Wine Time

The Boy and I took a very impromptu three day trip up to wine country this past holiday weekend.  We got incredibly lucky and found a great hotel in Rutherford last minute.  Many different, but amazing wineries were visited, and our bellies were stuffed with unbelievable food.  The weather was perfect and I couldn't be happier spending time away in wine country with the man that I love.

Here is a list of the wineries we went visited and highly recommend them:

Paraduxx

Frog's Leap

Elizabeth Spencer

Plump Jack

Flora Springs

Round Pond

Honig

Beaulieu Vineyards

We managed to score a reservation at Ad Hoc in Yountville and loved it.  If you are not familier with Ad Hoc, they create a new 4 course menu every night, for about $50 a person.  Here was our menu:

(1) Endive & Masche Salad - caramelized cauliflower, shaved celery, kalamata olives, toasted pine nuts, raisin caper vinaigrette
(2) Spiced Beef Hanger Steak - grilled pencil asparagus, white spring onions, espelette butter, crispy baked potato, bacon creme fraiche
(3) Central Coast Goat Gouda - fuji apples, wildflower honey, marcona almond butter
(4) Cinnamon Beignets - maple anglaise, chocolate and strawberry sauce

Lovely, perfect weekend.  If only all weekends were 3 days long and spent in Wine Country.

Naked Sushi

I have arrived in the city of angels...I'm here to visit a friend of mine that recently moved here and what better place to celebrate our Independence day but Los Angeles. We were itching for something yummy, especially from that really long flight from SJC to LAX and decided on sushi. Walking through the canals, which btw I recommend everyone does while in LA, we made it to Naked Sushi in Venice.

We sat outside and ordered a bottle of organic Shochi Sake which came in a nice iced bottle with ice actually put in a blown in portion of the bottle. My friend ordered Miso soup which was really yummy with actual pieces of sliced mushroom and butternut squash!!! We also ordered a seaweed salad to split which was nice but it came with brined carrots which had an off flavor and chose not to consume after trying, my mother always told me to have a "no thank you serving" of something you didn't like to eat just so you can actually taste it. I have to thank my mother because without her "no thank you serving" I wouldn't be eating so adventurous now. The sweetness from the squash added a nice addition and cut through the saltiness of the soup. We then decided to order 3 special rolls: Crunchy Spicy Tuna Roll, Mercedes Ceviche Roll, and a Shrimp Tempura Roll. We also ordered Unagi Nigiri and Sake Nigiri which came first as out little appetizer which had a nice temperature, the fish and the rice are room temp, as is should be which makes it taste ohhh so much better.

Now for the SUSHI!!!!!! Crunchy Spicy Tuna Roll is chopped up tuna with asparagus, cucumber, sprouts, with tempura flakes around the entire roll served with a sweet eel sauce drizzled on top. This roll was my favorite, the crunch with the sweetness of the sauce and the spiciness of the tuna was a perfect combination and made the roll amazing. Next is the Mercedes Ceviche Roll which I believe had a combo of tuna and yellowtail ceviche inside with cucumber, topped with avocado and ceviched yellowtail with a sprinkle of spicy powder (guessing chili or paprika) dusted on top. This roll was my friend's favorite and called it a "party in your mouth" to be honest, it definitely partied in your mouth. Lastly we had a Shrimp Tempura roll that was with asparagus and baby watercrests inside the roll. This was the only roll that was wrapped with the Nori on the outside. This was a very tasty roll but needed a little bit of a sauce on top of it and also needed to be consumed while hot because of the tempura issue.

We ordered another bottle of the organic Sake which the Auzzie next to us asked about. He was a dad from an Australian family that sat next to us that were taking a tour of California and informed us that we should be traveling to "Down Undah" soon because of the great food and cheaper prices. Later that night my friend decided that she most definitely will be attending grad school in Australia.

After all of the food that we ordered, we finished all of it which we and our server were very proud of. We hobbled stuffed over to a bar across the street which is known for Jim Morrison's signature, well actually it's a carving that has been shellacked over about 6 times.

We then took a cab up to The Otheroom which was a fantastic wine and beer bar. I ordered a White Alagash and my friend ordered some Honey Wheat beer that was very tasty. I took some pics and they will be up shortly when I get back home.

Naked Sushi was a great dinner, a little expensive but it is LA. Highly recommend this place and you have to get their specialty rolls. So far my trip down to LA has been Oh So Fantastic. I hope to write more. Happy Independence Day everyone!!!

SUPRISE!!!!

Last night a few (nine) friends came up to the city to surprise a friend of ours for his 23rd birthday. Since our friend is a little obsessed with brewing his own beer, his girlfriend decided that a pub that makes it's own brews would be a great place to share a birthday dinner with his friends and family. We went to Magnolia Pub and Brewery in the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.

While we patiently awaited the arrival of all of our extremely late friends (come on, it's a SURPRISE party!!! What do you not get about being on time?) I sipped on a Prescription Pale, which was nice and medium bodied, but as an inexperienced dark beer drinker I switched to the Spud Boy IPA which I thoroughly enjoyed along with the majority of the table. It was lighter, thus more easily consumed, along with a slightly higher alcohol content (6% rather than the Prescription's 5.5%) that gave the entire table a nice buzz. A few others got the Hefeweizen which was filtered and also quite tasty.

Once the surprise was executed flawlessly we decided to munch on some munchies!!! We ordered their home made beef jerky, pork nuggets, and buttermilk fried spring onions. The home made beef jerky was really good, had a nice flavor and was paper thin and crisp, I almost wanted it on a salad. The pork nuggets were a little intimidating, three golf-ball sized cubes of pork deep fried come out with a spicy honey mustard aioli dipping sauce. We were pleasantly surprised at the juiciness of the pork while the breding on the outside was quite tasty and a nice contrast to the wonderful piggy goodness inside. I mean you really can't go wrong eating any fried pork product. Most people really like this dish. Last and my favorite was the spring onions that came with a really nice bell pepper romesco. That dipping sauce was soo tasty, I wanted to dip the pork nugget in it as well. A few friends got the "Devils on Horseback" which was a date stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in bacon, and fried that came with arugula and a nice sweet sauce which I think had molasses, however my friend thought that it was reduced maple syrup. My only problem with this "munchie" was that there were only 2 to an order, would have liked a few more so I could have tasted them, love the name though.

Next came the entrees. I got the Prather Ranch Hamburger with Swiss cheese. A lot of my friends got the Fish and Chips which had some tasty Cod and a great tartar sauce. Another one got the Carbonara which I enjoyed the most. I had a nice smokey flavor from the bacon and came with a poached egg on top that oozed out when you broke it. A few also got the Sausages and the 2 sides that come with it. Everyone got the Sauerkraut, but I heard that the cheese grits were fantastic.

Overall, it was a fantastic dinner. A many thanks to those who came and were able to surprise our friend. Great meal, great people, great brew.