Monthly Archives: October 2006

Salami Night at C’est Cheese

events, food

SalamiNine different kinds of salami. Now that’s a tasting.

My most favorite food place in all the world, C’est Cheese, had another tasting tonight. But rather than cheese, the tasting was salami. Cured, smoked, dried, salted, and seasoned; thin, thick, narrow, or long; Itallian, Spanish, French; shoulder, belly, ham, or back; but all pork. And all delicious.
One of the things I like most about Kathryn and Michael’s presentations is that they give a lot of information along with a good variety of flavors. So, I have the list with the names of all nine salamis (on which I scribbled my tasting notes), but I’m only going to mention the ones that stand out.

My favorite spiced salami was the chorizo. I’ve eaten a lot of chorizo in my life, and this was the best chorizo I’ve had. Delicious on its own, this would be fabulous cooked in any dish.

I think my favorite non-spicy salami was the Columbus Artisan Finocchiona. It’s an Itallian style salami seasoned with fennel. Very tasty.

The biggest disappointment for me was the Salumi Mole, which was flavored with the spices you’d find in a mexican mole. I don’t think it worked in the salami. It was a lot of heat without the sweetness of a good mole.

The other salamis I enjoyed were: Niman Ranch Napoletani, a small, spicy salami that will sadly be discontinued; Fra’mani Toscano which is flavored with garlic and wine; Salumi Salame with a hint of ginger; and Prosciutto di San Daniele, which isn’t really a salami, but is a very tasty cured ham.

All of these are available at C’est Cheese, and I plan on staying stocked up around here, too.

Dinner with Steve and Krista

food, friends

Last night we had our neighbors over for dinner. Harriet was highly motivated since we had two live crabs from the Santa Barbara Harbor and Seafood Festival, and she’d sat in on a cooking demonstration at the Santa Barbara Art Festival (both discussed in my last post). So, she made crab cakes.

I’m not a food blogger, so I won’t go into the recipe. But, I am someone who appreciates good food, and I have eaten a fair share of crab cakes. These were, without a doubt, the best crabcakes ever. And I mean they were GOOD! She says she wasn’t happy with the recipe she got from the demo, so she worked it over a bit. And, the crab was obviously very fresh. But all of us stopped after we took our first bites, looked down at the food, and just blurted out how good these were.

We also had a very good salad that was a good counter to the richness of the crab. I think we all ate three of the cakes, and then had to stop because the crab is so rich. Well, that and the fact that there weren’t any left. Restraint is easy when there’s no opportunity. I learned that one from dieting.

Just for completeness’ sake, I will say that we had a great time with Steve & Krista. We are very lucky to have such wonderful neighbors, whom we actually enjoy spending time with. I’d say more about them, but that’s really for Krista’s blog.

And besides, those crab cakes were damn good.

Art and Seafood

events, Santa Barbara

sb artsHarriet and I attended the Santa Barbara Festival of Art, which is happening October 13 through 15. It takes place in the Santa Barbara Courthouse’s Sunken Garden, which is a beautiful setting. There are some great, inflated sculptural pieces on the front lawn which are very fun. They look like pieces we’ve seen in the Solstice parade. In the sunken area, there is some great, live music playing. And, there was a pretty good crowd attending.

But, I must admit we were a bit disappointed. The festival has been going on for 8 years now, and lately it’s been getting smaller and smaller. Last year, several of the artists we talked with were clearly unhappy. The turnout was low and their sales were not enough to cover their expenses.

This year, it feels like they may be trying to re-energize the show. The entrance was free, whereas in the last few years we had to pay an admission. They had an area for cooking demonstrations, and Harriet attended one of those. She was pretty underwhelmed by that specific demo, but to my benefit she was influenced to make some amazing crab cakes.

The booths seemed to be mainly jewelry booths, and most of those seemed to be found-object crafters. There were only a couple of vendors that seemed to have elevated their craft into interesting art.

We did enjoy the juried show by the Santa Barbara Art Association. A couple of those pieces were very nice.

Does Santa Barbara may have too many art festivals? It seems like we just had the Artwalk at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. And this show is too early for the Christmas buying season. I’ll check it out again next year because I remember the show fondly from its early years. But for now, I’m not sure its worth the entrance fee.

Harbor crowd Yesterday, we also got over to the Santa Barbara Harbor and Seafood Festival. That was more fun, but we got there about a half an hour before they planned to shut down, so we didn’t get a lot of time to explore. Still, I don’t know whether we would have stayed much longer. It’s a fine festival, but not a lot to do.

The big draw for us is the seafood. And they had some great deals. I took this shot of the kid who fished out Harriet’s two live crabs. She had to get them when she saw the price was $1.50 a lb. There was also a variety of fish and other seafood from fishermen on the pier with their live catch. A variety of information tables running the gamut from environmental groups to navy recuitment were also located on the pier.

Harbor crabWe did get a chance to eat some of the fine seafood that was available. Harriet got a couple of fresh oysters, and I had the best BBQ albacore. We also got some ableskeevers sold by a baker who was out from Solvang. Very tasty!

The music was pretty good. A band doing cover tunes from our era was playing . A variety of craft booths sold some things that weren’t terribly interesting (maybe I’m just jaded). Harriet did get me an Indonesian batik shirt for $10, although my contention was that we’ll be able to get a lot more of those for $1 in malaysia. She and I channeled each other at that moment.

We also passed a place with Teva sandals on sale. Harriet found a pair she likes, and bought them. One less item on our list to do before we go.

Santa Barbara Sunset, October 12, 2006

general, Santa Barbara

SB SunsetOn Thursday, the weather changed and a storm was predicted to move in. Well, that evening we had a spectacular sunset. I know that I don’t spend enough time appreciating the Santa Barbara views, but that evening I found myself with a large crowd at Shoreline Park, gawking and trying in some small way to capture it all.

SB Sunset 2 I’m no photographer, but I really didn’t need to be. The colors and textures just laid themselves out, begging to be recorded.

The irony is, we barely got a spritz from this storm. Just North of us, they received a good soaking, and I believe the storm hit south of us, also. For some reason it jumped by the Santa Barbara City area, lingering just long and low enough to give us some nice views.

And I just happened to have a camera in the car.

New View of Saturn’s Rings

current events

Saturn Rings

This is a composite picture of Saturn taken from ‘behind’ by the Cassini spacecraft. The sun is being blocked by the planet, and so the rings are particularly vibrant.

This is a unique view of Saturn, only available from a spacecraft, like Cassini, flyng past the planet. Thanks to this perspective, they’ve already discovered two new rings, confirmed the presence of two more, and assume the rings are associated with one or more small, new moons. This will add a lot to our knowledge about planetary science.

Plus, it’s just gorgeous.

You can read more about the discoveries at The Planetary Society or go directly to the Cassini website.