Road Trip -- Northern California (I)

Part 1: San Francisco
My just-completed vacation is our first visit to the Golden State since 2008, and I can't believe it's been that long. California is one of my places, where I try to return every five years or even more frequently. I lived in SoCal for a few years as a kid, and still find it such a beautiful, varied and fun state to visit. (Living out there is another matter -- too different from what I've become used to, I suppose -- not to mention, too expensive, and how are they going to sustain all those people with dwindling water supplies?)
Sorry for the long lead-in to one of the most interesting things about California: THE FOOD!
We started with a couple of days in San Francisco, well known around the country if not the world for its varied cuisine.
First night in, we ate at the only restaurant of the entire vacation where I'd made an advance reservation -- the deservedly famous, creative and gourmet-ish vegetarian Greens. (From their menu: Greens was established by the San Francisco Zen Center in 1979.)
We had dined there once before, at least 12-15 years ago, and I really wanted to return. It was just as wonderful this time as back then.
The menu consisted of eight first course dishes (such as grilled asparagus with beets and goat cheese, wilted spinach salad, fresh spring rolls) and five entrees. Even though that's not a lot of options, it wasn't easy to decide because everything sounded so delicious.
But what I did choose turned out to be fantastic!
My first course is this Cauliflower and Quinoa Griddle Cake (with lemon, feta and scallions and served with romesco and herb salad). In the background of the photo is my husband's grilled asparagus with beets.

Appetizers at Greens

 For my main, I chose this marvelously good Wild Mushroom and Leek Gratin, and George had a Spring Pea Ravioli.

Greens Entrees

Then we split a refreshing dessert: Strawberry balsamic ice cream pavlova.......

Strawberry Pavlova

Our other notable meal in San Fran -- we were only there for two nights -- was at Kuleto's in the Union Square area near our hotel. (And by the way, we loved the drinks at the Urban Tavern adjacent to our Hilton Hotel -- here also is a photo of my Boulevardier cocktail -- not sure that's spelled correctly.) We had excellent wine at Kuleto's and my appetizer of goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms was worthy of inclusion here.

Kuleto's Squash Blossoms

Otherwise, we enjoyed the Irish Coffee at Buena Vista Tavern near Fisherman's Wharf, lunch in North Beach at Osteria del Forno, and a couple of hours walking in the lovely Golden Gate Park.

Bottoms up!

Adventures in (Vacation) Eating

We just returned from six days on the road -- in North Carolina to visit family and friends. The itinerary included two nights in Asheville NC, one in Chapel Hill, and the other three near my brother's home north of Raleigh.

My brother's Christmas dinner

As usual when we travel, my eating, exercise and sleep routines are shot to hell. Bad weather created additional setbacks in trying to keep my usual exercise pace of 45-60 minutes of walking (on the treadmill or outdoors) per day. I definitely felt the effects of over-indulgence in foods that are usually not on the menu, and wouldn't have been surprised if our bathroom scales had shown a 4-5 pounds gain this morning. But to my amazement, I didn't gain any weight. (Still trying to figure that out....)
Food highlights include dinner at Laughing Seed Cafe in Asheville -- one of our faves in that way-cool restaurant town. It's what I'd call gourmet vegetarian, and my husband and I were both happy to start vacation with a virtuous (healthy) dinner.
Next day, we drove to Chapel Hill where we stayed at the Franklin Hotel, right in the center of town. I went to graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill and still have friends there. My brother Don and his wife Jo drove over from the Raleigh area and got a room in the same, very nice, hotel. We only had to walk across the street to a great cocktail bar, then about 2 blocks to dinner,back to the cocktail bar, and then just an elevator ride to bed.
That definitely was the highest alcohol consumption of the trip..........fun, too, of course.
Sunday night George & I met an old friend of mine for dinner at a French brasserie in Raleigh called Coquette, which we all enjoyed.

Christmas dinner dishes

The next couple of nights we ate at Don's; he's a fabulous and meticulous cook, and his meals were no comedown at all from the dinners out. He made shrimp and grits (I ate way too much of that) on Christmas Eve, then an elaborate Christmas Day meal of brined, bourbon molasses roasted turkey with several yummy side dishes and a freshly made pumpkin pie.
On the way home we spent another night in Asheville -- a town that we love -- where we had dinner at a downtown spot called Table. Very interesting menu.

Stuffed pasta, Table (Asheville)

One of my favorite dishes of the trip, though, happened on the morning of our departure for home. The bartender at Table told us to try a downtown breakfast place called Over Easy, so we did. My breakfast tacos were so marvelous, I'm sure that next time we're in Asheville we'll go back to Over Easy and I'll order those tacos again.
In addition to all of the above, I ate fried chicken strips and biscuits at Bojangle's (a chicken chain based in NC that I adore) TWICE, as well as a bison filet steak for dinner in Lexington KY on our drive home.

Breakfast tacos, Over Easy (Asheville)

And yet, no weight gain.
It seems impossible, so maybe something is wrong with that scale. . . . . . . .

Dining around Cape Cod

This is my last day of an 8-day vacation on Cape Cod and around the Boston area.
Here are a few shots of dishes worth having, including a salad and scallops at the Brewster Fish House (Cape Cod) and fish tacos at the Impudent Oyster in Chatham (also Cape Cod).

Home soon and back to my usual routine, including of course more blogging.

Now THIS is a "fish taco" (with lobster)

Lobster tacos

On vacation in Massachusetts, we dined at the delightful My Place by the Sea in Rockport. This amazing lobster taco is a signature dish, and I can certainly see why.
The restaurant is on the tip of Cape Ann with the most beautiful view. My companions had wonderful dishes, too. Highly recommended!