You are here: Olympic Stadium, Berlin

Second half-marathon, German capital. Put me in mind of seeing Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia films (1938 on the 1936 summer games)...undergrad? graduate school? I think it was at Harvard...I liked the pictures. And found the general message at the time not particularly propagandistic...I seem to recall frame after frame of German equestrians failing to clear a water obstacle. The effect was comic. But I don't really want to discuss her ideology. Suffice it to say I was there, I started running and 21.1 kilometers and two hours and 8 minutes later I was there again.

You are here: Carretta's on the Gulf

This is where I encountered the Crab Cake in its ideal, platonic form.  I'm sure of this because it did not allow itself to be photographed. It was cloud-like, puffy, cumulous, buttery and pure. It could have been served at Stuart Dybeck's Chinese laundry, or been a savory version of a Thiebaud painting. I wouldn't have been surprised to see Portico Quartet summon it out of thin air. As it was, I ate it. With infinite pleasure.

I ate a lot of other things there as well and recommend that you make reservations immediately. Two dinners and a brunch would be a good start. And the nice thing about Carretta's on the Gulf is there's a hotel handy (www.sandpearl.com), so you don't have to drive home between meals.