The Culinary Timeline is a side-project that I've been working on since October. I'm hoping to have most of it complete by the end of January, with any luck. Until then, updates around here will be weekly, rather than twice weekly. Do stay tuned.
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 Planned Pizzahood: The Margherita @ Emilia's Pizzeria, Berkeley. I’m not an actual resident of Berkeley, so I don’t claim to know all of the subtleties of ordering a pizza at Emilia’s on Shattuck Ave. But I do know that Emilia’s is not your typical drop-in pizza joint like, say, Cheese Board, or Gioia, or Blondie’s, or Fat Slice. Unlike most other college-town pizzerias, eating at Emilia’s requires some planning: To begin with, the restaurant itself seats less than 10 people, and is only open from 5pm to 9pm, Tuesday through Saturday. It’s friendly, but it’s geared for take-out. That being said, the phones at Emilia’s open everyday before service at 4pm, and people call to schedule their orders accordingly.
I called Emilia’s a bit before 4:15 on a Wednesday and, after four or five busy signals, was able to secure a pizza for a 5pm pick-up. Although I didn’t see any long lines when I arrived to purchase the pie, I did notice a hand-written sign on the wall that stated that the next pizzas would be available at “8:00+.” If that sign was indeed accurate, then the next three hours had already been booked with pre-orders, which is impressive. As for the pizza per se, Emilia’s only offers one size, and no slices. Their standard pizza, pictured above, is an 18″ margherita, and it’s a tasty reward for just a little bit of diligence.
 Al Pastor Tacos @ La Luna Market, Rutherford. When I was working as a wine educator in Rutherford and Oakville, quick lunch options were unusually scarce. Aside from an occasional Dean & DeLuca sandwich, Mexican food was the only feasible option up valley — not that I ever complained all that much. Being a native of California, Mexican food will always be a staple for me, and the tacos on this page represent literally hundreds of past lunches, especially the tacos al pastor at La Luna Market, pictured above. Conservatively, I’ve eaten over one thousand tacos at La Luna (at an average of about eight tacos per week for over three years, you do the math). Of course, with that many visits to one taqueria, I’ve sampled La Luna’s entire menu several times over, but at this point, I’ve distilled my go-to selections down to just two choices: their tacos al pastor, or their carnitas (extra crispy) super burrito.
I’ll save the burrito discussion for another time, but La Luna’s al pastor tacos are quite good, if a bit uneven sometimes. At their best, the ground pork has been rendered enough to have a few crispy bits, with the red sauce providing just enough piquant heat. Now that I’ve returned to professional cooking, my trips to La Luna have lessened significantly, but the hopes of on-point al pastor will still lure me up to Rutherford. On the other hand, if I’m in the mood for carne asada, I’ve found that the shrewd move is to drive a bit further to the north, up to Azteca Market in St. Helena. Azteca and La Luna are similar in the sense that both taquerias operate within small convenience stores, although Azteca’s carne asada is superior to that of its Rutherford counterpart. Pictured below, Azteca’s carne asada tacos feature a delicious salsa verde, though my only complaint is that sometimes the meat could be chopped a bit smaller.
 Carne Asada @ Azteca Market, St. Helena.
 Two slices, and then some: Mozzarella and Montalban cheese, red peppers, Kalamata olives, garlic olive oil. Please click the photo for a full-screen view. To say that I’ve rediscovered pizza isn’t exactly accurate — I’ve never really gone too long without a slice. Let’s just say that my appreciation for pizza has been deepening for the last couple months. After a long week working in the kitchen, I woke up this afternoon with pizza on my mind. With a little motivation, I arrived in Berkeley just ahead of rush hour, and stopped by the Cheese Board Collective for their daily pizza special, pictured above. Since the restaurant offers just one type of pizza each day, Cheese Board pizzas are always vegetarian, which is actually okay with me, although I do also love the pepperoni pizza at Gioia. Part of the Cheese Board’s charm — aside from its grassroots credibility and its free-spirited nature — is the extra sliver of pizza that usually accompanies an order.
 The Torta Cubana @ That's It Market: Chorizo and Egg, Breaded Beef, Hot Dogs, Bacon, Ham, Queso Fresco, Lettuce, Tomato, Pickled Jalapeño, Guacamole, and enough Mayo to bring it all together. A couple summers ago, Anthony Bourdain profiled That’s It Market on “No Reservations,” a culinary endorsement that must have provided an amazing windfall to the tiny corner store (no doubt, the “No Reservations” logo still appears on the market’s menus). Two years later, That’s It continues to earn high marks for its well-known torta cubana, a catch-all sandwich of profound proportions. Being in the mood for this delicious hodge-podge of salt and fat, I drove down to the Mission District on Tuesday afternoon before the Giants-Dodgers game at AT&T Park. The torta cubana pictured above proved to be a fitting pre-game meal, although it did stifle my appetite at the ball park — I could only manage to eat one Sheboygan bratwurst during the game. Click the photos for a better view.
 Second verse, same as the first.
 Always mustard, never ketchup: The Cajun Corn Dog @ Uncle Bill's Gourmet Corn Dogs, Sonoma Square Farmers Market. The best things in life are fried: I learned this simple mantra very early on, when I used to work the fryer station at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans. We fried lots of delicious foods at K-Paul’s, including oysters, shrimp, soft-shelled crab, green tomatoes, duck skins, and of course, plenty of potatoes (K-Paul’s didn’t serve french fries, however. Instead, our potatoes were baked, halved, and then scooped. Once prepped, the skins and the “meat” were fried separately, with the little nuggets of fried potato “meat” being tossed into a rich cheese sauce, then spooned back into the fried skins. And in case you didn’t think it could get any better, this enemy of the arteries was the standard side item for the cheese-stuffed pork chop, which was blackened to perfection). Okay, where was I again?
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Today, a couple deep-fried items highlighted another perfect summer afternoon at the Sonoma Square Farmers Market. On the savory side, there was the Cajun-style corn dog, pictured above, from Uncle Bill’s Gourmet Corn Dogs. In this era of turkey dogs and, even worse, tofu dogs, someone’s got to fight the good fight on the corn dog front, and Uncle Bill’s offers up a substantial, top-heavy corn dog, fried to order, with a batter that’s remarkably light and fluffy. Highly recommended.
 Dogs dipped in grease. • • •
 Cinnamon and Sugar Donuts @ Harvey's Gourmet Donuts, Sonoma Square Farmers Market. The first time I ever had a fresh donut, I was in high school. My best friend worked at a mom-and-pop donut shop in Lodi, which I would frequent quite a bit for some free donuts. One day, I happened to stop by when the baker was working, and I was blown away by the character of a truly fresh-from-the-grease donut. For me, the difference between and fresh donut and an hours-old donut is analogous to the difference between a garden-fresh tomato and a supermarket tomato (in fact, I’d probably rather eat an hours-old donut than a supermarket tomato). Freshness, of course, is the key selling point at the Harvey’s Gourmet Donuts booth, where mini donuts are offered by the dozen and topped with anything from powdered sugar to maple glaze with bacon bits. I actually prefer these donuts in a more simplified format, with cinnamon and sugar, pictured above.
 Harvey: Master of Donuts. • • •
 At the turn.
 Anti-Gyro: The Kitchen Door's "Fold-and-Eat" Lahmajune. One thing that I eventually learned about Napa when I moved here six years ago was that there’s no place in town to get a good gyro. Granted, I could only try the one option that was available here at the time — I won’t name the restaurant, but it’s the most obvious guess — and quite honestly, that gyro was so dry and depressing that the memory of my disappointment has remained with me over the years. It failed royally, and the fact that I’m even venting about it now should say quite a bit: I do try to veer away from negativity with this blog, and to focus primarily on recommendations (you can get your fill of potshots and sniping at Yelp). So anyway, that leads us to the Kitchen Door’s lahmajune, pictured above, which boasts some very appealing, gyro-like qualities and comparisons (like the gyro, the Armenian lahmajune, or lahmacun, has its roots in Turkish cuisine). The spiced lamb, the yogurt sauce, the oven-fired flatbread: They’re all there in delicious harmony. So much so, I’ll go ahead and name the Kitchen Door’s lahmajune as the best gyro in Napa.
I learned something interesting about Cantinetta Piero tonight at Pancha’s of Yountville (which happens to be located right across the street): Apparently, all of Piero’s  employees learned just yesterday that their last night would be Wednesday, July 6. Upon posting this news, I received some clarifications today from Jennifer Tomaro, Marketing Director of Moana Hotel & Restaurant Group:
“The owners of Hotel Luca have retained the two principles of Solage (Tim Harmon and Robert Watson) to help direct the operations of the hotel and restaurant. The hotel is still open and there are no changes planned at this time. As you know, the restaurant was closed last night. There is no definitive plan in place for the restaurant as the team is using this opportunity to evaluate the operation, but the goal is to have it reopened by the end of this year. Please note that we do not have plans to make this a Solage-branded hotel / resort.”
 Three-piece Chicken and Waffle @ Little Skillet, San Francisco. Seven packets of Crystal Hot Sauce is the perfect amount for this scenario: Two for the leg, two for the thigh, three for the breast. Since I’ve recently taken up golf (again), many of my weekends have been spent out burning up the links, rather than trolling the Bay Area for choice eats. But let’s face it: Mark Twain might’ve said it best when he quipped that golf was a good walk, spoiled. Either way, I needed more of a sure thing, and an excursion into San Francisco had become long overdue. I arrived at Little Skillet about an hour before closing, and naturally ordered their three-piece chicken and waffle, which was the largest portion on the menu. An offshoot of Farmerbrown in the Mission, Little Skillet defines the term hole-in-the-wall, occupying a quaint window space among the converted warehouses of Ritch Street.
Without a dining room — or even any patio furniture out on the sidewalk — Little Skillet relies upon a brisk take-out business that often generates long lines during lunch hour. Since scoring a seat is a moot point, the restaurant’s busy times are easily your best bet. Having visited Little Skillet during a lull, the food hit the window way too fast to have been prepared to order, not even the waffle. Despite this dubious timing, the food was still warm, and in terms of temperature, I’d actually call it just on the right side of borderline. All in all, Little Skillet passed. But fresh-from-the-grease is always preferred, and perhaps even reason to rave.
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 Margherita Pizza @ Pizzeria Picco, Larkspur. Pizza is a great way to avoid rush hour. If I’m driving back to Napa from Oakland or Berkeley, the Gilman Exit off of Highway 80 leads to Gioia. Or, leaving from San Francisco, the Tamalpais Exit off the 101 leads to Pizzeria Picco. At 6pm yesterday evening, the latter choice made perfect sense. Rather than sit bumper-to-bumper on the 101, I drove into Larkspur and watched the sun dip behind the trees from the sidewalk patio at Pizzeria Picco. I ordered a Stone Fruit Salad (below), a Margherita Pizza (above), and a cup of Straus vanilla soft-serve with caramel sauce and sea salt. By the time I had paid the check, I had open road ahead of me.
 Stone Fruit Salad @ Pizzeria Picco, Larkspur. • • •
The Botanical Garden at Golden Gate Park has always been one of my favorite places to pass the time between meals in San Francisco. The overcast afternoon provided excellent lighting for some photos.
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 Entrance to the Garden of Fragrance, San Francisco Botanical Garden. The Garden of Fragrance is a neat little section of San Francisco’s Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, pictures only tell a very small part of the story.
 Lemon Verbena. • • •
 Lime Thyme. • • •
 Pineapple Sage.
 The Bourn and Wise Cellar. Later to become Christian Brothers Winery (1950), and eventually, CIA Greystone (1995). Originally published as a large pamphlet in 1889, “Wines & Vines of California” offers a decent trip back in time for the California wine geek (although I do stress the word “geek”). I will admit, I found certain parts of the text interesting, but it’s definitely not the type of book that’s geared toward cover-to-cover reading:  For one thing, large sections of the text are dedicated to exhaustive lists of grape growers, scores upon scores of names that have very little meaning today, save for just a few. Other sections of “Wines & Vines” address Prohibition, a moot argument if there ever was one (my real criticism is that author Frona Eunice Wait spouts the same points as the other Wets of the day, rendering her “Temperance” chapter a bit quaint, if not mundane). On a more positive note, the best passages of “Wines & Vines” lend terrific insight into California’s early wine-making techniques, both good and bad; the chapter on “How to Drink Wine” — guest-written by Arpad Haraszthy — remains surprisingly relevant today; and the fantastic line-drawings capture the era beautifully, if nothing else.
Click on any thumbnail for the full-screen, hi-res image.
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 The facility at Oakville's legendary To Kalon (no longer a wine label per se, but still one of Napa's top vineyards). • • •
 The Inglenook Vineyard. Later to become Niebaum-Coppola, then Rubicon, and now Inglenook once again, apparently. When it comes to names, Francis Ford Coppola can’t seem to make up his mind, but I do like his most recent nod to tradition — although his flagship wine will still be called Rubicon. Confused?
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 When's the last time you enjoyed a nice glass of St. Macaire? That's right. Probably never. • • •
 839-849 Folsom Street, San Francisco. This drawing of the American Champagne Company accompanies a section in “Wines & Vines” that vaguely alludes to the Reihlen Method of Champagne production, which I had never heard of. Amazingly, the best explanation I found was this New York Times article from 1890 and this issue of “Current Literature” from 1889. I guess this “American Champagne” (based upon German techniques, no less) never quite caught on. I suspect the building itself was leveled in the 1906 quake, but that’s just a guess (it’s certainly not there now).
 Roast Duck Banh Mi Dip @ The Kitchen Door, Oxbow Market, Napa. Having worked at Martini House back in 2007, it would be impossible for me to offer an unbiased opinion of the newly-opened Kitchen Door at Oxbow Market — truthfully, I know too many of the staff, and in some cases, I already know the food (a handful of the Kitchen Door dishes, including the mushroom soup, are vestiges of chef Todd Humphries’ former Martini House menu). That said, it’s worth leading off this most recent photo purge with a snapshot of the Kitchen Door’s roast duck banh mi, a sandwich that — along with the “Lahmajune” Armenian pizza — definitely ranked as a front-runner among dishes that I most wanted to try. My short and biased opinion: The banh mi was good. The presence of the dipping broth definitely spins things in a new direction, and the Southeast Asian jus complements the sandwich well.
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 Gorditas al Pastor @ La Morenita, Napa. The best Mexican restaurants in the Napa Valley are attached to markets: La Luna in Rutherford; Azteca in St Helena; and especially La Morenita on Jefferson, near Lincoln. The latter earns my vote for the best and most interesting tacos in Napa. I’ve been fixated on La Morenita lately, and I hope to publish a picture of their sopes before too long.
 Carnitas Tacos la Plancha @ La Morenita, Napa. • • •
 Garlic Pork @ China Village, Albany. • • •
 Rice Crackers with Peanut Sauce @ White Lotus, Berkeley. • • •
 Sandwich board outside Gioia. • • •
 Herbed Flatbread @ Kitchen Door, Oxbow Market, Napa.
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