Burger To Die For - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 3 - The Food

Continued from...

I Am The King Of Thai - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 1

A Fortunate Pilgrimage - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 2 Part I

It's a Small Small World - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 2 Part II

I had heard the name Napa for a very long time. I had envisioned in my mind a peaceful and secluded paradise a little ways north of the bustling city of San Francisco. I didn't start enjoying wine until last year on a train ride on Amtrak's Coastal Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles. I knew only the basic names and understanding of wines and had been to one wine tasting trip prior in my life. I never thought I would visit Napa since I wasn't much of a wine person, but this year I finally made the journey.

(Napa Valley)

(Gaia Hotel & Spa)

Napa was beautiful, though busier than I imagined even for the winter time. Perhaps I was disillusioned by movies like bottleshock which my friend Kenneth made me watch before going. It did give me some names of wineries to visit during this trip. To avoid the high price tags of the hotels in Napa city and St. Helena, we ended up at Gaia Hotel and Spa Resort down in American Canyon. It really wasn't a problem since there weren't too much traffic during the winter season. Gaia Hotel was also a fully environmentally sustainable hotel in Napa which made me feel good booking the place. They named each room after something different from nature, though the interior I suppose were all the same as far as I can tell. Fortunately there wasn't a wall full of grasshoppers nailed to the walls inside.

(Harassing the cook will definitely result in smaller portions)

(Butter Cream Bakery and Diner's Kitchen)

With a full day's worth of wine drinking, I made sure we had a hearty breakfast before gulping down alcohol. We ended up at the Butter Cream Bakery and Diner in Napa City. It was an authentic 50's diner where a lot of the locals ate. I was certainly out of place carrying my huge Canon camera bag around with me. The dinning area was small and accommodated around twenty to thirty people along with another fifteen or so at the counter by the cooking stations. We opted for the counter since I always preferred the atypical dinning experience, where we got to watch the cooks in action making our breakfasts.

(Butter Cream Bakery and Diner - Small Breakfast)

We both ended up ordering the small breakfast which included eggs, toasts, hash browns and a choice of  ham, sausage or bacon. I never liked bacon and I am generally weary of sausages as they can be either really good or really nasty. I made the safe choice for ham with my eggs scrambled. The grill was in full view from where I was sitting. I was able to see how everything was cooked. The toasts were put through the toaster twice to brown them. The hash browns were cooked in mass and thrown in practically every other plate that was being served. The meat were cooked to order, as were the eggs. I had serious issues with the eggs as I had already blogged about in my earlier post Chopped Up Omelets Are Not Scrambled Eggs!!! Scrambled eggs are to be scramble both before and during the cooking process.

Aside from the badly made scrambled eggs, the rest of the breakfast were good and hearty. It had the taste of traditional Americana in them. The ham was slightly burned and not overly salty, which is a good sign. The hash brown had a crispy top with a mushy middle which was very enjoyable. In the end, diner food is just that, diner food. Very few diners actually stand out in my book; I absolutely love some of the dishes at Diner on Main in Alhambra if you are in that area. The atmosphere here was the real deal. An older couple who sat next to me were long time customers of the diner, and the waitress had a small catching up session with them on their winter trip to Montana. I was hoping for that kind of treatment but I found myself feeling more like an outsider as the waitress paid very little attention to me or my needs. I blame my Canon camera bag.

(Oxbrow Public Market)

(Oxbrow Public Market - Olive Oil Shop)

(Oxbrow Public Market - Tea Shop)

(Oxbrow Public Market - Live Seafood Shop)

(Oxbrow Public Market - Pica Pica Maize Kitchen)

After breakfast our first winery stop was for the sparkling wines at Domaine Carneros, which I'll review in a separate post. After some lovely European pastries and elegant sparkling wines to kick off the morning, we stopped by the Oxbrow Public Market to pick up lunch. It does seem like all I did was eat and drink during this trip; that is really all I did. I couldn't pass by an opportunity to check out a public market. For me, it gives me a sense of the people in the city and what their taste buds are saying. There were a good variety of foods and other shops in the market. It was also very nice to see the existence of a tea shop in the market, though it was a bit dead. I am a big fan of tea and I personally do not drink coffee; I do eat some coffee products on occasion.

(Pica Pica Maize Kitchen - Arepa Catira)

After circling the market, which was rather small, I decided on Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, which actually was one of the two choices for lunch based on yelp reviews. The other was Gott's Roadside Napa next door to the market. It was a bit difficult to figure out what to order out of the menu at Pica Pica as I'm not very familiar with Venezuelan cuisine. They did have the ingredients written out next to each name so I picked it based on what kinds of meat and assortments I wanted. I ended up with an Arepa Catira, which was sauteed chicken in their signature sofrito with cheddar cheese in a grilled corn bread. The market was full and there weren't any open tables, so we took our food to Fuller Park which was a few blocks away from the market. Personally it was more enjoyable sitting outdoors under a few trees in a quiet park eating the food than it was with people criss-crossing everywhere in a stuffy room.

The Arepa Catira was descent. I found the arepa to be too hard and rough against the meat and the cheese. The chicken and the cheese were well marinated and were tasty on their own, though there were just a bit too much cheese and not enough chicken. When they were bitten along with the bread, the thick texture of the bread destroyed whatever balance that was left and all I could feel in my mouth was the thick corn bread. Personally I almost wanted to pour out the insides and eat it alone with less cheese, and occasionally take small bites into the arepa to balance out the chicken and cheese. If it wasn't because of the soothing atmosphere of a green park, this would had been a mediocre meal at best.

(Gott's Roadside's Daily Special)

That afternoon we visited two other wineries, V. Sattui and Chateau Montelena, both of which were superb in their own right which I'll go into details in the next post. After a whole day's worth of wine and food, we stopped by Gott's Roadside up in St. Helena right on highway 29. I was so glad that I saw the place on my way up to Chateau Montelena, this place was amazing.

(Gott's Roadside - Wisconsin Sourdough)

As soon as I stepped foot in front of the counter of Gott's Roadside, I knew I was definitely in Napa Valley when I saw one of the specials for the day was Pillar Rock's Cabernet Sauvignon. Leave it to Napa to serve wine as a daily special next to a Chicken Tortilla soup and a Dulce de Leche Shake. I had enough wine for the day though so I only ordered the Wisconsin Sourdough. I saw on the menu that it had both mushrooms and in a sourdough and I didn't have to think twice. I'm a burger person and I make my own burgers from scratch with my own recipe, but this was seriously one of the best burgers I had ever had.

Unlike the Menage A Trios from Ike's, Gott's Roadside's Wisconsin Sourdough's flavors were all distinct and coherent. Though my intent was to take the burger back to the hotel to eat, I took a few bites before heading off. When the burger first entered my mouth, I could taste the juiciness of the medium cooked beef, the aroma and the sweetness from the mushrooms, the chewiness of the bacon, the tangy BBQ sauce on top distinct from the creamy mayo, and the cheddar, all squeezed between two crunchy sourdough bread slices. They all then blended inside my mouth forming one coherent divine burger taste that cried out to me to eat me and eat me now. I had to resist the urge to eat it all right there since it was still a bit early for dinner. It was just convenient for us to grab the dinner right then.

I also got to try some of their sweet potato fries that my friend ordered. I personally don't care for sweet potato, though I would eat it when the opportunity presented itself. I took a few pieces and they were delicious if you like sweet potatoes. They were fresh, well cut and the flavors of the sweet potato was definitely there.

Most people would opt for a nice sit down restaurant while eating in Napa. But we weren't really super hungry and my friend really didn't eat much to begin with. So it's certainly possible to find some good joints to get your taste buds all fired up in Napa. If you are ever in the valley, just be certain to stop by Gott's Roadside and give their burgers a shot. If you are a fan of red wines, be sure to grab a bottle while sinking your teeth into some of the best burgers money can buy.

Continue reading at...
Riesling, riesling, where for art thou my riesling? - 2010 San Francisco & Napa Trip Day 3 - The Wine

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Happy New Year! A Taste Of My San Francisco & Napa Trip

Here's a little taste of some of the things I ate in San Francisco. Have a fantastic and happy New Year! Cheers to 2011!!!

(Seafood Combination Cocktail From Swan Oyster Depot)

(European Pastries From Domaine Carneros)

(Wisconsin Sourdough From Gott's Roadside)

(Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2006 From Chateau Montelena)

Be sure to visit back soon and read all about all the different things I ate and drank on this fantastic four days trip.

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Quick get-together: It's not rocket science

It doesn't take much to put a little gathering together. I'm still growing as a cook and I still have a lot to learn. But I am good enough to get my friends to actually eat what I make. I'm one of those cooks who cook from instinct. I seriously do not even know where the measuring cups are at my house. When my friends asks me for my recipes, I can list the ingredients, but I can't tell you how much of what I've put in. I just "feel" it.

Last weekend a few of my friends got together for a potluck. I made a red and green bean dessert soup. It turned out rather well. It was even better the next day after it was chilled in the fridge overnight. I'll blog about this specifically with the recipe later. During the potluck, we decided to get together again this weekend. But it turned out that I couldn't make it this weekend after all so I pushed it up by one day, to today. I was totally unprepared and hadn't any clue what I was going to make.

My original plan was me spending most of the afternoon figuring out what I'm going to make, but that was cut short when I got a last minute audition notice late last night for today. I was off in Studio City in the afternoon and didn't get back until 5pm. I had two hours to get food on the table so I resorted to what  I knew how to make, hamburgers.

(Bruschetta)

But I didn't want to make hamburgers for the actual meal. It didn't feel right for the holidays. I just wanted to make the patties but present them in a different way. So I got a roll of sourdough bread to make mini-burgers. I also had to keep in mind that one of my friend is a vegetarian so I had to make a version without the meat. I had tomatoes and an onion in my fridge. I defrost the two sticks of ground beef by placing them in a bucket of warm water. This is a much better way to quickly defrost something instead of using the microwave.

After prepping everything, my vegetarian friend arrived and saw what I was doing and asked if I was making Bruschetta. I had no idea what that was, but apparently it's exactly what I'm making. Mix some diced tomatoes with diced onions, add some Italian spices, black pepper and olive oil. Serve them over a slice of bread and voila; bruschetta. I did toast the butter spread bread first in the oven. As it turned a little golden, I topped each slice with some of the tomatoes and onions. I didn't want those toasted too long turning the vegetables into mush, but just enough so that it doesn't feel raw. Put a bottle of wine next to it and it turned out to be a classy appetizer. The best part; it only took fifteen minutes to make.

(Baked Mini Half Burgers)

Then I made my baked mini half burgers. The ground beef was premixed with paprika, italian spices, creole mix, steak mix, olive oil, black pepper, eggs, onions and a little bit of rum. I sometimes add or subtract some of the spices depending on what my mood is. Yes, I am a moody cook. I would also substitute the rum with bourbon or whiskey or beer depending on what I happen to have or what I feel like. I do think adding a little bit of alcohol to the patties enhances the beef, giving it a slightly nicer aroma on the palette. Once it's mixed in for a little while, I take out little chunks and put them on each slice of the bread. I used sour dough, which I much prefer over baguettes. After baking it till the meat looked cooked, I topped it with a little bit of the tomatoes and onions and baked it just a little longer. Another very simple to make finger food.

(Oven-Baked Meatballs)

I had a lot more meat then I had bread. So I decided to just bake the rest of the meat in a meatball format. I'm a firm believer of just making do and making it work. I said this long before Tim Gunn started saying this on Project Runway. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Unwittingly I turned what would have been one dish into three different appetizer. All I really needed to do is add a little slice of pineapple under each meatball and it would really have been a totally different dish: well, next time. I baked the meatballs with the onions and tomatoes, so the flavors mixed in more with the meatballs rather than just topped with the burgers. It felt and tasted slightly different. My friends had to double check with me if the meatballs were the same as the mini burgers. So it wasn't too obvious. I didn't intend to make three dishes really, it just turned out this way.

(Harvest Veggie Udon Soup)

The main dish for the night was a veggie soup. I did this a month ago at another small gathering with my friends. I threw in some tomatoes as the base with some wild corn. My friend Mai brought some veggies over. I had no idea what she was going to bring beforehand, but I trusted it would be great. She brought bok choy, mushrooms and tofu. We just threw it all into the pot with a little bit of salt and let it do its thing. It did its thing. We added a little udon to it at the end to get a little bit of carbs into the meal. It was a healthy and light soup, and all those veggies made it very flavorful. Having friends bring over their favorite vegetables and just throwing it all into a pot feels good. It's like a communal effort and it can't really go wrong. It's also something that you can over eat just a little without feeling like you just cost yourself an entire week of working out at the gym.

(Bellagio Hot Sipping Chocolate)

We had a bottle of Artis Italian sparkling wine and a bottle of german Riesling with the meal. The meal was light so having lighter white wines were perfect for this easy and simple evening. For me, it's that simple. A few friends, some simple but delicious foods and a glass of wine makes a perfect evening. But being the holiday season, I finished the night by serving all my friends a serious cup of hot chocolate. These are not your generic Carnation/Swiss/Nestle hot cocoa. I used Bellagio Sipping Chocolate instead. I did add a little creamer since I didn't have milk and a little whip cream so it's not too rich. Not everyone can handle real sipping chocolate. Personally if it was just me, I would add a few extra teaspoons of sipping chocolate with some whole milk. But not everyone can handle the bitterness so I kept it more mainstream for everyone.

(Bellagio Sipping Chocolate)

For me, it's really easy to just throw something together. It doesn't need to always be super fancy. It just needs to be real and honest. What you have in your fridge or can easily get at the grocery store can really go a long way. Keep everything light and just let the food speak for themselves. It will do its magic and a great evening is born. A quick get-together is really just an hour or two away.

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