Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Our vacation in food
Somehow, I managed not to gain much weight on this vacation — only three pounds, which I’ve already shed. Not quite sure how that happened, but as I didn’t exercise all week, I suspect my weight gain was partly compensated by loss of muscle mass.
We flew from Bako to San Francisco, thence to Crescent City. SFO has a decent eating court. Expensive, but decent. We usually have dim sum, but this time Jake had the clam chowder sourdough bowl from Le Boudin (isn’t that what it’s called?) and I think Karen got some kind of sourdough sandwich with cranberries and turkey. Not bad (I always get whatever she can’t finish.) And I had some sweet and sour pork from the dim sum place.
Jayna and her pasta
Once we got to Crescent City, Karen didn’t feel like eating anything, so Jake and I went to that place at the south end of town that’s only open in the summer. We both had scampi, which was quite good, but nothing’s ever as good as the FIRST TIME, which was scampi at a North Beach place called La Pergola’s. Even scampi at La Pergola’s the second time wasn’t as good as scampi at La Pergola’s the first time. Go figure.
The next day in CC, Karen was still under the weather, so Jake and I had dinner with my former receptionist. We went to Thai House. If you ever drive through CC, there are two can’t-fail restaurants you should check out: Thai House and Sea West, which is also Thai. Thai House also serves great Vietnamese food, and Sea West does some decent American cuisine. Thai House was great as usual, but I regret not taking Jake to Sea West. The proprietor, Koon, has known Jake since he was not-quite-three. I don’t think she’s seen him since he hit puberty, and I’m sure she’d get a kick out of it.
An arch rock at Harris Beach (Brookings, Oregon)
To get to Seattle, we had to fly back to SFO, and then we took a direct flight to Seattle. We came into Sea-Tac kinda late but our friends had cupcakes waiting for us. The next night, we went to a Korean restaurant and indulged in pickles and kalbi beef, pork, and squid. I can’t eat beef so I scarfed down the pork and squid and pickles. What are those pickles called — you know, the spread they put out at Korean restaurants? I crave that stuff. Usually, my favorite dish is the little dried fishies that are part sweet, part peppery, and part salty, but their little fishies weren’t up to my usual standards. They had glorious kim chee, though, and decent fried and marinated tofu.
The next night we had a good meal at a waterfront restaurant near our friends’ house, and our last night, we had sushi. At the waterfront restaurant, I had crab cakes for dinner, and Karen had fish. Can’t remember what everyone else ordered although I think Jake had a burger and other people had that fish dish. And of course Jayna (above) had pasta.
No four-star restaurants, but we still ate better than we had in a long, long while.
D.
