goopy poor specimen of a pizza with institutional dried Italian herb flavorings. I do have to reveal my bias as a thin cruster. Again, don't send me hate mail- people are entitled to their opinions

Vik's Chaat Corner
Too much effort but not quite traumatic. One waits in a gigantic long line. After ordering one must scrounge around for a place to sit in a noisy dingy cafeteria, try to listen for your name which is yelled out in a thick accent as the greasy goods are cranked out of the kitchen. Idli was too dry. Ras Malai was also a bit dry. Maybe if you worked up a sweat at Steamworks, Vik's is a natural pitstop.

Traumatic- Don't ever eat here.

Juan's Place, Berkeley near Emeryville

The first time I went, friends of mine suffered food poisoning. The second time I went back invited by the same friend(we both had forgotten the unfortunate incident until it was too late- i.e. sat down and waiter already whisked our orders away). This is type of Mexican place where eveything comes in a hot hot plate with an acre of refried beans mashed into the plate. Truly, such restaurants can be friendship breakers.

Rating Philosophy

Utter rudeness in service, suspicious kitchens which barely passed the state health inspection- this is all secondary. I just want some flavor and feeling.

Rangiroa Honey

In an attempt to flee bora bora, I took a most ill-timed impulse trip to the atoll of Rangiroa. The one prize were these two jars of dark honey. C convinced me not to taste it until back home-telling me to have something to look forward to. Alas I heeded this terrible advice. Had I known how wonderfuly complex these honeys would be, I would have filled my entire suitcase full of them.

Slightly tangy dark, complex- nothing like european honeys. So this I remember- never listen to one's husband in such matters. C insists it's my limited supply which makes it all the more special, but once I caught him casually snacking alone on this precious honey liberally drizzled on crackers. I put both fists up in the air and let him know this honey was for treasuring- only for sharing on special occasions taken only straight from the spoon.