Eating with Melanie and Adrian

La Vie, San Francisco - Salt and pepper crab - satisfying. Bits and pieces good with the garlic noodles. My personal best in cracking crab. Big whole chunks. Tamarind crab - tasty, but sauce overpowers crab taste. Better with rice. Priced a little higher than thought, $130 for 3.

Kirala, Berkeley - nicely Japanese in all the right ways. Portions on the American side. Vegetable tempura, lacy. Cha soba, with raw quail egg. Prices reasonable, about $80 for 4.

La Costa, Oakland - perfect combo - the cerviche tostada (fresh), the carne asada torta with avocado and mayo (fatty), and cocktel (seafood gaspacho $13 - fresh). For $20 something, pretty amazing.

Zuni chicken - love the currant-scallion-garlic-pine nuts combo with bread in chicken juices. The salty crispy skin. So wrong, so good. Great picnic food. Made individual boxes. Need to shorten the book's dense instructions.

Drunken chicken - poached in scallions and ginger. The let cool over night (out of the refrig - odd, yes, but no problems), add Chinese wine. Third day -- very nice. Clean, delicate.

Mimolette cheese (sort of French cheddar that looks like cataloupe rind), plus nori and white bread. Good. Decent. Maybe repeatable. A combination I got from a Japanese cookbook. May need tweaking to move above average.

Mendocino honey mustard. Nicely balanced, heat, some sweetness. Great with bread. Great for dipping Aidells mini chicken sausages. For $4 something, amazing.

Monterey-ish

Afonsos -- artichoke enchiladas, $8.95 + quirky Romanian waitress.

Moss landing Inn, Whole Enchiladas - Chicken Chipolte soup -- recommended by bartender at Mike's.