Happy 4th of July

Novato Parade

San Francisco Soup Company

We were hanging out in the mall checking out the food court. Plans were made for lunch later so this was supposed to be an exploratory mission. Both of us had skipped breakfast and lunch was a couple hours away, so we did decide on a little something to nosh. We watched as a worker at the San Francisco Soup Company struggled with the sign board that lists the soups available that day. Just when it looked like the sign was winning the worker attached a couple of rubber bands to secure the last two selections. The list is long and includes both hot and cold soups. They also offer fresh salads and sandwiches. We decided to split a large bowl of "Grandma Mary's Chicken Noodle Soup." I really wasn't expecting much but to my surprise the soup was wonderful. It's chock full of large chicken pieces, vegetables and comforting broth. Noodles were added to the bowl and the the soup ladled over. This kept the broth nice and clear. At under seven dollars for a large, filling bowl this is definitely a bargain. As is turns out there are many locations all over town. Soups on!

Can I meet this Grandma Mary?

Modern Day Lemonade Stand

On the way home from the day job, sign-waving kids caught my eye. What was it - a protest? Support the cause of the day? Nope just a couple of entrepreneurial kids with the twenty first century updated version of a lemonade stand. In this version in addition to lemonade they have fresh fruit. I inquire of the vendor " do you guys grow the fruit?" He patiently explains that the fruit in grown in the San Joaquin Valley and is organic. Sold American! Local ,organic and putting dollars in the hands of future of our state. I have to love the optimism and promise of youth.

Chez Pierre Novato

We had originally planned a runaway weekend for Memorial Day but procrastinated until the last moment and could not find a deal, so we decided to stay local and relax. We had a lazy morning and made an executive decision to go out to lunch. There is a local restaurant that has been around town a long time in many forms. In its first incarnation it was a Denny's. Now with several stops in between it is Chez Pierre. I had read several reviews online and all had been favorable but for whatever reason we had not tried it. Talk about hiding your treasure in plain sight, this place is so far from a Denny's, all I can say is it rocks!

We arrived at noon and had several dining options. There are the traditional American breakfasts, burgers and sandwiches but we choose to go with with the French items. April had the Tartine aux Lardons, an open face foccacia sandwich with bacon, onions and cheese. I went with the Croque Monsieur, a hot ham and cheese. Each comes with a choice of soup, salad or fries. Both sandwiches were magnificent and we had some leftover to take home. I was about to call for the check when the waiter served profiteroles to the next table. Of course we had to have some. Pierre, I'm so going to be back for dinner. Merci Beaucoup!


Croque Monsieur and Tartine aux lardons

dessert

How to pick a restaurant

It is about as warm as it gets around here today. We attended an outdoor event, stood in the sun, forgot to bring the sunscreen and water. We darn near melted! It was well past lunch time when we got to the car. We cranked up the air conditioning and headed towards home. We passed the new mini mall in Ignacio that has a huge Safeway and a bunch of new restaurants. Lunch now! We did a brief walkthrough of each restaurant and landed at Sonoma Latina Grill. Why? They had the coldest air conditioning!

Sometimes you get lucky when you follow your intuition. I expected another mediocre Mexican joint but this place is far from it. Local, no preservatives, no high fructose corn syrup, all worth extra points. Most importantly the food is fabulous, reasonably priced and comes in generous portions.

Sonoma Latina Grill
5800 Nave Dr.
Novato, Ca.


Platos Classiscos

Sonoma Latina Salad

Mooshie Mooshie

Just after we got married, a Japanese friend taught my wife how to make gyoza dumplings. The variations are plentiful, we used beef spiced with garlic, ginger and green onions folded into a wonton wrapper. At our first dinner party we served fillet Mignon trying to be all upscale. We got worried when we thought we had miscalculated the amount of food we would need to serve our guests. April went to the freezer, pulled out the dumplings, steam fried them, and served with a spicy soy dipping sauce. The fillets sat lonely on the plate while the dumplings disappeared post haste. There were problems though. As hard as we tried we could not remember the name of the dumplings, so they were christened as mooshie mooshies and remained a staple in our meal plans. Another problem was they were labor intensive and for the life of me I could not make the pleated folds required to seal them.

It had been sometime since we've made mooshie mooshies but now with our newfound gadget they are simple to seal and the freezer is again full of these wonderful goodies. The gadget of which I speak is a dumpling maker by Joyce Chen, a source for a number of Asian cooking tools.

Just put a store bought wonton wrapper in the center add a small amount of meat, wet the edges with water and fold.

easy peasey
Here is a link for dumplings made by Good Fork Restaurant in Red Hook New York. Chef Kim used it to beat Bobby Flay on his Throw down show.

Sunday Streets

Last week we participated in Sunday Streets. On a number of Sundays this year different streets in San Francisco will be closed, so you can bike, blade or walk and enjoy car free activities. I would vote to have them closed every day but that's not likely to happen so we enjoyed this event to the fullest. On this particular day the Embarcadero was closed from AT&T all the way down to Fisherman's Wharf. We began our trip at the Ferry Building and hoofed it down to the park. Beautiful people enjoying the bay views.

AT&T opened the field so you could run the bases and of course April had to "slide" into home plate. Kids of all ages found this a blast.

After all this excitement our thoughts turned to food. We headed to Perry's, which is turning into our new favorite spot. We had a brunch and watched the Giant's, who were playing in Arizona.

Living for the Weekend. Enjoy!