Where there's smoke, there's fire.

In the fall, native and veteran Californians warned me that, although Bay Area winters may not be as cold as I'm used to, and although I would never see snow or ice in San Jose, I should prepare for frequent and unpleasant winter rains.  We had a few intense rain storms -- you may remember that we spent one of those in Sonoma -- but overall, it didn't seem that rainy.  Turns out it was a dry and mild winter, and now Northern California is paying the price.  East Bay communities, facing a dwindling water supply, started water rationing over a month ago.  And everything is so dry that fire has become a serious threat in many parts of the state.  According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there are currently fires burning in Amador, Butte, Santa Cruz, Tehama, and Monterey Counties.  Fires in Sonoma, Tuolumne, Sacramento, Madera, El Dorado, and Kern Counties have been contained within the last week.

Last night, as my train headed south from San Francisco, I noticed that what had been a sunny day was turning dark earlier than normal.  It appeared that we were driving toward a very dense, very large storm cloud.  This may not seem strange to those of you in other parts of the country.  In fact, it looked a lot like one of those summer thunderstorms that can blacken the sky in a matter of minutes, particularly common in upstate New York.  However, it does not rain in California after March or so.  Certainly not in June.  Not ever.  I had read online about some new fires in Santa Cruz county, south of San Jose, but I didn't think they could produce that amount of smoke.  The effect was creepy -- the picture above, taken from our patio at about 8:00 PM last night, gives you an idea, but it doesn't really do it justice.

According to the San Jose Mercury-News, the cloud was smoke from the fire in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, about 90 miles south of here.  This is the largest fire burning now, covering 23,575 acres -- approximately the size of Worcester, Massachusetts.

I don't think we'll ever be in any danger here, near downtown San Jose -- there's hardly enough vegetation to sustain that kind of fire.  But it's sobering to step outside and smell the fire, or see a sky of smoke.

Hot dogs, meet haute cuisine

For Stacey's birthday back in March, I gave her tickets to the Red Sox-A's game on Friday.  My cousins Rick and Steve and their wives Jessica and Kendra joined us for a night at the Oakland Coliseum, which I had been led to believe would be an easy Red Sox win.  Not so -- but we had fun anyway.

Yesterday was my birthday, so we spent the morning relaxing at a nearby spa.  For dinner, we had made reservations to eat at Manresa, one of the most talked-about restaurants in the Bay Area.  It has earned two Michelin stars and four Mobil stars, and has been included on Gourmet Magazine's list of the Top 50 Restaurants in America, Gayot's Top 40, and Restaurant Magazine's best 50 restaurants in the world for two years running.  It is also about twenty minutes from our house, in ritzy Los Gatos.  Of course, we had to try it.

The meal was one of the best we've had in years -- impeccable service, surprising flavors, and perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked dishes.  To start, we were treated to a succession of three amuse bouches: an olive-sized spring pea and garden lettuce croquette, crispy on the outside with a hot, liquid center; a Pemaquid oyster in a briny sea-water gelee; and a Manresa staple, an egg yolk poached with sea salt and chives, dressed with a sherry vinegar cream and a bit of maple syrup, and served in its own shell.  The egg was my favorite part of the meal, and easily one of the most delicious things I've eaten in years.  Salty, sweet, acidic and creamy -- I scraped the last little bits out of my shell and wished for more.

We ordered the four-course menu, which for Stacey consisted of crispy mussels perfumed with nasturtium flowers and served with vegetables and curry spices; Monterey Bay abalone with leeks, oysters, wine and walnuts; poached and roasted farm poularde with pea porridge, cepes and ramps; and spring carrot pudding cakes with fromage blanc fritters, pistachio praline, carrot sorbet and pansy flower consomme.  I had fennel bulb soup with duck confit, cranberry bread croquant and mustard cream; Atlantic hake with braised fava beans and sorrel, served in oxtail consomme; roast lamb with cauliflower cream, salted Meyer lemon, purslane and garden roots; and rhubarb granita with reine de pres (an herb, known in English as meadowsweet) ice cream, bunuelos, sweet and sour strawberries and tapioca.  I tried everything Stacey ordered and it was all delicious.  The carrot dessert was perhaps more notable for creativity than deliciousness.  It showcased how sweet carrots are, how many ways you might serve them, but ultimately wasn't what I'd want for dessert.  I did love the contrasts in my own dessert: the icy, slightly bitter granita, the sweet-sour strawberries, the rich-creamy tapioca, herbal-creamy ice cream, and light, sweet, fried bunuelos.  I also particularly loved my creamy fennel soup and the hake and oxtail consomme -- I am a sucker for oxtails.  After dinner, we were offered coffee or an exceptionally beautiful array of Chinese teas, hand-sewn into intricate shapes that unfurl just so in hot water.  The sunset oolong I chose entered my glass teapot as a dry, dusty-green ball with a pink sunburst on it, and slowly transformed into what looked like a water lily floating on the surface of a very delicate tea.  We were given handmade chocolate-armagnac truffles, and on our way out we were met by a maitre d' holding a large glass jar full of wrapped candies.  They turned out to be rich, soft, buttery housemade caramels, flecked with vanilla beans and slightly crunchy with sea salt crystals.  They put every other sea salt caramel I've ever had to shame.

The rest of the weekend promises to be low-key.  I am perfectly happy to do a little laundry, write a few emails, watch the last Ugly Betty, and be grateful for an extra day off work.  We hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekends as much as we are.

Congratulations Jeff and Loa!

My cousin Jeff married Loa this past Saturday at a beautiful winery up in the hills of Los Gatos.  We're very happy for them.  (The photo above was taken by my sister Becky.  My photos of the ceremony didn't come out very well).

Becky, Kendra and Susy during the cocktail hour

Bernice, Dad and Aunt Sue

There was a digital photo booth at the reception, and we all enjoyed taking silly pictures.  Actually, ours weren't so silly -- we thought they were pretty cute.

Peonies, opened.

East Bay Weekend

On Friday I finished the last of my spring semester school work, which means I am free from school until August 25th.  Stacey and I celebrated with a weekend trip to the Berkeley area, our primary goal being dinner at Chez Panisse.

We started with a slight detour to a couple of favorite wineries in the southern part of Sonoma County.  We had wine to pick up from our Gloria Ferrer wine club, so we had a few glasses of bubbly and then, needing whites for summer, bought some Viognier and Pinot Gris at Cline Cellars.

Next stop: Berkeley.  Arriving early at our hotel and finding it un-air-conditioned (one of many unpleasant surprises), we walked a couple of blocks to explore Telegraph Avenue, which was admittedly kind of icky.  Maybe I am too old to appreciate several blocks full of tie-dyed t-shirts, incense, hemp necklaces, used merchandise, and many hole-in-the-wall restaurants (one hole-in-the-wall is fine though! We stopped at tiny Top Dog for hot dogs.  Good, but no match for Puka Dog).  Next we hit the Berkeley Art Museum, which was across from our hotel.  It was also not air-conditioned (what is the deal with Berkeley?) and the art was, well, not very good.  We ended up watching TV in our stuffy hotel room until it was time for dinner.

 I've wanted to eat at Chez Panisse for a long time, but Berkeley is about an hour's drive for us and reservations need to be made a month in advance.  My first weekend of freedom seemed like a proper occasion.  I was a bit nervous that I would be disappointed; the Chez Panisse name carries such weight that it seemed likely that our dinner wouldn't live up to our high expectations.  In the end, everything was delicious: the bread, the butter, my little gem lettuce with green goddess dressing and roasted beets and Stacey's brandade toasts with frisee.  For an entree, I had spaghetti with Hog Island clams and marjoram (simple but delicious, which is the Chez Panisse MO).  But what really blew us away was Stacey's halibut.  We have both had plenty of halibut in our time, but I have never had anything this tender and pure-tasting.  It was served with snap peas, mushrooms and chervil butter.  Yum.

This morning we went to the cafe at Oliveto in Oakland for breakfast.  Oliveto was founded by a Chez Panisse alum, and has the same seasonal/local food focus, so it was on my list of Bay Area restaurants to visit.  Since we are not in the East Bay very often, I was glad to see the downstairs cafe is open all day, including for breakfast.  After polishing off (with a great deal of my help) an excellent wood-fired breakfast pizza with pancetta and topped with two eggs, Stacey declared it the best breakfast she has had in a long time.  I enjoyed a bowl of rib-sticking polenta served with milk and poached fruit.

On to Berkeley's Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory.  Scharffen Berger is one of the few first-tier chocolate makers in the United States (meaning they oversee every step of the chocolate-making process, from bean to bar).  We enjoyed our free tour, from the chocolate samples to the hair nets to the intoxicating chocolate smell that hits you when you walk into the factory.  All of the chocolate is made in a small, hundred-year-old building with antique European machines.  We picked up some bars to go.

Last stop: Fourth Street in Berkeley, mostly because I wanted to go to Sketch Ice Cream, which I read about recently in a New York Times article.  In order to make room in our tummies, we did a little shopping.  We bought fresh asparagus-chive ravioli to cook for dinner, browsed home boutiques, and Stacey bought me the most beautiful deep red peonies.  I love peonies, but I have never seen them in this color.

  

We ended our trip at Sketch, with cups of cardamom and rhubarb ice cream, swirled.  Success.

Counting down to summer...

26 days left in my semester.  I can't wait, but am swamped with papers and projects until then.  Stacey and I are celebrating on May 3rd with a dinner at the legendary Chez Panisse in Berkeley.  Odds are, you'll read about it here.

The weather has been beautiful.  Last weekend, we planted a cherry tomato plant and a "mucho nacho" jalapeno plant in pots on our patio, as well as some herbs and flowers.  I'm hoping we'll be able to keep them alive during the dry San Jose summer so that we can reap the benefits.

Below, Scout proves that even vertical blinds will not keep her from her sunbathing.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Yesterday was Stacey's 30th birthday.  We celebrated with dinner at Arcadia in San Jose and Scharffen Berger ganache cakes from Miette Patisserie in San Francisco (above).  Highlights of Arcadia: foie gras sliders, an excellent gin gimlet, and tiny doughnuts in a vanilla glaze with house-made bananas foster ice cream and pecan praline.  Highlights of Scharffen Berger ganache cakes: chocolate.  Enough said.  Miette is one of my favorite places in the Ferry Building Marketplace.  Everything they make is precious and delicious, especially their Parisian macaroons.  Friday my friend Daniel and I sampled some grapefruit-flavored ones.  Yum.

Last week, Stacey's mom, Peggy, flew out from Florida to visit and celebrate.  We took her up to Sonoma County, which was a lot of fun.  Now that spring has come to California, the hills are green and yellow mustard is growing in all the vineyards (apparently it replenishes nitrogen in the soil that the grapes take out).  The grapevines don't have leaves yet, but will soon.  With true spring in wine country comes the crowds, which we only sort of avoided.  The limos full of bachelorettes were already storming some of the cheaper wineries.  I think I liked it better in the January rainstorm, though we had incredible weather this time.

Benziger Family Winery

Hills behind Gloria Ferrer Winery

Stacey and Peggy on the terrace at Gloria Ferrer

Stacey is smiling because she's getting some Mommy time, because it's warm enough to wear shorts (and she is), and because she's just taken her first sips of her glass of Gloria Ferrer's excellent Carneros Cuvee, our new favorite special occasion sparkling wine.  We are smitten enough with Gloria Ferrer that on this, our second visit, we joined their wine club, which grants us, among other things, four free glasses of sparkling wine each time we visit.  Who wants to come along?

On our way home, we stopped by the Golden Gate Bridge.  Between its hills, bridges, and bays, San Francisco really does have better views than any other city I've been to.

Marin Headlands, looking out to the Pacific Ocean

My spring break is coming to a close this weekend and I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for two more months of schoolwork before the close of the semester and the beginning of my summer off (from school, anyway.  I'll still be working).  For now, I am just trying to enjoy my last day of freedom.