Berkley Delights

Today I made the journey from Walnut Creek to Berkley. These are two different places. One has striking hills in the distance and is full of medium to high end shopping opportunities that are frequented by people who dress to shop... similar to the way people use to dress to fly.

I am dressed to fly out tonight, but my outfit is more of the pajamas, meets yoga clothes, home made print screened t-shirt flavour. This is not the look of Walnut Creek. That said, Kate showed me this lovely way of walking from her house through crisp fall leaves past the towns name sake creek to the BART station. We were in the minority as pedestrians - she taught me about being an agressive pedestrian, a good skill for my Boston leg of this trip - but probably had the nicest journey. There are lots of cars here... lots and lots.

and Berkley... well is Berkley. There are books about it, some myth, and lots of cultural reference. I recently read a book whose author I believe now lives there. It is a great book. It is even greater than The Botany of Desire, which is one of my favourite (and highly quoteable) books.

The Omnivore's Dilemma has a nicer cover in the States, but really who cares with content like this. It makes you think about food. Its made me start to say a silent grace before meals. I makes me taste the sunlight in my food. It really makes me happy to be eating grass feed NZ meat, and that corn syrup is nearly impossible to find in the grocery store, even if American ex-pats sometimes complain about making pecan pie in NZ.

This book also references a well-referenced icon in Berkley: Chez Panisse. My friend Kate seemed to also have heard of this mecca of local, sustainable, yummy food. We both were keen to experience it. She even took a vacation day to make it happen! She arranged a booking and we made are way there today for lunch.

We started with mozzarella with grilled persimons and a baked riotta salad. We each savoured half our dish, then switched. Soon came our mains - veal for her and a lovely chicken dish with olive tempanade. Another switch half way through....

Finally yummy desserts and perfect coffee. The pear tart had a lovely flakey crust that was brushed with something lovely to make it sweet and extra crispy. Everything was lovely and subtle and perfect. It was normal portions - not crazy huge American ones nor the tell tale tiny portions you find in upscale fancy restaurants. Have I said the word perfect yet?

We were very happy after an hour and half of food and conversation....

Then we wandered Berkley some. In the local alternative food and drug store there were some great finger puppets. Buddha, Marx, Frieda, Dali, Plato and F Scott Fitzgerald were all tossed together. They had magnets in their heads making them clump together in funny conversational pairings:)
We also played with beads....

And I was brave and popped into a comic store. I couldn't find any of my favorites, but the fact that I popped in demonstates some of the effects of partnering with Traveler! I also was impressed with the mail box....
Seeing the US postal vans was a nostalgic experience as well. I don't know why but postal related things always invoke a postive feeling - no matter how often I have bad waiting in line experiences.

All and all, a simple lovely day.