Monday, July 5, 2010

a taste of two cities

How does that song go? "Back to life...back to reality"? Vacation was fun while it lasted. We ate really, really, really well. Really well. While I get my act together blog-wise, here are a few photos from the trip.

The Saturday farmer's market in Portland is pretty much the best farmers market I've ever been to. Maybe not the biggest, or the most eclectic, but it had live music and hot biscuits and some of the sweetest strawberries I've ever tasted.
We also went to my favorite restaurant and ate many tasty things including these chicken-fried chicken livers.
Some friends took us to an awesome little "roadside juice bar" that was a combination between a 1950s-era trailer and a shack. They made a fizzy ginger-lime-basil concoction that was quite refreshing.
In San Francisco, we gorged on perfectly ripe peaches from Frog Hollow Farm. And now my life feels incomplete every day I can't have one.
One day, we did a taste test of ice cream from Humphry Slocombe and Bi-Rite and I think Humphry's chocolate-malt flavor won by a hair. Sorry, we ate it too fast for photos.
We also hit up a little place called Chez Panisse Cafe. I love to rag on Alice Waters, but the restaurant really did live up to the hype. We had a beautiful salad, smoked salmon on toast, a morel mushroom pizza, pasta with lamb and peas, and strawberry sorbet for dessert. 

The meal reminded me that delicious food can be utterly simple. A good rule of thumb for dinner parties and eating in general.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The sorbet looks amazing. I also love the glasses that the juice bar serves from.

Daniel said...

I'm even more partial to the Humphry Slocombe now that I know the place is named after characters from Are You Being Served!

M. M. Martinez said...

Wow. I am inspired to go on this exact same vacation. Yay for simplicity!

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