{Wine Wednesday} Lynmar Estate and Merry Edwards

It's dark, rainy, and cold here in NYC today.  So we thought we would share photos from sunnier days when we were in Sonoma County last month.  We hope you enjoy our winery visits to beautiful Lynmar Estates and free tastings at Merry Edwards.  We're going to try to keep dry and count down to happy hour!  Happy Wednesday!

{Travel Tuesday} Commonwealth in San Francisco, CA

Elegant food in a casual atmosphere, with proceeds going to charity - dinner at Commonwealth was the perfect way to end our San Francisco trip earlier this month.  We were really cutting it close - enjoying a multi-course dinner in the Mission District before rushing to the airport to make our red-eye flight.  But it was well worth it!

We debated between the 6 course $60 tasting menu ($90 with wine pairing) or the a la carte menu.  For every tasting menu order, Commonwealth will donate $10 to charity, which made me want to get the tasting menu.  But the night we were there, both proceeds from both tasting menu and a la carte menu went toward Meals on Wheels.  So instead, we decided to order off the a la carte menu to try more dishes.  Our first taste of the night were complimentary (and addictive) homemade chips with seaweed and pimenton (Spanish paprika) with a malt vinegar mousse (similar to an aoili) for dipping.  A tasty and playful alternative to bread and butter - we were in for a fun dinner.    

The kitchen provided us with a complimentary taste of their Shaved Carrots and Radishes dish.  It was a great starter with ash coated goat cheese, quinoa, spicy greens and walnuts.  

Asian Pear with chicory, pomegranate, cured ham, idiazabal cheese and peppers ($12).  The cheese, presented in a spherical shape, becomes runny and adds a creamy texture to the salad to match the tart pear, bright and sweet pomegranate, and soft fatty ham.  My husband loves salads like these - with so much cheese and salty ham that he does not realize he's eating a salad.

Kabocha Pumpkin with black kale, yuba, sprouting broccoli, coconut milk and peanuts ($12):  I love Kabocha pumpkin - it's sweet like butternut squash, with a pumpkin/sweet potato-like texture.  Yuba is a tofu skin that was fried and added a nice crunch.  Loved the deep, earthy kale and broccoli with the light coconut milk foam too.

Sea Urchin with sweet potato tempura, chrysanthemum leaf, shiso, scallion and yuzu kosho ($15):  I haven't been a fan of uni (sea urchin), but after having it at Marea in NYC and now here, I'm gaining a greater appreciation for this dish.  My husband loved the briny urchin with the sweet tempura, tart yuzu, and herbal chrysanthemum, shiso, and scallion.

Squid and Pork Belly with jidori egg salad, potato croutons and a drizzle of a herb vinaigrette ($13):  Two of my husband's favorite things to eat - squid and pork belly - combined on one plate.  Pork belly is one of those ingredients that we gravitate towards on a menu.  The vinaigrette and crispy squid keeps the dish from tasting too heavy. 

By now, we were both full, but I could not pass up on dessert.  I ordered the cinnamon mille-feuille with cardamom marshmallow, chocolate ganache, and burnt honey ice cream ($8).  I love mille-feuille (it's a French pastry that is normally filled with vanilla or custard cream in between layers of puff pastry) and found this cinnamon version interesting.  My favorite part of the dessert, however, was the homemade cardamom marshmallow.  I love the taste of cardamom and how it balances the sweetness of marshmallows. 

And then the chef came out to bring us a complimentary dessert of Olive Oil Cake with yuzu curd, huckleberries, pinenut brittle, and creme fraiche ice cream.  I was contemplating getting this dessert too, so I was thrilled when we were presented this dish by the chef. The cake itself was moist and the yuzu and creme fraiche ice cream was nice and light. 

We enjoyed briefly chatting with the Chef, who had also worked with the equally friendly, generous, and talented Chef Kate from Plum.  We found the staff superb and timely throughout the evening.  And though the plates are relatively small (similar to a tapas restaurant), we were very full by the end of dinner.  Overall, we had a great time and enjoyed dishes that reminded us of Coi but at a fraction of the price.

 Commonwealth is located at 2224 Mission St. in San Francisco, CA.

{Wine Wednesday} Siduri & Novy Wines

While we were in the Bay area, I took my wife to a few wine tastings up in Sonoma.  Our favorite winery in California, Siduri Wines, is actually located in an expansive warehouse located in Santa Rosa, CA.  We were the only visitors on a recent Thursday morning, which made for a true intimate tasting experience.  We got to taste the amazing (and large) lineup of Siduri Pinot Noirs and wines from their other label, Novy Family Wines.  The winery, started by Adam and Diana Lee (both from Texas), does not own any vineyards, but sources its grapes from throughout Sonoma County, California's Central Coast, and Oregon.

Siduri Wines gets its grapes for its Pinot Noir from top-quality parcels at vineyards like Hirsch (far Sonoma Coast); Pisoni; Gary's; and Rosella's.  Most of their single vineyards wines can age a bit while the appellation and county wines are often ready to drink soon after release.  Although fruit forward, the wines are true to the varietal with good structure and earthiness.  We sampled the velvety 2008 Chehalem Mountains (Oregon) and three wines from California - two from Sonoma including the 2009 Hirsch (my personal favorite) and one from the Santa Lucia Highlands (Central Coast).  There was even a sweet, yet crisp white Pinot Noir on this visit (never had a white Pinot before!).

We've enjoyed a lot of their Santa Lucia Highlands and Oregon wines recently and still have several of the remarkable 2007 vintage left to have this holiday season.  Prices overall are fair, with some in the low $20s up to around $50 for some of the single vineyards wines. We're definitely looking forward to the 2009 releases.

The Novy label includes Syrahs, Zinfandels and Grenache, all plush yet still refined in style.  Like the Siduri wines, the bottles we've had over the past few years are not over-oaked and most people will find something to their liking.  We were able to try the Nebbiolo from Stolpman Vineyard (rare varietal for CA) and some delicious Syrahs from both the Russian River (my wife's favorite) and Central Coast (my preference). Novy produces white wines including a Viognier, Chardonnay and a late-harvest dessert wine as well.

It's a pleasant experience going to Siduri.  Not only do they not charge for tastings (unlike most high-end Pinot producers in Sonoma), but in both our visits, we've never been pressured to buy wines or join their mailing list.  We highly recommend stopping by Siduri to introduce yourself to a great lineup of wines from top to bottom.

Siduri Wines and Novy Family Wines is located at 981 Airport Court in Santa Rosa, CA.

{Travel Tuesday} Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, CA

 

Date night in San Francisco started off with a walk up a steep hill to the newly-opened restaurant, Sons & Daughters in the Nob Hill area.  Thankfully, it was only a couple of blocks from our hotel and I was wearing flats.  Walking into the restaurant, I felt like we were back in NYC, dining in a neighborhood joint in  Brooklyn.  The interior was black, white, with shades of gray; while the staff were young and pleasant.  The kitchen was in the middle of the dining room and there was a waiting lounge downstairs.

The changing menu is short, with only 11 dishes (which includes the 2 dessert options) on it.  I liked that the whole table doesn't need to participate in the tasting menu, so my husband went with the bargain 4-course $48 prix fixe tasting menu while I ordered a couple of items a la carte.

After we ordered our glasses of wine (Syrah-based 2009 Cotes du Rhone from St. Cosme ($9) and a easy-drinking lemony white Bordeaux blend from Chateau Lamothe de Haux ($10)), we received this complimentary amuse bouche.  The Raw Oyster finished with cucumber juice and lime was bright, briny, and refreshing. A good start to our meal!  We were also given warm homemade brioche with very local San Francisco sea salt (not pictured).

My husband's first course:  Raw Lobster Tail with Basil Lime, Pomegranate and Caviar.  The lobster was pounded thin and was pleasant with the salty caviar, sweet pomegranate seeds, and microgreens on top.  This dish tasted even better than it looks (my husband proclaimed it to be one of the best appetizers he's ever enjoyed).  

My complimentary taste of the Herb Salad.  The kitchen nicely brought me a taste of their "curds and whey" salad (maybe they thought my husband wouldn't share his lobster appetizer and didn't want me sitting there without anything to eat?).  It had curds, whey, radish, sliced fennel, airy eucalyptus oil foam, and crispy quinoa scattered on top.  This was certainly an interesting salad.

My husband's 2nd course: Sweetbreads with Lobster Claw, turnip, and bronzed fennel. A great choice for the tasting menu option - a few bites of the sweet shellfish paired with the browned yet melt-in-your-mouth sweetbread with tender vegetables was excellent.

My dish:  Squash with White Chanterelles, Rapini, Dried Fruit, Pineapple Sage, and Nasturtium ($13) A lovely fall dish that was surprisingly delicate and hearty in flavor.

My husband's 3rd course: Lamb loin cooked sous vide and then pan seared and served medium rare with quail egg, spinach, toasted barley and chunks of lamb cheek.  We love dishes with a runny egg that you can mix with the jus and in this case the barley.  My husband enjoyed this dish, while I preferred my squab dish below.

My entree: Squab ($20) breast, Confit leg, and pate with poached pears, hazelnuts (crushed and puree), and shallots.  I loved this dish!  The meat was juicy, the rustic pate was insanely rich, and the hazelnuts enhanced the dish by bringing out the flavor of the meat.

Complimentary palate cleanser:  Blueberries, vanilla bean, and airy vanilla powder.   I liked the light, playful bite which paired blueberries with a vanilla cloud.  When I looked up from my bite, however, my husband had blown the powder all over himself and the table. I laughed as he sheepishly explained he was trying to sniff the aroma before taking a bite.

My husband's 4th course (dessert):  Foie Gras, pickled apple puree, lemon verbana, and almond brioche crumble.  To me, this was not a dessert dish (very savoury, not a lot of sweet), which is probably why my husband loved it. He really enjoyed the buttery and salty richness of the foie gras paired with the intense pickled apple to cleanse his palate.

Sons and Daughters is located at 708 Bush St. (at Powell) in San Francisco, CA.

High/Low's Bi-Coastal Celebrity Chef adventures

When High/Low recently went bi-coastal for a weekend, we each had our own celebrity chef adventure.

I was in San Francisco enjoying an Anthony Bourdain-inspired culinary adventure, while my husband was in New York meeting one of the greatest chefs of all time, Thomas Keller!

Join us as we take you through each of our adventures.

I met with Mardi at R&G Lounge for their famous Salt and Pepper Dungeness Crab and Lychee martinis (yes, even Anthony Bourdain drank one!)  This restaurant is also a favorite of Michael Mina's.

I love lychee martinis (This one was $10).  I'm not sure how this version was made, but here is my recipe that has been very popular amongst my friends:

Lychee Martini

Ingredients:

1 can of lychee fruit

 Soho lychee liqueur

vodka

Directions:

In a martini shaker, add 1 oz Soho, 1 oz vodka, 2 oz syrup from the can of lychee fruit, and ice.  Shake well.  Pour the drink into a martini glass.  Add a couple of lychee fruit from the can and serve.

Our meal was very photogenic!

The crab ($35) was fantastic - meaty, crunchy, and simply seasoned with salt and pepper.

The next day, Mardi met me again, this time at Bourdain's favorite quick bite at the Ferry Plaza Marketplace:  Primavera.

I had the breakfast ($9) of eggs, beans, salsa, and tortillas.

Mardi had the tomales ($9), which were also Bourdain's choice.  One had mushroom and the other had pork - both very filling, but delicious. 

With so much fresh and substantial dishes, it's no wonder Alice Waters counts herself one of Primavera's many fans.

Lastly, I passed by San Francisco's (and California's) oldest establishment, Tadich Grill, where Bourdain went to grab a drink.  I peeked inside, and with its dark, glossy wood-panelling and cozy, enclosed booths, it looks like San Francisco preserved in time.

My lucky husband got to meet (and take a photo with) one of our idols, Thomas Keller!

Keller was signing his new cookbook, ad hoc, at a nearby Williams Sonoma store.

 While waiting in line, my husband got this Cauliflower Soup sample (which was not a recipe in the book)...

 

...and this Chocolate Chip cookie from the ad hoc cookbook.

Though I wished I could have been there, I'm glad we got this keepsake!

Bourdain's SF Adventure:

R&G Lounge is located at 631 Kearny St
 Primavera is found on Saturday mornings at the the Ferry Plaza Marketplace.
Tadich Grill is located at 240 California St. 

Brunch at Lulu-SF

The final event of the Foodbuzz Festival was the Farewell Brunch at Lulu Restaurant.  Those who managed to wake up from the prior night's festivities were on hand for the last food event of the weekend before attendees left for home.

Glad to see lots of salads available including this one with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, olives, baby lettuce, and Ivernia cheese.

We probably would not have seen this Californian produce for another week or so in NYC.

Make Your Own Bloody Mary bar...

After all the wine tasting and dinner pairing, we settled on OJ and as much of the buffet as I could fit on my plate:

Pear, blue cheese, and walnut salad
 Frittata with aged cheddar, whiskey, and wild mushrooms

French toast

Vegetable salad

Another fun event, including meeting Jaden from Steamy Kitchen and Marc from No Recipes.  (See if you can spot them in the crowd!)  Can't wait for next year's conference!

"Everyone Eats There." Yes, but What Do They Eat?

This Mark Bittman story in the annual NYT Magazine food and drink issue appeared last month under several headlines:

• Heavenly Food
• California's Central Valley:  Land of a Million Vegetables
• Everyone Eats There

It is this last headline that has stuck with me--and continued to agitate me.  This is because I find the headline misleading or--perhaps more precisely--because it tells only part of the story.  Bittman's piece is an homage, of sorts, to California's Central Valley, which produces more than a third of the produce grown in the United States.  Bittman writes:

The valley became widely known in the 1920s and 1930s, when farmers arrived from Virginia or Armenia or Italy or (like Tom Joad) Oklahoma and wrote home about the clean air, plentiful water and cheap land. ... Unlike the Midwest, which concentrates (devastatingly) on corn and soybeans, more than 230 crops are grown in the valley, including those indigenous to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Mexico, some of which have no names in English. At another large farm, I saw melons, lettuce, asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, chard, collards, prickly pears, almonds, pistachios, grapes and more tomatoes than anyone could conceive of in one place. ... Whether you’re in Modesto or Montpelier, there’s a good chance that the produce you’re eating came from the valley.

Maybe my annoyance with this headline is one of those "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (versus "Eats Shoots and Leaves) issues.  That is, what Bittman's headline writers probably intended to convey with "Everyone Eats There" is that, wherever you live in the United States, you eat food from California's Central Valley.  The Valley is the "there" and we all eat from its bounty.  As he writes above, whether you are in Vermont or in the valley itself, you probably eat produce grown in this part of California.  What Bittman's story overlooks is that many people in the valley don't get to eat the produce at all.

You see, the headline could also be read to mean something perhaps more accurately expressed as, "Everyone There Eats."  That is, it could be interpreted as meaning that everyone in the valley eats.  Technically, this is true.  But what that interpretation--which might be the "first glance" one for many readers--glosses over is what residents of the valley eat. You see, ironically, the Great Central Valley is home to many food deserts, places where good, nutritious food is hard to get and where people--many of them farm laborers--live in poverty on "liquor store diets." While Bittman waxes poetic about the wonderful array of food grown in the valley, he doesn't acknowledge that many in the valley--including those who grow the food and their children--don't benefit from that bounty.

Others do.  Edie Jessup of Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP) has called the "poverty of the Central Valley of California and the abundance of the region's agriculture" a "conundrum." Or, as as Cesar Chavez said years ago:

It is ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your table with abundance, have nothing left for themselves.  

In a post a year ago on the California Institute for Rural Studies website, Jessup expanded on the issue:

Fresno County is iconic, and typical of all the Central Valley counties. It is the richest agricultural producing county in the nation and the poorest congressional district in the USA, with poverty and hunger at about 40% according to the California Health Inventory Survey. This paradox results in an abundance of food leaving the region, broken local produce distribution systems, rural corner stores that only sell cheap junk food and soda, fear of ‘la Migra’ (racism), compromised healthcare, and a lack of potable water and transportation access. In Fresno, 85% of school children qualify for free lunch, and 33% grow up in extreme poverty. One-third of children are obese, and 2/3 of adults are obese with a compendium of chronic diseases directly related to diet. Our food deserts are frequently food swamps, where there is ‘food’ available but it is often unhealthy and cheap. Fresno City and the surrounding metropolitan area have a population of over 500,000 and the outlying 14 incorporated cities and over 50 unincorporated areas total over 900,000 people. Significantly, Fresno County produces nearly $5.3 billion from agriculture; however with only one large urban area, most of the county is very rural, as is the entire Central Valley.

I recently wrote of one such area in Fresno County:  Mendota, sometimes referred to as the Appalachia of the West.  Jessup calls for remedies to this "entrenchment of food deserts and food swamps, sporadic emergency food distribution, multiple 'pilot' solutions to hunger, and a lack of connections between infrastructure [that] make food access in the Central Valley a social justice issue."  More importantly, through CCROPP, Jessup is working to achieve those remedies.  It's a pity that work such as this--and the crisis to which it responds, do not get the sort of national attention that Mark Bittman commands.  It's also a pity that Bittman doesn't use his platform to talk about issues like these.

Cross-posted to Legal Ruralism.

Farm to Table Dinner by Outstanding in the Field: SF

The piece de resistance of the Foodbuzz festival was the Farm to Table dinner coordinated by Outstanding in the Field. Have you ever seen the show Endless Feast on PBS?  Basically it's a show where dinners from around North America are coordinated with local farmers, food producers, and chefs working together to create the freshest meal in the most rustic environment.

Outstanding in the Field takes this concept and opens up the opportunity to the public.  They have even coordinated several sold-out dinners in NY (At $200 a ticket, though, we have not been able to go.)  As you can guess, this dinner was the event I was most looking forward to attending. 

Chefs from notable San Fran restaurants Namu, Ame, Walzwerk, and Hog Island created the meal.

At left is the 2007 Le Cigare Blanc and at right is the fresh seltzer from The Seltzer Sisters.

Randall Grahm from Bonny Doon Vineyard (who provided all the of the wine for the dinner) was on hand to greet all of the diners.

The antipasti was filled with tons of great vegetables including beets and kimchi.

 

We started the meal with this Mushroom dashi with maitake, shimeji, and enoki mushrooms.  It was so earthy with a bright lemon taste from the pickled turnip.

This pile of grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction was mixed with cucumbers, kaiware, frisee, and yellow pear tomatoes with cojang and sesame vinaigrette.  Below all of these fresh and light ingredients was a bowl full of udon.

Though this fish looked and tasted a lot like salmon, it was actually a Sea trout baked with dashikombu, fried garlic, and Japanese curry powder (which was very subtle).

Mushroom risotto with koshihikari rice and crispy maitake mushrooms.  I enjoy dishes that mix textures and these mushrooms nicely retained their crunch.

This red wine is Bonny Doon Vineyard's tribute to Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Notice the UFO on the label?  The wine itself, Le Cigare Volante, translates to "The Flying Saucer" in French.

The tastiest brussels sprouts dish I've ever had!  This was Roasted Brussels Sprouts with ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, and bonito flakes.  Guanciale is very similar to bacon and pancetta in taste (which is probably why this dish tasted so good!)

This dish was also one of the most anticipated entree of the evening.  Here we have Soy braised beef cheeks and oxtails, with baby carrots and fingerling potatoes in a OB beer and denjang demi.

mmm...dessert wine! 

Koshihikari rice pudding with cookie crumble and warren pear.

The 2008 Vinferno paired nicely with the the rice pudding dessert.  The pear fruit in the pudding brought out the pear and apple aroma in the wine. It was warm, comforting, and a great way to end the meal.

The food was great, but it was even better meeting fellow food fanatics like Cindy from NYC.

 

My cohorts from the weekend:  Meghan and Mardi.

The dinner tasted even better than it looked and I had such a fun time meeting so many great people!