Fish and chips

Eastside Road, January 18, 2012—

THE LAST FAIR DAY, we're told, before a string of rainy ones. So, since we have to get in shape for another long walk, we can't waste it: let's take a hike.

The hike took us forty minutes away by car. It always seems morally wrong to drive the car to a walk, but there you are: that's the kind of world we live in. The walk itself was nice, the first half a stroll really, the second more of a scramble. But this is a food blog, not a walking one. (I do in fact have a walking blog, but it's been inactive for a long, long time.)

So what did we eat to put back some of those calories we'd walked off? I'm a little ashamed to tell you: fish and chips. We thought of fasting, in fact, but were a little hungry. There weren't that many places at the end of the trail, so we dropped into a bar and settled for the least obnoxious thing on the menu. Three strips of decently battered unidentifiable firm white fish, fried in clean inert oil, with probably commercially pre-cut potatoes fried similarly, house-assembled tartar sauce, and a couple of leaves of lettuce that, frankly, didn't tempt us.

Later, at home, the usual handful of nuts with tea, and a banana. What a life.

White table wine, Kenwood, nv

• Wolf House Restaurant, 13740 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen, CA; 707.938.8510