As alluded to in Part 1 of this post, we traveled to California this year without much of a hard-set schedule, and it ended up thwarting our plans to seek out some the Bay Area specific culinary treasures, especially Burmese food. The San Francisco Bay Area is rich with this cuisine, with eateries from Corte Madera to Benicia in the north, to Livermore and San Jose in the east and south, and dozens more as you get closer to the bay and Pacific Ocean.

Our most “grand” meals during our time in California may have been Christmas Eve with my parents (a truly potluck affair with plenty of Filipino favorites) and our meal onboard Alaska Airlines (not sure what we were expecting with the food, but we were nicely surprised with the Charcuterie Board and the Mediterranean Lentils meals.)

With that said, we did uncover some tiny treasures in our travels, and we’re happy to let you know about them.

Sucker FM’ers: It’s pretty much a guarantee that if there’s an open farmers market in any city we’re visiting, there’s a high likelihood that we’ll drop by for a visit. There’s an equally high likelihood that we’ll end up buying a lot more local goods than we would’ve figured we would (oh, darn LOL.) California is one of those states where a continuous yearly outdoor market is possible, and Santa Rosa’s version is no exception.

We did have intentions of keeping the spending relatively modest. But then we happened upon some lovely handcrafted goods from Spruce Grove Mud – why not a ramen bowl with chopsticks? Fresh roasted coffee beans from Myriad Coffee? Sure! Freeze-dried jalapeño from Harvest Moon Herbals? Why not.

We’re getting hungry – why not some Full Circle Bakery pretzels and some vegan Swedish/Brazilian(?!) baked goods from Cacau Bakery? Tiger Eye Beans from Hector’s Honey & Farm? Special deal on two bottles of wine from Dutton Estate Winery? Wine is always good. Oh, Kaia would love a bandanna from Love Charlie Biscuits! Ooh, this natural pain relief sampler from Aloha Organix really works – let’s grab some for back home. Fresh kimchi from Min Hee Hill Gardens and Zinegar from Dry Creek Zinegar? Okay, okay, maybe not the best idea to have potentially fermented goodness soaked clothing for the return trip – let’s grab a couple business cards for a future order.

No, we don’t have a farmers market problem. Don’t know what you’re talking about <wink>

Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market | Address: 50 Mark West Springs Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 | Website: https://thesantarosafarmersmarket.com | IG: santarosafarmersmarket

XOXO to the XO: Speaking of farmers markets, KCRW’s “Good Food” podcast inspired us to visit the well-regarded Santa Monica Farmers Market in December 2022. Perhaps it was only fitting that the same podcast inspired our Christmas Day eats by discussing the wonders of XO Sauce.

I suppose one of these days we’ll actually eat some Dim Sum on Christmas as is tradition (there was a somewhat nearby option, but the parking gods got in the way.) But we were more than happy with our first real dive into XO sauce with Hakka Restaurant in the Outer Richmond neighborhood and their XO House Special Hot Sauce with Lamb. Despite the listing as “Hot” this dish was not spicy as a Hunan or Sichuan style dish would be, but flavorful, with lovely textures, matched up with some solid Veggie Chow Mein.

Hakka Restaurant does have a fair number of American-Chinese dishes on their menu, and we were a slight bit worried about this restaurant’s quality when we originally entered (only one group of Chinese customers around one of their bigger round tables.) However, we felt much better after eating our food and seeing the place had filled up to about 2/3rds capacity (all of them customers of Chinese descent.)

Hakka Restaurant | Address: 4401 Cabrillo St, San Francisco, CA 94121 | Website: https://hakkarestaurantca.com | Yelp: Hakka Restaurant

Wine Country Brunching: I often think of Napa as a given when we travel back home, in that it’s so close to my parents’ place, we really don’t consider it for serious exploration. With our need for lengthy traveling somewhat toned down (especially with an unexpected bout of jet lag due to a missed connecting flight), we looked to the famous wine area’s namesake city for more culinary options.

We had been where the downtown-located Petit Soleil is now located several years ago, but that’s when Eight Noodle Shop occupied the space. They closed up down in 2019, followed by Momo House, almost certainly a victim of unfortunate timing by opening up April 2020 at the start of the COVID Pandemic.

Opening up summer of 2021, Petit Soleil really hasn’t done all that much with the space as we remember it, but the food is quite different. While the elevated American-style diner favorites isn’t exactly novel nor as unique as the two previous tenants, the food is done well (thumbs up to my Corned Beef Hash) with excellent service. We also appreciated, as a couple that both loves breakfast/brunch but has egg allergies to deal with, that the menu had a couple of naturally eggless options such as the German Potato Pancakes.

Even better in the eggless options was another Downtown Napa business in Contimo Provisions. Started as The Proper Sandwich pop-up in the mid-2010s, the business moved into its brick and mortar keeping their focus on nearly all in-house food products (which evolved when the business went to a grocery/food delivery service during COVID restriction days), supplemented by morning biscuits & coffee plus a small gourmet grocery section.

Similarly, Contimo’s biscuits are made in-house with several menu options or can be customized if desired. Nicely (for us, anyway) none of them have eggs, nor are eggs an option, and frankly, they didn’t need them (the Bacon & Molasses, with Alder wood-smoked bacon and blackstrap molasses was especially delicious.)

Contimo Provisions | Address: 950 Randolph St, Napa, CA 94559 | Website: https://contimonapa.com | IG: contimonapa

Petit Soleil | Address: 1408 Clay St, Napa, CA 94559| Website: https://www.petitsoleilonclay.comhttps://www.petitsoleilonclay.com | IG: petitsoleilonclay

Whither Craft Beer?: Remember a decade or so ago? Yes, the buyout and merging of smaller and/or struggling craft beer makers by their larger macro beer brethren can be traced back to the 1970s, but the proverbial Richter scale shaker can be traced to 2011, when AB/InBev acquired the well regarded Goose Island in 2011.

The brouhaha created from that and subsequent acquisitions grew more intense from there for the next few years, with Elysian Brewing (also acquired by AB/InBev in 2015) co-founder Dick Cantwell recalling the emotions of those he called “hate tourists” during that time in a 2016 Thrillist article:

“People were buying beers, and literally dumping them on the floor. Then they’d stalk out the door and into the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in search of a real craft beer from a real craft brewery. You know: a locally owned one that hadn’t “sold out” yet.”

_{^{Dick Cantwell, Elysian Brewing Co-Founder}}

The acquisitions of both big and small craft beer breweries alike continued, as they decided the advantages of a big corporate presence outweighed any loss of credibility they may experience with their core customers. For some, their status with the Brewers Association was eliminated altogether, despite the somewhat convoluted machinations involved with that (Yuengling, Samuel Adams, Firestone Walker and Boulevard (the latter two owned by Duvel Moortgat) are considered craft beer, whereas Founders, Wicked Weed, and Lagunitas are not.) For quite a few hardcore craft beer lovers, the big beer presence in the craft beer world was the harbinger of doom, threatening to confuse customers irrevocably of what was “legitimate” craft beer and what was not.

As it turned out, that doomsday has not happened – yet. Craft beer breweries have continued to grow, from 1,989 in 2011 to 9,336 by June 2023. However, the outrage behind big beer acquisitions has decidedly died down. In fact, a large sense of indifference has hit the industry and the general public related to craft beer – for many, the craft beer craze has reached its sunset phase. As noted by Paste Magazine’s Beer and Spirits writer Jim Vorel in a June 2023 article:

“On the most basic level, the craft beer landscape has simply felt trapped in stylistic stasis in recent years, a far cry from the previous era of new discovery and growth that was fueled in the 2000s and 2010s by a market in which it was so much easier to turn a profit. This stagnation has no doubt played some role in the migration of craft beer drinkers to other segments of the alcohol world, and I’m afraid I have no solution to offer up: When drinkers perceive an entire category as played out or depleted, how can you convince them otherwise?”

_{^{Jim Vorel, “Craft Beer Is Mired in Creative Stagnation}}…”

In many ways, these developments have quelled our need to avoid any “non-craft/formerly craft” brewery (with that said, our preference is still for completely local breweries.) On a late 2022 trip southward, we decided to stop by one of most favorite discoveries In Asheville’s Wicked Weed Brewing, perhaps one of the last real shocking (to craft beer fans) acquisitions (by AB/InBev acquisition in 2017.) As it turned out, their barrel-aged sour brews were just as good as ever. And while we were intending to visit local on our California trip (Russian River and Henhouse Brewing were our first intentions), we made our first visit to another “sellout” in Lagunitas Brewing and their House of Disorderly Brewing (HODB) location in Petaluma.

Started in 1993, Lagunitas took a dog-based theme and the growing love of West-Coast styled IPAs (their flagship IPA became one of the standards of the style) to expand into multiple US locations and then the world, via a big beer partnership with Heineken in 2015. Their HODB location is essentially Lagunitas’ attempt to get back to its earlier roots, a nano brewery (albeit on the larger side of such) whose small size was meant to encourage creativity.

Interestingly, it was the kitchen more than the beer that we were seeking on this visit, but we thought we might have to look for a fourth lunch option when our entrance greeter informed us the kitchen was closed. However, they did have a local taco truck in house, which in California is almost always an acceptable option. While Robert’s Taquizas didn’t have the items we really wanted (Tlayudas and Memelas, pictures of which tempted us from their banner), their tasty Quesabirria Tacos proved to be a more than adequate alternative.

Lagunitas’ space is appealing enough, with a taproom, a fairly large size courtyard with both shaded and unshaded areas (including a view inside the nanobrewery and a cornhole setup) as well as a modestly-sized grass area for you to get in some quality playtime with your dog. And the beers turned out to be fine, with a surprising best in a Durian Durian Saison.

Interestingly, even as a (technically) non-craft brewer, Lagunitas is undergoing the same malaise as craft beer in general, branching off into seltzers, alcoholic tea, nonalcoholic beer, and a package refresh in order to keep customers interested in the past several years. And they really don’t need much motivation to keep on their toes in a contracting beer market – they only need look 50 miles down the road to San Francisco, where the country’s formerly oldest craft brewery in Anchor (a 2017 Sapporo Beer acquisition) has been shut down, with an auction in process for its various assets.

Lagunitas Brewing (House of Disorderly Brewing) | Address: 1280 N McDowell Blvd, Petaluma, CA 94954 | Website: https://lagunitas.com/story/disorderly-house-of-brewing/ | IG: lagunitaspetaluma

Odds and Ends: Calistoga’s Bella Bakery uses a well worn formula (baked goods, sandwiches and coffee drinks) and does a fine job at it – if that’s you’re seeking, you could do far, far worse…On the northern end of Calistoga, Local Q 707 gives a far more hearty option with its barbecue creations for lunch and dinner, but offers a somewhat unique breakfast option as well. These will fill you quite nicely too, with the Chicken Fried Steak edging out the Biscuits and Gravy as our favorite…If you need a caffeine fix, Soul Rebel Coffee, located in the back of the same complex as Local Q 707, offers up a chill vibe and solid coffee drinks, as well as a few generally more healthful menu items like green smoothies and avocado toast…Lastly, I’ll always believe In N Out is somewhat mischaracterized in the fast food burger wars. Is it the best burger in that sphere? Most definitely not. Is it the best burger in the price range it’s offered at? I haven’t encountered any that rivals that status in recent memory. Their fries are still on the subpar side but I can live with that no problem.