Quel Fromage!

I hate the taste of quinoa in the morning!  Especially with agave....nothing makes this palatable to me.  (Quinoa should be savory and yummy.)  My new homeopathic doctor asked me to eat more protein and less sugar to start my day.  So I tried this to break up the monotony of eggs and egg whites.  I bought chai with half the sugar of my beloved (but overly sweet) Tazo.  I have been slowly weaning myself off some of the sugar.  Today, my doctor gave me the results of my food allergy blood tests.  Lo and behold, I am highly allergic to soy, eggs, and dairy.  Not just lactose-intolerant but Full-On Allergic.  No more Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor or Humboldt Fog OR Cowgirl Creamery ANYTHING.  No more ice cream.  No more soy chai.  Limited Asian food.  I've said that I could give up chocolate before cheese, and here I am.

I am going to give up my favorite things (at least for awhile), because they may be causing my chronic pain and inflammation...or at least contributing to my rheumatoid arthritis in a serious way.  I don't want to be in pain and on meds every day for the rest of my life.  This is worth a shot.

Since I had already had a soy chai this morning, I figured today would be my last hurrah.  I had a little dairy with dinner and got a bad tummy ache.  I was going to have a Haagen Dazs dark chocolate with vanilla ice cream bar for dessert, but I feel too lousy to do it.  Instead, I took an acidophilus and am now sipping a tiny bit of Woodford Reserve bourbon. 

Have some Epoisses or gelato for me!

To Kill a Mockingjay

We started the week by watching Streets of Fire, which surprisingly has held up better than we expected after 26 years.  Such an awesome, guilty pleasure!   A young Diane Lane as rock star, Ellen Aim, and Michael Pare as her hunky ex-boyfriend, Tom Cody, who comes to save her from biker bad boy Willem Dafoe.  We were howling when Willem Dafoe walks out of the fire wearing his shiny black leather/vinyl overalls.  What a terrific scene!  Why isn't he in any of the Twilight movies?  (Stephenie Meyer, do you have any say in these matters?)  Plus, Rick Moranis plays Ellen Aim's dweeby boyfriend/manager.  Combine all this with a campy, implausible plot and an irresistible Jimmy Iovine soundtrack with not one, BUT TWO Jim Steinman songs (he wrote all of Meatloaf's and Bonnie Tyler's greatest hits.), and you've got yourself a fun evening at home.

Side note #1:  Diane Lane lip syncs the Jim Steinman songs that are sung by one his studio artists.  But Maria McKee (one of my fave singers of all time--and Brian liking her too was one of the first signs that he and I were meant for each other) sings Never Be You on the soundtrack.  I also have the Rosanne Cash version.

Side note #2:  Marine Jahan plays the dancer/stripper at the biker bar.  She was also Jennifer Beal's dance double in Flashdance.

Side note #3:  Our friend, Blewis (Brian Lewis), knows a crazy amount of dialogue from Eddie and the Cruisers 2.  We discovered this Sat night.  Don't know why he does, but it's a little surprising.  He usually quotes Strictly Ballroom and The Princess Bride. Hmmm...

The third installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, finally arrived at our house on Wed.  We had dinner with a friend and came home late, so I restrained myself and read only one chapter before bed.  Then I eagerly plowed through the rest of it Thurs afternoon.  Such a fitting finale to a great series.  I was sobbing at the end.  Small spoiler alert:  Don't read the next paragraph, if you haven't finished the books!

It's sad what Gale becomes, but Collins had to do something about that love triangle.  And since Gale didn't participate in the Hunger Games, we didn't really know him that well as a character.  I was intrigued by how Gale evolved.  I wrongly expected that something similar would happen Peeta.

A TRUE SCOOP from Allyscoop:  If you are in Santa Cruz, you absolutely must go the Penny Ice Creamery!  Similar to Bi-Rite in SF, this hard-working couple lovingly makes fabulous ice cream, sorbet, and popsicles from scratch AND they pasteurize their own cream.  Amazing and delicious stuff!  We stumbled across it  Wed night; they had opened just the day before.  It is across the street from Gabriella Cafe, where we ate dinner.

Note to Paul (the owner) and Michael (the new chef) of Gabriella:  Please don't serve roasted bone marrow, unless you have the proper utensils to serve it.  It was with burrata (the real reason we ordered this appetizer) and heirloom tomatoes.  We were given butter knives, which were woefully inadequate to scoop the marrow.  The bone was too narrow for the knife, and more than half the marrow went untouched.  Our server looked for other utensils but was unsuccessful.  No adjustment was made on our bill either.

Sabrina hosted our second annual MEAT FEST on Saturday!  Our main dishes were lamb osso buco and risotto.  After the osso buco went into the oven, we made a quick jaunt to Bi-Rite for ice cream (peach and creme fraiche for me, malted vanilla for Brian, and balsamic strawberry w/creme fraiche from Brina.), followed by a cheese plate with fig cake, double cream gouda (cow), Humboldt Fog (goat), and petit Basque (sheep).  And then mini beef wellingtons.  Arugula salad with nectarines and sundrop tomatoes from Sabrina's garden.  Guess we had to slip something healthy in there.  And for dessert, I made vanilla creme brulees. We brought a torch, so everyone could burn their own sugar.  It brings out the pyro in everyone!

Hooray for Jim Parsons, Jane Lynch, and Aaron Paul (Yo!  Was it Kafkaesque?) winning Emmy awards last night!  Dr. Sheldon Cooper is funny in every scene he's in on The Big Bang Theory.  Ditto for Sue Sylvester on Glee.  Aaron Paul was anguished, conflicted, and heartbroken as Jesse on Breaking Bad last season.  How about the last scene of the season finale?  I'm not unhappy for Bryan Cranston, but I would've liked to have seen some love for Jon Hamm.  Hamm makes his Don Draper portrayal look effortless, and it's not.  (especially after watching him on 30 Rock)  I love Modern Family too, but when is NPH gonna get some real respect forHow I Met Your Mother?  Gee....

Btw...here is a photo of me at the ACC Craft Show on milliner extraordinaire Jasmin Zorlu's blog.  I am wearing the grey and black Gehry cloche and Lego necklace!

http://jasminzorlu.blogspot.com/2010/08/last-weekend-at-acc-craft-show.html

A Very Strange and Tragic Week

Maybe it's because we started the week with 80s movies and ended it with a movie about the 80s, but the whole thing has been a little surreal.  This is not meant to trivialize the tragedy, but Brian and I are still processing what happened.  So please bear with me.

I recently discovered that there was a sequel to Eddie and the Cruisers called Eddie Lives!  I was so excited by the prospect of seeing Michael Pare again that I went straight to Netflix.  Lo and behold...  they include BOTH movies on one disc!  How exciting is that?  We could get a recap of the first great film, before moving on to the next gem.  The first film has a great cast:  the beautiful and brooding Mr. Pare, Tom Berenger, Ellen Barkin, and Joe Pantoliano (Joey Pants) and an even better soundtrack.  I don't care that some people say that John Cafferty is just a Springsteen rip-off.  These are amazing songs.  Wild Summer Nights and Tender Years get me every time.  Sometimes I even get a little teary-eyed when I hearTender Years. 

We're halfway through the first movie when Brian says, "I thought this had Diane Lane in it."

Nope.  That's Streets of Fire.  Also with Michael Pare, who doesn't "sing" in it.  And Willem Dafoe as the bad biker guy that kidnaps Diane Lane.  Kind of confusing since they're both musical movies, and Berenger & Dafoe were in Platoon together.  Oh well...sorry.

We move on to Eddie Lives!, which is pretty terrible.  None of the stars, except for Michael, is in it.  I wish I hadn't found out about this sequel, but it's too late.  MIchael goes through most of the film with bad hair and a 70s porn star moustache, until the very end...when he rediscovers his hotness.  This is NOT enough to redeem the movie.

The next night is all about the testosterone (maybe a little penance for the Eddie movies) and, we see The Expendables.  Now I have been excited to see this ever since I saw the trailer a while back.  It has just about every kickass action star from the past twenty or so years.  And Jason Statham, baby.  I see just about any movie with him in it.  The movie is as expected.  Lots of violence and gore.  A few in-jokes.  The much anticipated scene (and there's only one) with Sly, Arnold, and Bruce is very short and borderline campy.  However, I did not get my money's worth.  Jason Statham does not take off his shirt, which is a huge disappointment.  Nothing against Stallone, who is very ripped at 64, but I came to see Jason's abs.  The macho guys could've thrown us girls a bone.  Gee...

Side note:  I just read a completely unrelated book today that mentioned a line from Rambo where the love interest says, "You not expendable, Rambo."  Is The Expendables' title just a self-referential SLY wink?  ah-hah!

Thursday was the exciting and horrible night.  We had third row seats to see the Swell Season with our friends Drew and Christine.  Brian and I have loved this band, ever since we saw the charming Irish film, Once.  (If you haven't seen this, rent it!)  We saw them live in SF a couple of years ago, and they are even better live.  Glen Hansard is an AMAZING singer/musician/songwriter who tells funny and poignant stories in between songs.  I have a little crush on him too.  (He's a redhead.)  We're listening to the opening act, Black Francis (Frank Black of the Pixies), and Brian nudges me to look to the right.  Glen Hansard is sitting in the front row, not too far from us!  I can't believe it.  He's just sitting there with a wool cap on his head, enjoying the show.  The people sitting next to him don't even notice that it's him.  The guy (whose seat Glen's occupying) asks him to scoot down without showing any recognition.  It's inconceivable.  Finally, a guy comes down and shakes Glen's hand.  That does it for me.  I open my triple-disc set that I just bought for my sis-in-law (but really for myself, so I could see the concert dvd) and walk right over to Glen Hansard.

I very brazenly but politely ask him to autograph my cd with my own pen.  I came prepared.  He smiled and signed it.  I gushed how much I love his music.  He thanked me, and I thanked him.  Then we shook hands.  Hooray!  After this, some other girl tried to get a photo with him, but security whisked her away.  It's good to be me.

Black Francis finishes his set, and he's really good.  I decide to buy some more Pixies' tunes when we get home.  Then Glen and Marketa come out and start rocking out to Cactus, (which is a Pixies' song) and adding their own lyrics.  Glen says they asked Frank not to sing it, so they can.  But he's just joking.  Then they sing, Low Rising, which I predicted that they would open with.  I think it's a very sexy, soulful song.  Apparently, Glen must know this too, because he playfully starts singing, Sexual Healing, which brings the house down.  It's a beautiful night at the Mountain Winery Amphitheatre, and everyone is having a great time.  The Frames (Glen's other band) are playing with them.  I love that they're a rock band with a violinist.  Colm plays a beautiful Irish song on the violin while the rest of the band takes a break.  They return and do a rousing version of When Your Mind's Made Up.  The crowd is pumped up afterwards, and some guy yells, "Fuck yeah!" which Glen thinks is hilarious and yells it back.  So in the rock and roll spirit that's going around, he leads everyone in a sing-along of a funny song the guitarist wrote.  

Everyone is still cheering and clapping, when all of a sudden we see a dark silhouette of a human fall from above and crash to the stage near Glen.  There is confusion about what's happened, until Glen walks over and a horrified expression comes over his face.  The place goes quiet, and people start screaming for a doctor.  The man had jumped from the roof of the three-story stone building behind the stage.  They administered CPR for what seemed like an eternity, but they were unable to save him.  Everyone was asked to stay seated so the paramedics could get to the stage.  People were stunned, quietly crying, and trying to comfort each other.  Some had brought their kids and were trying to shield them from it all.  It was awful.  

We weren't allowed to leave until very late.  We have been in a surreal daze ever since.  Brian hasn't been sleeping well, sleepwalking and waking in the night, not going back to sleep.  I have trouble falling asleep and stay up too late, reading and keeping my mind off things.  We saw Drew and Christine the next night.  We had all been reading info on the web.  The man that committed suicide had come to the concert with a friend.  The friend had no inkling that anything was wrong.  

We ended up watching Hot Tub Time Machine, which was our mindless and silly antidote to what we were all feeling.  It is a raunchy version of Back to the Future.  It even has Crispin Glover.  Chevy Chase is kind of the Christopher Lloyd character.  I wonder how John Cusack went from Grace is Gone to War, Inc. to Hot Tub.  There's a scene where he asks, "What did I do in the 80s?"  I kept expecting (and hoping) that he would hold up a boombox to get the girl.  Kind of like how they show a photo of Courtney Cox dancing with Bruce Springsteen in her her high school yearbook on her show, Cougar Town.  (surprisingly funny show; terrible title.  They're thinking of changing the name.  Thank goodness.)  I guess John Cusack is tired of forever being Lloyd Dobler.  But isn't that why we watch him?  That's pretty much all you need to know about Hot Tub.  It was just what we needed Fri night, but watch at your own risk.  

The new season of Dexter was at the top of our queue, but it didn't feel right to watch it so soon.  So I told Brian to pick something else, something happy.  Then suddenly, I had an inspired idea.  I ran down the stairs and said, "I got it!  Streets of Fire!"

Brian replied, "I was already typing it in before you said it.  I was going to surprise you."  Now that's love and synchronicity.

May the man from the concert rest in peace.  

Mmmmmm....Pop Culture!

It's been an unreasonable amount of time since my last post.  The irony is that I quit posting while taking a writing class.  And then there was always some lame reason after another.  Last week, my friend Nikki gave me a kick in the pants by shaming me for not writing.  So glad someone's calling me on it.  Brian gives me gentle, husbandly encouragement but never criticizes.

I don't know how I got anything done last week with all the books, tv, and movies that I consumed.  We are in the ecstatic throes of Mad Men and couldn't be happier.  The scenes with Lane and Joan over the wrong flowers and note + him brandishing the steak in front of his pants were "pryce-less."  (Yeah, I know, but I couldn't help myself.  I am in an exclusive club with Stephan Pastis.)  And so was Peggy's response after her new lesbian friend makes a pass at her.  

I have a boyfriend

But he doesn't own your vagina.

Yeah, but he's renting it.

Peggy didn't bat an eyelash.  Roger usually gets the funny lines, but Peggy's got a few doozies of her own.  And did anyone notice the knowing glance exchanged by Joan and Peggy when Allison ran out of Don's office crying?  I think Joan was punishing Don by putting the old battleaxe secretary at his desk afterwards.

Read Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves.  I liked it but didn't love it the way I was obsessed over The Historian.  You can tell that Kostova is very good at her craft and is very thorough with her research.  However, this one left me a little cold afterwards.  

Also saw Salt and Scott Pilgrim vs The World.  How badass is it that Angelina is the only actress that can open an action movie?  Superfun, even if Brian didn't like the ending.  We very much enjoyed Scott Pilgrim.  Since we loved Shaun of the Deadand Hot Fuzz, we have to support Edgar Wright's career!  Good cast and interesting premise.  I envied Envy Adams for her shoes and her rock star swagger.  Loved Metric's Black Sheep, which we ran out and bought.

In between all of this, we finished Band of Brothers (furthering my mad crush on Damian Lewis, but what is that vibe between Winters and Nixon?) and watched episodes of Better Off Ted late nights while in Marin.  Ted was recommended by Vera and Larry, who also introduced us to Firefly.  They are two for two in their picks, since both shows are great!  Many thanks...

Last but not least, I read Rob Sheffield's memoir, Love is a Mix Tape, which was both heartbreaking and outrageously funny.  It's a lovely tribute to his vivacious wife, Renee, who died suddenly and too young.  I look forward to reading his new book, Talking to Girls about Duran Duran, which should arrive today!  I found a chapter online narrated by none other than Simon LeBon.  He opens drolly with, "This is Simon fu^%ing  LeBon."  Over a decage ago, Duran Duran was at Tower Records in SF to promote their latest album.  I knew some women who showed up with some of their old Tiger Beat mags from when they were teens.  Apparently, John, Nick, and Simon thought this was hilarious and spent time flipping through the pages while commenting on what had been said about them.  Sadly, I never got to see Duran Duran in concert.

But we are going to see THE SWELL SEASON tomorrow night!  Glen Hansard is another of my ginger crushes.  I guess I have a thing for redheads. 

Happy and not-so happy hours on the Peninsula

Last week, I was felled by food poisoning from my favorite restaurant in Sunnyvale.  I am hopeful that it was bad shrimp  (which can happen to any kitchen) and not poor food-handling.  However, we threw out our leftover lamb and pumpkin, just in case.  So this will be a shorter food post. 

Brian worked in Palo Alto last week, so we checked out some happy hour spots on the Peninsula.  The first place we tried was the Fish Market on El Camino Real near Portage.  If you order before 6:30pm, you can feast like royalty on 95 cent oysters, $2.95 garlic cheese bread, $3.95 grilled shrimp, and $3.95 mahi mahi sliders.  I liked everything but especially enjoyed the sliders with pickled ginger and wasabi mayo. Each order comes with two hefty sliders and Asian slaw.  Add a cocktail, and that could be enough dinner for me!  Brian wasn't as enamored of the wasabi mayo (just get it on the side) and preferred the extremely tasty grilled cilantro shrimp.  We ended up with waaay too much food, but it was so inexpensive....we didn't care!  The Fish Market is conveniently located near Fry's Electronics, (perhaps a ploy on Brian's part?) and we walked over after dinner to get our geek on.

My next recommendation is Xanh restaurant on Castro Street in Mountain View.  We were introduced to Xanh a few  years ago by our friends, David and Christine, and we have been eating here ever since. We had only eaten dinner here before and discovered that Xanh has a great happy hour menu too.  All of the HH food before 6:30pm is $4.00, which must be the magical price everywhere. You can get:  three types of satay, three different fresh rolls (tofu, shrimp, or kobe beef), papaya salad, and garlic noodles.  I may be forgetting something.  I was pleasantly surprised by the ample choices.  Their food is always yummy, so you can't go wrong.  We have tried everything except the papaya salad, because we ALWAYS get the Xanh salad.  And so should you, if you like beef!  It is my favorite dish on their menu.  It is a tower of mixed greens, beef, apples, avocado, mango, and huge slabs of won ton crackers. 

I tried to savor it as long as I could, but I finished Stieg Larsson's The Girl who Played with Fire.  It's a very taut kickass thriller and escapist fun.  I liked it even better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I am bereft until The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is released in May.....unless I can get a copy from the UK before then!!!  Very tragic story about Larsson and his partner of 30 years, Eva Gabrielsson. Check it out, if you love the books. 

I saw Sherlock Holmes at the movies yesterday.  It was fun and entertaining, and yet, NOT Sherlock Holmes.  Even though I think very highly of Robert Downey Jr. as an actor, I was never convinced that he was Holmes.  Or that beautiful Jude Law was Dr. Watson.  Holmes will forever be embodied by the late, great Jeremy Brett.  When I watched Brett on screen, he brought Doyle's pages to life.  Rachel McAdams was feisty and less problematic as Irene Adler. (probably because I had only seen Scandal in Bohemia once and was less invested in her as a character.  Unless you count Kim Dickens as Gloria Sullivan in the much under-appreciated 1998 film,  Zero Effect.  If you haven't seen it, rent it!)  Overall, the cast of Sherlock Holmes is good, but the modern reinvention is not as good as its performers.  Another Guy Ritchie film that's worth a matinée though.

Random thought:  Have you ever really thought about what Plugra translates into?  I mean, besides some of the most delicious butter you've ever tasted...and an expanded waistline and higher cholesterol.  Plu or plus is more.  Gra or gras is fat.  Those Dairy Farmers of America know what they're talking about!

New Year's Food Weekend

Brian and I ended 2009 and started 2010 with a long, decadent food weekend. On New Year's Eve, we did a food crawl through the East Bay. We started at Bakesale Betty's in Oakland for lunch. I had wanted to eat here for a long time, and it did not disappoint. Even though there was a queue, no one seemed to mind waiting...especially when a Betty's employee passed out bags of buttery pecan shortbread to everyone. We ordered the famous fried chicken sandwich, a ginger cookie, and a lemon slush to share at one of the ironing board tables set up outside. The sandwich was HUGE and full of spicy slaw and meaty pieces of fried chicken. I was wimpy and picked out the jalapenos, but Brian relished the opportunity to add Tapatio hot sauce for even spicier slaw. The lemon slush was ideal for washing down the yummy sandwich. The ginger (-molasses?) cookie was perfect and chewy. Maybe the best ginger cookie I've ever eaten. I wish we'd gotten two, so I didn't have to share.

I didn't complain about the lack of sweets very long, because our next stop was Tara's Organic ice cream in Berkeley. Tara's was recommended by my friend Titus (an ice cream whore like me) who never steers me wrong about food. We have been eating ice cream at Ici  for years and didn't know about Tara's lovely shop just down the street.

Brian had a scoop each of molasses and cinnamon, and I had ginger pear agave sorbet with vanilla ice cream-- scooped by Tara herself. The portions were generous, and the prices were very reasonable. More flavors, excellent quality, and less expensive than Ici...what's not to like?

Then onward to the Cheeseboard! Even though I live in Aptos (south of Santa Cruz), I check the pizza page on their website weekly to see if I need to drive up to Berkeley or to beg my friend Keith to bring one down. Brian and I hate to go out on New Year's Eve, and we decided that eating a pizza with: sweet potatoes, onions, mozzarella, parmesan, and arugula-hazelnut pesto while watching dvds would be the perfect celebration. And it was...with half left over for the next day!

'Tis the Saison!

On Sunday, we continued our debauchery with dinner at Saison.  I had just read about this new restaurant in the SF Chronicle and was intrigued. Luck was on our side, and surprisingly, we scored a reservation right away. Saison is in a renovated stable with a courtyard and an enormous kitchen that opens into a small dining room. The dining room is rustic and comfortable. The tables are wooden without tablecloths, accompanied by patio chairs with cushions. There was classic rock on the stereo, and we played "Name that tune" between the many courses.

We were seated at a corner table with a view of the kitchen. Our host/server gave us our menus to peruse while he poured us glasses of champagne. A gracious touch that reminded me of dining in Italy. Our delectable amuse-bouche was a sweetwater oyster with osetra caviar, little leeks, oyster jus, and seaweed. This was the most extravagant first bite I've ever been served, and it set my expectations high. The warm leeks complemented the oyster well, and the osetra heightened the delicious brininess. Even Brian loved it, and he isn't overly fond of oysters.

The next course was their farm egg with smoked butter and osetra. At first we thought this would be similar to the salty and maple syrupy "signature egg" at Manresa in Los Gatos, but this egg was a completely different savory dish. It was very rich and luxurious with the soft yolk, osetra, and smoky butter. We also thought there was a tiny piece of bacon, even though it wasn't mentioned.

Our third course was cauliflower prepared three ways: roasted, pureed, and shaved raw with vadouvan (French curry spices), yali pear, and citron. I am not a big curry fan, so this didn't wow me like the first two courses. I did enjoy the puree with the amazing yali pears and citron. Brian LOVED this dish. (A side note about this dish....the staff was very conscientious about bringing new cutlery for each course, but there was only a fork for this--which was a bit odd. The roasted florets were quite large, and I had to use my butter knife. Uncouth, I know, but I got tired of manhandling my food with my fork.)

The next offering was the "eats shoots and leaves" course, as we called it. Couldn't resist. It was written on the menu as "carmelized shoots, leaves & flowers, roots stewed with bonito." Even though I didn't cook the traditional Southern turnip greens with a dime on New Year's Day to bring prosperity for the year, I consider this dish a gussied-up substitution. This was one of my favorite dishes. I would've never thought to pair turnip roots and greens with bonito broth.

Our next root vegetable dish, "little beets slow-roasted with hibiscus and bone marrow," was hit and miss for us. I thought the sauce had too much of a vinegary aroma, but the Dirty Girl beets were delicious. (We buy our beets from Dirty Girl at the Santa Cruz Farmers' Market, and they are the nicest people. So glad that Joshua Skenes supports them.) Neither of us liked the bone marrow. Not a fault of the kitchen, just not our thing. This was the third time I've tried it, and it's never made a convert out of me.

Ahhhh....the main event! The poularde, whole roasted with podi spices, almond milk, and natural jus. It was accompanied by kale wrapped around foie gras. We thought kale and burrata was decadent; this was a whole other echelon! We spied the prepped poulardes when we walked through the kitchen on our way to our table and could smell them roasting during the earlier courses. They smelled and tasted as wonderful as they looked coming out of the oven. Very moist and succulent meat. I enjoyed the podi spices much more than the vadouvan.

Our dessert was a chocolate-walnut tartlet with salted caramel ice cream. Sadly, the tartlet was a dry, crumbly mess, but the salted caramel ice cream redeemed it. The ice cream was divine (as good as Bi-rite Creamery), and we were tempted to lick our bowls.

All in all, it was a lovely dinner with one BIG complaint: the wine pairing cost. Not really the cost, but the UNINFORMED consent. The menu did not have a price for the meal, and it did not mention wine at all. The Chronicle article (from Dec. 21st) mentioned that dinner was $70 pp, so that's what we were expecting. When I didn't see the wine pairing cost listed on the menu (We also didn't receive a wine list.) and our server kept pouring wine, I naively thought that the wine was included. We have eaten tasting menus at: Cyrus, Gary Danko, Alinea, Charlie Trotter, Tru, etc. (you get the picture.), and the cost of the wine pairing is ALWAYS listed. My issue with Saison is that the wine pairing price should have been stated, so I could have made an informed decision. I might have opted for the wine anyway but maybe not. I am not a big drinker and usually only consume one glass at dinner, maybe two on special occasions. I even mentioned this to our server, and he didn't say anything. (I left three half glasses of wine on the table.) Imagine our surprise when the bill came (Lavender shortbread with sea salt softened the blow.), and our meals were $80 pp, plus $50 for the wine pairing. Perhaps they've raised their prices for 2010.

On the flip side, our server was incredibly gracious when my husband told him that he doesn't drink. The server brought him chardonnay and pinot noir grape juice in stemware that matched mine. Brian sometimes feels self-conscious about drinking soft drinks at fine dining establishments. Big kudos to our server for making Brian feel more included.

Did we enjoy Saison? Absolutely. With all the love and labor that goes into each dish, it is worth $80 pp. However, Saison should be more up front about the cost of the meal and wine, so diners don't leave with a bad taste in their mouths.