The Ferrari Challenges is being held September 10 - 14, 2025 at Laguna Seca in Salinas, California. I have reposted their website below for tickets and information:
Ferrari Challenge in Salinas, California September 10 - 14, 2025
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
De.Tierra Winery in Salinas, California sells excellent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wine. These are the two wine grape varietals that also grow in France’s Burgundy region.
We order about two cases per year for delivery to have them on hand for coq au vin, poulet a la moutarde,, and steamed Alaska king crab throughout the year.
They have a tasting room in Carmel for people who would like to sample their wines.
My daughter Florence Paget and I recently snuck a peek at the secluded winery and vineyards in the Corral de Tierra Valley outside town.
De Tierra Winery sits on a hillside off Corral de Tierra Road outside Salinas, California. California magnolias bloom in the foreground. Palm trees of varying sizes line the road up to the winery. Text and photo by Ruth Paget.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
The University of Chicago Press free e-book for September 2025 is The Political Orchestra about the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics under The Third Reich. Details follow:
The Political Orchestra published by the University of Chicago Press
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
The Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Carmel Valley, California still provides hearty Western fare all year round. Thank you Monterey County Weekly for pulling up this review I did out of archives.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Watch the website below for the 2026 Sheep Shearing Shindig in San Luis Obispo, California. The event usually takes place in May after the sheep have grown a thick coat from winter.
The event has hayrides, food, music, and vendors. Click below for information for this event that unites Scottish and Spanish culture:
Sheep Shearing Shindig 2026 in San Luis Obispo, California
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Fusion Seafood Feast at Lure Fish House in San Luis Obispo, California by Ruth Paget
I enjoyed the fried calamari and linguini with clams meal that I ate on a prior visit to Lure Fish House in San Luis Obispo, California so much that my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I planned another visit to SLO for another meal at Lure.
The meal I ordered on my recent visit was a great California fusion feast. I started with mussels Basquaise from Spain’s northwestern Basque Country. (The Basque Country extends into Southwestern France as well.) The classic recipe has cooks sauté small chunks of Spanish chorizo sausage with garlic and tomatoes with white wine and parsley added to steam open the mussels. (The Portuguese also prepare shellfish with chorizo sausage.)
Lure Fish House makes this dish a fusion by not adding tomatoes to the sauté and steaming sauce. Instead, Lure replaces the tomatoes with romesco sauce from the other end of the Pyrénées Mountains in Spain’s Catalan region.
Romesco sauce is a purée of sautéed and roasted red peppers, tomatoes, almonds, garlic, and parsley. This is a very upscale steaming sauce and utterly delicious.
I used the garlic toast that came with the dish to soak up the romesco sauce along with bread. Next time I order mussels Basquaise, I might also order a side of rice to add into the leftover sauce, so I can get every last drop eaten.
My main dish was tequila lime shrimp pasta (made with house-made linguini). This dish is like Italian scampi but is made with tequila and lime instead of white wine and lemon. When you cook this dish, you sauté garlic and tomatoes in butter and oil. Then, you add in shrimp till cooked and add in tequila to flavor the sauce and shrimp. The cooked pasta is then added into the cooked sauce and shrimp and tossed before serving. Lime juice is squeezed over the pasta at the table.
I now equally love Italian-American shrimp scampi and tequila lime shrimp pasta. The combination of cooked garlic (which becomes sweet when cooked), citrus juice, and parsley just tastes great with shrimp. The alcohol makes the sauce succulent and makes every morsel delicious.
Seafood lovers willing to experiment with fusion dishes will find much to enjoy at Lure Fish House in San Luis Obispo, California including the city’s sunny, warm weather.
(Note: Lure Fish House has two parking lots located down the street from the entrance. They fill quickly, but there is street parking within walking distance, too.)
(Note: We stayed at the Towne Place Suites by Marriott this trip. The suite we stayed in had a full kitchen, living room, and separate bedroom with the option of reserving an adjoining room. The air conditioning worked with no problem. I like the shower products the hotel offers – Alice and Co Botanicals. Those products make me feel like I have done a spa day when I shower after dinner and sit in the AC room. There is a pool and complimentary breakfast. Marriott also has a good loyalty program that new visitors might be interested in.)
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Erin Gafill’s artwork records the pristine beauty of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary from Nepenthe and other vantage points of interest around Monterey Bay.
For a glimpse of her work, click below:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Live Spanish Guitar Music on Thursdays at Esteban Restaurant in Monterey, California. The restaurant serves tapas on the patio and full-course meals inside.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
For a listing of current cultural anthropology books from the University of Chicago, click below:
UChicago Press Cultural Anthropology Books
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Healing Power of Coconut Reviewed by Ruth Paget
I decided to read Healing Power of Coconut by Jacqueline B. Marcus, because I can easily obtain coconuts and coconut products where I live in Salinas, California. (Lucky Supermarket and Weee Asian Grocery Delivery both carry these items.)
Healing Power of Coconut is a go-to reference for everything coconut that includes healthy recipes, nutrition information, making beauty products with coconut, and making homeopathic cures for mild and temporary illnesses with coconut.
I still view coconut primarily as food and liked the nutrition discussion in the book. According to Marcus, one medium coconut contains:
-0 cholesterol
-36 grams dietary fiber
-13 grams protein
It also has as part of a minimum daily calorie intake:
-5% calcium
-21% Vitamin C
-53% iron
-10% Vitamin B-6
-31% magnesium
Magnesium has several roles in the body including muscle and nerve function, bone health for density and absorption of calcium, DNA and protein synthesis, and the prevention of anxiety.
Vitamin B-6 is very important as well and supports nerve function, immune system function, red blood cell formation, and brain development.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps remove free radicals from the body that may cause cancer from the body. Iron helps transport oxygen in blood through the body. Calcium helps build strong bones.
There are more nutrients than you would think in this tasty fruit, seed, and nut that originated in Southeast Asia and now grows along tropical seashores according to Marcus.
I ate most coconut in banana bread growing up along with raisins and chocolate chips. There is a recipe for this banana bread in the Healing Power of Coconut. It tastes great with a mug of espresso or Darjeeling tea.
That recipe and the recipes for pumpkin curry and Caribbean callaloo soup are my favorites in the book.
Caribbean callaloo soup is made with coconut oil, onion, garlic, bone chicken breasts, butternut squash, chicken broth, jalapeño peppers, thyme, fresh spinach, and coconut flakes. This soup can be easily made in Salinas and enjoyed with reggae music playing.
The pumpkin curry is also doable in Salinas, California. The pumpkin curry is made with coconut oil, extra firm tofu, red curry paste, pumpkin purée, coconut milk, sriracha sauce, 4 cups cut-up seasonal vegetables, peas, rice, and Thai basil.
Healing Power of Coconut by Jacqueline B. Marcus is an informative and enjoyable book that cooks wanting to expand their product knowledge and skills might enjoy reading.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Watch the site below for information about the 2026 Monterey County Fair:
For information and tickets for the Monterey County Fair being held from 8-28-2025 to 9-1-2025 at the Monterey Fairgrounds click below:
Monterey County Fair Tickets and Information
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
For a link to the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California click below for their website information on current exhibits and portfolio evaluation services:
Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with chopsticks and Marrying France
The sea otter tourism specialist in Monterey County California is Elkhorn Slough Safari located in Moss Landing off Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Click below for a link to their website:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Calvados Mushroom Sauce Recipe Created by Ruth Paget
Note:
This is my go-to sauce when I lived in Paris, France in the early 1990s was a buttery, mushroom sauce that I made with Calvados, France’s famous apple brandy with the best ones coming from the Pays d’Auge, the A.O.C. region in Normandy.
This sauce is loosely based on the mushroom sauce for sole Dieppoise.. The ingredients for this sauce were sold by fishmongers in fall at the weekly covered market in the Centre Charras in Courbevoie, a Parisian suburb just across the bridge over the Seine by the La Défense skyscrapers.
I used this simple sauce on sautéed white fish, sautéed chicken breasts, fried pork chops, pasta, and mashed potatoes.
For 4 People
Ingredients:
-4 tablespoons butter with sea salt
-2 cups sliced mushrooms
-1 or 2 shots of Calvados
-1 cup heavy cream
-2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Steps:
1-Melt butter in a sauté pan. Add mushrooms to the pan and stir over medium-high heat until they render water (about 10 – 15 minutes).
2-Continue stirring until the water in the pan evaporates.
3-Add Calvados to the mushrooms and stir 4 to 5 minutes to burn off the alcohol, but leave the flavor.
4-Add cream to the mushroom mixture and stir till steam rises from the mushrooms. Serve as soon as possible over cooked fish, pork chops, chicken, pasta, or mashed potatoes with parsley sprinkled on top.
Note:
This recipe can be made with Sicilian Marsala as in chicken Marsala.
Other fortified wines like Marsala can be used including:
Muscat de Rivesaltes - France
Muscat de Samothrace - Greece
Oloroso sherry - Spain
Sweet porto - Portugal
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Medieval and Renaissance Studies journals from the University of Chicago Press. Click below for link:
Medieval and Renaissance Journals from the University of Chicago Press
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Fioli Gardens outside San Francisco has hiking and children’s activities. Click below for link to their website and ticket information:
Fioli Gardens Website and Ticket Information
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Every nice community needs a good zoo. Click below for information on Monterey Zoo:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Details about Monterey Museum of Art’s Programs and Events follow:
Monterey Museum of Art Program and Events
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
FYI - The Monterey Jazz Festival is coming up in September. Details below for the event’s official website:
Monterey Jazz Festival 2025 Information
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France