melkor

steak

In Rockridge, there's no reason to eat at Oliveto! A Cote, Grasshopper, Garibaldi, Citron, hell - I'd rather get a soup-pizza from Zacharys, or a simple meal at Crepevine than suffer through yet another uninspired, poorly presented meal delivered by Olivetos disinterested wait staff. After a long weekend in Napa I'd go either to Pho 84 or Battambang in Oakland. Pho 84 serves consistently excellent Vietnamese food; Battambang has great Cambodian - there is nothing like either of them in wine country.

The French Laundry is currently closed while they renovate the kitchen/office space (and open Per Se in NYC) but it's scheduled to re-open in May - so you may luck out. I'd skip Brix, there are many better options - Terra, the Martini House, Bistro Jeanty, Bouchon, Bistro Don Giovanni, La Toque, and a bunch of others.

Some of us are... but I think you need to live somewhere without winter for that to work.

Illy still has their X5 deal going... here's the link.

Bury them in the yard. Smelt should have made my axis of evil list

It all depends what your interested in, where your staying, and what your budget is. There are already several posts in the California forum about other peoples Napa/Sonoma visits - that may be the best place to start your research and then post here what your looking for.

For what its worth, hotdogs are fully cooked when ya buy them - so other than being incredibly gross, your beef/pork lip&ass popsicles were completely safe.

As long as the foam in your latte doesn't look like the cappuccino with rabies I got the other day I approve. Considering that I'm working from home in my pajamas, I think it's either not TMI or we are both guilty Ya might wanna scale those pics down though so the unlucky folks with lower res screens don't need to scroll.

no, those were kettle crisps, from trader joes.

That makes one of us

Tonight for dinner we had pastrami sandwiches with homemade pickles and potato chips. The pastrami was smoked this morning over far more hickory that seems like a good idea. The end result was that it retained the perfect amount of smokiness after being steamed - three fistfuls of hickory chunks again next time it seems. Thanks all for hosting me this week, it's been fun. The time has come for me to leave you all in Pim's very capable hands.

I haven't heard back from marlena spieler and I've managed to convince Pim to take the blog, so next week ya'll get to dine with Pim. My food for today is hardly worth mentioning, I've been out bike riding all day - this morning I had a cappa, and some cottage cheese & peaches. Lunch was cheese and crackers in the park. There's a pastrami going in the smoker, but that won't be ready until after I finish my blog. We are off grocery shopping so we can make dinner.

I think i need to tag marlena spieler, hopefully she'll accept. Dinner at Zuni started with french fries, which were mostly eaten by the time I remembered to take a blurry photo of them. We had a bottle of 1999 Hendry block 7 zinfandel with our meal. We moved on to a bowl of polenta with mascarpone and parmisan cheese - none of us were very impressed with this dish. Roast quail was the other app for the table (of 3 ppl). Here you see the quail being delivered to the bright spot on the table for a photo For our entrees we had the chicken (for two) and the duck leg with a winter squash puree. Both were good, though the duck was the better dish. To end the meal we shared a meyer lemon tarte and a fruit cobbler. I had a cappuccino (and was mocked for drinking a milk drink after dinner), MsMelkor had no coffee, and Pim had the proper espresso to end her meal. Overall, I think it would be hard to say that Zuni makes outstanding food - but they do make good quality food, using great ingredients. They have a warm and friendly staff, and their space is very comfortable and it's just an enjoyable place to be.

Dinner was at Zuni Cafe in SF - I'll post more about it in the morning, I need to sleep. Anyone willing to volunteer for next weeks food blog?

Never really had lunch today, we had a snack at Sweetie Pies next to the Napa River Inn (which apparently allows guests to bring their dogs with them). A simple croissant and jam, though the croissant was a bit heavy - but reasonably good. Here we have a comparison of the cappuccino I got at Sweetie Pies and the ones I made when I got home... I think the cappa in the first pic may have rabies...

Ack, for a second I thought you meant "Limbaugh." Yick. I'll stick with sesame street - from far too many years ago.

Todays breakfast is brought to you by the number 4 and the letter 'J' Scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, and spinch on a toasted english muffin. Turkey bacon, and a glass of milk.

Drinking my morning cappuccino and snacking on some almond & cocoa nib biscotti MsMelkor made.

After going hang-gliding this afternoon: We had dinner at Terra in st helena - Sopa de Ajo - garlic soup with croutons and a poached egg Grilled duck breast with a ball of deep fried giblet confit risotto. A cappuccino that seems to have a giant foamy marshmellow floating on it Apple almond tarte with caramel ice cream and a caramel sauce (and a candle for good measure) We brought a bottle of 1988 Salon with us and had it with our apps/entrees. The food at Terra is consistantly excellent - dinner tonight was the perfect way to end my birthday.

We had leftovers for lunch - potpie and gratin. A couple of cappuccinos before lunch... I think I should make another now...

Happy birthday. Maple syrup has grades/classifications? Or is that a funny? Thanks Maple syrup comes in a bunch of different grades - there's more info on it here. Grade B is the darkest, and tastes the best (to me).

MsMelkor made me breakfast buttermilk pancakes with blueberries & raspberries, grade b maple syrup.

I really like tea, but there aren't enough things to tinker with when making it. One of my favorite things about drinking coffee is the dozens of variables involved and the endless pursuit of the perfect drink. I wasn't happy with the roasted coffee I could buy, so I bought a hearthware roaster. Eventually I realized I could make better coffee if I roasted the beans more slowly, so I build a drum roaster that fits on the gas grill. Four or five versions of the gas grill roaster later, I'm happy with the roasting setup I've got and can consistantly produce better roasted beans than I can purchase. I've gone through an electric drip coffee maker, a manual drip, a vacume pot, a french press, and now I'm on an espresso machine - I'm finally happy with the brewing method. I've been steaming milk for my cappuccinos/lattes/mochas for about 3 weeks and now 9 out of 10 drinks have really good foam. I'm thrilled with the drinks that come out of the espresso machine, and the whole process involved in making a drink. I took the day off work today, I've made two coffee drinks for each of us today and gone for a bike ride. One of the best things about moving to CA from NY is that my birthday is now in the spring. To top it all off, the weather is perfect today:

in-n-out double-double animal style. it's the only way to go.