womantraveler

Small Plates, Large Pleasures in San Francisco

We girlfriends dining out opt for the "small plates" restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not that we eat any less, we simply enjoy a greater sampling of dishes -- and tasting the menu's variety is great fun.

To celebrate Leap Year, our choice was Sabor of Spain in downtown San Rafael. Where did the four hours go?? Assorted olives (aceitunas de la casa) and a bottle of red wine (Crianza) started us off and lingered with us for the entire meal. Next came a butter lettuce and Spanish blue cheese salad, mixed marinated mushrooms in white wine, grilled marinated calamari and tiger prawns -- four "small" plates that amounted to a huge amount of food for two! We could also have ordered regular main dishes as well. Sabor of Spain's vinoteca and food products, as well as occasional live music, make it an "uptown" destination.

The first trip to Pres a Vi in San Francisco's historic Presidio was such a major hit that I've taken other guests back since. Located in Lucasfilm's Digital Arts Center, Pres a Vi is an upscale and animated city restaurant offering inventive and artistically presented "global cuisine" of both small plates and main dishes. A recent visit left us remarking on the endive salad, miso-marinated Alaskan black cod and King Salmon selections. A wide assortment of wines, in flights or ordered individually, pair thoughtfully with the food. And there's live jazz music on Thursday nights. (One friend was less satisfied with the brunch menu due to what she thought was a fairly limited menu and the restaurant's "no substitutions" policy. But you can always check the menu before making your reservation.)

For the best sushi in Marin County and arguably in the Bay Area, Sushi Ran in Sausalito is the right answer. When Bay Area restaurants were ranked by France's Michelin critics for the first time in 2006, Sushi Ran was among those winning a coveted Michelin star. That's in part because the menu is a combination of traditional Japanese and Pacific Rim cuisine served with imagination and flair. There are two sections -- one for reservations and the other for walk-ins. The wondrous sushi bar is on the reservations-only side. And if you're walking in, get there by 5:30 when Sushi Ran opens, or the line will soon have formed. Also come with a clear head and a large appetite -- the menu is lengthy and the wine list has 300 offerings!

Two other local faves: Betlenut on Union Street in San Francisco (Pan Asian fusion) has fabulous food and sidewalk tables for the best of San Francisco people-watching, while E&O Trading Company, with three Bay Area locations, transforms the big flavors of Southeast Asian cooking into dishes beyond the predictable Thai and Vietnamese preparations.

The Most Annoying Airplane Moments

While I love my Mobal world phone ($49 to own it plus competitive call charges per country), I also get a hoot out of the Mobal world phone users blog. Here's an unforgettable series of reflections about the most annoying things people do on airplanes.

What's "Inn" for New Year's Eve

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament has wrapped up, but it's not too late to make a note to be in Pebble next New Year's Eve. The Inn at Spanish Bay throws a bash that's worth planning for, even though the details might not be available until after Thanksgiving. On December 31, 2007, the inn threw its most elaborate New Year's event ever, celebrating 20 years of auld lang syne parties with 5 bands and DJs, lavish buffets and terrific fun. Taking advantage of the New Year's Eve package (offered with one- or two-night stays), we settled in at the inn for a couple of days in comfortably appointed accomodations with a cozy fireplace and spectacular views from  ocean to coastal hills. Happily the "house restaurant" is one of the best versions of the popular Roy's restaurants and Chef Roy Yamaguchi's signature Hawaiian-fusion cuisine in a casual setting.

It goes without saying that the Monterey Peninsula location about 2 1/2 hours south of San Francisco is fabulous -- if the weather cooperates. The wild coast can be shrouded in fog, but the spectacular sunny days are unforgettable. A quick reminder of day trips in the area -- Carmel, Monterey, 17-Mile Drive that provides some access to the scenic coast and, farther south, Big Sur, at the moment a coastal perch for migrations of whales, elephant seals and California condors.

Unfortunately Carmel has deteriorated from a quaint artists' community surrounded by elegant wealth to an overexpensive tourist trap overrun with bad or at best mediocre shops and galleries and often fairly outrageous taste, the kind that befits big spenders. The statement seems to be, "if I'm expensive and I flaunt it, I must be good." Sorry, but cost and quality do not necessarily align in my book.  Monterey has the world-famous aquarium, which is awesome, and an appealingly funky spirit fed by casual seaside food and fun. We hear that the nearby Carmel Valley Ranch resort in a less frenetic and lush inland valley setting has undergone quite a renovation and brought in celebrity chef Michel Richard's Citronelle restaurant.

Get Away to Nick's Cove

The Northern California insiders' new retro getaway is Nick's Cove along a curvy stretch of the Marin County coast. It's hot because its impressario is restaurateur Pat Kuleto (Fog City Diner, Boulevard, Postrio and a host of other signature San Francisco dining destinations), supports the credentials of organic farming and sustainable fishing and is sufficiently out of the way for a cache of remoteness. Plenty of people have gotten the word in the past six months, though -- it's already difficult if not impossible to get a reservation on short notice, although they do have a bar and seat walk-ins.

The 45-minute jaunt west of San Rafael, Novato or Petaluma or about an hour north of San Francisco snakes along hairpin turns through vast protected West Marin hills and dairy farms before reaching the town of Marshall on the Tomales Bay. This coastal Highway 1 stretch from Point Reyes Station on the south to Bodega Bay on the north is across from the Point Reyes National Seashore, a coastal wilderness abundant with wildlife. Landside, it's dotted with late-1800s onetime railroad towns and farms of cultivated oyster beds. It's an area full of history, as the story of Nick's illustrates. And far enough from modern civilization, in fact, that even cell phones can't find you here.

Turning a 100-year-old restaurant that was a local favorite and adding 12 pricey bungalows was a bumpy eight-year journey for Kuleto and his longtime partner, Executive Chef Mark Franz. They've preserved the ambiance -- the restaurant is casual roadhouse-style, and the bungalows were built or remodeled from wood-rotting shacks. They are perched along the water's edge, where you can hear the lap of the tide hitting the bungalow pilings and across the road in the groove of a hill. Each cottage is unique. All are decorated in comfortable antiques with luxury appointments -- high-thread count linens, heated bathroom floors, flat screen TVs and Wi-Fi. Winter rates range from $165 to $595 a night, which suggests what the summer season will fetch.

We sampled the inventiveness of Nick's kitchen staff during a wine tasting dinner hosted by Ross Halleck. You can't go to Nick's and not have oysters, which are farmed in the area by Hog Island Oyster Company, Tomales Bay Oyster Co. and others. Halleck Vineyard in the Russian River Valley produces just under 2000 cases of Pinot Noir. That's not far from Nick's, which has become Halleck's local hangout. His Hallberg Vineyards Pinot Noir 2005 was paired with a butternut squash flan, delightfully rich and nutty with white truffle oil. His Three Sons Cuvee Pinot Noir 2006 accompanied the wood grilled Vermont quail stuffed with local chanterelles, pancetta, cannellini bean puree and a balsamic reduction.

This, of course, wasn't the regular Nick's menu, which is harvested daily from the bay out the back door. We'll head back to do that soon. Kuleto, meanwhile, is hard to keep up with -- he opened two new restaurants in San Francisco's Embarcadero waterfront to more fanfare in late January -- Epic Roasthouse and Waterbar.

Paris Pearls: Lovely Show to Close Soon

“Pearls: a Natural History,” an exhibit at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, is a truly precious excursion. After a long stay, unfortunately it closes on March 10 (and is closed Tuesdays). Our Womantraveler correspondent lucked out on a beautiful winter day in the Jardin des Plantes, where the museum’s Grande Galerie de l’Evolution is hosting the show.

“Perles” is science, art and fashion. As they here,  this view of pearls is "superb."

In a darkened chamber, suggesting the depths of the sea, a video intro illustrates a pearl’s formation. Pearl properties are similar to calcium. Grit sucked into a shell begins a mineralization process that results in a pearl. Intimately presented, the rich history of pearls leaves the ocean depths for the heights of creativity – more than 1000 articles, including 300 pieces of jewelry, works of art from designers such as Cartier, ancient beaded ceremonial gowns, rare jewels loaned by designers such as Mikimoto. It also describes modern-day therapies using mother-of-pearl, whose building blocks, manipulated through nanotechnology, are used to form and strengthen bone and as biocrystal molecules that are active ingredients in anti-aging cosmetics.

Pearls, by the way, are tres a la mode in Paris these days, not only in the sophisticated chokers a la Chanel but also the in the pervasive necklaces of stones and metal dangling in a single strand or wrapped several times at the neck.

Details: Admission 8 euros, 5th Arrondissement in the Jardin des Plantes

Metro: Gare d’Austerlitz, Jussieu or Censier-Daubenton

Carla Watching

I was hoping to see the new French first lady, super model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at the Lacroix exhibit, but she’s probably been there-done that. After all, her new home in Elysees Palace is just down the street from the shops of Chanel, St. Laurent, Chloe, Dior and the rest. I notice a twitter of photographers outside the palace’s gates. Will Carla emerge, or is this a normal paparazzi stakeout? The next day I’m asked by some French women about the US presidential race, and I use the occasion to probe for Carla gossip. After all, now married to President Nicolas Sarkozy, she previously dated Mick Jagger, Donald Trump, Eric Clapton and other headliners. With a son from another relationship and more to her romantic history, she has also dreamily declared in the French press that Sarko was “love at first sight.” The way the people on the street see it, this well-publicized romance is too messy for a French president and particularly one who is losing popularity with just about every presidential comment or activity. "Mon Dieu!" sniffed two store owners in Paris' Marais district – the entire incident is so embarrassing for their country. (“A little more discretion, please! After all, he is the president of La France!”) Carla, 40, and Sarko, 53, have strutted their lovebird stuff all over the place, but will it last? There are mixed messages here. SHE says she believes in polyandry and, as an Italian, not in divorce. HE is now hitched for the third time – just four months after ending his marriage to Cecelia. Impulsive and reckless are now frequent descriptors by the French people. Stay tuned.

Christian Lacroix' French Style

A stunning exhibition punctuating the history of French fashion at the Louvre’s Les Arts Decoratifs-Musee de la Mode et du Textile is a must-see before it closes April 20, 2008. The 20^th anniversary of Christian Lacroix’s fashion house prompted the designer’s interpretive view of French fashion from the museum collection along with recent examples of his elegant haute-couture clothing – 500 dresses and gowns in all. Rather than an objective overview, Lacroix said that he chose the outfits that most inspired him – some of which have never been shown before. In this exhibit, he has curated his own story of French fashion. (No photos allowed so I snapped these haute couture shots along the Rue du Faubourg-Saint Honore.)

Lacroix studied the history of art before joining the fashion house of Jean Patou and two years later forming his own in 1987. In the 30 thematic arrangements, beginning with “White” and ending with “Black,” Lacroix traces women’s fashion from the 1870s by themes, not decades. We learn of his grandmother’s insistence on white after Easter (opening scene) and his mother’s delight in red (or at least a touch of it). There’s a display case full of dresses hanging in reds/oranges/golds, another in a series of lime green/browns/aubergine. Yet a different grouping draws on the gypsy influences from his youth in Arles. These are spontaneous colors that mixed patterns -- polka dots, prints and diagonals. We see florals, plaids and pleats, Hispanic, stripes, patchwork (“le patch), see-through tulle and macramé.

In a display of polka dots over the ages, Lacroix noted that his mentor Patou and polka dots, “go together like an ideogram.” In another selection from the Duchess of Windsor’s favorite designer Mainbocher, he illustrates the very modern and sleek retro look from the ‘40s.

Sitting for a few minutes, I am nearly as enthralled by the crowd viewing the exhibit as the show. Most eye-catching in their elan were young women in their boots – Ugg and tall leather varieties setting off very short shirts and tights on this damp cold winter day.

Leaving the exhibit, I ramble through two rooms of fantastic jewelry from ancient times to modern. In the museum shop I come across Chic in Paris by Susan Tabak and wish I could afford to hire her as a personal shopper for $1500 a day to take me on a thoroughly stylish shopping adventure. Yet, runway-inspired, I happily imagine myself in one of those fabulous Lacroix gowns as I window shop amidst the haute couture of Rue du Faubourg-Saint Honore.

If nothing else, make a quick stop at the Colette boutique’s very trendy water bar in the basement of the fashion boutique at 213 rue Saint-Honore for a bottle of mineral water from somewhere around the world. In three stories you’ll find a hum of activity -- clothes, books, magazines, CD, perfumes and more. It’s another “haute” moment in Paris.

Info: Les Arts Decoratifs-Musée de la Mode et du Textile are part of the Louvre and located at 107 Rue de Rivoli. Metro: Tuileries.

Paris Celebrates Simone de Beauvoir

In all my visits to Paris, I’d never ordered an espresso at Les Deux Magots, the iconic Left Bank hangout of ex-pat writers in the heyday of Hemingway and Sartre. So upon hearing of the Simone de Beauvoir commemoration there this year, marking her 100^th birthday, I was immediately motivated. Philosopher and feminist de Beauvoir, the author of The Second Sex who died in 1986, for me was always a brave womantraveler. Since I was on a vacation to concentrate on some writing, what better atmosphere than one that inspired so many novelists and intellectuals. 

Something had been nagging at me since  I picked up a small book before my vacation, A Writer's Paris (A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul) by Eric Maisel. It was one of those impromptu finds that changed my thinking about what this trip could bring. That perspective was perhaps best signified by a Proustian quote from Maisel: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”  Certainly as de Beauvoir and Sartre and their pals returned daily to the familiar Deux Magots, at 6 place Saint-German des Pres, they were sparked with new ideas, new ways of seeing. That’s where de Beauvoir and Sartre, partners in the Existentialist movement, had many of their conversations that shaped intellectual history in the mid-20^th century.

For a completely unhurried 90 minutes, I lingered inside the café with a salad, some water and eventually my coffee, taking in my surroundings with a prime banquette seat. Three well-dressed elderly Parisians to one side were there before I arrived and there when I left, each nurturing one cup of coffee and bountiful conversation. Across from me, a young woman was reading, or at least pretending to, as she carefully observed everyone else. A group of Japanese women sat down to the left, animated by a selection of sweets. Around the wall lined photos of de Beauvoir and her comrades when they were the center of Parisian intellectual society.

In a French café, you can carve out your own space while being part of something grander. Paris, says Maisel, “improves your writing because it teaches you something profound about intimacy.” 

Thoumieux Tombé

Paris’ Thoumieux restaurant is a busy old-style brasserie that’s on every list – including those of several local friends and Michelin’s Green Guide. Well, forget it.  A classic is no longer a classic when the waiters are rude, the food is mediocre and the service blasé. In Paris, where the food is expected to be wonderful, classics set a high standard because they stand up over time. Thoumieux, on the other hand, seems to have fallen.

We went there in part because its location at 79 Rue St. Dominique in the 7^th Arrondissement offers a stunning close-up view of the Eiffel Tower. Dating to the 17^th century, the street is stylishly quaint, with homes of famous dead ancients and offices of modern-day government ministers. By day, people are hustling to market or shopping in the high-end specialty boutiques, while at night, the Eiffel Tower shimmers for 10 minutes at the top of the hour. That’s a breathtaking moment!

But get inside the brasserie and the picture slowly changes. Crusty old waiters sniffed at my French. (Oops! We thought that making a small effort in French was supposed to be a polite thing to do.) Then they blamed me for ordering the wrong appetizer, and, though changing it as requested, they clucked to themselves not quite out of earshot that I had mis-ordered (though I hadn’t). Next came poorly prepared (and overpriced) food. Soggy leeks and a vinaigrette-drenched endive salad were poor substitutes for appetizers. Gosh, I can’t even remember the rest of the meal, it was so unremarkable. Facing a bill around $200, I immediately recalled the tasty and ample salade nicoise I’d eaten for lunch for $20 at a nameless neighborhood bistro in another district.

Hearing my story, the impeccable maitre d’ at my hotel explained that mediocre brasseries, along with rude and careless service, are common in Paris. Even French tourists from out of the town receive similar treatment as we did. He recounted a story about how the previous week he’d taken out of town friends to a brasserie where the waiters actually argued with his guests for several minutes about what type of water they had ordered. Typically what some others find off-putting about the French temperament has never fazed me, to be honest. But I couldn’t let the now-faded Thoumieux live on its outdated reputation.

Traveling by Book: Just Read!

Writer Sonya Worthy's journey to document people reading in the USA thrills, then confuses, me. I start the article in today's San Francisco Chronicle, then put down the newspaper before I finish and rush to the computer to write about it. Online I puruse one of her blogs. Shouldn't I be digging into my next book instead? Simple answer --  as National Book Week opens, accompanied by the dour statistics about the declines in reading, the value of the printed page must be aggressively noted -- and celebrated.

As a business womantraveler, books and book blogs are the way I see the  world when I'm not on a plane galloping hither and yon. One of my favorite discoveries is the Read and Return program sponsored by The Paradies Shops in several dozen US airports. Buy a book at the regular price and return it within six months with the original receipt to any location on the list -- and receive 50% off the purchase price. Now that's a page-turner.

I also use books to prepare for my next adventure, such as my trip to Paris three years ago. A book in hand is much more pleasurable than a laptop. While traveling coast to coast for a business trip recently, I heard the woman across the aisle remark, "Fancy this -- we're reading the same book!" It was Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss, which is well worth every beautifully crafted thought.

My son arrives at Christmas. His backpack is loaded with a laptop, an iPod and books. We head to Barnes and Noble and hang out. At 23, beyond the drudgery of college textbooks but now caught up in 12 hour workdays of the real world, he finds great pleasure in reading. He turns off the TV and opens a book. There is hope!