The question is, would you really go all the way to the Napa Valley wine country and not taste wine?

Doubtful.

However, Mimi Sheraton thinks that Napa has enough of a gourmet food offering - farms, cheesemakers and restaurants - that one could skip the vineyards, particularly during the September harvest season.

Her reasoning is multi-fold. The region benefits from the lingering after-effects of culinary giants like Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman and Jeremiah Tower. There is also a branch of the CIA, Greystone, in the town of St. Helena, where Sheraton recommends appetizers (rather than a full meal). In the town of Napa, Copia, the American Center for wine, offers classes, demonstrations and tastings. There are farms thar provide the local restaurants with fresh ingredients, and the restaurants themselves are notable: La Toque, Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Terra, and of course, Thomas Keller's Bouchon and French Laundry.

Still, I think I'd want to squeeze in at least one vineyard.

Lemons are everywhere right now. Since it's summer, refreshingly sweet and tart lemonade comes to mind right away. So does a lemon tart.

When I originally made this, I was going to use the recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook, but instead, I went back to my old standard, Joy of Cooking. For some reason, their tart recipe that uses one entire stick of butter and eight egg yolks (yes, eight!) seemed so much naughtier. The one thing I changed was the crust - rather than the usual pastry crust, I used a graham cracker crumb crust, to which I added about 2 tsp. fresh grated ginger. Lemon and ginger seem to be my favorite pairing this year.

According to the SF Chronicle, chef Thomas Keller is planning to expand. Mr. Keller is in the process of opening a butcher shop in the town of Yountville, CA, where his restaurants Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and the world-renowned French Laundry are located. The shop will be called Bouchon Boucherie and is slated to open later this year. Not only will it sell the same cuts of meat that are available in Keller's restaurants, but it will centralize the production for them, as they currently butcher their own meats. "'Don't expect 99-cent ground chuck here,' says Keller."

Food and Wine magazine also reported that Keller is considering opening his own burger joint in Northern California, similar in style to In-N-Out Burger but more upscale, serving wine alongside juicy beef burgers.

Saveur magazine just released its "100 list" for 2006. 100 what? Since any explicit label would be too restricting, the annual list is simply described as Saveur's "favorite restaurants, food, drink, people, places and things", which certainly covers a lot of ground.

Making the eighth list this year are restaurants from India to Mexico City, as well as a variety of restaurants and chefs from Las Vegas, including Daniel Bouloud, Bouchon, Alex and Joel Robuchon. Favorite foods included Costco birthday cakes, Crispy Buffalo Wontons from Ruby Tuesdays (a US chain) and Rich Man's Purses at Gundel Restaurant, Budapest, in addition to duck eggs, spicy Thai kettle chips and Japanese freshwater crabs, while favorite drinks included California dessert wines, Hendrick's Gin from Scotland and cointreau.