San Francisco and Las Vegas

This week I went on a bit of a whirlwind trip - left Austin Wednesday at 8 AM; flew to San Francisco and stayed only 8 hours; flew to Las Vegas that night; had meetings all day Thursday and flew back to Austin to arrive at midnight.  This all after almost a week in Florida 2 days earlier.  I didn't even realize how tired I was until this weekend, when my normally active self wanted to be a vegetable on the couch.  Yawn.  In any case, despite the large amount of time spent either in the air or at meetings, I did manage to get a few fun things in.... 

In San Francisco, I got to kick it in the Ferry Building for an extended lunch hour.  I took myself out to the Slanted Door, the venerable Vietnamese restaurant that's been wowing diners for years.  They are always packed and so, in the past, I've just gotten take out from their to go front - Slanted Door Next Door.  This time I got a spot at the bar and started ordering away.  I had their chue farm Japanese eggplant  with green onions and coconut milk  and the shrimp and pork wonton soup  with five spice pork and egg noodles.  The soup was very good, but quite filling.  I was expecting the pork to be in the wontons themselves, but instead it was sliced, floating in the broth.  There were also crispy pork cracklings and tons of sliced scallions. The wontons were delicate and sweet with shrimp.  If I wasn't a bit of a fanatic about having my vegetables, I would have been filled by the noodle-soup.  However, I'm really glad I had the eggplant as it was delicious.  It had a bit of a kick, but the eggplant was tender and the coconut based sauce was addictive.  The bar tender was very nice and allowed me to order a half portion, thankfully, because I couldn't finish all of the food.  I also had their lychee tea, which was too cloying and sweet.  I wouldn't get it again.  I do, however, look forward to me next time in Slanted Door's airy restaurant and its perfect bay view.  

While in the Ferry Building, I also made pit stops at Miette, for their delightful macarons, Blue Bottle Coffee, for a killer cappuccino, and Recchiuti, for their decadently luscious chocolates.  If I had more time and were checking a bag, I also would have gotten Stonehouse Olive Oil which is peppery and grassy.  I did notice that the Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Cafe is gone - I used to hang out there and have caviar and champagne.  I love caviar. Oh well.

Before I headed back to SFO for my Las Vegas flight, I was able to meet up with one of my best friends, Jessica, at a great little wine bar and Italian trattoria on California St, called Barbacco.  Not to be confused with Perbacco (it's sister restaurant), which I have been to before and is almost right next door, this wine bar offers a great array of international wines in many different tasting options.  I enjoyed flipping through their selection on their Ipad menus.  I've read about the I Pad trend, and I think it is a good one.  You're able to see as little or as much information as you want on a wine.  We tried tastes of the French Eric Texier-2009 Roussanne, the Slovenian Simcic-2007 Sauvignonasse (Friulano), the Italian Bera-2006 Monferrato Dolcetto, and the Austrian Becker-Landgraf-2007 J2 Spatburgunder. Lovely.  I just wish I had had some time to eat before jumping on BART....

 In Las Vegas, it was my first time staying at the Palms.  I'm not a huge fan.  I stayed in their new condo tower, which was nice, and I enjoyed their workout facilities.  But that's about it.  In general, the place seemed a bit small and shabby.  Oh well.  Most of my time in Vegas was spent in meetings anyhow; I did get to scarf down a great meal in the Summerlin neighborhood at Vintner Grill.  I had the summer salad which consisted of arugula, shrimp, avocado, fennel, orange segments, toasted almonds and some kind of lemon vinaigrette.  It was light and flavorful.  The restaurant is also very elegant and relaxed in soft greens and whites.  Altogether a nice surprise from my usual Vegas strip experience. 

I am very happy to be back home in Austin.  While I love to travel, I hate to fly and, after close to 50 flights thus far this year, I am so happy to have a slight respite. 

Napa/Sonoma Trip - Days Three and Four

On Day 3, we were joined by our friends Jessica and Mark and spent the day visiting wineries. On our last day, we headed down to San Francisco first thing in the morning. We again met up with Jessica and Mark to see their lovely, new, larger apartment and to get some tasty dim sum, before flying back to Austin.

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Oakville Grocery

124 Matheson Street

Healdsburg, CA 95448-4118

(707) 433-3200

We decided to have a picnic lunch at one of the wineries. We stopped by Oakville Grocery’s Healdsburg outpost (the original is in Napa Valley) which was located conveniently one block from our hotel. They have a fantastic selection of foodstuffs ranging from fresh fruit, meats, cheese and olives to sandwiches and pizzas. The store is super cute as well.

Peay Vineyards

We made our first stop at Peay Vineyards. Stephen and I had our first Peay wine at Trio, in Austin, and were hooked. They produce lovely, European influenced pinots and cold-climate syrahs. They are actually located at the northernmost reaches of Sonoma in Cloverdale. To celebrate their spring release, they had a lovely party with all of the current wines, as well as cheese and salumi selections and fantastic grilled sausage sandwiches. The party was held in their winery which is situated in the middle of down town Cloverdale. It was a great experience as we to try old release wines and all of the new ones that weren’t sold out. Yummy.

We spent the rest of the afternoon roaming through the Russian River Valley. We had our picnic lunch at Rochioli Winery. It is a pretty vineyard with a great picnic area. They were very sweet and we enjoyed one of their current sauvignon blancs with our lunch. From there we headed on to Arista. A Texan family is behind this recent addition and they’ve started making some pretty good pinots. A winery to keep on your radar. Next we ventured to Gary Farrell. Stephen and I first went to Gary Farrell 5 years ago with Stephen’s friend Reid. It was our first wine tasting ever, and this pretty winery holds a special place in my heart. We acquired some of their library merlots and enjoyed the view. Our second to last stop was at Moshin Vineyards. They were hilarious. They have pretty decent wines and the tasting room and staff are highly amusing. While we sipped the wines against a musical backdrop of Lady Gaga, we listened to stories regarding the making of the wines. They had great one liners like “when you opt to do native yeast fermentation, don’t fill up the barrels completely, they overflow….” Finally, we went to J Vineyards to finish up with some sparkling wine. We tried vintage and late-disgorgement wines which were intriguing. The staff was not great. They were the least informed we’d ever met. Not the best experience, but tasty wines.

Dry Creek Kitchen

317 Healdsburg Avenue

Healdsburg, CA 95448-4105

(707) 922-5399

For our last night in the wine country, we revisited Charlie Palmer’s restaurant, conveniently located in the bottom of our stylish hotel. Of all the meals we had, this one was the most approachable. You weren’t wondering as to the ingredient combination or puzzled by a foam. Now I happen to adore adventuresome chefs, so approachable isn’t necessarily what I look for, but I know some folks do. If you want great food you understand, this is the place for you.

We started with the Sonoma Greens Salad which I expected to be composed of delicate spring leaves, but we got some pretty hearty romaine wedges instead. The dressing was nice, and I enjoyed crunching my way through. I then had the Coriander Crusted Duck with Caramelized Onions, Celeriac Mousseline and Confit. I ordered medium and it came out medium! The chefs out here don’t seem to be suffering from the under-doneness I’ve found elsewhere. I also ordered a side of the Ragout of Mushrooms, which was large and had tasty trumpets in it (my fave). Stephen had the Poached Guinea Hen with Peas and Ham. He also ordered a side of veggies which contained lovely summer squash and thinly sliced fennel. For dessert we split the ice cream/sorbet. It came in a triangle presentation of nine flavors. I loved the pistachio, the mint and the espresso-Baileys. Oh the strawberry rhubarb was superb. The chocolate and chili was a little heated for me, but overall, quite tasty!

For wine, we had a pinot off of their extremely Sonoma–focused wine list. You would be hard pressed to find a wine not from this specific area. We ended up trying out a 2007 Kosta Browne (K vineyard). It was a little unapproachable at first, but it opened up nicely with rich earthy undertones, and delicate red fruit on the palate.

Dry Creek Kitchen occupies a beautiful space. It has huge glass windows with large open areas under vaulted ceilings. Each of the tables is covered with a white table cloth, pots of ivy adorn the tops and the warm glow of firelight is cast about the place. The ambience supports the new American cuisine to perfection. This is a lovely restaurant.

Yank Sing

49 Stevenson Street

San Francisco, CA 94105

(415) 541-4949

I try to get dim sum every time I head to San Francisco. I always go to Yank Sing, which has multiple locations around down town. This location is tucked away on a side street, and it gets pretty crowded fast on the weekends. We always order a pot of jasmine tea and order what we fancy from the carts that are pushed around the dining room. One of their specialties is the Shanghai Dumpling or “soup” dumpling – a broth is carefully encased in a delicate wonton – and it is quite tasty. I also always order their pork baos and the egg custards. It’s a great place to gorge on lovely Chinese dumplings!