oy! thirteen days of catching up! so many fabulous meals and such small powers of concentration. on august 19th i shipped out to california for a few days in san francisco, a few days in the sierra nevadas and a day in berkeley. san fran was all about the yum! magda and i found a cute little chi-chi grocery store called Yum!...the employees there, poor dears, called "yumsters." they had fine salt and vinegar potato chips which reminds me that i completely forgot to bring back a single bag of Tim's Cascade salt and vinegar potato chips, the absolute #1 in salt and vinegar potato chips. drat! i didn't always like salt and vinegar potato chips. in fact, i used to despise them but now i'll take no other chip but the salt and vinegar chip. in fact, when i had access to Tim's Cascade Chips, it was a bit of a problem. but now, lo and behold, i've discovered that they're available online...eight 10-oz bags for $30! buy them for me!.

did i mention that Tim's are available online! so salty! so sour! so crunchy! so good!

ari took magda and me to Jim's diner on Mission St., a little piece of the Midwest right smack dab in the middle of the Mission. i got myself pancakes, lots of weak coffee (mmmmm...) and two eggs over medium. that night we ate at Yum Yum, a chinese restaurant on Valencia...the eggplant was divine! and there was much consumption of Mitchell's ice cream. they actually have both young coconut and mature coconut ice cream. the difference? not so sure. and while i give them props for their avocado ice cream it tasted a bit too much like frozen mushed avocado for me.

...and up to june lake in the sierra nevadas for melissa and bryon's wedding where i ate at the Silver Lake Cafe every single day. Good? not especially, it was just the only place we could find, with the exception of the rowdy tiger bar, which was more of a place to get trashed and beat up rather than a place for an omelette. Silver Lake Cafe was, however, most accomodating and was nice enough to give me avocado in my omelette instead of ham. friendly!

nothing, however, topped the rehearsal dinner, held at a mobil gas station down the road. it was truly a night to say goodbye to vegetarianism...the fish tacos with mango pineapple plum salsa were well worth it. imagine the surprise of travelers, stopping to get gas and possibly a bite to eat, only to find 100+ people crowding around picnic talbles, lit by the mobil sign, dining on fish tacos, lobster, herb encrusted pork tenderloin, shrimp cocktails, baked brie and fabu mango margaritas. melissa talks about this place all of the time and it totally lived up to my expectations. and it also perfectly captured the feel of the wedding: low key and informal yet unexpectadly classy and elegant. sadly, the trapeze folks were so busy helping with the dinner that they had to close down the trapeze for the night. sigh. maybe next time.

on the drive back to san fran, i sampled the BK Veggie. don't do this. it is essentially a garden burger and tastes...funny. ew. gross. i guess i appreciate the effort even though its clearly done for marketing's sake, not in the interest of the little people.

in berkeley, with alix, when i wasn't watching her get her mac on (oh yeah!), we were stuffing our faces with pizza (mine with feta, mushroom and garlic) and sushi. and ice cream!

oh, this has nothing to do with food, but there is nothing in this world quite like the musee mechanique. it is tragically being moved on sept. 10th to a big fancy pier in downtown san francisco. sigh.