So cheerful!

Cafe Z in Greenbrae was just as bright and cheerful as my last visit. I was just in the mood for something simple. I toyed with the idea of crepes once I'd spotted them on the menu, and then I saw some other simple things.

So I ordered a cup of French Onion Soup. It was warm and I loved that there were plenty of onions, however the stock was just a little thin for my taste, and compared to my memories of other French Onion Soups. The accompanying roll had a crust that was more chewy than crunchy.

The Grilled Cheese Sandwich wasn't completely described on the menu, so I was surprised to see that it was panini style. I was delighted to see that it had sliced tomatoes in it. It also has fontina, bleu, mozzarella and Gruyere cheeses in generous portion. If you are a cheese lover, you'll be in heaven with this one. It was a little rich for me, but I can still be appreciative.

Restaurant Inspection Results

Critical: 1
Noncritical: 6
Last inspected: 12/9/2009

Previously reviewed:
December 18, 2006

Find address/phone number/directions on Anna's Map.

$5 Pizza!

I discovered last week that Wipeout Bar & Grill in Greenbrae has a 'Wild Wednesday' special - all pizzas, all day for $5. These are 9" large and you can create your own if you don't see the right combination on the menu.

I decided on a modified "Veg Head", substituting fresh tomatoes for zucchini. 9" is quite large for a 'personal' pizza. It was hot, fresh and great! I hear there is a 'Tiny Tuesday' special where kids eat free, 1 child per adult, 12 and under. I checked out the kids menu while I was there, and there were healthy options! Steamed broccoli or fruit can be substituted for french fries, and there was an interesting sounding Teriyaki Bowl with either salmon or chicken with coconut rice and broccoli. The kids meals include a drink. There are big screens with surfing movies playing and appropriately happy music in the background. Wipeout Bar & Grill is a well-done theme restaurant that all might enjoy for a casual dinner.

Restaurant Inspection Results

Critical: 0

Noncritical: 1

Last inspected: 5/6/2008

Previously reviewed:
December 16, 2007

Find address/phone number/directions on Anna's Map.

Starting the day right

and I don't mean by just the food. The woman who took orders at Fifi's Diner in Greenbrae the morning of our visit had such a cheerful countenance it was impossible to go away with a bad start on the day. She had a broad pink ribbon in her hair and her smile radiated a happy welcome to the morning to everyone.

My Dad was all excited about the delicious hot cocoa with mounds of whipped cream.

My vegetable omelet was chock full of freshly grilled vegetables in variety. And the hashbrowns were feathery and light.

Dad wanted the breakfast sandwich with bacon, which he said was great but needed to pack half to go as it was generously portioned. (And after that big cocoa too.) He also remarked on the optimum ripeness of the fruit that came with his. Fifi's Diner is a keeper.

Restaurant Inspection Results
Critical: 0
Noncritical: 0
Last inspected: 11/6/2007

Moved and still good

I went to visit Jason's the other day, which moved from San Rafael to Greenbrae a few months ago. There were familiar menu items, and many I haven't yet tried.

I started with some Dragon Prawns, which were large, succulent and very tender. The wasabi aioli sauce was refreshing and the tobiko which were scattered over the dish artfully made a nice finishing touch.

For the main dish I chose the Kitchen Made Gnocchi in a Triple Mushroom Sauce. This is a sensual sauce that slides gracefully over the tongue. It also had pieces of sauteed garlic in it that were so soft and rich in the cream, that I thought for a moment I was tasting bacon parts. I detected portabello, shitake and cremini mushrooms (possibly). Naturally I couldn't finish all this richness, but every bite I took was satisfying.

I ended with a light Champagne Apricot Sorbet. Cold and refreshing, it was the perfect end.

Previously reviewed:
April 11, 2007

Surfing's a theme. Wipeout Bar & Grill recently opened in Greenbrae, in the Bon Aire Shopping Center taking over the old Chevy's space. There are large screens everywhere with movies of surfers and BIG waves.

Dad ordered a turkey burger, which they pounded extra thin, just for him. He enjoyed it and liked the fries too.

I tried a taco salad, and they were nice enough to cut up a veggie burger patty on top in place of the usual meat offerings. Fresh, crisp and good. I liked that black beans were standard.

We shared a smooth and cold iced key lime pie. This is worth coming back for. In general Wipeout has American standard menu items, service is good, and the food is well prepared and fresh. No surprises here.

Snack in Greenbrae. We had about an hour between appointments for my Dad at the row of offices behind Marin General hospital, so we stopped by Road Runner Burrito for a snack and more inviting place to wait than a doctor's office. This is a cute place, and there is a sign up that they serve breakfast burritos every morning.

There is a cheerful roadrunner on the wall. The tables are well-worn, but the place is clean and the staff cheerful and helpful. They even asked what kind of beans we wanted on the chicken nachos we ordered. I chose the whole pinto beans for us, but I should have said extra beans, and no chicken (there was no vegetarian choice and I was not thinking).

So Dad enjoyed the chicken on the burritos, which looked good and had little char marks showing it was actually grilled. This looks like a big glob in the photo, but it was quite a tasty big glob! And filling. My half filled me up even avoiding all the chicken such that I just had a homemade mango lassi for dinner later on.

I have to share a very amazing thing that happened last Friday. As those who follow my blog know, my 87 year old father Charles lives with me and has Alzheimer's and macular degeneration. He's been treated for about a year for the macular degeneration. He went for monthly eye exam last Friday. Last month, he could only read the very top line, and just barely. We were amazed when Dad, without skipping a beat, read down the lines to five lines down accurately! Unprecedented in his history with the eye treatment! The only thing that has changed in the last month is that he's been eating the Ayurvedic vegetarian diet with me! And not completely as he's not taking the herbs, and he eats meat items at lunch when he's at the Senior Center, and occasionally when we go out like to the Road Runner today. I would say 2 out of 3 meals he's been eating are vegetarian on average. I can't explain it any other way. It could be that his Alzheimer's improved so that he could remember the instructions longer, or some combination of that and literal eye improvement, but either way he surprised us all!

Happy and Hopping. I'd been looking for an opportunity to try Cafe Z in Greenbrae for lunch and finishing up with tests at Marin General around lunch gave my Dad and I the perfect opportunity. The last time I wrote about Cafe Z, it was for a celebratory breakfast, and it has been a consistently great breakfast spot, but how about lunch?

Cafe Z is a casual yet stylish place to eat where you order at the counter and pick up your food from the cooking area. The first thing I noticed is how busy it is for lunch, and they've put a 'buzzer' system into place for orders. And the operations manager, Rick, was quite friendly and popped up and handed us our lunches before we could stand up after seeing the buzzer flash.

Dad tried the Turkey and Gruryere with Radicchio, Dijion, and Tomato Pannini with a green salad. Never having had Pannini before, he commented that they had him the heel ends of the bread! I giggled and told him about the joys of Italian sandwiches. He loved the sandwich.

I'm such a sucker for dill that I ordered the Egg Salad with Dill. I tried the curried potato salad, which was a nice twist on potato salad. The dill in the egg salad was a good match as well.

I saw Rick putting out copies of a shiny new book "From Warehouse to Your House" and went to browse. Rick kindly pointed out that the author, one of the restaurant's founders and the person behind the creative recipes at Cafe Z, Sally Simpson is in town, and in fact just outside the door autographing copies. With that title, how could I resist? You'll remember my recipes using 'Costco pantry' items (October 27th, and November 16th posts with recipes) -- could always use a few more ideas for those items where I overstocked. Oh, now thinking of that, I'd best end here and take a read!

Hot, Filling and Prompt. That's about the best I can say about the lunch experience at Hunan First with my father. This Greenbrae restaurant looked like a hole-in-the-wall, and so we went in with the hope of being surprised by a new hidden find.

The interior is rather beat up, the tables uneven is some places, and it is small. However, they've tried to make the place cheery with some artwork.

We were greeted promptly and given tea. Often the manner in Chinese restaurants is rather brusque so I was not surprised to find that here. I was pleasantly surprised by the lunch menu - three tiered, depended on the entree (A) for $5.00, (B) $5.59 and (C) $6.00. My father and I ordered off the (C) menu, which had the white meat chicken dishes and prawns.

Dad was served the Chicken, Snowpeas and Mushrooms dish with Fried Rice.

I had the Sesame Chicken dish with Chow Mein. The meals listed an "Appetizer" and "Fruit" as well as a fortune cookie. The fortune cookie was as expected, but apparently the appetizer was the two big pieces of won-ton skin deep-fried (yuk). The "fruit" was two small bites of canned pineapple... huh? Dad said the Chicken, Snowpeas and Mushroom dish was fine, although nothing to broadcast. The chicken in my dish was good, but the sauce was terribly sweet and the chicken was drowned in it. My dish also had smaller pieces of won ton wrappers deep fried and thrown in with the chicken. The chow mein was soft and nearly mushy. This one can remain hidden as far as I'm concerned.

But I have a place to recommend highly - Piazza d'Angelo in Mill Valley. I was there at a social event last night, where it wasn't appropriate to take photos, and it was fabulous! I was invited to a private party, and we had dinner family style with a number of off-menu items like duck meat cannelloni. I've been there many times, although not recently until last night and have never been disappointed. It is in a different class and price range than the above, but since I just went I wanted to note it. I'll get back to it with a full review and photos sometime in the future.

Cafe Z. Well, well! Another find not found on the Internet. I took my own photos! Dad and I celebrated the end of his treatment this morning at this charming crepe and sandwich place which serves an awesome breakfast. Talking with the woman who took our $ and made our hot chocolate and mocha drinks, it's been around for about a year.

I noticed on the table that it serves supper now too, and Sally Sampson created the recipes. Good going Sally!

Cafe Z is in Greenbrae's Bon Air Shopping Center between Fifi's Diner and Peet's Coffee.

Here's a shot of the interior. Very inviting. Dad had a crepe filled with eggs, and I their carmelized onion and mozzarella scramble. Will definitely revisit.

Make someday today!

Of course, we had to end the last day with a dinner celebration too. Asked Dad what kind of food he'd like, where he'd like to go, he responded 'anywhere' 'you choose'.. so I just started driving. Ended up in San Anselmo, and noticed Insalata's -- one of those places that I passed frequently and thought 'someday I'll try it'.. well I stopped quickly and made 'someday' 'today'. Good idea. That was a really marvelous place! What inventive Mediterranean food. My fresh halibut was on a bed of Israeli couscous. I've never had Israeli couscous outside my home or Israel previous to this evening. Seems its an up and coming thing. The Fattoush Salad is totally inspiring. I'm so afraid of this one getting away, I'm going to replicate it below...

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Syrian Fattoush Salad

As a fattoush maker for over 15 years, I know this salad like the back of my hand so I have some very helpful tips:

• Use only the hearts of the romaine--don't be tempted to use the tough outer leaves. Also, tear off the top of the heart if it seems limp and leathery.
• Traditionally, Italian parsley is used in place of cilantro, but I like the flavor balance of the mint and the cilantro. The size of a bunch of cilantro or mint in the summer months is double the size than in the winter. So, if you have big bunches in the summer, use 1/4 of a bunch, instead of 1/2 of a bunch.
• Splurge on French sheep's feta or a good quality imported feta cheese. It's rich with a nice salt and acidity balance. Don't skimp!
• Use fresh lemon juice, cumin seed and real Kalamata olives. Remember that the taste of the lemon juice varies through the year so use your buds and adjust accordingly. Adding a pinch of sumac to boost up the flavors of the lemons is one trick.
• Use fresh cumin seed, and not the pre-ground powder. There is a big difference in flavor when you toast the seeds to coax out their oils.
• And finally, don't buy canned, pitted olives. Take the extra time to pit real Kalamatas yourself. I promise that you'll be happy with the results!

Salad:

3/4 cup vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved

3/4 cup English cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced in 1/4 inch cubes

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onions (about 1/2 of a small red onion)

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (about 1/2 a bunch)

1/4 cup finely chopped mint (about 1/2 a bunch)

6 cups hearts of romaine lettuce (about 3 hearts), torn roughly by hand

2 pieces of pita bread

2/3 cup sheep's milk feta cheese

1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives (about 12 olives)

Lemon vinaigrette:

1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic (about 1-2 cloves)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

3/4 teaspoon toasted and freshly ground cumin (see below)

2 ounces olive oil

5 ounces extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves 6 as a side dish

To make the pita chips, preheat oven to 350˚. Trim edges off of the pita, keeping a circle shape, so that the pita can be split into two halves. Cut each half into 6 triangles and arrange on a baking sheet. Toast for approximately 12 minutes, or until the pita chips crisp up and are golden brown. Turn baking sheet halfway through baking. Set aside and cool. Break the chips into large pieces.

To make the vinaigrette, in a small saucepan over medium-heat, toast cumin until aromatic and light brown, approximately 3 minutes. Toss occasionally to prevent burning. Let cool and set aside. Grind in a spice grinder until cumin becomes almost like powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, rice wine vinegar, cumin, extra virgin olive oil and olive oil. Season to taste with generous amount of salt and black pepper. Set aside.

To serve, toss romaine hearts, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, mint, cilantro, red onions and olives with the vinaigrette in a large bowl, making sure that the leaves are well coated with the vinaigrette. Divide the salad among 6 chilled salad plates. Serve immediately.

Sidebar:

Sheep are the most important dairy animal in the Mediterranean. In much of the Middle East, the sheep's milk cheese of choice is feta. Look for imported sheep's milk feta cheese which has been barrel aged. To feta aficionados, there is no comparison between artisnal-barrel aged feta and the feta produced in huge automated factories. However, given the expense and in some areas the unavailability of barrel-aged feta, feta cheese imported from Greece, France and Bulgaria are your next best bet.