Lisa's Culinary Atrocities

     I recently came across this article about culinary trends in ice cream.  A timely find as this post is going to be, in part, about ice cream!  On our recent holiday we had two unusual ice cream experiences, only one of which I will write about now. The other is riddled with sadness and despair.  How’s that for a teaser?
     After leaving Monterey, we headed north towards Napa to begin our wine and food tour.  On the way we stopped at Garlic World in Gilroy, CA, the garlic capital of the World.  My mission?  To find the most unusual garlic product in the store.  I was disappointed at the lack of unusual items but I DID find garlic ice cream! They had chocolate and vanilla and I purchased two vanilla.  In retrospect I should have purchased one of each.  Shazbat.  I eagerly took it outside to present it to my Father, who was a little pensive but willing to give it a try (that’s why I love him so).  I pulled open the lid of the mysterious black-magic concoction, fully expecting an intrusive waft of garlic, but was met with the smell of sweet sweet vanilla…hmmm…nothing unusual.

Letting my Father take the first taste…you know, in case it was poisonous, I recorded his reaction and watched for signs of asphyxiation (sorry Daddy…and sorry for the photo too)
     He liked it!  (Hey Mikey!)  As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this reaction on his dear face before.  I now have a visual memory in which to base all further questions I ask of my Father.  Then, I tried it, and liked it too!  Wow!  Who knew garlic in ice cream could be so delicious.  The garlic and vanilla meshed together in a sweet creamy sensation.  It was not biting, but rather sweet—garlic must have been roasted.  It was most interesting and I would have it again.

Before we left we had to be garlic bulbs.  My Father is such a good sport :)

Not too much later, back in the car, we discovered the lingering effect.  Food was in order to quench the gastro-garlic.  I had never been to an In-N-Out (apparently a fast food favorite à la numerous famous culinarians), and we had been talking about it since I arrived 5 days ago, so our next destination was just that:

So, I liked that too!  Not too shabby for a burger, although I must say, if you’re going to have a fast food burger, I will always opt for Burgerville—Why?  Delicious, sustainable, commitment to communities, fresh, local, collaborative, farm raised, conscious, oh and delicious.  They also have veggie burgers that are truly sensational…  When at home I always opt for that.

     After lunch, destination Andretti Winery was set on the GPS; how could any car person NOT go to Andretti Winery first?  We eventually came upon the beautiful rows of grapes and I got excited.  Heck-a-roni, I am excited now just thinking about it.  We arrive and it is just how I remember: rustic, inviting, warm, colorful, … pure Italiano.  Another tradition of mine, tasting a grape off the vine:

Happy from the vino, we head to to Sonoma, check into the hotel and make our way to the square.  Where to eat, where to eat?   We decided to have a cocktail and think about it.  Went to The Girl and the Fig where I had a fig concoction made with house-made fig liqueur, Finlandia blueberry infused vodka, orange juice, lime, ginger and simple syrup:

It was mighty tasty but think I would prefer it without the simple syrup.  Even though it was too sweet for me, it was incredibly delicious and a liiiiittle to easy to drink, so I had to reason myself out of a second.

     We finally decided on dinner at the El Dorado Kitchen, which is part of the El Dorado Hotel (and consistently voted ‘The Best Restaurant in Sonoma’).  Well they are not kidding!!  I blathered on about this sensational gastronomic experience in this post here…read it…go on!  Are you reading it? 

The entire day was a culinary success in all possible ways.  Back at the hotel, fluffy pillows welcomed my spinny head and I drifted off to a parallel la la land. Mmm. 

Tomorrow….more……………..wiiine………………………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.