Start at Acme Bread Company, the legendary all-organic bakery begun in Berkeley. The classic baguettes will transport you as close to Paris as it’s possible to get from the West Coast of the United States. For a fancier San Francisco experience, grab a slab of olive rosemary bread. Be sure to bring cash—Acme doesn’t accept credit cards.

Read more at Oyster Locals…

Seriously.

I am all aglow with the awesomeness of this…or maybe that’s just the clarified goose fat smeared all over my face.

3 and 1/2 cups apple cider (non-alcoholic, non-sparkling)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
About 18 sprigs green herbs (oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, white culinary sage–pick your favorites)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 wild boar backstrap, cut into two pieces

Mix all marinade ingredients in a liquid cup measure or bowl. Put each half of the backstrap into a gallon-sized ziplock bag. Pour 1/2 of the marinade carefully over the boar into each bag. Seal each bag. Squish the bag around to distribute the marinade.

Refrigerate the marinating boar for 48 hours.

The rest of the roast went into this marinade and stayed there for 48 hours before being grill-roasted:

Hearty Red Wine Marinade for Wild Boar

2 and 1/2 cups cabernet sauvignon
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
12 black peppercorns
3 whole cloves
6 allspice berries
1 sprig fresh rosemary
6 leaves fresh sage
2 sprigs fresh oregano
1 sprig fresh marjoram
2 sprigs fresh thyme

3-4 pounds wild boar roast

Add all ingredients to a bowl or cup measure and stir to mix vinegar and wine with herbs and spices.

Put the boar meat, untied, into a gallon-sized sealable plastic bag. Carefully pour the marinade into the bag. Make sure that all the herbs and spices get into the bag with the meat. Seal the bag and squish it around to distribute the marinade around the meat. Put the bag of boar into the refrigerator. Once or twice per day, squish bag and return it to the refrigerator.

Cooking method and backstrap marinade coming soon…

This article focuses primarily on San Francisco and the East Bay, but there are fabulous indie and small-chain ice cream shops all over Northern California.

Yes, it’s a chain. And yet I simply adore Gelato Classico. I’ve stood in the line that poured out the door and onto the sidewalk to get a scoop of Chocolate or a cup of Raspberry Sorbet on hot summer nights in Mountain View.

Not that I’d voluntarily eat any of the items shown and described in this article. Especially those purveyed by Toxic Bell–I’ve known one too many people who’ve gotten a free ambulance ride to the ER after eating their “food.” The very smell of a Jack in the Box “restaurant” makes me sick to my stomach. I think it’s something about the specific content of the grease they use.

It’s only fair to mention that with the exception of In-N-Out burgers, I don’t eat fast food at all regularly–maybe once or twice per year, if that.  I’ll get an In-N-Out burger once every 2-3 months.

Fast food isn’t food. Especially when it’s bright red and orangey-speckled yellow.

Super-Quick Champagne Refrigerator Pickles

Ingredients:

4 med cucumbers (about 8-12 inches long), peeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
1 cup champagne vinegar
1 sprig oregano
1 sprig marjoram
3 sprigs thyme
3 sprigs lemon thyme
1 sprig savory
about 1 teaspoon ground sea salt (or to taste)

Procedure

Put half the cucumber rounds into a medium sized resealable container. Sprinkle with 1/2 the vinegar and some of the salt. Add the herb sprigs. Spread the rest of the cucumbers on top of the herbs. Add the rest of the vinegar and salt. Seal the lid tightly onto the container, and shake well.

Refrigerate the pickles for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days before serving.

Note: These tasted surprisingly good after only a couple of hours marinating. Pick your favorite herbs to create your own flavor variations. I may add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic to my next batch.

Even restaurants can have eensy little kitchens!

I get inordinately tired of people who bitch and whine that they can’t cook anything because they have small or imperfect kitchens. Bull****. Got a stove burner? Got a pan? You can cook. I’ve made and canned jam on a pullman unit in my family’s one-room tumble-down lake cabin. I once assisted in making a full Thanksgiving dinner using a grand total of 2 mini-microwaves, a rotisserie, and a toaster oven. (Now that was an experience.)

I haven’t gotten a copy yet, but I was so excited to see a book and blog addressing exactly this style of cookery, Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens.

Read more on examiner.com…

I spent 9 months traveling almost every weekend to research Moon California. During this period, I ate California Cuisine, Wine Country Cuisine, Haute Cuisine, Fusion Cuisine, Pan-Asian Cuisine, and just about every other form of Cuisine imaginable. Much of it tasted amazing. I got great service, cool atmospheres, original menus, and stunning wines.

At the 6 month mark, I found myself standing before a nice inkeeper who desperately wanted me to get dinner at the new high-end wine bar and restaurant in Nevada City, California. My traveling companion had to physically restrain me from grabbing the poor man by the collar of his shirt and screaming into his face, “I just want a burrito! Is that so wrong?!?!!?”

(That night I compromised with a plate of ravioli, then hit the wine bar afterwards for a glass of dessert.)

The bottom line: there is such a thing as too much of a good (or even wonderful) thing. California’s fine restaurants serve some of the best high-end fare you’ll ever eat. But you, or at least I, can’t eat it 2-5 times every week. It’s too rich, too fancy, too *much*. I understand now why all major restaurant reviewers end up waxing poetic about their favorite hole-in-the-wall sushi joints and taco trucks.

Happily, my beloved home state also hosts an endless array of fab cheap ethnic eateries. (“American diner” is an ethnic food, as far as I’m concerned.) And in my ‘hood, the year-round farmer’s markets and sustainable meat and bread purveyors make it easy to cook great food at home.

Okay, I’m hungry now…