Food
Maude Jan/Feb 2017 – Lime
Curtis Stone opened the twenty-five seat Maude Restaurant in January of 2014. I was able to get my first reservation for March 2014 which featured artichokes. It was ten delicious courses in which artichoke was integrated into each dish, sometimes featured, other times less obvious. The experience was so unique and special that I was hooked. I went six times in 2014. Then in 2015, I went twelve times, every single month that year and was declared a Maude Superfan. In 2016, I went ten times, choosing to skip November and December when black and white truffles were featured (I had to give my credit card a rest). Each month the featured seasonal ingredient changes and no ingredient is repeated with the exception of white and black truffles. The ingredients I have enjoyed so far are: 2014: Artichokes, Rhubarb, Morels, Berries, Pear, Winter Squash 2015: Pomegranate, Parsnip, Fennel, Asparagus, Almonds, Avocado, Chili, Fig, Passion Fruit, Apple, White Truffle, Black Truffle 2016: Carrots, Potato, Pistachio, Radish, Garlic, Cherries, Zucchini, Plums, Grapes, Chicories Here we are in 2017 and it is time for a new year of Maude meals. With the Maude team taking a much needed break, they started mid-January, offering the first menu for January and February. The theme for January/February is lime. I am known at the restaurant for taking photos of each dish and trying to carefully write down each ingredient, even though they give us a menu at the end of the meal. So, I decided that this year I would share the meal each month, really as a way to remember all of the amazing flavors of the dinner.
21 February, 2017
Everyone has a different style of BBQ that they think is the best. Is it the rich, savory and spicy style from Texas, tangy and sweet from Carolina, tart and spicy from Kentucky? Beef, pork or chicken? All of this and more is available at Holy Cow. Using some of the finest cuts of meat and poultry, the meats are hand rubbed and hickory smoked for hours. The result is slow cooked tender deliciousness with a style for everyone.
To get started, load up on the carbs with nachos, fries and more! 
The town of Los Alamos is one block long. As you drive through the single main street, it will seem like you have entered an old pioneer town. It is almost like a movie façade. But look closely and you will see storefronts for wineries, restaurants and antique shops. This tiny town is a wine country destination.
Los Alamos was a former stagecoach stop on the edge of the Santa Ynez Valley. A twenty-minute drive north of Solvang, Los Alamos was a sleepy town until a decade ago when refugees from Los Angeles arrived. Music industry, entertainment industry and fashion industry executives left their hectic city lives for the calmness of this little town. The town that used to be called “Los Almost” is now sometimes called “Little Los Angeles.” Los Alamos has also attracted young winemakers/entrepreneurs to set up shop there as the town, for the time being, is an affordable destination with unlimited potential. 
The Chicken or The Egg is a bright, welcoming space. With canary yellow walls and fresh greenery, it is hard not to smile when you walk inside.
Barbareño, a neighborhood restaurant located two blocks off of State Street, is a restaurant that honors the California Central Coast. It is owned by twenty-somthings Julian Martinez and Jesse Gaddy, who read a number of books, including historian Walter A. Tompkins’s The Yankee Barbareños: The Americanization of Santa Barbara County, California 1796-1925, while devloping the concept of the restaurant.
Like many restaurants today, Barbareño focuses on the farm-to-table concept and sources local and organic ingredients. But they also weave history into each dish on the menu. With all of the fun facts that they learned while reading books integrated into each dish, a meal at Barbareño is also a lesson of the history of Santa Barbara.
To begin with, the name Barbareño is an homage to the Chumash Indians. The local tribe had been named barbareños because of their language and over time, a barbareño is a person from Santa Barbara.