This brand new site may just be the next thing to grab the internet’s collective consciousness for 15 seconds: matchmake.us. It’s got fairly attractive people, brief profiles, and voting on potential couples. It feels like a constructive version of am-I-hot-or-not. Oh, and it’s free and they seem to need more girls, so if you’re on the market, sign up and let me know how it goes!
I’ve said it to their publicist and I’ll say it to all of you too: Palo Alto needs a restaurant like Boulder’s The Kitchen. Why, you may wonder, do we really need another restaurant? Actually, you’re probably not wondering that, since Palo Alto and the Peninsula in general have a dearth of good places to eat. OK, so what makes it so different from what we already have? Well, for starters, the fact that everything is local and/or organic where possible and all of the food is great, yet nothing on the menu is over $30 (most entrees are actually priced in the high teens to low twenties); that it’s one of America’s most greenly operated restaurants; and that this neighborhood hangout is always open and you can always seem to get a seat. While a few dishes I’ve tried have only been good, the average level of the rustic, casual cuisine is much higher. It’s the sort of food many of us would like to make at home, but don’t have the time or skill to manage.
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Congrations to all the excellent food bloggers featured in Best-Shot Blogs in the August issue of Food and Wine. Their related story “Shoot First, Eat Later” included a tip from one of my favorite food photographers, Heidi of 101 Cookbooks. I was a little disappointed that the ideas in the article were so elementary (wiping the edges? yep, got that one already) so I was excited to find that Heidi also posted a few more technical and specific suggestions than those in the article. I’ve already sent it on to the food photographer in my house, though he’s definitely already got spending more on equipment down. Hopefully we’ll come up with something good enough to entire in the F&W Food Photo Contest. Happy shooting!
It’s hard to believe it was a year ago that I first wrote about Dine Downtown Palo Alto. It’s back this year, again with special menus at participating restaurants on Monday nights in August. I wish I were more enthused, but frankly, the Palo Alto restaurant scene has been a bit lack-luster recently. Perhaps this will be my excuse to finally revisit Osteria and Mantra.
I first figured out where Larkspur actually is when The San Francisco Magazine printed a glowing review and full-page glossy photo a Straus Dariy Soft Serve cone dripping with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Odd, I know, but in an intriguing way. About a month later, a city-dwelling friend shared his opinion that Pizzeria Picco makes one of the best pizzas in the area. It’s been on the To Visit List since, but we haven’t found much occasion to head that way, until today.
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