On Fana's last day before heading back to the East Coast, we gave her a crash course in Berkeley. Well, kind of. I suppose Californians might argue on the finer points of what a crash course in Berkeley really ought to consist of, but at any rate, we chose some iconic, fun stuff and went ahead and did it.
At first, we thought we'd be helping with the packing and the readying, but Fana, being (1) very organized and (2) a dancer, and therefore in posession of few things that are particularly challenging to pack, was ready to go by the time we got to her apartment in the Berkeley Hills. So we locked up and set off, stopping first at the Cheese Board, a Berkeley cooperative (of course) that's kind of a Northern California answer to Neal's Yard Dairy, the cheese shop we fell in love with in London. The differences were striking/amusing... There's a lot more plastic wrap and well, refrigeration in the California version. Anyway, we tasted lots of very yummy cheeses (yummy here being the average of the opinions of the three of us) and eventually left with a free baguette - a bonus for first time customers - and a goat's cheese gouda from Holland, a mild blue cheese, a creamy brie, and something else that I can't remember, but was probably fantastic.
After that, we went to Scharffen Berger, a Berkeley chocolate establishment. Scharffen Berger is one of those names that you probably know and respect tremendously if you're very interested in something (like good chocolate) in a particular location (northern California), but you probably don't know if you're from elsewhere. The story is that it was started by a couple chocolate enthusiasts, one of whom was very rich, having sold his thriving champagne business to an international wine company. The factory is fairly small, but the chocolate is always deeeeelightful. Especially because unlike most commercially mass-produced chocolates, it's usually more chocolate than milk. Go figure. Anyway, we had a great tour and aside from tasting lots of gooood things, learned some surprising facts.
Fact #1. High quality cocoa is still produced in Trinidad. This fact was surprising because, were I to imagine that I would learn such a thing, I would probably imagine learning it in Trinidad, not in Berkeley. But there you have it.
Fact #2. Scharffen Berger thinks this cocoa is so high quality, it included it in the two limited edition chocolate blends that were available while we were there (!) Their tenth anniversary blend, the Fisterra, is 72% cacao sourced from Venezuela, Trinidad and Madagascar. The Limited Series no. 9 blend, Antilles, contains 75% cacao, sourced from Trinidad, Grenada, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Here are some pictures:
After that, we went to Scharffen Berger, a Berkeley chocolate establishment. Scharffen Berger is one of those names that you probably know and respect tremendously if you're very interested in something (like good chocolate) in a particular location (northern California), but you probably don't know if you're from elsewhere. The story is that it was started by a couple chocolate enthusiasts, one of whom was very rich, having sold his thriving champagne business to an international wine company. The factory is fairly small, but the chocolate is always deeeeelightful. Especially because unlike most commercially mass-produced chocolates, it's usually more chocolate than milk. Go figure. Anyway, we had a great tour and aside from tasting lots of gooood things, learned some surprising facts.
Fact #1. High quality cocoa is still produced in Trinidad. This fact was surprising because, were I to imagine that I would learn such a thing, I would probably imagine learning it in Trinidad, not in Berkeley. But there you have it.
Fact #2. Scharffen Berger thinks this cocoa is so high quality, it included it in the two limited edition chocolate blends that were available while we were there (!) Their tenth anniversary blend, the Fisterra, is 72% cacao sourced from Venezuela, Trinidad and Madagascar. The Limited Series no. 9 blend, Antilles, contains 75% cacao, sourced from Trinidad, Grenada, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Here are some pictures:
Scharffen Berger's Special Edition chocolates. On the left, the 'Fisterra' bar (literally 'ends of the Earth'), and on the right, the 'Antilles' bar.
The Trinidadians, examining the Trinidadian chocolate.
Sinclair, our tour guide, expounding the intricacies of gourmet chocolate production.
Where the magic happens.
After our trip into the heart of yummy chocolate-dom, we took a brief break at the Fourth Street Shops area, where we sat on benches and ate our yummy bread and cheese as a pre-dinner warmer-upper. Then we went to T-Rex BBQ for dinner. We chose T-Rex because bbq is delicious, and it's also a good standard for figuring out the differences in US regional cuisine. "What?" you ask - well, consider the following. Texas bbq is described as : "mounds of sliced beef brisket, German sausage, and meaty ribs[...] Many of the barbeque restaurants in Texas focus much of their energy almost completely on the food. It is very common to see the barbeque served on butcher paper with paper towels and plastic utensils." T-Rex bbq? "Our menu is “Berkeley Barbecue” with a traditional twist. We use only antibiotic and hormone free meats and our fish is sustainable. Our produce is organic when possible and our menu changes seasonally." The tradition is similar but the emphases are, well, different. That's Berkeley.
After all this, it was time to make sure Fana got her flight, and we took her to SFO, where we witnessed one of the least eventful check-ins ever. And that was that. :)
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