What I Ate For Dinner

One of my favorite stops on the J-land circuit is Kanazawa. Located due west of Tokyo on the Sea of Japan, Kanazawa always offers calm and repose to one wearied by the throngs and choreographed stampedes of Tokyo. The town of just over 450,000 inhabitants boasts one of Japan's finest gardens (Kenrokuen), a new museum of modern art, and the famous Higashiyama area, known for teahouses, folk crafts and high-end gifts made of gold from the area.

As I wound up my stay in Japan recently, I headed to the Sabô Isshô teahouse 茶房一笑, one of my favorite spots in Kanazawa's Higashiyama Chayagai (Highashiyama District Tea Avenue). Named for local poet Kosugi Isshô (1653-88), Sabô has become a favorite of mine for its tranquility, as well as for its Bocha, a specialty of the area. Tea in Japan is usually served with something mildly sweet, like the green adzuki bean confection pictured on the lower left of the tray below. The sweets are actually more appealing to me than the tea--although it's easy to see why the sometimes-bitter teas would be served with something soft and slightly sweet, so they make a good combo.

To be honest, I don't really know (or care) enough to discuss the subtleties of tea, nor am I likely to ever learn much about it. The thing is, the tea's great and all, but the ambiance of these places is what's really worth the price. The aged wood ceiling beams, unassuming garden courtyards, and peace of Highashiyama tea shops are a nice change of pace from the fluorescent lights, ubiquitous power lines and scurrying crowds that typify some public spaces around here. Unlike Kyoto and other tourist Meccas, Higashiyama is rarely crowed. I had thought this trip might be different, what with a popular festival taking place in the area, but nope. As you can tell from the picture, the streets were mostly empty.

I've been in Japan for the past few weeks, and on a recent morning, I decided to check out Tokyo's famed Tsukiji Fish Market. The largest seafood wholesale market in the world, and one of the globe's largest markets of any sort, Tsukiji traffics thousands of metric tons of seafood each day, and more than 60,000 people work here. The market's early morning auctions have recently attracted huge numbers of tourists, prompting market managers to sometimes limit access, citing hygiene and safety concerns. In other cases, they have closed the auctions to all but licensed bidders. Japan is often criticized for overfishing, but whether that has anything to do with restricting access to Tsukiji--where much of the controversial catch is sold--is unknown (at least to me).

I showed up around 9am, which means that I missed most of the action. Fish roll in from all corners of the globe from late evening of the previous day through the early morning hours. Between 4am and 5am, the auctions begin and licensed bidders representing wholesalers, retailers and restaurants make their best offers. By 7 or 8, the auctions are finished, and the winners make off with their purchase. Many of the fish won in the early morning auctions wind up in the inner market wholesale stalls that I visited. By 1pm, the day is done, and the market closes for cleaning.

The scene of the wholesale stalls is sort of like a choreographed stampede. In each stall, coolers, freezers and ice chests cradle the day's catch as vendors slice huge steaks into more manageable--and saleable--morsels. In between these sellers' cells, small alleyways organize the web of fishy commerce into an orderly, if cozy, grid. The black bricks atop which this all sits slicken with water, ice and (probably) some fish guts, but there really isn't a "fishy" smell exactly. Sure, you wouldn't mistake the joint for a florist, but for the quantity of highly perishable stock available, it all seemed pretty well taken care of. That's the choreographed part.

The stampede comes with the throngs of people: wholesalers, retailers, butchers, restaurateurs, slack-jawed tourists, forklift operators, market managers, guys pulling some sort of conveyance that sort of looks like a rickshaw (really--apparently they're good for local fish transport), et al. flood the market. Barreling down the alleyways come small buggies with flatbeds and a standing operator, shuttling about the day's sale. Blue cigarette smoke wafts out of the stalls as rubber-booted vendors try to entice buyers. Band saws chop up man-size frozen fish. Ice, ice, more ice. The place is buzzing. And everywhere. Once you're in the market, you never stop moving--you just try to keep up with the rest of the surge. You feel like you're in a school of fish moving in the same direction without ever really communicating. Really, it's almost like the fish have us in their net, and the net is called Tsukiji. That's the stampede part.

Outside the market you'll find all sorts of kitchen supply stores, restaurants, dishware vendors and the like. Not surprisingly, sushi is the specialty in these parts.

The Baron and I took a little day trip up to Point Reyes on Saturday. We took California State Route One, which is known as the Pacific Coast Highway south of San Francisco and is called the Shoreline Highway up in Marin County. Unlike the Pacific Coast Highway portion of SR1, which has mostly scenic oceanfront views, the Shoreline Highway twists and turns through the beautiful wooded hills of Marin County. There are some lovely ocean views as well, once you get near Muir Beach.

We were heading for Limantour Beach to have a beach fire. Fires are allowed with a permit, which you can get for free at the visitor center.

We left San Francisco at about two thirty and were on the beach around five. With lessons learned from Carmel in mind, we brought a lot of firewood and set the fire as far back from the water as the rules permitted. It was really windy, so it was a struggle to get the fire lit at first. But after some clutch fire-starting techniques from yours truly, we had a nice blaze going.

We brought a few sandwiches (copa and sun dried tomato) and a few beers, and spent several hours just tending the fire and listening to the waves roll in. There were quite a few people on the beach when we arrived, but after the sun started to set, it got pretty quiet.

I would definitely recommend taking another way back to San Francisco if you're staying until sunset. The Shoreline Highway route is very scenic, but the hills and tight turns make for slow going even during the day and would be a real challenge in the dark. We took Sir Francis Drake Boulevard from the nearby town of Olema into San Rafel and hooked up with Highway 101.

The Baron and I took a little holiday in Carmel, California this weekend. Carmel is a wonderful, relaxing spot for a vacation, although the median age of visitors does seem to skew to the over 60 crowd it embraces. It also pretty much maxes out on the "how-bourgeois-can-you-be" index, so there's a bit of vacationland overkill to deal with. Not to mention that we've had a few problems in the past (insolent maitre d's, redonculous prices; mediocre food; unconscionable bar-tending shortcuts) in Carmel. That said, Carmel still has great weather, a great beach, and a beautiful downtown.

The goal this time was to strategize: instead of seeking out the "best-of," we tended toward the affordable (as inflated as that can be in a tourist town), meaning, for all practical purposes, places with lots of entrees under $15-20, good appetizers to share, and friendly and attentive service. Carmel seems at times to struggle in providing these, but I think we found some keepers.

Also, it bears mentioning that hotels come down in price quite a bit in the tourist off-season (roughly the winter months through April 1). We found a 30% off any night of the week promotion, and another that was 15% off for one night, 25% off two nights, and 30% off a three night stay. Another hotel had a stay two nights, get the third free deal. It seems that since vacation destinations are often close to B&B saturation, off-season accommodations can become nearly as affordable as anywhere.

Friday night, we went to A.W. Shucks, a seafood restaurant/oyster bar. It's a good value for the money, and the service is very friendly and attentive (not a given in Carmel, where service varies widely). We started with the clam chowder, and I have to say theirs wasn't as good as the Baron's. You can really tell the difference when you use fresh clams--but what can you do? We also had the fried calamari, which was excellent (so good, in fact, that we went back for a calamari snack again on our second night). Look for a post soon on a homemade Baronial edition.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the Village Corner, which we go to at least once on every trip to Carmel. The service is good and the prices are very reasonable. The patio seating is a plus, especially when the weather is as perfect as it was on this trip. I had the breakfast burrito and the Baron had the Eggs Benedict. Their coffee is better than you usually find in a breakfast place, too.

Saturday night, we decided to get some firewood and have a picnic on the beach. Patisserie Boissiere has a picnic lunch menu, which is quite good and downright cheap. The Baron had the cold roast beef and I had the Carmel Garden Sandwich. Their desserts looked very good, and their restaurant menu was quite nice, so I suspect we'll be going back on our next trip.

I've included some pictures of the sunset and the fire below. Carmel lets you have beach fires below 10th Avenue and until 10 p.m., and alcohol (and even glass) is allowed on the beach. Lessons learned from this trip: bring twice as much wood as you think you'll need and build the fire as far away from the ocean as you can, because high tide comes up higher than you'd think.

As for accommodations, we spent the first night at the Monte Verde Inn, where we've stayed before. Our favorite room is #11, which has a gas fireplace and a shared deck with a good view, especially at sunset. Room #12 also shares the deck, so it's a good second choice if #11 is taken.

The second night, we stayed in the Tree-Top Room at the Lamp Lighter Inn. A big nice room, although the private deck faces away from the ocean. The staff at was very friendly and attentive. They brought us a bottle of white wine and went out of their way to provide a towel and fire starters when they heard we were going down to the beach.