Regency Cafe

Late night, followed by English breakfast at the Regency Cafe near Westminster. 

Fremont Diner

The Fremont Diner in Sonoma. GOOD FOOD.

Brännlands Wärdshus

About 20 minutes west of downtown Umeå is Brännlands Wärdshus, which usually serves a fixed menu of traditional Swedish food, but also does BBQ takeout on Fridays. I haven't tried the takeout, but one of the owners told us that their grill is "from Texas".

Getting there without a car requires catching a bus from an unmarked stop in town and getting off on the side of a highway, the shoulders of which are totally covered in snow, and walking about 300 meters to the restaurant.

Central Valley Xmas 2011

Festivities spread across Clovis, Madera, and Fresno.

Tomales Bay

BBQ oysters at the Marshall Store and an oyster picnic at Hog Island Oyster Co.

Tomato Canning

Canning at Patrick & Yukari's, after picking tomatoes at Marquita Farms in Watsonville.

Fines de Claires No. 3

Sunday Lunch: Fines de Claires No 3 from the Richard Lenoir market.

French Xmas

Assorted French Xmas goods, from top to bottom: salmon eggs, chestnut creme, chocolate sardines, goose fat.

Currywurst usw.

Back in Berlin for the first time since 1999. Ate currywurst and pommes at Curry Mitte, tafelspitz at the Brecht Museum Kellerrestaurant, and a list of stuff too long to name at the Schwarzwaldstube in Mitte. Hat super geschmeckt.

Thanksgiving in Paris

There were more oysters than usual.

Top Curry Centre

The Top Curry Centre in Pimlico has a poster in the window showing a young Diana Spencer running past the Top Curry Centre.

Huitres Normandes

Recently had Utah Beach Oysters, and there also seem to be Omaha Beach oysters; are there Gold, Juno and Sword Beach oysters as well?

Photo by Melody.

Mackerel and Sardines

Tins of Mackerel and Sardines from G. Detou.

G.H. Mead Dinner

The G.H. Mead birthday dinner at Burton-Judson Courts at the University of Chicago.

Japadog

Japadog is a hotdog stand in Vancouver that serves hotdogs and sausages with Japanese toppings. Ice Cube liked it so much he ate there ten times. We had an Oroshi, a bratwurst with grated raddish, "special soy" and green onion, and an Okonomi, a kurobuta pork sausage with okonomi sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, fried cabbage, and dried bonito flakes.

I have heard of all the famous people listed on the Japadog sign, except for "Ootsuki Proffesor". Who is he?

Dinner in Buenos Aires

A Penguino wine decanter.

Liz cuts into a plate of beef.

Not pictured: blood sausage and regular sausage.

Dinnertime is around midnight.

Eastern Market Is Back Open!

Capitol Hill's Eastern Market was closed for two years because of a fire in 2007. There was a temporary structure (pictured below) set up across the street that housed businesses while the central structure was being rebuilt:



Market Lunch in the temporary Eastern Market tent:



Last month, the main building reopened, and it was packed when we visited last weekend. The refurbished building is impressive, but the wait for blue bucks (blueberry buckwheat pancakes) at Market Lunch has gone from about 15-20 minutes to over an hour.

Z & H

(Pictured above: the Melody breakfast sandwich, consisting of corned beef, swiss cheese and egg on french bread.)

The best thing to happen to Hyde Park since the re-opening of Hyde Park Produce in the former 53rd Street Co-Op is the arrival of Z&H on 47th street. First off, its the only place to get Clover coffee on the south side. Second, Everything that we get there is good: sandwiches, cookies, coffee, root beer, cheese, ice cream, cereal, scones, etc. I got a scone from Z&H that was so good that eating it immobilized me while my cat escaped from the apartment and jumped on the neighbor's roof, where she got stuck. After I finished the scone, I had to climb out and rescue her. Finally, if you go there often enough, the guys who run the place, Sam and Tim, will learn your name and say "hi" when you walk in and "bye" when you leave.

The sandwiches at Z&H are better than those at the fancy sandwich restaurant that just opened in Wicker Park, and they are half as expensive.

Pictured below is the Jackie Treehorn breakfast sandwich: brie and paté on toasted croissant.

Strategic Butter Reserve

Bricks of Wisconsin butter stockpiled at Solly's, outside Milwaukee.

The butter deployed on a Solly's butter burger:



The veggie version (which, when it was ordered, the waitress made sure we knew had no meat):

"...we have University of Chicago here..."

When the owner of Chant describes the kind of people who come to Chant, she says, "We get professors, we have students here, we have university of Chicago here", (40 seconds in) and when she says "we have University of Chicago here" it cuts to a shot of Melody, me and Christa sitting and talking. Jay is off-screen to the left.

Here's the link to the video.

The owner also says that she created Chant because "there is no nice place to hang out in Hyde Park".

Thanks to Chris K. for telling me about the video.