…yes, having sushi at my favorite restaurant in SF – Isobune in Japantown.

Not only is the food delightful, eating at Isobune is just fun! Sitting around the moat, watching the boats with their tasty morsels float by, grabbing one and then waiting for the next little dish which is just calling out to you…

As a kid you were never allowed to play with your food – here the eating experience is playtime in a big way!

How about eating less junk and sugar and saving the $12,000 – $25,000 for the procedure for something rather more fun than an operation?

But then again, maybe this common-sense attitude re. food and weight-gain is just a bit less fashionable than the “quick fix” advertised on bill boards.

One weekend the store was not as crowded as usual and we happened to have a chat with Richard, the Head Baker, about different kinds of bread and about “Graubrot”, this unique type of bread found in Germany and dearly missed by all Germans abroad. No, he said, no, he did not know this type of bread, anything special about it? Now I am not an expert on baking, but I tried to describe this kind of bread to him. To cut a long story short, Richard suddenly said: “You know what, I’ll look it up and give it a try. I love a challenge!”

Fast forward to yesterday: A phone call from Richard – some sample loaves were ready for me to try out. Wow! We dropped everything, jumped into the car and drove over to the store. To be honest, I was getting excited – real bread, at last? Could it be?

We had to wait a while, other customers had to be tended to first. But Richard already pointed to the samples waiting:

Then it was our turn. Richard described what he did to get this “special” taste and density to the loaves and that he and his bakers played around with shapes. Then he handed me a loaf and said “Merry Christmas.” What – wait until I was home? Never? I wanted to have my first bite there and then. So he cut off some slices and I did the first test – sniff the bread. I could not help myself, I blurted out: “That smells like home!” Then the first bite – yes, yes, yes, that was it. True German bread for the first time in years, freshly baked, not out of a factory and wrapped in plastic.

Now all this new bread needs is the teeniest amount of fine-tuning, adjust the density a fraction and the shape and then I will never again have to forgo one of the simplest and most rewarding food delights: A fresh slice of bread with butter and cheese – just like home.

Thank you, Richard. That is true dedication to one’s craft and superb customer relations.

In plain English – grasshoppers.

They are a staple in our favorite Oaxacan restaurant “Guelaguetza” on 8th Street. Our friendly waiter sang the praises of the dish, so how could I resist? The little critters were very tasty and slightly crunchy, having been toasted with garlic, lemon juice and sal de gusano on a clay cooking surface called comal. One only needs to pulls off the legs, apart from that one eats them whole.

They look like bugs!

So that was that. Tasty and slightly unusual for someone not growing up in Oaxaca. The question after such an experience is always: Will I add this treat to my list of foods I could eat all the time? Well… no. Why? Quite simple: The aesthetics are a bit off.

However, I could well imagine to eat chapulines again if they came as tempura, with the direct visual impact somewhat softened by the batter.

Does that make me a grasshopper wimp?

In addition to the culinary delight one steps into a little haven of peace and quiet with a lovely view:

After lunch one feels restored, not only in body, but in mind too.

They don’t even charge for the restoration of the inner being. It’s all included.

to find out that behind it there hides a real honest-to-God supper club with an amazing offer in Jazz music.

Our introduction to Jax was made all the more pleasurable by Mike Gurley and the Night Caps. If you want to swoon to music a bit strangely called “cocktail music”, go there. It is well worth the time; those musical cocktails are tasty with a distinct modern edge.

How good is this place? Well, we stayed until midnight. That should say it all and is our stamp of approval.

Nice, we thought, not L.A. at all.

That was not all; on reading the menu I started swooning. Cold Borscht! Just what one needed on a sweltering hot day.

But the surprises did not end there – they had Steak Tartar! Steak… Tartar…

It was incredible, goodness on a plate, paired with chopped onions, mushrooms and pickles. I’m afraid I bored William to death with my stories about this dish, where I had eaten it all over Europe and how much I had missed it. That, by the way, was the funniest side-effect of discovering this restaurant – it awakened a culinary homesickness in me I did not know I had.

The others dishes were good too – a perfect broth with little lamb ravioli (what a delicate taste) and Gnocci afterwards. But the Steak Tartar… I am drooling while writing this.

After a perfectly divine meal, finished off with some Espresso, we toddled back to the Broad for an equally heavenly lecture on Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle.

Food for body and mind – what a delightful evening.

But maybe I’ll hang on to the food processor  for a little while longer.

But should the adventurous city traveler step through the door to be met by this arrangement,

he or she might reconsider whether this is really your average cafeteria eating style place.

Walking up the staircase,

past some more bears engaged in slightly unusual activities,

one has a good view of the lower level eating area.

My personal favorite is the moose on the balcony.

Quite impressive, I must say. Judging from the size of the head, this was not a small animal at all. I probably would have given it a wide berth, had I come across it in the wild.

And there you have it – Clifton’s Cafeteria is certainly not unremarkable. It is not a fine dining place, but one of the last bastions of honest fare so dear to many who remember this kind of food from their childhood. I highly recommend it for breakfast, if one wants to attend events at the Convention Center, which is only a short stroll of a few blocks away.

All details of the history of this place, the last one left of several restaurants owned by the Clinton family in the Los Angeles area, can be found here. How long Clifton’s will survive is unsure – the family just put the building up for sale. What happens next – nobody knows.

As with every hobby, one needs toys. I finally found one I had craved for quite a while – a double-burner stove top grill pan.

With this nice, sturdy, heavy-duty pan roasted vegetables are done in no time.

Sprinkled with olive oil, lime juice, salt and fresh ground pepper, they can rest while some pork chops rubbed with basil are being grilled.

Add a salad, some wine and a friend = a perfect meal for three with a preparation time of 30 minutes from start to finish.

As I said, cooking is a hobby. And I love my new toy.