Berkeley Farmer's Market 0, Mountain View Farmer's Market 1.

It's not that I didn't like it, but the Berkeley Farmer's Market was not quite as awesome as I was expecting.  I was told there would be a lot of prepared foods, and yes, there were, but I thought there would be a little more produce!  The only real score of the day was a basket of Albion strawberries from Swanton Berry Farm.  Here's one of the berries I ate this morning:

I did buy some duck pate from the Fatted Calf stand, as well as a stick of Petit Sec aux Herbes that I munched on while walking through the market.  S is going to love these.  Perhaps later this week I will fix up a plate of the pate and sides and blog about it, but only if it is pretty :-)

The abundance of produce at the Mountain View Farmer's Market is hard to beat.  Last week was the first week of tomatoes down there, but there weren't any at the Berkeley market.  I think tomorrow I will take a quick study break (Sunday is supposed to be a workday mostly) and walk to the Berkeley Bowl.  It's about 1.3 miles, so a bit of a hike, but there's not a convenient bus and all in all it should be a nice walk.  Of course I need some tomatoes, so it will be worth it.  (I'll walk pretty far for tomatoes!!)  If I have some time this week I will try to go to the Tuesday or Thursday market, but weekdays are pretty rough with my intensive language schedule.

Oh, I guess I should mention that I had a cup of the famous Blue Bottle Coffee.  It was a warm morning (already almost 80, hot for the East Bay) so I had a cup of iced.  I've noticed that iced coffee tends to be comprised of a mix of leftovers of varieties/blends, and so perhaps it wasn't the best representation, but... I was a bit disappointed.  It was good, don't get me wrong, with nice floral notes and that smooth cold brew taste, but it didn't blow me away.  I'll have to go to a cafe that serves coffee drinks with Blue Bottle roasts and have a latte to compare it to my holy grail latte from Gimme.  Also, I need to buy a hand grinder somewhere so I can just make my own in the morning (I brought the trusty AeroPress with me this summer).