every summer i take a little road trip back up to the bay area (where i used to live for 3 years) and join forces with one of my best friends to collaborate on a dinner.
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guillaume and i have been friends for several years now, and i consider him to be truly one of my dearest friends. we met via my best girlfriend (a friend who i now consider family). rita.
rita and i have known each other for many, many years—dating all the way back to 17 year old me, working in a bar in worcester. but, that is a whole other story.
guillaume is an incredible french-trained chef, and owns the best restaurant in palo alto, in my opinion—zola. with the best steak frites i have ever had! even better than in paris itself.
i look up to guillaume in many ways, he has been such a source of support for me and my ideas. i turn to both rita and guillaume for advice and find myself driving up as often as i can, to stay. when i get to their house in palo alto, i feel a sense of relaxation wash over me. it feels like home.
when i get there, i have my own routine—which we all find very funny. i need a day to hit all my spots.
which are—always at least two bookshops. stanford mall (the best mall imo). always—without fail— i have to hit dragers, the best grocery store ever. and always coffee at st. frank.
guillaume and i love to talk endlessly about food, restaurants, cookbooks, dining, and business. rita, andy, and i always pick one evening to go to zola and have the most glorious dinner—and i get to drink some of the best wine i have ever had in my life (i am very lucky, i know). then, usually one evening, guillaume and i cook together for rita and andy.
anyway—i love my friends!
if you ever find yourself in palo alto—make sure to go and make a reservation. ask for guillaume, and tell him i sent you!
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so, i drive back a lot, you will see. but for sure—most summers, specifically to work on a dinner with guillaume. usually at a winery, but this year it was on the most beautiful little farm in the south bay—terra amica. and this year—sadly, it was actually less of a collaboration as i found myself with less time than usual. regardless, i couldn’t miss an opportunity to work together, and so i still made it up to the bay—but more so to help day-of with prep, the last bits of cooking, and the actual execution of the dinner.
everything had been meticulously planned by guillaume and his team, and so all i had to do was turn up early with our other dear friend, henning (who also is with us most summers) to begin prep.
enter the grilled cucumbers!
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guillaume had this genius idea to grill cucumbers for a salsa that was to go with the grilled shrimp for the second course. i’ll admit, i was skeptical at first, but boy i was wrong!
so i got to work, grilling away! each cucumber was scooped of all it’s seeds, simply dressed in olive oil and then grilled/charred to perfection. a deep char, infact. we wanted it to be smokey.
once cooled, we diced the cucumbers into smaller bite-sized pieces along with kalamata olives, green olives, capers, various tender herbs and lots of olive oil. visually it was stunning—taste-wise, it was sensational. the cucumbers became even more vegetal somehow, and added an whole other depth of flavor to the green salsa.
i am going to be grilling cucumbers forever now!
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the rest of the food was executed perfectly, with the help of the amazing team. ben, who is head chef at zola had been prepping everything for days, along with the rest of the team and had a clear vision. he gave kind, but clear direction—which was very much appreciated.
it was the first time in a long time i was the only female as part of an all male team, but the team could not have been nicer and more respectful—which was a breath of fresh air compared to when i used to work in restaurants and the chefs would literally throw things. ladles, apples—whatever they could find. true story!
and of course, me being me—i had everyone calling each other ‘babe’ by the end of the night. if you know, you know.
and, plenty of chefs wine was drank too, i might add!
it was such a fun night, and i can’t wait to do it all over again!
less than 24hrs in sf
the next day, i said goodbye to my friends and my husband—andy was driving back home to la, and i was continuing on to sf to meet some more friends.
i had less than 24hrs in sf, before my flight to seattle. i was meeting my best gal kate, and also my dear friend andrew (my friends from la), and we were determined to make the most of the time that we had.
despite having all lived there at some point in our lives, we had never been in bay at the same time together before.
and if kate and i have anything to do with it (any situation, really)—we will be eating and drinking.
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it was a glorious sunny day in sf. when i got to the city, i met up with kate and her aunty and uncle. we took a stroll to st. frank on polk to catch up over coffee.
kate and i then said our goodbyes to her family and proceeded on our epicurious day.
golden sardine—north beach, sf
kate and i walked up columbus, one of my favorite streets in sf. little italy still has all of the old school sf charm that it always does, and i feel so much happy nostalgia whenever i am walking up it.
we were heading to a new bar called golden sardine.
golden sardine is a fairly new natural wine, tinned fish and poetry bar—situated right on columbus. a small place, but perfectly formed.
north beach is famed for it’s beat poet heritage, and many of the famous poets passed through these streets at some point or another.
i fell in love instantly.
we sat in the sunny window and enjoyed a few tins of fish, along with a bottle of wine, whilst waiting for andrew to arrive.
when he did, we continued to eat more and drink more! we were having the best time!
i genuinely cannot wait to go back to golden sardine! the perfect, and much needed addition to north beach. columbus needed natural wine!!
we continued to hit up all of my other old haunts—ruby wine, abv (where andrew left us). kate and i carried on to lone palm, and then we had to stop at zuni cafe for a late dinner.
indeed—by this time, we had consumed a fair amount of alcohol. we needed sustenance.
zuni was glorious as per usual, albeit a little blurry.
by which point, we were absolutely pooped—and i proceeded to go back to my hotel to pass t f out.
as in the morning, i was leaving early for my flight to seattle. more on that to come!
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talk soon
xo