Christina Waters

If there’s a stringed instrument that David Lindley hasn’t mastered, it doesn’t exist. The former lead guitarist for Jackson Browne, whose soaring riffs burned their way through most of the classics of Browne’s golden age  - and beyond, into the eclectic world music excesses of El Rayo-X - will team up with dobro maestro Bob Brozman this Saturday, at the Rio Theater, for some blistering string theory.

Lindley’s virtuosity with the string repertoire of Asia, Egypt, the Caribbean, Uzbekestan, Latin America, the American south, and on and on, has made him a legend among ethnomusicologists as well as rock groupies who want it all. The show should be amazing.

Amazing.

Rio Theater - still holding down the center of Soquel Avenue on the eastside of Santa Cruz. Contact Snazzy Productions for ticket info. But just be there. The show this Saturday starts at 7:30pm - Gold Circle $40adv/general $25.

Giving authentic meaning to the phrase “artisanal pizza”, muralist James Aschbacher moonlights as a pizzaiolo for close friends and lucky neighbors. I was treated to one of  Aschbacher’s thin-crust pizzas when I lunched this week with the artist and his wife, novelist Lisa Jensen.

Turns out there are a few absolute necessities involved in making pizza so good that it occupies a higher plane than the mere “homemade.”
First, the gloves. That’s for opening the oven door when the temperature is full-blast 550 degrees.

Then there’s the dough. Stretched thin enough to read through.

Barilla pasta sauce. Certo. Fresh basil, you bet. Plus various secret topping ingredients that involve cheeses, olives and other stuff.

Another secret weapon: the pizza screen (available at Chefworks in downtown Santa Cruz). Instead of building your pizza on a round pan (think cookie sheet) you construct it on a spherical mesh grid, which allows for the heat to move up around, in and out of the pie.
This is what keeps the ultra-thin (Roman-style) Aschbacher crust light, crisp and golden.

Final secret: the pizza is placed on the very bottom of the oven (you gotta have a gas oven for this). NOT on the lowest rack. On the BOTTOM of the oven.

Jim watches his pizza like an Italian matriarch, turning it every few minutes during the roughly 10 minutes of baking time.

Served with a delicious Merlot, this pizza was a bravura bit of cookery. Unbelievable.

And since you’re wondering…Jim uses pizza dough from Trader Joe’s. Aschbacher has tried it all, including from-scratch. But this is what he swears by. Well, I’m a believer. This pizza was molto, molto bene!

Surrounded by the sacred artifacts, fetishes and flavorings of his alchemical trade, and clad in ceremonial robes, well-seasoned shaman of all things culinary—Joseph Schultz—prepares for an intensive workshop in Greco-Turkish cooking at the demonstration kitchen at New Leaf Market.

Was the maestro giving a crash course in ethnic cookery? or was he refreshing his chops for the May 1st opening of his new India Joze Restaurant?

Stay tuned.

Tell me I’m not alone in finding the new Tim Burton exercise in narcissism a crashing bore. (Except for the miraculous vision of Johnny Depp.) Obviously made to cash in on the momentary 3-D craze, Alice in Wonderland, the newest screen visitation to the holy shrine of Lewis Carroll is just not up to the task, I don’t care how much turquoise eyeshadow they put on Helena Bonham-Carter’s Betty Boop eyes!

Oh the opening definitely grabbed me, offering a shimmering reminder of the magic of Carroll’s shamanic fable of the role of the imagination in constructing the texture of reality. But when that tiny doorway finally lets the newly miniaturized Alice into the garden of talking flowers, things grew—not curiouser and curiouser, but rather more and more obvious, predictable, and in many cases, (ironically) unimaginative.

To relish the gorgeous face and nimble movements of Johnny Depp is to realize all over again that no artificially-generated imagery can match the nuance and depth of human action. But Depp’s appeal is almost drowned in computerized cliché and hackneyed set design.

The genius that brought us Edward Scissorhands somehow failed (more…)

More from the infinite well of surprises that is Shoppers Corner’s bargain wine rack.

Here, for example, is a ridiculously well-made cabernet sauvignon - H by Havens, 2006, North Coast. For under $10 (I cropped this with the price label still on it so you could be amazed), this pours dark berries, black tea, a hint of anise, all on a sturdy backbone of tannins.

The wine is composed of 75% cabernet sauvignon, 12.5% syrah and 12.5% merlot.

Lovely with beef.

(And while you’re there, check out the many other good value tipples from $7.99 - $9.99 on the same bargain rack.)

We got lucky last week. Our favorite restaurant in Paso Robles—Bistro Laurent—was preparing a four-course prix fixe dinner in celebration of the three-day Zinfandel Festival that annually takes over the town, the vineyards and the tasting rooms of this vibrant winegrowing region.

We made reservations sight unseen — whatever Laurent Grangien wants to cook is fine with us. For the past thirteen years, this French-born and Paris-trained chef has been filling the dining rooms of a turn-of-the-century bistro with some of the sexiest cooking in California.

So here’s what we enjoyed for our $65 per person (including wines!).

Paired with a rare white Beaujolais - very elegant and minerally - was my choice of impeccably made terrine of foie gras on lawn of Belgian endive encircled with truffle oil. Jack’s salad of arugula (see image) was topped with (more…)

The Garden, a 2009 Academy Award nominee for best documentary feature, will be shown Thursday, March 25, 7 p.m. at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz. Proceeds will benefit the California Food and Justice Coalition.

The Garden documents the rise of a lush 14-acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles from the ashes of the 1992 riots. It grew to become the largest of its kind in the United States only to be threatened with destruction when the property was sold under questionable circumstances.

The ensuing controversy attracted worldwide attention, including such notable politicians and celebrities as (more…)

I love the new label that maverick winemaker Jeff Emery is trying out for his crisp 2009 Quinta Cruz Verdelho. Actually, the duct tape here isn’t so much a cloaking device as it is expedient.

The labels haven’t yet been attached to this latest installment of Emery’s highly drinkable white varietal. Fast-moving on the palate, graced with a slight spritz, this Portuguese grape is quite distinctive, offering a quick floral nose before settling into citrus, wintergreen and a tropical fruit center.

The finish is woody, haunted by a hit of bubblegum. Terrific stuff.

Stop by the Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard tasting room and give it a whirl. $22 a bottle is a bargain for a wine that is immediate, polymorphous and exotic.

Meatloaf. Ready to heat and eat. Delicious and yes, I’ll say it: just like mama used to make.

I picked some up yesterday, along with a half freshly-baked loaf of traditional Irish soda bread.

And for a side dish, a substantial square of feather-light, fresh corn frittata. Dinner for roughly $11 - plus extra for lunch the next day.

Chase the last gloomy nights of winter with a Sacred Hearth.

1 part Cynar

1 part Campari

2 parts gin

a squeeze of lemon

no ice

If you haven’t tried Cynar — a high-octane distillation of artichoke — you haven’t lived.