Vacation Eating

First, I mentioned yesterday how of late, I am a little rough around the edges first thing in the morning. Well, here is the proof that I can hardly even believe. I didn't even know one eye was closed. Ah!

Next, I really hate 'wasted' meals. You know when you are starving and grab something crappy, or when you go out and the food just sucks. That is a wasted meal. And, when I am on vacation, wasted meals are not cool. In fact, I almost had a 'wasted' coffee today, but threw it away just in the nick of time. Phew. I am still holding a grudge (against Ron) over a wasted caesar salad I had in Monterey 18 months ago. [Don't even get me started on the peach danish incident from Singapore in 2006]

Thankfully, today, I had no wasted meals and none of my food was stolen.

Lunch was amazing. Cafe Rustica in the Carmel Valley Village. We had wine, shared escargot, which I freakin love, and then perhaps the best pizza* I've ever had.

The escargot:

There was a slight incident with my dunking bread in Ron's butter hole. Let's just leave the butter hole be.

The quatre mushroom and balsamic carmelized onion pizza, with smoked mozzarella:

Drool. The only problem was this hideous woman beast behind me. She was wearing a f*&$ing Chewbacca vest, and had the most horrible overly-loud tone of voice I've ever heard. She was also ignorant, though figured herself a well-informed genius. For example, did you know that pizza was invented in America? Well, she did. Apparently Lombardi's created pizza. The AMERICANS who own Lombardi's, that is. Also, not only were there no Italians in America, but apparently Italians couldn't of made pizza in Italy because they didn't have tomatoes until the 1900s. Where to even begin with was it wrong with those statements. Seriously, you shoulda heard her voice.

Dinner was wonderful. La Bicyclette in the Carmel Village. Every single bite was delicious. We had the following:

First course. Whole roasted garlic, arugula and myer lemon salad, fresh garbanzo bean and mint hummus, smoked paprika pita, grilled eggplant, and spiced blue cheese.

Second course. Morroccan carrot soup. OMG too good to convey.

Third course, which I forgot to get a pic of. Slow braised bison short ribs with sautéed kale and sour cherries, and guajillo chile sweet corn spoon bread. After eating the delicious ribs, Ron forecasted how we would "floss like animals" once we got back to the room. Yep.

Dessert. Wood fired strawberry-rhubarb galette with house made vanilla bean ice cream and dark carmel.

Quite a day. Tomorrow, on to San Fran...

*I thought the best pizza I ever had was at Pizzaria Bianco in Phoenix, but after today I am no longer sure. I’ve got to somehow arrange a Phoenix/Carmel Village taste off. Or, go to Italy. I think they have tomatoes now.