Elegant lunch. Dad & I stopped by for lunch at Sushi Ko in Larkspur Landing. I've been here for dinner, but this was the first lunch visit. We were greeted warmly, and given our choice of tables. The menu was quite extensive for lunch so we took a little time to decide.

We started out with a cup of piping hot green tea and delicious freshly made miso soup.

Dad decided to try the "chicken on a stick" - Yakitori Don. It has some crisp takuwan lining the pretty lacquer box, and he enjoyed it.

I ventured to try their daily lunch special, which was a combination of teriyaki salmon, chicken katsu, gyoza, cabbage salad, steamed broccoli, the requisite dipping sauces and a bowl of rice. The rice was remarkable, the rest was very tasty too. I asked what kind of rice was used, and the reply from the kitchen was Tamanishiki. The very same brand in my pantry.

I think Dad misses having ice cream as its something I just don't think to keep on hand, and requested dessert. He asked for ginger ice cream, and really enjoyed it.

I tried a few bites of an "angel" cake, which was a rich, dense chocolate cake with some chocolate truffle inside. It was delicious, but very rich. Sushi ko really takes care with the details, whether for their inexpensive lunches or their full dinners. The rice was supreme, and they also paid attention to the chop stick detail offering chiseled wooden ones that were rounded and quite elegant, with only a slight joining at the top to break. Very low danger of splinters, and they were just to elegant to toss, so I spirited my used ones away in my purse. Will definitely remember that they serve great lunches as well as dinners.

Latin Flair in Sonoma. I lunched in Sonoma at Maya after having my hair trimmed. I was greeted promptly, and it was so cold out I think it discouraged people as it was after noon, and there was only one party eating and chatting when I arrived.

I decided to try the Pastellas, a buttermilk flaky roll which was stuffed with fish, and served over a very nice black bean, garlic, zucchini and colorful bell pepper saute. It had some kind of cilantro based sauce on it as well. The appetizer took forever to come, and the waiter apologized profusely. When it came, the bottoms were burnt (you could even smell it when it came), and I pointed it out. I pulled out the shrimp stuffing, and tasted the top of the rolls. The waiter went to confer with the manager, and the solution was 25% off (-$2.24). Personally I thought that rather lame since it was obviously extremely late and then very burnt on the bottom. But I could tell this dish would taste great if correctly prepared.

I sampled a Maya tostada salad next, it was inventive delight. Imagine a greek salad over Latin spiced stewed chicken and onions and black beans. It was quite fresh and crisp, and they added some sour cream in ribbons over the top rather than giving me a too big bowl of it on the side. Nice touch. Obviously too big for me to finish, but it was really good! I've been to Maya many times before, and its such a mixed bag of experiences, it prevents me from going more often. The food is quite inventive and it is a bright and cheerful atmosphere though.

Quick Fish in Sausalito. Needing food fast today, I tried a little Fish & Chips (& Ice Cream) place on Bridgeway in Sausalito - Lappert's Ice Cream. It's actually hard to decipher what the name of the place is supposed to be as it has several signs, none of which are more prominent than the other, but the Ice Cream sign has a logo... so if anyone knows the 'real' name, please let me know!

It is fun and quirky inside, and the outside advertised Fish & Chips on Wednesday for $2.79.

But I was too early! The Fish & Chips special starts at 3 p.m. and runs until closing. The sign inside showed that in yesteryear, the special was 99 cents on Wednesdays! Must have been around when the restaurant noted it started - 1966. This place is bustling with tourists in the summer which is why I hadn't tried their Icelandic Cod Fish & Chips before. They offer a simple menu - hamburgers, fish & chips, fried prawns or calamari.

The Icelandic Cod Fish & Chips came out crisp on the outside, and moist on the inside. Although it was a bit greasy and I took off the outside coating of the second piece. The cabbage was not overdressed and quite crisp with fresh naturally sweet cabbage. I couldn't finish my meal, so the ice cream was not on the buy list today, I'll have to go back and try that "Hawaiian" Ice Cream another time.

Two outta three ain't bad. I can't believe it! The SF Chronicle posted an article on sub-tropical fruits, featuring the two I blogged recently! Seems they are grown locally, in California.

Enjoying home time. Today we started out with a new taste treat, the Greenmax 100 with Pal Ku Grain cereal. Another Greenmax Product- Yam & Multigrains was reviewed earlier on this blog, and comparing the two this one is sweet while the other was savory. This one has a smoother consistency while the other had distinguishable bits of grain. Dad enjoyed this one a lot. I liked it, but actually prefer the savory flavor to wake up to. It has an impressive ingredient list:

"Rye, purple yam, pumpkin seed, red unpolished rice, Pasture, grape seed, ginseng, pear barley, snow lotus, pearl, green unpolished rice, spinach, blueberry, wheat green, red flat bean, rape seed, wild rice, burdock, green lily flower, oat, black bean, pearl rice, osmanthus, black sesame, lotus root, astragalus henryl, red berry, seaweed, bitter melon, lily bulb, green tea, red pearl barley, black fungus, ginkgo nut, cranberry, chrysanthemum, laver, apple chip, red berry, buckwheat, and glucose. Additives: Soy lecithin, vita yeast powder, Chinese caterpillar fungus, calcium lactate, etc"

I personally like the 'etc' as it seems like anything that anyone ever considered healthy is ground up in this mix. It states on the package it's for keeping "energetic and healthy" - who could argue with that?

Dinner from Woodlands Market: Romaine with Blue Cheese Dressing and Spicy Walnuts, followed by Chicken Spinach Cannelloni. This made a nice meal shared between myself and Dad. Woodlands Market has a variety of fresh well-made foods that you can take home and enjoy. I like stopping in Kentfield to shop here when I'm passing through. And we were passing through on the way back from my Dad's meeting with doctors about the conclusions from a month of tests: Alzheimer's. Luckily, there is a great new drug for this - Aricept. But whatever the treatment, it is a hard diagnosis to hear. But at least we have a conclusion, and we enjoyed our dinner at home thoroughly.

Hidden Garden Oasis. Tucked behind what one might easily mistake as merely an ice cream shop is a light, bright, casual garden eating spot with a roof that is retracted during the summer. Entering the Seven Seas Greenhouse Restaurant, and walking by the ice cream counters and kitchen, you come to a couple of back rooms and are warmly greeted.

The greenhouse room is full of live plants and walls are covered with small wooden slats. The room has a comfortable, well-loved feel, and it has been lived in with a few wooden slats missing here and there. There were very fresh and cheery flowers on each white-clothed table. The restaurant is just around the corner from the Sausalito Ferry Terminal, so I suspect that it is busy during the tourist season, but for lunch on a Monday in winter, it was very quiet.

I enjoyed a Garden Salad which was included in the price for my main dish. It was rather average as far as ingredients go, but the ingredients were perfectly fresh and crisp as salad greens should be. I appreciated that they put the ranch dressing on the side without my even asking.

I enjoyed a fabulous Crab Newburg for my main dish. Besides the crab bits, there were several whole chunks of crab leg in the saute, and it was moist and flavorful and obviously fresh. The vegetables were fresh, crisp and without seasoning, but it was nice to judge for myself how much butter and salt to place on them. The rice side was perfect with with a butter base, and bits of fresh vegetables to brighten it up as well. The ice tea was generously sized, tasted like fresh brewed and was steeped to the right degree of strength. This is not a place that I'd take guests who want a corporate-style or highly interior designed place, but in the off season it's a lovely place to soak in the garden green and have a quiet oasis away from the bustle of daily life, or meet friends for an private and intimate setting.

Fish in Larkspur. I came back after a bit of an absence to do a full review of Yankee Pier in Larkspur. I mentioned it in several posts in years past - September 19, 2005, September 18, 2003 and August 19, 2003, so it was overdue for a visit. First thing noticed is what a difference a couple years makes in the mobility of an aging parent. We were going to take advantage of the beautiful sun and sit on their deck at the picnic tables, a delightfully casual and relaxing place to be. Unfortunately, Dad couldn't maneuver himself into the fixed seat which he would have to climb into. The host quite graciously reseated us inside. If you have kids, the outside area has a sandbox with some toys in it that the kids LOVE to play in and keeps them amused while adults chatter.

Dad and I started out with a cup of classic New England Clam Chowder. It was great, and I also noticed that Yankee Pier had changed their recipe since the last clam chowder I had there was New England style, but without the cream. It had a cute dill biscuit floating on top which also tasted good.

Dad tried out their Fish Sandwich of the day, which happened to be snapper. He enjoyed it, and the ambiance so much he commented about how much he liked the place all the way home.

Since they were out of the Lobster Roll Sandwich, I requested an old standby - Beer Battered Fish & Chips. The fish were VERY hot, the outside crisp and the inside moist and fresh. I enjoyed my meal too. We had a beautiful day in Marin, and this was a very enjoyable food outing. Daniel's birthday was also Sunday, and I enjoyed a lively party in Berkeley to celebrate.

Anna's Cupboard. My friend Daniel, who launched me into this blogging world a few years ago, stopped by for dinner the other evening. As I was scurrying about putting the finishing touches on the first course, I noticed Daniel had opened one of my cupboard doors, and appeared to be deep in thought and scanning the contents in detail. The thought went through my head "OMG I hope he doesn't find anything EXPIRED in there...". About that time, Daniel looked up and said something like, "You could write an entire NOVEL based on what's in this cupboard you know. Sometime I'd like to come back and chronicle all the things in here." Hmmm... oh really? Well, perhaps it's worth a blog post. So I lay my cupboard bare. This is actually about a fourth of my cupboard space, but it's representative.

So let's explore the shelves. The first one, above, I call my 'sugar shelf' as it has mostly sweetish things. Things like sorghum molasses, Persian lump sugar, jams, honey crystals, and the 'true' syrup of Liege. And some miscellaneous stuff has made its way there like a variety of soy sauces.

Next one down is what I call my 'seasoning' shelf. 99.9% foreign seasoning packets, spices, mixes. The white basket contains my treasure trove!

For example, these Norwegian mixes randomly pulled from the basket. One is for a type of cereal. Apparently in Norway housewives used to pride themselves on the richness and smoothness of the cereals they prepared. I was told of one recipe which consisted basically of heavy cream, flour and butter -- good thing they ski a lot there! The other is for a fish sauce from Lofoten, where those beautiful mountains meet the sea in Northern Norway.

Another handful yields a variety of European mixes. Dutch, Belgian, French and Irish origin mixes. What fun!

Next shelf - entirely Japanese! Well, there is one Korean piece in the right upper corner - sesame oil infused nori (laver seaweed), something really tasty! This shelf is jam-packed and it's not my only "Japanese shelf". You can see my Hiroshima tastes coming out with the okonomiyaki mixes and sauce in the right hand side as well.

Now for my real weakness -- two shelves entirely devoted to TEA (with a couple small bags of coffee and mulling spices). This is reduced from a previous three shelves full, and yes, I do have a couple more boxes outside of this area, and one inlaid wooden serving box chock full.

Randomly pulled teas: Winter melon, Hokkaido lavender, soba (buckwheat) and Iri Genmai. The Iri Genmai is actually what you add to plain green tea to make Genmai-cha. I keep it on hand to blend to taste. I also keep some whole dried hibiscus and peppermint on hand to blend into my own infusion/tea blends. Whole novel? I don't think so, but I hope you were entertained by my cupboard musings today.

Sushi Boat Restaurant. Two floating sushi places in nearly a week.... not intentional, but since Paul & I were in a hurry and this the closest and quickest restaurant near the theaters on Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael, we stopped in for dinner before going to the opening night of "Children of Men".

Paul and I enjoyed some quick sushi off the floating boats.

and some more sushi...

then we had some agedashitofu, which was very generously portioned and quite good.

The restaurant did start us off with some miso as well, and we ended our meal with vegetable tempura, which was correctly crisp on the outside and deliciously tender on the inside. Sushi Boat Restaurant was quick and friendly and we enjoyed the meal. The movie was quite gripping too!

Cherimoya. Found another intriguing fruit, this time at Whole Foods, and taking the advice of the produce manager, took a few home. Heat shaped with dragon-like scales, it seems quite a romantic fruit. There are several varieties of cherimoya, and this one appears to be the one called "Chaffey". The interior is quite seedy, but the seeds are big and easy to remove. The flesh has the consistency of a melon, but the flavor mixture of banana, strawberry and vanilla. Although it seems rare, exotic and new, it is actually an ancient fruit, and one of the first recorded from the New World.

On another note, I'm continuing to find out about Medicare and caring for the aging as I walk the walk with my 86 yo Dad. The latest is that he's developed a hairline fracture between his pelvis and spine due to osteoporosis, and I'm now understanding that walkers are also needed for the aging even if they have good balance because if their bones are weak, they could break for no reason and then the person will take a tumble (without a walker to grab) and break even more. Also, if there is a recommendation for equipment, always follow up with a request for a script for it from the physician as it then has a greater chance of being covered under Medicare. I feel a bit like a mother of a newborn since he seems more delicate now, not to mention being awakened suddenly in the middle of the night for 'emergencies' (which aren't really, but he needs help with something he can't get out of his mind). Feeling sleep deprived and eyes opened about what caring for the aging entails.

Group Recipes. I discovered a convenient and fun place to post and store recipes, Group Recipes. Recipes are rated, food porn admired and a community is born. There is a "Bite This" section that works in a "Digg"-like manner where the most popular posts of the food blogging community float to the top as users read and rate. I've been working on posting all the recipes on this blog there for easy reference - look for recipes under "annalou" to find these (a work in progress). Check it out!

Taki. Hidden in the corner of Novato's Pacheo Plaza is Taki Japanese Restaurant. As soon as we arrived, I recognized it from a visit several years ago. It was busy at 6:50, and we got the last table available. We were then greeted with a hot towel -- a real one! Very authentic experience there.

We ordered a California roll as an appetizer at first. It was superb! It used fresh crabmeat and tobiko!

Dad ordered Yakiniku-chicken and really enjoyed his plate. The only trouble was that his came out first, before the appetizer and there was a very long wait for the California roll and my order, both of which came out at once.

I enjoyed a chirashi, which was very well made and the rice was cooked and seasoned to perfection. All in all, a very enjoyable visit despite the food ordering glitch, and we'll definitely go back.

Thai in Larkspur. I'd heard that one of the former owners of Thep Lela had opened a new place in Larkspur and that it was fabulous, but although it's been some time, hadn't made it there yet. So on the way to brunch, when Dad mentioned he'd rather have Thai, it was the perfect opportunity to stop at R'Noh Thai. R'Noh means "Rising Sun", and it is in a small mall in Larkspur. It looks like there is no parking, but if you drive into the driveway you can find a hidden parking lot in the back.

The interior is warm, peaceful and inviting. And the greetings are prompt and service quiet and unobtrusive.

Dad started with the Thai Rolls, which he said were hot, crisp and delicious.

I tried the Thai Fresh Rolls, which were crisp and fresh, like a little handful of salad, neatly wrapped.

Dad chose one of the day's specials, Pumpkin Curry. It looked really delicious from my side of the table. Dad said it was perfectly spiced and tasted like everything was field ripened and prepared at its peak.

I was tempted by the Bamee Chicken, and was careful to pronounce it correctly. At another Thai restaurant, it was off-menu, and I asked if they could make "Bambi Chicken" which elicited giggles from the elegantly coiffed and dressed waitress at the time. It's a favorite of mine, simple, and if done correctly the chicken is infused with subtle flavors. R'Noh Thai's was a fabulous rendition. R'Noh Thai is definitely a place I'll revisit.

Setting the stage for the New Year. I had a very fusion day today. Jo-Ann reminded me of a number of Japanese customs associated with New Year's Day ... like not sweeping the floor today so as not to sweep good luck out the door... and to remember that you're setting the pattern for the year ahead in what activities you choose to do today. Although it was really hard NOT to sweep the floor, or use my iRobot on the carpets, I refrained. Missing making soba noodles for New Year's Eve to insure a long and healthy life, I fused the tradition and used fresh Chinese noodles in my fridge to make the veggie/miso based soup for lunch above.

I thought I'd like to enjoy more tea this year, so Dad & I sipped various teas all day, also more warm and inviting fires in the fireplace would be nice (photo above), hmm... and hot salt and herb baths, so I took one in Dead Sea Salts and Melissa essence - sorry guys - no photos ;-), more walking so I ventured out into the fog - it felt so mysterious! Might I have a sense of wonder and gratitude throughout the year as well. I made calls to various friends to insure being in touch, but was careful not to 'stress out' on trying to call EVERYONE, a representative sample for the whole should be enough to set the stage!

I had to be sure we were covered for luck on my mother's southern side too -- it is requisite to eat black-eyed peas in one form or another on the first day of the year to insure good luck for the New Year. Apparently, the peas resemble coins and bring prosperity. That is always welcome!

Happy New Year!!!

Eating Japanese in Marin. If you've been following this blog, you'll have picked up that I adore Asian food, particularly Japanese. Today is one of the most important holidays in Japan, and since I have had a pretty close connection to the people and culture (and of course food!) of Japan, I thought I would do a round up of eating Japanese in Marin.

Japanese Restaurants I've tried (and link to my review, if I wrote one, or other info)

Larkspur

King of the Roll
Sushi-ko

Mill Valley

Amberjack
Ino Sushi
Robata Grill & Sushi
Samurai
Sushi Gourmet

Novato

Masa Sushi
Matsuyama
Taki

San Rafael

Akira Sushi Bar
Fujiyama
Kamikaze
Sushi Boat Restaurant
Sushi Lin
Sushi-to-Dai-For
Tenkyu

Sausalito

Sushi Ran
Sweet Ginger


Japanese Restaurants yet to try...

San Rafael

Arigatou - Japanese Food to Go
Edo Japan

Non-Japanese Restaurants featuring sushi...

Mill Valley

May Lee's Chinese Restaurant

San Rafael

Yu Shang Restaurant & Sushi Bar