Mind Map

California Road Trip - 05/05

Sunday - 5/1

Pre-Coachella

I knew about this trip a few weeks in advance so I should have done lots of research, but I slacked and "decided" to let the trip be spontaneous. I had a few wineries and a couple of restaurants I was interested in visiting so the night before we left (it was technically very early Sunday morning) I printed off the stuff I had. Lynn was at least a little better than I in preparing the road trip provisions; she had three bags of assorted chips, crackers, cookies, and beef jerky to go with a cooler chest full of Coke and water. We may not have known where we were going, but we weren't going to starve getting there.

I wanted to get packed the day before we left, but I once again put it off until the morning we left. We left at ten, and the drive from Phoenix to Indio was a long boring one. We got to our hotel (the Red Roof Inn in Thousand Oaks, California) at two, and were able to check in an hour early even though the lady behind the front desk was a raving bitch. The Red Roof Inn was cheap, it was close to Indio, and they had availability so I was just happy that the room was clean and the air conditioner worked.

I wanted to eat before we went to Coachella so we stopped at the busiest In-n-Out Burger I'd ever seen for lunch. I don't know if it was the crowd, or if I'm permanently off their burgers, but the burgers weren't that good.

Coachella

We left In-n-Out Burger and headed straight for the Empire Polo Field (the venue for Coachella, which is probably the nicest venue for a music festival). We got into the venue at about four in the afternoon, and even though the music started at noon I didn't feel like it was a big loss because no one I wanted to see was coming on until 6:30. We walked in and saw a cool display of recycle bins decorated by different artists. Lynn took a few pictures of them with her cell phone.

Lynn was worried we wouldn't see Noah and Liz there, but I told her that for such a large music festival you run into people amazingly easy. Sure enough, after about 15 minutes of wandering we saw them. We talked for a little while, but then we went our separate ways. Lynn was surprised we didn't hang out with them for the rest of the day, but every Coachella it seems like I do my own thing more often.

Afterwards we walked to the different stages to see if we heard anyone we liked, unfortunately we didn't hear anyone we really cared for before 6:30.

I wanted to see Roots Manuva, and he was decent, but he was a little too downbeat to put on a really good show. We went to Z-Trip instead, and he put on a much better show with his trademark mix of hip hop and rock. Z-Trip was Lynn's favorite act of the night. At the end of Z-Trip's set Chester Bennington (lead singer of Linkin Park) came out to preform "Walking Dead" live with him. It was pretty cool.

DJ Krush came on after Z-Trip. His music was kind of fast hip hop beats with lots of trippy samples mixed in live. I totally dug it, but Lynn found it boring. Watching DJ Krush on stage with the twilight sky and palm trees (lit with different colored lights) swaying in the wind made for a trippy scene that matched the music. I considered leaving before DJ Krush was finished because I didn't think he had a grand finale, but then he did some crazy mixing that convinced me that he probably did. The last song was DJ Shadow's "Organ Donor", and DJ Krush did some cool things with it so I was happy that I stayed until the end of his set. DJ Krush was my favorite act of the night.

I was hungry so after DJ Krush I got a bratwurst (brat) from a food stand. I went with the brat because I didn't think anyone could screw up a brat, but I forgot to take into account that any sausage can be poorly made. This particular brat was tasteless so I probably would have been better off taking a chance on something that could have been tasty instead of trying to eat defensively.

After DJ Krush's great set I was amped for Nine Inch Nails, who were the main reason I wanted to go to Coachella this year. Nine Inch Nails put on the best non-dj show I'd ever seen on their Fragility tour, and this was their first tour in the five or six years since. They started playing, and the sound on the outdoor stage was bad so I was immediately unhappy. I didn't like the way they played their songs this time around either: they somehow emulated the album versions of their songs while simultaneously giving them a sort of raw garage band sound. I liked it a lot better when they played everything (old and new songs alike) with the sound from the Fragile album. I couldn't take the aggravation and left before they were finished. I had two tickets to their show Memorial Day weekend that I was going to miss because Greg planned our trip to Vegas the same weekend. Originally I was sad that I was going to miss it, but this show made me care a hell of a lot less.

We caught the last couple of songs from Roni Size, and he was pretty good. We stayed to listen to The Prodigy (Lynn's choice). The music they played was really good, and they brought a lot of energy to their show. I liked them despite the fact that all of their song lyrics consist of only two or three lines. Lynn was happy, but we left early because we were both very tired.

Monday - 5/2

On the Road to L.A.

We woke up and loaded the car. While loading the car Lynn noticed some kids smoking pot in the car next to us. I wondered why they would smoke in the car instead of their hotel room, and then I remembered that all hotel rooms in California are non-smoking. I found it interesting which law they chose to break and which they chose to obey.

We checked out, gassed up the car, and headed to Sonoma. Murray told me how great downtown Pasadena was so I made it a point to stop there on the way to Sonoma. The freeway into Los Angeles was backed up so I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to futilely connect to an open wireless network. I knew better than to think it would work, but it worked the first time I tried it so it seemed worth a try. It's the only time I could remember wanting traffic to be slower.

Pasadena

I knew how to get to Pasadena from the freeway, but I never actually looked up the location of downtown Pasadena. I figured it would be obvious (with signs off the freeway), but it wasn't. We didn't find downtown, but we did find the business district, which was close enough for two starving travelers. We walked around, but I didn't see any place that looked good to me which had Lynn completely irritated. I was about to settle for a burger when we ran into Caribbean Bistro; it was a hole in the wall that specialized in Caribbean cooking so it looked like my kind of place.

Caribbean Bistro (Pasadena, CA)

Caribbean Bistro didn't have much space to work with, but the restaurant was decorated in a way that kept you from thinking about its size. Lynn and I were seated, and Lynn got a fresh lemonade while I got a blackberry juice. The lemonade was sweet and a little watery (I still prefer Mexican/Vietnamese limeade), and my blackberry juice tasted like fresh blackberries blended with unsweetened yogurt. We both thought the blackberry juice was pretty tasty even though it wasn't really sweet.

Our waitress brought out some bread and a compound butter. The bread was great with a thin crispy crust and a fluffy center, and the butter was salty and uniquely tasty. We couldn't figure out what they mixed into the butter so I asked the waitress about it and she said it was eggplant. Who's ever heard of eggplant butter!? You can't argue with greatness though.

We both got side salads, and were glad we did. The dressing was a homemade vinaigrette with vinegar, oil, herbs, and garlic that was pretty damn tasty.

We had looked at the appetizers, but none of them sounded better than a side of beef stuffed croquettes. The croquettes would turn out to be the low point of the meal; the beef filling was ok, but the potatoes tasted weird to the point that I could hardly stand them. Lynn liked the croquettes. I asked if the waitress if they had a pepper sauce (to make the croquette palatable), and the waitress brought out a homemade salsa. The salsa was vinegary, but tasty with a unique heat. It made the croquettes eatable, but still not good.

I had a difficult time deciding on only one entree because there were several that looked good to me. The one I ended up going with was the spicy barbecue ribs, which I thought might be jerk ribs. They definitely weren't jerk ribs; the ribs tasted brined and smoked, and were tender. They were served with a tomato sauce that looked like a salsa, and was spicy, a little sweet, and a little hot. It tasted vaguely Mexican, but it also tasted a little like barbecue sauce. I thought the sauce and the ribs were both great. Both entrees came with black beans and some sort of seasoned rice garnished with a fried plantain. The rice was pretty good, and very good with the rib sauce. The black beans were so-so, and the fried plantain was a perfect version of the fried ripe plantain variety. If we didn't already have so much food I would have got a side or two of the fried plantains. Lynn had some sort of chicken dish in a sauce with onions and bell peppers. I thought it was pretty good, just not my sort of thing. It was similar to a Cuban dish I've had before, only better. Lynn really enjoyed it.

Our meal was so good that we wanted a dessert (even though we don't usually eat dessert at lunch). The only dessert they had was a coconut custard, which wasn't my sort of thing, but we decided to trust them and try it. The custard was sweet and fresh with a young coconut flavor that was very delicious. It was a perfect end to the meal.

Lynn and I were impressed with Caribbean Bistro. The entire meal I was trying to figure out what country they were from. They spoke Spanish, and it seemed like they specialized in a cuisine I hadn't had before even though their menu contained items from all over the Caribbean and even South America. I guessed they were Puerto Rican, but since I've never eaten Puerto Rican before I have no idea.

On the Road to Sonoma

We left Pasadena and headed up Interstate 5 to Sonoma. We had reservations in Sonoma for Tuesday night so we stopped when Lynn felt tired because we didn't have to drive all the way to Sonoma in one day. Lynn got tired outside of the small town of Santa Nella. I wanted a hotel with a balcony so I could smoke a cigar so that greatly limited our choices. The Ramada Inn Mission De Oro offered a pink room with a garishly tiled bathroom, but they also had a balcony and a free breakfast so that's where we stayed. I sat on the balcony and smoked a cigar while trying to find an open wireless network to connect to. The truckstop networks weren't open so I didn't have any luck. Afterwards we ate the leftovers from Caribbean Bistro for dinner, and went to bed.

Tuesday - 5/3

Breakfast

We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Our choice was pancakes and sausage or getting a $2.50 credit towards a different breakfast. They had chilaquiles [tortillas in sauce which tastes a lot better than it sounds] on the menu, but I wasn't hungry enough to want to actually pay for breakfast. Lynn and I split a side of bacon and a side of hash browns. The pancakes were typical, and the bacon was extremely thin and not very good, but the hash browns were perfect. Breakfast was worth it for the hash browns alone.

Killing Time Drinking Wine

We left Santa Nella and finished our drive to Sonoma. We had a few hours before we could check into our hotel so we had some time to kill. Despite our breakfast we were both hungry so I decided to taste wine at J Winery, which I knew paired appetizers with their wines. It was one of the few wineries that I had printed off directions for so we didn't have a problem finding the place. Sonoma county also did a great job with sign posts to all the different wineries (assuming you can read them at whatever speed you're driving).

We got their regular wine flight, and the first wine was their "Vintage Brut 1999" served with a sushi tuna roll coated in something crispy. The appetizer was very good, and the vintage brut was tasty as hell. It was one of the better sparkling wines I've ever had. The lady at the tasting room (we'd later learn her name was Janae) poured Lynn a glass of "Brut Rose" (not part of the regular tasting). I tasted it, and while it wasn't my sort of thing, Lynn liked it. Our next wine was the "Russian River Valley Pinot Gris 2004" with a sushi shrimp roll. The shrimp roll was rather plain and neither of us liked it, and the Pinot Gris was light and fruity. I figured I would have liked the wine more if it was served a little cooler. Lynn thought it was great. The third wine was the "Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2003" with some sort of bread with bacon and onion. The appetizer was a great little bit of flavor, and while the wine had a great fruit scent, it was thin, and tasted hot (because of the alcohol) in my mouth. The "Nicole's Vineyard Pinot Noir 1998" was paired with a wild mushroom and spinach frittata. The frittata was decent. The 1998 also had a very good scent, and it tasted better than the 2003, but it was still too thin for my tastes. One of the guys there opened a bottle of the "Robert Thomas Vineyard Pinot Noir 2000", and it was the best Pinot Noir we had; it smelled great, and even though it was it was thinner than I like it had a depth of flavor that made me not care. Lynn liked it two bottles worth even though they were expensive. I finished my tasting with a glass of the "Ratafia". I had read about the "Ratafia", and the way it was prepared didn't sound like it would result in a dessert wine I would like, but I was curious about it anyway. I didn't like the scent, but the flavor was complex and tasty. It wasn't thick which was surprising considering its viscous nature. I thought it was pretty damn good. What's even more amazing is that it's made from a mixture of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir.

While we were at J I looked through their book of restaurant menus. A couple of the menus, Zin and Farmhouse Restaurant, jumped out at me. I spoke to Janae about them, and she told us to try the beer battered green beans at Zin. She also mentioned that Willie's Seafood was really good, and that she waited tables at Dry Creek Kitchen, and the food there was very good there too. I looked at the Dry Creek Kitchen menu, and it did look good.

We left J Winery, and went to Healdsburg for lunch. Zin was my first choice for lunch, but they closed at three so we just missed lunch service. We tried Willie's Seafood, and they were closed on Tuesdays. We walked around looking for food, but at three in the afternoon only bar type places were open. We passed Dry Creek Kitchen, and even though I wanted to eat there for dinner, we tried to eat there for lunch. Their kitchen also closed at three, but we made dinner reservations for that night.

Restaurant: Bear Republic Brewing Co. (Healdsburg, CA)

There were a couple of bar/restaurants open, and Bear Republic Brewing Co. looked like the best option. We walked in, and the place smelled like sweet wort (the unhopped liquid near the beginning of the beer brewing process). It's not an unpleasant scent (sort of like boiled grain), but I didn't want to smell it during lunch so we sat outside. It took our waiter a few minutes to seat us after he saw us, and his service was slow throughout the meal. It did look like he was the only person covering all the patio tables so he did have an excuse, but I still felt he could have been quicker.

I saw that they made their own vanilla cream soda and root beer, so I tried to cream soda. The vanilla flavor was good, but there was also a sharp medicinal spearmint flavor that made the soda completely nasty. Lynn told me I should have tried the root beer instead, but I'm no less picky about root beer, and it probably would have had that nasty spearmint flavor in it too.

I noticed that one of the topping options for the appetizer pizza was dry salami. Now that's the sort of thing you usually only see when someone's really serious about their sausage. There was also andouille sausage in one or two of the entrees so I knew someone at the restaurant was a sausage connoisseur. I wanted the dry salami for our pizza, but Lynn doesn't like dry salami on pizza (although I'm pretty sure she's never had it before) so I agreed to pepperoni since I figured that anyone who cared enough to carry dry salami and andouille would also carry good pepperoni. I was right. The pepperoni was the excellent dry variety that makes you wish pizza places never used the oily generic version. The pizza sauce was tasteless, but the crust was pretty decent. Overall I'd say that the pepperoni carried the entire pizza, and we were both pretty happy with that.

Lynn wasn't feeling hungry so she went with a side salad. There were a couple of things I wanted to try, but I settled on the black and blue burger (thick sliced pepper bacon, blue cheese, avocado, and remoulade). I figured the flavor combination might be too much, but was willing to chance it. The burger was dry, and the flavors were so thick and heavy that it needed something to at least make it moister. Needless to say I wasn't happy with my burger, but that was probably a good thing since I didn't need to eat too much before dinner anyway. My burger did come with garlic fries topped with cheese and some sort of sweet herb. Those were pretty tasty. Lynn's salad was pretty decent.

Fern Grove Cottages

We left Healdsburg, and took Highway 116 to Guerneville so we could check into our hotel, the Fern Grove Cottages. Lynn did all the driving from Indio to Sonoma, and I took over after we got to J Winery. I didn't like the drive on 116 one bit; it was a hilly and twisty highway, and I hate having impatient locals behind me constantly trying to get around me because I don't drive 60 miles per hour on strange hilly and twisty highways.

We got to Guerneville eventually, and found our hotel without any problems. Margaret (the lady behind the front desk and co-owner) checked us in, and gave us a Russian River Wine Road map. We got into our cottage, and it was small, a little rustic, and very cute. I got a room with a jacuzzi tub, and that took up about a third of the room. I was happy because they had an open wireless network, but the signal was extremely weak in our room.

We got ready for dinner, and I decided to take Westside Road into Healdsburg. Lynn did the driving, and she was unhappy with me because it was even windier than 116. Lynn took a couple of the curves too wide (she was lucky there wasn't any oncoming traffic), but we made it to Healdsburg in one piece.

Restaurant: Dry Creek Kitchen (Healdsburg, CA)

When we go to Dry Creek Kitchen Lynn was thinking about asking for Janae as our waitress, but we didn't know her name at that time. I personally didn't care who was our waiter/waitress.

We were seated and given chewy sourdough bread and cold butter. I didn't care for the bread, and Lynn thought the flavor of the butter was odd. We looked at the menu, and both agreed that the tasting menu sounded best. Lynn got the wine pairing while I was only in the mood for a glass of wine. A great deal of the tasting menu was seafood so I decided to go with a white. I had never heard of the Trousseau Gris varietal so the Fanucchi "Trousseau Gris 2003" sounded intriguing. The wine was fruity and acidic, unfortunately I wasn't in the mood for white wine.

We were brought an amuse of asparagus soup with a dollop of meyer lemon aioli. The soup had two things about it that made me immediately dislike it: it was served cold (which I've never been a fan of), and it was asparagus (which I appreciate as a vegetable, but not in soups). Lynn didn't share my dislikes, but she didn't like that the lemon flavor overpowered the subtle flavor of the asparagus.

Our first course was raw oysters with brut rose sorbet and caviar. The combination of sweet and salty sea flavors was great, but the caviar gave everything a nasty fishy aftertaste. I enjoyed the uniqueness and playfulness of the dish, but the caviar ruined it.

The second course was langoustine "cappuccino" and langoustine beignets with mango puree, lime fleur de sel, and three spice mix (cinnamon, cardamon, and some other spice) condiments. The langoustine "cappuccino" was basically a langoustine bisque that was a little sweet, and pretty tasty despite some grittiness. The langoustine beignets weren't coated in a beignet batter, but something more like a lightly salted tempura batter. They were perfectly crispy, and pretty good by themselves (and I don't even like langoustines). I tried the condiments, and the lime fleur de sel was the perfect little pungent and salty compliment. I didn't care very much for the other two condiments, but Lynn told me that all three of them were perfect together. I tried it, and I had to admit that the fruity, salty, and spicy-sweet combination was great, and it was interesting how the mango cut the cardamon perfuminess (which is why I didn't like the three spice mix).

The third course was pan roasted halibut with a crispy cube of polenta and watermelon. The halibut was perfectly cooked; crispy on the outside and moist in the center. The flavor was buttery and salty, but nothing particularly special. The polenta was tasty, but my watermelon was bitter as hell. The watermelon seemed out of place with the dish too. Lynn said her watermelon was sweet, and I tried it, but it was still too weird for me. Lynn had a glass of Hartford "Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2003" with the course. I tried it, and it was the jammiest Pinot Noir I'd ever had. Mighty tasty.

The fourth course was a duo of pork: a bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with a ramp [a type of wild onion (I had to look it up)] ravioli, and pork belly with tomato marmalade. The tenderloin was amazingly tender, and was actually very good with the bacon despite the excessive number of bad experiences I've had with pork on pork. I enjoyed the unique flavor of the ramp ravioli, but Lynn thought it was too strange. The pork belly was all fat so even though the tomato marmalade was amazingly tasty (thick and just sweet enough) it couldn't fix the fact that there wasn't any meat to eat it with. Lynn had a glass of Limerick Lane "Collins Vineyard Zinfandel 2002". Wow! The Limerick Lane had wood and jamminess combined; I thought it was great.

Next on the tasting menu was the dessert course, but I noticed there was a cheese course with six cheeses from Sonoma county so I had to try it. There was one goat, one sheep, and four cow's milk cheeses. The goat cheese was Andante Dairy's "Acapella" which was good, ripe, and runny. The sheep cheese was Bellwether Farms' "San Andreas". Lynn and I both remember it as good, but we don't remember anything specific about it. Andante Dairy's "Pianoforte" was a cow's milk cheese that was so nasty that we both tried to get the taste of it out of our mouths as quickly as possible. The second cow's milk cheese was Matos Family's "St. George" made in a non-American cheddar style. It wasn't the type of cheddar I like, but it was very good. Lynn appreciated it more than I did, but she also likes all styles of cheddar more than I do. The third cow's milk was Cowgirl Creamery's Red Hawk, a triple cream with lots of flavor. I thought it was very good. The last cow's milk was a Point Reyes blue cheese. I've had the Point Reyes more than a few times, and I always enjoy it. Lynn doesn't like blue cheese, and the Point Reyes wasn't an exception.

The baked Alaska and the rhubarb composition [a selection of four rhubarb desserts] both looked good to me, but I went for the baked Alaska because of how rarely I run across it. Lynn got the chocolate composition (orange-chocolate ice cream, chocolate tart, chocolate-cashew tart type thing, and creme de cacao foam). Lynn also ordered a glass of the Ferrari-Carano "Eldorado Noir 2001" (made from Black Muscat). When the waitress (it wasn't Janae because she was off) brought out the wine, it was actually the Pedroncelli "Four Grapes Port 2000". Lynn told her it was the wrong wine, but the waitress insisted she try it since it would be a better match for Lynn's dessert. We both didn't like her tone, but we both tried a sip of the wine anyway. It was foul (maybe the bottle was open longer than it should have been?). Lynn sent it back for the drink she ordered. The "Eldorado Noir 2001" was fruity and very tasty.

When the desserts were brought to the table Lynn's dessert didn't look quite like what we expected; instead of being four separate desserts there was only one. We both tried a bite of it when Lynn realized it was the chocolate cake dessert, not the chocolate composition. Neither one of us cared for the chocolate cake, but Lynn would have sent it back on principle even if she did. When the waitress brought the correct dessert out she said, "Does this look more like what you think you ordered?" I don't think she meant that in a negative way, but she seemed to imply that she didn't think Lynn ordered the chocolate composition. I really hoped Janae didn't split the tip with this waitress because the only reason I tipped decently was for the service Janae gave us otherwise it probably would have been 3%. I really liked my baked Alaska, which didn't come out flaming because it had a chocolate and a cajeta [goat milk caramel] sauce. I wished there was more candied nuts though because they made the dessert. I tried all four of Lynn's chocolate items, and the only one I liked was the one I least expected to like, the creme de cacao foam (a fancy way of saying chocolate flavored whipped cream). The chocolate tart was very rich and smooth, but it didn't have enough chocolate flavor for me. Lynn really liked it. The chocolate-cashew thing was gritty, and the cashews didn't have a distinctive flavor as we thought the nuts were hazelnuts. The orange flavor in the orange-chocolate ice cream was too strong for me, and in a fit of weirdness Lynn liked it (and she doesn't like the combination of orange and chocolate).

The meal was very good, and I really appreciated the playful dishes, but I wouldn't eat at Dry Creek Kitchen again. The presentations were minimalist (e.g., the halibut course was plated on a large white plate with only one tiny dash of halibut with a single cube of watermelon and a single cube of polenta next to it without anything else leaving a lot of empty plate), and that just doesn't speak to me. At least in Japanese cuisine they have the good sense to serve their small dishes on small plates.

A Safe Drive

I took River Road back to the hotel, and it was the easiest road to get to and from Highway 101 to Guerneville. I was happy to finally have a route that I could drive on without trepidation.

Wednesday - 5/4

Morning

I set the alarm a little early so we could catch the continental breakfast in the hotel lounge, and we woke up to a rainy day. The breakfast consisted of the usual cereal, danish, and cake, but there was also a large scone, which was a nice English touch (both the owners are English). I talked to Margaret, and she marked down the wineries she liked on my Russian River Wine Road map. We had more recommended wineries to visit than we had time so I was happy. We then went back to the room and took a leisurely bath in our room's spa-tub.

Wine Tasting

The one winery that was out of the way was Hartford Family Winery in Green Valley. I wouldn't have even thought to visit them, but Margaret said they made elegant wines, and they were worth the drive. I took Martinelli Road to the winery, and it was probably the most scenic drive of the trip. One second we'd have trees on both sides of the road forming a natural arbor, then round a bend to see a vineyard planted in a valley. There were even a few hills with head pruned old vine Zinfandel simultaneously looking noble and alien. I wish I got a few pictures, but there wasn't really any place to pull off of the road, and I'm the laziest photographer in the world anyway.

The first wine we tasted was their Chardonnay, but I don't remember much about it. Lynn was the first to drink, and she was also the first to spit the wine into a bucket too. I had always meant to start spitting someday—it's easier on the stomach and the head when you're tasting at different wineries, and it's safer for those driving too—but it wasn't until Lynn started spitting that I did it too. We tasted the "Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2003" we had from the dinner the night before, but it didn't taste good. I wondered if the Pinot Noir didn't taste good because the bottle had been open too long. We tried their "Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2003", and I thought it was an excellent balanced Zinfandel. We also got to try a couple of the single vineyard designation Zinfandels (the Fanucchi and the Highwire), and I didn't like them. When I tasted them I tasted components for their great Russian River Valley, and thought whoever blended that wine did a great job. The guy at the tasting room offered to open another one of the single vineyard designations of our choice. I chose the Hartford Vineyard since it was the vineyard on the Hartford's personal property. It had a good flavor, but the wine was far too light for my tastes. Lynn enjoyed it enough that we got a bottle of that in addition to their Russian River Valley and Dina's Vineyard (I took the word of the guy at the tasting room that the wine was full bodied and tannic with a great blackberry core).

Restaurant: Zin (Healdsburg, CA)

We left Green Valley and headed to Healdsburg so we could eat at Zin for lunch. I hoped that the rain would keep people away from the restaurant, but the place was packed when we got there. We had to wait, but thankfully the wait was only a few minutes.

We were brought sourdough bread with a chewy crust. It was similar to the bread at Dry Creek Kitchen, but it tasted better (Lynn didn't think the butter tasted odd either). We started with an order of the beer battered green beans. Green beans don't sound like something you'd want to batter and deep fry, but it turned out to be a good idea. The beer batter was a little salty, and tasty as hell by itself, and the green beans balanced the batter. Together they were addictive. It came with some sort of mango sauce that was fruity, but not sweet. I didn't like it, but Lynn did. I think we're going to have to try to make deep fried green beans at home someday.

I was disappointed that they didn't have the shrimp and masa appetizer I saw on the menu at J Winery, but they did have any entree with shrimp, andouille sausage, and grits so I got it. Lynn had to go for the all beef red chile which only consisted of red chile and beef. My dish came with a sauce that tasted like a spicy version of creole sauce, and it was excellent with the shrimp and grits. The andouille sausage was ok. Lynn really liked her red chile, but when I tasted it I found it was too plain and one-dimensional for me.

Overall I was happy with Zin, and I'd probably try them for dinner the next time we're in Sonoma.

Wine Tasting

We headed to Ridge because they specialize in Zinfandel. I had never tried one of Ridge's wines before otherwise I would have known they were very tannic. After four or five wines I decided they weren't my sort of thing. Lynn really liked the "Dusi Ranch Late Picked Zinfandel 2003", which was a little sweeter than the other wines, enough to buy a couple of bottles.

Our next stop was Alexander Valley Vineyards. Lynn really liked their "Viognier 2003", but I didn't taste it because I was still off of whites. I loved their "Redemption Zin Zinfandel 2003", which was quite balanced. Lynn really liked the "Two Barrel 2002" which was a blend of Syrah and Merlot. I didn't care for it. I also tried the "Cyrus 2000", and intense is the only word I could use to describe it. I thought it was good enough to get a bottle (in addition to the other wines we like), but it'll be a few years before I drink it.

Further down the road was Field Stone where we didn't try too much. Their Petite Sirah was dry, and neither one of us really liked it. Their "Cabernet Sauvignon 2001" was very tannic, but had a good fruity flavor to it that was a sort of antithesis to the Cyrus. I liked it enough to get a bottle. The last thing we tried was the "Staten Family Reserve Petite Sirah Port 2002". It was a sweet and dry port with a sort of alcoholic finish that was quite unique. I was on the fence about it, but we ended up getting a bottle.

White Oak was our favorite winery from our Napa trip so it was an auto-visit for us this time. It seemed appropriate that the first time we visited them it was raining, and it was raining this time too. I wasn't going to try any of their whites, but one of the tasting room ladies said their "Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2003" (which was a week away from being released) was very different from their 2002. It made me curious since I did enjoy their 2002. The 2003 was nice and crisp with barely a hint of butter which was a nice contrast to their 2002 (which was a tasty subdued version of the typical malolactic/oaky CA Chardonnay). I wasn't going to try the "Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2003" either, but I got talked into that too. It had a lot of grapefruit flavor, and nice acidity. I think I'm becoming a Sauvignon Blanc drinker. We tried their "Alexander Valley Zinfandel 2002", and while I liked it I remembered it being better (the one I remembered was their "Alexander Valley Zinfandel 2001"). I didn't like their Zinfandel as much as the Redemption Zin, but Lynn liked it better. We both dug their "Napa Valley Syrah 2002", but I don't remember why. We left with quite a few bottles of wine, and we liked White Oak even better this time than the first.

Restaurant: CK House Chinese Restaurant (Guerneville, CA)

We didn't feel like anything fancy for dinner so we went to the Chinese restaurant down the street from our hotel. Lynn had to try the hot and sour soup, and I had to try the potstickers. The hot and sour soup broth had a great flavor, but some of the ingredients (like the mushrooms) were too coarsely chopped to be easily eatable. The potstickers were doughy, but the filling tasted good. The one thing I was really unhappy about was that we had to make our own potsticker sauce. I was pleasantly surprised that a combination of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar makes a passable potsticker sauce though.

I knew we were going to order too much food, but I didn't care. I had the chicken with Thai basil while Lynn had the sizzling black pepper beef. My dish had a good wok flavor, and the Thai basil added just the right something to it. Lynn's beef needed salt (no surprise there since Chinese restaurant don't usually salt their beef before cooking), and it just didn't taste right to me (once again, no surprise). Lynn liked her dish though. We ended up getting both dishes packed since we had the cooler chest, and thought they wouldn't taste bad cold.

Thursday - 5/5

Wine Tasting

Margaret called ahead to Papapietro Perry so we could do a tasting. Papapietro Perry didn't have a tasting room so the reason we had to call ahead was that we were going to taste on their back porch. It reminded me of tasting on Leo's back porch at Charron Vineyards. Papapietro Perry was a little hidden, but we didn't have too much trouble finding them (up a hill and on the edge of an old vine vineyard). I figured that since it was someone's house that there wouldn't be a spit bucket, and I didn't want to be rude and spit the wine on the ground so I knew I was in for some drinking. I got lucky, and the two wines they had available were both very nice, easy drinking Pinot Noirs. They both had the best strawberry scents. My favorite of the two was the "Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2002", which was fruity, and Lynn's was the "Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2002", which was fruity with a certain minerality. Lynn got three bottles of each shipped to us.

Renae, wife of Bruce (one of the winemakers) and the marketing director, told us they were working on a Zinfandel and a sparkling wine. I can't wait to try them because they should at least be interesting.

We headed back down Westside Road to Davis Bynum next. The only wine of theirs I remember was their "Nova Vineyard Zinfandel 2002", which was tannic with a great berries and cream flavor. I got a bottle.

Not far from Davis Bynum was Rochioli, the first of the wineries with beautiful grounds. They only had two of their wines left to taste, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Noir. We didn't like either of them.

Further up Westside Road was Belvedere. Their grounds were beautiful too. I found their Sauvignon Blanc 2004 pleasant with grapefruit and other flavors. Their Sangiovese 2000 was an amazing surprise though; I could taste one fruit flavor after another resulting in quite a unique wine, especially for Sangiovese. Lynn really liked their Syrah 2000, and I thought it was good too. It was grippy tannic, but had very good flavors is it probably just needs some age. I ordered a mix of the wines I liked with delayed shipping.

Roshambo was the last winery with beautiful grounds. When we walked inside they were blaring hard house (one of the most annoying types of club music), and there was no one to be found so we looked at the artwork they had on display. Eventually someone showed up. The Sauvignon Blanc, and the reds we tasted were decent to me, but Lynn liked them a little better than I did. What we could agree on was how great the "Late Harvest Traminer 2001" was. It wasn't cloyingly sweet, and the flavors were complex; I thought it ranked right up there with the Thomas Fogarty "Late Harvest Gewurztraminer 2003" (which I consider one of the best dessert wines I've had). It wasn't until later when I looked at Roshambo's web site that I found out that Traminer is another name for Gewurztraminer. The similarities made perfect sense after that.

There were picnic tables at Roshambo, but we ate our left overs as we sat in the parking lot; the parking lot had a nice enough view, and we didn't have to carry the cooler chest all the way to the picnic tables.

Mill Creek was the last winery we visited on Westside Road, and all their wines were way too tannic for us.

The last winery we visited for the day was Foppiano, and everything they made was very tannic too. My favorite of the bunch was the "Russian River Valley Estate Petite Sirah 2002" which was tannic enough for me to think of it as a long term aging wine, but with very good flavors. I would have got it, but I thought I already had one at home (turned out to be the 2001). Lynn got a bottle of the "Alexander Valley Sangiovese 2002" and the "Bacigalupi Vineyard Petite Sirah 2003".

In Between Wineries and Dinner

We left Sonoma for Napa, and got a little lost in between. Lynn was aggravated that we were lost, but we still got to Napa without any problems. On the way there we saw the back of a grand chateau, and I knew it had to be Domaine Carneros; only the French seem to design houses that naturally bring the adjective "grand" to mind. We saw the sign at the front of the chateau, and it was Domaine Carneros.

We checked into the River Terrace Inn in Napa. I had reserved a room with a spa-tub, but it didn't have a balcony. I didn't realize how important that was to me until we walked into the room, and I really wanted to smoke a cigar. I went back to the front desk, and changed to a room with a balcony (the guy at the front desk was nice enough to gave me a good price). Lynn and I smoked cigars on our balcony, and just relaxed for a change. Relaxing was good since I had an hour and a half drive to Farmhouse Restaurant that night to look forward to.

Restaurant: Farmhouse Restaurant (Forestville, CA)

When I saw the menu for Farmhouse Restaurant the first time I knew I had to eat there. When I saw a different menu of theirs I still felt like we had to eat there. It was a good sign. When I told Margaret that we planned to eat there she told me that they were the highest Zagat rated restaurant in the area. Ratings don't mean anything to me, but I was disappointed that the restaurant was already known since I'd never heard of them. We were going to be in Sonoma on Saturday, but I couldn't get a reservation at Farmhouse Restaurant for Saturday night. I was however able to get a reservation for Thursday night so it was a good thing I felt they'd be worth the drive.

The restaurant was cozy and cute in a typically French way. We were seated, and given chewy sourdough bread with cold butter. Why don't restaurants ever have room temperature butter!? We got a half bottle of the Lynmar "Quail Cuvee Pinot Noir 2001" (I had to get it because of the name of the winery), and it was pretty tasty. The wine was medium bodied with a nice balance between fruity flavors and oak.

For our appetizers I had the shrimp timbale in vichyssoise [cold potato and leek soup], and Lynn had the grilled asparagus with sweet lobster sabayon. I loved the presentation of my dish; the contrast between the white color of the shrimp timbale and the green of the vichyssoise, and the bits of tiny herbs and eatable flowers around the timbale looked great. The dish tasted as good as it looked too with layer upon layer of flavor. I was impressed on many levels. Lynn's grilled asparagus was great, and I wondered how come our homemade grilled asparagus had never tasted as good. The lobster sabayon didn't add anything to the dish for me, but Lynn liked it. We were both happiest with our own dishes.

The one item that really caught my attention the first time I had seen the Farmhouse Restaurant menu was their "Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit" (bacon wrapped tenderloin, grilled ribs, and rabbit leg in mustard sauce), but their menu changed daily so I doubted it would be available when we were there. Turns out they had it that night so even though I was sorely tempted by the lamb I got the rabbit. Lynn surprised me and got the lamb (she's not allowed to say she doesn't like lamb anymore). The ribs were great, but rabbits don't have very large rib cages so it was about three bites. The rabbit leg in mustard sauce was very good, but typical. The bacon wrapped tenderloin only tasted like bacon so it seemed like a waste to me. My entree was good, but it wasn't great like I expected it to be. Not like Lynn's dish. Her lamb was perfectly prepared, and it was seasoned with some spice I'd never had on lamb before. I couldn't identify it, but it was great on the lamb. Even her side dishes were amazing. The mashed turnips were good by themselves, but with the garlic kale or the Zinfandel sauce they were excellent. I wanted to finish everything on Lynn's plate, but refrained to save room for cheese and dessert.

We had seen the cheese steward with his cheese cart earlier at another table, and he seemed enthusiastic about cheese, even from a distance. That kind of enthusiasm reminded me of the cheese steward at Le Meurice in Paris who made the cheese course an experience instead of just another course so I looked forward to the cheese course. The cheese steward rolled his cart up to us, and proceeded to tell us about the six cheeses he had. He was entertaining and informative. Lynn thought he had a Swiss accent, but he said he was German, and acted a little offended that she thought he was Swiss. (He did mention that he had spent time in Switzerland as a child, which explained the Swiss accent even if he didn't think he had one.) He had two wines pairings he recommended to go with the cheeses, and we got half glasses of both (a Roederer Estate "Brut" and a Campbell's "Rutherglen Muscat"). As it turned out we liked the first three cheeses, but didn't care for the last three. The first cheese was the Andante Dairy "Acapella" (Sonoma, CA) which had a vegetable coated rind. The rind was a little sharp which was a pleasant contrast to the mild cheese. The second cheese was the Andante Dairy "Minuet" [the round shaped version] (Sonoma, CA). It was very mild, creamy, and a little sour. I thought it was pretty tasty. The cheese steward told us that cheese was specifically designed to pair with Champagne so that's what the Roederer was for. I didn't try the Champagne with the cheese, but Lynn thought the "Minuet" was actually better with the Campbell's. The third cheese was a Pyrenees (France), which was good. The fourth was a Raclette (Rhone-Alpes, France) that I didn't like (I don't remember why). The fifth was a Hoch Ibrig (Switzerland) that the cheese steward told us was made from spring milk so some people say they can taste the spring flowers in it. I didn't taste flowers, but the cheese was very sharp, and caused a tingly sensation in my mouth similar to the tete de moine (also from Switzerland) that I didn't like. The last cheese was a Fourme d'Ambert (Auvergne, France), a blue cheese that was way too strong for me. The Campbell's was meant for that cheese, but I disliked the cheese enough to not bother with the pairing.

The dessert menu was limited so the only thing that looked good to me was the creme brulee with turbinado sugar crust. I would have gotten a dessert wine, but I was driving, and didn't feel up to another glass. Lynn had to try their chocolate souffle. Lynn also wanted a dessert wine to match her souffle so she asked our waiter, Jim, for a recommendation. He suggested the Olivares "Dulce Monastrell 2000", a Spanish dessert wine made from Mourvedre. The wine was near black in color with lots of raisin flavor. It was pretty tasty stuff. My creme brulee arrived, and the crust looked like it was burnt. It was very slightly burnt, but not as burnt as it appeared because turbinado sugar still has the natural molasses in it giving it a naturally darker color. The creme brulee was good, and the crust was unusually thick, and quite tasty where it wasn't burnt. Lynn's chocolate souffle didn't have enough chocolate flavor for me, and it was a little eggy. Lynn really dug it. We both though that dessert was the weakest course of the meal.

Before we left we talked to Jim for a long time. Jim's also the wine coordinator at Farmhouse Restaurant so we spent a lot of that time talking about wine. We had a great meal at Farmhouse Restaurant, and had a great time while we were there. The prices were reasonable, but we both thought the charge for the cheese course was a little excessive. Even if the charge was for two people it seemed like the cheese steward should have asked if we wanted two servings since we hardly eat that much cheese.

Friday - 5/6

Lunchtime

We up late and took a while to get ready so when we left the hotel we went straight to lunch. Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen was the only restaurant from our visit to Napa that I wanted to eat at again so we made the drive up to St. Helena. Traffic was pretty bad, and it didn't take long for me to determine that Napa is too crowded for my tastes. I guess we didn't notice it before because we were there in December which must be their low season.

Restaurant: Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (St. Helena, CA)

Some of the restaurants we had passed on the way to St. Helena looked really crowded, but Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen was just slow enough that we were seated immediately. Maybe it was because of their relatively obscure location, but I certainly don't think it was because of the food. We didn't order any wine because we were going wine tasting after lunch.

We were brought a basket of bread, and some butter. The bread had a thick crispy crust (almost a little too thick for a baguette), and was excellent with butter and a little bit of salt and black pepper.

Lynn and I couldn't agree on appetizers so we got three different ones: the Backstreet fry (deep fried calamari, lemon, asparagus, and jalapeno), stuffed peppers, and goat cheese ravioli with asparagus and herbs. The dough for the fried items was a little thick, and while it was good it wasn't nearly as good as the beer batter at Zin. The avocado-tomatillo dipping sauce was excellent though. It had a good flavor, and it was spicy too. The calamari was the best of the deep fried items, and I thought the deep fried lemon would have been good without the rind on it. Lynn liked it though. The stuffed peppers were good with the earthy flavor of the beef combined with the sweet flavor of the peppers, but it was the smokey sauce that made the dish excellent. The goat cheese in the ravioli was mild, which was a good thing, and the entire dish was light and herby despite the butter sauce. I really enjoyed the dish, but Lynn didn't care for it.

Lynn knew she wasn't going to eat much so she just got the soup of the day (poblano, tomatillo, and asiago cheese), and I got the Moroccan spiced lamb shank. Lynn tried her soup, and immediately didn't like it because the cheese was too strong. I tried it, and I agreed with her. My lamb was tender, but that was the only good thing it had going for it. It tasted somewhat gamey and wasn't seasoned. I didn't get why they called it Moroccan spiced when it didn't taste spiced at all. The lamb came with sweet English peas that were a little crisp and very tasty, and cilantro white rice that was pretty decent by itself, and very good with the peas.

The table next to us asked our waiter about the soup, and he was telling them about it when he turned to Lynn and asked how it was. Lynn told him that it was alright, but there was too much cheese in it. The waiter finished with the other table, came back, and took Lynn's soup away. A couple of minutes later he came back and said that he agreed that there was too much cheese in the soup that day.

I didn't think I was going to be in the mood for dessert, but I wanted to look at the dessert menu anyway. The coconut tres leches with whipped cream and strawberry sauce looked like my sort of dessert so I got it even though I didn't like their pineapple upside down cake. The tres leches was a perfect example of tres leches and tasty as hell by itself. It was even better with the strawberry sauce, but I never did taste the coconut.

When I got the bill I wasn't surprised to see the soup was taken off (even though the waiter didn't mention it), but I was very surprised to see the lamb was taken off too. I asked the waiter about the lamb, thinking it was a mistake, but he said that I obviously didn't like it. He didn't seem that observant so I was amazed he noticed.

Wine Tasting and Picnic Supplies

We left Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen and headed to Cuvaison. Lynn wasn't feeling well so she wasn't doing any tasting. I wasn't too disappointed because we were now in the county where I had to pay for tastings. The red wines at Cuvaison were all very tannic and full of oak flavor in stereotypical Napa style. It made me want to leave as quickly as possible, but they made a port (their "Cuvaison Espiritu Port 2002") that I wanted to try. Not surprisingly the port was very oaky too. I don't know why they thought oak was a flavor that should ever be in port, but it was a mistake. The one good thing about the entire tasting experience at Cuvaison was that the lady who was helping us was really friendly. She also told us about the Zinfandels at Folie a Deux.

We were driving back to the freeway when I decided to stop at a random winery. It was Clos Pegase. I did my tasting of reds, and everything was similar in that they all had dusty tannins and not very much fruit flavor. It wasn't my sort of thing. Lynn got a bottle of their Petite Sirah port untasted. They've made port for quite a few years so hopefully they know something about making ports.

Our next stop was Folie a Deux, and they did have a couple of good Zinfandels. I got one tasting, but this time Lynn was up for some wine. I think I would have liked the "Barrel Select Zinfandel 2000" better if I tried it a few more times. The first time I tasted it it was sort of jammy, but watery. The second sip cut some of the jamminess, but had some tannin to it. We ended up getting a bottle of "The Wild Bunch Zinfandel 2001", which I don't remember a thing about now.

Next was our favorite stop from our Napa trip, Dean & Deluca. We planned on picnicking one day on our trip so we needed to pick up some provisions. We picked out a few dried meats, which was very unexciting. Afterwards we headed to the cheese section where I got to explore and choose. Lynn was getting mad at me because I wanted to read the description on every cheese, but she wasn't so impatient when we got to sample the cheeses. We ended up with about six cheeses: one goat (for Lynn), one triple cream (triple creams are Lynn's thing, but the Andante triple cream was for me), one sheep's milk, two hard cheeses, and one English cheddar (for Lynn). I was very happy with our selection.

We got back to Napa and headed downtown so we could go to Napa Wine Merchants, which also doubles as St. Barthelemy's tasting room. St. Barthelemy is all about port, which makes them close to my heart. We tried five different ports, and the only port we didn't like was the Cabernet port which just didn't taste like anything good. It's not a surprise that neither one of us liked it though, since neither one of us really likes Cabernet. The Zinfandel and Barbera ports were both spicy in their own ways, and pretty tasty. The Syrah port didn't have anything specific that jumped out at me, but I still liked it a lot. The Petite Sirah port was one of my favorite ports of all time so I was a little disappointed when all it tasted like was fruity and sweet. Maybe it needed food or air to bring out the flavors? Whatever it may need we got two bottles of it (in addition to one of each of the ones we liked) so we can figure it out. The lady at The Wine Merchant was really nice, and she was the daughter of the owners of St. Barthelemy.

The Party's Over

Lynn hated that we had to pay for tastings and how crowded Napa was. We both preferred the Russian River area of Sonoma, and couldn't wait to go back on Saturday. It was about this time that I figured out that we were running out of money for this trip.

Restaurant: Budo (Napa, CA)

Lynn and I had been to Restaurant Hapa in Scottsdale a few times when the McDevitt's (the husband was the chef and the wife was the dessert chef) owned it so when they sold the restaurant and moved to Napa I was curious about their new restaurant. Budo [Japanese for grape] was their new place, and it was located just outside of our hotel! I wasn't sure we'd eat there, but there wasn't anything that sounded better to me.

The interior of the restaurant was very cool: low lighting, sculptures made out of branches, and lots of earth tones. The entire scene was relaxing except for the techno music they played (some of which I actually recognized and liked, but I would have preferred something mellower to match the interior).

We were brought dinner rolls and butter that was actually room temperature (I really wish more restaurants would serve their butter room temperature). The rolls were really chewy and had black sesame seeds, black pepper, and salt in them. The rolls were good, but it seemed like someone was trying too hard to be complex when simplicity was called for; if the rolls only had black sesame seeds in them they would have been great.

We were given an amuse that they called "Budo bacon and eggs" that consisted of a soft boiled quail egg and bacon with green garlic sauce. The green garlic sauce was excellent (I need to find out what's in green garlic sauce), but it was foul with the egg yolk. The amuse would have been really good with a hard boiled egg.

I knew I was getting lamb for my entree so I got a glass of the Patassy "Estate Pinot Noir 2002" from Sonoma County (I admit that I used to dismiss Sonoma wines before, but now I'm aware of their potential thanks to this trip). Lynn knew she was getting lobster so she got a glass of the J Winery "Pinot Gris 2004". My Pinot was a little woody with a fruity finish that I liked. Lynn was happy with her wine, but this was her third time having it so she should've been.

For our appetizers I got the seafood tasting (panko covered oyster with strawberries, lobster and tuna roll, hamachi sashimi with yuzu and other stuff, and taco [octopus] salad with corn, olive oil, and other stuff), and Lynn got the goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms with Japanese curried eggplant. They used to offer both appetizers at Restaurant Hapa. The deep fried squash blossoms were crispy, and the combination of goat cheese, eggplant, and Japanese curry was perfect. I remembered having this dish before in Scottsdale, and not being as impressed with it. I was disappointed that the chef was preforming better in Napa than in Arizona with the exact same dish. The oyster in my appetizer was a single perfect fried oyster that actually made for a good pairing with strawberry. Six of them would have put me into heaven. The lobster and tuna roll was nothing more than raw meat in my mouth, there was nothing tasty about it. The octopus didn't taste like much, but there were all sorts of complimentary flavors in the corn salad that were excellent. The hamachi sashimi was another dish I've had from Restaurant Hapa, and I also liked it better this time. I've never been a fan of hamachi, but complimented by yuzu [a Japanese citrus fruit] and sea salt it was great eating.

Lynn loves lobster so she couldn't resist the lobster tasting: lobster tempura, orange dusted lobster tail with orange and red onion, butter poached lobster with a potato blini, and lobster soup with uni and American caviar. Lynn said the tempura batter for her tempura lobster was soggy, greasy, and gross. It was probably soggy because the oil it was deep fried in wasn't hot enough, which is an elementary mistake that shouldn't happen at a good restaurant. I thought the lobster was pretty foul even without the soggy tempura. The poached lobster had a puffy texture to me, and I didn't like it, but Lynn enjoyed it. I tried the orange dusted lobster, and I didn't think the combination of orange and lobster worked together, but Lynn liked it. She did think the lobster was overcooked though. The soup was a little sweet and very good. Lynn didn't like the uni on top, and thought the lobster tasted wrong.

I was in a similar situation to Lynn. I'm a huge lamb fan so I couldn't pass up the trio of lamb: lamb chops with mashed fingerling potatoes and soy sauce simmered onions, lamb leg with matsutake mushrooms and mushroom sticky rice "risotto", and cardamon dusted tenderloin with exotic mushrooms and pureed sweet onion. My trio of lamb was pretty close to perfect. The lamb chops were perfectly prepared and tasty as hell. The mashed potatoes they were served on were also very good as were the onions. The lamb leg had a flavor similar to the chops so I totally dug it. The matsutake mushrooms were weird, having a flavor that reminded me of organ meat. The mushroom "risotto" was absolutely delicious, and one of the best risottos I've ever had. That's an amazing feat considering it wasn't made with a rice used for risotto. The tenderloin had an exotic perfumey flavor that was interesting, but would have been too much if I didn't have other things to eat. The sauteed mushrooms that came with the tenderloin were very tasty. I was extremely happy with my entree.

I had never heard of a scented or flavored white tea, but Budo had silver jasmine tea on the dessert menu. It seemed to go against white tea sensibility, since white tea is so delicate, but I had to try it anyway. I wondered if the restaurant knew how to prepare white tea properly, and when I saw how much the water was steaming from the tea pot I knew they didn't. I looked inside the pot and there were leaf tips, and I didn't spot any jasmine flowers (a good sign), but the scent of jasmine was overpowering. Since the scent was overpowering I knew the jasmine flavor would overpower the tea too, and it did. The tea still ended up being a good match for our desserts though.

Lynn got the tasting of Silverado strawberries (strawberry-sake gelee with panna cotta, strawberry sorbet, strawberry-coconut crepe with coconut caramel, and strawberry shortcake), and the waiter talked me into the chilled pear soup with sour cream ice cream (he said it was the best and most unusual dessert on the menu). The strawberry sorbet had such a great strawberry flavor that it didn't seem possible that it was natural. It tasted like they froze the best strawberry sauce imaginable. There were some slices of ripe strawberry (ripe strawberries are a nice touch) with the sorbet that had an amazing strawberry flavor. They didn't taste like regular strawberries either (in a good way). The strawberry-coconut crepe was excellent, and I'm not sure how they did it but the coconut flavor in the coconut caramel was insanely good. The sake in the strawberry gelee didn't taste right, and neither of us liked it. The strawberry shortcake wasn't sweet and didn't taste like much. I thought that even though there were only two winners out of Lynn's four desserts that it was well worth getting. My chilled pear soup was exotic and slightly perfumey. It was tasty in a restrained, sophisticated sort of way. It wasn't impressive like the good strawberry desserts, but I'd get it again.

Budo was coy, teasing me with a perfect fried oyster or two perfect lamb chops. It always left me wanting more. Lynn wasn't happy with her entree, but I was extremely happy with my entire meal. My only real disappointment was that the chef seemed to do a better job in Napa than he did in Scottsdale.

Saturday - 5/7

Morning

We woke up, and had a light breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast wasn't as good as I remembered, but Lynn pointed out that I missed some of the breakfast items because they put them in inconspicuous locations. Oh well. We checked out of the hotel, and started back towards Sonoma and Fern Grove Cottages.

Wine Tasting of Convenience

When I found out that Domain Carneros was owned by Taittinger I knew we had to stop there. Once Lynn saw their chateau on the way to Napa she wanted us to stop there too. Their grounds were absolutely beautiful. We went to their tasting room, and had to pay for two tastings since one tasting was only enough for the sparkling wines, or Pinot Noirs, but not both. I found their "Vintage Brut 2001" one of the best sparkling wines I'd tasted. This was a good trip for sparkling wine. Lynn loved the "Le Reve Blanc de blancs 1998". The Le Reve tasted yeasty and kind of toasty to me, but I preferred the vintage. There were three Pinot Noirs to taste, and two of them weren't bad. I liked the "Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir 2002" well enough while Lynn liked the "The Famous Gate Pinot Noir 2001" (which tasted like it needed some age). Lynn ordered four bottle of wine with delayed shipping. There was a statement on the price list that said they would waive the tasting fee for a two bottle purchase. Four bottles should have been enough to waive both of our tasting fees, but the guy behind the counter said that only applied to immediate bottle purchases. Lynn wanted to kill him. If I was her I would have canceled my order on principle. When we got back to Phoenix the wine we had shipped was cheaper locally which added insult to injury. (Domain Carneros wasn't the only winery that this was true with either. The wine should have been significantly cheaper at the wineries.)

It was a beautiful sunny day that made the drive through Sonoma valley pleasant. We took Highway 12 through Sonoma this time, and the landscape had a golden tone which closer resembled Napa than the green Russian River Valley. It was pretty countryside, but I still preferred the mountains and trees of the Russian River Valley.

I wanted to stop at Martinelli when Margaret told us that Helen Turley (of Turley fame) was their winemaker, but it was never a convenient stop until we were on our way back to Fern Grove Cottages. We tried their wines, and their Pinot Noir was good, but their "Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel 2000" was impressive. It was a big Zinfandel—high alcohol, jammy flavor, and nice depth—which wasn't surprising considering their winemaker. I wanted to pick up a couple of bottles of it, but we were running out of room to transport wine.

An Oceanside Picnic

We checked into our hotel, dropped our stuff off, and then drove to the ocean (where the town of Jenner was located) to eat our picnic lunch. When we got to Jenner we parked on a little pull out on a cliff overlooking the ocean and a small beach. There was a tiny bay with rocks that were home to various water foul and a beach full of seals. I took out the cooler chest and spread our goodies from Dean & Deluca on top of it: an Andante "Picolo" (triple cream), a Brebiou, a Hawes matured Wensleydale, a semi-hard Italian Pecorino di Fossa, a Westcombe farmhouse English cheddar, a Molinari pepperoni, some pork sausage, a Busseto peppered salami, buendnerfleisch, and some cherries, strawberries, and a loaf of French bread we picked up in Sonoma. The Andante "Picolo" was pungent and reminded me of a goat cheese even though it was made from cow's milk. The Brebiou was super creamy, but didn't have much flavor. The cheddar had a slightly briny flavor and slightly gritty texture that wasn't for me, but Lynn liked it. The Italian hard cheese was very tasty. The salami was good, but too greasy. The pepperoni was spicy and very good, but I knew it would be since we had it during our Napa trip. The buendnerfleisch had a good black pepper flavor, but there was something a little odd about it. The pork sausage worried me because it had liver in it so I didn't know how it would taste, but it had a crisp casing and a slightly sweet flavor that reminded me of Chinese sausage (but better). I liked it.

I was happy as could be with the fruit, cheeses, and bread, but Lynn wasn't even eating because she spotted her first whale while I was setting up, and spent most of her time looking for whales. A seagull landed on our pull off while I was eating, and I was curious if their appetites lived up to their reputations. I threw it the rind from one of the soft cheeses, and it actually ate it. I fed it more soft cheese rind, some bread, and finally some hard cheese rind. I was pretty impressed with its capacity to eat everything, and I thought it would be a good addition to our household since it would eat anything dropped on the floor (which the cats always ignore).

After lunch we returned back to our hotel and smoked cigars on our patio.

Restaurant: River's End Restaurant (Jenner, CA)

When Margaret recommended River's End Restaurant she said their presentation was great, and the food tasted even better. It's hard to ignore a recommendation like that so I looked at a sample menu, and it looked good to me so I had Margaret make a reservation for us.

We drove to the restaurant that night, and it was easy to find because we had already seen it when we were out to Jenner earlier. The exterior of the restaurant killed me because it looked like a shack and had a sign that read "Fine Dining". It's not the sort of thing that inspires confidence, but I was confident that Margaret knew what she was talking about.

The interior of the restaurant didn't bear any kind of resemblance to a shack. It wasn't exactly pretty, but it was comfortable, and it had a wall of windows overlooking the ocean. Of course it was nighttime so we couldn't see the ocean anyway. Our waiter came by with menus and the wine list, then he seemed to forget about us for 15 minutes. I immediately wasn't happy with him. Someone else, I believe he was the owner, ended up taking our wine order. Lynn got a glass of Hart's Desire "Syrah", and I got a glass of the Merry Edwards "Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2002". The Hart's Desire was very fruity and tasty. The Merry Edwards was balanced wood with fruit and hints of chocolate. I thought it was pretty good, but I liked Lynn's wine a little better.

For appetizers we wanted the seared diver scallops (with sauteed wild mushrooms, smoked tomatoes, feta, and white truffle oil) and the baked oysters (with herb butter, stewed tomatoes, portabella mushroom, and parmesan). The waiter said he thought they only had one order of oysters left so he went to check on them. When he came back he said they just ran out. I was pissed because if he took our order when we were ready for him we most likely would have got it. Nothing else sounded good to me, but I wanted to try something else so I went with the nightly special of panko crusted lobster and dungeness crab cakes with dill and sauteed mushrooms. The seared scallops were presented in a large abalone shell with a single orchid blossom on the plate. It was simple, but very elegant. I also thought the appetizer was perfect. The scallops were perfectly seared and the smoked tomatoes had a meaty flavor. The combination of the feta, tomatoes, and wild mushrooms was amazing. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the white truffle oil was only a note in a harmonious dish instead of overpowering everything the way it's normally used. Lynn didn't like that there were only two scallops in the appetizer, but they were large scallops, and they didn't even seem like the center of the dish to me because the dish was brilliant without them. The scallop appetizer made my Pinot very fruity and lightly sweet on the first sip, and like sweet wood with a chocolate finish on the second. I was happy. Everything about the crab cakes was typical, and next to the scallop dish they were disappointing in their banality. We would have been better off ordering two of the scallop appetizers. The sauteed mushrooms that came with the crab cakes were excellent though. They seem to have a real knack for mushrooms at River's End.

I wasn't in the mood for a seafood entree so it limited my entree choices. Lynn and I both ordered the "Spring’s Mixed Grill" (applewood smoked filet mignon with gorgonzola and lamb chops with an orange barbecue sauce and a balsamic reduction) which only looked decent to me. They tried their best to give the filet flavor with the applewood smoke and gorgonzola walnut butter, and even succeeded, but we still didn't think it was very good. The lamb was good, but the orange in the barbecue sauce was too odd for me. Lynn really loved the combination. Considering the scallop appetizer I expected more from the entrees.

As an aside, our entree had these odd little green things that were curled up on themselves that didn't taste like much, but tasted familiar, that had me curious. I didn't ask what they were, but we eventually found out anyway. The next day when we were at the hotel I saw the same circular little shoots growing from ferns. Margaret told me they were fiddlehead ferns. They were needlessly exotic, but they were pretty cool looking.

Nothing on the dessert menu sounded especially interesting so homemade vanilla ice cream with Frangelico sounded like my best option. Lynn had to try the chocolate mousse. The vanilla ice cream was very good, and it was the type of ice cream I think of when I think homemade. I was very happy with it. The chocolate mousse was typical and nothing special.

I know I didn't say a lot of good things about River's End, but Lynn and I will return to River's End the next chance we get. Their food was creative, and they definitely have potential. Hopefully we'll catch them when they have a theme ingredient for their tasting menu that we like.

Sunday - 5/8

Rain and Redwoods

It was very rainy when we woke up, and it never let up while we were packing the car to head back to Phoenix.

The waiter at River's End told us about the Armstrong Redwood Forest State Park the night before, and it sounded like something we wanted to see. After we checked out of the hotel we headed to the state park. We had to hike a little ways through the rain to get to the Colonel Armstrong tree (the oldest tree in the forest). It was about 1400 years old, over 14 feet in diameter, and over 300 feet tall. What's amazing was that it didn't look that tall when you looked at its trunk, but when you looked up you couldn't see its crown. The rest of the forest was beautiful with bright green clover, ferns, blooming flowers that looked like orchids, and moss growing on the tree trunks. It looked more like a fantasy forest than a real one, the type of thing Hayao Miyazaki might put in one of his movies or something that you would describe as a fairy wood (which is appropriate since they do have "fairy rings" there).

Restaurant: La Tapatia (Guerneville, CA)

La Tapatia was right next to Fern Grove Cottages, and while we were tempted to eat there during our stay we never did. After we visited the state park we were hungry and in the mood for Mexican so we took the opportunity to stop at La Tapatia. We made our orders at the cash register, and found ourselves a table. I had seen the horchata and fresh lemonade in big glass jars behind the register so I had high hopes for them. The horchata had a powdery texture, and I couldn't taste even a hint of cinnamon or vanilla. Despite those problems it somehow managed to still taste good. The lemonade was actually lemonade, not limeade like at most Mexican places. It was on the watery side, but still sweet and tart. I was disappointed that both agua frescas weren't better. We had chips and about five different types of salsa. The only one I liked was their Tapatia salsa which was made with roasted tomatillos.

We had two shredded beef tacos, one hard and one soft, as an appetizer. The beef wasn't seasoned, but the soft taco came with a good pico de gallo that made the soft taco worthwhile. I had a torta al pastor for my entree while Lynn had a carne asada burro. My torta bread was toasted with cheese which I'd never seen before. The sandwich was filled with good guacamole, but the meat was once again hardly seasoned (the reason I order pastor is because it's normally very well seasoned so lightly seasoned pastor is highly unusual). Overall the combination of flavors made the torta very tasty though. Lynn's burro had carne asada and Spanish rice in it. The Spanish rice wasn't very good, and the carne asada was unseasoned. Lynn needed to put a lot of salsa on top of her burro to make it eatable, but she enjoyed the beef anyway.

Needless to say we wouldn't return to La Tapatia.

The Drive Home

We wanted to get something to eat in L.A., but Lynn didn't want to venture far from the freeway. We would have stopped someplace, but the only places we saw off the freeway were chains. What surprised me was that most of those chains where In-n-Out Burgers. It was like some sort of conspiracy. Lynn drove from Sonoma all the way to Indio where we arrived at about 10 at night. I took over driving from there because Lynn was feeling sick, and I had to stop at a couple of rest stops for Lynn to puke. Other than that the trip to Phoenix was uneventful.

Afterthoughts

I was disappointed that we didn't get to spend more time in Sonoma or Carneros, or to see Monterey or Paso Robles, but it was a fun trip. The only thing I would have changed was the amount of money we spent on wine so that we could have spent more time on the road.

The Best and Worst of the Trip

About the Photos

The camera I used was a Canon Powershot G5 digital camera. Some minor touch ups were done in Photoshop.

Anyway, you know the rest: the pictures are copyright by me, and unauthorized use is prohibited.