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 Pizza @ Arizmendi Bakery, Emeryville: Housemade Tomato Sauce, Kalamata Olives, Spinach, Parmesan and Garlic-Herb Oil. Arizmendi Emeryville lies in the shadow of Pixar Animation Studios, and although the bakery may not provide the ideal venue for a high-level power lunch, it certainly must be a welcome oasis for those who don’t occupy Pixar’s corner offices. And that’s the point, really: Arizmendi Bakery is steeped in the ethos of the everyman, an owner-operated cooperative and a spin-off of the famous Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley. Since its initial launch in 1997, the Arizmendi Bakery has expanded to four locations in the Bay Area, which may give the illusion of rampant franchising. However, each Arizmendi Bakery remains a unique entity in terms of its cooperative ownership (there’s actually no person named Arizmendi behind the scenes; the four bakeries take their common name from José María Arizmendiarrieta, a Basque labor organizer from the last century). As for the pizza itself, the pie at Arizmendi Emeryville is only slightly analogous to that of the Cheese Board, although it certainly boasts a familiar, if not similar, aesthetic (for better or worse, the sourdough crust at Arizmendi seems slightly less crispy than its Cheese Board counterpart). While I do concede that Gioia still remains my favorite slice in the East Bay, if I happened to work at Pixar, I would easily visit Arizmendi once a week, probably even more. In Emeryville, perhaps movie deals are hashed out over pizza.
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 Gateway Market, Emeryville: Adorned with a fantastic mural alongside its parking lot, the Gateway Market is tough to miss on San Pablo Blvd. The artwork has a definite graffiti vibe, but the details are fantastic. Luckily, it hasn't been tagged over. The "W" in Gateway is pictured above (each letter has its own theme). Click on the photo to reveal all of the great flourishes. Most of these pictures have never appeared on this site, although a couple did appear a few years ago, long before I sharpened my photo-editing skills. Many readers have emailed me about my approach to photography, and I must confess, my only real secret is to simply seek the best lighting possible. Truthfully, I’ve never had any formal photography training, but I did develop an eye for proper lighting while I was working (briefly, almost 15 years ago) as a grip in Los Angeles. Any moviegoer who has bothered to sit through the credits may have wondered what function a grip serves. In a nut shell, the grips help to manipulate the film set’s lighting, based upon the director of photography’s instructions. The “key” grip is the lead grip, while the “best boy” grip is second in command (I was never either of those, obviously). Much like cooking, gripping is long, laborious work with odd hours. However, if you pay attention on the job, you can also learn a few things along the way. Who knew that a summer of gripping would’ve ever become useful?
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 Uni with Caul Fat on Crostini @ Marea, NYC: Long before Anthony Bourdain developed his upcoming show, The Layover, which premieres November 21st, I used a four-hour window at JFK to jump onto the subway and eat a seven-course lunch at Marea (top that, Tony). David Koon, my old CIA roommate, was in the kitchen at the time, so I received the VIP treatment, and fast. Coincidentally, Dave opened up his own restaurant, Chuko Ramen, just two days ago in Brooklyn. He said the 35-seat dining room turned out more than 200 covers on its first day, which is an insane number. • • •
 Highway One, Near Salt Point State Park: I was driving up California's North Coast to forage porcinis when I spotted this old fellow gazing out over the Pacific Ocean. He was laying near the edge of the grassy cliff, apparently in total zen mode. Unfortunately, he stood up when I approached to snap a picture. After a two-minute stand-off, I gave up and left him to his meditations. Sorry, buddy. • • •
 Philo Apple Farm, Philo: This large painting adorns the small shopping area at Philo Apple Farm, which is owned by Don and Sally Schmidt, the original owners and founders of Yountville's French Laundry. All purchases are based upon the honor system (at least every time I've visited), and the farm itself is Demeter-certified. • • •
 Nopalito Restaurant, San Francisco: I really like the artwork on this ice-cream freezer outside of Nopalito. • • •
 Five-spice Pork Belly over Rice: This is one of the very first pictures I published on this blog, back at a time when I was publishing recipes. My format has evolved over the years, and at this point, I save all my recipes for the annual Project Food Blog competition, which is coming up again this year (I finished in the Top 12 out of almost 2,000 contestants last year -- just saying). • • •
 Mandina's Restaurant, New Orleans: My sentimental favorite in the Crescent City. • • •
 The Strip District, Pittsburgh, PA: This mural was a work-in-progress during my visit to Pennsylvania a couple years back. I'm sure it's completed by now. I liked where it was headed. • • •
 Boonfly Cafe, Napa Carneros: I spotted this little VW in the parking lot of the Boonfly Cafe one morning. I'm not sure if it belonged to a purveyor or to a guest. Pretty cool whip, regardless. • • •
 Cookie Fortune @ China Village Restaurant, Albany: I think.
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 Try a Little Tenderness: The Back Rib Sandwich @ Solbar, Calistoga. I’ve cooked plenty of baby back ribs in my day. When I worked at Houston’s Santa Monica (many moons ago), I prepped the restaurant’s pork ribs on a nightly basis. It went something like this: At the end of the night, the ribs were rubbed down with a mixture of sugar, Kosher salt, and spices, before spending about eight or 10 hours in a 250°F Alto-Shaam. In the morning, the now-tender ribs would be carefully dipped in bacon fat and wrapped in plastic. At this point, the back ribs could be chilled until needed. At service, the ribs were unwrapped and re-heated on the wood-fired grill, where they would be mopped with barbecue sauce. People really loved those ribs, and they continued to sell even after they were removed from the menu (a by-request item only, but insanely popular). I’m not exactly sure how Solbar prepares its ribs for its back rib sandwich, pictured above, but the tenderness is all there, along with the succulence and everything else (the pork bones seem to have been easily removed from the meat). It is, perhaps, the best pork sandwich in the Bay Area. So recommended.
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 Cheese Pizza @ Little Star, Albany. For the most part, Little Star Pizza trades on its reputation for baking one of the Bay Area’s best (albeit few) deep-dish pizzas. That certainly isn’t a bad thing, although in my opinion, deep-dish pizza is barely analogous to thin-crust pizza (same flavors, yes, but so much different in nature). Being a West Coast native, my sensibilities naturally lean towards a more Neapolitan-style pie, and Little Star’s thin-crust alternative, pictured above, is a pleasant and competent offering. Without being specific, or overly back-handed, I’d probably rank it near the bottom of my Bay Area top 10. That seems about right.
During my last visit, I also began with Little Star’s caprese salad, which is pictured below. I’ll admit that the following observation might be a little bit of out left field, but I usually take notice of knife cuts, and the basil chiffonade was admirably executed (very even, and with no bruising). I’m all about these subtle details: It lets me know that someone back in the kitchen cares, and it proved to be a telling reflection of the salad itself. As an old chef of mine would have said, bravo.
 Caprese Salad @ Little Star, Albany.
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It’s usually surprising for most people to learn that, by volume, the Napa Valley accounts for just 4% of California’s total wine production (in total wine revenue, Napa would earn a much larger percentage, though I don’t have the specific figure for this category). Still, as one of California’s most important wine regions, it’s interesting to learn some of numbers that shape the Napa Valley. At my last board meeting with Slow Food Napa Valley, one of our members distributed copies of Napa County’s 2010 Agricultural Crop Report, which is published by the Department of Agriculture and Weights and Measures. The pamphlet features about a dozen charts and graphs that spell out the details of Napa’s winegrape production, as well as its production of secondary crops. Here are a few key stats about Napa wine country, keeping in mind that these numbers pertain to Napa’s winegrapes more so than its wine:
• In total acreage, Napa’s red grapes outnumber its white grapes by a little more than three to one (specifically, that’s 33,060 total acres of red grapes versus 10,208 total acres of white grapes).
• Napa Valley is planted to 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by 15% Chardonnay, 14% Merlot, 6% Pinot Noir, 6% Sauvignon Blanc, and 3% Zinfandel (the other 13% is comprised of dozens of other varietals, including Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Petite Sirah).
• Among all the white grapes planted in Napa Valley, about 65% are Chardonnay; among all the red grapes planted in Napa Valley, about 56% are Cabernet Sauvignon.
• In 2010, Napa’s red grapevines produced an average of 2.86 tons per acre, while white grapevines produced 4.13 tons per acre. More specifically, Cabernet produced an average of 3.03 tons per acre, while Chardonnay produced an average of 4.04 tons per acre.
• Napa’s total acreage for Cabernet Sauvignon outnumbers its total acreage for Chardonnay by almost three to one (that’s 19,557 acres of Cabernet versus 7,000 acres of Chardonnay). This scenario was much different 20 years ago — in the early 1990s, Cab and Chard each had plantings of just over 10,000 acres apiece (Chard plantings have declined since the mid-1990s, while Cab plantings began to surge about 10 years ago).
• Last year, red grapes accounted for 80.5% of Napa’s grape-farming revenue, versus just 19.5% total revenue for white grapes (the average price per ton for red grapes was $3,782, while white grapes earned just $2,906 per ton).
• In 2010, the average price per ton for Napa Cabernet Sauvignon was $4,453, while Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc earned $5,236 per ton and $4,919 per ton, respectively. Keep in mind, however, that Cabernet Sauvignon from a prime Napa vineyard can fetch upwards of $15,000 per ton, easily making it the priciest grape on the market.
• On average, the Rousanne grape earned the highest reported price per ton for any varietal, at $7,000. This figure might be a bit misleading, however, since Napa Valley only has 15 acres of Roussanne in total. Obviously, scarcity seems to have been a factor in this case (the only two Napa Valley bottlings of Roussanne that I’m aware of are produced by Kongsgard Winery and Truchard Vineyards).
• Among the winegrapes listed on Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste, Napa contains 52 acres of Charbono and just 19 acres of Napa Gamay. My favorite Charbono is produced by Summers Estate, although I have also enjoyed the other Napa versions of Charbono — it’s definitely a grape worth seeking out. As for Napa Gamay, the only version I’ve ever encountered was the Melange by Vincent Arroyo Winery, also worth a taste.
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 Stay Golden. The Pan Dore @ Mama's on Washington Square, San Francisco: Sourdough French toast, thinly sliced apples, and a sweet lemon-butter sauce. Although my kitchen Spanish is pretty sharp these days, I’ll admit that it took some googling to decode the etymology of Mama’s delicious pan dore, pictured above. The word pan, of course, means “bread” — I did know that much already — but the word dore had me stumped. I eventually concluded that the dish must take its name from a conjugation of the Spanish verb dorar, to gild, or in the culinary realm, to make golden brown. As a word geek, the term “pan dore” got me thinking about some of the world’s other aliases for French toast, many of which point to meager beginnings. In France, for instance, this same dish would be called pain perdu, or “lost bread,” heeding the frugal idea that stale bread can be resuscitated with just a little egg batter and a short stint on the griddle. In Great Britain, their “eggy bread,” or better yet, “gypsy bread,” is also known as “Poor Knights of Windsor” (or just “poor knights,” colloquially), acknowledging a dietary staple for the impoverished Medieval military. This same “poor knights” theme appears in several other European countries as well: fattiga riddare in Sweden, arme riddere in Denmark and Norway, armer ritter in Germany, vaesed rüütlid in Estonia, and köyhät ritarit in Finland. My favorite alias for French toast, however, has certainly got to be Switzerland’s fotzelschnitten, which means “rascal’s slices” in Northern Swiss dialect.
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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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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