Tasting Notes from a Road Trip: Santa Cruz

I drove up the coast last weekend to visit my family who lives in Santa Cruz. There are lots of fine places to eat in that off-beat town, but with little kids in tow, it's not advisable to linger for hours tasting new ethnic foods and chatting up the chefs. We proceeded with caution.

At a little downtown Indian eatery, I ordered their signature drink, "Lavender Love." Whipped up like the popular cold coffee drinks served at Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, this concoction blended lavender tisane (lavender buds steeped in water, no black tea), a frozen banana, vanilla ice cream, vanilla extract and a teaspoon of lavender buds. It was rich and delicious. Note to self: another way to use up lavender buds from my garden, and a real departure from the usual milk shake flavors. And to my surprise, the kids were game enough to try it and pronounced Lavender Love "pretty good."

Across the street, we wandered in to a shop selling olive oils and a wide selection of flavored vinegars from all over the world. After much tasting and the nod of approval from the youngest amongst us, we selected a Blood Orange Olive Oil from Tunisia and a Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar from Sicily. That night we dipped freshly baked bread into saucers of the oil dotted with large droplets of the vinegar, and also poured the mixture over fresh asparagus spears. And as that weren't enough, we had taken the advice of the shop owner and bought a box of brownie mix and substituted the Blood Orange Olive Oil for the vegetable oil called for in the recipe. The result was a rich dessert with an unusual flavor kick that tasted like a confection from an expensive box of European chocolates.

It's artichoke season, so on the way home I stopped at a roadside farm stand outside of Castroville, the self-proclaimed "Artichoke Capital of the World," and bought an armload of baby artichokes.

It's too bad I won't be there for the annual Artichoke Festival in May, where they serve artichokes in every possible way: breaded, steamed, fried, and baked. But I like them simply steamed with garlic cloves and lemon wedges and pulled one by one from the head, and dipped in -- what else? -- a mixture of Blood Orange Olive Oil and Raspberry Vinegar seasoned with a little salt and pepper. For variety I might consider Meyer Lemon Olive Oil and a Chardonnay Vinegar. Either way, pure heaven.