As a treat for Fernando, we are staying at the Bancroft Hotel on Bancroft Avenue, about a block west of International House. I thought he would enjoy staying almost in the same location as he did when he was a student. The Hotel is a former women's club, which then turned sorority and then in 1989, after the earthquake, was closed and retrofitted. In 1990 it opened as a hotel - or at least that was the history that one of the staff gave us.
Our room is small and there is no elevator so we have to hike up the stairs to our room on the third floor. I'm finding that by the end of the day, my right knee is quite stiff so I'm rethinking stairs after this trip. Yesterday we spent all day in San Francisco, following the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf on foot, riding it back to Sutter, walking down to Grant, then along Grant till Stockton came out of the tunnel, down Stockton to Broadway, then back to Columbus, to Montgomery and eventually up Montgomery to Market. It was at that point, when my right knee started complaining, that I realized that the BART stations don't believe in escalators!! The majority of exits are by stairs with a couple of elevators. Wait 10 years when all the baby boomers have decrepit knees and the elevator lines are as long as the cable car lines. In DC they have lots of escalators, especially those going up. But I digress...
Our hotel room opens unto a little shared balcony with four full length glass doors, the only disadvantage being that you can't sleep with the windows open since there are only the doors. But it is cool enough here that the room doesn't get overheated. I'm just glad that one can open the windows and not have to rely on air conditioners for a breath of fresh air.
The shampoo/conditioner/body lotion/soaps are by EO and are wonderfully fragrant. I'm taking them home. I don't think I'll be able to afford the real thing unless they show up in Marshalls. The hotel markets itself as sustainable and ecologically friendly and they have a container for trash and one for recyclables. Their morning continental breakfast has real dishes and silverware so one doesn't have to eat with plastic forks and paper plates, although they have those too (I think they are made of corn or potatoes).
Papi has picked up a Berkeley sweatshirt (all the Asian students wear them) and has revisited all the old haunts of his student days, like Kips, where we went with the Latin students for pizza and beer, although now the majority of the room is taken up by a bar and we were about the only ones there -- of course it was only 5 pm and it is the summer. We ate french fries along with the beer and so were too tired and full to stop by Top Dog for a hot dog. That's where Fernando took my on our first 'date'. We were supposed to go out later after a short 'rest' but I was still asleep at 11 pm and Fernando decided to call it a day...
This morning we hope to go up to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden before we leave for Susan's. I'll add photos later.
Showing posts with label Berkeley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berkeley. Show all posts
Friday, July 12, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Chez Panisse
Yes. We actually went to that Berkeley food landmark last night for dinner. On Tuesday Camila said we should at least try to go to the Cafe upstairs so she got online to make reservations at OpenTable and found she could make reservations for the downstairs dining room (the real Chez Panisse) for Wednesday at 8:30 pm or Thursday at 9:15 pm. The 8:30 time sounded more reasonable for us and the menu was more appealing:
California white sea bass crudo with black pepper and cucumber granita
Roasted eggplant ravioli with pine nuts, tomato, and mint
Salmon Creek Ranch duck grilled over fig wood with new potatoes, green beans, and morel mushroom sauce
Royal Blenheim apricot soufflé with noyau crème anglaise
Although now that I look at the Thursday night menu, it sounds awfully good as well:
Fried squash blossoms with sheeps milk ricotta and pickled gypsy peppers
Zuppa di vongole with shell beans and basil
Grilled Llano Seco Ranch pork loin with amaranth greens, sage, and eggplant roasted in the coals
Toasted almond crespelle with Masumoto Family Farm peaches and raspberry ice cream
Do you think we could go twice??
It was very hard waiting for 8:30 pm to roll around yesterday. We got up at 3 am (12 am Pacific Coast Time) to catch our 6:15 am flight to Oakland so it was really 11:30 pm when we sat down to eat. We tried not to eat too much during the day but at 11:00 am Fernando was getting hungry and actually tried to get me to eat at Chipotle's next to REI off of Gilman street (near the married student housing in Albany). Instead I got him to feed me a cheese enchilada and a chile relleno at a Mexican hole in the wall across the street. Not bad but I really don't care for that brownish gravy they tend to put on chiles rellenos in some establishments...
But when 8:30 rolled around we were really hungry -- and also almost falling asleep -- so we were a pack of yawns. The Maitre D was French and said that later he would take us over to look at the kitchen since we weren't sitting by the kitchen (something Camila had requested). The inside of the restaurant is subdued with Craftsman decor and since they were burning fig wood in the kitchen, had a slight smokey aroma. We decided not to order the wine pairings (we wanted to make it back to the hotel) and got right down to business but the wait staff always had time for some chit chat. The Maitre d' asked if were were from out of town and we told him from Pittsburgh so it turned out that the other Maitre d was also from Pittsburgh. We chatted with him later and it turned out that he wasn't from Pittsburgh but his wife was and they had lots of relatives back in Greensburg, Latrobe and Ligonier. And by the way one of the chefs was also from Pittsburgh... That's why Pittsburgh has so few good restaurants. All the chefs are here...
The waiter dropped off a small appetizer of pickled okra and padron peppers -- grown by a farmer up in Sonoma. They were pretty tiny peppers and didn't have any bite. In Spain they are typically eaten larger and fried as tapas. I grew them the year after we went on the Camino and they did very well. Some are spicy and others aren't.
The first course of raw California Sea Bass (caught off the Santa Cruz coast) was nice. They had salted the fish slightly and the cucumber gelee reminded me of Gaga's cucumber jello salad and went well with it. They had chervil on top, confirmed by the sommelier who said it grew wild here. I told her it reseeded itself quite well in Pittsburgh too. Earlier we had talked about how easy California had it using "local" produce. How could you brag about that in California? They should try cooking local in Pittsburgh! And try catching some local sea bass in the Allegheny River! She asked if there were any native plant foods in the farmers markets. I told her I'd only seen ramps in the East End Food CoOp. No serviceberries at all. We don't even have a forager with wild mushrooms, although maybe I should go check out the farmers market in the strip. It's more upscale. She was surprised that we only had farmers markets from May through November.
The second course of roasted eggplant ravioli was good, although Fernando wasn't thrilled with it ('Lydia makes better ravioli...') -- maybe because it was al dente, except he really liked the sauce which was simple but tasty. Maybe roasted eggplant needs a little oil to carry the smokey flavor (like the sesame paste in baba ghanouj). We used up a lot of the bread sopping up the sauces -- it looked like we licked the plates. One of the breads was a levain and had the sourdough taste which I really liked but Fernando claimed it was burned and preferred the short crusty baguette. In any case, he made short work of a foot-long loaf.
Fernando's favorite course was the duck, which he loves (along with lamb). It was extremely tender and tasty - the best duck I've had. Roasting it over a wood fire made it even tastier although I'm not convinced that fig wood imparts a flavor different from other woods. I wonder what eucalyptus wood would do. I gave Fernando my potatoes because the moment I took my first bite of duck (with the skin) I realized I'd eaten too many pieces of bread and wouldn't last till dessert. I couldn't even mop up the juices with the bread this time!
Fortunately the apricot soufflé was good and tart with a sprinkling of sugar caramelized on top. They gave us a little pitcher of the noyau crème anglaise but it really didn't need it. On the other hand, how were we going to let that apricot kernel sauce go to waste?? So of course we ate that too. Fernando asked if I could make an apricot soufflé at home. I told him we didn't have any "local" apricots... Although that isn't true - the farmers market will have a few teeny ones for a couple of weeks in early summer.
Yes, watching other people enjoy their wine with dinner made me a little sad but if we'd gone that route we probably would still be at Chez Panisse this morning...
Now we can say we've done it. And we have the menus to prove it.
California white sea bass crudo with black pepper and cucumber granita
Roasted eggplant ravioli with pine nuts, tomato, and mint
Salmon Creek Ranch duck grilled over fig wood with new potatoes, green beans, and morel mushroom sauce
Royal Blenheim apricot soufflé with noyau crème anglaise
Although now that I look at the Thursday night menu, it sounds awfully good as well:
Fried squash blossoms with sheeps milk ricotta and pickled gypsy peppers
Zuppa di vongole with shell beans and basil
Grilled Llano Seco Ranch pork loin with amaranth greens, sage, and eggplant roasted in the coals
Toasted almond crespelle with Masumoto Family Farm peaches and raspberry ice cream
Do you think we could go twice??
It was very hard waiting for 8:30 pm to roll around yesterday. We got up at 3 am (12 am Pacific Coast Time) to catch our 6:15 am flight to Oakland so it was really 11:30 pm when we sat down to eat. We tried not to eat too much during the day but at 11:00 am Fernando was getting hungry and actually tried to get me to eat at Chipotle's next to REI off of Gilman street (near the married student housing in Albany). Instead I got him to feed me a cheese enchilada and a chile relleno at a Mexican hole in the wall across the street. Not bad but I really don't care for that brownish gravy they tend to put on chiles rellenos in some establishments...
But when 8:30 rolled around we were really hungry -- and also almost falling asleep -- so we were a pack of yawns. The Maitre D was French and said that later he would take us over to look at the kitchen since we weren't sitting by the kitchen (something Camila had requested). The inside of the restaurant is subdued with Craftsman decor and since they were burning fig wood in the kitchen, had a slight smokey aroma. We decided not to order the wine pairings (we wanted to make it back to the hotel) and got right down to business but the wait staff always had time for some chit chat. The Maitre d' asked if were were from out of town and we told him from Pittsburgh so it turned out that the other Maitre d was also from Pittsburgh. We chatted with him later and it turned out that he wasn't from Pittsburgh but his wife was and they had lots of relatives back in Greensburg, Latrobe and Ligonier. And by the way one of the chefs was also from Pittsburgh... That's why Pittsburgh has so few good restaurants. All the chefs are here...
The waiter dropped off a small appetizer of pickled okra and padron peppers -- grown by a farmer up in Sonoma. They were pretty tiny peppers and didn't have any bite. In Spain they are typically eaten larger and fried as tapas. I grew them the year after we went on the Camino and they did very well. Some are spicy and others aren't.
The first course of raw California Sea Bass (caught off the Santa Cruz coast) was nice. They had salted the fish slightly and the cucumber gelee reminded me of Gaga's cucumber jello salad and went well with it. They had chervil on top, confirmed by the sommelier who said it grew wild here. I told her it reseeded itself quite well in Pittsburgh too. Earlier we had talked about how easy California had it using "local" produce. How could you brag about that in California? They should try cooking local in Pittsburgh! And try catching some local sea bass in the Allegheny River! She asked if there were any native plant foods in the farmers markets. I told her I'd only seen ramps in the East End Food CoOp. No serviceberries at all. We don't even have a forager with wild mushrooms, although maybe I should go check out the farmers market in the strip. It's more upscale. She was surprised that we only had farmers markets from May through November.
The second course of roasted eggplant ravioli was good, although Fernando wasn't thrilled with it ('Lydia makes better ravioli...') -- maybe because it was al dente, except he really liked the sauce which was simple but tasty. Maybe roasted eggplant needs a little oil to carry the smokey flavor (like the sesame paste in baba ghanouj). We used up a lot of the bread sopping up the sauces -- it looked like we licked the plates. One of the breads was a levain and had the sourdough taste which I really liked but Fernando claimed it was burned and preferred the short crusty baguette. In any case, he made short work of a foot-long loaf.
Fernando's favorite course was the duck, which he loves (along with lamb). It was extremely tender and tasty - the best duck I've had. Roasting it over a wood fire made it even tastier although I'm not convinced that fig wood imparts a flavor different from other woods. I wonder what eucalyptus wood would do. I gave Fernando my potatoes because the moment I took my first bite of duck (with the skin) I realized I'd eaten too many pieces of bread and wouldn't last till dessert. I couldn't even mop up the juices with the bread this time!
Fortunately the apricot soufflé was good and tart with a sprinkling of sugar caramelized on top. They gave us a little pitcher of the noyau crème anglaise but it really didn't need it. On the other hand, how were we going to let that apricot kernel sauce go to waste?? So of course we ate that too. Fernando asked if I could make an apricot soufflé at home. I told him we didn't have any "local" apricots... Although that isn't true - the farmers market will have a few teeny ones for a couple of weeks in early summer.
Yes, watching other people enjoy their wine with dinner made me a little sad but if we'd gone that route we probably would still be at Chez Panisse this morning...
Now we can say we've done it. And we have the menus to prove it.
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