Indulging in California
14 July 2009
I’ve just come back from two fantastic weeks in California with Simon and a couple of friends. It was so nice I’d really love to go back right away… It was my first visit, and I can definitely confirm some of the clichés: it never rains, and people are usually cheerful and well-spirited, and they certainly know how to live!
Our first stop San Francisco not only struck me as an extremely beautiful city with all the pretty hilltops and the historic cablecar running through, but it also turned out to be a real paradise for foodies. There are fantastic restaurants all over the place, from Italian to Asian fusion, wine bars and delicatessen shops, and I particularly liked the bustling farmers’ market at the ferry building, where people come to spend their Saturday mornings, sampling the extremely tasty fresh produce offered at the fruit and vegetable stalls, or some of the delicious snacks in the litte shops inside the building. I got so many new cooking ideas on just this one morning – from paprika jam to wasabi-potato salad to wild rice salad with walnut and orange dressing to ginger ice cream… will have to try it all!
Our next stop was a charming little B&B called Chanric Inn in Napa Valley, where we were pampered with an extremely enjoyable home-made (and partly even home-grown) gourmet breakfast in the patio every morning (cake, scones or muffins followed by fresh fruits refined with different herbs or dressings, and a "breakfast main" like ratatouille or finely seasoned spinach with poached eggs), providing a good basis for the wine tastings ahead. During the days we leasurely moved from winery to winery, and although there were some wines we found over-rated and/or just not to our taste (it seems that we all prefer crisp and spicy to opulent berry and oak flavours), we made some very interesting discoveries (Saint Clement, for example, which unfortunately is hard to get outside the US).
After another day in San Francisco, where we went to watch a baseball match (eating hot dogs and yummy ice cream while figuring out the rules of the game), we continued our journey down south along the stunning sceneries of Highway 1 in our rented convertibles. And yes, travelling in those vehicles is really as much fun as it looks! I had a vague fear that this might be one of those things that seem fantastic only on TV – but also in real life there was absolutely no catch to it. It was neither too hot nor too cold, the air flow felt like a pleasant breeze, and rather than a necessary means for getting from A to B it seemed like spending all day outside…
We stopped at picturesque villages, peaceful beaches, spectacular cliffs and a bunch of outlet villages, and finally made our way down to the vast, white beach of Venice by L.A., which was quite an interesting experience – a funny mixture of aging hippies and new-age esotericists (for example the choice of tantra teachers in India was a popular conversation topic on the beach), the clientele was somewhat different to what we had expected. Though everyone was apparently playing it down, the enormous top-of-the-range (both quality and price wise) organic supermarket seemed to be thriving…
Our final destination was Los Angeles, where we enjoyed a Universal Studios tour and a drive through the neighbourhoods Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and we ended our trip with an evening in downtown, where we more or less stumbled into an extremely cool rooftop bar for our "farewell drinks". Although we there just long enough for a short glimpse, I can only say that (except for the traffic, which is a total mess) I was really quite positively surprised by the city.
It is probably not hard to tell that I’m all about the Californian lifestyle (and did I mention I'd like to go back right away…?)
