While in college, Joyce earned spending money as a model at car shows. Manufacturers and dealers hired her to stand beside their cars in a swim suit and heels. Her job was to look lovely, smile and hand literature about the cars to men who stopped by.

We dated a few times nearly 50 years ago and I couldn’t help but think of her during the three hours I spent at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills one recent Saturday for the Los Angeles stop of the Buick Discovery Tour. If you’re wondering what any of this has to do with food, be patient.

The invitation came to me as a subscriber to Food & Wine magazine, which co-sponsored the event along with the Buick auto division of General Motors. It touted “an exclusive culinary event where you’ll sample dishes demonstrated by Master Chef Michael Psilakis and discover a fresh perspective on food and wine pairings by a wine expert. You’ll also meet the country’s most innovative pastry chef … and experience the latest Buick lineup.” 

“Why not,” I thought, “I may be looking to buy a car in the next year; there’s a Buick model I kind of like, although it isn’t a convertible, and the food part sounds right up my alley.”

It was a well-run event, although they could have found a better location to test drive the cars than on the crowded streets of Beverly Hills. I never did get my Lacrosse above 25 miles an hour.

That’s enough about the cars. Let’s get on to the real reason I decided to attend.

When the invitation arrived, I looked up Psilakis on the internet. He was a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2008 and was Bon Appetit’s Chef of the Year that same year. In the last five years he has been either part owner or chef-owner of seven restaurants in Manhattan, including Fishtag, which he opened in July 2011. His Greek restaurant Anthos was awarded a Michelin star. Good enough to draw me to Beverly Hills. 

For his part in the day Psilakis demonstrated a recipe for fried pork and beef meatballs and served samples to some 450 people, who assembled for three separate sessions at the hotel. Each registration packet included a recipe card for the dish. Then, as an added surprise, each person received an autographed copy of Psilakis’ book, How to Roast a Lamb. I will make these meatballs at home. How about a meatball party – Psilakis’ Greek recipe, the Swedish meatball recipe from the old Scandia restaurant in L.A., a very good Italian polpettine that I’ve made through the years, and my own albondigas? Some bread for mopping the sauce and maybe a little pasta? 

A happy surprise of the day for me was Josiah Citrin, chef-owner of Melisse in Santa Monica, one of my favorite restaurants in the state. He also is co-owner of the Lemon Moon Café in West Los Angeles. If I were a young chef I would want to work in the Melisse kitchen under Josiah’s tutelage to assure my future success. There had been no advance publicity on Josiah’s appearance. 

Josiah opened Melisse in 1999 as the fulfillment of his dream of owning a truly fine dining restaurant. Melisse was awarded two Michelin stars two consecutive years and seven consecutive Best Awards of Excellence from Wine Spectator. Earlier Josiah worked in Paris at the fine dining restaurants Vivarois and La Poste, in L.A. at Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois on Main and then at Granita, and at the original Patina and Pinot Bistro with Joachim Splichal. JiRaffe, a California French bistro in Santa Monica, was his own joint venture with his wife Diane and his friend Raphael Lunetta. 

For his part of the Buick event Josiah demonstrated recipes for Hokkaido scallops with cauliflower mousse and a lime gelee. Samples were served and recipe cards provided for this dish. It might be a little difficult to track down a small order of those scallops to make at home. But the cauliflower mousse is within my ability and probably will show up on my table sometime. 

What really excited me in Josiah’s presentation was his mention that there is a “Foie for All” dinner on the Melisse menu as a farewell to foie gras, which will be banned in California come July 1, 2012. I love foie gras and Josiah is a genius when it comes to preparing it. He’s also doing braised Kobe beef cheeks, one of Jennifer’s favorites. So, we need to head to Melisse very soon. 

The aforementioned “country’s most innovative pastry chef” turned out to be Ben Roche of Moto in Chicago. There is no way I could describe the concept or the food that is served at Moto, and that includes the deserts Roche puts forward daily. Dinner at Moto means 14 courses, the last six of which are Roche’s deserts with a progression of tastes to take the diner from the richness of the main courses to the lightness at the end of a meal. Moto is a home of “molecular gastronomy”, which the website describes it as “the application of both scientific and artistic principles in cuisine. Equal parts chef and inventor.” 

At the Buick event, Roche served up a S’Mores Bomb – dark chocolate filled with a liquefied graham cracker puree – and a blue cheese and walnut ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen. While recipe cards were provided for both and I think I could handle the S’Mores Bomb at home, I think I’ll leave the nitrogen to the pros. 

To round out the day wine consultant Michael Green presented a humorous look at wine tasting that was designed to remove the mysteries of wine drinking. Green was Gourmet magazine’s exclusive wine consultant for 19 years. He is president and creative director of Liquid Assets Consulting Group in New York. For his presentation he provided a Rodney Strong Sauvignon Blanc and a cote du’ Rhone blend of Grenache and Shiraz. He used a slice of lemon on each plate to demonstrate the affects on the white wine and a wedge of cheese to demonstrate the changing taste of the red. 

So, that’s how we sell cars in the 21^st century. And Joyce, wherever you are, you can know it took three nationally acclaimed chefs, a New York wine consultant, a Napa Valley winery and a French Winery to replace one lovely 19-year-old brunette.

Eating in restaurants used to be so much simpler. Back in the day, I’d look at the menu and try to decide between the rib-eye steak and the grilled pork chop, between the linguine with prawns and the lasagna with Italian sausage.

But about nine and a half years ago, I went vegan – no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no animal products of any kind. It wasn’t something I had planned, although I had been thinking about cutting back on my meat consumption.

Then there I was one day reading The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, by John Robbins. The author was an heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune until he went vegan and walked away from the family business. In his book, Robbins discussed the health implications of switching to a plant-based diet, deplored the cruel treatment of farm animals and explained the many ways in which the environment is compromised by our consumption of animal products. By the time I got to the part about how eating meat contributes to the problem of world hunger, I just gave up. I stopped eating all animal products at that moment, without so much as a final steak and lobster dinner.  I quit cold turkey, so to speak.

Soon the panic set in. Since I hadn’t planned to go vegan, I hadn’t given any thought to what I actually could eat. It was hard enough to figure out what to eat at home, but eating in restaurants became a special challenge. Since no one else I knew was vegan, I had to learn how to find something to eat in whichever restaurants I visited with my non-vegan family and friends.

So here’s how I approach lunch and dinner in a non-vegan restaurant. (Breakfast is a whole different issue, usually involving oatmeal and fruit.) First, I order a nice glass of wine, which makes the rest of the process much more enjoyable. Then I start working my way down the menu to see if there is anything I can eat.

I almost never order an appetizer because most of the appetizers in American or European restaurants contain some form of animal product.  Fish – crab cakes, oysters on the half shell, fried calamari – is especially popular in the appetizer section of many menus. I have come to appreciate appetizers like chips and salsa in a Mexican restaurant, or mixed olives in a restaurant serving Mediterranean food.

Moving on, I check out the soups and salads. Soups rarely include a vegan option. It sometimes appears the two favorite soups in Sacramento, where I live, are New England clam chowder, or French onion soup, which probably is made with beef broth and undoubtedly has that baguette slice on top just dripping with melted gruyère. I usually can find something to work with among the salads. Often, the only salad that’s actually vegan is the basic house salad – lettuce, cucumber, tomato, shredded carrot and house vinaigrette. But more creative salads can be made into vegan just by asking that the cheese be left out, or a different dressing substituted. Other salads are a little more challenging. I doubt that my husband and son will ever let me live down the southwest chicken salad I ordered without the southwest chicken at an airport restaurant a few years ago.

Then I look at the entrées. But really, unless there’s a pasta with marinara sauce there’s almost no chance there will be a vegan entrée, or even an entrée that can be made vegan. If the restaurant serves burgers and sandwiches there may be a veggie burger. That always requires further inquiries to determine whether the veggie patty itself includes cheese or egg, which turns out to be the case more often than not. There may be a vegetarian sandwich on the menu, but it usually will be served with some type of pesto made with Parmesan cheese, or aïoli made with mayonnaise, without which the sandwich probably is completely tasteless. And there’s always the question of whether the sandwich bread contains eggs or dairy products.

So sometimes the best bet for a vegan in a restaurant serving American or European cuisine is to make a meal out of whatever salad has been stripped of all animal products, the free sourdough bread when that’s available, and the fabulous wine that was ordered as soon as you were seated. Go ahead – have another glass, especially since there’s not likely to be a vegan dessert on the menu and you’ll want to have something to do while everyone else eats their crème brûlée or tiramisu.

Several restaurants have opened in Sacramento in the past seven or eight years that are renowned for their fresh seasonal ingredients purchased from local family farmers. It may seem counterintuitive, but I have more trouble eating at those restaurants than almost anyplace else.  Yes, they use gorgeous seasonal produce in their dishes, but the other key ingredients are always some form of animal product, like goat’s milk ricotta, or braised sweetbreads, or some such thing that can’t easily be left out.

Paradoxically, I’ve found it’s easy to be vegan in a steak house. Since all of the side dishes are served à la carte, I can order a baked potato, steamed broccoli or asparagus, and mushrooms sautéed in olive oil instead of butter. I take a small container of margarine with me and I have a perfectly lovely meal once I get past the part where the server brings out the display of raw meat slabs and live lobsters.

I’ve discovered that many types of ethnic cuisine are vegan-friendly, although I always have to ask whether fish sauce is used in the Thai curry, or if ghee (clarified butter) is used in the Indian curry. Star Ginger Asian Grill & Noodle Bar in Sacramento, which offers several wonderful vegan options, has become my new best friend. There are a few good vegetarian restaurants with vegan options, but many vegan or vegetarian restaurants rely much too heavily on fake meats and fake cheese, when fruits, vegetables and grains can be served in a variety of delicious soups, salads, stews, and stir-fries without having to pretend to be something they’re not.

People often ask if I lost weight when I went vegan. As a matter of fact I did. However, that was a long time ago and I’ve since gained it all back. It might surprise you to know there are many junk food options for vegans – Fritos, Oreos, Coca-Cola – and there are lots of wonderful vegan desserts available these days, like the incredible Earth Cafe Cherry Dream Cheesecake at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, or the vegan chocolate cake at Freeport Bakery. I don’t know what constitutes the “cheese” in the cheesecake, but the ingredients are soaked cashews, coconut, coconut butter, fresh cherries, agave nectar, soaked pecans, soaked walnuts, lemon, lecithin, vanilla bean extractive, cinnamon, and sea salt. And not only is it vegan, it’s raw. It’s quite fabulous.

Another thing I’m asked often is whether I feel better now. I didn’t have any particular health issues before, but I notice now I rarely catch cold and I can’t remember the last time I had any type of flu or virus. So I may not be any skinnier but I do seem to be a little healthier.

Do I ever find myself craving any of the non-vegan foods that I used to love? Yes, although it’s usually some random fast food item that triggers the craving, oddly enough. It never lasts very long and I’ve never regretted my decision to stop eating animal products.  I know I can get a vegan bacon cheeseburger that tastes like the real thing at downtown’s Kitchen at the Round Corner, or a vegan doughnut at Doughbot that puts most other doughnuts to shame.

“Celebrity vegans” have been in the news lately, people like Bill Clinton, Mike Tyson, Alec Baldwin and Carrie Underwood, who have gone vegan for a variety of reasons. What I love about the celebrity vegans is that they help to move veganism into the mainstream, which I hope will inspire chefs to give some thought to adding vegan options to their menus. Last October, 10 local restaurants participated in the first ever Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge, serving vegan appetizers, entrées, and desserts on their dinner menus throughout the month. I had an amazing roasted pumpkin soup at the Tower Bridge Bistro, a delicious jewel quinoa salad at Cafe Capricho and the tastiest deep-fried green bean appetizer ever at Capitol Garage. It was a great month to be a vegan.

But the people I really appreciate are the chefs and restaurateurs who always honor the food choices of their vegan patrons and make us feel valued by offering tasty and nutritious plant-based menu selections all year long.

(Pam Giarrizzo recently retired from her position as Chief Counsel to the California Secretary of State, after serving for more than 30 years in various high-level positions in both the Secretary of State’s office and the California State Assembly. She is a founding member of the Sacramento Women’s Action Network (SWAN), a giving circle that provides funding to nonprofit organizations serving the Sacramento area. She also serves on the boards of the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts, and the Camellia Network, which assists young people who are transitioning from foster care to adulthood. Pam lives in Sacramento with her non-vegan husband, Phil, a political consultant. Their son Zack, who is not vegan but at least refuses to eat beef, is a student at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. Pam’s Sacramento Vegan blog can be read at http://sacramentovegan.blogspot.com/. )

By Larry Levine –

“You’re lucky, eating so many great meals in great restaurants.”

I hear statements like that frequently from people who assume I created a restaurant web site (atLarrys.com) and this online food magazine as an excuse to eat great meals in great restaurants. They have it backwards; the great meals in great restaurants came first. I created atLarrys.com and Table Talk atLarrys.com because of my life-long love of all things food related.

2011 was an extremely good year for what I love to do. With Jennifer, my sons, and a circle of friends I enjoyed wonderful meals week after week, including many in restaurants in which I never before had eaten. Here is a listing in alphabetical order of the 12 most memorable restaurant experiences of the year. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are ones in which I ate for the first time.

* AL’S ITALIAN BEEF, Chicago Illinois – I had my first Italian Beef Sandwich at Al’s our second day in Chicago last summer. I had my second Italian Beef Sandwich at Al’s my last day in Chicago last summer. The windy city is a culinary wonder and several of the year’s most memorable meals were eaten during the six days we spent there. The Italian Beef sandwich starts with a poppy seed bun. It’s filled with slow roasted, seasoned lean beef sliced so thin it’s almost shaved. It comes dipped in a 100% natural beef gravy (au jus). First time I ordered it “sweet”, which to locals means with sweet peppers, and I asked for it with cheese. Second time I went for “hot” – hot peppers and skipped the cheese. The hot with no cheese is better, so that’s the one that makes the memorable meal list. A tip of the hat to atLarrys.com co-host Lenn Grabiner for sending us down this road.

* ANGELINA, Paris France – Our friend Amanda Susskind told us this was the place to go for the best hot chocolate in the history of the universe. So, after spending a few hours at The Louvre, Jennifer and I walked several blocks along Rue de Rivoli to Angelina. I expected a pastry shop that served a great hot chocolate. Instead, we found a large, ornate restaurant packed with well-dressed business people and shoppers. It was noon and we waited in line some 20 minutes before being seated for lunch. And what a lunch it was. I opened the menu and quickly spotted a listing for steak tartare, an old favorite that all but vanished from menus in the U.S. for at least three decades. I ordered it and the waiter asked, “Do you know what that is?” I smiled and told him, “YES, I DO.” I imagine he had experienced numbers of Americans who would order the dish thinking they were going to get a meat tart and then sending it back after seeing what it really is. I was served a big, thick, wedge shaped portion of seasoned raw ground beef, with a raw egg yolk on the top and a perfectly golden toast points. I hadn’t seen anything like it since the happy days of dining at Perino’s, or the Brown Derby in L.A., both of which no longer exist. I followed the tartare with a delicious chocolate éclair and what turned out to actually be the greatest hot chocolate in the history of the universe.

ASANEBO, Studio City California – Before the Michelin gang left California behind, they hung stars on the wall at this outstanding sushi restaurant in a strip mall in the San Fernando Valley. By any measure, I would call myself a regular at Asanebo the last several years. I’ve made it a habit, or a tradition, to stop in some time during the last week of each year. I’m a sushi hound but Asanebo provides such a dazzling array of specialties that I usually order omakase. Of all the meals I had at Asanebo during the year, the last one makes the most memorable list. The first dish set before me consisted of five delectable pieces of Bluefin tuna toro topped with a strip of Santa Barbara Uni. Later I watched as the chef cut six thin slices of halibut and then shaved white truffle on top. Delightful king crab tempura, seared alfonsino, and a parade of other wonderful treats put a perfect cap on a good year.   

* BARBRIX, Los Angeles California – The right company can take a great meal and elevate it to a memorable experience.  That’s what happened the first time we dined at Barbrix. Our friends Lisa Hansen and Jim Dunn joined us for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. With four people at the table, the small plates menu becomes a wonderful place to graze. And that’s what we did, ordering multiple dishes from each section of the menu and finishing with a very nice cheese plate. Interesting conversation, with intelligent companions, lots of laughs, and sharing delectable dishes with people who know and love food … a prescription for a memorable meal.

BIBA, Sacramento California – I’ve been dining at Biba for more than 20 years. It’s one of my two favorite restaurants in all of California. Over time there are a few menu items to which I return often – the best calamari fritti I know of, a consistently wonderful gnocchi with different sauces, and lamb chops that always are tender and tasty. But one night last summer I deviated. I ordered veal sweetbreads as an appetizer and a nightly special quail dinner. The plate set in front of me carried two beautifully golden, plump roasted birds. Anytime game bird, particularly quail, is on a menu, that’s where I’m going and I’ve never had a better quail dinner than I had that night at Biba.

* BOURBON STEAK, San Francisco California – I love this space off the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square. When it was Compass Rose, it was my favorite San Francisco Bar. Michael Mina took over the space several years ago and turned it into an excellent restaurant. Mina moved his name-sake restaurant out of the hotel about a year ago, then decided to open a steakhouse at the site. I’m not big on steakhouses; I eat beef infrequently. But Jennifer and I decided to try Bourbon Steak because of its location and Mina’s influence. My rib eye steak was heavenly. All steaks at Bourbon Steak are poached in different broths before they hit the grill. The result is enhanced flavor and a juicy, tender piece of beef. This was my only steakhouse meal of the year. True to the heritage of Compass Rose, the bar at Bourbon Streak remains top notch. I’ve been drinking Perfect Manhattans in this room for decades and they still are just that – perfect.

* ERNA’S ELDERBERRY HOUSE, Oakhurst California – Jennifer dined at Erna’s with our nephew, Ryan, a year earlier and knew I would love the place. (Ryan is a culinary arts major in college in England. You can read of his American epicurean adventure by clicking on Travel in the menu on the home page of this magazine and then clicking on “Was it an Orgy or an Odyssey”.)  For this trip Jennifer and I stayed at the romantic Chateau du Sureau for three nights, took the 90-minute ride to the floor of Yosemite Valley for lunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel one day, and had dinner at Erna’s all three nights. Any one of the three dinners could qualify as one of the year’s most memorable. Each was a five-course symphony of flavor and aesthetics. One night we were joined by our old friends Sally and Patty, who we’ve known since 1970. They moved to Oakhurst nearly 30 years ago. To renew acquaintances over fabulous food in so peaceful and classy setting was indeed memorable and will remain so.

* GIRL AND THE GOAT, Chicago Illinois – One of the special highlights of a special year. Reservations at Girl and the Goat were running about eight weeks in advance. But the concierge at our hotel tipped us that it’s first come, first seated at the bar and in the lounge. So, we showed up at 6 o’clock on a Sunday evening and were sitting at the bar 10 minutes later. Girl and the Goat was opened in July 2010 by Stephanie Izard, who won Bravo’s Top Chef Competition in season four in somewhat of an upset. The menu is strictly small plates and they are creative and packed with flavor. We were at Girl and the Goat on the night of the first anniversary of the opening. The atmosphere was festive, the staff was buoyant and the food was extraordinary. (You can read more about Girl and the Goat by clicking on A Food Lover’s Journey in the Travel section of the menu on the home page of this magazine.)

* LA HAUSTECA, Lynwood California – This is a sad story. My first meal at La Hausteca was lunch with atLarrys.com co-host Larry Dietz. We went there for the mole and I tasted the best mole I’ve eaten outside of Mexico. Before my pork mole, we shared a fabulous and unique ceviche. We finished with flan, with cocoanut shavings and butterscotch topping. As I walked through the Plaza de Mexico to the restaurant I was reminded of times I spent in Mexico many years ago. To top it off, the mariachi was wonderful. Jennifer and I visited La Hausteca several times with friends later in the year and loved the place. So, why is the story sad? The chef left; the mole specialist moved on. We’ll track her down at her new restaurant this year and see if she can provide one of the most memorable meals of 2012.

STILLWATER BAR & GRILL, Pebble Beach California – Jennifer and I used to eat rib eye steak at Scott’s in Costa Mesa before attending the opera in Orange County. They were excellent rib eyes – tender, juicy, full of flavor. Then the restaurant de-emphasized beef and ultimately took the rib eyes off the menu. For the last few years it has been nothing but disappointment in our quest of a great rib eye. I finally gave up. Jennifer continued on for a time, ordering rib eye and complaining they were chewy, tough and not very tasty. Ultimately she stopped ordering them. Then I stopped by Stillwater Bar & Grill after a round of golf at the Pebble Beach golf course. I scanned the menu and there wasn’t much that I felt like eating. On a whim I order a rib eye steak. Jennifer wasn’t with me and I felt guilty with every bight of that great piece of steak. I apologized to Jennifer when I saw her later. What could be more memorable than golf at the legendary Pebble Beach golf course followed by a delicious rib eye steak, while seated by a window overlooking the 18^th green and Stillwater Cover?

* WRIGLEY FIELD, Chicago Illinois – No, it isn’t a restaurant. But it was the place where I ate my first ever Chicago Dog as well as my second one. My friend Lenn told me I probably wouldn’t like a Chicago Dog because I prefer my hot dogs with just a little mustard and not a heap of condiments. He also said that if I was going to try one I shouldn’t do it a Wrigley. As we walked to our seats I saw a sign on the hot dog stand. It said “100% Vienna beef grilled hot dog.” I decided to go for it. It was topped with grilled onions, a neon green relish, a thin line of yellow mustard and a sprinkling of celery salt. I’m a hot dog lover and a life-long baseball fan. Put the two of them together in a baseball shrine surrounded by a stadium filled with real baseball fans and that defines memorable.

* ZINGERMAN’S, Ann Arbor Michigan – I’m a deli hound. I grew up eating in delis in Brooklyn. I grew up on fabulous pastramis, great corned beef, and unrivaled salami. Now I live in Los Angeles, which may be the best deli town in the nation. Even after quadruple coronary bypass surgery, I opted to cut back on but not to give up deli food completely. It’s one of those things with which I reward myself on occasions after I’ve been careful with my diet for a sufficient length of time. So, when atLarrys.com co-host Larry Sheingold and our mutual friend Jim Hayes sang high praise for Zingerman’s I was skeptical. Still, I schedule a stop in Ann Arbor in both directions as we drove from Chicago to Ontario Canada last summer. First time through I had a corned beef on rye. The bread was great and the kosher dill pickles were like homemade. But the meat was too lean. On the return trip I went for pastrami on rye. Bingo. I’ve never had a better pastrami, not even at Langer’s in L.A., and the twice baked rye bread was peerless. Memorable among all the thousands of deli meals I had through the decades? You bet.

RUNNERS UP:
AUX LYONNAIS, Paris, France
DT BISTRO – PATISSERIE, Toronto, Ontario Canada
JOEL ROBUCHON, Paris France
THE ROYCE AT THE LANGDON, Pasadena California
UNITED BAKERS DAIRY RESTAURANT, Toronto, Ontario Canada

By Larry Levine –

It was a perfect celebration for a food lover – four days in Sacramento commemorating two significant events and eating at four memorable restaurants.

The original purpose of the trip was to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday with our son Lloyd, his wife Edie and their daughter Alise. We arrived in town a few days early so we could have some extra time to be entertained by our extraordinarily smart and incredibly cute 14-month­-old granddaughter.

I decided to build some business meetings into the trip, beginning with lunch Thursday with a reporter/columnist I have known since 1965. We met while I was on assignment to the Capitol as a wire service reporter in August and my friend to be was working for another news wire service.

As I was walking from the parking lot to lunch at The Broiler, I realized it was the 42^nd anniversary of the day I went to work at my first job in electoral politics – the day I left my career in the news business behind. How appropriate, I thought, having lunch on this anniversary day with an old colleague who actually covered that first campaign.

The Broiler has been a favorite of mine for as far back as I can remember. It also is symbolic of the vast change in the state capital in the years since I arrived there 46 years ago. When I first ate at The Broiler, it was a place of great character and little charm. It looked a bit dumpy because it was. The décor was Naugahyde and plastic. The walls sported a fair coating of grease from the grill that that had been turning out steaks for lunches and dinners for 49 years. In 1999 The Broiler moved to the ground floor of an upscale new office building two blocks from the original location. The menu has been updated to meet the tastes today’s diet-conscious patrons, but some of the old favorites remain. My two are the Chateau Steak, tri-tip sirloin on an open faced French Roll, and the Broiler Steak, sirloin also open faced on a French roll. Each comes with mushroom wine au jus.

Lunch the next day was a business meeting at Mulvaney’s Building & Loan, a relatively new and very popular place about a mile from the Capitol. The building is an old firehouse that dates back to 1893. The restaurant came along in 2008. The menu changes frequently, as the restaurant seeks out fresh local products daily. One lunchtime standby that I’ve had many times, including on this visit, is a wonderfully tender, wonderfully thick, highly flavorful pork chop.

The Firehouse in Old Sacramento, another converted old firehouse, was the site of dinner for Jennifer and me that night. It was Jennifer’s choice for a pre-birthday dinner. I dined at The Firehouse for the first time in the mid-1970s. I had a rack of lamb then that was so good I’ve never forgotten it. I had a rack of lamb at The Firehouse this week and it was as good as any I’ve ever eaten anywhere. I’m fascinated at how a restaurant can go some 35 years, having changed chefs several times, and still serve one dish that is so consistently outstanding. Because we live in Los Angeles and get to The Firehouse only about once a year, the lamb is what I order almost every time. I’ve dined at The Firehouse a few dozen times with various other people, many of whom ordered things other than the lamb and raved about the quality. The wine list at The Firehouse is another marvel, including many by-the-glass offerings from labels available only by-the-bottle at other places.

For her actual birthday dinner Jennifer selected Biba in east Sacramento. It’s one of my two favorite restaurants anywhere in California. We dine there at least once every time we are in the city and I try to eat there whenever I’m there by myself for an overnight business trip to the capital.

Lloyd and Edie joined us for the birthday celebration. A must every time we dine at Biba is a plate of calamari fritti for the table to get the evening started. It’s the best calamari fritti I know of, breaded just enough to give it texture but not so much as to obscure the flavor of the calamari. Then we shared a plate of gnocchi in ragu. Biba and Panzanella in Sherman Oaks are turning out the best gnocchi I know of consistently. For a main course I had the lamb chops. I know that’s two nights in a row for lamb. But Biba’s lamb chops are outstanding and lamb is my favorite meat. Lloyd had supper short ribs with a fabulous creamy polenta. Jennifer and Edie went for their personal favorites – spinach lasagna alla Bolognese, which usually is offered only on Thursday and Friday but was a special the Saturday night we were there.

All four of these restaurants are recommended at atLarrys.com, our sister web site. You can read more extensive recommendations of these four there plus recommendations of 28 other places to eat in Sacramento.

In addition to being a wonderful restaurant city, Sacramento is an excellent and somewhat unsung destination for sightseeing. Year ‘round, there is Old Town with a very good Railroad Museum and many interesting shops. The Capitol Building itself is a magnificent work of art, with extraordinary wood carvings and mosaics. The Capitol lobby has exhibits from all of California’s 58 counties as well as restored offices that served the people and the government more than a century ago. The Crocker Art Museum and The California Museum each are worth extended visits. At Sutter’s Fort visitors can see 12 canons and a jail that date back to the Gold Rush era. In the summer white water rafting is available on the American River and the Triple A baseball Rivercats play their home games at Raley Field in West Sacramento.

The tour books sing of the wonders of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Disneyland.  But a wise traveler would be well served to add Sacramento to the target list of California destinations. And if you love great food at outstanding restaurants, there are plenty from which to pick.

By Larry Levine –

“Perhaps one of the most prized and sought after fish on the West Coast, a fish shrouded in much mystery …”

“… the best fish I ever tasted.”

“Buttery, but not rich … A slight crunch like halibut fin … Smooth texture, no gristle …”

These quotes rained down on my inbox in rapid succession in the last days of 2011. The subject of this adulation was a fish called Louvar. It’s so rare that the entire Wikipedia listing for it is just 115 words

The first quote above topped the weekly email from Jim Oswalt at Gemini Fish Market in Issaquah Washington, a terrific fish store about a mile from where my son John lives with his wife and our two grandchildren.

The second quote is from my 6-year-old granddaughter, Ella, and the last quote is from the aforementioned son John.

In his email Jim went on to reveal he had 10 pounds of Louvar available on a first-come-first-served basis.

As luck would have it, John was among the first to come and be served. He stopped by Thursday evening. Here’s how he described what happened:

“I walked into Gemini Fish Market yesterday to pick up some salmon. Jim pointed out a fish he got in called Louvar. He told me he had never even heard of it until a month ago, when someone asked if he ever got it.  He then told me his distributor has only seen it once in 10 years and most people who catch one keep it. Of course I asked if it was sashimi grade and he cut me a slice to try. Holy crap. Buttery, but not rich. A light crunch like halibut fin. Smooth texture, no gristle.”

In a subsequent email John said, “Tonight I seared it in a pan just barely coated with canola oil as I wanted to flash it on a high heat. I served it with al dente broccoli, peas and snap peas. I put no sauce on anything but did put a drop of butter and a little pepper on the veggies.” And here is the reaction from Ella and grandson Miles, who is 4:

Ella: “This is the best salmon I’ve ever tasted.”
John: “Ella, it’s not salmon, not every fish is salmon.”
Ella: “OK, well it’s the best fish I’ve ever tasted.”
John: “Miles, are you not eating your fish?” as he bites into a piece of broccoli, which we discovered he likes raw about 15 min earlier.
Miles: “Dad, I’m done.”
John: “No you’re not. There are little bits left. Can I come eat them?”
Miles: “No, Dad!!!!!!!”

So, here’s the skinny. Louvar is so rare that no one fishes for it, either commercially or as a sport fish. Those that are caught usually are taken by chance as part of a sword fish catch. When a commercial boat lands a Louvar the owner keeps it for himself.

According to Jim’s email, “Louvar has been called everything form the ‘Cadillac of Fish’ to the ‘Best Fish in the Ocean’. Louvar is a white fleshed fish with huge white flaky pieces that are firm, sweet, and succulent.”

The fish Jim had on offer at Gemini was caught in Hawaii and arrived at his store the next day, never frozen.

John grabbed 1 ¼ pounds for his family of four. Here’s his assessment after eating it:    “I cannot explain what Louvar is like — texture of a really smooth salmon with a little crunch like halibut fin. Mild as in not fishy like swordfish or mackerel, but not mild as in tasteless like turbot. It stands on its own without anything on it, not like like soles and cods.”

Then he added, “Julie (John’s wife) said, and I agree, it was the single best piece of fish either of us has eaten. It was perfect. I was sad to put the last bite in my mouth because I don’t know if I ever will get to eat it again. I am putting in a standing order with Jim. We got so lucky because we never go there mid-week. Just happened to be a cosmic alignment of variables.”

Larry Dietz, a friend and co-host at the restaurant recommendation web site atLarrys.com, told me his wife, Karen, found Louvar in a seafood store in Santa Monica about 20 years ago. They loved it but never were able to find it again.

Wikipedia describes Louvar as “a big ellipsoidal fish, growing to two meters in length. It is pink in color and possesses a characteristic bulging forehead. It is found in surface waters of temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world.” The other 80 WikiWords on the subject are devoted to a technical discussion of the specie.

A web site for Giovanni’s Fresh Fish Market in Morro Bay offers to ship Louvar anywhere in the U.S., when they have it. The price is $34.95 a pound plus shipping, with a two pound limit and it’s only available on rare occasions. Orders for more than two pounds are not accepted. The site says they get no more than two or three Louvar a year and only from October to December.

If we didn’t have unbreakable dinner plans the few nights after receiving Jim’s email notice about the Louvar I would have phoned him and asked him to ship a piece south to us. As it is, I’ve put in an order for two pounds if he ever gets any more. That’s more than I need for Jennifer and me, but I couldn’t bring myself to ship a smaller piece. So, some lucky friends are going to be invited for dinner at the last minute.

By Larry Levine –

First, a great big “thank you” to everyone who has become part of our Table Talk family and clicked in to read the sometimes serious, sometimes humorous and hopefully informative articles we published in 2011.

It boggles my mind to realize this magazine has been read in 1,944 cities in 104 countries around the globe, all in just 20 months since we first went online. In 15 years as a newspaper and wire service reporter I never achieved that wide a reach. Then, along came the internet and I find Table Talk writers are being read in places like Athens and Edinburgh. Our articles are reaching Russia and Yemen, Morocco and Iraq, Israel and Palestinian Territories.

I’m somewhat of a traditionalist and in the world of newspapers, it’s traditional to look back at the end of each year and review the highlights of the previous 12 months. So, true to my newspaper background, here we go:

The most read article we published in 2011 was “WILL YOUR SUSHI GLOW IN THE DARK – What the Japanese Nuclear Power Accident Means to You”. We published it just 14 days after the earthquake and tsunami hit the Japanese nuclear power plant at Fukushima. As far as we can tell, it may have been the first article published anywhere to link the accident to the subject of food. We published three subsequent articles on the same subject. “COVERUP / The dirty secret of our radioactive food chain” was the second of those articles and the fourth most read article of the year. You can find all four articles by clicking on “healthy dining” in the menu on the home page of this magazine.

On a lighter note, “PHILIPPE VS. COLE’S / a downtown French Dip showdown” was the second most read article of 2011. It reviewed the history of the French Dip sandwich, which each of these restaurants claims to have invented, and we compared the sandwiches being served at each restaurant today.

In third place on the readership list was “WHY ARE SOME EGGS BROWN”, in which we supplied the answer to a question kids have asked for ages.

“MUSSO AND FRANK GRILL – Where history meets the future in Hollywood” was the fifth most read article of the year. We interviewed the new executive chef and the new manager of this great institution and came away convinced it is in good hands and the future seems secure.

Our resident humorist, Larry Sheingold, had a good year. His articles: “FALL OFF THE BONE BBQ RIBS – the detachable meat mystery”, “MAD MENU DISEASE – What’s afflicting today’s menu writers?”, “THE ACME OF BAY AREA BREAD MAKING”, “FOUR BLOCKS AND 150 YEARS OF HISTORY” and “BEST USE YET FOR PEPPERMINT CANDIES” all registered among the top 25 most read articles in 2011.

“COOKING FOR A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN”, a memoir with recipes, which we began in 2010, wrapped up in February of 2011 and ranks as the most read series of the year.

“Kitchen Quickies”, offering recipes for dinners that can be ready to eat in an hour or less after you walk in the door was the second most read series.

A personal favorite of mine has been the ongoing series titled “My Most Memorable Meal”, which we inaugurated this year. This was the third most read series of the year. Janice Lacy’s stirring “A Dinner with Family behind the Iron Curtain” particularly touched me and helped define what this series is all about.

You still can read each of these articles and any of the 204 we have published in the last 20 months by browsing through the menu on the home page.

What’s ahead for 2012? Who knows? Who could have predicted the Fukushima nuclear disaster and that it would become the subject of our most read article of 2011?

As for me, I intend to continue my quest for the best in all things food related. I plan to write more about my search for pork that still has flavor. I’m going to take a look at the facts behind the butter vs. margarine debate. I’m working on an article tracing the history of smoking restrictions in restaurants. We’ll soon have a very nice piece about a San Francisco organization that helps low income individuals develop their chops and get into ethnic food businesses. As always, we’ll search for interesting, informative and funny news and information about food and restaurants and bring it to you as we find it. And we will attempt to expand the number of writers who contribute to making this magazine worthy of your time and attention. If you think you could be one of those writers, scroll down the right side of the home page and click on “submit / advertise” to learn how.

So, as we say good-by to 2011 greet 2012, let me wish you a Happy New Year and happy reading.

Eat Hearty.
Larry Levine
Editor & Publisher

Power restaurant Michael’s in New York has a Cobb Salad on its lunch menu for $36. The Brown Derby’s Robert Cobb cobbled together “his” salad out of what he found in his L.A. restaurant’s refrigerator one night. In 1953, a Cobb salad in the Brown Derby went for $2.25. Okay, inflation, and Michael’s uses balsamic vinegar, while the Derby’s French Dressing mixed olive oil with “salad oil.” Michael’s burger of ground rib-eye: $35. The Brown Derby’s Steak Hamburger De Luxe: $2.25. Marlene Dietrich broke the dress code by eating at the Derby in slacks. Match that, Michaels. – LD

By Larry Levine –

Summer is long gone – a faded rose, as the song says – and now autumn is behind us, too.

Even in sunny southern California we face the chills of winter and the early sunsets. Outdoor grills and barbecues are put away, while we wait for spring, when the days will grow longer, the sun will brightening our lives, we’ll hear again the sound of bat striking ball, and we’ll smell the smoke of red oak or hickory in the air.

But just because it’s winter doesn’t mean we can’t have the flavors of summer.

As those who have been reading this online food magazine over time already know, I don’t do outdoor grilling, even in summer, and I never barbecue. I don’t own the equipment for either task, so I never have to clean up the ashes or scrub the grill. At the same time, I love the flavor of a good rack of barbecued ribs, a Santa Maria style barbecued tri-tip, or a nice piece of barbecued chicken. I just enjoy them at restaurants.

Of the three recipes below the Stove Top Barbecue chicken has been a standby for me for decades. I developed it more than 30 years ago, when we lived in an apartment, had no space for a barbecue, and I had not yet become aware of my distain for ashes and grill scrubbing. I learned about that during summer months when visit the home of my sister and brother-in-law and use their equipment to turn out authentic Santa Maria barbecue. I would vanish while they cleaned up after me. That seemed fair; I did the cooking.

The Oven Barbecue Chicken recipe is one I developed in early this month, when the craving for barbecue chicken and beans become overwhelming. The difference between the two recipes is sodium. The Stove Top Barbecue Chicken was developed before my coronary by-pass surgery, when I wasn’t thinking about the sodium content of my diet. The Oven Barbecue Chicken and barbecued beans came later and has very little sodium.

The Pork and beans recipe was an afterthought. I had barbecue sauce left over from the barbecued beans and beans would be a good idea.

The concept of barbecued beans has always amused me. Taken literally it would mean trying to balance each individual bean on the grill of the barbecue. What it means, of course, is baked beans in barbecue sauce, which is what I’ve done here.

STOVE TOP BARBEQUE CHICKEN
1 whole fryer chicken, 3 ½ to 4 ½ lbs
2 Tblsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup concentrated apple juice
½ cup water
1 Tblsp tomato ketchup
¼ cup sweet sherry (or additional apple juice)
¾ tsp crushed red pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green onion, sliced
2 Tblsp cornstarch
2 Tblsp cold tap water
Cut chicken into parts, removing any large lumps of fat. Heat oil in a frying pan. Brown chicken in oil. Pour off the oil from the pan. Mix together soy sauce, apple juice, water, ketchup, sherry, red pepper, garlic and onion. Pour mixture over the chicken. Cover and simmer 35 to 40 minutes. Blend cornstarch into the cold water. Remove chicken from the pan. Thicken juices with cornstarch mixture. Return chicken to the pan to rewarm before serving.
For a lower fat version of this, remove the skin from the chicken parts. Coat the chicken lightly with oil. Broil the chicken parts about 10 minutes on each side. Place them in a frying pan and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Serves 2

OVEN BARBECUE CHICKEN
3 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
¾ tsp chili powder
1 tsp granulated onion
½ tsp garlic powder
1 Tblsp sweet sherry
½ tsp honey
1 whole chicken – 3 ½ to 4 pounds
Mix first seven ingredients in a bowl to make a paste.
Trim any lumps of fat from the chicken. Use your finger tips to separate the skin from the meat of the chicken. Teaspoon the paste under the skin and use your finger tips to spread it over the meat of the chicken. Rub the remaining paste over the skin over the chicken.
Put the chicken in the refrigerator for several hours.
Take the chicken out of the refrigerator about 1 hour and 30 minutes before you are going to want to serve.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan, breast side down. Roast for 30 minutes. Turn chicken to breast side up and roast for another 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and place it on a carving platter. Cover loosely with tin foil for 10 minutes. Cut into serving pieces and serve with barbecued beans.

BARBECUE BEANS
2 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small brown onion, chopped coarsely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large tomato, diced
3 oz. canned tomato paste
1 Tblsp maple syrup
1 Tblsp white vinegar
1 Tblsp Worceshershire sauce
1 tsp dried mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
1 4 oz can of fire roasted diced green chiles
Several twists of fresh ground black pepper
1 15 oz. can of no salt added pinto beans
Warm the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the onion and sauté until soft. Add the next 10 ingredients. Heat to a simmer and let simmer about 20 minutes. Put the beans and their liquid into a sauce pan. Add the barbecue sauce. Return to simmer and let simmer until beans are heated – about 5 minutes.
You can freeze the left over sauce for the following.

PORK AND BEANS
¾ lb piece of pork tenderloin
1 15 oz. can of no-salt-added pinto beans
Left over barbecue sauce from the barbecue beans recipe (above)
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Trim the fat from the pork. Place the pork on a rack on top of a shallow roasting pan. Roast for 30 minutes. Cut a diagonal slice into the half way through thickest part of the pork. It should be pink but not bloody. If it seems under cooked put it back in the oven for another five minutes. Slice again to test for doneness. If it needs another five minutes put it back in the oven. Do not let the pork cook beyond pink. Remove the roast to a carving board and cover loosely with tin foil.
After you put the pork in the oven, empty the contents of the can of beans and the left over barbecue sauce into a covered sauce pan. Leave the lid slightly ajar. Bring to a moderate boil and cook until about half the liquid has evaporated.
Put the beans and their liquid into a sauce pan. Add the barbecue sauce. Simmer until beans are heated – about 5 minutes.
Slice the pork on a diagonal, each slice about one quarter of an inch thick.
Divide the beans equally into mounds in the center of two plates. Layer the pork slices on top of the beans. Pour the barbecue sauce over the pork and beans.

Serves 2

The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant sits on the coast of California 197 miles from downtown San Francisco, 170 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

It’s 119 miles from Diablo Canyon to Fresno and 103 miles to Bakersfield, both in the heart of California’s great Central Valley, one of the most important agricultural areas in the world. The nuclear plant sits in the middle of the central coast wine region and just down the road from the Monterey and Salinas agricultural centers.

The San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant is half way between the population centers of Los Angeles and San Diego and some 100 miles from the agricultural fields and cities of the Inland Empire.

Why does any of this matter?

In July, 2011, four months after the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant disaster in Japan, cancer causing radioactive cesium was found in milk, spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, fish and other food products as far as 225 miles from the plant. Early this month, nine months after the accident, water containing strontium, an even more dangerous radioactive material, spilled from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Since the March nuclear accident, Japanese food exports have fallen sharply and consumer confidence in that nation’s agricultural products has been shaken. Reports from Japan indicate consumers are choosing imported rice over domestically-grown rice and are refusing to buy beef from cattle raised near Fukushima.

A similar nuclear accident at either Diablo Canyon or San Onofre would devastate California’s agricultural economy and the state and worldwide food supply.

California has been the nation’s number one producer of food and agricultural products for at least 50 years. California’s 84,000 farms and ranches generate some $100 billion in economic activity each year and employ between 300,000 people and 450,000 people seasonally.

California farmers grow more than 450 different crops. The state is the nation’s number one producer of milk, cheese and other dairy products. California produces more than 99% of the world’s supply of almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, persimmons, pomegranates, pistachios, prunes, raisins and walnuts. California produces more cantaloupes than the next four states combined, 86% of the lemons consumed in the U. S., some 80% of the olives and 90% of the wine produced in the U.S., 83% of the nation’s strawberry crop and 94% of the processed tomatoes. California leads the nation in production of alfalfa hay, grapes, peaches, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, garlic, lettuce, honeydew, onions, bell peppers, spinach, apricots, raspberries, nectarines, and tangerines. Some of the best uni (sea urchin) in the world is harvested off the coast of California.

Almost all of this happens within 225 miles of the aging Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear power plants.

How real is the threat these nuclear plants pose to the world’s fifth largest food supplier?

Diablo Canyon and San Onofre are located near active earthquake faults that had not yet been identified at the time the plants were approved and built.

Southern California Edison claims San Onofre was built to withstand an earthquake greater than any that could be expected on the nearest fault. Therein lays the rub: nuclear plants are built to withstand the expected. No one expected a 9.1 magnitude quake in Japan 70 miles from a nuclear power plant or the 30-foot tsunami that quake caused. Active faults exist within just a few miles of California’s two nuclear plants.

As part of the process for considering the feasibility of extending the operating license at San Onofre, Edison intended to use its own experts for new seismic studies. Under pressure from the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility a judge indicated he will order Edison to fund a truly Independent Peer Review Panel for the seismic study at San Onofre.

PG&E ignored a directive from state regulators to conduct new seismic studies before applying to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a license extension at Diablo Canyon. Despite the existing state directive, the NRC began to process the application and move it toward approval. It was only after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami shook up the world of nuclear power that the NRC delayed the license renewal process for 52 months and instructed PG&E to conduct a complete seismic analysis.

It’s not just natural disasters that pose a threat at Diablo Canyon and San Onofre. The infrastructure at the two plants is aging. Large components – steam generators, reactor vessel heads, and turbine rotors – that were supposed to last the lifetime of the plants have failed and had to be replaced.

PG&E and Edison are publically held corporations. Their purpose is to generate and sell electricity, put the profits on the books and keep stock prices strong. They are not inclined to want to spend money on safety measures they don’t consider necessary or on the overhead of the regulatory process. PG&E has asked the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for permission to charge ratepayers for the costs of the license renewal process. Yet, in the event of a catastrophe the utility will not be financially responsible for the damage done to California’s cities, farms, farmers, food supply, or economy. Federal law limits the utility’s liability. Most of those costs will fall on the taxpayers. In Japan the costs of cleaning up Fukushima are estimated as possibly reaching several trillion dollars.

In an unusually frank statement, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko recently pointed to years of complacency on the part of nuclear utility operators, combined with an overload of unattended, backlogged safety issues, when he predicted trouble ahead for the industry in 2012.

Jackzo’s statement, unfortunately, is not reflective of the NRC’s history of oversight of the nuclear industry. The NRC is charged with safeguarding the operation of Diablo Canyon and San Onofre, as well as every other nuclear power plant in the nation. Yet, no application for extension of a license for a nuclear power plant in the U.S. has ever been denied, even for the oldest, most trouble-plagued plants located close to population centers.

Could “it” happen here in California?

Utility executives, nuclear vendors, pro-nuclear politicians and federal regulators try to assure us an accident on the scale of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island or Fukushima can’t happen here. They point to the industry’s “overall record of safe operation” and to “redundant safety systems” designed to protect the plants and the public. But every nuclear disaster anywhere in the world has been caused by something that had not been foreseen and occurred despite long odds and strong assurances by the industry that it couldn’t happen. Unlike an auto accident, there’s no such thing as a “fender bender” when radioactive iodine, cesium, or strontium is released into the air or water after an accident at a nuclear power plant.

An NRC study published in 2010 estimates the chance of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Diablo Canyon is 1 in 23,810 each year. A gambler would say those are pretty slim odds when faced with the potential of losing hundreds of billions of dollars. For perspective, the odds against winning the California lottery are 41 million to1. So an accident at Diablo Canyon is some 1,800 times more likely than the chances that any individual will win the lottery. And this doesn’t account for any of the potential risks other than that of an earthquake.

History has demonstrated lotteries are won and accidents do happen at nuclear power plants, and no one can predict when or where. At Diablo Canyon and San Onofre the costs of losing the bet are too great. If it does happen the “grown in California” label will become a plague in national and international food markets, food prices will rise around the globe and many products will vanish from the market place.

The Japanese learned this lesson the hard way. Distribution of Fukushima cattle was halted when radiation-tainted meat was discovered soon after the accident last March. The ban was lifted in August and purveyors began to ship cows that had been tested and found safe. But a worried public was not convinced. Fukushima beef cattle have attracted few customers and prices are running about half what they were before the accident.

So, what is the answer? Can we just shutdown Diablo Canyon and San Onofre?

The state receives about 16% of its electrical power from the two nuclear plants, making it difficult to just shut them down. We are in this bind because the state has done little if anything in the last three decades to avoid the situation. The dates of the license expirations at Diablo Canyon and San Onofre were known on the day the plants were fired up. So were many of the risks. But no meaningful steps have been taken to replace the capacity of the plants when they go off line. Instead, the utilities have counted on automatic license extensions from the NRC. While a number of enlightened legislators and state policy makers have tried to enact meaningful solutions, their efforts have been frustrated by a combination of utility lobbying, complacency and partisan wrangling. Too many legislators have had an “out-of-sight-out-of-mind” attitude about nuclear power, willing to look the other way as long as there were no major problems.

The answer must not lie in extending the license at either Diablo Canyon or San Onofre. The state should move now to phase out the two plants as quickly as possible – perhaps even before the licenses expire.

The first of the operating licenses at Diablo Canyon will not expire until 10 years from now. At San Onofre it’s 13 years. It was 10 years between the time President John F. Kennedy committed America to send a man to the moon and bring him safely back to Earth and the time that goal was achieved.

We still have time to replace the output of Diablo Canyon and San Onofre with energy efficiency measures, co-generation, solar, wind, geothermal and other technologies that already exist. To do anything less would be irresponsible. And it would leave California’s agricultural economy and the food supply of the nation and world in jeopardy for an indefinite period of time.