Archive
Thanksgiving Experiences
In the last post I outlined the number of wines which we wanted to taste during Thanksgiving dinner – now it is time to report on what was great and what was not.
There was nothing new with both Beaujolais Noveau compare to the previous report – except this time I remembered to chill both of them (light wines, such as Gamay and Pinot Noir usually taste better when slightly chilled). Chilling improved the taste of George’s Duboeuf, but I still like 2010 better.
The real highlight of the lineup was 2006 Cambria Bench Break Vineyard Chardonnay from Santa Maria Valley – it was beautifully balanced, with hint of vanilla, literally unnoticeable oak, hint of white apples and perfect acidity. One word to describe this wine is Elegance – it was perfectly elegant, reminiscent of Peter Michael chardonnays which are definitely my all times favorites.
2009 Cazar Pinot Noir was very appropriate at the Thanksgiving table with its bright cranberries and very good balance. One wine which didn’t happen to work for me was 2009 Turley Old Vines Zinfandel – I understand that it was opened prematurely, but still I was expecting more from it (I have to also mention that it didn’t fully opened even after three days – I guess actual aging in the cellar is in the cards for this wine). Bodegas Hidalgo Triana Pedro Ximenez worked very well with the dessert full of nuts, such as Pecan Pie – layered complexity and nutty profile, complemented by good acidity were essential attributes of this wine.
As this is a Thanksgiving post, I have to mention the turkey. Last year our choice was Turducken (chicken inside of duck inside of Turkey), which was very tasty, but required quite a bit of preparation work. This year we decided to do a smoked turkey, which required mush lesser amount of prep time and effort – here are the pictures for you, before and after:
This turkey spent four hours in the charcoal smoker and 4 hours in the oven. The result was moist and delicious bird with lots of smoky flavor. Another dinner highlight was cranberry sauce, which was modeled after Bobby Flay’s recipe – however, it was modified to exclude sugar. If anyone is interested in recipes, I will be glad to share – please drop me a note.
This completes my Thanksgiving 2011 report – until the next time, cheers!
Eggs Benedict And Bits of Wisdom
This is a sequel to the last year’s post about Katy’s Korner, our favorite breakfast place in San Ramon, California. Eggs Benedict is a staple, of course, and this time I had Eggs Benedict Santa Fe, which has spicy sauce and avocado:
While the food is great, I love the surroundings there, all the bits of history and wisdom, which cover all the walls and tables. Same as last year, I took a number of pictures – interestingly enough, I managed to avoid duplicates with the last year! Here they are, for your viewing and educational pleasure:
And more:
and more:
And more:
And more:
And my favorite:
Which one is your favorite?
Cheers!
Katy’s Korner
2550 San Ramon Valley Blvd # L
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 831-2145
Food with Wine, Or Wine with Wine?
A recent blog post on bottlenotes called “Eat your wine” readily attracted my attention (what does it mean, Eat your wine? The wine is not liquid anymore?). It appears the post is actually not about wine and not about food – it is simply about creativity and imagination, put to a good use.
After the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are pressed, the skins and seeds are kept together with the grape juice through the process of fermentation (much of the color and taste of wine comes from the contact of juice with the skins and seeds). Once fermentation is complete, the young wine (juice) is separated from the skins and seeds mass which is called pomace. Typically, pomace is either discarded or converted into fertilizer. It turns out that it can be used for something else. Particularly, it can be dried and then … milled into the flour!
Such Cabernet flour contains lots of minerals and vitamins, and it is also rich in anti-oxidants and reservatrol. But – while medical benefits are important, it simply produces delicious baked goods (or so this is what the people say). Enters CIA-trained Pastry Chef Rachel Klemek from Blackmarket Bakery who makes Cabernet flour into brownies, brittles and pasta (!). All of the baked goods, as well as Cabernet flour are available online for purchase online through Marché Noir Foods.
Uff, it sounds like advertizement, and I didn’t mean it. Now, the real question is – when you eat Cabernet pasta, literally made from Cabernet grapes which had been already fermented, is that considered eating or drinking? Another question is – if you have a glass of wine with your Cabernet pasta, is that food with wine or wine with wine?
Oh well, I don’t know about you, but I have to try it. Note to self – get some Cabernet flour (or, at least, some Cabernet pasta) and start cooking! Cheers!
Canada Food and Wine Experiences, In Pictures, Part 2
For the love of food photography, here is more pictures from our trip to Canada. Now we moved to the French Canada, Montreal and Quebec, and we definitely focused on experiencing the french-style food for as much as possible. Once again, if you want to read more on the actual restaurants we visited, you can find my reviews on Yelp (click here).
Let’s start with Montreal:
Cappuccino at Second Cup (the place is a striving Starbucks but not that great):
Steak at Le Grill Bistro:
Rack of Lamb at Le Grill Bistro (why is that rack of lamb always tastes amazing in Montreal?):
Breakfast at Chez Cora (again, but now in Montreal) – best Eggs Benedict I ever had, Hollandaise sauce is amazingly balanced !
More coffee – at Cafe Imagination (great place for inexpensive lunch in downtown Montreal):
Honestly – the coffee was good, but I love the cup…
Moving to Quebec now:
La Nouvelle France Resto-Bar Terrasse:
French Onion Soup (more classic than the one in Beef Baron):
Steak with Poutine (Poutine is Quebec’s specialty – french fries with melted cheese and gravy – very very good):
Quebec Meat Pie (with poutine, of course) – sad thing is that meat pie was supposed to be great, but it was so dry, it was almost inedible:
Breakfast at Cosmos Cafe:
Eggs Benedict with Duck Confit (Eggs Benedict tasted very good – except for the duck confit which was way too salty and simply made no sense in this dish…):
Panini Sandwich:
Le Brigantin Restaurant:
Yes, finally here is the wine – very nice rose LeRose Gabrielle, local Quebec wine:
Of course you can do Pizza any time and anywhere:
Lasagna (phenomenal, amazing array of spices, probably the best Lasagna I ever tasted):
Now, visiting Farmer’s Market in Quebec:
Fresh Berries:
I love Farmer’s Market where you can taste wine! Le Tourelle Vin Rouge (nice and simple):
Le Lapin Saute Restaurant ( the best food experience during the trip, real french cuisine):
Of course wine goes first: L’Angerose Rose wine – very good, full body:
Blue Cheese and Berries Turnover (delicious):
Escargot (unusual style and very tasty):
Rabbit Rilettes:
Cassoulet with rabbit leg and rabbit sausage (I’m very impartial to cassoulet and this one was excellent)
That concludes our food in pictures presentation. There still will be a blog post about Canadian wines, coming out soon. However, I want to mention that during this trip I managed to increase grape count by 5 (of course some are clones, but nevertheless):
St. Croix – 2009 De Lavoie La Tourelle Vin Rouge, Quebec
Radisson(ES 5-17) – 2010 Domaine L’Ange Gardien L’Angerose, Quebec
Sabrevois – 2010 Le Rosé Gabrielle Vignoble de la Rivière-du-Chêne, Quebec
Chardonnay Musque – 2009 Cattail Creek Chardonnay Musqué, VQA Four Mile Creek, Canada
Gamay Droit – 2009 Chateau des Charmes Gamay Noir St. David’s Bench Vineyard, Canada
That’s all, folks. Until the next time – cheers!
Canada Food and Wine Experiences, In Pictures
It appears to be very difficult to write blog posts while on the family vacation, despite all the desire to do so. Therefore, here is a quick report from Canada – all in pictures. I can tell you that so far I had being very happy with food, including restaurants in Niagara Falls (which was not expected considering that this is very popular tourist destination). I was also blown away by the quality of Canadian wine. Before the trip, I honestly thought that outside of the Icewine, Canadian wine would be on the level of Finger Lakes wines in NY, where whites can be drinkable, but reds are simply mediocre. Boy, was I wrong! We visited three wineries, and didn’t have a single bad wine! Well, this will be a subject of a separate blog post, so for now, here is quick report in pictures (warning – don’t look while hungry).
Nachos at Spicy Olive restaurant, Niagara Falls:
Beef Baron restaurant, Niagara Falls:
French Onion Soup:
Escargot:
Spare Ribs:
Wineries experience:
Inniskillin (from whites to reds to Icewines – outstanding, will discuss later):
Inniskillin Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah and Cabernet Franc – WOW:
Inniskillin for those who can’t even drink wine:
Cattail Creek Winery, very interesting whites and reds:
Catastrophe series (note that labels depict real cats):
Chateau des Charmes – you should see that building:
Back to the restaurants:
Cora’s (Niagara Falls) – Breakfast done right!
Breakfast cocktail:
Crepes Egg and Cheese Panini:
Crepe with Raspberries and cream cheese:
Blueberry Pancakes:
Will definitely talk more about wines in the future posts. If you are interested in reading more about restaurants, you can take a look at my page on Yelp (click here). Until the next time – cheers!
Cora
7555 Montrose Road
Niagara Falls, ON L2H3A4
(905) 358-1555
http://www.chezcora.com/home
Story Of A Beets Salad
I have to admit – I’m very impartial to the beets salad. Not any beets salad, but Roasted Beets salad. I can’t tell you why. May be it has something to do with the name – “roasted”… “beets”… “salad”. May be my body simply lacking the nutrients which can be found in the roasted beets, and sends the subliminal message”you want this…”. Don’t know. But every time I see a roasted beets salad on the menu in a restaurant, there is a very good chance I will order it.
Interestingly enough, while at home we make many dishes out of beets (beets is one of the staples of the Russian cuisine I’m accustomed to), recipes for those dishes call for beets to be boiled. At the same time, I believe roasting of the beets keeps flavor and sweetness locked in and concentrates it, where in case of boiling it gets all diluted. Roasting also preserves the color – just look at the picture if you want proof.
So for the first time ever, I decided to make a roasted beets salad with goat cheese, grapefruit, baby arugula and pistachio nuts. Before I get to the details, I would like to mention the source of my inspiration for this dish – it was appetizer called “Study of Beets” which I had at the Pinot Café in Los Angeles – you can the story here. That “study of beets” gave me an idea for combination of the ingredients.
Talking about ingredients, for this salad you would need:
- 4 large beets
- 1 large grapefruit
- 3 ounces (or less) of goat cheese
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- pinch of sea salt
- half a cup of pistachio nuts
- about half a cup of baby arugula or any similar greens. Note that baby arugula here is not the main ingredient, it works almost like a spice with its mild bitterness, and you can even skip it if you want.
Start from roasting beets at 400F for about an hour or until tender. When roasting the beets, you can play with flavor. I put beets in foil with addition of liquid smoke (don’t wrap it tight, or they will boil) – as a result, beets had nice hint of smokiness. Once ready, let beets to cool off, then peel and slice – size of slices is entirely up to you.
Put sliced beets in the bowl, sprinkle (very sparingly!) with sea salt (I recommend sea salt as it also adds textural sensation) and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add goat cheese (break it up in little pieces by hand). Add completely peeled grapefruit, also broken in pieces, and then baby arugula. Reserve few pistachios, crumble the rest and add it to the salad. Mix everything gently together, put in the bowl and garnish with reserved pistachios. Serve and enjoy!
What about the wine, you’re asking? Of course there should be wine. I didn’t have a chance to test the exact combination, nevertheless I would suggest that good Sauvignon Blanc would work well here. Lets narrow down that “good Sauvignon Blanc” – I would actually suggest 2009 Hyde Vineyards Selene Sauvignon Blanc from Carneros to pair with this dish.
To tell you the truth, I love New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Sancerre (classic Sauvignon Blanc wine from France) and Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. However, 9 times out of 10 I would avoid California Sauvignon Blanc – lots of them are high-alcohol soulless concoctions. Now, this Selene Sauvignon Blanc – WOW! Probably the best California Sauvignon Blanc and one of the best I ever had from any region.
Grassiness, acidity, fruit – all comes together in a very balanced package with nice finish. Beautiful wine (Drinkability: 8+). I have no doubts this wine would work very well with the beets salad, and I will prove it to myself next time – or wait for you to tell me.
And Here Is The Answer
Here is an answer to the “what is it” question from the last post (and congratulations to Marc):
Pretty, isn’t it? And here is the whole “still life” – right before it was sliced and transformed into a beautiful sausages and peppers medley:
Fiesta Gastronomique
Some blog titles come in easy and naturally. Some require the painstaking effort to come up. Right after I had an idea for this post, I knew that the word “Gastronomique” will be a part of the title. The first word took some time – but based on the meaning of the word “Fiesta“, I think it fits here perfectly – please read on and tell me if you agree.
This post essentially continues the previous one about Miami Restaurants – but this time I want to talk about only one, called Sra. Martinez, which is one of the restaurants of the famed chef Michelle Bernstein. Why do I think this restaurant deserves a special post? It doesn’t provide food – it provides experience, something which will stay in one’s memory for a long time, and will be relived again and again.
To deliver “experience” in such a place as a restaurant, you need all the elements to be just right, almost perfect (yes, can be the other way around – but that doesn’t belong to this post). Service, ambiance, atmosphere, food, wine – all should play together. Even price – but the price is a subjective category when you pay for the experience, probably QPR (using popular wine terminology) is a better term. Sra. Martinez got it all – the service, the food, the wine, the ambiance (and even QPR).
Our waiter, Oscar, or OD as he called himself, was amazing – always there when you need him, always with the right explanations, always with the right advice. Sorry, I understand, I sound now a bit “overly excited” – but service of this level is a truly rare experience – unfortunately.
Next, of course, is wine. The wine list is very reasonable in size, with a great selection of Spanish wines – I didn’t mention yet that Sra. Martinez is a tapas restaurant – therefore having a good selection of Spanish wines is quite appropriate. We’ve chosen Rioja Cincel Gran Reserva 1995 (doesn’t seem to be even available in the US through wine-searcher). The wine was food-friendly, smooth, with good acidity and tamed fruit expression – and I don’t think it was even ready, probably needs another 10-15 years to shine. It did work quite well with many dishes we had.
For the food – and this is where Fiesta comes to mind – we failed to choose what tapas do we want. Therefore, we had no choice but to subject ourselves to the hands of the chef, in the form of the tasting menu. Boy, was that the right choice! It was a true fiesta of flavors, textures, and tastes, a true food experience. From this point on, I really need to let pictures tell the story – I only regret I was unable to capture all the dishes we had. It is also very interesting to note that if you look in the menu, you will see sea salt listed as one of the ingredients in the number of dishes – and it is truly a distinguishing ingredient that makes dishes unique. This was probably the best use of the salt I was ever able to experience. And now, almost in the order of appearance, here is what we had in our tasting menu:
Arugula Salad with thinly sliced pear, parmesan cheese, and sea salt (wow!) – no picture, but this was one of the best combinations of simplicity and amazing taste.
Bacon-wrapped dates and croquettes with fig marmalade:
Eggplant chips with molasses and sea salt:
Crispy artichokes (wow!):
Catch of the day with israeli couscous:
Squid ink risotto ( incredible richness):
sautéed Kale with garlic:
Short Ribs ( incredible – thinly sliced and stacked, with sweet and salty sauce):
Lamb chops ( one of the best I ever had):
Garbanzo stew:
Brussels sprouts with bacon and fried egg:
Sweet corn with smoked paprika, smoked chile, and lime – incredible again, you just can’t stop eating it:
And finally… dessert! Never had chocolate flan before – wow!
The End (a.k.a. Bottom Line) – if you are in Miami, do it for yourself – visit Sra. Martinez. And if you will not think this is a fiesta, please tell me what Fiesta is…
Of Course You Know Miami Beaches, Let’s Talk About Miami Restaurants
One of the virtues of the business travel is opportunity to try new foods. We’ve got to eat every day, don’t we – but we can go into many ways about it. One option is to stay only within familiar territory, eat at few places you already know and don’t take any risks. Another option is to explore and experience. Depending on the place I’m traveling to, I might go different routes myself – of course, when you are in Miami Beach, the “explore and experience” model sounds (and looks) very appealing.
I don’t think Miami’s food scene requires any introductions. As Miami itself if a tight blend of many different cultures, so are the restaurants in Miami. I’m not trying turn into a restaurant critic by all means, so this here is short (mostly in pictures) report on a few places I had an opportunity to visit recently – except one place, Sra. Martinez, which stood out of the crowd immensely, so it will be a subject of separate blog post.
Without further ado, here we go.
Maya Tapas and Grille restaurant, located on Lincoln Road (Lincoln Road is one of the main tourist attractions in South Miami Beach). First, we had a very good bottle of Malbec. As restaurants compete for attention on Lincoln Road, we took the advantage of “all wines half price”, so this Luigi Bosca Gala 1 (actually, Malbec blend) at $35 was definitely a bargain. Still a young wine, it had initial layer of sweetness, which freed the way to spiciness and balance as wine had time to breathe.
In the tapas restaurants, my favorite dish is of course … tapas – the best way to experience wide variety of flavors.
We ordered a number of tapas, both cold and hot, and all the food tasted very good (grouper seviche, charcuterie and chorizo are highly recommended). Below is a picture of grouper seviche:
Aura restaurant, also on Lincoln Road, is more of an Italian flare with simple menu. We mostly went there for cocktails and pizza, and both were good. Here is Long Island Iced Tea and Mojito:
Thin crust pizza (European style) with goat cheese and vegetables was very tasty (no picture though).
PAUL. You got to eat breakfast too, right? Paul is a French bakery, part of an international chain. It is fully French, starting from the menu and appetizing baguettes all over the place, to the “french style” service. Service is an interesting part of the place – it is purposefully disrespectful to the customers, kind of “I’m not here to serve you”. In my honest opinion, though, they got this “French” concept upside down – 9 times out of 10, I had an outstanding service in France, despite any language barriers. I also think it costs PAUL in terms of lost clientele, and it shows up in the reviews on Yelp. But the food is good. Baguette with butter and jam is pure pleasure, so is Eggs Benedict ( I had both smoked salmon and Canadian bacon versions) – probably the best Eggs Benedict ever, definitely the best sauce. And pressed Focaccia sandwiches were not too shabby as well.
Last place to discuss in this post is Marker 88, located in a middle of Florida Keys (on island called Islamorada). This place was recommended – and it disappointed, unfortunately. The food was interesting in concept – but completely lacked soul in execution, or had simply technical mistakes, like lobster and mango guacamole having no mango – and of course guacamole completely overpowered the lobster. But the dish does look good on picture, doesn’t it:
And here is crab cake sandwich:
Again, looks good – but crab cake was missing any flavor… Well, may be we were out of luck with substitute chef?
To sum it up – if you are just looking for a byte to eat, I would definitely recommend all of the places we talked about here (even Marker 88 deserves second chance). However, if you are looking also for experience, please wait for the next blog post…
Messa, Chef Restaurant
Once again, I would like to state the obvious – it is great to have friends. I’m in Israel again, and thanks to my dear friend Kfir, the culinary journey continues (I already wrote about few of my favorite places in Tel-Aviv, and you can read about it here and here). The new discovery – Messa, Chef Restaurant in Tel-Aviv.
Few years ago, I was quite lucky to visit (well, the right word is “to experience”) restaurant called Orca in Tel-Aviv ( lucky simply because the place is now closed – and it was on the list of 100 best restaurants in the world). This might be a bit far fetching, but Messa reminded me of that Orca visit. May be in ambiance, may be in food presentation and quality, may be in expectations – but I found some resemblance between the two.
For wine, we decided to go with Judean Hills Har’El Syrah 2008 from CLOS de GAT, one of the boutique Israeli wineries (it also represented very good value at about $55 on the wine list). This wine was round and polished, with hint of spices, leather and dark red fruit, complemented by soft tannins.
Messa doesn’t offer tasting menu, however, a lot of appetizers and main dishes are offered in small and large sizes, which essentially allows to create a tasting menu – this is what we decided to do. We had three different appetizers – Purple Calamari, Veal Sweetbreads and Foie Gras, out of which the Foie Gras had the best balance of flavors:
Purple Calamari with lemon cream, eel and goose liver
Veal Sweetbreads with sweet potato tortellini, sunchoke cream and pearl onions
Foie Gras
For the main dishes we decided on Black Truffle Ravioli, Seafood Couscous in Crab Lemon Broth and Mushroom and Goat Cheese Risotto. The first two dishes listed Lemon among the ingredients – and it was A LOT of lemon in those dishes. To be more precise, it was too much of it, so the winner of the entree taste contest was Mushroom and Goat Cheese Risotto, which had amazing earthy and heart warming taste profile. And of course, with the pictures:
Black Truffle Ravioli
Seafood Couscous in Lemon Crab and Thyme Broth
Risotto with Mushrooms and Goat Cheese
Dessert? Of course there was dessert – your waistline doesn’t take priority when you in a restaurant like this. We ordered one dessert, Valrhona Chocolate Delight, and got a nice surprise in a form of Strawberry Banana Crumble desert “on the house”. There was no competition here – both were great:
Valrhona Chocolate Delight
Strawberry Banana Crumble
Israel is growing at tremendous pace as a country, and its culinary landscape is getting better and better all the time. I wish all of us many pleasant discoveries along this culinary journey…
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