Hopping John

Duck confit with poached eggs, Five

Berkeley, January 1, 2015—

BUT FIRST, BREAKFAST. That was with a couple of friends in a hotel restaurant we hadn't visited in ages — rather bland and institutional.  Everyone else ordered Eggs Benedict, but I was attracted to the duck leg confit with two poached eggs, nested atop a mound of shoestring potatoes, quite nice though hard to eat gracefully. 

Orange juice

• Five, Hotel Shattuck Plaza, 2086 Allston Way, Berkeley; 510-225-6055

THE HOPPING JOHN was at my gracious cousin's table, made by her in her fine old Berkeley house, which our great-grandfather built nearly a century ago. Black-eyed peas and rice, with a few drops of Tabasco and a glass of Primitivo — perfect good-luck dish for the New Year, reminding us of the virtues of modesty and sufficiency, especially when given generously en famille… and so begins another year…