Amuse-Bouche

Rugged-Elegance

2006-07-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

During college, my girlfriends and I coined terms for each of our styles. My look was deemed rugged-elegance (another girl's was sultry-machismo). I truly embraced my ruggedly elegant style this weekend, camping for the first half and lounging at a spa for the second half.

We had a boat-in campsite at Lake Sonoma. Aboard our Zodiac, Aren and I were literally sprawled on top of all our camping gear, the height of which was far higher than the boat's. Aren didn't appreciate my stowaway cracks. We did not try the gourmet-camping thing and instead survived on canned soup and ravioli, an assortment of cereal bars, and some Stella Artois. We did enjoy the sun (Frindians do burn), read a lot, and enjoyed one another's company sans laptops.

As usual, the shower that came post-camping was divine. So fresh and so clean, Aren and I visited a couple wineries:

1. Michel Schlumberger: The winery is the only grower of Pinot Noir grapes in the Dry Creek Valley and crafts all of its wines in a more French than American style.

2. Unti: One of Aren's co-workers swears by this winery, which seems to focus on Italian varietals. The wine was ok -- we picked up some bottles for Aren's co-worker, but none for ourselves.

3. Belvedere: Yuck. Mr. Belvedere himself must be the winemaker.

4. Rochioli: Affordable, above-average wines.

5. A Rafanelli: I'm saving the best for last. Rafanelli has a cult following -- there is a two year waitlist to become part of their wine club. We made sure to come away with a couple bottles of their Zin and Merlot.

We were hungry after all the wine tasting. Fortunately, Farmhouse Inn, the lovely place where we stayed not only has a spa, but a highly acclaimed restaurant. When I was getting ready for dinner, Aren picked up a dozen roses for me and had the host place them on our table -- husbands and boyfriends, use this one!

Dinner was fabulous. I had burrata with fresh tomato crostini, seared halibut, and olive oil cake with lemon sabayon. We asked the sommelier for a really earthy, local Pinot Noir. He recommended we try a bottle from Porter Creek, which he described as producing artisan wines that are too earthy for many people. We loved the wine -- it wasn't smooth, but in a rustic, rather than overly alcoholic way.

We're exhausted from our weekend -- hopefully the fireworks won't keep us from going to bed early.

Food Bytes

2006-06-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

I don't have any new restaurant experiences to share with you. So, instead, here are a couple food-related thoughts:

1. AG Ferrari's fresh burrata, which lands in AG's 24 hours after being produced in Italy. Burrata is an incredibly fresh cheese, part mozzarella, part cream. We served our burrata with a thinly sliced baguette and dumped the leftovers, skins and all, into a tomato sauce for a delectable dinner the next evening.

2. Pizzeria Delfina's pizzas. We enjoyed one topped with egg, another with anchovies, and another with broccoli rabe. So fresh and so clean.

3. Power bars. While Aren was out of town, my girlfriend and I had her brother and his friend over for a drink. Her brother will not eat sugar or carbs, so I had to think of something to serve with the plate of cheeses, bread, olives, nuts, and cherries I had prepared for everyone else. I settled on a cubed power bar, arranged around a bright orange gardenia. Genius!

4. That's all for now...

Winter, Spring

2006-06-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

The Newsoms totally owe us. Having spent a lovely weekend at their property in Carneros, we decided to try their property in Squaw over Memorial Day weekend. Our meals at their Plumpjack Cafe and Balboa Cafe were separated by skiing, massages, and candle-making (my candle is way better than Aren's). Food highlights include the breakfast granola, a pork chop Aren had that came with bacon-confit potatoes, and warm pumpernickel bread. Beverage highlights include a Flowers Pinot Noir. The Pinot is the best we've had in recent memory - it was incredibly earthy, smooth, and soft, without being feeble. Lodging highlights include the gas-powered fire pit in the bar, which was perfect after a day on the slopes. We only have to try Jack Falstaff and the Plumpjack Cafe in the city before the Newsom's are obliged to invite us over to dinner.

This weekend we tried Woodward's Garden, which has a view of an overpass, rather than a garden. I'd describe the restaurant as shabby chic, service as no-frills, and food as California comfort. We sat in the stark back room, which is simply decorated with a crooked chandelier -- it was pleasantly romantic. I started with a simple green salad, moved on to a large piece of halibut (hence the comfort food aspect) that was served on a bed of vegetables and topped with fava bean puree, and finished with an olive oil cake that came with a citrus compote and creme fraiche. Oh, and the 2003 Pur Sang we brought paired nicely with my meal. I've had a handful of people mention that they'd like to try Woodward's -- my advice is that it's worth trying, but that it probably won't be added to your list of favorites.

Delfina

2006-05-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Our friend Michael was visitng from Seattle last week and enjoyed our guest room ("Michael's Room") Friday night.

After enjoying a Pride Merlot at home, we walked a couple blocks to Delfina to make our 10 pm reservations. The food was good, but not remarkable. We had an earthy red wine, but nothing memorable. I had:

Little gem lettuce with Parmigiano frico and lemon-anchovy vinaigrette

King salmon with melted leeks and meyer lemon-caper butter

Profiteroles with espresso gelato, warm chocolate sauce and candied almonds

In the Italian restaurant scene, A16 does it for me much better then Delfina.

Michael and I may have ganged up on Aren on the way home. Someone asked us if we had a light. Michael and I simply said sorry, no. Aren instead had to say, "No. I do not smoke." Read what you want into Aren's response, but Michael and I thought it was hilarious.

My Friend Jeff

2006-04-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

This entry is not very food related, but it is about my friend Jeff who happens to like tasty food.

Like me, Jeff fell into a period of blog-apathy, his last entry was from the 22nd of January! Pathetic!

Friends and food-lovers alike, let's all muster up some mental energy to lend Jeff to get back onto the blogging-bandwagon. Gooo Jeff!

Warm and Cold

2006-04-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we went to Foreign Cinema for the first time. As per my request, we were seated inches away from the restaurant's fireplace, making for a very warm and lovely meal. Last night, we dined at Pilar, a newish restaurant in downtown Napa. We were plopped next to a window near the entrance (not what we had requested), causing me to focus more on my coldness during the meal, rather the well-prepared food.

Before our Foreign Cinema experience, we had drinks at Laszlo, the bar connected to Foreign Cinema. We whiled an hour away on a leather couch in the bar's loft-like upstairs level. The bar is very stark and eurotrash, yet cozy. Our evening at Foreign Cinema itself was the best first-time experience I've had at a restaurant in quite some time. I started with a chicory salad with garlic croutons (Aren with the beef carpaccio, a stand-out dish) before moving onto halibut for my main and pavlova for my dessert. The best part of our meal may have been the 1997 Mount Veeder cab we brought -- it didn't exactly match my halibut, but I really didn't mind. After sharing a half glass with us, our server kindly waved the corkage fee.

I had a rather draining week at work last week, so Aren promised to take me away for Saturday night if I promised to leave laptop and work behind. We escaped to the Carneros Inn in wine country for an overnight. Uncharacteristically, we opted for an afternoon of spa treatments, rather than hit up some wineries. Even though we didn't run into Gavin (the Newsoms manage the Plumpjack facilities, of which the inn is part), we enjoyed our stay. Our tin-roofed cottage featured heated slate floors in the bathroom and an outdoor shower in our private patio which was accessible from the french doors a hop-step from our bed. Luxurious.

Aren had read about Pilar on a fellow Stanford alumnus' blog. The food was simple, fresh, and elegant, but the service was not. After waiting 45 minutes for the back corner table we had been promised, we were seated at the abovementioned table. Fortunately, I had Aren to rub my goosebumped arms throughout the meal, which, again, was very good. I had a raddichio salad with balsamic poached cherries and parmesan reggiano, seared halibut on a bed of leek-whatnot, and an apple tart. Unfortunately for Pilar, I don't think we'll be returning. There are too many other restaurants in wine country that have not only good food, but also good service and atmosphere.

Aren't you happy I'm back?

It's Alive!

2006-04-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

Many of you keep reminding me that I have a blog. I took a bit of a sabbatical from my blog, but am resuscitating it.

I have some food and wine experiences from this weekend to write about later, but here's some reading material to tide you over in the meatime: SF Chronicle's Top 100 Restaurants of 2006

My Favorite Things

2005-12-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

"...these are a few of my favorite things..."

While I couldn't convince Aren to take me to the Sound of Music Sing-A-Long at the Castro Theater, I did manage to enjoy a few of my favorite things the day after Thanksgiving: Napa and Chapeau!

Celine and Grant are also wine lovers (it must run in the Gounder blood), so we took them to Napa. First, we visited Pride, which has recently received accolades from Wine Spectator and the like. In addition to their new release Cab, Merlot, and Chardonnay, we were able to enjoy some barrel tasting, which is always fun.

After Pride, we visited Schramsberg, a sparkling wine producer. Our tour guide was a bit of a dork, but entertaining nonetheless. He told us about the history of the winery. Schramsberg is the second oldest winery in Napa (although it's changed ownership since the original days and from still to sparkling wine production) and has caves that Chinese immigrants built, having gained expertise from working on the Transcontinental railroad. The winery's caves are covered with thick, web-like moss, giving the caves a certain rustic, yet slightly disgusting charm. We learned that the winery still riddles their wine by hand, which must be giving someone a major back problem. The tour ended in a subterranean tasting room, where we tasted a nice flight of wines, including the Demi-Sec we brought home. Our dorky tour guide described everything as exploding in his mouth. We almost shouted "boom" after the fifth time we heard this phrase from him. Before leaving, we snapped a shot in front of the winery's mascot, a frog statue looking through a glass of champagne in the moonlight (he's looking for leftover yeast).

We stopped by Joseph Phelps' place to have a glass of wine and to replace the bottle of Merlot we enjoyed a couple weeks ago before heading to Chapeau! for dinner. Perhaps Celine or Grant would like to comment on the meal?

T-Day Weekend

2005-12-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

We had our first overnight houseguests over Thanksgiving weekend: my sister Celine and brother-in-law Grant.

Our menu:
Jello-sour-cream-cranberry salad (this is the most ghetto recipe I have in my repertoire)
Spinach salad
Roasted turkey and gravy
Pommes dauphine (aka puffed potatoes)
Roasted root vegetables with balsamic glaze
Wild mushroom stuffing with chestuts
Pumpkin bread
Individual Grand Marnier souffles

Um, yum!

We had 5 bottles of wine in the course of evening, leaving some of us dancing in the kitchen.

It was a perfect Thanksgiving -- food, family, and laughter.

Bubbles & Bix

2005-11-29T22:18:00.000-08:00

Aren and I had a little B&B two weeks ago -- that is drinks at the Bubble Lounge and a very late (i.e., midnight snack) dinner at Bix.

The Bubble Lounge is a champagne bar in the Financial District, which I have discovered is the second Marina (the crowds are the same). We shared a bottle of Roederer Brut, a conservative yet reliable bottle of sparkling wine that we thought would fit the crowd with whom we were. I also had a champagne cocktail of sparkling wine and passion fruit liqueur. By the time we left, the cozy couches were overflowing and dance floor downstairs was a real meat market. Unfortunately, one has to pass through the mob of dancers to use the restroom -- my suggestion: avoid all eye contact.

Bix is conveniently a stumble away from the Bubble Lounge. It's touted as a swanky supper club, a description with which I agree. The food is so-so, which is also what most of the reviews I read thought. We shared potato pillows with creme fraiche and caviar, a watercress salad with smoked trout, an arugula and pear salad, and the restaurant's famous chicken hash, which are essentially crab cakes sans crab and with chicken. I don't believe in sharing dessert, so we each had our own bananas foster. Enjoyable, but not the best I've ever had (the best was in Cabo San Lucas and involved large quantities and many varieties of alcohol).

Stay tuned for Thanksgiving dets.

An Empty Stomach & A Full Ear

2005-11-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Aren and I hit up Maverick, a new "American Eatery" in the Mission, last weekend with some Stanford pals. Maverick's concept is American comfort food with a refined twist. Cute, but not exactly creative, given the plethora of places like Home, Blue Plate, Chenery Park, blah, blah, blah.

I agree with Sir Bauer's assessment of the restaurant's atmosphere. To me, half the fun of a meal is the company with whom I'm spending it, and not the folks two, three, and four tables away from me. Perhaps I'm becoming more of a grump with age (I'm rapidly approaching 30), but why can't there be more tasty restaurants that don't require ear plugs?

And, the food? I find that a good way to judge a restaurant's quality is to ask yourself whether you can make a meal at least as good as what you're served. The fig salad, three bean chili, and mushroom side I had were all pleasant, but certainly not impressive.

Wow, I am becoming a grump, eh?

Hip != Good

2005-10-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

Aren and I celebrated our second year anniversary at La Folie on the 20th of September. Along with the standard amuse-bouche and post-dessert sweets, I had Parsley and Garlic Soup with a Râgout of Snails and Shiitake Mushrooms, Butter Poached Lobster on a Fava Bean, Artichoke Ravioli with Shiso, Scallion, Carrot and Toasted Almond Salad, and Mint Marinated Strawberry Napoleon with Caramelized Mascarpone Crème, Rhubarb Compote, Strawberry Sorbet. I'll apologize to my loyal readers now for not going into more detail on the meal -- it was superb, but with a month between me and that meal, I don't think I could do it justice (plus I am lazy!). We did a wine pairing for the first time ever. I highly recommend it -- it was fun to have a professional do the pairings and to try six different wines over the course of the evening.

...now to present day...

After grabbing a glass of Rombauer chardonnay at a co-worker's place this Friday, we all headed to the Americano, a hip new hang in the Hotel Vitale. I started with a glass of prosseco and a simple butter lettuce salad, before moving to a roasted wild mushroom pizza, which was prepared on an usual pastry-like crust. The food was pretty good and company terrific, but the atmosphere was horrible. We were surrounded by the botox-squad and gold diggers digging in the post-work financial district crowd, both of which believe in screaming all evening long. As someone who loves a quiet, cozy space, this was not the place for me. I could't even stand to stick around for dessert! The one saving grace of the evening was the people with whom we spent it (a Zagat 30 for the company)!

There's No Place Like Home

2005-09-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

We're going to be home owners! After five failed attempts and a good dose of emotional drainage, we're finally under contract on a place in the Castro that is three blocks away from Sumi! To celebrate, we headed to Napa last weekend to add to our wine collection and to get some good eats.

We stopped at Joseph Phelps, a winery about which the authors of the Wall Street Journal's "Tastings" column have written good things. Rather than offering a tour, the winery offers a seminar to folks who want something more educational than a straight-up tasting. The seminar itself was not so great. The seminar leader's knowledge was rather limited, and rudely pointed out throughout the seminar how incredibly young we (well, Aren) look. I'm trying to expand my appreciation and knowledge of reds, having finally realized that Napa Cabs don't equal all reds in the world. We came away with a nice bottle of Merlot, which is about 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlots are often seen as easy reds to drink, but not particularly complex. A small about of Cab, however, does wonders for the wine. The Merlot we selected is soft, yet structured.

We also toured the Taittinger family's place in Napa. The tour was pretty touristy, but we learned some fun sparkling wine trivia. For example, do you know why sparkling wine bottles have the foil wrapping? Before degorgement was invented, peeps decanted their wine from one bottle to another to get rid of the dead yeast, oftentimes causing a lot of spillage. To mask the less than full wine bottles, wine makers topped their bottles with foil. We came away with a bottle of Brut Rose, which you can only get at the winery. We thought it would be fun to drink with some sushi one night.

On our way back to SF, we dined at Bay Wolf, who is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a duck menu (duck duck duck...DUCK!). I had their duck liver flan, sole, and a berry pudding. The flan was pretty tasty, sole was boring, and berry pudding scrumptious. We had brought along a bottle of Donnhoff Spatlese, which was light, perfectly sweet, and very gulpable. All in all, Bay Wolf was decent, but we'll probably never go there again, as there a way too many better places to go in the city.

We ended the weekend with a meal at Chapeau! We had our favorite table in the back corner, Phillipe brought us a great red Burgundy, and Aren had a kick-ass rabbit main that was just added to their menu. There is really no place like home.

Restaurant Roundup

2005-08-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

In the last month, we've been to some of the hipper SF joints, the first two of which were completely new to us: Myth, Bacar, and Zuni.

Myth has been getting some rave reviews for its cool space and its great new American food. We loved the space, which boasts a great bar and an elegant yet trendy feel. My meal consisted of the warm sweetbread salad, seared scallops, and a sugar waffle with berries and a creme fraiche parfait. Many reviews have described the sweetbread salad as delicious even to non-sweetbread lovers. This is true, as the salad tastes like bacon, which was good but disappointing to me, since I actually do like sweetbread. The scallops were good, but I've had much better at places like Sumi. The sommelier upsold us on a bottle of Verget Meursault 2003, which fortunately we loved.

Many of my work friends have spoken highly of Bacar, a wine bar and restaurant in SOMA. We were pretty disappointed. Aren's seared ahi tuna appetizer was overpriced and extremely unspecial. The space was loud and the clientele old-yuppie, if there is such a thing. I would go back for their amazing wine list, even though we didn't pick that well on our visit. We tasted two white burgundies side-by-side: a Marc Colin Meursault Les Narvaux 2003 and Michael Colin-Deleger 2003.

Zuni continues to be amongst our favorite SF restaurants. We've dined there twice in the past two weeks, arriving late enough to not need reservations. I love their starter of anchovies, accompanied by nicoise olives, thin slices of celery, and parmesan cheese. It's so simple, fresh, and elegant. The desserts we've recently had there have also been divine: a plum sorbet, mixed berry ice cream, creme brulee, and a chocolate pot de creme.

Guess where we're going next weekend?

Sub-Fabulous: Piperade & Millenium

2005-07-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

Piperade and Millenium are the last two restaurants we've tried. We had enjoyable meals at both restaurants, but will likely not return to either.

Piperade's space is actually quite fabulous. The space is warm and elegant with wood beams on the ceilings, wide-planked hardwood floors, and a large communal table at the restaurant's center. The menu is a fun read, including dishes such as a sheep's milk and ham terrine and foie gras sauteed with Monterey squid. Everything on the menu seemed so creative and unusual to us, perhaps because we're very unfamiliar with Basque cuisine. I settled on an apple and calamari salad, steamed pacific snapper with fried garlic, and orange blossom beignets. While my dishes were all fairly tasty, they read better on the menu. We tried a basque white wine, which was really disappointing. It was fairly tasteless and had a effervescence reminiscent of alka seltzer, rather than a sparkling wine. Oh well.

We visited Millenium with a vegetarian-centric group. The atmosphere was perfect for a big group -- we were seated at a large round table. Again, the food was complex, interesting sounding, and fairly good, but nothing superb. I started with a warm spinach salad before moving on to some sort of tamale and a cobbler for dessert. It was nice to see my vegetarian friends have a whole menu from which to select, but I did feel a little bad for the carnivores of the group. While I'm sure they enjoyed the food, I think a nice, meat-serving restaurant would have pleased them more. Again, oh well.

To Our Friends at Sumi!

2005-07-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

I think Zagat's ratings are generally right on the money. I like that the ratings are an average of many people's opinions. (The only rating site I favor more than Zagat is Rotten Tomatoes, which provides movie ratings based on an average of critics' ratings). Aren and I found ourselves let down by Zagat this past Saturday when we visited House, a contemporary Asian restaurant in North Beach that is rated 26 for food, a rating equal to Chapeau's. We had read that the atmosphere is cramped and noisy, so we were prepared for a less than romantic evening. We weren't, however, prepared for the disappointing food. The food's main issue was overpowering, not-so-delicious sauces. Aren's black cod ended up tasting like wasabi, and my sea bass' flavor was spoiled by the salty-even-for-soy-sauce soy based sauce. The best part of our meal was definitely the apple crumb pie we had -- odd for an Asian place!

We originally had Sunday reservations at Jack Falstaff, the newest addition to the Plumpjack family (ie, Gavin's family). After our Saturday experience, I cancelled, wanting to go to a place I knew to be reliable and super-cozy -- Sumi. Aren and I have wine coming out of our ears, so we decided to bring a bottle to dinner, paying the very reasonable $15 corkage at Sumi. I had always been embarrassed to do the corkage thing in the past, as I was worried that it would be a slight to the sommelier. I was wrong! We brought the bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot
Clos de la Chapelle Duc de Magenta 1998 that we had picked up in France and made sure to offer some to our waiter. Our waiter offered a taste of his taste to his partner who was in the restaurant at the time. His partner turned out to be one of the restaurant's owners and an ex-winemaker. We spent a good part of the evening chatting with him and later Sumi about wine, restaurants, and real estate!

It was really a magical night. It was truly pleasurable to see how wine and the simple act of sharing can bring people together.

I Scream for Ice Cream!

2005-06-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

As an undergraduate at Stanford, I lived in a house called Storey with my now-husband. Storey was known for having the best "open kitchen" on the row and a fabulous cook named Diana. From time-to-time we'd have "special dinners" at Storey to which we were allowed a guest and for which Diana cooked up a fancy meal (at least by college standards).

On one occasion, Diana had the novel idea of having one of our special dinners at her boyfriend's new restaurant in the city, rather than at Storey. Her boyfriend's restaurant is The Blue Plate, which has received quite a few good reviews since our special dinner there.

To make a long story short, my old Storey roommate Elizabeth was in town this weekend, so we thought it would be fun to hit up The Blue Plate, along with some of our other ex-Storey friends who live in the city. The food itself was dinner party good, but not awesome restaurant good. We shared some fava bean bruschetta and a nice plate of fries to start. I had skate which came with some purple potatoes. Good, but nothing special.

The food highlight of the evening was our post-dinner stop at Mitchell's. I had only had the famous San Francisco ice cream at work, so it was nice to actually pick my own flavor from the full list. I had a scoop of rum raisin, my childhood fave, believe it or not. It was creamy and delicious. Future flavors to try include a white pistachio and a thai tea.

Ice cream rocks!

Our Wine Route, Part II

2005-06-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

Domaine Dujac (Cote de Nuits)

Domaine Dujac's pride and joy is its reds. Our guide explained that their 2003 reds are not representative of what they typically produce. 2003 was an unusually warm year, so the wines they produced are more alcoholic than usual.

Our visit was rather short -- we tasted a handful of wines, loving the reds we tasted. We were disappointed to find out that they were completely sold out of their wines. We, however, were referred to a distributor in SF: chambers@chamberswines.com.

Chateau Fuisse (Mâconnais)

Chateau Fuisse is one of my two favorite wineries from our trip. Chateau Fuisse was also one of the few places we visited where many of the vines were on the property we visited for our tasting.

The land in Maconnais is not classified into crus a la Burgundy, but Maconnais still uses the notion of terroir. Fuisse wines are harvested according to "climat," a plot of land with its own personality. For example, we brought home a bottle of wine from "Le Clos," a tiny plot of land adjacent to the property.

Georges Duboeuf (Beaujolais)

Once upon a time, a Beaujolais was a good table wine, thirst-quenching and light-hearted, but not particularly nuanced. This doesn't work well for Americans who like big, tannic reds. In his Adventures on the Wine Route, Kermit Lynch explains that Beaujolais winemakers have sold-out, adding sugar to their wines to increase alcohol content (ie, chapitalization).

Wanting to form our own opinion of the current generation of Beaujolais, we scheduled a stop at Georges Dubouef's. George Dubouef not only created a winery, but also what he calls Adventures in Beaujolais, a museum, winery, and park in one. He should have actually called it Adventures in Crazy Crazy Land. He must have planned the whole project while drunk on his own wines. The museum was so bad that it was funny. It included a video projection of the first winemaker against a diorama. Who is the first winemaker you ask? Noah from ark-fame of course! The video includes Noah's animals and all the sounds they make. Unfortunately for us, the 3-D film starring Paul Bocuse wasn't functioning the day we revisited. Too bad -- it would have been nice to hear him talk about himself.

We neither ran into other visitors in the gigantic museum nor in the lavish tasting room/bar. The gentleman pouring wines seemed confused when we asked for a spit bucket. I guess Dubeouf's visitors typically prefer to chug the five glasses of wine offered to them. I suppose I don't blame them if they just came out of the museum of madness!

Caves Yves Cuilleron

Yves Cuilleron was my other favorite winery from our trip. I'm a sucker for dessert wines, so we ended up bringing two late harvest bottles of Condrieu home from the winemaker. Since I've been home, I've noticed Yves Cuilleron on SF wine menus -- lucky for us and you (well some of you)!

Paul Jaboulet

Much of our tour at Paul Jaboulet consisted of viewing the bottling line. The line is incredibly mechanized, requiring few human workers.

Our tasting took place in what looked like a middle school science lab! Since Jaboulet ships many of its bottles to the US, we asked whether the winery makes any special wines for the US. Our tasting guide mentioned that they've done this on one occasion, bottling a more tannic wine for US-only consumption. We tasted this wine --I gave it two thumbs down. I enjoyed all the other wines we tasted, notably their Condrieu, which is the only wine that isn't carried in the US!

Our Wine Route, Part I

2005-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

The Gounder-Sandersen-Wahl wine route started in Chablis, before moving to the Cote d'Or, Beaujolais, and finally, the Northern Rhone. The first half of the wineries we visited:

William Fevre (Chablis)

In 1936, the land in Burgundy was divided into several classifications, which are still upheld today by law. Grand Crus produce the best wines, and Premier Crus produce the second best wines. Most Burgundian wines fall in neither of these two classifications. Generally speaking, Grand Crus and Premier Crus are from the steepest slopes. The rationale is that grapes' roots struggle more to find water the steeper the land. The more the grapes suffer, the more complex the wine.

This steepness factor points to a big philosophical difference between French wines and the wines of Napa. Traditionally, French winemakers have tried to make wines that are representative of their terroirs (the land). While a good Napa winemaker believes in the quality of the grape, he also believes that he should play a large role in what to do with the grapes once they come off their vines. Hence, the obsession with new oak in Napa -- while a Frenchman growing Chardonnay in Chablis would likely let his wine take the minerally, more subtle taste of the terroir, an American is more likely to try to infuse the Chardonnay grapes with the oaky/buttery taste that we love. Perhaps the difference stems from Napa's newness and our lack of knowledge about our terroir. Or, perhaps American tastes (bigger = better) account for the philosophical difference.

William Fevre has vines that cross all the various classifciations. While the terroir classification could seem like a governmental ploy to protect the French wine industry, it's pretty right on. That's not to say that a Grand Cru can't produce a bad wine or that a non-cru terrior can't produce a good one. From our experience, however, we enjoyed the Grand Crus we tasted to the lesser classifcations.

Chablisienne (Chablis)

Wine Spectator grants high ratings to many of the wines produced by Chablisienne. Given this, we were surprised to notice boxed wine stockpiles when we arrived for our tasting. Moreover, unlike the other wineries we visited, Chablisienne relies on mechanical picking due to the high labor costs that would be incurred with hand picking.

How could this be the same acclaimed winemaker we had read about? We soon learned that Chablisienne is a cooperative of over 200 vineyard owners. With so many grapes to choose from, Chablisienne is able to produce everything from Grand Cru wines to, well, wine in a box.

Alex Gambal (Cote de Beaune)

Alex Gambal is an American who embraced the classical French philosophy behind winemaking, producing quality wines that reflect their terroir. He doesn't grow any of his own grapes, but works as a negotiant, buying grapes from others. He, however, maintains a close relationship with and eye on his suppliers to ensure that he only uses quality grapes.

I very much enjoyed the wines we tasted. My sister suggested that if we were to ever want to enter the wine business in France (very wishful thinking), Alex's negotiant, small scale approach might be a good one to follow.

Louis Jadot (Cote de Beaune)

Louis Jadot is a label easily found in the US. Given this, we were skeptical about how much we'd enjoy our tasting, fearful that the wines would be Americanized and commoditized.

The sommelier leading our tasting addressed this exact issue without our prompting at the beginning of our tour. He explained that Jadot's aim is both in producing excellent table wines, those commonly found in the US, as well as more complex wines.

We tasted more wines at Jadot than at any other winery, tasting unfinished wines from the barrel and finished wines, as well as wines across various terroirs and of different classifications. I came away with a 1998 Premier Cru Chassagne-Montrachet. 1998 is well-known as a horrible year for wines, but the sommelier had discovered that with a couple years, the wine had turned into something quite good. My taste buds agreed.

Maison Joseph Drouhin (Cote de Beaune)

Joseph Drouhin is located in the heart of Beaune (it's vineyards are obviously elsewhere). Its caves are an ancient labyrinth of paths stretching beneath the city. Totally cool.

Drouhin's vision moving forward is very different from Jadot's vision. Our guide explained the Drouhin wants to focus entirely on high quality, complex wines from the Premier and Grand Crus. He believed that focusing on the more attainable, table wines would only hurt Burgundy's ability to compete in the world market, since such table wines are not Burgundy's core competency.

Stay tuned for Our Wine Route, Part II.

Paul Bocuse: A Love Story Between the Man and Himself

2005-05-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

Our second hall of fame restaurant after Lameloise was Paul Bocuse's place, located in Lyon by the Saone River:

Decor

Paul Bocuse's is fun and colorful on the outside. The restaurant's interior is very regal and spacious, making the restaurant feel less warm than Lameloise. The restaurant itself was cold for me temperature-wise, but my pashmina and our wine warmed me up over the course of the evening.

Bocuse's infatuation with himself became quickly evident to us. The exterior of the building includes a larger than life mural of the chef and every piece of china is emblazoned with his name. Near the restroom, there is a photo of Paul with other chefs that is a very unsubtle reference to the last supper painting.

Early in the evening, we noted that the only black member of the restaurant's staff was the doorman, who was also the only member of the restaurant wearing a little red get-up. Later, towards the end of the evening, the staff brought a chocolate birthday cake to a woman seated near us. As the cake was presented, the black staff member came in to turn an organ grinder. It was awful -- I was totally flabbergasted. I feel awful even repeating what image the scene reminded me of (ends with a "key"). Overall, the food was more impressive than Lameloise's, but this incident really spoiled a lot of its tastiness for me.

Service

I don't have much to say, good or bad, about the service. When my brother-in-law ordered Johnny Walker black for his aperitif, he was told that it was fine for him to order red as well. This was obviously insulting, but I'll give the staff the benefit of the doubt and choke their comment up to some language awkwardness.

Food

The amuse-bouche was a creamy cream of pea soup with a single gougere (a cheesy cream puff). It was excellent. I ordered a la carte:

Foie gras de canard maison en gelée au Sauternes Antonin Carême

Cassolette de homard à l'Armoricaine

Cheese Course

Pruneaux à la cannelle et au beaujolais

The creamy lobster stew main course was incredible -- it was very rich, but the restaurant served the right (a small) portion to be pleasurable but to not finish you off for the evening (the cheese course tends to take this role for me, even though I always manage to plow through dessert).

A pre-dessert dessert (a small creme brulee) and the typical plate of pre-dessert sweets (nougat, chocolates, meringue, etc.) were served to us. Then, a dessert cart appeared from which we could select as many desserts as we desired. Since I was so stuffed, I only had the beaujolais-soaked prunes, but could have chosen chocolate cake, a fruit tart, eggs in snow, baba au rhum, amongst many other items.

I went home happy and full, but also bewildered by the restaurant's birthday tradition. Of the three *** places we tried, I'd put Bocuse in last place, partly because of this incident and partly because the colder atmosphere which doesn't suit me well.

Oh, Celine, I need our wine selection from you!

Lameloise: A Restaurant For Dogs

2005-05-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

We're back from the family, food, and wine fest that we spent with my sister and her husband in France. Blogging about the trip in one or two sittings seems rather daunting, so I'll blog about the trip in a series of posts. I'll cover the three, *** Michelin-rated restaurants at which we dined (these restaurants represent 12% of the *** Michelin restaurants in France), as well as the wineries we hit up and other memorable details, culinary or not.

Lameloise was the first of the three stars we visited:

Decor

Lameloise's atmosphere is intimate, yet elegant. We were seated in one of several rooms, all of which were occupied by an older crowd. The ceilings were low, which made for a cozy atmosphere.

The most out-of-place piece of decor at the restaurant was the dog seated with its owner at a table near us. When the lady and dog pair appeared, the servers said nothing, but I noticed an annoyed expression on at least one of their faces. I was certainly annoyed by the woman's arrogance. Would it be acceptable to bring Fido to The French Laundry or Fluffy to a White House dinner?! At least the dog was well-behaved -- perhaps its owner ordered it its own plate of foie gras to keep it happy and quiet.

Service

The service was very good, but not the best I've seen (The French Laundry wins this contest for me). We were waited on by perhaps four men, and I enjoyed their explanation of the breads at the beginning of the meal and of cheeses at the end. The service, however, was not seamless -- plates did not appear out of nowhere, as the staff would crowd into a corner to organize plates before serving them to our table.

Food

As I did with almost every dinner in France, I started off my meal with a Kir Royal. We brought back a bottle of Creme do Cerise to try a twist on the classic aperitif at home. My sister was in charge of the wine selection, so I'll update the blog with the excellent, luxurious white bottle she selected when I talk to her next (or perhaps she can add a comment to this post).

Knowing that the restaurant focuses on the hearty, Burgundian style of cuisine, we all went for the smallest menu, the Menu Affaire. Before my actual selections I arrived, we were served a plate of small tastes (a delicate shrimp, a cheese-filled square of puff pastry, and something on a spoon). Our amuse-bouche of avocado mouse topped with two sardines was creative and refreshing. As for my meal:

Gâteau de foies blonds aux langoustines de Bretagne, sauce coraillée

Daurade royale cuite à basse température écrasée de pommes de terre
sauce légèrement parfumée aux olives noires

Cheese Course

Soufflé chaud aux fruits de la passion

Everything was good, except for the souffle which was awesome. For those of you who don't know, daurade is a white fish. I ordered the souffle at the beginning of the meal. The waiter gave me the option of the passion fruit sauce on the side or infused and buried in the souffle. His description of the latter presentation was rather animated, and he seemed happy when I chose it. The main dessert was of course surrounded by a series of desserts -- pre-dessert sweets, post-dessert chocolates, and an espresso mousse with the coffee. We left fuller than full.

All in all, Lameloise is really quiet good. We, however, all felt a little disappointed. With the exception of the souffle, nothing stood out. Plus, I think souffles always stand out for me. To some extent, I think the problem is my getting spoiled -- my theory is that there is diminishing enjoyment to the world-renown restaurants at which you dine.

French Three Ways

2005-05-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

We've recently dined at a French bistro, a French-Pacific Rim spot, and an upscale French restaurant. It has occurred to me that the food I grew up with falls at the intersection of these three cuisines. Growing up, I ate simple but hearty bistro fare such as coq au vin, and my brown bag lunches often included pate-smeared baguettes. My Indian father also influenced my mother's cooking -- for example, a typical dinner might be ratatouille scooped up with pori. My mother gave me my appreciation for elegant food presentation. Every Christmas, she makes an amazing bouche de noel with knots covered in rich chocolate and painstakingly created meringue mushrooms. Enough about my mom and time for my reviews!

Rather than stick with our favorite French Bistros, we decided to give Bistro Aix in the Marina a chance. It was ok. We went through two warm baskets of focaccia, which, unlike the rest of the meal, was truly outstanding. I started with a mesculun salad with warm goat cheese, proceeded to a cracker crust pizza, and ended with a creme brulee. All very so-so. During the meal, I kept comparing Aix to our favorite French Bistros. The creme brulee was maybe 50% the deliciousness of Chapeau's. Do not, however, fear -- the rest of this blog is much more upbeat.

Last weekend, we hopped on the Muni to visit the Castro's Ma Tante Sumi, which blends Asian ingredients with French preparation and presentation. The restaurant has about 15 tables and is quiet and intimate. I had a green salad with fried tofu croutons, a beautiful piece of bass, and a caramelized pineapple cake. Our waiter suggested a nice Pinot Grigio for the table, which was light and perfect for my meal. The food was simple and elegant and the evening leisurely and cozy. Ma Tante Sumi has made my top restaurant list, which currently consists of Chapeau, Bistro Jeanty, and Zuni (I've purposely excluded French Laundry from this list, since it's way more than a restaurant and more of a once or twice in a lifetime experience).

Who would be presumptuous enough to name itself The Dining Room? The Ritz Carlton, that's who! The restaurant, however, does deserve the title. Before showing up for our 9pm reservations, Aren and I stopped by the lounge of the hotel for drinks. Rather than only semi-insult us and ask us for our IDs, the server asked if we wanted some water or soda. I of course berated him, but calmed down once I had my Kir Royale. The atmosphere and service were stellar. We were seated side-by-side on the cushioned-seat side of a four person table, elegantly decorated with white tulips. The very Versailles decor made as feel like royalty. We had about five male servers at our service. One server bumped into me when we were first shown to our table. He later found me to apologize. I had read great things about Sommelier Stephane Lacroix, so we had him describe the five German Rieslings on his wine list to us. We picked a Kabinnet, which was perfectly sweet but had a nice, dry finish (I foolishly forgot to write down its name). We were quickly but not too quickly served rolls from a silver tray and presented with an artichoke soup amuse-bouche. We mmm'd until it was all gone. We went with a three course menu. I had chilled foie gras with apple jam, sauternes gelée, and thinly sliced brioche. A+! My sole entree served on top of I-forgot-what with lobster tortellini was very disappointing. I am, however, trying not to hold this against the restaurant, since the taste of Aren's duck that I had was divine. My dessert included a lemon tart with orange sorbet and fruit topped with bergamot ice cream. The meal really ended with a cart of sweets. I selected a piece of nougat, a macaroon, a milk chocolate truffle, and an almond caramel. The Dining Room isn't a once-a-month type place, which is why I'm not adding it to my top restaurants list, but definitely worth trying when you're in the mood to be food-pampered.

17 days to France!

March Digested

2005-04-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to update my blog for a while, but somehow mid-March became late-March became early-April. I'm going to lazily make up for my laziness by writing up 2 of my March dining experiences.

We went to Squaw to celebrate Aren's birthday. Aren is a fantastic skiier, and I'm not even what one could call a skiier. Somehow, however, Aren managed to be patient enough and I self-willed enough to ski together for one day. I was pretty proud of myself by the end of the day and was happy to have dinner at Plumpjack reserved. We started off the evening with drinks in Plumpjack's bar. A rustic fire/candle pit was featured in the middle of the bar. I almost wanted to skip dinner in favor of staying near this heat source! Aren and I both agreed that we want some sort of fireplace in our kitchen in our dream home. We were really surprised by the quality of the food at Plumpjack. Tahoe isn't really a dining destination, but Plumpjack rivaled SF's best. I started with a simple salad, moving on to a delicately prepared white fish that came with lobster-shrimp pot stickers, sesame bok choy, and spiced coconut broth. Desserts were so-so. It astounds me that good restaurants that lack pastry chefs often have tasteless desserts. It's really not that hard to make a good, simple dessert. Moreover, these dessert-deficient restaurants often try to make up for their deficiency with gimmicky desserts. I'd much rather have a solid creme brulee than a "Warm caramelized apple and beignet with creme fraiche ice cream" (a dessert I recently had at the Slanted Door).

I thought I'd also write about the Market Bar located in SF's Ferry Building. When we picked it, Aren and I were looking for a casual spot where we could enjoy the outdoors on a warm SF evening. The food and service were very mediocre (our shared appetizer arrived with our entrees), but we enjoyed dining outside for once. Plus, the Ferry Building is such a pleasant walk from our place. I think the lesson here is about expectations. We picked location over food quality, got what we expected, and went home totally satisfied.

Guess where we have reservations next Friday?

Wine & Friends

2005-03-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

Turns out that wine and friends go well together. Aren and I made our umptenth trip of the year to Napa with friends visiting from Seattle. We toured a total of four wineries.

Cakebread: Having enjoyed a tour of Cakebread a year ago, we thought the winery would be a good intro to Napa for our friends. We tasted their current releases of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon. I was pleasantly surprised when a wine buyer on our tour approached me, wondering if I was in the wine business too. We left with a bottle of Chardonnay, the varietal for which Cakebread is probably the most well-known.

Domaine Chandon: I like sparkling wine. I almost always default to buying Roederer because its wines are reasonably priced and reliable. So, I was happy to discover an alternative at Domaine Chandon. We left with two very different wines, their more high-end Etoile, which is more aged than most of their wines and has a distinct almond taste, as well as their Riche which has a sweeter style I think will go well with Asian food. Chandon's open-air tasting bar was a beautiful setting for tasting these wines.

Frog's Leap: Frog's Leap had a really fun tour. Rather than lecture us on how they make their wine (something most tours focus on), Frog's Leap's tour focused on the history of the winery. Our tour guide sat us around a wooden table on their grounds and had a storytime with us while we enjoyed some nice wines. The style of this tour is very much in sync with the winery's culture -- friendly, organic, and laid back. The most interesting thing I learned is that Frog's Leap's name comes from Stags' Leap's name -- I had always thought this was a coincidence! The winery's founder made his first batch of wine from stolen Stags' Leap grapes (er, I should say "liberated" grapes). We left the winery with a very fun wine, their Leapfrögmilch, which is a blend of Chardonnay and Riesling. The wine seems a little schizophrenic, but was too fun to pass up.

Peju Province: I was a little wined out by the time we reached Peju, so I did't taste too much. I did, however, find out about an interesting wine Peju makes, their Provence. Provence is a table wine which Peju has created in the spirit of European table wines, such as your Chianti or traditional Beaujolais. The idea is that the wine is very refreshing and gulpable -- it's not heavy like your classic California reds.

What goes with wine and friends? Food! We kicked off the weekend with a visit to the Slanted Door. I hadn't visited their new Ferry Building location, so it was nice to do so. The space is much bigger than their last location. They have a nice big bar with lots of seating. Plus, they serve much of their menu in the bar -- it's nice to know that we'll have the option of dining there without making reservations a month ahead of time. Aren and I shared their spring rolls, claypot chicken, and eggplant dish. The claypot chicken was excellent. Their desserts, however, were disappointing. I had been impressed by the excellence of their desserts on a previous visit -- normally, Asian restaurants don't shine in this department. The beignet and caramelized apple I had on Friday were really pretty pathetic.

On Saturday, we visited Bistro Jeanty, for literally the fifth time in the past year. Aren and I shared their duck foie gras pate, which I recommend over their duck and goat cheese and rabbit pates, both of which we've had before. Feeling adventurous, I tried their rabbit special instead of my standard mussels steamed in red wine. Yum!

Signing off until my next yummy experience...

Wine Woes

2005-02-21T17:28:00.000-08:00

Food and wine community, I need your help! We're planning a May trip to France with my sister and brother-in-law. While a good chunk of the trip is allocated for visiting family and Ms. Paris (the city, not the socialite), we're touring the Burgundy wine country as well. Most of my wine education has taken place in Napa, so I've been trying to educate myself on French wines in hopes of selecting good vignerons to visit.

The most inspiring resource I've come by is Kermit Lynch's Adventure's on the Wine Route. It's out-of-date, so while it lacked many recommendations for me, I loved Lynch's philosophy and found the book really educational. To summarize, Lynch prefers buying directly from producers rather than negociants and a complicated wine to the big wines American blindly hold in high esteem. Lynch decries the modern methods that many wineries have adopted to save money and to appeal to the public's unsophisticated palate and fear of natural wines. For someone who has been brainwashed to think that new oak is always the way to go and that big, alcoholic red wines deserve the most praise, I found Lynch's book eye-opening and, well, relieving (I've never had much a palate for big reds).

Back to the subject of this post. I've worked on a preliminary list of producers to visit, many of which Lynch currently imports. The list is below, but I'd love to have you fill in the holes and send me your recommendations. The *'d ones I have yet to determine how to contact. Here's my list:

Chablis
Vincent Dauvissat*
William Fevre

Cote d’Or
Alex Gambal (Cote de Beaunes)
Louis Jadot (Code de Beaunes)
Maume (Gevrey Chambertin)
Robert Denogent (Maconnais)

Beaujolais
TBD

N Rhone
Thierry Allemand*
Guy Bernard*

I suppose I should also blog about my weekend's dining experiences. Friday night we went to Luna Park, where I had the worst mussels I've ever had, which certainly doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them. I like going to Luna Park because it has pretty good food, good prices, is fun for a group, and has a good bananas foster. We had a romantic dinner at Ana Mandera on Saturday night. I was a little concerned when I found out that the restaurant was opened by Don Johnson, but, fortunately, he sold it a couple years ago. The atmosphere was incredible -- the cozy bar upstairs had a jazz band and the spacious downstairs was reminiscent of colonial Vietnam, not that I've ever been there or am a fan of colonial-whatever. The food was solid -- my favorite item was my claypot fish, but nothing else is worth mentioning.

I'm signing off, but hope to hear from some of you soon!

Adventures on I-80

2005-02-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

Rather than dine out on Valentine's, Aren and I had made Saturday reservations at Navio, the Ritz's dining room at Half Moon Bay. We, however, cancelled our reservations Friday night realizing that we'd rather have a meal at home where we could enjoy a 2002 Grgich Violetta dessert wine that we had been saving for a special occasion.

We spent much of Saturday day out and about in Berkeley, where our main destination was Kermit Lynch's wine store. We are planning a trip to Burgundy at the end of May and were hoping that the staff at the store could provide us with good recommendations on chateaus to visit. While we didn't get much in the way of winery recommendations, we were recommended a wine from the Burgundy region for dinner, a 2002 Les Pommards from Robert Denogent. We also picked up a 2001 "Selection Andre Dubourdieu" Chateau Roumieu-Lacoste bottle of Sauternes, which were urged to buy as an excellent five year investment.

As for winery recommendations, the staff at Lynch's store didn't give us any, but said that the Michelin Guide was the way to go. They suggested making reservations at some places and asking our concierges for help with others. They also said that my and my sister's half-Frenchness and ability to speak French will help us get into a lot of places. Score.

Dinner was nothing fancy. A couple appetizers, pizzas (a crispy thin crust for mine and a doughy one for Aren), a fresh salad, some cheeses, and Grand Marnier souffles for dessert. We lit about 20 candles and enjoyed each other's company in the kitchen and at the dining table. Oh, and the wines were a hit.

Hats Off to A16

2005-02-06T18:13:00.000-08:00

We started off the weekend with a round of drinks with a friends at our place. Last weekend, we tracked down a bottle of Navarro Gewürztraminer grape juice, since the lovely lady element of the couple is pregnant. While she drank straight-up grape juice, the rest of us drank black magics (well, really white magics). A black magic is 2 oz red grape juice, 1/2 oz triple sec, and champagne. I liked the drink, but less than the pure grape juice and certainly less than chambord royales, my favorite champagne cocktail.

After drinks, we went to Chapeau!, my number one restaurant in the city. Chapeau!'s food is the best-exectued French bistro food I've ever had, and its atmosphere is noisy, but incredibly intimate. They have a great prix fixe menu, which is always preempted by some marvelous amuse-bouche (yes, the name for my blog was inspired by Chapeau!'s amuse-bouche custom). For my meal, I had chestnut soup with creme fraiche and croutons which I believe were infused with duck fat, mussles with fries and aioli, and creme brulee. Three of us split a bottle of a sancerre, the exact name of which escapes me. The meal was as good as usual, and we had a great time catching up with our friends, talking a lot about their child-to-be. They're both unusually good people, so I know they will be awesome parents!

On Saturday, we headed up to the hip Marina, after watching 24 Hours on Craigslist at an independent film festival -- I loved the characters I met through the film, finding many of them to be quite endearing! Our Marina destination was A16, which the Chronicle has named one of the top new restaurants of 2004. I concur. Having read reviews of the restaurant, I was prepared for the 30 minute wait past our reservation time -- it was worth it. After a glass each of Prosecco (a popular Italian aperitif), we described our wine tastes to the sommelier (fruity sauvignon blancs, sweet German rieslings, yadda-yadda). I typically don't like Italian wines, so I wanted to get a good recommendation. I think my dislike has a lot to do with Italian wines usually being the cheap wines served on most restaurant's menu (to clarify, not that the wines are cheap, but that restaurants don't try to pick winners). The sommelier picked a winer -- I need Aren to remind me of its name. For dinner, we shared their soppressata, which is cured on the premises, and fresh burrata cheese. I moved on to a pizza of tomato, oregano, garlic, olive oil, anchovies, olives, calabrian chiles, which I found light and delightful. My hope is to replicate it on Valentine's day (we're planning a romantic meal in that night). For dessert, I had a moist almond cake that came with lemon sorbet and creamy zabaglione. I'd recommend A16 to anyone who likes fresh, authentic Italian food over Spaghetti Factory-portioned Italian chow. I would also recommend it over Oliveto, another Italian spot we tried recently.

I'm off to cook some dinner now, so I'll talk to you next weekend!

Roses are Red and Zuni is Yummy!

2005-01-31T22:11:00.000-08:00

It's Monday night -- guess what that means? I have two weekend nights of food experiences to blog about (yes, Aren and I are weekend-only diners out).

Until this weekend, we hadn't ventured into North Beach since moving up to the city. This is probably because I don't love going to Italian restaurants. I find that pretty good Italian meals are easy to cook at home, so I only want to go to Italian if it's amazing. My recent good experience at Oliveto, however, made me want to give the Italian dining scene a chance. We ended up at Rose Pistola, a fairly touristy restaurant (it's appeared on the Food Network) that gets solid reviews. The meal was, well, fine. We had a pretty tasty, unique appetizer -- chickpea farinata -- a pancake made of chickpea flour baked in the wood-burning oven. I had a pizza for my main course. It wasn't as crisp as a wood-oven pizza should be, but I still enjoyed eating it. Everything else was fair. I'm sure we'll go back to Rose Pistola at some point, but probably not in the near-term.

We went to Zuni Cafe on Saturday night. Well, first we went to Hotel Biron, a wine bar just around the corner from Zuni. It's very cozy and quiet and has a great selection of wines. I was a very bad girl and had a dessert wine from Vinum Cellars before my meal. I very much enjoyed my meal at Zuni. Some people say the restaurant is snobbish, but I've never found that to be the case. Perhaps that's b/c I always request a table in the more quiet upstairs, away from the bar where maybe all these beautiful/snobby people congregate? I tried Zuni's famous shoestring potatoes for the first time, which are clearly famous for good reason. We also spent a good part of our meal peering down at the tables below us to see what other people were enjoying.

I'm already looking forward to this weekend. We have some friends from Seattle (ex-SF-ers) coming into town on Friday. We're going to Chapeau! with them -- they are fellow food-lovers, so I'm excited to share one of my fave spots with them!

Restaurants Galore!

2005-01-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind in my blogging, so I have *4* restaurant experiences to write about today!

Last weekend, Aren and I went to Cafe Claude with our good college friend. An SF expatriate friend of ours had recommended the authentic French bistro. I loved the atmosphere -- the restaurant is in a little alley near Union Square and features a jazz band during weekend nights. Unlike a lot of other bistros in the city, there was ample room between the tables. We shared pate to start, I had mussels as my main course, and I ended with a nice banana bread pudding. The food was solid, but not sensational. I'd, however, definitely go back both for the atmosphere and for the bistro's affordability. Entrees run between $10 and $15!

We also checked out Town Hall last weekend. The restaurant is being touted as one of the best new restaurants of the year. I love the look of the restaurant -- lots of wood, Craftsman-style furniture, and high ceilings. The restaurant is very loud, so I would suggest having a drink or two if you go there to help you forget the millions of voices around you. The comfort food was in fact yummy. We shared biscuits and ham to start, which reminded me of when I lived in Williamsburg, Virginia once upon a time. I had their famous duck and gingersnap gravy and then a cobbler for dessert. I went home a little tipsy and very stuffed! Unfortunately, I woke up extremely ill in the middle of the night. I was confident that my illness was due to overeating heavy foods. I immediately realized I was wrong when I went into work on Monday -- mysteriously, at least half the office had become extremely ill over the weekend. Turns out that we were not just treated with burritos at our office lunch on Friday, but salmonella! Nice!

Now for this weekend...Aren and I headed up to wine country yesterday. We visited both Duckhorn and St. Supery. We had a nice tour followed by an estate tasting at Duckhorn and left happy with a bottle of Merlot. The tasting was probably the best to which I've been -- it was long and leisurely and accompanied with explanations of the wines, as well as an overview of the winery's history. We stopped by Oakland's Oliveto for dinner on our way home. They have very good in-house salumi and good pasta dishes, very reminiscent of Delfina in SF.

We're going to my fave SF restaurant, Chapeau!, tonight -- I'll fill you in on the details soon!

Boring Food, Fun Entertainment

2005-01-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

Happy 2005! A and I went to Restaurant LuLu to celebrate on New Year's Eve (actually, we went to the XYZ bar first -- one of our fave bars in the city). LuLu was doing the whole prix fixe, first/second seating thing with a live band, party favors, and champagne toast. Our table was great -- it was smack-dab between a warm, open brick oven and dance floor. Aren and I had fun watching the mostly older crowd dance and joined in after finishing our meal. Based on reviews I had read, I knew that LuLu wasn't going to be one of my top restaurant experiences in the city, but expected it to be better than it was. I had plate-cured salmon, seared foie gras, scallops served over a bacon-y risotto, and persimmon bread pudding. The presentation and taste of my food seemed very mass-produced. One of my co-workers recently warned me about his Valentine's day theory. Since the Valentine's crowd is comprised of mostly special-event diners, the top restaurants let their quality slip on the special day since they're not worried about repeat business. Perhaps this theory could account for our New Year's Eve dining experience as well?

Kistler

2004-12-20T21:24:00.000-08:00

I was introduced to Kistler chardonnays by a wine connoisseur at a recent dinner party. The wines had the nice buttery, full flavor associated with a chardonnay and the lightness associated with a sauvignon blanc. I will certainly be drinking more Kistler in the future!

French Laundry.

2004-12-13T23:19:00.000-08:00

Aren and I spent last weekend in Napa. We had planned our trip around reservations that Aren managed to snag at the French Laundry. To hear his tips on how to snag a reservation of your own, see his account here.

Photos from our trip are here. Now for the highlights:

Lodging

We stayed at the Maison Fleurie, a B&B located in the heart of Yountville and just two short blocks from the French Laundry. Our room was cozy and spacious.

Wineries

On Saturday morning, we had a tour and tasting at Jarvis. Jarvis' entire facility is underground. The winery is the most spectacular winery I've ever visited, although it's a little over-the-top. The tackiest part of the tour was a stop in the ladies' restroom to point out a fiber optic light display on the ceiling and the nine (an unheard of number) stalls. In my opinion, the wines (primarily cabs) are not worth their steep prices. But, then again, I'm not a cab fan, so maybe I'm not a good judge.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a tour and tasting at Rudd. Like Jarvis, Rudd specializes in cabs which seem over-priced to me. The grounds, however, are beautiful and tour very interesting. Turns out that Rudd was founded by the owners of the Lonestar Steakhouse chain. Turns out that the Rudd family also owns Dean and Deluca! Lucky ducks. Rudd had some interesting equipment, including concrete fermentation tanks, which are used in Europe, but unheard of in the US. Rudd claims a sauvignon blanc in its line of wines, a percentage of which comes from these concrete tanks. The concrete is supposed to give the sauvingnon blanc a minerally taste. Unfortunately, they were sold out of this wine, so we were unable to taste it.

On Sunday, Aren and I had our final tour and tasting of the weekend at Honig. We found Honig by searching for Napa valley wineries with award-winning sauvignon blancs. During out tasting, we tried two sauvignon blancs, two cabernet sauvignons, and a yummy dessert wine that had nice hints of honey. We loved all the wines, even the cabs, which were just the right heaviness for us. Of all the wineries we've ever visited in Napa, Honig has the most number of wines that we like. Aren and I agreed that Mendocino County's Navarro is the only winery that lines up with our wine tastes more than Honig.

Food

I'm anxious to describe our French Laundry experience, so I'll briefly describe our first night's dining experience at Bistro Jeanty. This was our third visit in less than a year to Bistro Jeanty. The restaurant always accommodates our request for their two-person fireside table. Aren and I shared their terrine de lapin before respectively moving on to our coq au vin and cote du porc. We wrapped up the meal with a tarte tatin and crepe suzette. A perfect end to a perfect day!

Ok, French Laundry time. We had reservations for the first seating on Sunday (the restaurant offers a 5:30 seating and 9:30 seating each night, but it became clear to us that "special" people do not need to respect these seating times). We were nervous for the meal all Sunday afternoon -- it felt silly to be nervous, but knew the experience was going to be once in a lifetime (well, hopefully once in every couple years).

The staff was younger than I expected, but very professional and helpful. For each of the nine courses we had on our tasting menu, a different server brought and described the meal to us. We were even served two different butters, each of which was described to us in great detail.

Ok, I'm sure you (you being all the many readers of my blog) want a breakdown of what we drank and ate. First for the drinks:

A glass of Schrambsberg Vineryard, Blanc de Blancs, and a glass Pierre Gimonnet, Blanc de Blancs to complement the salmon tartar and caviar found in our first dishes
A half bottle of JUHA Strub Riesling to complement our lighter first courses
A half bottle of Michaud "The Pinnacles" Chardonnay to complement the heavier courses that ensued

All the wines were good. I liked the riesling the best, but thought the chardonnay was the most interesting. It had a minerally taste that I've never experienced before.

Now, for the FOOD! While the tasting menu is nine courses long, we were served extra surprise courses:

Extra course: The famous ice cream cone: salmon tartar on a tuille filled with red-onion creme fraiche

Course 1: "Oysters and Pearls," "Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with "Beau Soleil" Oysters and Iranian Osetra Caviar

Course 2: Poached Moulard Duck "Fois Gras en Terrine," Bartlett Pear Relish and Toasted "Brioche" for me and "Carnaroli Risotti" Biologico with Shaved White Truffles from Alba for Aren

Course 3: Pan Roasted Loin of Columbia River Sturgeon, Melted Savoy Cabbage, Trompettes de la Morte and Madras Curry Emulsion

Course 4: "Peas and Carrots," Maine Lobster Tail "Cuit sous Vide," Carrot "Parisienne," Young Pea Shoot Salad and Sweet Carrot Sauce

Course 5: "Pork and Beans" All Day Braised Hobbs Shore Crispy Pork Belly, "Cassoulet" of Autumn Pole Beans and a Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Course 6: "Tournedo Rossini" Filet of Marcho Farms Nature Fed Veal, Fingerling Potato "Confit," French Laundry Green "Broccoli Florettes," Mouladrd Duck "Foie Gras Mousse" and "Sauce Perigourdine"

Course 7: "Reblochon" Globe Artichoke "Tapenade," Caramelized Cipollini Onions, Armando Manni "Per Me" Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Fourty Year Old Balsamic Vinegar

Course 8: Coconut Sorbet, Persian Lime Jelly and Toasted Coconut "Gianduja"

Course 9: "Douceur au Chocolat," Devil's Foo Cake with Valrhona "Guanja" Chocolate "Creme," Espresso "Anglaise" and Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Extra Course: A creme brulee for me and pana cotta for Aren

"Mignardises": two macaroons, two shortbread cookies, a tiny lemon tart, a tiny chocolate mousse tart, nougat, and a tiny raspberry jelly tart

Oh and homemade chocolates (I had a peanut-butter filled one and Aren had a caramel-filled one)

We LOVED everything -- I've been typing for quite some time now, or I'd elaborate more on this! We agreed that the risotto with shaved truffles was the best of the best -- the white truffles were removed from their lockbox and shaved tableside for us. Wow!

We drove back from Napa this morning with our keepsake French Laundry menus and clothespins. Hopefully, I'll have another French Laundry posting one day...

Here goes nothing!

2004-12-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

I love good food -- eating it, cooking it, looking at it, reading about it, and last, but certainly not least, talking about it. I'm new to the blog world, but thought a blog would be a good place for me to talk about food, even if I'm just talking to myself.

My husband Aren and I just moved up to the city (that would be San Francisco) from Palo Alto. We're loving it so far and have been exploring lots of new restaurants. So, I'll start this blog by describing this weekend's food experience, dinner at Betelnut, an Asian beer house in Cow Hollow.

We were seated on arrival, even though we were early for our 8:30 reservations. The restaurant isn't particularly cozy, but I wasn't really expecting it to be. We started off with some fairly tasty cocktails -- a sake-rita (get it?) for me and a singapore sling for Aren. We munched on wok-tossed peanuts with anchovies (yum!) while deciding what to order.

We ended up selecting the minced chicken lettuce cups (I had read lots of rave reviews about these), "little dragon" pork dumplings, oven roasted whole fish, and a scallion hotcake. Everything was yummy, but nothing was to die for. The hostess encouraged us to select the whole fish over other large plates -- I've had better whole fish at other Asian establishments, such as the Slanted Door. While nothing knocked my socks off, I'm sure we'll visit Betelnut again!

Until my next worth-blogging-about food experience...