Food and Wine

Last Saturday we went to the Kermit Lynch annual Oysters and Chablis outdoor food-fest in Berkeley. Dad was, of course, the instigator, so it only seems fair to show his happy sponsorship. From left to right: Champagne (not so great), Chablis (bought a bottle), and Aligote (very tasty). Turns out simple crisp whites go very nicely with salty things like oysters. At least, that's what I think Dad said. K stuck with sausages, and we split an strawberry-rhubarb galette and a salted chocolate cookie. Salted chocolate seems to be the New Hot Taste these days; that's the second restaurant we've been to in the last month with a salt+chocolate pairing.

Some more vacation tidbits:

Fresh housemade ricotta and buffalo mozzzarella in Campania. We had just finished visiting the temples at Paestum in the middle of buffalo mozzarela country. Serious five-star yum. On a slightly worrisome note, in addition to the garbage scandals in Campania (Napoli's "state"), there are concerns that illegal dumping is causing toxic chemicals like dioxin to get into groundwater and soil. Apparently some buffalo mozzarela has tested positive for dioxin, and the DOCG buffalo mozzarella consortium has of course been working to disprove/discredit these rumors. Their sales would plummet! Sadly, corruption is alive and thriving in southern Italy...or do they just hear about it more than we do in the US?

The fish market at Siracusa - much cheaper than Taormina, where we stayed. But we didn't have any way to bring pounds and pounds of shrimp home and cook them, which I'm sure Mom would have done given the chance. One vendor had a bucket of still-alive octopi, somewhat squeam-inducing.

Whoops, there went March. And most of April.

We're back! All the news that we make time to print. Or something.

K's had some excitement at work, where his studio was/wasn't closed, he did/didn't have a job or a project. He is, at this moment, still employed in Foster City and he even has a new project...but we can't talk about that. Officially. My work remains oddly the same yet ever-changing. I'm looking forward to a short break in early May, when I head to Asia for a week+ to hang out with Mom. I'll sneak in a few days in our Tokyo office while I'm there. The weather in the Bay Area is starting to change, showing signs of warmth (but not too much), and the trees on our street are sprouting happy green leaves. Except for the one in front of our house, which is literally retarded - it blooms later and sheds its leaves later than all the other trees on the street.

Here's a vignette from our January vacation: we were stopped in Amalfi on the way to Ravello for lunch and a stroll. The next bus wasn't due for an hour, so mom asked the local entrepreneurial taxi drivers what it would cost to get up to Ravello. We met: Elvis.

On the windy road up to Ravello, his stories of bad drivers on the narrow streets were accompanied by the sounds of "Heartbreak Hotel". He eventually had to turn it off because the road quality was so bad it caused the CD player to skip.

Groovy.