Lunching at Steinbeck’s Home with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
When I moved to Monterey
County (California), one of the first things I did was try reading all of John
Steinbeck’s novels that I could get ahold of at the library.
My favorite John Steinbeck
novel remains East of Eden, which is set in Salinas (California), a little
bit east of where I live now in Marina, California.
I was happy to learn that his
childhood home in Salinas was a restaurant.
I called the editor at the Monterey
County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) and asked if I could do a story on
lunch at Steinbeck’s birthplace in Salinas.
She thought that would be
grand, especially for getting visuals for the article. I called and made reservations for lunch. (Florence was at school, so I lunched
alone. I worked on some projects while I
was waiting for my meal. I always have
large post-it notes with or a small notebook with me for this purpose.)
The article I wrote follows:
The Steinbeck House in Salinas
offers homey meals and a chance to tour the author’s birthplace.
On a visit last week to the
Steinbeck House Restaurant in Salinas, I snuck a peek into the room where John
Steinbeck was born.
The 19th-century manor
immediately made me think of childhood visits to my great-aunt’s Victorian
house with its dark, wood furniture, lace curtains in floor-to-ceiling, and
brown flower print tablecloths reaching to the floor.
Thanks to the labors of the
Valley Guild volunteers for the past thirty years, lunch in this landmark
establishment provides the seasonal offerings of the Salinas Valley at a
reasonable price. Meals change on a
weekly basis.
Lunch with rolls, a starter
entrée, and beverage are reasonably priced.
For those interested in lighter fare, the Steinbeck House offers a soup
and salad special. There are desserts
and wine by the glass.
The chef plans out all the
meals one month in advance, so that guests can check out what is being served
before making reservations.
The day that I ate at the Steinbeck
House, I had a molded cranberry fruit salad, chicken cacciatore with
tortellini, the house iced tea, and a slice of lemon tart.
While waiting for the starter
to arrive, I helped myself to the homemade rolls that the waitress brought.
The rolls were as soft and
moist as brioches without the sugary taste.
Instead, the chef had brushed the tops with a butter, garlic, and dill
mixture that made them taste even better than dessert.
The slice of red, molded
cranberry fruit salad that came served on a lettuce leaf was much more elegant
than plain Jell-O. Cranberries, along
with thin slices of celery, chopped walnuts, and crushed pineapple went into
this tart gelatin. This starter did the
job of “opening the appetite” as the French would say.
Chicken cacciatore always
amuses me when I order it. This dish is
also known as “Hunters’ Chicken” as I learned while perusing the Joy
of Cooking one day. I wonder
what kind of hunter would carry tomatoes, mushrooms, and chicken around to
create this dish.
Apparently, the genius of an
unlucky hunter has given the rest of us a dish of moist chicken sautéed in
olive oil and simmered in a mixture of tomato paste, white wine, and chicken
stock flavored with thyme, basil, marjoram, and mushrooms.
The Steinbeck House version
of this dish is sweet tasting. I liked
the sauce with the homemade tortellini.
I sipped the delicious Steinbeck House iced tea made with lemonade,
black tea, and a “mystery” ingredient.
Brown-tinted photographs of
John Steinbeck’s parents, Olive Hamilton and John Ernst Steinbeck, hang on the
walls in frames in gilt ovals around the photos.
A large, red bow for
Christmas decorated the right side of each photo. A Nutcracker-worthy Christmas tree stood in
the room where Steinbeck was born.
They have a volunteer-run
gift shop with books and other Steinbeck-related items.
End of Article
I brought Florence back to
the “Nutcracker House” for a tortellini lunch with hot tea. I showed her Steinbeck’s room and told her we
would also visit the Steinbeck Center downtown, too, to see the camper that he
traveled around the U.S. in for Travels with Charley.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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