La Belle Cuisine

So people are asking me if I am going to see Julie and Julia. They ask because they know I'm a J.C. fanatic. How big a fanatic? Let's just say that I happily admit that she inspired me to cook, that I can scarcely think of her without weeping, and that as far as "cuisine" in America is concerned (and with due regards to James Beard), it's Julia's world and we all just live in it.

I don't plan to go. Why not? Well, I know myself and I know that spending 123 minutes watching Meryl Streep channel the great Miss C. in a naked attempt to win an Academy Award will be unbearable.

I might have been able to tolerate it but for the fact that since 2004 when Cate Blanchett got an Oscar for playing Kate Hepburn WAY TOO MANY actors have been getting statues for doing impersonations. Don't believe me? Well this list is just winners since 2004. Cate Blanchett, Jamie Fox, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon, Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Marion Cotillard and Sean Penn. Nominations such as Joaquin Phoenix's for spelling Johnny Cash---and whose recent impersonation of the Unibomber also merits consideration---aren't included. If Rich Little doesn't get an honorary Oscar this year, he should fucking sue!

Anyway, the movie is eminently rentable. Instead, I highly recommend Julia's memoir My Life in France.

This reminds me, I haven't yet gone into many details on the food I loved on our May trip to the Bay Area. So in a French State of mind, I lead off with Restaurant Jeanne d'Arc. If you like old-school charm and real French country food, this is the place. Just walking by, my restaurant radar buzzed to life. I fondly recall the bean soup, the lamb shank, a first rate soufflé for dessert (sauce poured in tableside), and a nice bottle of Loire red for under $30! We even had a short, plump, balding French waier for Chrissakes. And since it's just a few steps from the Powell cable car line, any visitor should make it a point to visit this place when in San Francisco.

Bon appétit