Monterey Peninsula

This past weekend, Robin & I went down to the Monterey Peninsula on Saturday morning.

Still dark when we left. At this point, traffic was stop & go, about half an hour south of Gilroy on 101. Patch of Eucalyptus, sans Koala herd.

So we got down to Seaside, a suburb of Monterey, and after consulting the internet, we decided to try brunch here, at The Breakfast Club. I was tempted to try the Crab Cake Benedict, but something about the place, especially the BOH staff, made me decide on the Chile Verde Omelet. I asked for tortillas instead of biscuit or toast. Freaking gigantic. That thing was stuffed with what seemed like half a pound of tender carnitas. Robin's biscuit and gravy was better than I expected. Huge portions, pretty damn good food, check it out if you're in town. Good value.

Mushrooms we spotted in Carmel, which has quite a bit of biodiversity.

Pretty sure this is the Julia Morgan building at Asilomar. Beautiful architecture, whoever designed it.

Stunning waves on the beaches near Asilomar. Entire area shot through with sea-spray, waves thundering on the shore.

A taste of the very touristy marina area of Monterey.

Santa Cruz: Fungus Fair & More

We arrived in a blur on Friday. This morning the sun was out after rain in the middle of the night into early morning cleared the clouds into wisps. Off in the distance we could spy our destination next week: Monterey and Big Sur beyond. Had a much better stay this year, thanks to eating healthier food: more leafy greens, less bad carbs, fresh fish, carrot juice, broccoli sprouts and ginger juice.

We discovered this health-oriented grocery this weekend, Staff Of Life.

Picked up supplies for our Chocolate Cleanse.

OK, so here's Robin's booth at the Fungus Faire, where you could see our neighbor Lauren who was selling these amazing silks, some with mushroom designs on them. She also does the Ren Faire circuit.

The neighbor on the other side sold these beautifully rendered glass objects. Cracked up overhearing some other guy bragging about the glass-blowing he does.

The most "Santa Cruz" art there: mushroom ornaments made out of surf boards.

Curt Haney's booth. Those Peruvian pipes sure can't hold much tobacco in them, wtf?!

All joking around aside, there's some serious medicinal work going on in the Mycological world. Will get back to that in a bit.

Not to mention the culinary side.

These folks from Far West Fungi really take propagation to the next level.

Here's the display room. Taxonomy.

Far West Fungi's table.

Amanita Muscaria.

Boletes.

When the fungi gets weird...

OK. Specimen on the left, Jack O Lantern. Only fungus I know of that vaguely resembles Chanterelles that's poisonous. Beware!

Turkey Tail OTOH is used for treating cancer.

And here's some more Medicinal Mushrooms, most of these used in Chinese medicine, stuff like Reichi used for helping improve immune systems.

Death Cap. POISON!

Fly agaric, aka Amanita Muscaria. Big specimens.

Yellow chanterelles.

Food we ate at a local Thai restaurant Saturday night. Pretty good.

And here's a bunch of photos of the beach.

Gullion Country Club

Outdoor kitty.

Adding extra cisterns during a drought: a good idea.

Amanita muscaria.

Some trees I planted ten years ago.

Periwinkle.

Old paths.

Bottom land.

Bay tree I saw split by lightning ten years ago.

Faux "Southern Style" BBQ in Northern California

Robin said she was starving while we were on our way home from the weekend's West Sonoma County Sojourn. After buying some local produce and other stuff at Andy's, we decided to take a chance on a "Southern Style" BBQ place in between Whole Foods and the Barlow in Sebastopol. Most of it was pretty good, but this "Texas style" brisket certainly was not. Anyone who's had the real thing can see by the photo above what the problem is. I don't need to explain it to them.

There's a number of ways they could have botched it, but Robin's suggestion is likely enough: they cooked them yesterday, then re-heated them this morning in some pan juices. Also they probably sliced them yesterday.

The flavor was pretty good, and the brisket was moist, but it didn't taste like it had 20 hours of smoking at low, indirect heat. Pretty tender, but nowhere near the real thing. Which means a black crust, red ring, and pink, juicy meat inside.

I'm guessing that most people around here, who've never had the real thing, might think proper Texas-style BBQ looks way under-cooked, which could be another reason why this brisket looks grey and over-cooked.

But then these, Pork Ribs more or less in the Memphis/KC/St. Louis/Chicago style, were pretty good. Most BBQ places around here do a pretty good job with pork ribs. Get that. I've had better than these, but I'd say these are better than average. Nice char on them. Very light on the sauce, if used at all during cooking. Seemed like dry rub ribs to me.

The sides were much better, and close to my favorite BBQ place in Austin for sides: Ruby's. Funny thing is, of course, many BBQ joints in Texas don't serve sides, and most purists disdain them. Some have been heard to utter "goddamn Yankee carpetbaggers" in reference to people wanting sides, other than raw white onion slices, pickle chips, possibly some pickled banana or jalapeno peppers, and your choice of white bread or crackers. 

Take a look at the Furr's-esque sides they try to sell you at Black's in Lockhart--pretty close to hospital food--nowhere close to the quality of the meat. That makes Ruby's stand out. This place in Sebastopol (playing Marcia Ball on their PA at one point) did a credible job with the cornbread, pretty damn good garlic mashed potatoes, and some of the best coleslaw I've ever had. Unsurprising since Sebastopol isn't known for great restaurants as much as it is for great local goods, especially Gravenstein apples.