4th of July Salinas, Monterey County, and Monterey Peninsula 2024

Many ways to celebrate the 4th of July in Salinas, Monterey County, and the Monterey Peninsula in 2024!

July 4th Salinas, Monterey County, and Monterey Peninsula

Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Raspberry Jam Gravy Recipe by Ruth Paget

Raspberry Jam Gravy Recipe by Ruth Paget 

This is an American heritage recipe from my father Clarence Pennington (World War II Veteran) and Frederick McKinley Pennington (World War I Veteran). This recipe has been reprinted by Mark F. Sohn in his cookbook Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes published by the University Press of Kentucky (2005).  

My father always made homemade biscuits to go with the jam, but I use ready-to-bake biscuits to speed up the cooking process. 

Serves 4 

Ingredients: 

 -1 can 12 ready-to-bake biscuits 

-1 stick butter (equals ½ cup butter) 

-1 (15-ounce) can raspberries with juice 

-6 tablespoons sugar

-4 tablespoons flour 

Steps: 

1-Put biscuits in to bake according to package instructions. While they are baking, make the jam. 

2-Melt the butter in a frying pan. 

3-Add the raspberries with their juice to the butter. 

4-Mix the sugar and flour together. They will not clump if they are mixed together before going in with the raspberries. Stir the flour-sugar mixture into the raspberries. 

5-Simmer the jam until thickened. 

6-Take the biscuits out of the oven when they are done, split the biscuits apart, and spoon the raspberry jam gravy over the biscuits. 

Eat the biscuits and jam gravy while they are warm with a strong black coffee. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Apple Duck Confit at Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, California by Ruth Paget

Apple Duck Confit at Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, California by Ruth Paget 

My family is not going to the Summer Olympics in Paris (2024), but wanted to honor this event and went out for a swanky French dinner at Chez Philippe in Los Gatos, California high up in the Santa Cruz Mountains by San Jose. 

We began our meal with escargots (snails) that swam in delicious melted butter with pungent, freshly crushed garlic from nearby Gilroy and freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley. Snails are purged with white flour to clean their digestive tract, which makes them spongy, popcorn-like balls that easily soak up garlic-butter sauce. I like to soak up the leftover sauce with pieces of bread. 

As my main dish, I ate apple duck confit. Duck has a lot of fat and sautéing it in this fat makes it juicy with melted fat. Bordeaux wine is said to go well with confit. I did not order a glass of it, because the confit came with an applesauce to cut the rich flavor of the duck confit. This is a good dish for a designated driver. 

The apple duck confit also came with potato slices that had been fried in duck fat, making them dense and able to soak up sea salt. Crisp, steamed French green beans rounded out the meal for a refreshing finish. 

In place of dessert, I shared a cheese platter with my husband Laurent. We both love cheese and liked the well-aged cheese chosen for this platter: 

-roquefort from Averyron, France 

-pont l’évêque from Normandy 

-Brie de Meaux from outside Paris 

Eating at Chez Philippe is pleasant, and the restaurant sometimes has live jazz playing at dinnertime. (Check the website for jazz evenings.) 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Tea Lunch at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Tea Lunch at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget  

I first learned about tea lunch with bite-size dim sum dumplings made with seafood, pork, and vegetables in Hong Kong as a teenager before going on a 3-week study tour in the People’s Republic of China with the Detroit Youth Tour to China in 1979.

I loved it that the waiters in Hong Kong all spoke English and could tell me what the dim sum in the steam carts they rolled among the tables were. They also showed me how the billing worked by placing a red ink round mark on the bill with the number of dim sum taken of each kind. At the end of the meal, they would total up everything along with the tea and you would pay at the table. That was a first-class introduction to tea lunch with dim sum dumplings in Hong Kong. 

Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California continues this type of positive intercultural food experience. The menu has a photo of each dim sum, which is sold 4 to a basket along with a description of what the dim sum is in English. The dim sum arrive in a waiter robot powered by a waiter in so-close-to-Silicon-Valley Salinas. 

My daughter Florence Paget and I shared the following dim sum and jasmine tea: 

-shrimp dumplings steamed in rice flour pastry shells that looked like small, squinched, clutch coin purses. The gooey rice flour pastry makes the shrimp inside retain its salty, sweet flavor, but the texture of the steamed pastry shell might put off people trying dim sum for the first time. 

-deep-fried shrimp balls 

-pork dumplings coated in creamy and spicy hot peanut and red pepper sauce from Sichuan 

-Chinese donuts that resemble long Mexican churro donuts. The donuts come with a super sweet dipping sauce. 

The dumplings at Dim Sum Inn are not bite-size like the ones in Hong Kong. It takes about two bites to eat the dumplings in this great deal restaurant in Salinas, California that has: 

-a large parking lot 

-a large banquet room 

-easy to understand menus with photos 

-vegetarian dim sum and lunch items 

-easy access from Highway 101 and Highway 68 

Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California merits a detour as the Michelin guidebooks say. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Cheddar Bread Recipe by Ruth Paget

Cheddar Bread Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Makes 2 loaves 

Ingredients: 

-1 (0.75-ounce) package instant dry yeast 

-1/2 pound shredded, sharp cheddar cheese 

-1 (10.75-ounce) can Campbell’s tomato soup 

-1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimientos with juice 

-1 cup scalded milk 

-1/2 cup butter 

-6 to 7 cups flour 

Steps: 

1-Dissolve yeast in water according to package instructions. 

2-Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl to form a dough. 

3-Place dough in a warm spot and let rise to double its size. 

4-When the dough has risen, punch it down and knead by hand for 15 to 20 minutes. 

5-Let dough rise again in a warm spot.

6-When the dough has risen again, punch it down and knead by hand for 15 to 20 minutes. 

7-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

8-Form two loaves. Spray Pam in two bread baking pans and bake loaves for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. 

Cheddar bread tastes great toasted with melted butter and a mug of strong black coffee with warmed milk to drink.

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Top 20 Antioxidant Foods posted by Ruth Paget

Top 20 Antioxidant Foods List

 Top 20 Antioxidant Foods

Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Seafood Food Tourism in Salinas, California Posted by Ruth Paget

Nice round-up article about seafood food tourism in Salinas, California

 Press article about best seafood in Salinas, California 

Note: Most of these restaurants have parking.  

Salinas is also about 2 miles away from Monterey County’s fishing port at Moss Landing.

Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Vegetarian Singapore Rice Noodles at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Vegetarian Singapore Noodles at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I chose to order vegetarian Singapore rice noodles at Dim Sum Inn on North Main Street in Salinas, California to try a Hong Kong classic dish that probably refers to a light lunch you can eat in Singapore’s heat using exotic curry powder from India. (Singapore is not in China though most of its inhabitants have Chinese ancestry.) 

Singapore rice noodles usually come with meat or shrimp, but I chose a lacto-ovo vegetarian version that came with scrambled eggs stir-fried into the mix.

I consulted www.recipetineats.com for a Singapore rice noodles recipe. According to this site, to stir-fry Singapore rice noodles, you heat sesame and peanut oil and add fresh ginger, fresh garlic, green onions, hot red chiile peppers, curry powder, and white pepper to the hot oil. 

Once the oil is thoroughly impregnated with those flavors, you add bite-size pieces of the following vegetables:

-baby bok choy (similar to cabbage, but bulb shaped) 

-broccoli 

-celery 

-carrots 

-green peppers 

-green beans 

Once those vegetables are blazing hot you add in the eggs to stir-fry scramble them. The rice noodles come last to be stir-fried. Rice noodles just need to be hydrated in warm water and drained before adding them to the stir-fry. 

This fragrant dish arrived hot on a waiter robot for a Silicon Valley touch at the table. The robot is operated by a waiter, which liberates the waiter’s arms to safely bring additional dishes. 

The Singapore rice noodles are a lunch special at Dim Sum Inn, which come with egg flower soup or hot and sour soup. I drank a strongly perfumed jasmine tea with my meal for the perfect afternoon lunch. 

Dim Sum Inn serves dim sum tea lunch daily in addition to lunch specials except Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed. Dim Sum Inn is in a large shopping center opposite Northridge Mall with lots of parking. The restaurant also has a large banquet room and an equally large menu for planning banquets and dim lunches for private parties in a friendly atmosphere. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Beach Fare at Michael's Taqueriía in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Beach Fare at Michael’s Taquería in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

The La Playa Combo (Beach Combination) at Michael’s Taquería in downtown Salinas, California reminds you that Western America Salinas is only two miles away from the Pacific Ocean on the Monterey Peninsula. 

This generous combination platter has charbroiled shrimp (large enough to be considered gambas), blackened chicken, and a cheese enchilada covered in mild red chile sauce. The sides that come with this dish include refried black beans, Mexican rice, lime-chile sauce, fresh red salsa, and warm tortillas. 

I like to use the warm tortillas to make soft tacos. I make one taco with the charbroiled shrimp, Mexican rice, black beans, and lime-chile sauce. For the other tacos I make with the warm tortillas, I slice up the blackened chicken and add the chicken strips to the tortillas along with the Mexican rice, black beans, and fresh red salsa. 

After eating my little beach tacos, I feel like the cheese enchilada in mild red chile sauce is a dessert. I like the asadero melting cheese made from goat and cow’s milk, which comes from the northwestern Mexican state of Chihuahua. 

I drink Topo-Chico Mexican sparkling water with the La Playa Combo or Negro Modelo beer from Mexico and feel like I am on vacation in Mexico without leaving Salinas, California. 

Note: There is a parking garage by the Steinbeck Center on Main Street by Michael’s Taqueria.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Blackened Shrimp Quesadilla at Michael's Taquería in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Blackened Shrimp Quesadilla at Michael’s Taquería in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Shrimp taco lovers might enjoy the blackened shrimp quesadilla (pronounced “kay-sa-dee-ya”) combination plate at Michael’s Taquería in downtown Salinas, California. 

A quesadilla is a large flour tortilla that is grilled with fillings inside and turned in half to look like an Italian calzone. 

At Michael’s, they fill their quesadilla combination plate with blackened shrimp, sautéed mushroom slices, green onions cut on the diagonal, and melted asadero cheese. 

The quesadilla comes with a small helping of guacamole, pico de gallo salsa, and red salsa. Pico de gallo salsa is made with chopped peppers, chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, and chopped cilantrao. 

The sides that come with the blackened shrimp are refried black beans with softened asadero melting cheese on top and Mexican rice. 

Asadero is Mexican cheese made of goat and cow’s milk that mostly comes the Mexican state of Chihuahua in northwest Mexico. Mexican rice at its most basic is made from chicken broth and tomato juice, which gives it a beautiful orange-red glow. 

I like to eat Mexican rice with the refried beans that I mix with red salsa. I can use these two items mixed together as a dip for the tortilla chips that come with the meal. 

This delicious blackened shrimp quesadilla combination plate at Michael’s Taquería in downtown Salinas might appeal to shrimp and chicken taco lovers alike.

(Note: There is a parking garage by the Steinbeck Center on Main Street and street parking by Michael’s.) 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Seafood Noodle Phô at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California

Seafood Noodle Phô at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I learned to love Vietnamese food when I lived and worked in downtown Chicago (Illinois) and ate at the Mekong House Restaurant after work. I had graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Chicago and considered myself to be doing graduate work in Southeast Asian Studies when I ate at the Mekong House. 

I mostly ate deep-fried egg rolls that I wrapped in a fresh mint leaf and tied with a string of fresh carrot before dipping them in sweet-and-sour sauce. The lemongrass chicken stir-fry I ate and loved was a close cousin to the Chinese stir-fries I also loved. 

I did not venture into Vietnamese soups until I moved to Monterey County California and ate them at the Orient Restaurant in Seaside, California. 

I like how phô soup has three layers of food items surrounded by delicious broth: 

-half a bowl of rice noodles or glass noodles 

-half a bowl full of sliced beef, sliced chicken, or seafood 

-garnish toppings such as bean sprouts, fresh basil, lime wedges, and jalapeño slices 

I recently tried seafood noodle soup (phô) at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California and liked the large bowl of rice noodles and seafood ingredients that came with a container of broth that was large enough to fill the bowl twice. 

The flavorful broth tasted like a bone broth that had been boiled with shrimp shells and strained. The soup was full of curled shrimp, scored squid slices, fish dumplings, fish balls, and imitation crab made from fish. 

The soup came with packages of hoisin sauce for salt and sriracha for salt and spice. I like hot, spicy broth so I added sriracha to the soup. 

Flavor and quantity of food in the seafood noodle soup (phô) at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California make this dish a great deal for an international lunch. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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3-Course Vegetarian Lunch at Alvarado on Main Brew Pub in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

3-Course Vegetarian Lunch at Alvarado Main Brew Pub in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Alvarado on Main Brew Pub in Salinas, California is well known for entrées like wagyu smash burgers and salmon yakisoba, but you can also eat a three-course vegetarian meal here with regular menu items. 

Market day on Saturday mornings is an especially good time for a vegetarian lunch at Alvarado on Main. The market begins in front of the brewpub, but you can park in the nearby garage by the Steinbeck Center, which is just two blocks away on Main Street. 

The day my daughter Florence Paget, husband Laurent, and I went to lunch, we began our meal with crispy, long pretzels that came with warm bar cheese for dipping. Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat dairy and eggs, so this was a great vegetarian beginning for market day lunch. 

I ordered blackberry-burrata salad as my main dish. Burrata cheese comes from Apulia (also known as Puglia) Italy, which is located in the heel of Italy’s boot-shaped peninsula on Italy’s eastern coast by the Adriatic Sea. It is served as a large disc of milky white cow’s cheese with a thick soft layer of edible crust surrounding a creamy interior. 

Alvarado on Main inserts blackberries into the creamy interior of the burrata cheese from the bottom of the burrata. The cheese is placed in the center of a large bowl of baby spinach leaves that have been mixed with sautéed shallots. Blackberry halves were scattered around the burrata on top of the baby spinach and shallots. 

The salad was so beautiful to look at that I kept rearranging it for artistic presentation each time I took a delicious bit. Blackberries and burrata cheese could be a dessert on their own. The crunchy spinach leaves and salty shallots added to the surprising and pleasing sweetness of this dish. I think an iced tea would be perfect with the blackberry-burrata salad. 

I shared a vegetarian and antioxidant dessert with Laurent – a stout brownie with pineapple ice cream. Stout here refers to a brownie made with a frothy and chocolaty beer. Adding beer to a brownie recipe makes the brownies very moist. 

The brownie we ate had a pronounced chocolate flavor, which makes me think it was made with bitter baking chocolate, which is a strong antioxidant. 

This already great dessert came with whipped cream and caramelized slices of fresh pineapple that were sautéed in butter and brown sugar and candied shavings of coconut. 

That glorious dessert was also vegetarian. It was high-calorie, but worth the off-diet delight. The stout brownie would be great with coffee alone as a “sugar meal” as the Austrians say. 

This delicious vegetarian meal is a winner that you can order everyday from the regular menu at Alvarado on Main brewpub in Salinas, California. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Dibi Lamb at African Soulfood Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia by Ruth Paget

Dibi Lamb at African Soulfood Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia by Ruth Paget 

The last time I visited Atlanta (Georgia), I tried dibi lamb from Sénégal, a former French colony in West Africa, at the African Soulfood Restaurant. 

Dibi lamb is delicious and requires very little effort to make according to food.com, which lists a recipe that takes half an hour to make on the grill. 

In this recipe, you make the sauce first from vegetable oil, chopped onion, Dijon (France) mustard with large grains, water, and optional sugar. 

Once the sauce is done, you grill lamb chops 6 – 8 minutes per side for medium chops. When the lamb chops finish cooking, you place them on a serving platter with onion-mustard sauce spooned over it. 

I ate my dibi lamb with spicy rice and thought this was a great little dish to eat in the Georgia heat. 

(Note: Other websites mention that you can make dibi chicken in the same way as well.) 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Taquería Jackpot in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Taquería Jackpot in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I love Mexican food, so I was very happy to move to Salinas, California with its many taquerías and restaurants serving food from all the regions of Mexico. 

I did an online search to see how many tauerías there are in Salinas and counted 68 as of May 2024. It is very easy to do Taco Tuesday in Salinas with that many taquería in town. 

Almost all of these taquerías can do a combination platter or platillo for about $15 to $20. Taco combination platters usually come with the following items: 

-2 blackened chicken tacos with shredded cabbage or lettuce and melted Swiss cheese 

-refried black beans with softened cotija cheese on top. (Cotija cheese is like Greek feta cheese in that it does not melt and has a slightly tangy flavor. Cotija comes from the western Mexican state of Michoacán on the Pacific Ocean.) 

-Mexican rice, which at its most basic is boiled with chicken broth and tomato juice to give it a nice orange-yellow glow.

-2 small containers of pico de gallo salsa made with chopped hot peppers, tomatoes, onons, and cilantro 

-2 lime quarters to squeeze into beer, diet soda, water, or tacos 

I think this is a nice combination of food for $15 to $20. Almost any taquería can do catering for combination platters with some advance notice, too. 

Having food like this available allowed me to have a simple yet cost effective food system in place when my daughter Florence Paget was a teenager. Anyone in the family could make the following items or buy them from a restaurant: 

Monday – pasta night with marinara sauce, shredded gruyère cheese, boiled eggs, prosciutto, and salame

Tuesday – Taco Tuesday with combination platters 

Wednesday – Pizza Day 

Thursday – Asian Restaurant Day or Costco Yakisoba at home 

Friday – Baked fish with onions and potatoes or baked fish with chopped tomatoes and onions 

Saturday – Baked chicken 

Sunday – Macaroni and cheese or lasagna

I would serve lettuce, fruit salad, and a slice of cheese to go with these meals. 

I did not always stick to this plan, but it helped me take inventory to make shopping lists and have items on hand to easily make these meals. 

I am a big fan of Taco Tuesday for making food systems like this possible and love it that I can get tacos at 68 food outlets in Salinas, California. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Butter Chicken at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Butter Chicken at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Butter plus warm Indian spices always sounds good to me when I order butter chicken at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California. 

There is more to butter chicken than butter and spices, which merits some sleuthing for ingredients and cooking techniques. 

To make butter chicken, you start with Indian tandoori chicken, which is a dish all by itself. Tandoori chicken is marinated in yogurt along with ginger, garlic, garam masala (curry powder), red chili powder, turmeric, and dried fenugreek leaves (these have an onion-like flavor). Tandoori chicken is marinated overnight and is then roasted. (Recipe information source: www.indianhealthyrecipes.com) 

Tandoori chicken is the building block for butter chicken Julie Sahni writes in Classic Indian Cooking. Sahni notes that Indian cooks often use leftover tandoori chicken to make butter chicken. 

Once you have the tandoori chicken, Sahni advises cooks to cut it into pieces. Then, she puts tomatoes, green chiles, and ginger into a blender to make a tomato purée. Sahni’s recipe calls for browning the tandoori chicken in butter and browning cumin and paprika in the leftover butter once the chicken has been removed. 

Sahni next places the tomato purée in the pan and lets it simmer before adding salt, cream, and chicken pieces in her recipe. Before serving butter chicken, Sahni’s recipe calls for adding a large bunch of chopped coriander (cilantro) to the dish to add a fresh tang to offset the rich butter. 

Butter chicken is a perfect buffet dish and tastes great with naan flatbread studded with licorice-flavored anise seeds. A perfect place to try butter chicken is at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Saag Chana at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Saag Chana at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Saag chana masala (spinach chickpea curry) at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California is a delicious, vegetarian dish that merits a try for nutritional content, too. 

Saag chana is made by caramelizing onions in ghee (clarified butter) and then adding fresh ginger and garlic according to the Ministry of Curry website I used as a reference. 

After that, chopped tomato, turmeric, red chili powder, and cumin are added to the onions. You then add water for simmering before adding cooked chickpeas and spinach. To finish the dish, you add garam masala (curry powder) according to the Ministry of Curry website. 

The result is delicious with white rice or naan flatbread studded with licorice-flavored anise seeds. When you add saag chana’s ingredients together, they provide a vitamin boost as well: 

For 1 cup of the following ingredients, I found the following percentages of recommended daily allowances for vitamins in the main ingredients: 

-spinach: 

-potassium – 4% 

-vitamin C – 14% 

-iron – 4% 

-magnesium – 6%

-vitamin A – 64% 

-chickpeas (garbanzo beans): 

-iron – 4% 

-vitamin B6 – 5%

-magnesium - 3% 

-tomatoes: 

-vitamin C – 23% 

-potassium – 8% 

-vitamin A – 5% 

(Nutrition information from medicalnewstoday.com and USDA – US Department of Agriculture websites)  

Saag chana masala at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California is a tasty, vegetarian meal that might appeal to spinach lovers and chickpea lovers alike. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Aloo Gobi at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Aloo Gobi at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

The antioxidant powerhouse called aloo gobi at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California is similar to korma, a braised vegetable dish, which dates back to the Mughal Dynasty in India according to Julie Sahni in Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking. 

Basically, aloo gobi is made up of sliced cauliflower and potatoes cooked in a tomato sauce flavored with fennel, coriander, and ground almonds among other ingredients. 

The dish starts out like many Indian dishes with onion being caramelized in oil and seasoned with garlic, fresh ginger, coriander, fennel, pepper, and turmeric. 

Once the onions and seasonings have cooked, a cook adds tomato purée to the mixture along with water, sliced cauliflower, and sliced potatoes and lets the mixture simmer for 30 minutes. At the end of cooking, cumin powder or garam masala (curry powder) is stirred in for additional flavor. 

The huge antioxidant in this dish is Vitamin C along with significant amounts of other nutrients, notably: 

Percentage of recommended daily nutrients in one cup – 

-Cauliflower: 

-potassium – 50%

-dietary fiber – 48% 

-vitamin C – 472% 

-vitamin B6 – 55% 

-Potatoes: 

-potassium – 15% 

-vitamin C 30% 

-vitamin B6 – 10% 

-Tomatoes: 

-Vitamin C – 28% 

(Nutrition information sources: USDA – US Department of Agriculture, Potatoes USA.com, and healthline.com) 

It is easy to dwell on the outstanding antioxidant benefits of aloo gobi, but the taste just makes you think of how delicious the dish is.

I love ordering aloo gobi from Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California for an out-of-the-ordinary lunch that is really good for you and vegan, too. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Coconut Curry Shrimp at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Coconut Curry Shrimp at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Shrimp lovers might like the spicy, sweet coconut curry shrimp at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California for a lunch treat or delicious dinner over plain white rice. Highly seasoned coconut milk turns into a poaching curry gravy for this shrimp dish. 

To give an idea of what coconut curry shrimp tastes like I looked up a similar recipe for shrimp poached in coconut milk with fresh herbs in Classic Indian Cooking by Julie Sahni. 

In this recipe, onions are caramelized in oil with garlic, fresh ginger root, green chiles (amount may vary), turmeric, and ground coriander added to the onions and cooked for several minutes. 

Sweet coconut milk is added to these spices and allowed to thicken into a curry gravy. Fresh, peeled, and deveined shrimp are then added to the coconut curry and are allowed to poach until cooked. When the coconut curry is done, it is served over white rice. 

Coconut curry shrimp comes from the southwestern coastal state of Kerala, India according to Julie Sahni in Classic Indian Cooking, which gives Salinas residents and visitors a chance to try delicious Indian regional food at Avatar Indian Grill. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Mushroom Masala at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Mushroom Masala at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

The mushroom masala at Avatar Indian Grill is a spicy and creamy mushroom-tomato gravy curry that tastes great with plain white rice and naan flatbread studded with licorice-flavored anise seeds on the side. 

Recipes are restaurant secrets, so explaining why you like a dish requires both a little detective work and discretion about what you write about in a review. 

For example, I really like the spice combinations used at Avatar Indian Grill, but know they are secret. So, to give an idea of what the seasoning mushroom masala tastes like at Avatar Indian Grill, I turned to the cookbook Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking by Julie Sahni for a recipe for mushrooms sautéed with onion, ginger, garlic, green chiles, and turmeric used for seasoning. This recipe approximates what Avatar Indian Grill uses to season their mushroom masala. 

In an online recipe for mushroom masala, sliced mushrooms are sautéed with seasoning with tomato purée added to the masala, which is finished with cream or cashew milk according to the ministryofcurry.com website which is what Avatar Indian Grill appears to do as well. 

The taste of spicy and savory mushroom masala at Avatar Indian Grill makes the mushrooms taste like filling meat. 

Mushrooms provide several health benefits such as having: 

-B vitamins that help break down carbohydrates and transport nutrients throughout the body 

-antioxidants that help remove free radicals from the body that can cause cancer 

-vitamin D (found in white mushrooms) that helps build and maintain healthy bones. 

(Note: I found nutrition information on ministryofcurry.com, webmd.com, and mayoclinic.org websites.) 

Mushroom lovers might enjoy the spicy twist to one of their favorite foods in mushroom masala at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California. 

(Note: Mushrooms grow in the woods, but can also be cultivated in caves.)

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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No-Bake Fruit Pie Recipe by Ruth Paget

No-Bake Fruit Pie Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 6 People 

Ingredients: 

-1 pre-baked pie shell made with butter not lard or 1 graham cracker crust 

-3 or 4 cups of chopped soft fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blue berries, cherries, or peaches 

-1 scoop vanilla ice cream or 4 cups whipped cream 

Steps: 

1-Fill pie shell with chopped fruit and top with ice cream or whipped cream.

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Jeanette Hodgson, mother of Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Pull Candy Recipe by Ruth Paget

Pull Candy Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 24 Candy Pieces 

Ingredients: 

-2 ½ cups sugar 

-1/2 cup water 

-1 tablespoon vinegar 

-2 or 3 drops of peppermint, winter green mint, or vanilla 

Steps:

1-Boil sugar, water, and vinegar until you can pick up a glob with a spoon when you drop some of the sugar mixture in water. 

2-Pour boiled syrup onto a buttered marble slab or pan. Add a few drops of flavoring.

3-As the syrup begins to cool, lift the edges and drop them into the center of the syrup with heat-resistant gloves. 

4-When the candy is cool enough to handle, pick it up and pull it back and forth until it becomes stiff. 

5-Pull candy into a long piece and cut it with scissors into bite-size pieces.

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Popcorn Balls Recipe by Ruth Paget

Popcorn Balls Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 18 to 20 Popcorn Balls 

Ingredients: 

-2 ½ gallons of popped popcorn 

-1/2 cup water 

-3/4 cup molasses 

-3 cups sugar 

-1 tablespoon vinegar 

Steps: 

1-Put hot popcorn in a dish and shake it down to remove unpopped kernels at the bottom. Put popcorn back in the pan and place in a warm oven. 

2-Boil sugar, molasses, water, and vinegar until you can pick up a glob when a teaspoon of the syrup is dropped in water. 

3-Dribble syrup over popped corn until well coated. Stir with a big spoon until the syrup begins to set. 

4-Quickly form the popcorn into balls with buttered heat-resistant gloves. Work fast as the syrup hardens quickly. 

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle - Arena, Wisconsin

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Penuche Fudge Recipe by Ruth Paget

Penuche Fudge Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 24 Fudge Squares 

Ingredients: 

-2 (2-ounce) squares bitter cooking chocolate 

-2 ½ cups brown sugar 

-lump of butter 

-2 cups whole milk or half and half 

-1 cup chopped nuts 

Steps: 

1-Boil chocolate, brown sugar, butter, and milk or half and half until you can pick up a glob of the mixture when 1 teaspoon of the chocolate is dropped into cold water.  

2-Remove chocolate mixture from heat. When the mixture is cool, add chopped nuts and stir until the mixture thickens. 

3-Pour fudge into a buttered pan. Let the fudge solidify some more. Then, cut the fudge into squares. 

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Fudge Recipe by Ruth Paget

Fudge Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 24 Fudge Squares 

Ingredients: 

-2 (2-ounce) squares bitter cooking chocolate 

-2 ½ cups sugar 

-small lump of butter 

-2 cups whole milk or half and half 

-1 cup chopped nuts 

Steps: 

1-Boil chocolate, sugar, butter, and milk or half and half together until you can pick up a glob of the mixture when you drop a teaspoon of it into cold water. 

2-Remove chocolate mixture from heat. When the chocolate mixture is cool, add chopped nuts and stir until the mixture thickens. 

3-Pour fudge into a buttered pan. Let fudge solidify some more. Then, cut the fudge into squares. 

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe by Ruth Paget

Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 6 People 

 Ingredients: 

-1 Pre-bake pie crust 

-For Filling: 

 -Juice of 1 lemon 

-2 egg yolks 

-1/2 teaspoon salt 

-1 cup sugar 

-2 tablespoons flour 

-2 cups water 

 -For Meringue Topping: 

-2 egg whites 

-1/4 cup sugar 

-1 teaspoon vanilla 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2-Mix lemon juice, egg yolks, salt, sugar, flour, and water together. 

3-Cook the lemon mixture in a double boiler. (A double boiler is basically a smaller pot halfway submerged in a larger pot of boiling water.) 

4-Heat lemon mixture until thick. Pour lemon mixture into the pre-cooked pie shell. 

5-Whip the two egg whites. Add sugar a little at a time. Beat the mixture until it is stiff enough to form peaks. Add vanilla to the mix and turn. 

6-Top the pie with meringue. Bake the pie until the meringue is brownish. Bake for approximately 10 minutes and then check the meringue for color. 

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Rhubarb Pie Recipe by Ruth Paget

Rhubarb Pie Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 6 People 

Ingredients: 

 -2 rolled out dough pie crusts for pan and pie top 

 -For Filling: 

-3 to 4 cups chopped rhubarb 

-3/4 cup sugar 

-1 tablespoon flour 

-5 or 6 dabs of butter 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2-Place bottom dough crust in a pie pan and fit it to the pan. Fill pie crust with chopped rhubarb. 

3-Mix sugar with flour and spread it over the rhubarb. Add a few dabs of butter on top of rhubarb. 

4-Wet bottom dough crust edges. Cover pie top with top crust dough. Pinch edges of top and bottom crust dough together. Make slits in the top pie crust to let out steam. 

5-Sprinkle a little sugar on top of the pie. 

6-Bake for the first ten minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. After ten minutes, lower the heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

7-Bake until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling. (Bake for 30 minutes and then start checking how brown the crust is and look to see if some rhubarb juice has boiled through the slits.) 

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Lemonade Recipe by Ruth Paget

Lemonade Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 3 quarts of lemonade 

Ingredients: 

-Juice of 2 lemons 

-1 cup sugar 

-3 quarts water 

Steps: 

1-Add the lemon juice and sugar to the water and stir till the sugar dissolves. 

2-Slice the juiced lemons into rounds and add them to the lemonade. Gently crush the lemon rounds to release the oil in their skins.

(Remove the lemon rounds, if you are going to keep the lemonade overnight.)

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Caraway or Anise Cookies Recipe by Ruth Paget

Caraway or Anise Cookies Recipe by Ruth Paget 

For 24 Cookies 

Ingredients: 

-1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons) 

-1 cup sugar 

-1 egg 

-1/2 teaspoon salt 

-1 teaspoon vanilla 

-2 cups flour 

-1 teaspoon baking powder 

-2 tablespoons caraway or anise seeds 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2-Cream butter and sugar together. 

3-Add the rest of the ingredients to the butter and sugar and mix. 

4-Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. 

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click for Ruth Paget's Books