John & I always celebrate our anniversary and my birthday with some kind of fun food event. Last year we went with Sarah & Jeff to a wood-burning pizza oven convention in Monterey. The year before we went to some great restaurants in Santa Monica, including a great chef's tasting menu at Melisse. And this year -- one of the best restaurants in the world -- The French Laundry!!
The week started with lunch with my very dear friend Nancy. We don't spend near enough time together and really enjoyed our visit. We celebrated both of our birthdays eating sushi at O-Sabi Restaurant in Ventura.
On Tuesday (my birthday) my sister, mom & dad took me to Cabo Seafood Grill & Cantina in Oxnard. Cabo is a great Mexican restaurant, nothing fancy, I think it used to be a Denny's or Sambo's, but great, authentic Baja food. It was National Margarita Day so of course I had to have a margarita - a mango margarita! I also had a Taco Dorado de Picadillo - a taco made with a specially seasoned mixture of ground beef, ground pork, and potato topped with lettuce tomato & cheese AND a mini carnitas (a house speciality) tostada. Mmmm good!
John had to work in Newport Beach that day and wasn't able to join us for lunch. When he got home that night he said "get dressed I made reservations for a special birthday dinner" - uh-oh maybe I shouldn't have ordered that tostada. We had dinner at Restaurant Brooks in Ventura. I had an appetizer of Blue Crab Corn Hush Puppies with Green Onion Remoulade and for dinner - Cast iron griddled duck breast with butternut squash ravioli, golden chantrelles and a maple, blueberry reduction. Wine pairing-2009 Loring Pinot Noir.
John started with a chestnut soup that he absolutely loved and for dinner - lobster that he wasn't crazy about - overcooked (obvious in the picture). Wine Pairing - 2007 Phelps Chardonnay.
On Wednesday Laura & I drove over to Westlake Village to do some grocery shopping. We stopped for lunch at Cisco's Mexican Restaurant and I ordered a Carne Asada Tostada served in a iceberg lettuce cup instead of a tortilla. It was delicious and so clever - I'm definitely going to steal this serving idea. The top of the head of lettuce was cut off, the inner leaves removed and sliced for the salad, leaving about four of five of the outside leaves in place - enough to make a sturdy bowl for the tostada.
Lunch on Thursday is always food-to-go (sushi for me & Mamina) at Laura & Ma's condo while we watch a cooking competition show. We're currently watching Top Chef All-Stars and yes we were very sorry to see Fabio Viviani "pack his knives and go" - he just didn't know how to make an American "hambooger".
Friday morning we packed the car and headed to Napa. We planned the trip so we would be in Paso Robles in time for lunch. Our favorite restaurant there is Buona Tavola - great food and friendly service. We had met the manager, Alex, on a previous visit and he was happy to see us. He told us about their new venture, making homemade sausage and salami for restaurant (and hopefully retail) sale. After hearing Alex's enthusiastic talk about sausages John & I both ordered a dish with their homemade sausage. I had the pasta special - homemade pappardelle, homemade orange-infused sausage (delicious!), sweet onions, fresh tomatoes, asparagus (I love asparagus but I didn't think it was really needed in this dish), white wine sauce and saffron. It was terrific!
John ordered Orecchiette con Rapine e Luganega - hat shaped pasta served with rapine broccoli, sun dried tomatoes, grilled homemade Piemontese-style pork sausage, garlic and a splash of tomato sauce.
We spent Friday & Saturday nights at The Bordeaux House in Yountville (very comfortable and affordable):
Friday night we had dinner reservations at Michael Chiarello's Bottega Restaurant - just a short walk from the Bordeaux House. We both enjoyed a glass of Adami Prosseco Brut while we decided our menu choices. I started my meal with the "Pesce Crudo Market Fresh Raw Selection from the Sea" which tonight was yellowfin tuna from Hawaii served on a salt block. No question - the most incredible tuna I have ever tasted:
And John chose "Confit of Half Duck Mostarda di Frutta with Pannetone Bread Pudding and Red Wine Duck Jus. It was a great dish but the Mostarda di Frutta was the star. Wine Pairing - 2007 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir.
Sarah & Jeff joined us on Saturday ...
...for lunch at The French Laundry - THE most incredible food experience you could imagine - and deserving of a separate blog - coming up next!
Sunday morning the four of us drove up to Calistoga for a tour of the Castello di Amorosa. The castle was awesome and we they have surprisingly good wines.
Barrel tasting a Cabernet:
After our lunch at Tra Vigne Pizzeria (yes, we're still eating!!) accompanied by a bottle of wine from the castle, we decided rather than hit the road for home we would follow Sarah & Jeff home and spend the night there. A visit with SJ&M doesn't seem complete without a trip to Whole Foods to shop for dinner. On our last trip to Oakland Jeff & I went to WF alone and got a little out of control at the meat counter. We came home with a ridiculous amount of veal shanks - they were beautiful and we had incredible osso bucco cooked in the pizza oven for dinner. This trip John, Sarah, Mike and Marco all came with us to try and keep us in check. Ha- we outsmarted them by sending them on a mission to look for asparagus while we headed for the meat counter. Look at these beautiful rib eyes we managed to get in the shopping cart before they caught up with us:
Jeff, along with his assistants John & Mike grilled the steaks and the asparagus in the pizza oven. I have to tell you, these were the best steaks I have ever tasted, the flavor the wood-burning oven adds is amazing.
And just to make sure we didn't go hungry - a few fries:
It was a delectable week and the icing on the cake was spending time with our grandson. Papa reading Marco an Italian bedtime story:
1 comment:
I wish you hadn't posted all this. It's caused uncontrollable drooling on my keyboard.
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