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.

It’s 11am and my body, after weeks of wine consumption, is wondering when the wine tasting is going to start…but I am now home and it’s time to… drink… I mean sift my way through all of the information and photos I have collected, have some nice quiet tea, give my pillow some face time and mentally prepare to return to work tomorrow.

But first:

What a wonderful whirlwind vacation of the senses this has been.  I really meant to keep up my posts, but it proved to be a great challenge.  All moments seemed to be filled to capacity.  Pen and paper in hand, I frantically wrote notes—hope they make sense to me now!  One of many lessons to come: day off required in between activities, which in turn would require more vacation time, so either I need to win the lottery and retire or get paid to do this.  What a dream that would be!

SO, I suppose it would be best to start at the beginning and try to keep it (mostly) related to the food and wine highlights, which may be difficult.  That being said, day one:  flew from Portland, OR to San Jose, CA where my Father met me on his drive out from Colorado.  From there we drove down to Monterey where we had some delicious, mildly creamy and quite robust bean soup from the Wild Plum Café.  If I lived here I would frequent this place often.

That evening we congregated with kindred car-lovers & life-long friends of my Father at the Baja Cantina in Carmel, where I had some delicious salmon tacos. Remaining unusually full from the afternoon’s bean soup, but so excited to eat these lovely tacos, I tried to gently coax my stomach into submission (she won).  Alas, it was too dark for a proper photo but I will tell you that the tacos were tender, fresh and perfectly balanced with salsa, cheese and seasonings.  I highly recommend them.

Not quite ready to call it a night, we got some wine and had a little soirée in the hotel room with our beloved friends, where the laughter flowed, pocket knives were compared, pictures were shared and incredible stories of their crazy and high-speed high school days were told. Humorously, it took the small knife to open the last part of the big knife.  I know I know…exciting.  Had to to be there I guess. :)

Day 2:  Went to Carmel-by-the-Sea where we met the cars participating in the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance.  This is where many of the cars that would be in the Concours d’Elegance a few days later would “trace portions of the original 17-Mile Drive, traverse nearby mountains and valleys, dip down famed Highway One and pause for a time in charming Carmel-by-the-Sea.”  So many beautiful cars and waaay too many photos to be shared on this fooood blog.  Why am I here you might be asking?  Well my most adored Father, a car aficionado and former race-car driver, comes here most years for these world-class series of events…and I wanted to share it with him…’cause I like being with him…and they’re pretty…and it would be a great experience (which it WAS!) Plus, we decided to turn it into a lengthy food and wine tour…so what more could you ask for?

Onward.  While there we also observed interesting interactions:

…and went to a little wine tasting room nearby for some wine and noshy bits.

As I look back over my notes I am saddened that I was not yet taking down the specifics of these things, especially this wine and cheese as they were very good.  Shazbat.

The night ended with another event at the Baja Cantina where there were even more cars and food to consume…

Enough for now.  So much more to cover and with much greater detail in the food and wine area…and my pillow is getting cranky from a lack of attention.