Bay Area Treats!

                                                                       “Food is memories.”—José Andrés

Memory Lane was on our travel agenda last month.  We drove by my family home in San Francisco and spent time with friends from various decades of our lives.  We also started “making new memories,” as a friend would say, by visiting  some new-to-us restaurants and cuisines. 

One first-time food adventure was at Lemat, an Ethiopian restaurant in Berkeley.  Wow!  What a country and cuisine to learn about!  We had “injera,” a large spongy pizza-shaped flatbread that acted as a plate, and eating utensil (!), for a variety of colorful Ethiopian specialties.   It was a visual delight, quite tasty.,  and an unusual eating-with-our-fingers experience for us and our Madison friends.

Another Berkeley “find” was an excellent black bean and sweet potato “burger” I had at Triple Rock Brewing, a sports bar where we met a friend and fellow Warriors fanatic to watch a Warriors game!  (I’d like to recreate that burger on the home front. Anyone have a good recipe?)

In San Francisco we returned to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Roma Antica, to share a meal with a high school friend and her husband. We settled in with some Italian basics—a spicy Pasta Amatriciana and a classic Lasagne,  and a pistachio cake for a sweet finale—and enjoyed feeling the high energy Italian vibe, hearing (and attempting to speak) Italian, drinking a Rose from the Venetian area of Italy, and smiling for photos taken by our exuberant waiter.

On another San Francisco night,  John and I went to a restaurant I’ve been wanting to try on Chestnut Street called A-16.  it was a happening place, with a large party of elegantly dressed guests in the back room, every table inside and out filled, and a book called Italian Wines, written by the one of the owners, on full view.  As it turns out A-16 is the name of the highway that goes from Puglia to Naples, home of the kinds of pizza A-16 is known for. Our antipasto of broiled cauliflower with a sauce made from almonds, currents, garlic, and Calabrian chili was a hit!

Our final morning in San Francisco included a visit to the Sunday Market at Fort Mason—what a vibrant assemblage of foods, smells, people, music—and a Chestnut Street caffe latte at a quintessential Peet’s Coffee, sitting outside with my cousin and her doggie listening to a man play “Hallelujah” on the accordion.  Oh, my.

Can a Bay Area time get any better?  Well…yes…when you add on going with friends to Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage to experience Bobby McFerrin and MOTION: Circlesongs—a moving, inspirational improv session where we got to join in on some of the songs.  Wowza!  “Don’t worry; be happy!”🎶🎈❤️

And, as synchronicity would have it, this coming Monday is Act Happy Day, which begins Act Happy Week—who knew⁉️

SO…early Happy Act Happy Day,

                          Happy St. Patrick’s Day 🇮🇪

                                   and Happy Anniversary of the Unification of Italy Day 🇮🇹.

                                                 Whew❣️