Tuesday, September 8, 2009

California Eats

Well it has been a while since I’ve been able to blog. Seth and I just got back from our vacation to San Francisco and San Luis Obispo California, and we had a wonderful time visiting family, tasting wine, and generally touring around. So I thought I’d write a few of our favorite eats along the way, starting with our dinner at Café Chez Panisse...

 First off, they made their own sparkling water on site and the black crusty bread and creamy herb butter was enough to satisfy before the meal started. My salad was a delicious peppery argugula and fennel salad with a savory hand-stretched mozzarella topped with an olive tapenade. Seth LOVED the combination of the flavorful cheese paired with the salty tapenade. My main entrée consisted of veal medallions and herb roasted chanterelle mushrooms (which tasted as if they were picked from the woods that day). The preparation was so simple and the flavors of the ingredients really stood out! Seth’s buttermilk fried halibut with sweet and sour peppers was tangy and delicious. The buttermilk batter was so light it could have been tempura, yet it stayed true to the richness of buttermilk. For dessert, we shared a fig and raspberry clafoutis topped with fennel cream, and it was the perfect ending to a fabulous dinner! As you can tell, Seth really spoiled me on this trip  

Other delicious eats worth noting:

-Dark black-crusted peasant bread from Boulange in San Fran

-Free home-style breakfast at the Marine Memorial hotel with apple wood smoked sausage and blueberry pancakes

-Big Sky’s beignets filled with real raspberries (none of that jelly stuff)

-The four course dinner and wine pairings at the Cass House, where I tasted my first fois gras, sauternes, and veal marrow. Delicious!

-Many of the wonderful wineries and tasting rooms: Per Bacco, Tally, Turley, L’Adventure, Four Vines, and Saucilito. And for once, we bought more whites than reds. Very odd for us because we LOVED the pinots, syrah, and zins of Paso Robles, but this trip renewed our interest in chardonnay, viognier, and roussane.

-All the wonderful food Hannah (Seth’s sister) made, including focaccia,  goat cheese and bread quiches, along with bacon!

No comments:

Post a Comment