Up Front
Favorite Kern County restaurant and what do you order? Don Martin Tough one! So many good locally owned restaurants in Bako. Top choice: Mama Roomba. Order the chicken paillard, add white rice on the side and don’t forget to dip the bread in the paillard sauce!
Gina Neufeld Davis Wool Growers filet mignon! Laurie Howlett The potstickers and walnut shrimp at Great Castle! Lauren Goodsi Uricchio’s blackened salmon in butter lemon sauce. Pure bliss.
Amber Morgan Chiang Gotta be Uricchio’s, and I order the same thing nearly every time — basil bread, fried mozzarella, chicken piccata with ravioli alfredo. Yum! Ali Zanial I would say my favorite is the one and only Frugatti’s Edna’s lasagna classico. Jolie Brouttier Miyoshi’s yellow submarine! Christina Vargas Rosa’s Italian Restaurant — chicken cacciatore with fresh mushrooms and rigatoni! Yummo! Ian Parks Too many to list but because I had it yesterday, La Costa Mariscos and the enchiladas del mar ... best anywhere.
Ashlee Roberts Wool Growers’ fried chicken ... Luigi’s stuffed chicken breast!
Rochelle Hoff Vaughan Valentien Restaurant & Wine Bar. Their menu is very impressive, new offerings daily. Favorites: triple flight cheese plate (love the figs!), cobia or salmon (or any fish) with the beurre blanc sauce, short ribs and, for lunch, the threecourse prix fix menu. No restaurant in town comes close to the food at Valentien’s!
Mandy Herp So many choices, but I’d have to say the paella at Sandrini’s.
Mark Downing The 18-ounce New York or rib-eye at Sorella.
Kimmy Szabo Casa Mexico — shredded beef tacos are amazing!
Michael Hopper Luigi’s small half-and-half and a side order of pickled tongue for one.
Uricchio’s chicken picatta
Russo’s Read
‘Everything Barren Will Be Blessed’ The fact that Bakersfield has a vibrant and active poetry community surprises many. Still, bookstores, libraries, coffee shops and art galleries play host to scores of readings throughout the year. And if these businesses are fortunate enough, they have the privilege of hosting one of Kern County’s most honored poets, Don Thompson. Regionally and nationally recognized, Thompson’s poetry speaks to the very landscape from which he harkens. The Buttonwillow resident recently released “Everything Barren Will Be Blessed.” As the titles of his poems suggest — “Tumbleweeds,” “Hawk,” “Almond Grove,” “Bear Mountain After Rain,” “When the Drought Ended” — his poems are borne of our soil. An excerpt from his poem “Seed”: The summer grass looks frail,
Michael Russo 28
Bakersfield Life
by Don Thompson
old and so brittle you’d think the wind would snap it. But no. It gets back up again after every gust, much quicker than we do … Thompson easily captures the spirit of the Southern San Joaquin Valley’s simplicity and its vastness. The harsh summer sun, scampering wildlife, overgrown fields and our co-existence with each of them are central to his work. Even readers not familiar with poetry will recognize Thompson’s reverence for our shared experiences and all will certainly feel at home with his remarkable talent. — Michael Russo, co-owner of Russo’s Books at The Marketplace
“Everything Barren Will Be Blessed” by Don Thompson is available for $15 at Russo’s Books at The Marketplace, 9000 Ming Ave.
August 2012