Day #46 - 4/27/2011 - Santa Monica with Russell and Susan

As usual, clicking on a picture should get you a better look.

Oh no...not another day in Santa Monica and, on top of that, it was Wednesday...Wednesday!, the day of the downtown Wednesday Farmer's Market, the biggest and best market I've seen this side of Arusha. 

I love this place, and so do about 9000 people each day.  A random tragedy struck here in 2003 when a confused elderly driver plowed through here at freeway speeds, sending pedestrians flying and 10 to their death.

Each week, a different Santa Monica restaurant sets up shop in the midst of the market.

The ultra-successful Border Grill is the creation of Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.  I met Mary Sue (and her husband, Josh) in 1990, or so, in my scuba certification course when the Border Grill was still young.  If you're a TV-watching foodie, you've probably seen Mary Sue and Susan somewhere on TV.  With my newly-found love for Mexican cuisine, I'll have to go the next time I'm in town.  The Border Grill truck was launched in 2009.

 There were tables with an endless array of preserves and sauces in irresistible colors.

No honey here, enabling me to resist.

 The market attracts a broad, often colorful, crowd.

I'm thinking this looks like ribs attached to the spinal column...

Many of the growers come from the California's central San Joaquin Valley,  one of the most productive and diverse agricultural areas in the known universe.

In addition to boxes of blueberries, red raspberries and black raspberries, yellow raspberries (with their own distinctive taste) add to the variety and color.  And, as the box indicates, they're California grown.

 I have a weakness for dried fruit...they can be as sweet as candy and almost as calorie-dense.

I bought some dried strawberries, apricots and white peaches.

One of the things Lani and I have missed along the trip is the access to fresh produce, especially fruit.  This was definitely not a problem here.

The Bing Cherry was created as a crossbred graft from the Republican cherry in 1875 by Oregon horticulturist Seth Lewelling and his Manchurian Chinese foreman Ah Bing

 Not everything at the market screams "I'm healthy, buy me."

No...some things pretty much scream their siren song, "I'm sweet, junky and go well with coffee.  You shall eat me."

With so many vendors selling the same variety of produce, free samples allow you (and me) to try before you buy.

The only problem with this visit to the farmers market is that we're living out of a car.  We bought a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

This almost breaks my heart...tables and tables of vine-ripened tomatoes.  I've been obsessed with home made pizza and penne with tomato sauce for some time; being to start from a whole, ripe, flavorful tomato is wonderful.

Most store bought tomatoes are picked green and gassed with ethylene to turn them red, but not ripe and sweet  Most of the countries tomatoes come from Florida where the growing conditions for them are terrible.  For a brutal indictment of industrial tomato growing in Florida, you'll want to read Tomatoland.

There are about 4 blocks of vendors in the market.  For me, this is the market by which all others are judged.

Toting our haul for the morning, Susan and Russell prepare to head on out...just one more stop before we go...

 I fell in fruit-love with the Cherimoya in the early 90s, back when we lived in Santa Monica and I discovered the cherimoya in the market.  It is native to the high altitude tropics of the Andes where it can get the necessary chill it needs without freezing.  It also grows well in parts of California where it has to be hand pollinated as its usual pollinator, which has not been clearly identified, is indigenous to the Andes.

The Annona genus (as in Annona cherimola)  is a close runner-up to the Passiflora genus as my all-time favorite non-Homo genus.  When we lived in South Florida, I successfully grew sugar apples (which ripen to the most amazing violaceous hue) and atemoyas.  Mark Twain described the cherimoya as "the most delicious fruit known to man" and as "deliciousness itself."  What's your favorite genus?

Santa Monica's downtown, which surrounds the Farmers Market, has a nice feel.

It was nice to be together again with Russell and Susan.

We finished the day with what we expected to be a nice dinner, returning to a long-time favorite Santa Monica restaurant, Michael's. Oh man, were we disappointed.

Let's see...how should I put this...the dinner pretty much sucked.  In a restaurant where you expect excellence - especially for what you're paying - the service was mediocre and the food variable.  Susan and I first came here 28 years ago for our first anniversary dinner and have been here more than any other area restaurant...we'll never come back.  Never.  Never ever ever.  And, you know what, Michael?  My TripAdvisor review says it like it was.  On the other hand,  I love the picture.

And, with that, in spite of the sucky dinner, another great Santa Monica day came to a quiet end.