La Dulce Vida

Leslie and I decided to forgo our normal Sunday brunch at Le Bistro and catch up with some good friends on the coast. We left extra early in hopes of seeing some of the big waves that were supposed to roll in. In another example of the best hopes of mice and men we got stuck in a huge Carlsbad 5k traffic jam and things got sort of late and we ended up jumping on the freeway and down to our Cardiff buddies, Ron and Lena. They just came back from three months in Thailand, Myanmar and Bali. So exciting to be in a country like Burma where things might actually be getting better, how many places can you say that in this world? She took this picture of the incredible Aung San Suu Kyi on a banner. When Burmese people talk about their wonderful leader, who has suffered so much for her people, she is referred to quietly as "the lady."

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Lena has a beautiful blog from her trip, Rice is Sacred and we looked at some of the great pictures she took on her trip. This picture she took is of women in asia getting their feet cleaned and exfoliated in a tank of garra rufa fish. She said that the sensation ranges from a tickle to "Hey, you little f*ckers, that hurts."

Bob and Shela came over and we ate and rapped and enjoyed just a wonderful spring day. After that we drove to see our good friends and my close genetic cousin Stanley and Tracy. Actually we found out that he is Leslie's genetic fourth cousin as well, god, did those jews intermarry... Tracy's grandfather made a beautiful violin many years ago that she is learning to play again, Suzuki style. She and the violin both sounded great. More sitting on the porch and soaking up the sun.

We finally took our leave and drove to Cedros to see Tracy's sister, the fantastic jewelry maker and wire bender Lynn Merchant. Lynne had wired together all of these beautiful wild turkey feathers and the long chain looked quite amazing. Her shop is really a visual jewel crammed with a beautiful creation throughout every square inch.

We left and drove to Fletcher Cove aka Pillbox. It is now Yuppie central with a nice playground for the BMW bassinet set. I used to live in an underground basement at Sierra and Pacific overlooking (underlooking?) the cove. Mushrooms grew up out of the floor and I only had my waterbed for heat. Waterbed's, does anyone still use them? Great for one, seasick for two. Anyway the ocean was not terribly impressive at least for big waves. All the advance publicity must have scared them off.

We drove over to Crush, the upscale restaurant and wine bar in Solana Beach. Leslie had never been. I ordered a glass of an outrageously good supertuscan for a mere five bucks, on account of happy hour. Leslie had a ginger, cilantro, vodka, lime, ginger beer and saki martini which she really enjoyed.

Dinner was unfortunately less successful. we ordered a really nice chili garlic scampi with a delicious and rather creamy sauce. The bread there is simply outrageously good, including an unusual and scrumptious brown rye. We ordered the ossobuco over risotto with porcinis and a rib eye and decided to share both. Our entrees were accompanied by a creamed spinach and potato pancakes and maybe some other things. The rib eye was perfect, in a very strong reduction that worked. The osso buco was also in a very strong sauce but it was over salted to the point of almost being inedible. When I complained to our server, who was excellent by the way, she talked to the chef. He said that it may have seemed over salted because it is cooked on oak and oak concentrates the flavors. Sounds like bullshit to me. I think he just lost control of the salt.

Crush, like Cucina Urbana, serves a rustic italian fare. I had a six hour ragu last time whose flavor palette was also ponderously deep like an inky pool. I happen to like this style of cooking but it is probably not for everybody. Now I have to wonder if that is the way everything is cooked there? If I had one complaint when I first  visited the restaurant it was that the entree selection was very limited and it is still so.  We were offered desert which we declined and paid for the meal including the screwed up entree and drove back home. Probably won't return for a while. A bit disappointing.