Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Home again

quiche.jpg
Eastside Road, September 22, 2015—
BUT NOT FOR LONG. We drove up from Los Angeles yesterday, partway at least, after having for lunch only this very delicious quiche Lorraine, with soft, fresh, perfectly baked egg custard and bits of very peppery bacon. As you see it was baked good and dark, as it should be; what you don't see is the pastry shell, which managed to be substantial, tender, and flaky. This is a marvelous bakery and one of our favorite places to eat — and get coffee! — in Los Angeles.

• Short Cake, 6333 Wwat 3rd Street, Los Angeles (in the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax); (323) 761-7976
Otherwise we made do, yesterday, with a sack of lightly salted almonds — and, on arriving at our motel, a small Scotch on the rocks.
chicken.jpg TODAY, THOUGH, we made up for yesterday's half fast lunching in Berkeley. I've eaten in this place for more than forty years, and today's lunch was exactly the kind of thing that keeps me happy with it. It was like eating in a really good French bistro back in the 1960s: chicken saltimbocca with parsnip purée, spinach, and sage, with a discreet pickled onion on the side. I know, saltimbocca isn't bistro fare, isn't even French: but the dish was so beautifully balanced, sat so well inits light broth, the chicken was so fresh, the spinach so perfectly cooked…

A green salad before, and my share of a fine plum galette with raspberry ice cream afterward. Life is very good.
Chardonnay, Côtes du Jura, Domaine Labet, 2013: clean and bright
• Café Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley; 510-548-5525
TONIGHT WE WANTED nothing more than a couple of pieces of buttered toast and a fried egg. Cook fried the egg perfectly in butter, over easy, well salted and peppered.
Restaurants visited in 2015 are listed at Eatingday's Restaurants

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