A Brief Explanation

(Editor’s Note: On Thanksgiving 2008, the chief correspondent of California’s Capitol began reviewing restaurants for the Sacramento News & Review, the respected weekly paper of the City of Trees. As these reviews demonstrate, the apparent criteria for this hiring was an unprecedented lack of restaurant reviewing experience. That abject track record may well be one of the reasons my counterparts at the News & Review suggested the chief correspondent take someone interesting with him.    Read more »

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Confessions of a Dim Sum Slut

Since we’re about to embark on a culinary adventure throughout Alta California, it’s probably prudent to pile a few things on the plate, as it were.

Expect no cowering behind the tattered veneer of objectivity here. I had my fill of that during 19 years covering the state capitol for the San Francisco Chronicle.    Read more »

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Lounge On 20

Accuse Sotiris Kolokotronis of being a gourmand and the response is close to: “Come on, buddy. Who are you kidding?”

This despite a wine collection that would evoke interest from Ted Balestreri, owner of the Sardine Factory on Cannery Row, who has 35,000 bottles stashed under the restaurant in a space designed to look like a Gold Rush mine shaft.    Read more »

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No Mo’ Pho

No mo’ pho.

Shout it out, brethren and sisterns.

No.

Mo’.

Pho.

Why? Because banh cuon is the kind.

Like the aforementioned pho, banh cuon comes from the north of Vietnam. So it’s no surprise the gelatinous crepe-ish dish is kissin’ cousin to the Cantonese dim sum staple, cheung fun.

Bahn means pastry or cake.    Read more »

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Garage Restaurants

Chairman Mao is on the tee box waiting for the foursome ahead to remove themselves from his kill zone.

This would be Wei Mao, head of the Sacramento Chinese Golfers Association, whose flock affectionately – go figure – call him chairman.

The Chairman is chatting with Dave Low, clout-laden lobbyist for the California School Employees Association.    Read more »

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Ju Hachi

There is no restaurant in Taka Watanabe’s Sacramento Sushi Empire that isn’t improved by the presence of the Great Man behind the counter.

This particular day he graces Ju Hachi at 18th and S, formerly Taka’s but the statement is just as true if he were at Kru at 2516 J or Taka’s in Fair Oaks.    Read more »

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Hacienda Los Portales

Rosario Marin, California’s cabinet secretary for consumer affairs, is making a dip out of sour cream and a very fiery salsa verde at a low budget Mexican restaurant in West Sacramento.

The former United States Treasurer arrives a few minutes late at Hacienda Los Portales, just off Jefferson at 1335 Merkley, a few doors down from Penny’s Rod & Bait and a self-serve dog wash.     Read more »

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The New CIA Director

Leon Panetta, former Democratic congressman from Monterey and President Clinton’s chief of staff, has been tapped by President-elect Obama to run the Central Intelligence Agency, two anonymous Democratic officials said January 5.

While Panetta has no hands-on experience in the so-called intelligence world, he has a reputation as a good manager gleaned form both his two-and-a-half year stint as White House chief of staff and, prior to that, head of Clinton’s Office of Management and Budget.    Read more »

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How To Destroy the Majority Vote Budget

Democrats know that should their majority vote budget get signed into law, it’s going to be challenged in court and probably on the ballot. 

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has already announced it will sue. 

They’ll need to take a look at the state constitution first. 

A good starting point is Article XIII A, a section of the constitution that should be familiar to the group since its namesake helped add it to the constitution as 1978’s Proposition 13.     Read more »

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Classic Jack

“Everybody else discovers molecules. I’m drunk in a bar.”

                        — Jack Nicholson being inducted into California’s Hall of Fame after an introduction by                                                             Dave Brubeck focusing on some ribald behavior at a hotel early in                                                                  Nicholson’s career.

   Read more »

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