Someday I plan to travel on a book adventure tour. You know the ones that follow Jane Austen through the English countryside, Daphne du Maurier in Cornwall, James Joyce or Oscar Wilde in Dublin. When I read Julia Child’s My Life in France, I wondered if I could find the restaurants she frequented when she wasn’t cooking.
Cookbooks don’t usual inspire my wanderlust, but Nancy Oakes and Pamela Mazzola visited my hometown to do a cooking demonstration. I ate their food, bought their cookbook, and took notes on their tips:
- Without consulting a recipe, you should be able to whip out something that thrills families and guests (for me, that’s brownies)
- Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t consider drinking (for me, that’s trying not to finish the wine as I cook)
- Know the difference between “packaged in Italy” and “product of Italy” – olive oil packaged in Italy can have olives from anywhere (read the label)
- Be the best you can, no matter what you’re cooking!
Now it’s my turn to find the real Boulevard in San Francisco. I have a reservation tonight – my warm up meal to more eating on this trip: dim sum in Chinatown, and French Laundry in Yountsville.
I can already taste the squash blossoms.
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