Sunday, December 12, 2010

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Eastside Road, December 11, 2010—
A DAY AWAY. Breakfast at Pizzaiolo, because Lindsey does love good doughnuts: but I made do with a couple of pieces of toast with my two caffelattes. On the toast, a delicious orange marmalade. When I exclaimed at how good it was the young woman sitting on my right — we were sitting at the bar — said Thank you; it turned out she was the person who'd made it. (A very knowledgeable young woman, as well as an excellent maker of marmalade.)

Lunch in the café with a couple of friends from Ojai and their parents, well, the parents of one of them; every now and then the English language is so deficient. The menu was one of the best I've seen lately; I settled for leeks vinaigrette with chicories, mustard, and hard-cooked egg, then fresh noodles with bolognese — a particularly fine bolognese, toward the dry side: this is not a complaint, or a criticism; the meat and savories were lean and present, not hiding in a sauce, and combined very nicely with the pasta.

Generous desserts: dates stuffed with ricotta, fresh fruit; then a slice of a fine bombe. This is Berkeley, after all.
Arneis, Marco Porello, 2009; Zinfandel, Green and Red, ?2008
  • Pizzaiolo, 5008 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland; tel. (510) 652-4888
  • Café Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley; tel. 510.548.5525

  • THEN DINNER WITH OUR FRIENDS the Ashlanders, two of the three other couples we spend a week with every year seeing plays up in Ashland (alas one couple was unable to attend), at a potluck. Gaye supplied roasted root vegetables, at least one of every benighted chthonic root I really dislike contemplating, let alone eating: turnip, parsnip, rutabaga, Hades knows what else. Margery supplied a delicious beef stew made with onions and a bottle of unidentified red wine: thick, deep, and savory, it masked the vegetables so well I had seconds.

    I supplied the green salad, and Lindsey an apple pie: delicious.
    local Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon

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