Starbucks is experimenting with even bigger iced “coffees.” Subways are multiplying at such a rabbit-like rate that they now outnumber McDonald’s domestically (despite the introduction of the towering Shangri La of Micky D’s in Monterey). And quick-mart outlets everywhere are selling things like Big Az Rack-O-Ribs sandwiches, one of which I saw sweating like a processed pig in plastic packaging the other night in North Monterey. Can a brother get a WTF?

These items might be the kindling that helps heat food hell. Fortunately, I can testify there is a food heaven. And it’s French.

That much became clear immediately at one of the area’s little miracles and one of my favorite restaurants in the region, Bistro Moulin (333-1200), which tucks into a diminutive and adorable front just a block up from the Aquarium on Wave Street.

Within minutes of our arrival, ebullient beauty/manager-greeter-sommelier Colleen Manni was already pouring a Burgundy bombshell, an ’06 Nuits St. Georges ($85/bottle), which trailed traces of tobacco, blackberry and deep black cherry over the tongue with a satin finish. Soon we were into the pâte de foie ($7.50) and eyeing some fantastic ’08 St. Andre de Provence Rosé (a steal at $15). Exquisite escargot ($10.75) emerged from her fiancé Didier Dutertre’s kitchen still simmering in garlic and hazelnut butter. Then came the spinach gnocchi ($9.75) – a gnocchi that knows no equal, a gnocchi I want to know again. Biblically.

Such is life at Moulin, a tiny 20-table spot with huge character. After Weekly wine writer Paul Wetterau – who is also a sommelier at one of the best restaurants on the continent, Carmel Valley’s Marinus – joined our group, he offered an appropriate evaluation: “It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Well, it might. Ray Napolitano’s lively daughter Sara now works there. And they e-mail their minions specials every week (this weekend it’s spaghetti buccanera with prawns, clams and Monterey Bay squid in a garlic-tomato broth alongside saffron aioli crostini) and sell knockout French wines at retail prices in the adjoining shop (there’s also olive oil, vinegar and popular French tablecloths from Provence). I got a bottle of St. Andre for $15 out the door. Oui.

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And what’s better than one helping of French heaven?

A night later Manager Stephan Lemaire took a friend and I through some divinity all over again at Andre’s Bouchee in Carmel (626-7880). We tried some fine French onion soup buried in gruyere ($8), an even-better special of the day mushroom bisque with truffle oil ($8), steamed mussels in a superior white wine-shallot-herb sauce ($13) – ideal for both the shellfish and the perfect frites – and a deliciously creative “cannelloni au deux saumons” ($11): melt-in-the-mouth wild salmon tartare wrapped in smoked salmon, paired nicely with local whites by the glass, like Chock Rock’s 2007 Santa Lucia Chardonnay, available in 3.5 – and 7-ounce pours.

We stopped at the snacking stage, but Lemaire still tasted us on some supreme sauces that channel his chef-dad Andre’s dedication to his craft – a lemon thyme treatment for the sea bass ($25), a subtle sea-urchin sauce for an on-special monkfish ($26), and a maple syrup-pine nut number for the braised lamb shank ($23). In a word, whoah. And then we casually had one of those desserts that doesn’t leave the memory for months, a “melting cake” with molten chocolate and caramel ($8). These guys have some deals going themselves: a three-course prix fixe menu Sunday-Thursday starring ever-changing seasonal choices like cream of lentil soup, the sea bass and dual creme brulee for $35.

It bears noting that both these spots have more going for them than fiendishly good French food. Most importantly, they have warm, gifted families running hands-on operations with a sincere affection for the insane world of hospitality. In a land of Big Az Rack-O-Ribs and bigger Starbucks iced crackachinnos, they provide a small but celestial bit of hope.

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Speaking French, we ducked into Fresh Cream (250-7943) at its new Carmel spot on Dolores after Andre’s. The place is sparkling and the lounge menu is a nice addition, with promising albeit spendy plates like Dungeness crab cakes ($16), the FC burger ($10), boneless braised short ribs ($14) and pulled pork sliders with Carolina sauce, spicy slaw and fries ($12). Good to see some former Stokes stars working there.

Next we made it to Mundaka for some Hanif Wondir deejay delinquency and found Gabe Georis has another wowser wine bargain on the menu: a surprisingly rich ’08 Domaine Les Yeuses Vermentino for just $15 a bottle. Between Fresh Cream, Mundaka, Andre’s Bouchée and St. Tropez (624-8977), it’s damn nice to see so many respectable destinations – within a distance shorter than the Dirty Harry stare of Carmel-by-the-Sea’s most famous former mayor – rise from endangered storefronts in the last year alone. Another reason for hope.

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Pebble Beach Food & Wine (622-7770) is coming up with a quickness. And somehow this year’s April 8-11 lineup raises the champagne flute that much higher than the Everest excellence of years one and two. “Just the lineup of cooking demos is about as world class as you can get,” V.P. Gary Obligacíon told me Monday. “I mean, to have Keller, Trotter and Tuck at one event is like having Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre on one football team.” Get on the website, tap the wonder – www.pebblebeachfoodandwine.com – Food & Wine Magazine’s masterminding “Best New Chefs” dinners, Pio Cesare’s doing a vertical, the Lexus Grand Tastings are indulgent deals that approach absurd annually. Look for more here, soon.

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My colleague and CSU Monterey Bay alum Zachary Stahl and I were pleasantly surprised with the on-campus eats at The Otter Bay Restaurant in the University Center (582-5020) when we stopped in after talking with a journalism class. We ran into a respectable turkey bacon sandwich on wheat with pesto fries, and a “Baja salad” with all-natural chicken breast, black bean relish and spicy ranch for just $8 and $9, respectively. Good to see a bank of beers (nine on tap, including four English Ales options served starting at 4pm); better yet to see Chef Sam Wallace using hormone – and antibiotic-free meats and Seafood Watch Program-approved fish. The bummer: It’s closed weekends and the potentially pretty patio is a neglected jewel.

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Marinus and Duck Club alum Matt Bolton is now part of Mark Ayer’s team as executive sous chef at Pacific’s Edge (620-1234), where he handles the day-to-day operation. “Fish is my specialty and Pacific’s Edge’s focus on California coastal cuisine is an ideal match for me,” he says. “It’s not unusual for fishermen to call me in the kitchen from their boats to alert me of their morning catch, and I’ll design a menu around their fresh Monterey Bay seafood. Locally foraged mushrooms, including porcini and chanterelles from Big Sur, black trumpets and hedgehog mushrooms from farther north are also favorites of mine.”

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Linda Cantrell over at the Monterey Cookhouse (642-9900) in North Monterey has a hefty special going “indefinitely”: a half-pound hormone-free burger, fries and a draft, import or domestic beer for $10. I know it’s a good burger, too, because I’ve seen staffers eating it more than once… Four local winemaking characters and all-around good dudes make for a powerhouse panel at March 13’s Pinotfest at the InterContinental: Figge’s Peter Figge, De Tierra’s David Coventry, Paraiso’s Richard Smith and Talbott’s Dan Karlson. And their wine, which they’ll be pouring, ain’t remotely bad either. $30 Taste of Monterey members, $40 general, 646-5446 x12… Saturday night, March 20, La Playa Hotel hosts Nora Comee of Silver Oak Winery as part of an evening featuring five courses of Chef Bunyan Fortune food and wines from SOW’s Napa and Alexander Valley plots as well as Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir from Twomey Winery, $125, 624-6476… The Culinary Center (333-2133) celebrates St. Paddy’s with a feast of corned beef, braised cabbage, roasted red potatoes, Irish soda bread, green beer and more, 11:30am-8pm, $10 a plate or all you can eat for $15… Cheers to all the inspired Irish blokes and wild Irish roses out there – “May the road rise to meet you… ”