Tag: Restaurants

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Small Bites Thanksgiving

Last Thursday on Thanksgiving we had a traditional sit down Thanksgiving Dinner with the extended family and it was wonderful.  And then on Saturday we had a non-traditional, gourmet, small bites Thanksgiving celebration courtesy of Lillian and Rebecca.

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Lillian and Mary Ann

It was amazingly good.  I only took a few pictures because I was to busy eating, drinking and grousing about how badly USC was beating UCLA (final 50 – 0).

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Food

The food was super and the small bite part of it made it possible to taste everything without getting stuffed.

Album Here

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Rebecca and Nurit

There is an opportunity here for rethinking Holiday food away from quantity and towards superb taste.  And I think the small bites idea makes it possible.  For instance Lillian made a wonderful Pumpkin Bean Soup but instead of serving bowls of it, she served it in stemmed wine glasses.  It was just a taste that was easy to hold and it was amazingly delicious.  I them still had an appetite for the rest of the meal

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Top Ideas in 2011

In the last year I have posted about 40+/- items in the ideas category.  Some are repeats,  some are maxims about ideas but it looks like there are about 30 new ideas and some of them are pretty good ideas.  There are social ideas as well as product and service ideas.  Some of them are original like the Israeli Student Marching Band in the Rose Parade and some of them are giving publicity and perhaps a tweak to an idea that someone else is developing on a regional basis like Cereal Boxx in Tucson.

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a wreath by Lillian

To See All of the new ideas in the last year click here

My top ideas from this last year:

Let me know which one you like or hate by leaving a comment below.

Thanks

Simon

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Serendipity

When we were in Carmel at the end of our Paso Robles trip we serendipitously ran into the McDaniels our neighbors from 25 years ago.   We had dinner the next night and caught up on what our children were up to.  It was very nice and very unexpected. I love to travel.

Both of their boys are doing well.  Justin writes a food blog among other things and Travis runs an outdoor adventure school.  Life is good.

The food blog called An Immovable Feast is very well written and has reviews of restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley as well as other food reviews.  Try it if you’re hungry.  He has a review of the Gourmet mini burgers at Ralphs Market.

I’m adding it to my blog roll.

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Il Cortile Ristorante

When you go to Paso Robles, CA, and you should, have dinner at Il Cortile Ristorante and if they are serving it try the Black Truffle Risotto.  Oh my.  Excellent service, an excellent and inexpensive wine list and wonderful food.  We also had the Mozzarella Sampler as an appetizer.  It was perfect to split.

Web site:    http://www.ilcortileristorante.com/ICR/Home.html

608 12th St, Paso Robles CA

805 226 0300

They gave me a hat.  Picture to follow.

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The Gazebo

When you are in Maui go up to Napili for breakfast at the Gazebo Restaurant.  The people who run it do a booming business and have a good sense of humor.  There is often a line so they have a sign:

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If there are not busy it reads:

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And if you flip the sign one more page it reads:

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It even gets a chuckle out of people who have been waiting in line for 45 minutes to eat breakfast.  They serve good food and have a great view but what makes the place unique is wonderful attitude of the staff.  The clever sign is just a symbol of that attitude.