Goodbye Restaurants, Hello Home Cooking!

I left California with simultaneous reluctance and anticipation. It had been a whirlwind of fresh flavors all over Napa Valley, the Bay Area, and San Diego.* I was sad to leave the abundance of fresh produce and a culture so privy to live, organic food.

At the same time, I couldn't wait to get back to my kitchen and start "cooking" again. Amazing restaurant experiences aside, few chefs offered the complexity attainable in intentionally raw dishes. I missed the richness of Rawviolis, the crisp zest of Simple Raw Sushi with Terriyaki Dipping Sauce, and the flavorful depth of salads like Fountain of Flavor Salad.

I was also anxious to experiment based on inspirations from my travels. I wanted to learn how to make the vegetables marinated to perfection at Ristorante Avanti and I swore to myself to make more raw cheeses, having so often declined the dairy version of this ubiquitous salad topper. The possibilities swirled through my head as I sat on the plane.

Upon landing, one more restaurant concluded the trip before the drive home. Cyprus Cafe had a lovely mediterranean menu, but not a lot to work with in the way of raw ingredients, save for the delicious Assorted Olives I ordered for an appetizer. My server said she could bring me a raw salad as an entree, but that the chef was too busy to create anything more. I was delighted when the presumed lettuce and tomato salad arrived decked with raw zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, and avocado! I dove in, heartened by another fulfilling raw meal out.

*Posts and photos on San Diego, where I had some of the best meals of the trip, will be up once I fix some camera-related technical difficulties.