Meandering Missive: Flowers, feathers, fish & food!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Flowers, feathers, fish & food!

As a word worm, one of the things I like best about reading/writing is alliteration, which is why I took special delight in finding that all four of the topics of this entry begin with the letter "F"! ;D

This entry is actually about a mini day trip to Monterey and Carmel Valley with my mom this past Tuesday, but I kept not getting around to blogging. Tomorrow morning I leave for a Las Vegas journalism convention (see my Oct. 1 entry) , and I really should finish packing. However, like a typically disorganized, distractible and procrastinating ADD person, I'm doing something completely different from, and delaying to, the original task! *wry smile* Perhaps I should add "weak self-discipline" to the attributes above. *sigh*

But enough kicking myself! I really wanted to get at least one more entry in here before I leave. I hope to be able to access the Internet from the con, but since I don't yet own a laptop, I'll have to rely on any "Internet cafe" I might find. Which probably won't be hard, seeing as the con is for media people, and it's being held at a large hotel/casino resort!

So, about the day trip. :) Our first stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium, for which we had 2 free guest admission passes, courtesy of my mom's good friend Marie, who holds a family membership at the Aquarium. As we were walking from the parking garage to the Aquarium, I had to make a photographic pit stop!

We passed the most beautiful row of cheerful mallow bushes I've seen in a long time! Actually, they were more of a lanky, loose thicket than shrubbery. I love the flowers in the Malvaceae family, which includes mallow, hibiscus, hollyhock, abutilon, cotton and okra. I especially like Malva sylvestris, of which I believe these mallows are a variety or cultivar. And just as engaging as the flowers was the fact that a tiny hummingbird was flitting not only from flower to flower, but also hovering around INSIDE the greenery -- sometimes perching, sometimes peeking. It was very cute!! I didn't get any pix of the hummer, but here's the mallow. Please click on the pic for a much prettier close-up...

I've been to the Aquarium many times since it first opened in 1984 (my fave decade!) but there's always something new to see and do. I never tire of the place. :) And it so happened that several changes have taken place since I last went there. One of them involves The Sandy Shore , a walk-through exhibit that's home to various birds, crustaceans, fish and plants found along this part of California's coastal wetlands. It's a beautiful microcosm and always makes me feel peaceful. The area for folks to walk through is roomier since the last time I was there -- a welcome change.

Here are some photos; as always, please click on them to see a larger version.

Shorebirds sleeping, preening or just visiting

A variety of blubbing fish, including small sharks (one's in the lower right)

A type of flatfish (flounder or sole, perhaps?) hides in the sand while his friend (upper right) seeks! ;) When I pointed the flatfish out to my mom, she said he was so still, that he appeared dead. Right after she said that, the fish moved one of his googlie eyes RIGHT AT US! "I'll show you who's dead!"

Near the Sandy Shore was another new attraction, but I don't know its name and couldn't find it on the visitors' map or the website. It's actually kind of a re-doing of the area, which you could view from inside or outside, where every X number of seconds, a big wave of water comes rushing down over the rocks and into a rocky pool area filled with plants and fish. That area has now been turned into a clear glass (or plastic) enclosed "tunnel" where many folks can walk at a time. The wave of water comes much more frequently than it used to, and is more powerful. I don't know if I'm describing this well, so below are two photos: the first is right when a wave is starting to cascade; the second shows the dizzying appearance of the tunnel when it's totally engulfed by the water! (Click to enlarge)

A few years ago, the Aquarium had an extensive exhibit (or several) on all types and kinds of jellyfish. It was one of my all-time fave exhibits there! It's been scaled down to make room for other exhibits, but there are still quite a few jellies to be found. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find the iridescent comb jellies).

In the photo below, the jellyfish (I don't know what kind) are very small and delicate and the water was very dark, illuminated only from a glowing light. They looked almost like UFOs!! A visitor was trying to take close-ups with a digital camera (as was I), but she used the FLASH (as I did not!) Her photos all looked like blasts of light, and I tried to advise her on why you can't take macro shots with a flash when the flash is on top of the subject. I also showed her on my camera's screen that even though the ambient light appears very low, the camera will generally compensate and you'll still get a nice image without the flash. It was only then that I realized she spoke limited English. Oh well. :) As always, click the pic to enlarge.

"Inner Space or Outer Space?"

These next jellyfish are called "sea nettles" and are very large and graceful. And fortunately their tank was well-lit with good contrast. I took this without the flash as well, because I kept getting ugly reflections with it. Since I skipped the flash, the jellies are a wee bit blurry, as they wouldn't oblige my request to hold still for a moment! *grin*

And now a few miscellaneous photos I took at the Aquarium. I don't know what type of fish this is, but I think it's one of the many species of rockfish. It was sitting near one of the viewing windows for the huge Kelp Forest exhibit, half obscured by a wall, and just seemed to be eyeing everyone with a mixture of disdain and amusement! (LOL) So I had to take a photo!

I'm not sure if this is a hermit crab, but it looks like one. I was attracted to its tank because everything was so vividly colored! This is a photo you really need to see close-up to appreciate, so please click on the small version below. I dedicate this photo to my 5-year-old cousin Joshua, who is very dedicated to his pet hermit crab named (originally enough) "Hermie". ;) Joshua has a great love and compassion for ALL animals -- a boy after my own heart! I could see him becoming a veterinarian some day.

And now here's where the food comes in! ("Yay!" exclaim food fans L, Jo, & Rachel). I don't actually have a restaurant review, but I do want to give a quick mention and quick photo. After we left Monterey, my mom and I drove out into Carmel Valley. Although Monterey and Carmel-By-The-Sea were both cold and foggy, even at 12:30p.m., Carmel Valley was sunny and warm! It's a beautiful inland area that some folks say reminds them of Tuscany, Italy. I've never been to Italy (I wish!) but I can imagine parts of Tuscany might look this way. Has anyone reading this been to CV, Tuscany, or both?

At any rate, we went there mainly for lunch at one of our fave restaurants, Cafe Rustica. They don't seem to have their own website (bad, BAD Cafe!!) but I did find this nice write-up about them. I'm not sure how to define their food, but I guess it might be considered a California/Mediterranean bistro. They have great soups, salads, sandwiches, thin-crust wood-fired pizzas and various entrees. One of my personal faves is a grilled cheese sandwich made of thick-sliced brioche bread. I've NEVER had grilled cheese on brioche before!! In between are cheddar and jack cheese, fresh basil and tomato (I think tomato? I didn't order it this time), accompanied by a side butter lettuce salad.

The thing that mainly keeps us coming back is one of the DESSERTS! It's a to-die-for brioche bread pudding with apricot-raspberry coulis that my mom first read about a few years ago in a feature about the restaurant in some magazine. Sunset, perhaps? The bread pudding is made with the same deliciously rich brioche, plus sugar, spice and creme anglaise. I don't even know what creme anglaise is (other than it's French for "English cream"), but my mom begged the waitress to let her in on how to make this delicious treat at home. My mom wasn't exactly sure what leant the rich creaminess to it, until the waitress told her, but then she said it made sense.

My mom also suspected the container the pudding baked in was placed in a water bath, and when she pressed the waitress, she learned that was true! *grin* I suspect if the waitress told us anything else, she'd have to kill us (as the saying goes), but my mom ended up with enough knowledge that she now thinks she can recreate the dessert at home! She says the apricot-raspberry coulis (sauce) is the easy part -- I'm glad you think so, mom!!

One last thing before the bread pudding photo: next to our table was a nice older couple from Oxford, Michigan who said they've been coming to Cafe Rustica for years, and they ALWAYS share this dessert! ;D They spend much of the winter at a vacation rental in Carmel Valley, and have eaten all over the area. But they really love the cafe and especially the bread pudding. What dedication!

And now the photo. Click to view a larger (and much more tempting) version! ;)

Cafe Rustica's brioche bread pudding w/ apricot-raspberry coulis! Yes, I did eat the fresh propeller-like mint garni! *grin* It was spearmint; I don't eat peppermint.

Today I am feeling content.

posted by ScaryShari @ 11:27 AM

2 Comments:

At 11:04 AM, Anonymous said…

Hey there, you were in my neck of the woods. I'll have to try that restaurant. It sounds good. :)

Duckie/Marjorie
At 4:06 PM, ScaryShari said…

Hi Marjorie! Thanks for commenting in my blog -- I love comments! :) You will definitely NOT regret going to Cafe Rustica. I've never had a bad meal there, and the service is great. The ambiance is also very nice, especially the outdoor patio. If/when you go, please let me know what you thought of the brioche bread pudding! *grin*

Milgwimper: I didn't know the MB Aquarium has a lot of memories for you -- good ones, I hope? ;) I think I remember you going to Monterey and vicinity with DH before you were engaged, so I'm guessing the Aquarium was part of that trip? Anyhoo, thanks for the kind words about the apricot-raspberry coulis sauce and cooking in general. As you know, I'm not very adept in the kitchen, but I really want to improve. :) Maybe we can make some simple Korean food together some time (something I can't RUIN! haha)

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