Big news – Brad graduated from his master’s program on Friday! In a few short weeks, we’ll be moving from Berkeley, which has been our home for the past year, to Oakland, CA. We are incredibly excited for this next phase in our lives (and exploring a new part of the Bay Area) but I couldn’t leave Berkeley without doing a tribute to one of our very favorite restaurants – East Bay Spice Company!
So, considering we went to Chez Panisse for our anniversary in April, I’d say this post is way overdue.
But!! I had good reasons. I had bar nuts and no-churn ice cream and mac n’ cheese to share. In fact, I was saving this post for a “rainy day” (which in food blog world means a failed recipe, shhh) and a batch of delicious but incredibly falling-apart-and-totally-unphotographably-messy black bean burgers was justttt the ticket. Sigh. On the bright side, I finally get to talk about arguably the most influential foodie restaurant in our new city, Chez Panisse!
Over the past month or so, we’ve been fortunate enough to get to travel to some awesome places. When I travel, my #1 priority is always finding the best food, so my pre-departure checklist always involves hours of Yelp-ing to find the critically-acclaimed restaurants and top spots to grab a local favorite in the area. However, for various reasons – a lack of time, knowing a local, and traveling to a country that is not necessarily known for its food, among them – I kind of just left the culinary aspect of these trips up to chance. I may not have eaten at the top restaurants in each city, but I lived in the moment, went with the flow, and honestly enjoyed every bite. I hope you enjoy these tidbits of my favorite foods while traveling over the past month or so!