Well, well … as I write the skies rain down heavy. That’s going to keep the hills grassy green for quite some time. You just never know what Ma Nature has in store. And that’s why it’s tough to be a farmer.
Grape farmer, though, can be a different story. California keeps making more wine and the world keeps lapping it up. Word on the Monterey street is that a couple of local wineries are looking into opening tasting rooms downtown. It’s going to happen – and it might be that wineries partner for a space initially. It’s really a no-brainer. And when it happens, downtown will take a big step forward. Anyone who’s stopped in the town of Murphys in the California Gold Country understands. Tasting rooms dot Main Street’s sidewalks. That has led to more restaurants which, in turn, birthed boutiques and specialty shops. It’s a thriving downtown now which benefits the entire community. Tasting rooms would signal that the butterfly is in the cocoon.
Out of the cocoon is the four-day, shut-down remodel at Odeum Restaurant in Morgan Hill. Brilliantly done, I must say. The restaurant, tucked into the cool re-purposed Granary Building, now has those masterful finishing touches that elevate the ambiance to the next level. The subdued blue lights which weave like waves on the expanded bar base are as cool as the new stone that ensconces the brick oven. The bar area has a hip, loungy San Francisco-worthy feel to it now and that seating space has been expanded without sacrificing the dining room. Hats off to owner Sal Calisi. But a tip of the cap is one thing and a bow is another. Sal’s new menu item – chicken and waffles, yep, that’s rights, hens and batter cakes – is to die for. Our engaging and spot-on server Jason gave us great tips on all the new menu items, and he steered me to the southern diner-named special that knocked my culinary tastebuds off. Waffles with kalamata olives and just the right touch of maple syrup, lightly battered crispy and moist fried chicken … it’s a dish worthy of Sal’s Michelin-star-chef signature.
Signature silly. That’s what it’s become on the world wide spyder web. There must be spyders behind the grand scheme to mentally euthanize the American public. Who does this? Who are the people that sit around the conference table and decide that the password to their website has to have at least one capital letter, three numbers, an alphanumeric symbol and a mimicking sound of a partridge in a pear tree in the background? Are they supernerds giggling and rubbing their tiny hands together after getting approval to add one more twist to an already demonic requirement?
Plenty of demons dogging the Affordable Health Care Act, perhaps epitomized by the lack of sign-ups prior to the latest extended deadline – March 31 – to sign up if you don’t have insurance. Young Americans and immigrants don’t trust the government. What a surprise? Your phone records aren’t safe, but don’t worry, be happy and put Big Brother in charge of your health care future.
In the future, I’m going with my heart. My problem when I fill out the office NCAA basketball tournament bracket is that I want to win. That’s the competitive side. Yet, when I watch a game – say like Dayton versus Syracuse – and I have Syracuse to win in the bracket, I find myself rooting for the underdog Dayton Flyers. It’s in my nature. Taking that to the biblical, sense, I’m on David’s side – hand me a slingshot and a team with heart anytime.
The Gilroy-Morgan Hill Patriots have their hearts in the right place. But I have very mixed feelings about the group’s plans to stage a flag- and sign-waving protest outside the Live Oak High School campus on Cinco de Mayo. Mind you, I absolutely support their collective and individual right to do so. And I disagree with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision. To sum it up, I do not believe the wearing of American flag shirts to school on Cinco de Mayo is akin to shouting fire in a darkened theater. School officials should have handled the situation differently in 2010, but that’s water under the proverbial bridge. Hopefully, we will get to that proverbial bridge – the one where we can wave the Mexican and American flag together in the same way we can wave the French flag on Bastille Day, the Italian flag to celebrate Columbus Day and the Irish flag to salute St. Patrick.
Dear old Patrick drove the snakes from the fair isle and probably wouldn’t have minded a taste of tequila, either, especially if he read this press release headline: “The Tequila Diet? How sugars found in the Mexican spirit have ‘tremendous’ potential to fight obesity.” And this, “According to researchers from Mexico, natural sugars derived from the agave plant, called agavins, greatly protected a group of mice against diet-induced obesity and type 2 diabetes, MedPage Today reported.” Well, as I like to say to Miss Jenny and my daughters, “Wonders never cease.”
Reach Editor Mark Derry at
md****@gi************.com
