I’ve done my part
Ballot filled out and signed. It goes in the mail tonight. I don’t expect my individual vote means anything, but if you don’t vote you have no right to complain about the government you get. And whether we elect the crazy man or the sneaky conniving woman, I expect there will be plenty to complain about.
I wish this meant I wouldn’t have to hear any more about this election but that won’t happen. Now I’m hearing that Trump is planning to start his own news channel in the likelihood he loses, so we can hear his bombastic views in perpetuity. Oh joy.
Back to the Delta
Beautiful Saturday, cute blonde girl, fancy convertible. What else to do but go out to lunch on the Delta?
This time we headed to Heidi’s Outrigger, easy to get to by turning off Hwy 160 just before the first bridge and travelling a mile or so along the levee.
You used to tell the good roadside places by where the truck drivers ate. You can tell a good marina if that’s where the Coast Guard eats. Sure enough, there was a Coast Guard boat anchored and two seamen enjoying their lunch. This must be the place.
There’s nothing fancy about Heidi’s. It’s a waterside dump, but that’s pretty much what you expect in this area. The interior is covered in $1 bills that people decorate and attach to the walls and ceiling. I have never understood this, but it seems to make people happy.
All the action happens on the deck–where else would you want to be? I noticed that Heidi’s is the most dog-friendly place I’ve ever seen. When we go there the waitress was putting down a water bowl for a dog and offering the doggie treats, if it was OK with the owners. There are even two large cages so more obstreperous dogs can still be on the deck with their owners.
Food on the delta isn’t very chi-chi. It’s strong and manly. Each table had a Corona six-pack holder full of condiments. I pulled out the hot sauces so you could see them–I’ve never seen this many at one time on the table before:
A full gamut of choices to make your food hot and spicy.
I ordered a chicken sandwich and onion rings. You will notice that I am being robbed even before I can finish taking a photo:
Onion ring-napping in progress.
The rings were the best part of the meal. The sandwich was on a gummy roll, had plenty of cheese and might explain all those hot sauces–it needed spice.
Gail had the fish and chips:
Notice the half onion ring on top. We have found the culprit.
The cole slaw was particularly interesting. Shredded very fine, it had only a small amount of dressing, which contained no mayo at all. I liked it.
The menu is pretty standard, except for the glaring exception of fish tacos, which should be required by law at every dockside food emporium. I cannot explain the lack thereof.
One last thing. The restrooms at these places tend to have cutesy names on the door, frequently “buoys” and “gulls”. Heidi’s was more inventive than most:
We enjoyed our ride, we enjoyed our lunch. These little marinas in the delta are just fun, whether the food is good or mediocre. The crowd is friendly, the view is relaxing and I even enjoyed the pooches lolling on the deck. Check it out.
It’s only a buck
The life of a famous blogger is never dull. There I was in the grocery store, shopping for dinner, when a member of the Unit 499 Board came over to upbraid me for being so hard on the Unit about not giving any money to charity.
She (and that’s all the description you’re going to get) wasn’t happy about my saying we should be giving more/any money to people who need it. She thinks it is important to keep all that cash (over $32,000) because some clubs might need help buying cards and dealing machines, but she says it is the treasurer who refuses to spend any money.
Now I think the treasurer is a penny pinching, risk averse, small minded bean counter. I also think he works for us, not the other way around. It isn’t his job to decide where the unit spends money, it’s his job to keep track of everything.
We kept talking. I kept insisting that as a group we are well off and incredibly fortunate, and should be sharing with others. You can’t much argue with that.
Finally, some consensus was achieved. I suggested that we could most certainly afford to donate $1 a year per member to charity. Who doesn’t drop more than that in pennies every year? There are about 800 members of our unit, so $800 to $1000 per year is eminently reasonable.
She asked how we were going to decide to whom to give this abundance. I explained the concept of delegation–point at somebody on the board and say “Find a decent local charity which keeps less than 10% for overhead and gives the rest to people who need it. Give us an answer next month.” That business school education finally paid off for me.
Now I’m going to do some delegation. Find yourself a board member and say you’re in favor of a buck a year for charity. Let them all know. This stuff isn’t rocket science–we can be good people if we just want to be.
She Bops
CYNDI!!
Friday night Gail and I went to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga to see the great Cyndi Lauper in concert. It was a blast.
First, we fought traffic for 2 hours from Berkeley to get there. I had purchased dinner tickets in advance, so we went to the Chateau Deck for a meal.
The deck is just that–an outdoor deck with an incredible view of the valley. It was also colder than a stepmother’s kiss and they don’t have any outdoor heaters. The do offer to sell you a thin little blanket for $35, thankyouverymuch. No.
We had a three course prix fixe dinner. I started with the caprese salad:
Gail had the carpacio Caesar salad
This is an excellent Caesar edged with slices of carpaccio. Gail was taking little bits of bread, adding the meat and topping it all with salad for a tiny sandwich. The most important part of the salad is the Caesar dressing, and Gail pronounced this one excellent. There was kale in the salad, and it turns out kale is edible if you drown it in good dressing.
Then Gail had the Petrale Sole.
Not only was it excellent, but the portion was considerable. And it came on a hot plate, which Gail put to good use before she started eating:
Warming her hands on the plate.
I had the rack of lamb, which was good but I thought the portion was tiny–it was really a half rack, and they were the smallest chops I’ve ever seen.
The meal included desserts, and I ordered both the lemon tart and the chocolate mousse. Loved the tart, thought the mousse was too stiff.
When the meal is significantly overpriced because of the location, do you tip on the whole bill or the value of the meal? Our dinners were decent, but worth about 2/3 of what they charge, which is $74/person plus wine. These were not $74 dinners. The overpriced wine brought the tab to almost $200, which is absurd. For that money they could at least have outdoor heaters. Better to have a good meal in Saratoga and then go to the concert next time.
The music started. But not Cyndi. There was an opening act, not listed in any of the literature. Another reason to enjoy dining in town–we didn’t need to be there that early. The act was the famous, great bluesman Charlie Musselwhite. Nothing wrong with his act, I just wasn’t prepared for it and wish the facility had the good grace to tell me in advance. Our evening would have gone differently.
I had time to do some people watching. A very mixed crowd–some young, some old, some who can’t decide if they want to grow up or not.
Then, at last, Cyndi. 63 years old, can still carry all the notes, sings, dances, entertains. The show was great.
It’s a beautiful outdoor theater
There is a new album, Detour, the tour is centered on. County music, with blues and rockabilly influences. Most of the show is from the new album. Some of the old tunes, of course. Couldn’t have a Lauper concert without She Bop.
Cyndi sings a bit, then talks for a while. Maybe she needs to rest the voice, maybe that’s just the way she entertains. I’d prefer more singing, but she didn’t ask me. She’s warm and funny and doesn’t take herself very seriously. Entertaining all the way through.
Meanwhile, it was a beautiful, if chilly, evening. The Mountain Winery is a great place, much updated from the first time I was there 15 years ago.
A wonderful place to enjoy a concert
Cyndi’s act is about 90 minutes long. We didn’t stay for the finish and the inevitable, programmed “encore”, where she most likely had to drag out Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, because we’d already had enough fun.
The ride home was much shorter than the trip down, singing Misty Blue since Cyndi had stuck it in our minds. It was a fun evening, and I’d do it again. Sometime warmer.
Good Eats, Cheap
Sometimes we eat at fancy upscale fine dining restaurants. Sometimes we just go out for body fuel. Grub. Eats. Last night was one of the latter.
Gail had a taste for the spaghetti with brown butter and mizithra cheese at the Old Spaghetti Factory, on Todos Santos Plaza in Concord.
They don’t take reservations, but you can call and get your name on the list. I did that and we only had to wait 3 or 4 minutes before we got a table.
We got a waiter named Steve who was a clear professional, proving you don’t have to work in the fancy joints to be good at your job. He was a relentless up-seller, but that’s what they pay him for. The basic meals are so cheap the place makes its profit on selling you something extra, from appetizers to special dinners to better wines to high class desserts.
None of that worked with us–we were there for the mizithra and brown butter, $11.95 for the 3 course dinner with salad, fresh sourdough bread, entree and ice cream for dessert.
First, the salad.
Iceberg lettuce, cabbage, carrots, croutons and creamy pesto dressing. The fresh baked loaf of sourdough right behind.
There is nothing fancy here, and I can’t remember the last salad I had with iceberg lettuce, but I like the creamy pesto dressing and the whole thing was fine, in an old fashioned kind of way.
Then an odd thing happened. Nothing. No food, no service. This place thrives on getting the customers in and out and getting some new ones in the same seats. They can’t afford to let you languish waiting, but that’s what happened for what seemed forever but was probably 15 minutes. Gail was her usual picture of patience and bonhomie.
Eventually, of course, we were served. We did add a couple of items to dinner–I had a sausage with my pasta, and we had a “small” side of the broccoli, also served with brown butter and mizithra. You have a wide choice of pastas, and I decided to try the ditalini, which is Italian for salad macaroni I guess.
I just added the broccoli right on top of the pasta. It was great.
Soaking veggies in brown butter and cheese makes them death food, but it sure tasted good.
This is one of my favorite basic meals. We make it at home, too, but Gail says the Old Spaghetti Factory is better. Who am I to argue?
We both ate most of our dinners, but needed to leave room for dessert so we brought some home.
You have a choice of vanilla or spumoni ice cream, and should always take the spumoni. It’s good, but not really authentic because it doesn’t have any dried fruit or pistachios in it. Spumoni is pistachio, chocolate and cherry ice cream, and it’s just the luck of the draw what combination you get in your dish. Gail grabbed the one with the chocolate.
The tab for this feast, with a glass of good (read “upsold”) chardonnay, was $42.85. $53 with tip. They charge that much for lamb chops in the class joints in SF or New York.
Even with the fermata between the salad and the entree, we were in and out in 58 minutes. A happy dinner, a three course meal for 2 for $50, with leftovers for breakfast, what more could you ask? I like this place. Occasionally.
District 21 Does the Right Thing
District VP Tom Pajak presenting check to SHARE chairman Ken Carpoff
Unit 499 Board Member Jackie Zayac is also a member of the District 21 board, and used her influence to persuade the district charity committee to donate $2,500 to SHARE, enough to purchase 6,000 pounds of food to distribute.
There was a small ceremony today at the bridge club to hand over the check, so I thought I’d drop in, take photos and see if there was cake. Good news. There was cake.
Jackie Zayac addressing the throng
Tom looked especially snappy
Ken Carpoff represented SHARE
I’m not at all pleased to hear that our Unit NEVER makes donations to charity. We have over $32,000 in the bank (having had a hugely successful program with Barbara Seagram which netted us over $6,400!! Good work, Anne!) Surely we could spend a bit of that to help those less fortunate.
By and large, bridge players are intelligent, educated, successful and well-off. A few are just plain rich. The enormous amount of money we have in the bank should be doing at least some good for the greater polity, not just financing dealing machines and new decks of cards for the local clubs. I’m all in favor of helping the clubs, I just want to do more. Don’t we who have been so lucky in life have a moral responsibility to help others?
Tom Pajak told me that the Oakland unit makes an annual donation to the Oakland Zoo, which is quite close to the East Bay Community Bridge Center. Good for them.
The Contra Costa Bridge center, not the unit, is planning a charity event to help SHARE. I heard some different possibilities today, but it is clear that they have a strong intention to make a significant contribution. Good for them: I’ll be there.
This is nothing new–I’ve been railing against the amount of money our unit and our district hoard for decades. You’d think it was their own money and their children were barefoot. And no, I don’t think we should give everything away and don sackcloth and ashes. There just has to be a reasonable, sane amount that we can give to make life better for people who need help.
A Trip to the SHED
Not the woodshed, SHED, a very modern restaurant in Healdsburg.
We’re all so lucky to live here, where there is such a flowering of the culinary arts. I think Main Street in Napa has more great places to eat on one street than anywhere else in the world, and little Healdsburg, north of Santa Rosa, isn’t far behind. Even after the closing of the great Cyrus, Healdsburg is a great destination: Chalkboard, Dry Creek, and now SHED.
Just north of the square, across the street from the hotel that formerly housed Cyrus and is now home to Chalkboard, SHED is a modern new facility housing a market, a butcher shop, a café, a kitchenware store, a gardening store and an ice cream shop, all in one large, airy, open, high-ceilinged room.
The whole place is very upscale. The market sell only the best organic produce and fancy, local gourmet items. This also makes it beautiful.
Organic heirloom cherry tomatoes for sale in the market
The butcher shop has obscure, upscale choices like a prosciutto made from pigs fed only acorns. $64/pound. Pigs on a more varied diet produce $34/lb cured ham.
In the kitchenware area you can buy your new bread knife right or left handed.
The garden shop has books on organic beekeeping, obscure seeds, wooden knitting needles and hand dyed imported knitting yarns.
The café has tables both inside and out. An inventive menu features lamb, duck, rabbit, squid and halibut paired with things you never heard of like sunflower seed molé, chilled fennel soup or dulse seaweed. There are plates both large and small, but even the small plates are quite generous.
I started with the apple and sunchoke salad. The sunchoke, also known as the Jerusalem Artichoke, is the root of a species of sunflower which tastes quite like artichoke.
Apple and sunchoke salad with hazelnuts, radicchio and sunchoke puree
Fair warning: sunchokes can cause immense amounts of gas. You may not be particularly welcome company after enjoying this salad.
Gail found an appetizer that she is still raving about. Spanish white anchovies on toast.
There are anchovies in there, honest.
I had the duck breast, served in a huge bowl with sunflower seed molé, summer peppers and papalo (also called summer cilantro or Bolivian coriander).
The duck was just duck. The molé was spicy and interesting. The peppers were too hot for me.
We shared an order of the potatoes.
Roasted potatoes, shisito peppers, paprika aioli
Potatoes, peppers and aioli served in a heavy frying pan. This is a great side dish for your party to share.
Gail had the rabbit, served with shelling beans, salsa verde and hominy. All the side veggies were served cold, which doesn’t work.
Warm rabbit, cold beans. Not a good plan.
She sent her dish back to be heated, something I’ve never seen her do before.
The rabbit tastes like chicken. Heck, it could be chicken and nobody would be the wiser if they didn’t serve the wings. The beans were a little better once they were heated, but this dish got no prizes from us.
Halibut, mussels, fresh corn and smoked tomato broth
Brad and Kate both ordered the Halibut, and were glad they did. The dish was complex and satisfying, the winner of the evening.
I had an interesting corn custard for dessert, but Gail claimed the prize for best choice when she had the creme fraiche ice cream. Her dessert portion was so good she got another scoop for the road from the ice cream station in the front of the building.
SHED isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn good and an interesting and exciting facility to be in. It’s one more reason Healdsburg is a destination for local foodies. I think we would go back, but not order the rabbit.
Not gonna play in Peoria
Off to Center Rep last night with Micky and Linda. We saw a play called It Should Been You, billed as a musical comedy. We enjoyed it, even though Gail thinks it is 20 minutes too long.
It was musical. It was a comedy. It also covered some serious themes that will play well in this area, but this play surely isn’t going to work in the conservative religious heartland. The serious themes were discussed without preachiness but rather smugness at how mature and modern we all are. This is a West Coast play, to be sure.
The acting is superb. This production boasts 5 players who are members of Actors Equity, and the non-Equity members all do a fine job. The singing is on key, the dancing is flawless (and beautifully choreographed), the acting is spot on.
Elizabeth Curtis, not an Equity member, holds the play together as Jenny, the less pretty older sister of the bride. Richard Frederick plays the father of the groom, and makes a small part big with his talents. Scottie Woodard gets most of the big laughs as Albert, the ultimate wedding planner.
It’s hard for me to properly describe It Should Been You without giving it away. Suffice it to say that the play centers around a wedding. People are not what they seem. Secrets are revealed. Uproar is uproared. Cooler heads prevail. Wisdom and kindness win the day and everyone lives happily ever after.
The Margaret Lesher theater was sold out last night, and again tonight. There are seats available for the rest of the run, but you should act quickly.
Something new in the world
I didn’t take this photo, it’s from the Ballet
World Premieres are something that we think happen in New York or London, but last night we were treated to the World Premiere of a new ballet by Garrett Ammon presented by the Smuin Ballet at the Lesher Center. New York is eating its heart out.
If I knew more about ballet, I’d write about it better. There were 3 pieces on the program. I liked them all, but I’m sort of at a loss for words. They were non-narrative works, so there was lots of great dancing to classical music in beautiful costumes. That’s isn’t much of a technical review, but it’s the best I’ve got today.
The costumes, however, stand out. In the first piece they were all in a diaphanous clothing that mirrored the title, Indigo. In the second, the lead dancer was in primary red while the rest of the company were in secondary colors that perfectly complimented the scene. The last piece had everyone in shades of gray, against a gray background. All very alike, all very different. The Smuin goes all out to make the evening a visual feast.
I’ve written about this ballet company so many times I’m out of superlatives. Their run at the Lesher was only 2 performances this time, but you can still see the show in Mountain View and San Francisco. They will be back in Walnut Creek on the 18th and 19th of November with the Christmas show. I’ll be there, you should see it as well.
Out for a Sunday drive
The weather was great and we own a convertible, so what better thing to do today than go for a Sunday drive.
We wondered over the Antioch bridge and out to the delta, winding our way along poorly paved levee roads enjoying the views, marveling at the houses built behind the levees but on stilts high enough to survive a breach. Lots of them are for sale, if you want a weekend getaway that isn’t all that far from home.
Hunger took over, and I quickly googled “best brunch”, which led us to the Spindrift Marina in Isleton.
All of these places look alike. Dark, cool interiors, lots of maritime geegaws as decor, corny signs and silly gags. Spindrift is no different.
Just hanging out at the bar on a sunny Sunday
Not a lot of need for a hard hat diving suit in the delta.
Windows like portholes for the proper maritime feel
Directions to the rest rooms
So the atmosphere was right, how was the food? Excellent.
Seafood seemed appropriate, and the waitress/owner said their specialty was the halibut tacos, so that’s what I had. I asked what came with the tacos, and was told “it’s a surprise”. You don’t get answers like that at the French Laundry, but we were out for an adventure, so what the hell?
Fried halibut tacos.
The lunch got started with a cup of clam chowder that had more bacon than clams–clearly the right way to prepare it. Then the tacos came with beans and rice, my “surprise”. The red plastic squeeze bottle on the table holds not ketchup but chipotle sauce, just the right amount of spicy zestiness for the perfect taco. This meal made me a happy campers.
Gail just wanted a death-food hamburger, and that’s what she got.
Being the healthy eater that I am, I was going to pass on dessert. Gail, who virtually never orders a dessert, pointed out the the Spindrift offers home made spumoni. I graciously agreed to share one with her, and we quite enjoyed the genuine taste of the original Italian sweet.
The Spindrift is run by a husband and wife team, Chris and Sherri, who have owned the place for a dozen years.
Sherri wanted me to mention the $22 steak and lobster on Friday night, with karaoke at 7 pm. $25 steak and lobster on Saturday night, more expensive but you don’t have to listen to the singing.
Who’s interested? I’d love to take a group on a Friday and just party. I’ll be the designated driver, as always. This is a serious offer.
We circled through Stockton and back to highway 4, then came home on Marsh Creek road, which I’ve loved since I had a motorcycle 25 years ago. We got a great view of the back side of Mt. Diablo.
All in all, an excellent way to spend the day, a good lunch, new friends in the owners of the marina. Life is good.
Totally Unauthorized 