California.

Hello, I’ve just spent a little over two weeks in California and it was an awesome trip. It was sunny with clear blue skies on most days, I met up with some old and dear friends and visited some really kickass restaurants. As a travelling party of four, we visited some really amazing restaurants, found a great hole in the wall Peruvian place, scratched the surface about the idea of modern American cuisine and thankfully still fit into our clothes and didn’t come back as rollie pollies.

It has been long time since I’d been to California. I might have been less than four feet tall when I was last there, so my memories are a little dated and a little fuzzy, so it was almost like being there for the first time. All I had on this trip was a fresh mind, a very detailed itinerary (thank you to our planner who we estimated had put in close to 500 man hours of research!), open table reservations, an open stomach and three fellow eaters to chomp along.




We started in San Francisco, and then drove out and spent a few nights in Napa, visiting the vineyards and the eating was concentrated in Yountville and Oxbow market. And again from San Francisco, we drove along Highway One to Los Angeles, which hugs the Pacific Coast where I sat on the side of death in the car where I could see the drops and the amazing landscape of the coast and very vast ocean.
 

The highlight and best meal of the trip was, unanimously agreed and the winner by a mile, Saison in San Francisco. Just thinking about that meal makes me smile. I wish I could live in that restaurant. It is a stunningly beautiful place. High ceilings, gorgeous solid wood tables, cashmere scarves,  the open kitchen, the seafood tanks, the bar, the romantic idea of cooking by the fire, mind-blowing food and a very gracious service staff. Seriously, Chef Joshua Skenes, can I stay there? Please?

California was great. If I don’t get everything down in words the wordless entry is here.