I can not WAIT to experience this meal tonight. The level of detail given to every aspect of this place has me amazed and astounded. $9 napkins?? Custom bussing bins to protect the custom Rosenthal china?? Unbelievable.
More tomorrow... if I'm still functional.
My friend Karen was in town from LA, and had never been to Sonoma, so off we went.
Started off at Gundlach-Budschu (www.gunbun.com), which is one of my favorite wineries. Sadly, the tasting room folks all recognize me now (partially, I suppose, on account of the fact that one of them worked with my mother in the ladies' lingerie business for YEARS), so we got taken care of really well.
We each ended up with 3 bottles from them (I got a Gewurtzraminer, a Morse Zinfandel & a Bearitage - which I ended up sending home to K. She got the Gewurz, the Bear and a Tempranillo). Next up, Ravenswood.
C & I just got a membership here - who knew Ravenswood was more than the $9 bottle of "Vintner's Blend" Zinfandel on the grocery store shelf?? They bottle 15 (!!!) different Zinfandels, most of which are only available at the winery. Since we had just gotten our membership, our first purchase was 35% off, so I kind of went overboard... C really, really loves their Dickerson Zin, so I got a half-case of the '02, and 2 bottles of the '01 - thought it would be fun to do a tasting over dinner one night. Also got 2 bottles of the Cooke, which is literally a couple hundred cases a year production. It's really fabulous wine. I highly recommend thier Zinfomania club if you are a Zin lover.
Ended up getting sandwiches at the Cucina Viansa in the town square, and sat at Sebastiani to eat. Now, I normally would NEVER go to Seb. on account of how tourist-trappy it is, but the guy at R'wood told us that they were getting rid of all their crap wines and focusing on their premiums. Still, I didn't really care for anything there - the wine just seemed... unfocused. And the prices didn't seem in line with the quality. Karen, however, is a fan of Italian varietals, so she ended up with a couple of bottles... but I can't remember what they were.
On to Valley of the Moon, which at one time was one of my favorite wineries. Their bottles are so beautiful, I had to show Karen. Plus, she's a Sangiovese lover, and they have a pretty good one.
Unfortunately, they were SO snotty... you would have thought you were in Napa. Karen picked up one Sangiovese, but we got out of there pretty fast.
We finished off at Cline, my absolute FAVORITE winery. We spent about 30 minutes there - I think K was "wined-out", but I picked up a mixed half-case (what else is new?). She got a bottle of Cashmere, and called it a day.
We came back to our house so she could meet C, and we grilled some Aidells Cuban-style sausages, corn & peppers up on the rooftop and cracked open a bottle of the Cooke. Yum. What a lovely way to spend a day!
I joined my friend Kat for a class last night with chef Terry Paulding... she's got this great industrial kitchen in Emeryville...
The menu for the evening was French Onion Soup, fish cakes with remoulade and mixed green salad, and a berry pavlova.
The fish cakes were lovely, and a great recipe to have - although it's tough for me to fry stuff like this b/c we don't have cross vent in our kitchen, so the whole loft would stink of frying fish... ick. But it's still good to have. Plus, the remoulade was AMAZING. I think i'm going to have to make it as a sandwich spread, and for other creole-style dishes.
The French Onion soup recipe was ok, but I would have liked to have some nice veal demi-glace added in to thicken and richen the soup... It's seem to thin to me. Also, I think it NEEDS to be boiled with a nice bone to get some of that glycerin-y mouthfeel... Finally, I think the onions were cooked perfectly, but were too sweet - I probably would leave out the walla-walla onions next time. I think I'd also sub some madeira or sherry for the cognac... it would make up for not having the sweet onions, and the either of those would really pick up the nutty flavors of the cheese. mmmm.
The pavlova recipe was WICKED. PAvlova is like a meringue but slightly chewier and not as dry. Lovely textural and flavor base for whatever you want to put on top. We did LOTS of whipped cream and berries (straw, black, rasp and blue). This was REALLY lovely, and would be a great recipe to do ahead - you can keep the pavlovas in an airtight container and top right when you're ready to serve.
I can't wait to take some more of Terry's more advanced classes - i'd LOVE to do a knife techniques class, a long-cooking techniques class (like roasting, braising, etc). and maybe a class or two specific to particular cuisines... caribbean, moroccan...
many thanks to kat for inviting me, and to tuan for going out of town so i could take his spot!
Had a really lovely dinner at Postrio last night... but it wasn't what I expected. I suppose for the price, and for all the hype, I expected something really superior. Anyway, here's the rundown:
Wine was a '99 Merlot (!) from BR Cohn. I like this winery a lot, but am not really a Merlot drinker. However, my dining companion was, so I was looking for a nice Meritage or Bordeaux in the wine bible (yes, it WAS a wine bible - must have weighed 3 lbs - and that's BEFORE they put the copper cover on it!).
Anyway, our server (who was phenomenal, btw - more on that later) steered us towards the BR Cohn. I hesitated but, fine... when he brought it, I was blown away at how beautifully mature it was. It didn't even need to breathe, it was so ready.
Lovely tannins, rounded out and softened by the time spent in the bottle, with a richness and complexity not characteristic of Merlot. Fairly fruit forward, but not cloyingly so - long finish that was fairly straightforward. Lovely.
So, more about the waiter. This guy, he LOVES what he does. He's passionate about the food, and the wine, and the creative artistry of the chef. Either that, or he's a damn good actor. He was gesticulating wildly while describing the specials, his eyes half-closed as if he was recalling his own sampling of the special. At the end, he said, "the chef has outdone himself tonight"... without a hint of falseness. I suppose that to a certain degree, HE is part of what you pay for at a place like Postrio.
Our Amuse Bouche might have been the best part of the meal... sweet corn soup with crab-essence oil. Holy cow. I wanted a whole bowl of the stuff. The corn flavor was SO perfect - God love summer - and the slight drizzle of oil served as a lovely counterpoint to the creaminess of the soup. At a restaurant of this caliber, I do NOT generally sop up the juices with bread, but with this soup, how could I NOT?
We shared an appetizer of ahi tuna tartare - not so adventurous, but always nice to see how a restaurant handles the staples. This was beautiful ahi, served with a tomato confiture, lovely ciabatta-style toasts brushed with a green oil - was it cilantro? I can't remember. a demi-tasse spoon of an aioli was served in the tuna to add as one wished.
This dish was really wonderful. The complexity of flavors in the tomato confiture (can I get this for my morning TOAST? Yes, it was THAT sweet) were amazing. The tartare itself was really lovely, well-balanced flavors, etc. The toast points were great - so often, bread overwhelms the "star" of the dish, or otherwise doesn't compliment it. They got these VERY right.
For mains, I had the lamb chop, my colleagues had the rib-eye.
Lamb was good - not great. It was great lamb, and it was cooked beautifully. But the feta/kalamata brine/fava thing didn't seem to work so well. It was too many tart/salty tastes together, and the delicate fava beans were completely overwhelmed.
The rib-eye was, well, as good as any properly cooked niman ranch ribeye I've had. It came with a rosemary compound butter, which seemed rather pedestrian to me. the grilled zebra (I think) tom was good, but I've had better tomatoes at the farmer's market in the past week. I didn't get to try the veggies on the plate, but colleagues seemed to like them.
Finally, dessert was VERY good. I had the chocolate brioche french toast, which was really rich and wonderful. I didn't care for the maple-cinnamon ice cream it came with since I couldn't taste the maple... I actually asked for a small scoop of the ricotta ice cream that was being served with another dessert, and that, my friends, was heavenly. Must have been 80% butterfat, delightful lemony tang... nummy.
Colleague's peach & cherry crisp/cobbler thing was also very good - though I only got one stab at a cherry.
By my estimation, dinner before tax and tip would have been around $170 or so. Not egregiously expensive, but still, for the money, I would have expected the entrees to shine.
Welcome to my personal Gastronomie blog.
Here I will post my adventures in cuisine... from recipes to reviews of restaurants I've been to. Food TV shows are fair game, too.
Enjoy my culinary adventures!
Recent Comments