My chapbook Edible Alchemy is on sale with SapnaOnline.com in India - a book mall.
Lots of food essays on visits to neighborhood ethnic restaurants in Monterey County California in Edible Alchemy.
Thank you for the publicity.
Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Croque Monsieur Grilled Sandwich at Café de la Presse in San Francisco, California by Ruth Paget
On a weekend trip to San Francisco, my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I went to Café de la Presse in San Francisco, California for Parisian bistro lunch.
Laurent and Florence ordered a classic French lunch combination of French onion soup with cheese melted and browned on top of the soup followed by steak frites (steak with fries).
I was going to order another bistro classic combination of French onion soup with a croque monsieur, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with salad on the side.
Instead of soup, I ate a daily special of warm goat cheese salad before my main dish. The salad came with a large ball of fresh chèvre goat cheese on top that been warmed and sat on top of baby greens with a vinaigrette.
I mashed down the ball of chèvre and liked to think the cheese had arrived from an artisanal creamery in Sonoma County along with freshly picked greens in the wee hours of the morning.
For my main dish, I ate a grilled croquet monsieur sandwich made with béchamel sauce, a cooked creamy sauce made with flour, butter, and milk, that is spread on two thick slices of bread. Then, you add sliced ham and gruyère cheese, place the slices together, sprinkle Parmesan and gruyère on top of the top bread slice, and run the sandwich under the broiler until the cheese is toasted and bubbly.
This salty, delicious treat came with more baby greens on the side. I loved the crunchy melted cheese on the sandwich that was lightened up with bites of the baby greens.
For bigger appetites, you can add an over-easy egg on top of the sandwich, which would make it a croquet madame. This is a classic bistro dish as well.
There are two garages close to Café de la Presse. One is across the street on the corner of Grant Avenue and Bush Street. The other garage is about three blocks up the street on Powell Street.
Whether you come for a weekend trip or for a day, Café de la Presse offers French fare comparable to what you would eat in Paris, France at the gates of Chinatown, which is ideal for strolling and shopping after an espresso. Our family takes I-280 to Highway 101, which comes out near Tully Road south of Gilroy Outlet Malls on 101 back to Salinas, California.
There is always something good to eat at Café de la Presse in San Francisco, California, which is easier to get to than you would think.
Bon appétit!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Spicy Tuna Poké Bowl at Sushi Hut in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
Sushi Hut in Salinas, California has been hailed as one of the top 50 sushi spots in the United States by YELP and Salinas sushi lovers alike.
The restaurant also has delicious Hawaiian poké bowls. I ate one recently and am happy with the progress I am making with poké bowl composition thanks to Door Dash Delivery app ordering.
My poké bowl dinner had the following items in it:
-base carbohydrate: white rice (brown rice is available)
-proteins: raw spicy tuna and California crab roll filling
-vegetables: cherry tomatoes (for vitamin c), carrot sticks (for vitamin A), and avocado slices (for vitamins K,C, and E)
-fruit: fresh pineapple chunks (for vitamin c)
-sauces: yuzu citrus juice and spicy sriracha mayonnaise
-seasonings: lemon wedge for juice and a dab of wasabi horseradish sauce
All of these ingredients blend into a delicious, tropical dish that congers up Hawaiian sunsets with swaying palm trees.
For a taste of Hawaii before traveling there, Sushi Hut has poké bowls and snack items that are like the items you would eat there.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
The Rodeo is coming to Salinas, California. The Monterey County Weekly online has more details - see ad.
StubHub.com is selling Salinas Rodeo tickets.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Princeton Review has the following suggested works listed for preparing the Advanced Placement Examination in English:
Princeton Review AP English Reading List
Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Skyline Dining at the InterContinental San Francisco, California by Ruth Paget
On a weekend trip to San Francisco (West Bay), my family stayed at the InterContinental San Francisco, an IHG hotel, at 888 Howard Street.
It is important to know the number 888 as it is the name of the hotel’s Bistro 888 that provides room service as well.
The floor-to-ceiling glass windows in this luxury spa hotel made me want to eat in the room and admire the sunset and twinkling building lights as I ate like I did when I was younger and lived in Marina City in Chicago (Illinois) on floor 22.
I ordered a very American meal with flair for dinner – an 888 Burger. This is really a cheeseburger made with an 8-ounce cheese patty that comes with a thick slice of melted aged white cheddar cheese, house-made pickles, lettuce, tomato, and Parmesan cheese “secret” sauce instead of mayonnaise on a large brioche bun.
I asked for medium cooking on the burger, and it was slightly pink the way I like it in the center. The meat was juicy and delicious with the salty and creamy Parmesan sauce.
The burger came with a large helping of crisp double-fried French fries and vinegary strands of purple cabbage slaw.
The next day, I woke up early and took my spa shower. The hotel water was soft and the InterContinental offers free Byredo Bal d’Afrique cleansing and conditioning products. (Bal d’Afrique perfume sells for $230 for a 1.07 ounce – 50 ml bottle, so I lathered up in luxury.)
As I let my hair dry, I ordered breakfast from Bistro 888 again for in-room service again.
For breakfast, I ate an 888 Omelette with three slices of whole wheat toast. The omelette was ¼-inch thick all around and amply filled with sautéed spinach, mini shiitake mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, and melted Monterey Jack cheese.
Fried fingerling potatoes came with the meal along with two small bottles of Tabasco sauce for extra seasoning. These tasted great with the double latte I ordered to go with breakfast.
I forgot to order bacon, but my husband Laurent brought back some from breakfast downstairs. The bacon was thick cut with mostly meat and deliciously salty. (San Francisco is hot during the day with unexpected gusts of cold wind. Perfect weather for salt depletion.)
The InterContinental San Francisco weekend trip was a great success. I ate two great meals, felt invigorated by the Byredo Bal d’Afrique spa shower, admired the San Francisco skyline 12 stories up, organized a writing project in my head (Tasting Rome blog), and had fun on the way home admiring the scenery along I-280 as we passed the airport and Palo Alto real estate on the way to Highway 101 to Salinas, California.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Spicy Crab Salad at Roy’s in Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget
The unexpected presentation of ordinary dishes at Roy’s restaurant in Pebble Beach, California make ocean side dining there a pleasant and memorable experience.
On a recent visit to Roy’s, I ordered spicy crab salad. I like stringy masses of crab with spicy mayonnaise, but Roy’s has a much more elegant way with this salad.
The chopped crab with a hint of mayonnaise came as a large disc in the bottom of a large flat-bottomed salad bowl. There were about 4 ice cream scoops of crab all together. Spread on top of the crab was a thin layer of spicy, hot wasabi horseradish paste.
On top of the crab disc, there was a mound of organic Monterey County baby greens with two pink Hawaiian flower petals (plumeria?). I assumed the flowers were edible and ate them along with the salad.
The dressing was a yuzu-pineapple juice vinaigrette. Yuzus look like prickly lemons and taste like grapefruit. They give the sour tang to the tropical vinaigrette.
That salad was delicious for light spice lovers and certainly qualified as a spa lunch.
For dessert, I ordered a chocolate banana cream pie, which arrived as a 3D swirl of bananas and thick whipped cream in a flaky pastry cup topped off with a thick chocolate syrup.
As I ate this delicious food, I thought of chef Ferran Adrià whose meals at his El Bulli Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain were described as theatre – great food, great beverages, great view, great comfort, and great service.
Roy’s restaurant at Pebble Beach, California provides all this and offers a varied menu for diners who would like a burger or BBQ après golf.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
