CELEBRATING IN SOLVANG APRIL 2012

Didn't actually see much of Solvang and its endless versions of Danish pancake houses, but we did spend a short weekend there in April celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday. Tori and four girlfriends hosted a communal birthday party at a family-owned business, the Maverick Saloon, and invited everyone. It was a great party at a great bar, so if you've consumed all the pancakes you can and need some evening entertainment the next time you're in the Santa Ynez Valley, you should check it out. Purely by chance, we made reservations at the Days Inn Buellton, the motel with the windmill that was featured in the movie "Sideways". We didn't have time to tour wine country, but we passed winery after winery on our drive in from the Central Valley.

Ted and Wenche at the Maverick SaloonTori enjoying her birthday at the MaverickKevin and Ted enjoying tacos at the Maverick

Also on our drive to the Central Coast, we passed the James Dean Memorial at the junction of highways 41 and 46 where he was killed in a car accident in 1955. Dean, along with his mechanic Rolf Wutherich, was driving his Porsche Spyder on Hwy 46 when a guy named Donald Turnipseed crossed the junction heading for Hwy 41, slamming into Dean's car. Dean was killed onsite, but Rolf and Donald survived. Filming on the movie "Giant" had just wrapped and Dean was traveling to a car race in Salinas. He was only 24 years old.

Just before we passed the memorial on Hwy 41, we were lucky enough to catch sight of four Pronghorn (not antelope!) just inside the fence next to the road. Too fast for me to catch a photo, but they look like this:

Our weekend road trip took us out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across the Central Valley through Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach and Santa Maria before reaching Buellton and Solvang. I can never hear the name of Pismo Beach without thinking of Bugs Bunny ("I knew I should've taken a left turn at Albuquerque!"). And now I can never hear the name of Santa Maria without thinking about BBQ. Particular to this region, Santa Maria BBQ consists of beef tri-tip grilled over a fire of native California Red Oak. Lucky again, we found a great restaurant serving BBQ just off the 101 at Nipomo. Called Rancho Nipomo BBQ & Deli, the restaurant's location is nothing to write home (blog?) about, but the BBQ was fantastic. We sat on the patio for a lovely lunch in the spring sunshine. I had the BBQ Tri-Tip Sandwich and Ted tried the Baja Street Style Hot Dog (not so much) and the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich. The sandwiches are served on Teleta bread ("bigger than your head") baked locally and the meats were exceptionally prepared in both cases. Inside you'll find a salsa bar with other fixings and beers to quench your thirst. All in all, a very worthwhile stop if you're traveling the 101 in this area.

Junket Ratings:

Maverick Saloon: Junkety-Junk-Junk

Days Inn Buellton: Junk-O-Rama

Rancho Nipomo BBQ & Deli: Junkety-Junk-Junk

FOOD: CALIFORNIA RESTAURANTS! PLURAL! AUGUST 2011

For us, the end of summer in Yosemite looks like this:

It was a fire and brimstone deal here in Yosemite this August with the Motor Fire ten miles outside the park threatening friends' businesses and homes, and Ted's soccer goalie skillz unable to prevent him from being kicked in the knee and rupturing a tendon.  With wildfires currently under control, my husband is currently crutching around Yosemite with a healing patellar tendon.  And though wildfires and knee injuries are very bad news, his surgery and follow-up care brought good news as his knee is healing and I ate things like this:

You see, I don't get out to restaurants much, living in the middle of nowhere and all, so whenever I am remotely near a modicum of urban development I try to frequent places where some talented soul cooks for me and then some other kind soul whisks those dirty dishes out of my sight.  And then I want to tell you all about it.  Ted selected an orthopedic clinic in the Bay Area for his care, so we've spent some time traveling across California choosing our meals at restaurants along the way.  Before we found the confounding gem of a restaurant in a strip mall in San Jose, I was first tickled by the fact that the clinic was located exactly across the street from the Winchester Mystery House!  I used to read about this haunted house when I was a kid in Michigan where California seemed like another planet:

Unfortunately I have yet to visit the house since walking tours are currently right off Ted's list of entertainment options.  However, right around the corner from the Mystery House we found a lovely restaurant called White Shallot with a French and Vietnamese menu.  I have little experience with Vietnamese food but it always makes a big impression with me, so I try every venue I can find.  This is not a fusion menu, White Shallot offers both cuisines in a historically correct juxtaposition as France colonized (read: invaded) Vietnam from 1887 to 1949 when they finally got the boot.  All imperialist barging-in aside, Vietnam did incorporate French cooking into their daily lives and the two cuisines still exist side-by-side in Southeast Asia today with such tasty delights as banh mi.  I read a review of White Shallot where the doltish author was puzzled by the combination menu - it does pay to know your history, especially if you publish.  Anyhow, the menu offers traditional dishes in both cuisines, though we leaned heavily toward Vietnamese until it was time to order dessert.  So we drank Thai Iced Tea (a neighboring cuisine) and Hue beer with our Prawn Sour Soup, Fire Roasted Squid, Hanoi Shrimp Cake and Beef Noodle Soup (Pho).

Every little bit was quite delicious, even the Vietnamese beer.  The Prawn Sour Soup was the best version I've ever had with very fresh ingredients like cilantro and tomato.  The calamari was cooked just right and the Hanoi Shrimp Cake was bizarre and decadent - sweet potato fries with actual whole shrimp in the batter.  The Pho seemed rather untraditional, but a jumble of cooked and fresh food in a hearty portion.  We exclaimed while we ate and even though I was full to bursting with Vietnamese goodness, the Vahlrona Chocolate Cake on the dessert menu was not to be denied (third photo up top) and was one of the greatest examples of chocolate cake ever.  The cream and raspberries were not necessary as the cake and ganache were chocolate epiphany.  This was a worthy last meal before surgery.

However, when Mexican food calls, Ted always answers, so how delighted was he to find that our hotel accommodations for the evening included Mexican restaurant on premises?  Judging by the sign, this may be the coolest Super 8 ever (next to Vegas, of course):

Super 8 San JoseSuper 8 Las Vegas for comparisonSuper 8 San Jose houses El Palenque restaurant, which was just okay for tacos.  Very convenient for hotel guests, but not even in the top 50% for Mexican restaurants in California.  Though Ted agrees, he enjoyed his absolute last meal before surgery.

After all the surgery drama on our way back to Yosemite, we had to stop for more tacos in Manteca at the highly regarded Taqueria La Estrella.  Highly regarded by our friend Jack who never shuts up about how much he loves this taqueria.  Seriously.  Another gem in a strip mall that proves yet again, never judge a taco by it's location.  Not only is the food excellent, the restaurant is bright and busy with people really, really enjoying the spread.  We ordered many plates to try and did our best to consume it all.  Shrimp Tostadas along with Al Pastor (pork), Lengua (cow tongue) and Carne Asada (beef) Tacos.  The salsa bar is impressive in size and scope and the staff is very friendly.  This is what can be achieved in a Mexican restaurant in California:

Don't sweat the cow tongue thing, lengua is delicious!  On our second round of surgery madness we spent way too many days in Redwood City at the Sequoia Hospital where we lived on deli items from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.  But on our way out of town we spotted Tacos El Grullense (also known as the redundant El Grullense Grill) and ducked in for a taco or two.  Ted spotted a framed article boasting TEG as one of San Francisco's top twenty Mexican joints.  The Al Pastor tacos were possibly the best I've tasted and the salsa bar, though tiny, included piles of fresh cucumber slices and radishes to complement your tacos - just like in Mexico.

Photo from www.bunrab.com

From www.elgrullensegrill.com

Though it seems like all we ever eat is Mexican (and who doesn't, living in California?), I did have a new food experience in early August during a trip to Berkeley with my friend Beth.  After a reception at Heyday Books for Beth in her new role as California Director for the National Wildlife Federation, we had dinner with friends at a Salvadoran restaurant.  Recommended by our friend and publishing legend, Malcolm Margolin, Platano restaurant served the Salvadoran version of Latin American specialties such as plaintains, beans, and carne asada.  We had pupusas and platanos for starters, pupusas being thick corn masa tortillas stuffed with various fillings served with curtido & salsa.  The platanos were served with refried beans and cream (!), a surprisingly lovely combination that would have never crossed my mind.  We shared all dishes including a veggie stew called Papa Guisada, Carne Asada and my personal favorite of the evening, Albondigas - meatballs with mint, onion and tomato puree.  Wine, sangria and the conversation flowed amongst excellent company.

Beth loves plantains with refried beans and creamPapa Guisada veggie dish

MeatballsBeth, Malcolm and MichelleJunket Ratings:

White Shallot: Junk in the Trunk!

El Palenque: Jar Jar Junks

Taqueria La Estrella: Junk-O-Rama

Tacos El Grullense: Junk-O-Rama

Platano: Junk-O-Rama

TRAVEL: SAND IN SAN DIEGO AT THE DESERT AND BEACH APRIL 2011

My friend Beth hustled back to California to start a new job with the National Wildlife Federation, relocating back to her home outside Yosemite, just in time for an invitation to her long-time friend John's wedding celebration in San Diego.  Coming from Yellowstone and her home in Gardiner, Montana, Beth was essentially driving the American West from Canada to Mexico in a week.  She needed help with that, so she recruited me to assist with the California portion of her road trip.  I am, after all, the Queen of Road Trips and I am always happy to blow off every obligation for a trip in the car to places unknown (and known).  So I booked us into a motel north of San Diego in Encinitas two blocks from the beach and we jumped in the car Kerouac-Style for an eight hour trip south to sun and sand and fish tacos.

After a mostly uneventful drive south (with the exception of a maddening crawl across LA during rush hour where I thought we may petrify), we checked in to the Days Inn Encinitas and headed for Juanita's Taco Shop.  Included on most people's list of the where to find the best fish tacos in San Diego, Juanita's status was well-deserved.  Excellent fish tacos with just the right trimmings (though lettuce is never a substitute for cabbage in the realm of taco creation), we both ordered one too many but ate them anyway.  We consumed too many tacos while tippling Moet & Chandon and viewing the royal wedding in a low-brow/high-brow effort to celebrate Beth's return to California.  Though we were blocks from the beach, I persuaded Beth to take a drive into the desert east of San Diego the next day before evening wedding festivities.  Driving an hour or so we crossed several low mountain ranges to enter the Borrego Valley, home of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

If you know me, you know how much I love the desert.  If you don't know me, you don't know how much I love the dry crunch under my feet, the spiky and scaly flora and fauna, the alien climate and the alien sightings, the supercool modern architecture, the sheer scale of nighttime sky with stars and the daytime sky with sun-blasted heat.  There's also the dark poet appeal of the wasteland: the desert should always be experienced with a bottle of whiskey, well-worn boots, aviator sunglasses and a sweaty cowboy hat.  Preferably in a muscle car from the 60s or 70s.  Of course we were in a Subaru wearing shorts and sandals, listening to the GPS after a stop at the Starbucks in Encinitas, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment of my favorite landscape.  And how lucky were we?  Besides catching the tail-end of the spring wildflower bloom, we were lucky enough to see desert bighorn sheep - a rare occurence in the wilderness of California.

After a short loop through the park, a stop at the visitor center with it's endangered oxymoronic desert pupfish pond, cruising through the desert town of Borrego Springs (where I could easily have my bottle of whiskey next to a motel pool), we sighted the Turkey Inn in Ramona on the way back toward the Pacific.  Another thing I love: turkeys.  Love to eat them, drink them, sight them in the wild and ponder the fact that Benjamin Franklin thought it should be the national bird and I tend to agree.  Turkeys are cool.  Kitschy roadside Americana also tops my list of loves, but I digress.

The wedding celebration for John and Jenny was hosted at the Naked Cafe in Solana Beach, some five miles south of Encinitas.  All the beach towns north of San Diego are clean and beautiful and the Naked Cafe faced the Pacific across the street from Fletcher Cove Beach Park.  The restaurant doesn't serve dinner, so the party was private.  Not only were the food and service swell, but the party was filled with lovely people.  John and Jenny were extremely gracious about my party crashing and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them along with their family and friends.

John, Beth and Michelle at the Naked Cafe

Beth shows off her blingSpending about a minute in Encinitas during the entire stay, we were nevertheless impressed with the town and our proximity to Moonlight State Beach.  The quintessential SoCal beach, Moonlight was crowded with surfers and families, concession rentals, kelp strands and swanky cliffside homes overlooking the ocean.  Next to fish tacos, San Diego is best known for surfing, and Encinitas is home to Hansen Surfboards.  We checked out the surf shop and the beach before heading back to the Sierra Nevada via the 5, the 99 and the Central Valley.

Between the beach and the mountains of California lies the Central Valley, home to the largest agricultural operation in the country, providing 8% of America's agricultural output on only 1% of it's farmland.  Not scenic when compared with California's coast and range, a trip through the Central Valley can educate about California's culinary delights.  A road trip must-see on the culinary tour is the Bravo Farms Cheese Factory ("A Taste of the Valley!") south of Fresno in Traver.  Local cheeses, olive oils, raisins, dates and other California delights await in yet another example of kitschy roadside Americana.  The raw milk Western Sage Cheddar is a true palate pleasure.  We loaded up on California bounty and hit the road home.

Junket Ratings:

Days Inn Encinitas: Junk-O-Rama

Juanita's Fish Tacos: Junk in the Trunk!

Anza Borrego Desert State Park: Junk in the Trunk!

The Naked Cafe: Junk-O-Rama

Hansen's Surf Shop: Junk-O-Rama

Moonlight State Beach: Junk-O-Rama

Bravo Farms Cheese Factory: Junk-O-Rama

Update on Monday, May 16, 2011 at 8:50AM by Michelle Hansen

Apparently the "Surfing Madonna" of Encinitas pictured above was creating quite a stir for the citizens, according to an article in the LA Times.  The artist is a mystery and the artwork is tile mosaic - not paint like I thought originally.  We need more anonymous artwork in this country!

TRAVEL: GILROY GARLIC FESTIVAL JULY 2010

My birthday gift for 2010: Attend the world-renowned Gilroy Garlic Festival in the Garlic Capital of the World, Gilroy, California.  This three day summer event features every kind of food you can make with garlic - including ice cream - along with live music, arts & crafts, cooking demonstrations and contests.  For over thirty years Gilroy has hosted the Garlic Festival with 100,000 people attending in 2010.  Ted and I managed to squeeze in with the other 99,998 people on Saturday, July 24.  Our first impression?  It's ungodly hot in Gilroy in July.  Fortunately, this was quickly overtaken by our second and most lasting impression:  this is the most efficiently operated event I have ever attended.  Keep in mind that I have worked for Disney, and hope to convey how completely impressed we were with the operation of the festival from the parking to the signage to the service.  After being whisked from the dirt parking lot packed with friendly attendants in an air-conditioned bus to the entrance gate, we made our first order of business beer and wine, followed immediately with food.

Calamari, one of my favorite foods in any form, became a recurring theme for the day, much to my delight. One sample down and 44 to go, we moved on to cooking demonstrations.  The cooking demonstration stage was stadium bleacher style, shaded by canopies and set up with giant video screens and live camera feed so you could see the actual cooking.  We caught Andrea Froncillo, the chef owner of the Stinking Rose restaurant in North Beach, San Francisco (and now Beverly Hills), and author of the Sex and the Kitchen website.  Chef Andrea demonstrated short rib, pork chop and garlic mashed potato dishes from his restaurants. Personable and funny, Chef Andrea spent most of his stage time bantering with fellow Italian and celebrity chef Fabio Viviani of Top Chef fame.

Chef Andrea on the left, Fabio seated at table, pointing.

After all that cooking, it was time to eat again.  After a beer refill, there was more calamari for me and decadent and delicious french fries for Ted.  But not just any fries, Garlic Crab Fries consists of fries drizzled with a creamy remoulade sauce and topped with shredded crab.  We followed this with the traditional free garlic ice cream cone.

Garlic Crab Fries

Key Lime CalamariWe noticed that many of the food vendors were operating to raise funds for local non-profits like schools, police and churches.  The Gilroy Rotary Club operated a wine-tasting pavilion and the festival's sponsors included many local businesses.  The festival also operated 6 recycling centers throughout the grounds to capture all those plastic ups, and the disposable plates and utensils were compostable.  The festival centerpiece is Gourmet Alley, where local foods are featured.  The cooks of Gourmet Alley are one of the most popular attractions at the festival with non-stop flaming, grilling, and sauteing of Monterey Bay squid, Morgan Hill mushrooms, San Francisco pasta, regional chicken, and wild-caught American shrimp.

In the Garlic Grove you could learn to braid or top garlic and acquire free garlic growing kits.  Piles of recently harvested garlic were dumped in the grove and sorted for demonstrations.  In addition to growing kits, my souvenir for the day was a garlic braid for my kitchen, of course, but I also lucked into a Stinking Rose t-shirt that my husband snagged out of the air when Chef Andrea was showering the crowd with swag from his restaurants.

The crowd had grown exponentially by the afternoon and the heat was causing me not to eat as much as I should (!), so we mixed it up with some live music.  Ted kept asking when ZZ Top was scheduled to play, but we had to make do with some local jams.  And speaking of jamming, I managed a bowl of escargot and mushrooms, though I bitterly did not have room for the food vendor selling chocolate covered strawberries and cream puffs on a stick.

We left Gilroy in the sweltering late afternoon to return to our campsite in cool Mount Madonna County Park just 10 miles outside of town.  Situated in the South Coast Range, the 10 miles and elevation gain makes a world of temperature difference: 95 degrees in Gilroy compared to 65 degrees at Mount Madonna, and we were very grateful.  Though Mount Madonna has first-rate camping facilities (swanky showers!), the park is very family oriented, so we endured a lot of rowdy children and absolutely no enforcement of the 10 P.M. to 6 A.M. quiet hours.  However, the stands of Coastal Redwood trees were amazing and the morning fog from the Pacific made us feel like we were back in Big Sur.

Mount Madonna County Park campsite #123

We left the Coast Range on Sunday morning to cross the Central Valley and return to our home range in the Sierra Nevada.  Driving California highways, we go from Gilroy to Mariposa before the final ascent to Yosemite. But what's a visit to Gilroy without a stop at Casa de Fruta, the world's greatest fruit stand and tourist trap?! Where else could you find Donut Peaches and postcards showing migrant workers?  Fruit stand, restaurant, wine shop, campground, coffee shop - you name it, Casa de Fruta's got it.

In the Central Valley we are always on the lookout for taco trucks and Ramon's Tacos in the tiny agricultural town of Planada on the corner of Highway 140 and Plainsburg Road next to the El Campo store is one of our favorites.  The Al Pastor tacos are served with toppings that differ from other trucks: grilled onions, avocado slices and green salsa.  How could we possibly eat another meal on Garlic Festival Weekend?  With Ted, there's always room for tacos.

Junket Ratings:

Gilroy Garlic Festival: Junk in the Trunk!

Mount Madonna County Park Campground: Junk-O-Rama

Ramon's Taco Truck: Junk-O-Rama

HOME/TRAVEL/FOOD: ORGANIC FARMING IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY AND OUTDOOR GRILLING IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK PART ONE

Yosemite Valley is roughly two hours and 4000 vertical feet above the Central Valley of California, America's Vegetable Garden.  Culturally, it can be light years away - from mostly white outdoor enthusiasts desultorily working in the service industry to maintain a residence in the rarified atmosphere of Yosemite National Park to mostly hispanic farm workers breaking sweat and backs to harvest the nation's largest agricultural operations to maintain a basic living in the state of California.  What do they have in common?  An ever-expanding web of food harvesting, purveying and consumption feeds the visiting throngs of Yosemite National Park, including some 2000 employees at the height of the summer season.  The farms of the Central Valley indiscriminately feed Yosemite tourists and residents alike, but there is choice in the matter.  Restaurants serving visitors at the Ahwanee Hotel and Yosemite Lodge are choosing more organic and local products for their fancy dining rooms, and local farms like TD Willey Farms are very happy to provide those products.  Park residents have access to the Community Supported Agriculture of Mountain Meadow Farms in Mariposa.  Operated by Brenda Ostrom, the CSA 'veggie boxes' are delivered every Tuesday to Yosemite and surrounding communities, consisting of local and organic products including eggs and olive oil besides vegetables and fruits.  Brenda partners with TD Willey to provide many of the vegetables found in the boxes.

To explore this connection further, I went on a farm tour.  Having become more and more interested in the origin of my food, I regularly read books like The Omnivore's Dilemma, Fast Food Nation and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  I also try to follow legislature that affects the distribution of food in this country.  Though the romance of food and cooking is the inspiration, the acquisition of food is the key.  Sponsored by the Employee Recreation department of DNC Parks & Resorts at Yosemite, we bundled 10 people into two vans and trucked out to Madera, southwest of Yosemite.  We toured TD Willey Farms, an organic farm surrounded by a sea of industrial farming in the Central Valley, with owner Tom Willey.  Tom looks like a farmer: bearded, with dirt under his fingernails and suspenders holding up his trousers, he walks with a limp as if the burden of the organic debate in the agriculture industry may be weighing him down.  But Tom has a pronounced enthusiasm for organic farming, dispensing pearls of wisdom in his low-key manner.  After waxing poetic about soil microbes, "Agriculture is just an experiment," he says before taking a call on his cell phone and conversing in Spanish.

Tom Willey of TD Willey Farms

Tom preaching to the choir: Emily, Molly, Erin, Sarah, Ola, others

I asked Tom what he thought about Bill S 510, also known as the Food Safety Modernization Act, that seems designed to benefit industrial agriculture corporations, but would require sweeping and potentially detrimental changes to the way small organic farms do business.  The bill is currently on hold but will be scheduled for a Senate vote.  "Food production is not industry, it's biology," he stated.  I expect his opinion is much more involved, but the point he wanted to get across was that nowhere in the bill are animal industrial farming operations addressed, as if all the recent food safety issues are due to produce alone.  Tom also pointed out that Big Ag corporations, often the source of food safety issues, offer to 'solve' safety issues through application of expensive technology and spin - making them look like the heroes of the food industry.  Of course, the meat processing industry in this country has powerful lobby interests in Washington D.C., not to mention that the bill may have been inspired by reports from the Trust for America's Health, whose members are solidly entangled with corporate agribusiness giants such as Monsanto.  But despite these issues, organic operations at TD Willey roll on year-round, growing over 50 types of vegetables and fruits on 75 acres with 65 workers at the height of the summer.  They often harvest their own seed to use for next year's crops and provide food for 825 members of their own CSA program. 

TD Willey harvests basil seed from their crop

Warning sign in Spanish to keep crop for seed collectionPotato plants - never could have guessed

Though the CSA aspect of their operation accounts for only 20% of their production, Tom says that it is the aspect of sales he enjoys the most.  The other 80% is in high demand in the San Francisco Bay area, but is also trucked as far away as Minnesota.  As the tour winds down, Tom frankly voices his concern for the sustainability of his farming operation, though TD Willey has been certified organic since 1987.  However, he notes, "Nothing is pure," referring to the organic designation.  In reality, organic produce has 2/3 less chemical residue than conventionally farmed produce and that's little enough to earn the organic label.

Sugar Snap Pea sample - thanks to Ola the hand model

Tom hopes that young people are attracted to agriculture as a career, since the current problems surrounding food production need fresh minds to resolve these issues.  After two and a half hours of farming wisdom, Tom sent us on our way with samples of fine strawberries and delightful sugar snap peas.  He also recommended Quady Winery, not too far down the road from TD Willey Farms in Madera.  All this talk of food inspired me to cook out that evening for dinner: country-style pork ribs with grilled onions, grilled green salad and peruano beans.  Look for recipes in part two of this post.

 Junket Ratings:

TD Willey Farm Tour: Junk in the Trunk!

Mountain Meadow Farm CSA: Junk in the Trunk!