Lunch in the café

Berkeley, October 22, 2013—

THE USUAL APOLOGY for the terrible photo, which can't convey the delicious salad: grilled albacore with green beans and cherry tomatoes, dressed with a light vinaigrette incorporating olive tapenade.

Next, succulent pork loin, very fine-grained and flavorful, with zucchini and Nardello peppers, salsa verde on the side — a course that rhymed, you might say, with the earlier one: tapenade and salsa verde, pork and albacore, peppers and green beans. Such things can't be accidental.

I had a dessert, too: ginger cake with poached Bosc pears and crème Chantilly. Delicious!

Jurançon Sec, “Vitatge Viehl”, Clos Lapeyre (Pyrenées), 2009: smooth, a little assertive, at its peak at this age

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