There are few things I hate more than watching food go to waste. Now that was a completely random sentence, and one that I'm surprised even made sense. So I guess I should write about food. How about some of my favorite restaurants, the ones that I tend to pick if I actually commit to a choice. First let me say that I like sitting down and taking an hour plus from the time I sit down to when I leave, although not if I'm by myself; but then I seldom eat out by myself.

A good restaurant in Berkeley, and there are many, is Cafe Giovanni, on Shattuck and Haste. It's a bit of a dark Italian restaurant with a bar and a nice back room with a fireplace. The food is excellent, although not quite as good as five years ago, when the chef wasn't as health conscious. The Spaghetti Carbonara is the most changed, with the current version being a pale imitation of its old decadent self, but the other dishes are still quite good. I've probably been there at least a dozen times, and only last Sunday did I finally try the New York steak, which was good although not great.

Cafe Giovanni has a lot of memories. I remember going there often with Dave (so it's probably more like two dozen plus times I've eaten there). We'd order appetizers, a full meal with soup or salad, plus their focaccia bread and drinks and we'd power through it. Sure we'd be satisfied well before the main course, but we still ate it all. Sigh, nowadays that would be way too much for either of us.

One of my favorite restaurants in Concord is Claim Jumper, in The Willows Shopping Center on Diamond Boulevard. Good food, and lots of it. I'm not too sure when I first ate there, although one of the first times was at a company Christmas lunch when I was still at West Coast. I got the 22 oz steak, which was quite filling. For appetizers there was an onion dish that was huge. It's a bit pricey, I suppose, although it's always a lot of food so I don't feel bad about it.

There always seems to be a wait though, although you can wait at the bar and drink a bit. Big place and crowded, with the longest wait I've seen being two hours, so if the wait is less than 45 minutes then it's not too bad. I've been there about half a dozen times, once with West Coast, once or twice with my brother and sister, and two to four times with Dave.

There's this little restaurant in Concord that Dave and I really like. It's called DJ's Bistro, in a little shopping center opposite the Park and Shop, easy to miss since it faces inward so you won't see it from the street. It's a small place, with less than a dozen tables and a bar that can hold eight people if they're good friends. The food is Eastern European at a fair price.

We've been there three or four times. The customers are friendly, the owners are friendly, and there's usually some sort of music playing that I can't recognize. Probably traditional dishes, although how can I tell? Various meats in a sauce, with this kind of like fried pasta or potato bits on the side. With a bunch of dishes that I can't pronounce, much less spell. The bread is also good, and different kinds too, like it's homemade or something. The music can get loud, and the patrons can get a bit boisterous, but that just adds to the atmosphere.

You know, I think those are the only three restaurants that I like enough to think about them whenever I want to go out. Sure, there are a lot of good restaurants, especially for someone like me, who just wants meat and grease. Which reminds me, Jack's Place in Redding is really good too, although I've already written about it so I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say, I can enjoy going to Denny's, which I do occassionally for that late-night food crave.