Category: Food and Drink

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Art and Artists Food and Drink Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Stanford

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford – A Sunday Favorite

One of our favorite places on the Stanford campus is the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts – otherwise known as the Cantor Arts Center.

Lady Madonna

Today, on an amazingly warm and delightful Sunday, I took the quick two mile trip over to Cantor to try out my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II on some inside the museum photography – Cantor is one of those museums that empowers photographers – inside the non-exhibition galleries and for non-commercial use only. Here’s the quick result – today’s “raw” (unadjusted) set on Flickr.

For today’s shooting, I left the 5D Mark II in full automatic ISO selection – turned out that for indoor shooting inside the Arts Center this was a real delight compared to the 40D’s limited automatic ISO adjustment. I ran the 5D Mark II mostly in Picture mode – letting the camera automatically select shutter speed and aperture.

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Food and Drink Travel

Enjoying Lola in Cleveland Very Much!

I’m in Cleveland on business for a couple of days.

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Tonight, we headed over to Lola for a just delightful dinner – based upon a recommendation from Linda Gulker. Couldn’t have been easier – our hotel was about a block away from the restaurant on E. 4th St.

I was on a pork binge tonight apparently – indulging in both the Berkshire Bacon appetizer followed by the Smoked Berkshire Pork Chop – its cheesy polenta and BBQ onions perfectly complementing the smoked pork.

After such a robust meal, I passed on any dessert. Lola’s was jumping tonight as we left – very well nourished!

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Food and Drink Living

Drifting into Fall

A lovely fall weekend in northern California, a couple of leisurely walks yesterday and today out in the sunshine with the dog (Windy Hill – from above and, even better, from below!), a very satisfying first try with a great new recipe, along with a fresh shipment from one of our very favorite wineries.

This trio of weeks from mid-October thru early November are just about my most favorite time of year. This season, what with a busy work schedule and lots of other stuff going on, it’s been hard to kick back and enjoy. But, we caught up on almost all of that this weekend!

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Food and Drink Living

“His Influence Cannot Be Underestimated”

Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee and “leader of a coffee revolution”, died last week. Corby Kummer commented that “his influence cannot be underestimated.” Can there be any higher tribute?

Menlo Park was the second Peet’s location – opening in 1971 – and remains the best place in town for coffee and beans. Mike Dawson, a long-time Peet’s Menlo Park staffer who cheered us on many mornings, passed away earlier this year.

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Food and Drink Photography Web/Tech

About that Tomales Bay Launch for Hire

Today, I’ve completed a number of updates to what had become a pretty moldy oldie blog here at sjl.us. Sorry for the recent lack of tender care – but life’s been busy!

Part of today’s update included replacing the header graphic (of “ducks in a row” in Sharon Park in Menlo Park) with a new one from a recent photo shoot on the way to Point Reyes. Here’s the story.

As you head into Point Reyes on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard through Inverness, on the western side of Inverness you come across this vista with that lovely “Launch for Hire” pier jutting out into Tomales Bay – known as Brock’s Boathouse. That’s where this new header graphic photo was taken using my trusty Canon 30D – shooting using my Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Lens at f/9 and 29 mm.

In one of my offices, I’ve got one of Chris Honeysett‘s prints of that same building – but shot on a beautiful foggy morning from a position on the opposite side a bit northwest of the pier. Chris’ beautiful photo provided the inspiration for this alternate view.

Obviously, one of these days I will have to actually hire that launch! If you do go to Inverness or Point Reyes, be sure to stop on your way at Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station. Here’s a map. Earlier is better – the Creamery can get busy on a sunny afternoon! (Update: unfortunately, Cowgirl Creamery closed its retail location in Point Reyes Station during the pandemic).

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Food and Drink

Cameron Hughes Wine

I happened to hear the tail-end of an interview today with Cameron Hughes on KGO’s Gene Burns Dining Around talk radio show. What Cameron’s doing is pretty interesting – focusing on buying premium lots of wine at the upper end of the market and selling them via his online store and in distribution with Costco. For the last couple of years, Trader Joe’s has been doing something similar with their “Two Buck Chuck” brand but at the low end of the market. K&L Wines has had a house brand of wines called Kalinda that seems to have been doing much the same thing as Hughes – so this feels like some new competition for K&L, particularly given the wine distribution power of Hughes’ partner Costco.

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Food and Drink

Dedicated to God

With the humble dedication “Dedicated to God”, Steve Heimoff begins his excellent book “A Wine Journey along the Russian River“. Heimoff pours himself into this book – opening nooks and crannies about the Russian River and the winemakers who ply its banks.

“Understanding Pinot Noir” might be the best subtitle to Heimoff’s work – as he explores its evolution in the hands of Rochioli, Davis Bynum, Gary Farrell and others to new heights – and, then, questions a shift he detects over the last few years.

My reading of Heimoff’s book happened to coincide with a recent tasting of Navarro’s 2004 Zinfandel – the “old wine” he writes about. Too bad he doesn’t spend more time in the Anderson Valley (Mendocino County) exploring Navarro and Edmeades! Those old vine Zin’s are just amazing!

If you’d like to travel the Westside Road and explore the Middle Reach, let Heimoff be your guide!

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Food and Drink

Harold McGee and the Curious Cooks

In one of those examples of the wonders of life’s serendipity, I recently had the opportunity through a mutual friend to meet Harold McGee, author of “On Food and Cooking” and “The Curious Cook” (among other writings!).

We talked a lot about blogging – and about lots of other things too. Be sure to read Harold – seems to me that he’s already found his “blogging voice”!

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Food and Drink Travel

When In Portland…

I’ll second Derek Powazek’s recommendation of the Hotel Lucia as the place to stay when you’re in Portland. Another great spot, just around the corner, is Fifth Avenue Suites. Both are just a block or two from a MAX light rail station – which makes getting into town from PDX super simple – and cheap!

Last time I was in town, dinner at Serratto was a delight – an easy Portland Streetcar ride from the hotel. Or, do what I did, and walk a couple of blocks from the hotel north to Powell’s Books, browse until it’s dinnertime, and then grab the Streetcar to Serratto’s!

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Books Food and Drink

Corn

I’ve just started reading Michael Pollan’s latest book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and it’s superb.

The first part of the book is devoted to a lengthy discussion of the corn culture that’s become, since the 1970’s, such a core component of the food supply in this country. Through a perverse set of economic incentives coupled with the extravagant use of fertilizers that come from fossil fuels like natural gas, we’ve got corn literally coming out our ears with its monoculture destroying the old family farm.