Cali, Final Edition: Keller Unbuttoned, Greasy Burritos, and Barbecued Oysters

Nick's Cove: gorgeous views and fantastic oysters

By Mollie Chen

And finally, five last reasons to love California. Now I can stop procrastinating and get started on all the very late copy I owe our Production department.

  Liberty Farms duck at Ad Hoc

11. At Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller takes a step back (he isn't even digitally present in the kitchen) and lets you serve yourself from family-style platters. The menu is scrawled on a blackboard (Liberty Farms duck breast encircled by a cheery heart) and the servers claim to be the best-fed staff in town (their staff meals even include dessert). Plus, unlike at many star chef-run restaurants, the patrons seem like neighborhood folks and not rabid foodies with to-eat checklists.

12. In tiny, crunchy Point Reyes, the Tomales Bay Food Company only has a few tenants but they are an impressive bunch: Cowgirl Creamery, which has a display kitchen where you can watch cheesemongers making Mt. Tam; the Cowgirl Cantina, where you can get a scoop (or three) of the to-die-for Three Twins cardamom ice cream; and Little Shorty's small but wonderful produce stand.

13. The corner of Mission and 25t St. in San Francisco: within a few storefronts radius, you can have a delicious burrito at La Taqueria, a gooey pupusa directly next door, or a slice of homey pie at Mission Pie (the retail outlet of Pie Ranch, an educational farm in Davenport, CA).

14. When you order a fruit salad, whether at the hippy-ish Homemade Cafe in Berkeley, where we stood out as the only non-tattooed clientele, or at the self-consciously sleek SolBar at the new Solage Resort in Calistoga, the fruit actually tastes like fruit and not like water. I believe bountiful is the word: strawberries that were bright crimson in the center instead of white; firm, happy persimmons, oozy figs, and sweet-tart plums.

15. A crazy, serpentine drive from San Francisco, recently opened Nick's Cove occupies a surreally gorgeous stretch of Tomales Bay. Sit in the light-filled patio, where you feel like you're floating over the crystalline water, and order the oysters - raw, barbequed, and fried. Slurp them noisily, then lean back and enjoy the view. If you can afford it, rent one of the cabins that are perched on stilts over the rocks -- then you can settle into your own rocking chair for the sunset.