Ah, no, Art! If San Francisco were utterly leveled by simultaneous fire,
quake, blight, and blast, and I were empowered to save but one building, it
would have to be a bakery! I have lived in New Orleans, where French bread
is a staple, and in New York, where the Italian bread is nonpareil. But
there's nothing like San Francisco's sourdough bread. Whenever I flew back
to Louisiana, I had to carry a loaf or face my mother's wrath.
 
It was California where I first had raw green peas in a salad; likewise
broccoli. These are now common in salads across the land. I had my first
Dungeness crab there, and zucchini cake, and a host of Oriental and Mexican
vegetables that I miss sorely here in the Southeast. And Martinelli's
sparkling apple cider. And squid, and abalone. At Pismo Beach, I had a
sampler plate of fried clams of four or five species, including the famous
Pismo clam (Tivela stultorum). The jackknife clams were the tastiest, by
the way. Californians have a greater variety of good, fresh food than
anyone else in the U.S., because so many specialty crops are grown there.
There's a climatic zone for everything, and all the different ethnic groups
brought their own crops. Even a student could afford to buy five kinds of
lettuce for a salad, and the variety of fruit and berries in June was
phenomenal.
 
<<SIGH>>
 
Have a nice weekend, everybody.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama