Lisa's Culinary Atrocities

Ah Sonoma and Napa, let us taste the fruit of your wondrous land.

I am so excited for today as we will spend the majority of it visiting vineyards and experiencing their bounty. Car roof down and hair-a-flailing we work our way to our first stop of the morning (ok…late morning): ZD Wines in Napa.

In the last 5 years, ZD Wines have received 373 medals, 108 of which were Gold Medals with 17 Double Gold and 8 Best of Class!   Unfortunately, my favorite wine was $125 a bottle.  This appears to be one of the problems with doing wine tours…once you taste your way to the top it’s hard to go back.

Next, Bottega Ristorante in Yountville, owned by Chef Michael Chiarello and one of the top 20 and Zagat rated restaurants in the country.  We decided to wait for a table on the patio so in the interim we spent some time next door in Mr. Chiarello’s store, Napa Style.  Ut-oh…all the stuff I never knew I needed!  They had some large steel containers of olive oil to taste, all of which were good, but the most delicious was their Sicilian unfiltered olive oil.  We did not purchase any (wish I would have had I known I couldn’t find it on their website) but I did purchase some Cabernet Pasta (or Pasta Caberneti Penne) that is made from dried and milled grape skins.  I am really excited to do some food and wine pairing taste-tests on this in the near future.

Finally sitting on the beautiful Bottega patio, enveloped in the deep red from the sun shining through the patio tent, we munched on some of the best bread we’ve had.  It was exceptionally crunchy on the outside and soft-n-chewy on the inside, so good in fact, I heard my Father make yummy noises (doesn’t happen often).  For our meals we both had the Crispy Potato Gnocchi with english pea & tallegio fonduta, early spring vegetables and prosciutto crisp, paired with a Frank Family Chardonnay.

The gnocchi was some of the best gnocchi I’ve ever layed my tongue upon.  Lightly browned on the bottom with a gentle balance of flavors and textures. The prosciutto crisp added just enough salt and crunch to take the meal from very good to exceptional.  The portion was perfect as a light meal and to help renew the palette for more wine tastings to come. *grin*

After lunch, we went across the street to Hope and Grace Wines which was recommended, and most unfortunately not as memorable as the painting they had on the wall, which I am quite fond of.  It is titled “Angry Girl”.  I anguish at even adding this part except for the fact that I really like the painting.

From there, with rows and rows of vineyards flying by and the sun twirling her long fingers through our hair, we headed to Calistoga for a specific Calistoga water that they ended up not having.  Bummer. 

We then remembered being wooed by the Castle in the distance: Castello di Amorosa.  We had seen this castle from afar a few years ago while on the tram at Sterling Vineyards and became curious.  We attempted to find it that year, but by the time we did, it was closed.  This year we decided to make it a point to visit! It was a very fun experience, exploring the nooks and cranny’s, seeing the paintings and ancient furniture, and working our way to the dungeon where the wine tastings were held.  Read more about them here.

Finally back in Sonoma, the smells of roasting and croissants lure us to the farmer’s market.  I was kindly offered a fig and it’s flowered pink innards filled my mouth with its sweet offering.  Here is a great post on how to pick a ripe fig. I do loove fresh figs.

Remembering how much we liked it during our last visit, we ended up at Della Santina’s, just a block west of the square in Sonoma.  I had Ravioli alla Lucchese (kip and spinach filled pasta in a meat and porcini mushroom sauce) and my Father had the Penne Contadina (penne with italian sausage and pear tomatoes).  We shared a really nice bottle of Alma 2007 Red Table Wine from Sonoma (a red Bordeaux blend) that was kindly suggested as an off menu selection.

The food was very good, but not quite as good as we had remembered.  Could be because our palettes were overwhelmed from the day, so I would still highly recommend them.  The wine was lovely and paired perfectly with our meals

So…another successful day.  Tomorrow we head through Anderson Valley towards Mendocino.  More wine to come!

Sunburned ears and a head full of beautiful cars and important faces, I am in awe of the past number of days. We (my beloved Father and I) just finished attending the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion & Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to go through my photographs and try to relive my experience through words. I fully intend on doing so but FIRST I must tell you about, truly, one of the best meals I have ever had in my entire life—I kid you not.

Oh WHOOPS—how’d that get in there?!

Anyway…

I am not the heartiest of meat eaters, especially red meat (last steak I’ve had was maybe 10 years ago) but Dear Sweet Jesus, Holy Mother of God, Good Lord and Hot Damn, our dinner last evening at El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma gave me an entirely new perspective towards food. One thing I realized is that a $30+ plate is (can be) absolutely worth it. When it was first presented I thought “where’s my food!” … Well, after the first bite I was a changed person, enveloped in sweet endogenous opioid peptides in a way I never thought possible… (moment of silence as I can still feel the after-effects.) The other thing I realized is that one can go to an In-N-Out and gloriously consume at light speed, but something about a really REALLY good plate of properly thought out and well executed food is that the seemingly inherent need to stuff ones face, especially if delicious, was completely dissolved. Every bite and every following second was permeated with the perfect balance of flavor and texture. All senses were in full action. I had gone to culinary heaven.  Did I mention that it was truly one of the best meals I have ever had in my entire life?

It was started with a plate of mixed greens, pickled strawberries, laura chenel cabecou goat cheese and a champagne vinegarette.

My Father had the Roasted Petaluma Chicken with quinoa, roasted pattypan, chicken jus and squash blossom pesto.  UNbelievable.

I had Seared Prime New York, with bourguignonne, pommes rosti, sautéed spinach, poached partridge egg (not in a pear tree), sauce béarnaise and bordelaise. Each bite followed with muffled yummy noises and head lolling.

We paired our meals with a 2007 Thorne Pinot Noir that was perfect with both the chicken and the steak.

Topped off with Talisker and Bruichladdich single malt scotches, the night was complete.

So moving on…it is nice to finally have a slower pace to our days as opposed to the 7am-10pm barrage of car activities. Today we will plan our winery and vineyard tours and live at a nice slow pace. Ahhhhh…I am enjoying being human.  May I please do this forever?