This past weekend we went to attend Bryan’s sister Jimi’s graduation from UC Santa Cruz. We stayed with Bryan’s family in a home they rented near the beach. Our first stop was at Staff of Life, a health food store to stock up on food for the weekend. We loved this store, and a few others we happened to pop into while walking around the downtown area. Santa Cruz is very health conscious, made evident by the many organic restaurants and grocery stores, completely putting Southern California to shame. Every restaurant even if not “organic” seemed to make an effort to use organic ingredients on the menu. To us this seemed huge, because you are lucky to even find a health conscious restaurant in Orange County offering organic salad greens on the menu. Our first night we went to La Posta Vecchia to celebrate Bryan’s 26th birthday. La Posta is an Italian restaurant specializing in house made pasta, and all the food was quite well done!

Our second day we drove down to the downtown area and walked around all the shops. It was a breath of fresh air to be in a shopping plaza that was not full of chain stores. Taken by surprise by all the unique offerings we returned to feed the meter about 4 times after realizing each time that we were not done yet. We spent a few hours reading various books in the Bookshop Santa Cruz, delighted by their unique selection of titles. Afterward we ate a late lunch at Chocolate Cafe, where we had some delicious mediterranean food and split a chocolate truffle.

The next day Jimi’s graduation took place in a beautiful setting on the University’s campus overlooking the ocean. It may have been beautiful, but it was also midday and very hot! Luckily we thought ahead to bring a large beach umbrella and there we various people trying to mooch off our shade. After the ceremony we headed over to Pearl of the Ocean, for a Sri Lankan dinner. Unfortunately Megan felt ill and had to leave with out trying the food, which was wonderful. The whole family is quite fond of Indian food and we found Sri Lankan food to be similar, but incorporating flavors from South East Asia. Later we discovered the restaurant was named the best new restaurant in Santa Cruz and we can’t disagree that it is worth stopping by. Sunday evening we flew back to Orange County via Southwest Airlines, thankful to be skipping out on the 8 hour drive back.

“Just when you think your going on vacation… BAM! Food poisoning!” – this is how one sympathizer described our situation this weekend. Sadly, Bryan was on the receiving end of a quick and dirty case of food poisoning the night before our departure. Once again we spent the entire night before a trip completely awake, but this time with a lot more diarrhea and a about a gallon of barf to top it off. Assuming he had gotten it all out of his system and beginning to feel better, we decided to re-hydrated and head to John Wayne Airport. It was less than a minute from entering the security line that we realized that it was not all behind us. Right in the middle of the security line blocking the entrance to the metal detector, Bryan leaned over and hurled into a plastic bag. He spent a few minutes in a bent over position as people tried to squeak by in disgust. At this point we were just thankful that it wasn’t coming out the other end. After disposing of a bag of pure liquid puke we boarded the flight and Bryan endured a long and torturous trip.

Arriving in Seattle around noon all we felt like doing was sleeping. So while our travel companions Drew and Allison explored the city the rest of the day we were unfortunately confined to our hotel room trying to sleep and watched a movie. Despite her lack of sleep, Megan was a trooper and waited on Bryan hand and foot. But we know too well that Megan gets very cranky with lack of sleep and it began to come out that evening as she began cursing every detail about the W hotel that we were staying in. The hotel was nice but some of her complaints were valid such as the lack of black out curtains, lack of sound-proof windows and hallway noise. Others were just the crankiness talking such as the low sheet thread count and shower-tub existence, but preferably those things could also be fixed. Bryan got so used to Megan as a slave-wife that at one point when he was feeling better he began using her as a human cup-holder with out knowing it. Forcing her to hold his drink in between sips.

The next day we walked around the city visiting Pike Place Market and some shops before taking the ferry to the nearby Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge had a small little town named Winslow that we stopped in before walking along the shore trail back to the ferry. The best thing about the town was Churchmouse Yarns & Teas (I guess the owners just couldn’t decide which to sell so they sold both!) and a delicious ice cream place called Mora Iced Creamery with 48 flavors of homemade ice cream. Later that night we went to Canalis Restaurant, where we had an enjoyable meal, however, Bryan was still unable to put down much food and if you know Bryan’s love for fine dining you can imagine his frustration. The dinner was also filled with some memorable laughs. First, we had an incredible awkward bread boy who insisted on escorting Drew to the restroom, where he somehow recounted to Drew the whole of our dinner conversion (spooky). Then as Drew was exiting the restroom another patron was trying to push the door open while not looking he mistook Drew’s left pectoral for the door knob, creating a groping story that Drew could not wait to share when he returned tableside. The meal was finished eloquently with Bryan’s rendition of MJ’s classic, “Man in the Mirror.” Some of the other dinner guests may have commented that it sounded as if the whole song was performed in high notes MJ only achieved mid crouch-grab, however Bryan stands behind is performance.

Our final day was Easter Sunday and Drew and Allison headed out to an church service with a friend while we opted to sleep in and try to explore the city a bit more. We took a useless and rip-off of a street car ride to nowhere and the rip-off and mostly useless monorail down to the Space Needle. Combined it was nothing but a total waste of $9 in transportation that took us only 1 mile to the pointless area around the space needle. Plus there were some major creepers riding the monorail. From there we took a cab over to the Pioneer Square area where we walked around a bit and found that we quite enjoyed that area. It was the more historic part of town. The old city that was mostly destroyed in fire years ago is buried below street level. There is not much to see other than a cool toy store , book shops and a Utilikilts which is a hardcore kilt store attempting to make kilts mainstream clothing for men. We got the impression that in a few years it will become a hip thriving neighborhood.

So all in all sadly Seattle was a downer for us. We were really looking forward to this trip and given the circumstances we did the best we could but it is truly difficult to enjoy a vacation when you are tired, feel like crap, and repulsed by the thing you looked forward to most: food. We didn’t get to see a whole lot outside of the downtown area but here are a few things we learned: Even though we only spent about 10 minutes in Pike Place Market it was no doubt one of  the best things to see in the city and we wish we would have been able to go back. The busses are free, but don’t pay for monorail or the street car; taxis are useful as is the light rail to the airport. The W hotel is not as hip as they want you to think it is. Most importantly: Don’t get food poisoning before a trip.

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena De Blasi is a bestselling novel in which the author recalls her trip to Venice where she meet first met a Venetian man named Fernando. Before really even knowing this “stranger” as she calls him, she relocates her entire life to the Italian island where she marries him and renovates his apartment before deciding to sell it, move out of Venice and start a new life adventure together (which the author has written subsequent books about). De Blasi is a middle aged divorcée who feels she has gotten a ‘second chance at love,’ and for this reason makes this book only appealing to middle aged and older women. I apparently missed that memo when buying the book based solely off of high amazon reviews in the travel literature section. Up until the last two chapters I was a little bored with the book, as I resent reading about how delicious food is that I can not actually taste myself (the author loves to talk about food in detail). For me the book picked up in the last two chapters because they began talking about getting the heck out of Venice and opening a bed and breakfast in the countryside. For me the novel got a bit more youthful and adventurous at this point and even left me hanging because I want to know what happens next! Damn you De Blasi! Not sure I want to read any more of your granny romance novels, but I want to know what happened to you after you left Venice! What do I do now? Well I guess I did buy another De Blasi book…so stay tuned for that review. All and all I enjoyed reading it but am not in love with it. So beware of glowing reviews on Amazon.com if you are under 45, and if you are over 45 its a sure bet you will love it.

I just received my 100% Organic wool socks from Ireland and they are fabulous!  I have been reading for some time about how great wool is, especially organic wool, which is very warm, breathes well and wicks away sweat. Wool is the perferred sock for hikers and anyone who knows anything about keeping warm in a cold climate. I purchased them from Gael Song. Here is the product description:

Some fortunate sheep graze on grassland that has seen no artificial fertilizer, and the sheep are never subjected to chemical dip. From these happy flocks comes soft organic wool. The wool itself is minimally processed by environmentally friendly methods – no dyes or bleach, just the color of those contented sheep. Thick, soft socks keep your feet warm and happy. Natural Cream, Oatmeal, or Brown.

So unfortunately my socks and the sheep from which the fibers were taken are more pure than I will ever be. But on the bright side I am supporting the responsible and traditional methods of raising sheep in my ancestral country. All this talk about happy sheep, knitted wool and pristine grassland has gotten me thinking about our trip to the Emerald Isle in 2005. While staying in Dublin we took a bus/train tour south to a few Irish towns and along the way we stopped in Avoca, Ireland at Avoca Weavers. It was no secret that the tour company and Avoca were in bed together and knew quite well that after the tour showing how the wool was processed and how the looms worked to weave the garments we would be more likely to make a purchase at the store. Well the joke was on them because we were too cheap to buy anything that day and their goods were probably overpriced anyway.

After looking around the internet for a nice pair of socks this former tourist has decided with regret that it may have been cheaper and easier to have bought some wool souvenirs in Ireland at the time. First of all, there are very few online options for 100% Organic wool socks, and these were the only ones I found from Ireland.  Number two, even though a stop on a bus tour may not be the most authentic ‘mom and pop’ type place to purchase a souvenir, we would have still brought home a piece of your trip and supported the indigenous local trade. That being said, with what I now know, the next time I have the pleasure of being in Ireland I will try to seek out the most authentic place to buy wool, a place that supports the local tradition, culture and the environment. Maybe this place will be a roadside stand, a country shop or better yet perhaps I will meet an old Irish shepherd in a pub who mentions that his wife hand knits socks from his organic sheep. Ahhh… a girl can only dream.

I purchased the ‘brown’ socks, (which look a little more like nice dark gray-brown to me) and because they are undyed I know they are made from the ‘black sheep’. I thought they were thicker than they looked in the picture, and the medium size is pretty roomy for my foot, but neither bothers me as I am quite pleased just to own a pair of socks this lovely. They are very soft and warm, and I find that I can really feel them “breathe”. On another note they smell very earthy and distinctively woolen. I know after being worn by my stinky feet and once they are cleaned the smell is likely to dissapear, but there is something satisfying about the smell they have. Perhaps it is comforting to smell where the natural fibers came from. The socks I purchased were $20 + 6 dollars shipping and are by far the nicest and pricest socks I have ever owned.

But lets get one thing straight: I am a sock person! Over the years I have had socks off all sorts of colors patterns, heights and textile blends, but I have never had a single pair of premium socks. One after another these socks would deterate quickly, usually at the heel and I would have to throw them out and purchase more. I thought this was just the downfall of being a sock owner until I watched an episode of Martha Stewart’s television show a few years ago. During the show Martha taught Bette Middler how to mend a pair of her cashmere socks (can you get more typical Martha than that?). I remember thinking two things while watching…’ooooh cashmere socks sound nice and soft, I should get a pair someday’ and ‘why would anyone repair socks? they always wear out so quickly and are pointless to repair.’ Recently I solved this mystery: wool and other natural fibers will last a long time and will not wear out like synthetic ones do. So my money spent was a good investment you see; premium price with a purpose I say! Another misconception about wool that I learned was not true was that ‘wool is itchy.’ How can this be when cashmere and merino wool are soft? They are still wool. The truth is that wool only becomes itchy when it has been chemically treated, which was my only experience with wool from American chain stores.

If you are interested in another source for organic wool, I found some unique and hand knitted socks (for a similar price) please check out Thee Store of Newfoundland on etsy.com.

A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle has become an international bestseller and inspired a delightful romantic comedy called A Good Year since it was written and published in the late 1980′s. In it (the book) Mayle, and englishman and his wife purchase a home in the region of Provence in Southern France. The book takes you through the ups and downs of owning a property and taking up residence in the French countryside, where the food and wine is perfection, but renovations of a 200 year old farmhouse can be a slow and sporadic process. The descriptive detail will have you both laughing, drooling and yearning to spend even a month in Provence. The curiosities of the culture of Southern France and the humor that goes along with the story of a foreigner is what makes this book such a delightful and relaxing read.  Life seems to move at a slower pace, beauty has a no-frills elegance and pleasure comes with out effort. We were transported us to Provence. Convinced that we too would adore living in this region and jealous that it was not us who actually do.

Immoveable Feast by John Baxter was a wonderful book about how one Australian man prepped a traditional French Christmas feast. The author goes into great detail to describle what it takes to impress Parisian in-laws with a delicious Christmas dinner. Through reading this book I learned a lot about French culture and traditions. The book was quite funny and the descriptions made me so wish I was invited to this feast as well. I highly recommend this book!

To celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary we visited LA’s Two star Michelin restaurant, Providence. Providence has been on our list of places to try for sometime, as it always seems to top every list of best LA  restaurants and after seeing Michael Cimarusti appear on Top Chef Masters I knew this was the next place in LA I would be trying.

We were initially seated on the enclosed patio which was nicely lit and very quite however, the heater located above our table was not working and Megan was a little too “chilly bones jones” so we asked to be moved inside. After a quick check with the maître d’ our server promptly moved us to a new table that was in the warmer albeit louder interior.   There was a chef’s table that had a view of the kitchen, which at the list minute I requested but it was already reserved for the evening (maybe next time).

We had decided we wanted to due a tasting menu this evening which left us with 4 options to choose from:

Five course limited tasting

Nine course full tasting

Five course white truffle tasting

Twelve course chef’s tasting

Not wanting to spend too much of our life savings, we opted for the nine course full tasting with one wine paring to split between the two of us.

The gustatory festivities got started with the bread service. As the bread server made his way to out table carry a basket of 3 different varieties he asked Megan which she would prefer: French Roll, Bacon Brioche, or Nori Focaccia? No surprise to me, Megan confidently responded with what has become her standard answer to this question, “I will have one of each.” Not about to be outdone before the meal had even started I followed suit. The bacon brioche was the highlight, light and fluffy and with succulent specks of bacon scattered throughout. The Focaccia was our next favorite with the nori strands providing a nice twist to an otherwise nicely executed focaccia.   The French roll was also very nice, although did not stand out as much as the other two.

Before any of the official courses arrived we were presented with a series of three amuse-bouches.

The first amuse was a gin and tonic gelee. This was basically a gin and tonic that has been emulsified into the gelatin square and was sever with some fresh lime juice squeezed on top. It was fun and tasted just like a gin and tonic.

The second amuse was a mojito ravioli. Similar to the first in that It was a cocktail that was repurposed into a new form. This however was enclosed in a thin skin layer and remained liquid on the inside.

The third amuse was a carrot soup shooter. I nicely executed carrot soup with a dollop of crème fraiche on top.

The first official course was a japanese kanpachi with crispy rice crackers, flowering coriander, soy crème fraiche. This was a marvelous way to start the dinner. It is seems like variations on this dish are becoming very popular as we just had something very similar at another restaurant. However, this version blew other one previous one. It was very nicely balanced and I was intrigued to see the use of flowering coriander, which has a drastically different flavor after it begins to flower.

The second course was a Santa Barbara sea urchin served in a farm fresh egg, containing champagne beurre blanc and herbs. I think it was the was the first time we have had sea urchin and it was very good.

The third course was a hand harvested Main sea scallop with chanterelles, haricot vert, applewood smoked bacon, jurançon sec. It was beautifully seared.

The fourth course was a Black Bass with crisp skin with tomato, micro greens and lemon. This dish was one of the highlights of the evening. The contrast between the crisp skin and the soft flesh was wonderful.

Next came a Columbia river wild king salmon severed with bloomsdale spinach, root vegetables, red wine gastrique. Another excellently executed fish dish.

The next course was the first and only land animal of the evening. A roasted tenderloin of veal severed over crushed butterball potatoes, spring onions, hazelnuts, spring garlic confit. The tenderloin was perfectly cooked and not too heavy considering the all the seafood we has leading up to it. We especially liked the crushed potatoes, which were a nice alternative to mashed.

The cheese course came next. The waiter wheeled out a cart containing about 20 different cheeses, all of which we got a short biography on. After weight all our options we decided on a raw England Cheddar, french chèvre,   Rogue River Blue Cheese and a truffled semi-soft cow’s milk cheese. The cheeses were accompanied by figs, candied walnuts, apricot-black pepper jam, apple jam, and walnut bread:

After the cheese course we were presented with a palate cleansing cucumber sorbet on top of compressed cumbers, lime, juniper berry & yogurt.

Lastly our dessert arrived. It was a mexican bread pudding with corn gelato, avocado mouse and graham cracker crumble. Honestly one the best desserts I have had. I had heard great things about the pastry chef here and it really exceeded my expectations. I noticed that they have dessert tasting menus also, we will have to some back at some point try one of those.

Just when we thought we were done there was a few more treats brought out for us to try: Chocolate truffles, cookies and gelatin squares.

It was a long and wonderful meal and the perfect way to cap off the fifth year marriage with my lovely wife.

We spent the weekend housesitting for Megan’s aunt in Hollywood. Megan was feeling a little under the weather but we managed to have an excellent meal at Osteria Mozza and took a trip to the Getty Villa in Malibu.

This weekend we flew to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a wedding. Megan was the Maid of Honor in her friend Jackie’s wedding that took place in her husband Peter’s hometown of Hudson, Wisconsin. Friday night we had a rehearsal at the wedding location which was followed by an early dinner at Peter’s parents home. Once we got back to our hotel Bryan decided that the night was still young and his tummy had room for more food. So we headed over to 112 Eatery by cab where we had some good food.

Saturday was unusually cold for early October making it very unusual for an outdoor wedding and reception, even snowing in the early morning. The wedding still took place outdoors along the lakeshore in Willow River State Park, but the reception had to be moved indoors to an ugly church. Jackie was pretty disappointed, and spent the last hours before the wedding trying to decorate it. During the ceremony Bryan acted as the unofficial photographer, and a car pulled alongside the guests acted as a stereo system due to the parks power being out. The wedding was very budget and very interesting to say the least. After the reception we drove through St. Paul and took some pictures of the Capitol and other buildings. It looked like a pretty cool city. It is just weird that it is so close to it’s twin. Like somehow if they would have merged into one city, they would have felt more like a city city. Anyway after seeing St. Paul we headed over to Lucia’s Wine Bar, where we had a very reasonably priced and good dinner. Bryan’s favorite was the pumpkin soup, claiming it was one of the best soups he has had and Megan loved the Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato and cookie desert.

After dinner we headed back to The Ivy Hotel, where we had been staying in downtown Minneapolis. After finding out that the newlyweds were also staying the night here we had room service send them some chocolate covered strawberries. The hotel was really nice, probably the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in and came ate an Expedia bargain for only about $100 a night. It seemed like there were also quite a few perks that we enjoyed. Each morning room service sent us complimentary tea and newspaper. The room had complimentary Fiji water, magazines and plenty of well proportioned bathroom items from the spa. The hotel also had on demand movies that were still in theaters, which was something that we had never seen before. We watched Sunshine Cleaning, which was pretty good. There were two downsides to the hotel: the internet was not free and neither was the parking. Megan thought she had secured a coupon rate for free valet parking only to discover that it was not free and we paid $24 a day, when there was $5 a day parking next door. Other than that we loved the hotel. The room was really big, everything was new and the bathroom had a large tub and shower. The bed was really comfortable and it made us really wish we had a king.

Sunday morning we walked around downtown Minneapolis, which was almost completely devoid of human life. We attributed to it being a sunday and that the people who live here are indubitably devout because there were about 2 churches on every corner and another reason was that it was cold and nothing was open. However, everyone appeared to be hiding at Key’s Café, which was one of the only places in town open on Sunday. Our outing in town allowed us to experience the Minneapolis Sky way, which is a network of bridges that connect buildings to each-other so people can get around town and escape any harsh weather. How it works is each building’s second floor is like a public space connected to the bridges and it feels very much like a mall in there. One building made you walk through a Macy’s to use the sky way. Pretty smart we think. Megan debuted her wool purse she bought in Portugal this weekend and to her delight she was getting compliments on it left and right from different women in Minneapolis. Its popularity made us wonder if we should begin importing them.

Our last stop was at the Mall of America (how could we not?) which is right by the airport. We were expecting to hate it, but some how it was completely fascinating to us and we really had fun there. It didn’t hurt that Bryan found a whole store dedicate to the art that is Frisbee. It was a tri level loop of stores and the mall changed looks as you walked around for some reason. Like different sections looked like different malls. It was also packed like the week before Christmas, which we suspect is normal. We heard the mall employs 12,000 people and we can only imagine how much money it brings in. Our flight back to Orange County was very comfortable in first class. Two flights to Europe in 2009 and a flight to NYC in 2008 has granted us preferred status which now grants us automatic  first class upgrades.  Apparently in the eyes of US Airways we are now “frequent fliers” which is hard to believe considering that our first flight to Europe this year was cheaper than our flight to Minneapolis.