California, Part 2

(August 3rd, 2012) You may be wondering what happened to "California, Part 1."  Well, my visit to Livermore was a relatively uneventful work trip punctuated by sushi with Nate and 40 some miles of running over the three days there.  It was nice catching up with Mr. Young, as always, but I shant go into details of that here...and the running?  Well, I'll talk about that later...

So, "California, Part 2!"

After leaving Livermore (and fueling up at Panera...I can't begin to describe how happy I am to have them in ABQ finally!!!), I picked up Kim at the airport and eventually made my way to Chez Panisse.  Yes, the same Chez Panisse that is the holy grail of farm to table cooking and slow food.  After hearing about Alice Waters for years, I couldn't, in good conscience pass up any opportunity to finally dine there. 

You'll be pleased to know that the food lived up to, and even exceeded some, expectations.  One consequence, though, of waiting so long before writing up my thoughts is that I tend to forget some of the finer details.  But, for you dear readers, I shall endeavor to recall as best I can...

The quaint entrance to this dining mecca, located in downtown Berkeley, CA.

Shaved fennel and sweet pepper salad with green olives and spicy pistachios

Braised and grilled Watson Ranch lamb leg with corn, summer squash, tomatillos, and padron peppers

Clams, shrimp, and squid roasted in the wood oven with chorizo, new potatoes, and allioli

Buttermilk panna cotta with mulberry sauce

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?  The salad, shaved fennel and sweet pepper salad with green olives and spicy pistachios, didn't sound like the most delicious thing on the menu, but it certainly sounded like one of the most interesting that night.  I always enjoy a good fennel dish from time to time, so I figured why not?  It didn't disappoint.  The licorice-flavor of the fennel blended in so well with the other subtle and big flavors in the salad.  Who would've guessed?

Next, the main courses were the lamb and the clams/shrimp/squid.  The lamb had been cooked just right for my taste, and the tomatillos - oh, how good they were.  Small little things like that always go a long way towards accenting a dish and putting that something extra there to make it fantastic.  Kim's dish (the clams/shrimp/squid) was good from what I remember, but at this point my memory is failing me.  Sure, I could tell you that the squid was chewy like you'd expect, but I'm not sure that really helps...

Last up, the panna cotta with mulberry sauce...fried dough, sweet berry sauce, and panna cotta, how could you go wrong?

The rest of the trip to Berkley continued the high bar that Chez Panisse set.  Just around the corner was Alegio Chocolate.  This hidden gem proved to be a genuine find.  Very artistically crafted chocolates with ganaches that were simply amazing...

Alegio Chocolate

Pretty chocolates abound...

Then last, but not least, was our hotel.  Somehow we managed to get a last minute deal on a local resort, so we spent next to nothing to stay at the Claremont Resort.  This place oozed luxury, we could hardly believe that we managed to luck out and get a room there on a moment's notice (for some reason, we hadn't even tried to book a hotel until around lunch time...).  The picture, blatantly borrowed from their website, shows you some of the grandeur:

The Claremont Hotel and Spa.

 And for your orientation, it was in the hills overlooking Berkeley.

Okay, on to Sonoma with the next post...more about Berkeley and the banana slugs when I get to writing about running in California...