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my forschner chef's knife or my shun paring knife. it's a really close call.

sriracha and mayo on a meatloaf sandwich. wahoo!

i just ate this the other day at the westside location (along with the porchetta sandwich and braised greens with hazelnuts sandwich). it was perfect dessert after a perfect lunch.

is there a cake?

if there is, might that influence whether or not you serve a sweet starter?

i wouldn't overdo the pre-breakfast part and would aim to keep it on the light side. it sounds like the main courses are quite hearty, and though people will appreciate the snacks, i would think that especially at breakfast it would be easy to fill up before the sit-down part.

i agree that a two-handed hors d'oeuvre is inconvenient for guests, but if you really like the parfait idea, maybe you can somehow make a small granola cup (like an indented granola bar) and fill it with yogurt, making it a one- or two-bite starter.

some seasonal fruit ideas:

pear or apple mini-poptarts
pear or apple slices with chèvre and a tiny sprig of thyme
cranberry cream cheese on crackers or flatbread
quince compote on slice of medium-firm or firm cheese
maple-sweetened persimmon cake/bread

tiny blini and potato pancakes seem like they could be a palette for a bunch of great fall toppings.

congrats, and yes, make sure someone makes sure you eat : )

gennaro for old-school italian (i love the massive antipasti platter) and good enough to eat for biscuits and strawberry butter (and a bacon waffle).

wonderful recipe! i just snarfed down a plate of these for breakfast. thank you for sharing it.

in the summer i make sure to bring food storage containers from home to the market. i use them to transport the fragile berries which i'm always afraid i'm going to squish under something heavy in my grocery bag. since berries are generally sold by the container and not by weight, it doesn't matter that i'm adding extra weight from the container, and i can give the vendor his own basket right back to use again.

gaglioppo is such a great grape and so underrecognized, but people take to it really easily (me included!).

this sounds great, and i can't wait to try it. but i have two questions:

what are the little brown flecks in the picture? and should the garlic be minced or sliced or left in the soup as whole cloves?

i'm from the bay area and lived in new york for the past five years. there were some things i missed terribly from the west coast because they just weren't as good back east, so when i came back to visit, i always ate:

ethiopian- in berkeley, my favorites are cafe colucci and finfiné. colucci makes buticha, which is really hard to find.

vietnamese- there's so much of it everywhere here, and in general, it's really good. i'm a bit out of the loop, but i've ventured into the sunset and found some places i really liked. on noriega, there's a place called tay
giang near 33rd, and a place called don toy near 21st (great chicken pho).

mexican- but it sounds like you have that covered.

cambodian- battambang in oakland (in general, i've found that finding quality southeast asian food is a lot easier in the bay area).

bread- acme in particular.

and very specifically, the fried chicken sandwich at bakesale betty in oakland and the pecan praline cookie (and everything else) at sweet adeline in berkeley.

enjoy your trip!

the secret to great granola: salt and olive oil. this recipe is fantastic (you can substitute honey for maple syrup, maybe using a little less):

http://www.metro.us/newyork/life/article/674024--early-bird-specialty

If the cake was sticky and gummy, it might, in fact, have been slightly undercooked. Box mixes are made to turn out that perfect appearance you describe, but they're also supposed to yield a fine crumb. And of all the cakes I've made for my restaurant co-workers' birthdays (and there have been many), box mixes-- particularly Funfetti mixes-- are generally the most favored, especially among cooks.