Tapas, Bones and Leaves

[thoreau]

I'm down in Palo Alto at Dave's place. As he calls it, "Miss Kate's Country Estate",...... I had a nice drive down listening to the California Report on KQED (what would I do without Public Radio!?) and got here about 730.... we wandered over to a tapas restaurant Dave keeps pointing out - and it was surprisingly enough not too busy. So we ordered up for appetizers - a fennel/pear salad with goat cheese and a lovely hamachi cervichi with avacado. I had my normal Kier Royale (raspberry liqour in a glass of champagne) - and Dave (who is with cold) had a pot of jasmine tea. For our main course we had a sea bass with mangos and tomatoes in a banana leaf (cooked perfectly) and a very hot spicy bowl of Pho Beef Soup. Truly wonderful! Steamy and very spicy - they gave us a small serving cup of a spice that our waiter (fresh from france) could not pronounce in English - leave alone the Thai version of the word - - so - Dave picks it up - and says "lets try it" - well - just 1/3rd of the special spice sauce turned the Pho Soup - in MIGHTYHOTHOLYSHIT Pho Soup - which we both drank down carefully. But - the look from Dave upon that first swallow was priceless. We decided against dessert - and then came home to take Miss Kate out for a gander around the block. It is a cold fall night here; without the ocean to keep things warm - its in the 40s outside. We ran to the store to shop for tomorrow night's dinner. I'll be doing a Bob's Kitchen episode tomorrow for slow cooker jumbalaya. Dave and I will also be shopping for our first co-owned appliance! (aaaaaaaahw!) A coffee maker! Although he doesn't drink coffee - Dave has acknowledged that perhaps we need a coffee maker so I don't have to slodge all the way over to Peets for a cuppa when I am down here. (he also knows I am penny pinching - so would prefer a cup of home brew over a latte any morning.) so - thats it - Miss Kate is chewing on her chewybone with great intensity - I got to foot splash my way through some fall leaves and Dave got the variety of a tapas restaurant. :) So - all in all - a great start to the weekend.