December, 3 pm – Zut!
Sometimes you just have to cast away all manners and enjoy a day in town like a tourist. After a few cups at Teance, Kristen and I were famished. As student I’ve gone lunch-less almost daily without problems, but drinking oolong without lunch is definitely the quickest way to wake up the hungry beast in you. We planned on gorging down pancakes at Bette’s across the street but we missed it by 6 minutes (why on earth do they close at 2:30 on a Friday?), so we dashed back to the other side of the street to Zut with exclamation mark and chose an appetizer and two entrees before the waitress could ask what kind of drinks we wanted. This, in our book, was record fast. However, despite our effort, the food didn’t come out fast enough. On a normal day, we would say the appetizer indeed got out in a really reasonable time, but one thumb-sized stuffed squid plus our extreme tea-induced hunger plus the lack of bread commonly served at Western restaurants really brought out the best of us: we stared longingly in the direction of the staff and the kitchen. The waitress caught our eyes.
Chorizo-stuffed squid ($9) – too expensive, the spinach is good, the sauce is good, tender squid, but the pepperiness of chorizo offsets the savoriness for me.
The first time she came back: “Do you need something?” Glances exchanged. “No…” *innocent smile* Longing stare continued… The second time she came back: “Would you like some bread with olive oi..” “Yes PLEASE!” *big wide grin* Four slices. Don’t know if they’re good because they’re good or because we were hungry, but they were gone after 2 minutes. More longing stare… This time our waitress intentionally avoided eye contact. We understand, but would we give up? No. Young as we were (we think), we were desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. We waved at another waiter, said, somewhat alarmed at our own temerity: “Could we have some more bread?”
Sausage and egg pizza ($15) – pizza’s okay, runny egg yolk on soggy pizza is waste of brain power
Zut! burger with white cheddar ($14) – the beef patty needs salt, the pickles are fresh, good crunchy fries
We were more fortunate than Oliver Twist because the waiter was much nicer than Mr. Bumble, as evident by the 6 slices following our request. Unfortunately, they arrived at the same time as the burger and the pizza, so instead of devouring them, we devoured the burger and the pizza. To discover that neither had enough salt.
Pear cardamom bread pudding ($8) – couldn’t taste either pear or cardamom. There were some kind of grapes which Kristen thought were fresh grapes and I thought were raisins. Ice cream would have been 56 times better than crème chantilly, but the airy crust on top saved the day.
So that solved the mystery: there’s a thing of salt on every table (not a salt shaker, mind you, but a sort of porcelain cup shape-wise akin to the thing that contains the tea candle, no lid). Without the bread we had no idea why it was there. Anyways they have good fries and good pickles. Dessert menus brought out, the waitress no longer avoided eye contact. Pear cardamom bread pudding looked good. So did grapefruit sorbet. We were really full at this point (Kristen finished only half of her pizza) so we said bread pudding please. Then we thought hey a palate cleanser would be nice because we needed to wash the fries off our palates… what next was only inevitable: “Can we have the grapefruit sorbet before the bread pudding please?” The sorbet dissolved the fullness (maybe it was just an illusion, but it lasted long enough for us to finish the bread pudding). How wonderful is the power of cold citrus things.
Grapefruit sorbet ($8) – with ginger snap. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
On a normal day Zut (exclamation mark or not) wouldn’t make the cut because we’re not into risottos and paninis, and we like our foods well seasoned, but that pink sorbet made our soul glint, an instrumental version of Memory was playing, the dangling lights on the trees were getting brighter as the sun got lower. The holidays drew nearer. We stood outside for a good five minutes just watching the lights. Silly girls. 🙂
Address: Zut! on Fourth 1820 4th Street Berkeley, CA 94710 510-644-0444 www.zutonfourth.com
Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care
1good post.Never knew this, regards for letting me know.
2Hmm is anyone else having problems with the pictures on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feed-back would be greatly appreciated.
3I’ll immediately grasp your rss as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Please permit me understand so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
4Wow! This can be one particular of the most useful blogs We’ve ever arrive across on this subject. Basically Great. I am also a specialist in this topic so I can understand your effort.
5I very happy to find this internet site on bing, just what I was searching for : D too saved to favorites.
6I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or weblog posts in this sort of space . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this web site. Reading this info So i am satisfied to express that I have a very excellent uncanny feeling I came upon exactly what I needed. I most indubitably will make certain to don’t overlook this website and provides it a look regularly.
7This blog is definitely rather handy since I’m at the moment creating an internet floral website – although I am only starting out therefore it’s really fairly small, nothing like this site. Can link to a few of the posts here as they are quite. Thanks much. Zoey Olsen
8Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is great blog. A great read. I will definitely be back.
9Keep up the good piece of work, I read few content on this internet site and I conceive that your site is very interesting and has bands of great information.
10Great write-up, I’m regular visitor of one’s site, maintain up the nice operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
11Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your website? My blog site is in the very same area of interest as yours and my visitors would really benefit from a lot of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Many thanks!
12Woh I love your articles, saved to fav! .
13I was recommended this web site through my cousin. I am now not positive whether this put up is written via him as nobody else realize such distinctive approximately my difficulty. You are wonderful! Thank you!
14It’s really a great and helpful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
15Thank you for another informative website. Where else could I get that type of information written in such a perfect way? I have a project that I am just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.
16Hello, i believe that i saw you visited my web site so i got here to “go back the want”.I am trying to find issues to enhance my site!I suppose its adequate to make use of a few of your ideas!!
17I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks
18You are my breathing in, I possess few blogs and very sporadically run out from to brand.
19This is the right blog for anyone who wants to find out about this topic. You realize so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You definitely put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just great!
20you’re really a good webmaster. The site loading speed is amazing. It seems that you’re doing any unique trick. Moreover, The contents are masterwork. you’ve done a excellent job on this topic!
21I love the efforts you have put in this, thankyou for all the great articles.
22Wohh precisely what I was searching for, thankyou for posting.
23I just couldn’t depart your website prior to suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the usual information a person supply on your guests? Is gonna be back regularly to inspect new posts.
24magnificent points altogether, you just gained a new reader. What may you suggest in regards to your publish that you just made a few days ago? Any positive?
25This design is steller! You obviously know how to keep a reader amused. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job. I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!
26Thank you for another magnificent article. Where else could anyone get that kind of info in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the look for such info.
27You are a very capable person!
28I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz respond as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got this from. appreciate it
29Great post, I believe website owners should larn a lot from this site its really user pleasant.
30Hi there! This post could not be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
31Hiya, I’m really glad I have found this info. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossips and internet and this is really irritating. A good website with interesting content, that’s what I need. Thank you for keeping this web-site, I will be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Can’t find it.
32Have you ever considered publishing an e-book or guest authoring on other websites? I have a blog based upon on the same subjects you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my readers would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e mail.
33Thank you, I have recently been looking for info about this topic for ages and yours is the best I’ve discovered so far. But, what about the bottom line? Are you sure about the source?
34I think you have mentioned some very interesting points, regards for the post.
35Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
36Perfect work you have done, this site is really cool with superb information.
37I am glad to be one of many visitants on this great site (:, appreciate it for posting.
38After all, what a great site and informative posts, I will upload inbound link – bookmark this web site? Regards, Reader.
39Glad to be one of several visitors on this awing internet site : D.
40Hi! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting sick and tired of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be great if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
41I cling on to listening to the newscast talk about receiving boundless online grant applications so I have been looking around for the finest site to get one. Could you advise me please, where could i get some?
42Please let me know if you’re looking for a writer for your site. You have some really great posts and I believe I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d really like to write some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please shoot me an e-mail if interested. Thank you!
43Great post. I am facing a couple of these problems.
44Hi there, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam remarks? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can recommend? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.
45Wonderful blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Thanks
46I genuinely enjoy reading on this web site, it holds fantastic articles. “Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.” by Demosthenes.
47It’s actually a cool and helpful piece of information. I’m satisfied that you simply shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
48As I website possessor I believe the written content here is really wonderful, regards for your efforts.
49You really make it seem really easy with your presentation but I to find this matter to be actually one thing that I believe I’d by no means understand. It kind of feels too complex and extremely vast for me. I am taking a look forward on your subsequent submit, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
50