47 restaurants in 47 days: #14, Kaygetsu

Kaygetsu325 Sharon Park Drive
Menlo Park, CA

Kaygetsu offers kaiseki, a multi-course Japanese meal originally served after a tea ceremony. Ingredients and even tableware are chosen according to the season.
Hassun (assortment of flavors)

I wrote a long review of this wonderful place last summer, so I'll just post this season's menu and some photos.

Sakizuke (starter): Hamo eel and summer vegetables with ume plum dressing


Tsukuri (sashimi): Assorted seasonal selection













Yaki mono (grilled dish): Tachiuo (ribbon fish), salted and grilled, with manganji pepper with dried bonito, kinome leaf, yama momo berry and lemon














Hassun (assortment of flavors): Horse mackerel, deep fried and marinated in vinegar; fatty tuna nigiri; sweet shrimp with mountain caviar

Takiawase (slow cooked dish): Stewed pork belly, daikon radish, string beans and Japanese mustard

Gohan mono (rice dish): Rice cooked with octopus, dark red miso soup with junsai (water shield, which our server described as water-lily bulbs)

House-made original dessert: Gelatin-covered fresh fruits, anglaise sauce

What do I miss?

Living life out of a suitcase for seven weeks is an interesting experiment. (OK, four large suitcases and four backpacks, total, for our family of four. Not counting the furnishings of our rented apartment, which are more than adequate.)

Once in a while I recall that there is a houseful of stuff in another state, waiting for our return. Do I miss any of it? What part of it is really necessary?

It would be nice to sleep in my lovely firm king-size bed. Or to do laundry without having to scrounge for quarters.

Sometimes I wish for shoes. Right now I have a pair of sneakers, a pair of flat sandals, and sandals with heels. I’m not wearing the latter much, and sometimes I wish I had another pair with me, just for variety.

But these are passing thoughts, not important.

I think back to our stay on Kawai last month. We were at breakfast one morning at a lavish buffet set on a beautifully landscaped patio, next to a waterfall and a koi pond, with white swans gliding by. One of my sons asked: If you could live here for free, would you do it? I said that although the resort left little to be desired, it would be too far away from our friends and family, all the people we love.

Turns out that’s the only thing I really miss. Sure, e-mails and blogs keep us in touch, convey the facts, even some of the emotions. But when a friend called the other day, it was such an unexpected joy to hear her voice, to share a joke in real time and hear the laughter. And even a cell phone only goes so far.

It’s these connections that reel us back in from our travels, not the house or the car, or the shoes.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #13, Foodie field trip, Part 1

San Francisco Ferry Building
Embarcadero @ Market

The Ferry Building on the Embarcadero is a transit point for commuters crossing the Bay. But in recent years it’s also become a destination for people interested in locally produced artisan food products.

The landmark structure, which opened in 1898, fell into disuse with construction of the Bay Bridge in 1936, and a double-deck highway built in the '50s isolated the building from the rest of downtown.

Damage to the highway from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake led to its removal, and the Ferry Building was revived as office space and a marketplace for specialty-food purveyors.

My target here was Recchiuti, source of my favorite chocolates. (Well, there’s still a place in my heart for home-town favorite Malley’s.)

Recchiuti’s chocolates have flavors like tarragon grapefruit, lemon verbena, rose caramel, and cardamom nougat. Perhaps even better are the extra-dark chocolate sauce and the burnt caramel sauce, both fabulous on ice cream.

Last Thursday evening, Michael Recchiuti himself was handing out samples of a new concoction, not sold in the store (yet), “Rocky Recchiuti chocolate bark.” Dark chocolate, house-made marshmallow, toasted almonds, caramel, and a bit of crunchy sea salt. The salt playing off the chocolate makes for an addictive combination.

At a party a few months ago, I set out some of Recchiuti’s pates de fruits, and they disappeared so quickly that I tasted not a one. Not surprising, with flavors like Morello cherry, passion fruit, cassis and pear-lime. I mentioned this to the clerk, and she kindly gave me my choice of flavors to sample for free. She knew I’d be back, via the Web if not in person.

More market bounty.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #12, Beard Papa

Beard Papa
99 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco

Cream puffs once meant nothing to me. In most bakeries, those shells with their carefully swirled filling look tough and uncompromising. Give me a homey cupcake any day. (Preferably yellow cake with chocolate frosting, hold the sprinkles.)

That was before I met up with Beard Papa. It’s a chain of bakeries originating in Japan that sells nothing but cream puffs and éclairs. The secret to Papa’s treats is a patented, double-walled puff pastry. The outside has the flakiness of a good pie crust. The inside is delicate French choux pastry.


These puffs are never bland or soggy. They are filled to order, with anything from the traditional vanilla whipped cream custard to various flavors of the week like pumpkin, green tea, and tiramisu.

The interior of the tiramisu cream puff is exactly what I’m trying to achieve on those rare occasions when I put sugar and cream in my coffee: just slightly sweet, with a smooth coffee flavor.

Speaking of which, NEVER order coffee at Beard Papa. It is fiendishly hot and bitter and just nasty. Find a Peet’s if you need buzz with your sweet.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #11, Bistro Maxine

Bistro Maxine
548 Ramona Street
Palo Alto

What could be better than sitting outside on a cool, sunny summer day, eating a perfectly ripe peach? How about eating peaches wrapped in a sweet crepe and topped with whipped cream? Yum.

Bistro Maxine would fit right in on rue Mouffetard. The tiny cafe --- just 7 or 8 tables, counting the two on the sidewalk -- has butter-yellow walls and cheery art. (The current exhibit reminds me a little of Seurat.)

I had today's special: fresh peach thinly sliced and sauteed with brown sugar, in a crepe topped with homemade whipped cream.

Bistro Maxine also offers savory crepes, sandwiches, and croissants. There are prix-fixe crepe meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can order French cider (alcoholic), Fischer beer from Alsace, or a French wine, or good coffee from Barefoot Coffee Roasters, yet another Bay area artisanal coffeehouse.

I'm coming back for a real croque-monsieur.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #10, Coupa Cafe

Coupa Cafe
538 Ramona Street
Palo Alto











A few minutes after settling in at a sidewalk table here, a few sips into a luxurious spicy mocha, I said to myself, "This is my new office."

B took one look at the menu and said, "I can see why you like this place." Artisan chocolates, single-estate gourmet coffee, unusual sandwiches, and crepes -- plus free Wi-Fi -- could keep me coming around for a while.

The spicy mocha is a real treat. I came back another afternoon to satisfy my craving for the hot, frothy mixture of coffee and Mayan chocolate, redolent of cinnamon, with just a hint of cayenne leaving a tingle in the back of my throat.

Coupa Cafe's Web site states that it is the only cafe in California serving gourmet Venezuelan coffee. Chocolates from Chuao Chocolatier, displayed in a separate case like jewels, are filled with novelies like passionfruit caramel, ginger-green tea ganache, and macadamia nut praline with chipotle.

I've also enjoyed a warm sandwich made from arepas, traditional Venezuelan griddle cakes made from white cornmeal and shaped like a palm-sized Frisbee. I tried the carne mechada, filled with spiced stewed beef. There were about a dozen choices of fillings. The bread is nicely crispy on the outside (or would have been if I hadn't taken a phone call just as my plate was set before me).

Coupa Cafe aims to be your happy-hour destination, too, with a list of beers and Chilean and Argentinean wines.

One local blogger finds that Coupa Cafe has become too popular. I haven't had any trouble finding a table at mid-afternoon. But if you really need to get some work done, it's better to take a table inside. The patio tables are close together, and I've heard more than I wanted to know about various pets, bikes, and a particularly dapper individual's job skills.

More reviews here, from the Palo Alto Weekly and the San Jose Mercury News.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #9, iTapas

iTapas Wine Bar
445 Emerson St., Palo Alto

Perhaps my server was trying to warn me when he took my order for four “small plates,” then paused and said, charmingly, “All for you?” (Note to waiters everywhere: A comment like this does not endear you to a female patron dining solo.)

I had a good meal at iTapas, but nothing was quite what I expected. That’s not necessarily bad, just a little disorienting.

The menu is an eccentric mix of traditional Spanish tapas, like garlic shrimp and tortilla de patatas, alongside Asian-influenced plates such as duck wontons and ahi tartare with ponzu sauce. Executive chef and owner John Hung Le also owns the Three Seasons Vietnamese restaurants in Palo Alto and San Francisco.

Don’t believe the menu when it says that plates are small. In my experience, portions at tapas restaurants are saucer-sized, enough for two people each to have a few bites before moving on to the next nibble. At iTapas, however, the salad is more than a side, the vegetable plate would serve two, and everything else I saw was sized for generous sharing.

Mango, raisins, leaf lettuces, grape tomatoes, and fennel. These are what made up my salad in addition to the “frisee, tangerines, feta, glazed walnuts and sherry vinegar” promised in the menu. And they were mandarin orange segments -- all four of them -- not tangerines. And the walnuts may have been toasted, but they were not sweet. It was a fresh and interesting salad, and I can understand a few substitutions on a Sunday night. But one shouldn’t wonder if one’s plate was meant for another diner.

The lobster roll was recommended by another reviewer, and I was glad for the advice. It was a tasty take on the spring roll, substituting tender lobster chunks for the shrimp and adding a bit of avocado to the mix of rice noodles and basil leaves stuffed inside a soft rice-paper wrapper. I approved of the wasabi mayonnaise on the side; it had bite, but it didn’t assault you.

I was curious about “Brussels sprouts sautéed with butter and wine sauce,” and while I ate quite a few, I probably wouldn’t order them again. I didn’t think it was possible to make the lowly sprout into such a rich dish. They were well-cooked and tender, the largest sprouts halved.

I confess, I was thinking of sushi when I ordered hamachi koma, grilled yellowtail cheek. Perhaps that’s why I was startled when I received a portion of crispy fish as big as my hand. Who knew yellowtail were so…cheeky? The crackling skin was a good contrast to the flesh, which melted like butter.

I had second thoughts after ordering a flight of white wine. I hadn’t noticed that the theme of this particular flight was “Blenders.” What did that mean, daiquiris?

Then I read the descriptions a little more closely. What the heck is a 2004 Reserve Perrin Grenache Blanc / Bourboulerc / Marsanne / Roussanne / Viognier Cotes du Rhone Blanc? A French mongrel, n’est-ce pas?

I wasn’t fond of the Perrin – not much depth, for all its components -- but I liked the other two, despite the mash-up. (2005 Brassfield “Serenity” Sauvignon Blanc/Pinot Grigio/Gewurtztraminer, Clear Lake; and 2004 Shoo Fly “Buzzcut” Verdehlo/Viognier/Sauvignon Blanc/Riesling, Australia)

47 restaurants in 47 days: #8, Fraiche Yogurt

Fraiche Yogurt
644 Emerson Street, Palo Alto

I walked into Fraiche with chocolate on my mind, but when the girl behind the counter asked if I wanted to sample something, I tried the "natural" frozen soy yogurt and was hooked. It was tangy and just a little bit sweet. I topped it with chunks of mango and a fresh-tasting raspberry sauce ($4.95 for a regular size with two toppings). Dee-lish.

There's also milk-based frozen yogurt in two flavors, "natural" and chocolate, as well as fresh (non-frozen) yogurt, including a Greek-style non-flavored yogurt. All of the yogurts are organic and made in-house.

Other things you might add to your yogurt include fresh blueberries and kiwi, graham crackers, almonds, granola, toasted coconut, dried figs, maple syrup, and three kinds of honey.

Fraiche opened less than a month ago, but its fans on Web sites such as Yelp and this local foodie blog are already celebrating their addiction to this wholesome treat.

Fraiche also sells coffee, espresso, steel-cut whole-grain oatmeal, and baked goods -- cookies, quick breads and breakfast bars -- from local sources. (Lavender biscotti, anyone?) The coffee comes from Blue Bottle Coffee, an Oakland-based "artisanal microroaster" specializing in organic and shade-grown beans.

I thought seriously about getting a second cup of yogurt. Maybe the chocolate this time. After all, I'd only had a salad for lunch...

As I was leaving, one of the other customers pointed to the ripply white wall behind us and said, "Look! It looks like yogurt!" I don't know if that was an intentional effect, but the interior does have a cool, modern feel to it.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #7, Palo Alto Creamery

Palo Alto Creamery
Fountain & Grill
566 Emerson Street

The sign out front says "Peninsula Creamery" -- apparently there was some dispute over who owned that name, and the other Peninsula Creamery is a few blocks away -- but this is the one that people mean when they say, "Let's go to the Creamery." They've been saying it since 1923.

The restaurant still looks like a diner, but it's a diner that offers grilled salmon and chicken quesadillas in addition to meatloaf and turkey pot pie.

This is my kids' favorite place to go for breakfast, and it's no hardship for the adults, either.

The Belgian waffles ($6.50) and the shakes are the stars of the menu. Often we have both, for "breakfust." (Not a typo. "That's just the way people pronounce it," the owner said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury-News.)

The waffles are tender with great flavor, served with "real Vermont maple syrup." The shakes are nearly too thick to make it through the straw, and the server brings extra in the metal mixing cup. Even the toast is extra-good, thick-cut house-made bread that stays soft in the middle, served with a fine pot of raspberry jam. Cinnamon toast is excellent.

One night I craved spaghetti and meatballs. It was late (well, late for us to be having dinner), and we didn't want anything too complicated, so we tried to eat at Buca di Beppo, where one finds pasta in abundance, but there was a 40-minute wait. I was not surprised to find that the Creamery had homemade-tasting spaghetti and meatballs, and good garlic bread. Also fresh fish and chips (made with tilapia), good chicken-noodle soup, and a hefty beef hot dog.
















The clock has a message for loiterers. In between the black letters are smaller red letters that spell out "Just kidding."

47 restaurants in 47 days: #6, Fresh Choice

Fresh Choice
Mountain View, CA

Fast food that doesn't make me feel guilty or greasy. A salad-bar restaurant where my children want to eat. Pretty amazing, don't you think?

This chain of restaurants, located throughout California (with a few in Texas and Washington), offers a lot of choices for a reasonable price.

Walk in the door, grab a tray, and the first station on the line is the salad bar. I tried two prepared salads -- Chinese Chicken and Strawberry Fields Spinach -- and liked them both. There's also some heartier salads, like tuna tarragon and cavatappi (pasta) pesto, followed by a make-your-own salad bar, with a full compliment of veggies, crunchy toppings, and dressings.

Next comes the cash register, where drinks are offered. Several more food stations follow. There are two or three soups, macaroni and cheese, pasta with tomato sauce, pizza, and baked potatoes with toppings. I had a lentil-vegetable soup that was quite good.

Dessert options when we visited included brownies, muffins, soft-serve ice cream, fresh fruit, and pudding. Sweets are probably the weakest part of the menu; the kids enjoyed making their own ice-cream treats, but I've had better brownies from a boxed mix.

Buffets typically offer variety and convenience -- your food is immediately ready -- but quality may suffer when the food sits too long. This has not been a problem at Fresh Choice. The prepared salads and hot foods have been tasty and fresh, and the raw salad ingredients are appealing.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #5, Farmers' market

Crepe stand
Palo Alto Farmers' Market
Gilman Street between Hamilton & Forest

What a decadent way to start a weekend: Roll out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, walk two blocks, and enjoy a freshly made crepe in the cool of the morning.

The crepe stand has no name, but there is a business card listing a French restaurant called Gervais, in Saratoga.

I tried the most expensive crepe: crab meat, asparagus, tomato, avocado, and mozzarella cheese ($8), with just enough of a light lemon sauce to bind it all together. The vegetables were so fresh, and cut to just the right size so that the crepe was nicely stuffed but not lumpy.

Savory crepes are made with a darker batter, which I believe contains buckwheat. Sweet crepes are lighter in color and texture, and the batter is slightly sweetened.

Sometimes the simplest crepe is the best. One of the boys had a "citron" crepe: nothing more than French butter, sugar, lemon juice and a little cinnamon. Quite delicious.

It's a "blintz" in Eastern Europe, "crespella" in Italy, "palačinka" in parts of Central Europe, "Palatschinken" in Austria, "palacsinta" in Hungary, "Pandekage" in Denmark, in most "Pfannkuchen" in Germany, "pannenkoeken" in the Netherlands, "naleśniki" in Poland, and "filloas" in Spain. Okay, might skip them in Spain: Wikipedia says that filloas "may also be made with pork blood instead of milk." Gulp.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #4, Google

Charlie's Cafe
Google, Mountain View, CA

Is it possible to have too many choices when it comes to a restaurant menu? What if there are no consequences? What if you can taste whatever looks appealing, go back for more or try something else, as many times as you like, because it's all free of charge? It turns the idea of a restaurant on its head, in a way.

But of course, this isn't really a restaurant; it's the Google cafeteria, an employee benefit, a bonus. And I'm a guest, playing at being an employee.

Charlie's, the largest of the four cafes in the Googleplex, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's named after Google's original chef, formerly the personal chef for the Grateful Dead, who has moved on to open his own restaurant.

At lunchtime recently, the cafe had five stations: Namaste, serving Indian food; Al Forno Romano, offering paninis and Mediterranean dishes; East Meets West, with Asian/fusion selections; Back to Albuquerque, with a Southwestern theme; and Bistro G, mysteriously labeled "Picnics and playpens of yesterday" and offering comfort food such as BBQ meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes.

I was drawn to the Indian side at first, looking at chicken tikka masala, bhindi masala (okra sauteed with spices and tomato), and dal mahkni (lentils and kidney beans simmered with tomato and spices).

But there are several good Indian restaurants in town, so I moved on to the chicken tortilla gratin. It was lasagna Tex-Mex style, with corn tortillas substituting for pasta, and plenty of chipotle peppers and Oaxacan cheese. I like spicy flavors, but this was almost too spicy for me. Almost. Strangely, it was a good match for the guava lassi I sampled along the way.

I also enjoyed grilled baby back ribs with chile-bourbon BBQ sauce, and a delicious side of roasted beets, carrots and parsnips.

Looking back at the menu, I wish I'd spent more time at the Asian station and tried the sweet and sour catfish, stir-fried thick Shanghai noodles, green onion cake, and stir-fried gai lan (Chinese broccoli) in ginger-tamari sauce.

The salad bar included several attractive composed salads (I liked the Israeli salad, with cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, red cabbage, scallion, radish, lemon and olive oil) as well as a substantial make-your-own section.

The only item in the whole place that did not look enticing was the bacon cheeseburger soup. The bacon was on the side; the soup itself was grey and looked like what's left in the pan after the burgers are fried.

As a special treat on the Friday after the holiday, a seafood bar was set up at the cafeteria entrance, displaying mounds of Dungeness crab legs, two kinds of oysters, and a positively addictive "maple glazed, Cajun spiced, cedar plank salmon." This was the one I went back for: a little sweet, a little spicy, the fish cooked to perfection.

I almost had salmon for dessert, but I'd had a certain ice-cream treat in mind for the last week now...











Ah, it's good to be back.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #3, Il Fornaio

Il Fornaio
Italian Restaurant & Bakery
520 Cowper Ave., Palo Alto

It's a pleasure to find a white-tablecloth restaurant that will gracefully accommodate children. Il Fornaio ("The Baker") is that kind of place.

Adults will enjoy the changing regional menus, the fresh pasta, and the excellent bread. (You can see the wood-burning oven from your table.) The children's menu goes beyond the usual fried items, and the paper menu offered with crayons has interesting puzzles, some Italian history, and a brief Italian-language lesson. ("Posso avere dessert, prego?" means "May I have dessert, please?")

Il Fornaio is a part of a NASDAQ-traded company that operates 23 full-service restaurants across the country, as well as several bakeries and catering companies. I generally try to avoid chain restaurants, but Il Foranio doesn't look -- or taste -- like just another outpost of brand X.

For the next few weeks, Il Fornaio's menu highlights Sicilian cuisine.

To start, I had a refreshing insalata di bietole ($7.75), which the menu described as "organic red and gold beets with red wine vinegar, wild arugula, toasted walnuts and Asiago cheese, lemon-olive oil dressing."

Whenever I see house-made gnocchi on a menu, I order it. This is not something I would attempt to make on my own, and packaged varieties always are lacking. Il Fornaio's gnocchi alla Sorrentina ($13.95), served with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil, did not disappoint. The little potato dumplings practically melted in my mouth.

Other menu items I would like to try are the cappellacci di zucca ($15.95), ravioli filled with butternut squash and walnuts, sauced with tomato, brown butter, parmesan and crispy sage; the fiadoni di Pietro ($17.50), spinach ravioli filled with salmon and whitefish, topped with shrimp and fresh asparagus in a saffron sauce; and braciola di maiale ($19.95), a center-cut pork chop stuffed with asparagus, leeks, roasted garlic and smoked mozzarella, in a lemon and Trebbiano wine sauce.

Pizza from the wood-burning oven was crispy and tasty. Even the chicken tenders on the children's menu were worth taking home for leftovers.

Regretfully, I'd enjoyed too much of the bread basket to sample the dolci, which included crema al doppio gusto (fennel-infused custard with chocolate mousse and caramelized sugar topping) and crespelle con vaniglia (crepes filled with apples and grappa-infused pastry cream, vanilla gelato and caramel sauce).

47 restaurants in 47 days: #2, Village Cheese House

Village Cheese House
157 Town & Country Village, El Camino Real @ Embarcadero, Palo Alto


The aroma of deep-fried onion rings at Kirk's Steakburgers almost lured me away from the Village Cheese House. But I pressed on, past the orange traffic cones and the dust and noise of the shopping center's much-needed renovation.

I'd heard good things about the sandwiches at the Cheese House, and I wasn't surprised to find German spaetzle mix, Swiss chocolates, and imported jams on the shelves. But Indian curry sauces? Sambal ulek? A dozen flavors of gumballs?


















Scary Swiss mice guard the condiments.

The Cheese House will rent you a raclette grill, with "Swiss fire gel" to fuel it. You can buy a fondue pot, Danish Cheez Whiz, Hawaiian lilikoi juice, caviar in a tube, Glogg, sweet Maui onion potato chips, or Faygo Redpop. A corner of the store is given over to a jumble of wicker and nylon picnic baskets. There is a small assortment of wines, many displayed with handwritten recommendations.


















A pyramid of hot sauces

The $6.45 sandwich "with the works" gets you a two-fisted meal stuffed with lettuce, tomato, peppers, onions, pickles, Swiss cheese (you can ask for other cheeses) and your choice of meat. The selection included about a dozen kinds of bread.

My smoked turkey was a double-decker, built with three slices of dark rye bread and some tasty "spread" resembling a mustardy mayonnaise. The lettuce was crisp, and all the ingredients were very fresh.

I was pretty hungry when I sat down at one of the patio tables (there is no seating inside), but I had to take half of my sandwich home for later. I left with mustard on my shirt and a smile on my face.

47 restaurants in 47 days: #1, Windy's

Windy's Chinese Restaurant
168 University Avenue, Palo Alto

I wanted spicy Chinese food, and a reasonably quick lunch. The menu posted in Windy's window had two things going for it. The lunch special offered soup, salad and an entree for $7.95, and the choices went beyond the standards like General Tso's chicken (here described, sadly, as "general chicken") to include bitter melon beef, Singapore chicken curry, Szechuan fish fillet, walnut prawns, and lamb with ginger scallion.

I chose the "house beef," which turned out to be lean strips of beef, nicely spicy and stir-fried until the edges were crispy. A little greasy, maybe, but fine with a forkful of rice. (I was not offered chopsticks.)

The cup of hot-and-sour soup was spicy but not particularly sour, and a little starchy. The tiny salad was iceberg lettuce, shredded carrot and a small tomato wedge, with a rather sweet soy dressing.

Service was prompt and pleasant, but I was surprised when the waiter failed to bring back my change. He was correct in assuming that he could keep the change from $10, but I sat at the table for a while longer, savoring the fragrant tea, and it would have been good form to bring the tip tray back to the table.

I'd return for another quick meal, and to try some of the other unfamiliar things on the multi-page menu. I've had various types of chow fun, but what is "tender greens chow fun"? Windy's also has barbecued pork buns as an appetizer, making me think of do-it-yourself dim sum.

The fortune in my cookie was very specific: "Focus on the color purple this week to bring you luck." Not my favorite color, but now I'll be looking for it.

Concrete and cardboard

A year is a long time in the life of a six-year-old, but one thing C remembered from our stay here last summer was the concrete slide.

It's located in Johnson Park, in the middle of an attractive residential neighborhood. The large grassy area has a few redwood trees -- Palo Alto is Spanish for "tall tree" -- and there are interesting climbing walls, towers and a twisty tube slide.

But what the boys really want to play on is that fixed wave of concrete. Take the flattened side of a corrugated cardboard box and away you go. (You can also slide on the seat of your pants, just not as fast. Yes, I've tried both methods.)

I've seen play structures shaped like castles and pirate ships, with zip lines and merry-go-rounds. None of them has held my sons' attention like the concrete slide and a few scraps of cardboard. Is it the speed? Or the simplicity?

Smoky night

We arrived in Palo Alto, Calif., last night to the smell of smoke and the sound of sirens, not far off.

A four-alarm fire gutted a Walgreens drugstore on University Avenue, about five blocks away from our apartment. When I walked by around 11 this morning, firefighters were still hosing down hot spots, and streets were cordoned off with yellow tape for several blocks in each direction.

At the fire's peak, flames rose 20 feet in the air and windows exploded onto the street. Arson is suspected, according to the online edition of the Palo Alto Weekly. The building has stood at University and Bryant for at least 70 years.

All morning, people stopped to stare, take pictures, and share with passing strangers their stories of how they found out about the fire, how it had looked and smelled. A white-haired woman told me these things, then said, "How sad, how sad." Perhaps the sharing mitigates the sadness.

It was odd to see neat displays of T-shirts and flip-flops in the street-level windows. Behind them must be a blackened, sodden mess, but from across the street all looks normal.

We'll be living in Palo Alto for several weeks, on our second annual mini-sabbatical.