June 15, 2026 Breakfast - Aztec Diner in Carbondale Lunch - Peony Seafood Restaurant in Oakland Dinner - Fruit and Peanut better on flight from Oakland to Albuquerque

June 15, 2026 Breakfast - Aztec Diner in Carbondale  Lunch - Peony Seafood Restaurant in Oakland Dinner - Fruit and Peanut better on flight from Oakland to Albuquerque 

We woke up soon after daylight and showered, dressed, fetched our wine suitcase, and left the Apple Farm around 7:30.

We stopped at a Chevron Station for gas that had a small convenience center that included a small carry out restaurant. I grabbed a Freshly made warm sausage and egg breakfast burrito and Suzette ordered a grilled torta style croissant stuffed with a slice on cheese and a fried egg that was made to order in green small kitchen. So we ate a pretty delicious and filling breakfast in the parking lot of the Chevron station. 

When we arrived at the Johal’s home in Green Valley I walked the property with Mohan to make sure I understood where the easements would be located. Mohan gave me two bottles of the cab from grapes grown on their property as we left for his lawyer, Chuck’s office.

We drove to Chuck’s office and I met with Chuck, Mohan, and Pavn regarding the easements.

We finished around 12:30 and by 1:00 we on our way down I-80 to Oakland.

We wanted a quick lunch and I suggested sushi, so we drove to a downtown mall with underground parking and took the elevator up to the second above ground level to Sakura Sushi, but it was closed. But right next to it was a large restaurant named Peony Seafood Restaurant that was filled with people so we decided to try it.

It turned out that Peony had an extensive menu with all types of Chinese food, including dim sun.

We tried to order and the clever waitress brought us an IPad that contained 7 different categories in its extensive menu with pictures of each item with descriptions in Chinese and English, set to the English setting. This was my first introduction to this level of technology in a menu and it took a few minutes to orient my thinking as we started exploring the categories.   We ordered steam buns filled with BBQ pork. Then we went to Chef’s specialties and ordered a mushroom ball made by stuffing a shiitake mushroom cap with fish cake and a seared eggplant sandwich with a fish cake filling between two seared slices of eggplant that was interesting. We were served the stuffed mushrooms and three stuffed eggplant sandwiches on a plate covered with a light brown fermented black bean sauce and garnished with fresh thin slices of green onion that were delicious and attractive. We also ordered a plate of steamed Chinese Broccoli with an oyster sauce dressing. The only miss was a small platter of chopped pork ribs with squares of taro root that were mostly tendon and bone. 

We both went to the bathroom past another large dining room and noticed a sign advertising Peking Duck, 1/2 for $38.00 and a whole duck for $68.00.

On previous trips to San Francisco we have taken Peking duck to go to eat on the flight back to New Mexico. So, we ordered 1/2 Peking Duck to go. Our waitress brought us a shopping bag packed with 6 mandarin pancakes, plum sauce, sliced green onions, and the duck chopped into pieces in plastic to go containers; as the waitress said, “The standard order.”

After paying for the meal and parking and drove to Oakland Airport and returned the rental car and checked two two suitcases with wine and made our flight carrying a suitcase, the duck dinner bag, our emergency food bag, and a 6 wine bottle box filled with about a dozen wine glasses we had been given at the wine events.

On the flight we ate the emergency food, an apple, a peach, and a banana garnished with peanut butter.

Suzette had a bourbon and I drank hot tea with sugar and lime.

The flight was a bit over 2 hours. When we arrived we claimed our bags and when we dragged them out to the curb to board the parking lot shuttle we were greeted by a spectacular pink and white sunset.

We were not hungry when we returned home but Suzette heated 4 small chunks of duck and I later made an open face sandwich of slices of Iberico cheese on a slice of baguette and we sipped glasses of Bogle Heritage Zinfandel red blend and caught up on the TV news.  Trump was announcing the eminent signing of a peace treaty with Iran to resolve all issues in a 1 1/2 page memorandum. Alternatively the Iranians were saying they were signing a 1 1/2 page memorandum confirming that peace discussions were commencing.

I wonder how people who support Trump will feel when they find out he is lying and the price of gasoline and food is not immediately returning to pre-war levels and the ultimate treaty with Iran is not as good as the one signed by Obama regarding Iran’s nuclear stockpile or does not open the Straits of Hormuz to ship passage free from the threat of duties payable to Iran or some other threat to free transit and does not end Israel’s occupation and destruction of Lebanon and places on the citizens of the US the burden for paying for this war.

We went to bed at 10:00 and I woke up at 2:00 to write this entry and drink a cup of chai.

Bon Appetit