7/29/11 – My Friday ended at Young Dong, a Korean restaurant that specializes in Sul Lang Tang, with good friend Matthew “Mattatouille” Kang. A backlit, wall mounted menu touted 14 options, including Beef Cheek Soup. Add scallions, salt, pepper, chile, kimchi (cabbage, scallion, radish) and steamed white rice to the clear beef broth, which in this case contained nearly-melting slices of beef cheek, which are dippable in soy jalapeño mustard sauce.

7/31/11 – The bulk of my Sunday afternoon was at Wally’s Wine, which hosted me at their 8th Annual Central Coast Food & Wine Celebration in Westwood, benefiting the Michael Bonaccorsi Scholarship Fund at the UC Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology. One of my first bites was from Artisan chef Chris Kobayashi, who created a forest of Perritos Calientes, little hot dogs. The deluxe corn dogs featured links made from grass fed beef and smoked pork, featuring a sweet corn and dried chile batter.

7/31/11 – Full of Life Flatbread owner Clark Staub prepared Jimenez Ranch rabbit flatbreads in his tiled, domed pizza oven. The flatbreads also hosted smoked mozzarella, roasted onions, roasted garlic, Grana Padano cheese and parsley.

7/31/11 – Christophe “The Oyster Gourmet” Happillon shucked oysters from Baja’s San Ignacio lagoon that tasted like I swallowed a wave. They were that briny, but great.