Portuguese

Healdsburg, June 1, 2017—

THIS IS A PLACE we've liked on every visit, but we keep overlooking it — partly because we don't often dine in our own town, since we eat out so often when we're traveling; partly because it's off the street out of sight and therefore, as the saying goes, out of mind.

And lately the approach to its downtown block has been torn up, and will likely remain so for another year, for the conversion of a complicated five-way intersection involving also a railroad track and an underground creek into a more rational roundabout. It's in fact quite simple to negotiate this in your car, but it apparently looks fearsome to the tourists.

Portuguese, therefore salt cod, yes? But at the last minute I decided I needed more nourishment, so turned to a traditional dish I remember very fondly from a wonderful place we encountered years ago in the boonies in Northern California — alas, since closed. This would be your ovo a cavallo "egg on horseback" or, basically, steak-'n'-eggs: a grilled New York tenderloin (done here just a shade less rare than I like) on a pile of grilled onions with French fries.

But first, a triplet of starters: delicious yellow lupini beans; innocent tender boquerones; a marvelous house-made linguiça. Oh, and before that, the amuse-bouche: a cold shooter of clear tomato broth with a tiny chunk of Serrano ham and a float of good olive oil.

Dessert: Rice pudding, stenciled with cinnamon, with a candied dried fig in syrup on the side. What a delicious, simple, refreshing dinner. Want to know where to eat in Healdsburg? Here.

     🍷Tons de Duorum (Duoro), 2015: serious but refreshing and agreeable;
            Quinta de la Rosa,(Douro), 2012 (!), perfect
•Cafe Lucia, 235 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg, California; +1 (707) 431-1113

☛RESTAURANTS VISITED, with information and rating: 2016      2015     2017