Restaurant Ramblings

This is my first time contributing to a blog, and since this one was created I've been to a few great restaurants. One of them was in Chicago last May, while visiting
Rachel. It's called North Pond. http://www.northpondrestaurant.com/ It's nestled in Lincoln Park in a beautiful old building, with wonderful food, noted for focusing on local produce, meats and all things within an hour or so radius of Chicago. They're serious. When the waitress asked for drink orders, I put in an order for my standard cocktail, a Stoli on the rocks. I was surprised when she said the restaurant bar did not carry the famous Russian vodka, but they did have several vodkas from the region, including ones from Wisconsin and Illinois. I ordered one and it was quite good. The food too, needless to say, was wonderful.

Then in August, while at a wedding for a first cousin's son in Napa, Calif., Julia and I spent our wedding anniversary having a celebratory lunch at Ubuntu, a wonderful vegetarian restaurant in downtown Napa that's so creative you'll be enchanted throughout the meal. We might have gone for dinner, but the wedding was that night. It's claim to fame is that the New York Times' restaurant critic Frank Bruni lisited it as one of his top 10 most influential restaurants in America for 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/dining/27count.html?_r=1&ex=1204779600&en=4ede7ee9683b0376&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin .

Finally, while in Israel in September and early October, we ate at a great home-cooking Yemini restaurant in Tel Aviv, the name of which escapes me now, but I'd be happy to give you if you contact me. (I have their card.) And a great Asian fusion restaurant called Wang's Grill in Eilat. Actually the only great thing there were these spring rolls filled with absolutely delicious duck. Of course for me the fun thing was ordering meat with abandon since Wang's Grill, as the Tel Aviv Yemini restaurant were both kosher.