Catching up

Eastside Road, September 27, 2013—

LET'S SEE, NOW, how long has it been? Since Monday? Sorry: we've been rushing about. Tuesday it was fusilli al pesto at home, with a bottle of cheap red Italian wine.

Wednesday we were in San Francisco, and stopped off at a favorite restaurant for a Martini and a hamburger. Well: before the hamburger, this delicious little plate of arugula, Parmesan, celery, anchovies, and olives, a refreshing way to begin anything, and particularly nice with the Martini. Elective affinities.

The hamburgers here are first-rate, on foccaccia bread, with pickled onion and gherkins and very nice catsup and aïoli. If only for the hamburger, this remains one of the Hundred Restaurants:

• Zuni Café, 1658 Market Street, San Francisco; 415-552-2522Yesterday we were in Berkeley, and stopped in at another old favorite. (In our justification: we're hosts to a houseguest from out of the country, and we're showing him around.) Here I lunched on another refreshing first-course salad: rocket, again, with cucumbers and radishes in a soft, fragrant vinaigrette.

Following which, this absolutely memorable plate of bucatini alle sarde, with sardine, currants, pine nuts, saffron, and toasted bread crumbs — a dish that managed to take me to both Sicily and Venice, simultaneously, with none of that Italian mainland in between. (Appropriate, perhaps, since in the evening we visited Sicily and the coast of Bohemia, via Shakespeare.)

Godello, A Coroa (Valdeorras, Spain), 2012: complex and flavorful; Zinfandel, Green & Red Vineyards (Napa Valley), 2011

• Café Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley; 510.548.5525