For breakfast it's the Wicked Oyster and for lunch it's Mac's on the wharf. The Wicked Oyster is bright and loud enough that a few well-behaved kids aren't going draw much attention. They offer a wide selection of breakfast items that should satisfy anyone. I especially recommend getting the berry topping for your french toast, or going with the omelette special. The portions are generous, but not ridiculously so. They also serve lunch and dinner, but I haven't yet had the chance to sample those.

Mac's on the other hand is classic beach food joint. Order and pay at one window, pick up around the corner and either eat at the picnic tables or take it back to wherever you're staying. I have to admit that I probably shouldn't look forward to Mac's as much as I do. To be perfectly honest, the "Mexican" rice is at best bland, it's always busy so you're going to be waiting at least 10 minutes for your food and it's a chore to find a free picnic table that isn't downwind of the garbage bins. On the other hand, the fresh seafood (did I mention Mac's is one of the local fishmongers and you can buy fresh fish next door if you want to prepare it yourself?) more than makes up for it. They also make pretty decent onion rings (second only to King's Roast Beef in Salem, MA). The scallop burritos are excellent, the aforementioned "Mexican" rice notwithstanding, and the Portuguese kale and potato soup is a must try. I think it's more positive association than the food. There is also Mac's, just down the road toward town, and that is a traditional restaurant, and, as you'd expect, the food is slightly more sophisticated, but as with most of the town eateries, it's still a pretty casual place.

You can get ice cream at Mac's on the wharf, but unless you need to have it right now, or for some reason you need to eat it by the water, I'd suggest the ice cream shop next door to the downtown parking lot (seasonal). Try the Wellfleet blend.

Next door you'll find Winslow's Tavern. They do a nice lobster roll (among much else), and I'm always impressed when a place takes the time to toast or grill the roll. That simple step takes a lowly hot dog roll and elevates it to something special (May-October).

We've never eaten at The Bookstore, which is right across the street from Mayo beach. Any time we've tried, there is always a wait of at least 45 minutes. It's certainly popular, and, by all accounts, serves pretty decent food.

The Juice is a small place that primarily serves wraps just on the way out of downtown toward Mayo Beach and the wharf. It's in an old house that has acquired a bit of a slant over the years (see the photo) and is a nice place to take a break from the art galleries, with indoor and outdoor seating that is conveniently located to many galleries.

If you're looking for more of a romantic setting for dinner, Terra Luna is just out of town (technically, I think it's in Truro) and serves excellent italian-style food. We were able to ditch the kid with the parents last summer, and enjoy a nice quiet dinner. The desserts are also excellent.

Another very popular place is The Wellfleet Beachcomber at Cahoon Hollow beach. Unfortunately during the day you'll need to pay to park, assuming there is even a free spot to pay for, since there isn't any free parking within walking distance. It's open late, so if you're looking for some nightlife, this is one option.

Wellfleet is chock-full of good places to eat, without a major chain in sight. If you are craving a Starbucks, you can either drive back to Bourne (about 45 minutes or much more), or you can get a good coffee, espresso or any other coffee-shop beverage at The Juice (seasonal), The Lighthouse, the Flying Fish Cafe, or the Wicked Oyster (use the back door for direct access to the coffee bar, avoiding the restaurant crowd out the front).]]> TravelGator http://www.travelgator.com/do/blogs/Starting-with-Food Fri, 23 May 2008 12:00:00 EDT

In Sonoma, you have to check out the Sonoma Cheese Factory, located on the main square. They do sandwiches, packaged salads, wines, gelatos and don’t miss the outdoor grill. I still dream about the steak tacos... Most of the wineries have picnic areas, so it’s a good idea to stop in here before heading out to taste some wines.

For dinner, I can recommend Carneros. Their food was exactly how I imagined food in Sonoma would be after many years of reading about all the fabulous restaurants out there. It was also a refreshing change from Boston, where the general concept seems to be that quality comes from either a. serving huge portions, or b. charging a lot. Also highly recommended was The General’s Daughter although we did not personally try it. We did not have the budget or the foresight to check out the world-famous French Laundry (you need to book a few months in advance), but we weren’t feeling too left out. We also enjoyed a very good Japanese meal in downtown Santa Rosa at Jo Jo Restaurant and Sushi Bar, and had some good pizza at Mary's Pizza Shack (no arugula salad on this one). Since we were traveling with our almost 5-year old daughter, going out all the time can become a bit of a chore, so we also enjoyed a few meals from the local Whole Foods.

We stayed at the Sonoma Valley Inn, which is a Best Western property. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a lot given my past experience with Best Western, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Unlike large hotel chains (such as Westin, which I must confess is my default choice if available) they have _a_ property manager, who takes a personal interest in your stay and sincerely wants to make sure you have everything you need. Our daughter came down with some sort of stomach ailment which required a very late-night bedding change, and while big luxury chains would likely have provided the same service that night, it’s not likely they’d check up on you the next morning to make sure everyone was feeling well and you didn’t need anything else. The personal touch was definitely welcome. The hotel itself was nice and felt clean, which isn’t something you can always expect from some of the motel chains (I’m sure we’ve all learned from CSI that hotel bedspreads are covered in all manner of dried bodily fluids, but it’s the TV remote you really want to watch out for).]]> TravelGator http://www.travelgator.com/do/blogs/Starting-with-Food Mon, 19 May 2008 12:00:00 EDT

I went in expecting some Americanization (after all our condo was “just down the highway from Costco”). We spent the first night in San Jose del Cabo, which is a much more charming town than Cabo San Lucas. I picked the absolute cheapest hotel I could find on the internet that had a room available for one night. We began to get a bit worried when the shuttle from the airport told us they couldn’t make it down the street and they’d have to drop us off a couple blocks away, but it turned out to be an excellent choice.

The El Encanto Inn is at the edge of an estuary and only a couple blocks away from the town square. We found an excellent patisserie (the French Riviera) that had fabulous croissants, in addition to a huge range of breads and desserts. Definitely worth a drive to San Jose for.

In general, restaurant meals are shockingly expensive, and disappointingly mediocre. One place we called told us entrées started at $60 and another advertised lunches starting from $60. I honestly expected that I’d be able to find some Mexican food, but other than some really bad examples of American-Mexican. We were really looking for a place where the locals ate. We did find one such place in Todos Santos, about 90 minutes driving from Cabo. It was a little stand off the main street serving burritos and tacos and the only people eating there seemed to be locals. The fact that the staff didn’t speak a word of English was also a good sign. The food was very cheap ($1.25 - $2.50) and pretty good. I’d say quality-wise it’s probably the equivalent to the local roast beef shops we have all over the north shore here in Boston. Not gourmet, but really tasty and inexpensive.

It seems as though most of the area is geared to separating the tourists from their money, by providing something slightly exotic, but not too threatening. As a result, the downtown is dominated by American chains -- Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Johnny Rockets, etc. Lest you think I’m some sort of snob that would see progress halted so I can tour the area as if it’s some sort of museum, that’s not the case at all. I actually enjoyed the Costco and WalMart (the latter being much nicer than what I’ve got at home), which both definitely catered to the Mexican population (when is the last time you saw nopales in a major grocery store?), but it’s a bit depressing to think that while they are still charging the same prices as in the U.S., the average wage of a construction worker (building a multi-million dollar house) is about $8,000 annually (admittedly, my source of information is a developer building houses there, but if anything I’d have expected him to inflate the cost of labour). In effect, what you’ve got in Cabo San Lucas is an alcohol-fueled Disneyland version of Mexico.

One item I do need to highlight are the Mexican popsicles, known as paletas. They are delicious and available all over the place.

To my mind, if you’re after some Latin culture and good food, Miami is a far better choice, with the added advantage that the place isn’t completely geared to the college party-crowd. There are also better choices in Mexico, and I’ll research those for a future post.]]> TravelGator http://www.travelgator.com/do/blogs/Starting-with-Food Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

I’ve read that hotel restaurants have experienced something of a resurgence, but apparently I haven’t been to any of them. My experience has been that they are invariably are over priced and mediocre. And living in Boston, I know over-priced and mediocre. The Westin at the San Francisco airport managed to exceed my expectations in a spectacular manner, but unfortunately in the wrong direction.

The staff at the front desk insisted that there was nowhere we could eat locally, but that the hotel restaurant was very good. So fine, I’m going to end up paying a bit more, but at least we’ll get something quickly (especially for the 5 year old). So how badly can you screw up a BLT and a pizza with arugula salad? There was a rather creative interpretation of BLT as ‘bacon, lettuce, tomato and 2 inches of sliced turkey on dry supermarket bread’ and the ‘pizza with arugula salad’ turned out to be soggy pizza under a fully-dressed arugula salad. I thought maybe the pizza was a California thing, but no, Westin menus are all set by corporate headquarters. On the plus side, our daughter’s chicken fingers were good, and I know that if I ever decide that slopping a salad on top of a pizza is a good idea I should go easy on the dressing. The their credit, when I wrote to the Westin and Starwood corporate, the manager of the Westin contacted me and dealt with my complaints appropriately.

However, lesson learned: next time I’m spending a single night at an airport hotel, I’m going to research the local fast-food outlets before I leave...

If you are looking for a good BLT and you’re in the Boston area, All Star Sandwich Bar in Inman Square, Cambridge is an excellent choice, and you can get really good pizza, sans arugula salad at Emma’s in Kendall Square. Not that there’s any shortage of good pizza around Boston, but there is also no shortage of bad. Which reminds me, maybe I should start a regular series of “strange things I’ve found on pizzas” (meaning of course things that were put there intentionally, which immediately disqualifies any cockroach that met an untimely end in the pizza oven).]]>