EDIBLE: Inside the mysterious, magical EG Conference in Carmel.

Over the course of three days came Dungeness crab salad tostaditas, fresh-shucked oysters with carrot and ginger mignonette, North African-style chermoula-spiced rock cod, mini rolled porchetta with chimichurri, little boxes of five-spice chicken chow mein, some of the best old-fashioned burgers in town, and a coup of a gluten-and-dairy-free apple spice cake – plus Stone Brewing craft beer and Cima Collina Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc to wash it all down.

Aqua Terra Culinary, our readers’ perennial vote for Best Caterer in Monterey County and the team behind underappreciated foodie spots Point Pinos Grill (648-5774) and A Taste of Monterey (646-5446), was on its A game. Led by Esteban Jimenez and Allison Cady, they furnished high-grade nosh at Sunset Center in Carmel for the duration of the 11th annual EG Conference. But the real nourishment was for the mind.

Sure, the attendees enjoy good eating, but the series of speakers, performers and musicians, as one speaker put it, is more “for people who love thinking.”

There was much food for thought.

EG spun off from the Technology Entertainment Design Conference – aka TED Talks – when TED abandoned Monterey as its home base a decade ago, with the titleEntertainment Gathering. It has since swapped that out for a more fitting title, Exemplar Grata, Latin that (loosely) translates to “great example” – as in, according to EG emcee/curator/piano savant/former MIT professor Michael Hawley, putting people on stage who have “lived great examples of creative lives.”

No kidding. From the opening speaker/performer (Butterscotch, who intoxicated the crowd with beatboxing gifts including a lip-driven technique that sounds just like a trumpet) to the closing act (Time for Three, who did a surreal strings-only instrumental mash-up of composer Gustav Mahler’s piece on the death of his son and Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine”) it all would’ve been dumbfounding if it wasn’t so enlightening.

Those two performances – like so many between them, each 10-20 minutes – are difficult to describe, which is part of what makes them special.

The same can be said of EG itself, as Hawley acknowledged. “It’s hard to explain,” he said, “but once you’ve been you understand.” What ensues is heady enough that people travel from around the world, and pay $4,000 a head, to attend.

Fortunately there are free video feeds of what took place online at egconf.com, along with archived presentations from years past and other inspiring discoveries from EG – including Stephen Hawking auditioning actors to be his new voice – on the blog, mcweekly.com/edible.

Among the speakers centered around the theme “Body and Soul” – featuring circus stars cartwheeling in life-sized hula hoops – came Jessica Cail. She’s a half-neuroscientist, half-Hollywood stuntwoman who spends a lot of time at Venice’s Muscle Beach, and a lot of time studying the way our neural pathways, or dendrite “branches,” benefit from play.

Her most rousing point: We can change our brain physiology by what we do. Those who use their non-dominant hand, who study a foreign language, who dance, who do puzzles, who travel and explore, who exercise, build more dendrite brain branches. If it comes in the course of playtime – if it’s fun – they will do it more often, and do it longer. Three 30-minute play sessions a week delivers a peace comparable to Prozac. When something like Alzheimer’s comes along and starts picking off branches, and there are a lot to prune, it’ll be a lot longer before the most important branches are chopped and any symptoms manifest themselves.

“We need branchier brains,” Cail said, before closing with this: “The best time to start this was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Some speakers trafficked in inspiration that was less practical but more wow-worthy. At one point ski bum Tim Linhart described how he went from making increasingly elaborate ice sculptures on mountains for lift tickets to constructing whole orchestras of instruments… out of ice (the videos are insane and the sound is glorious). William Robertson explored his obsession with creating authentically rendered super-tiny miniatures of everything he finds cool, from antique tool boxes (with steel handsaws) to spice racks (with dovetailed drawers) to waste baskets (1,020 soldered joints each). Pratheev Sreetharan talked about crafting robot insects (inspiring his brother to say “You’re the guy they’re going to send people back in time to kill.”). So-called “cyber magician” Marco Tempest summoned his own tiny flying – and glowing – robots to dance around his head and into his suitcase when it was time to go.

Others flagged of-the-moment cultural trends that are good for everybody to observe. Jane Metcalfe, who founded Wired magazine, debuted neo.life, a new portal into synthetic biology and the ethics of editing out own DNA. Brent Bushnell profiled every virtual reality amusement park worth knowing (and suddenly there are a lot). It all found an intuitive cohesion, partly because every presenter, however different, is about turning ideas, surreal as they might be, into reality.

That brings things back to Butterscotch and her thoughts on these thinkers: “It’s so important in this day and time to have functions like this to believe – and know, just know – there’s hope for the future.”

~ QUICKBITES ~

• Poke Time (655-1823), from the partners behind popular Sushi Time in Seaside, has opened at 484 Lighthouse Ave. in New Monterey. Photos and more on the blog.
• More poke news: Poke Lab (200-3474) is now the all-too-rare sushi or poke spot that is Seafood Watch compliant. Big props.
• A new open-air market makes its home at Salinas Sports Complex beginning Wednesday, April 26. El Mercado Popular, Inc. is putting together the regular 4-8pm Wednesday gathering, called Outdoor Market at the Rodeo. Plans include a produce section, new and used merchandise, kids’ activities and food vendors. Interested vendors can call 235-1856 or email Rodeomarket2017@gmail.com.
• Mo’s River Road Grill (998-7564) is now open for American-style comfort food in the former River Road Grill. Hours are 11:30am-9pm except Monday, until 8pm Sunday.
• Mountain Mike’s of Marina (883-2242) does $2 draft beers 11am-2:30pm weekdays, $7.99 all-you-can-eat pizza, salad and breadsticks too.
• A new local small homespun operation out of Carmel Valley, Crumbunny Coffee Roasters, is now appearing at the MPC Farmers Market 10am-2pm Fridays.
• Post Ranch Inn (667-2200), home of Sierra Mar, reopens Thursday, April 20, with guests dropping in by chopper. Nepenthe, the adjacent Phoenix Shop and theHawthorne Gallery will all be opening on the same day.
• Venus Spirits took home a lot of hardware from this month’s American Distillery Institute’s craft spirits judging showdown, earning medals for its Wayward Whiskeys and botanical gins.
• TusCA Ristorante (372-1234) has a special Earth Day menu going April 22, to pair with Twisted Roots’ sustainable wines. They’re also giving guests Sprout pencils that can be planted after use and grow cherry tomatoes and cilantro.
• Monterey Pop 50 has announced its epic lineup for the stirring June 16-18 show. Get that and more on the blog.
• Jimmy Dean: ”I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails.”