Cafe La Haye does not need another write-up. However, I have to mention them because we couldn’t remember when last we had a meal out where every course, every dish, was so on the mark.
From the Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Salad to the Hand-Torn Papardelle, to the Angus Hanger Steak you could cut with a fork, everything was delicious. The desserts were simply to die for: the Blackberry and Raspberry Fruit Crisp was a simple concept, but so, so well executed. The Chocolate Silk Cake was in delightful harmony with its pecan and walnut crust and the salt accent does amazing things to bring out the flavors. We were hard pressed to not lick our plates.
Finally, it was all very reasonably priced. If you plan to hit downtown Sonoma, Cafe La Haye comes warmly recommended.
As noted by Duncan who blogged on the topic in May, the New York Times ran an interesting piece this weekend about Energy Policy in the United States. It gives a good overview about the inaction that we have seen in the decades since the first oil crisis, and how America has been voting themselves better jobs building bigger cars, and then buying and driving those cars on relatively cheap gas. An interesting read whether you live in the States or not.
As in every situation with political implications (and which situation doesn’t?), discussions about the rising gas prices tend to quickly degenerate into an ugly partisan mudslinging contest. Suddenly it’s not about the price of filling up, but about jobs in Michigan vs. drilling for oil off the California coast (which was outlawed by an executive order of Bush senior) and if you’re not toeing one party line, you must be for the other guy.
However, it’s about more than that. Perhaps the shift in the market caused by the high gas prices will cause someone to start innovating again. Stop whining about how the auto industry is going down the tubes making cars that no one wants to buy, but come up with a something that makes this entire problem go away. This is America for goodness sake, we’re supposed to be smart. Is it electric cars that drink from the wall outlet? Can we engineer sufficiently efficient batteries that make them go as far as we need them to? Or will they get their power from hydrogen fuel cells and have we figured out yet how to store hydrogen without letting too many of those tiny molecules escape?
In any case, we have to stop putting gas in our cars. The dinosaurs are dead, they are not making any more oil. That stuff is too precious to keep setting on fire.
Firms whose business interests are served by having us be scared of scams advise us to expect scams. Film at eleven.
Over the past couple of weeks, more than a thousand wildfires have burned in California. Most were set off by lightning strikes two weeks ago. The air has been really smoky, burning our throats. Sunsets have been really murky.
As of this week about 400 fires remain. I got a good look at this one today from my flight, from just south of Bakersfield looking northeast.
