On the Tuesday of our vacation, we ventured out of the wine country for a gorgeous 6-mile hike at Point Reyes National Seashore and dinner amongst my people (hippies) in Berkeley… at the famed Chez Panisse.  I’m a huge fan of Alice Waters and have been dying to visit Chez Panisse ever since I first read The United States of Arugula.  Chez Panisse is actually two restaurants in one: an a la carte cafe upstairs, and a prix fixe fine dining establishment downstairs.  Hubby and I couldn’t get reservations for the prix fixe restaurant, so we had reserved a table in the cafe.  However, when we got to the restaurant we were able to get into the downstairs dining room after all.  Hubby had the traditional menu, which included a pork dish, and I ordered the vegetarian option.  The food was delicious.  Behold…

First course – bean and heirloom tomato toasts.  The bean toast, which had a garlicky bean puree topped with creamy whole beans, was my favorite, but the tomatoes were unbelievably delicious as well, and I enjoyed them immensely after the East Coast tomato blight had deprived me of much tomatoey goodness this summer.

Second course – vegetable fritto misto with a spicy dipping sauce.  Crispy, crunchy and wonderful.  Hubby’s meat-lovers option had seafood fritto misto, which I tried and enjoyed as well, though I think I liked the vegetables better.

I was very hungry, as you can imagine after a 6-mile hike in the blazing sun, and forgot to take a picture of my entree before digging in.  Hubby had a pork chop, and my veggie substitute was a stuffed poblano pepper, which was extraordinarily spicy.  (Maybe a little too spicy for my wussy palate.  I’d never survive in Texas.)  The only thing that I wasn’t crazy about, was the fact that the sides were the same – sauteed greens with raisins – for both dishes.  I thought the side dish would have gone better with the pork chop than with the stuffed poblano, with which it seemed a little disjointed.  But don’t get me wrong, it was awesome.

Dessert was a flavorful tart of the season’s first Jonathan apples and huckleberries:

Continuing the tradition of telling you exactly how hubby and I managed to work up an appetite for the unbelievable dinner, I’ll share a few pics of our 6-mile hike at Point Reyes National Seashore, which we did before driving to Berkeley.

Incredible view up the coastline:

Hubby takes in the scenery:

(Perhaps the most hilarious thing that happened on this trip happened on our Point Reyes hike.  We passed a young family with a little girl, maybe three years old, riding on her father’s shoulders.  She pointed at the hubs and shouted “Look, Daddy, a bear!”  Then, sounding crestfallen, she corrected herself: “Oh.  It’s a guy.”  I almost fell over, I was laughing so hard.)

Elk (we actually got a lot closer than this picture makes it seem; they were awesome):

Point Reyes was a beautiful hike, but needless to say, we arrived in Berkeley hot, famished, and covered in dust.  The kind folks at Chez Panisse took us in and fed us, an absolutely superb meal, and I’m still thinking about those bean and tomato toasts…