San Francisco/Napa Valley – November, 2013
Near the end of November, I
flew up to Oakland, took the bart into San Francisco and checked into the
Golden Gate Hotel on Sutter, a cute little bed and breakfast inn with a very
friendly cat who wanders in and out of your bedroom!!! I took a longgg walk down Post, up Hyde and
over on Sacramento
to have lunch at Spruce which I usually really enjoy. This time the menu was rather limited and I
was a bit disappointed with what I chose…
Bus to the Legion of Honor
to see the watercolors by the famous Swedish master Anders Zorn. There were
also a few paintings on display by Matisse which I also enjoyed. Had a fabulous dinner at Frances, one of my
all time favorite restaurants. It is
small but so comfortable and friendly. I
ordered some winter squash with a green sauce, roasted beets with sunflower and
sesame seeds and a warm cauliflower panzanella salad with kale and date. Dessert was a delicious chocolate walnut
torte with caramel sauce!
In the morning I rented a
car and drove towards the napa valley, stopping at the cornerstone gardens (www.cornerstonegardens.com) in Sonoma . What an incredible place!!! There are several unique gardens designed by
local architects and landscrape designers and some wonderous galleries and
shops selling “big” art! Definitely
worth an hour or two stop! On to Napa where I wanted to
have lunch at Tarla Mediterrean Grill for obvious reasons!!! “Tarla” means “fields” and the restaurant
specializes in Turkish/Mediterrean fare.
I had some hummus/pita bread, a small spinakopia and some baklava. It was a nice little restaurant but the food
was not particularly memorable. I
wandered over to the Oxbow Market nearby and when it started to rain I headed
on to Calistoga where I would be staying at Fanny’s (www.FannysNapaValley.com), an
adorable bed and breakfast inn, for two nights.
I checked in, found my very sweet room and wandered down the main street
of Calistoga, checking out the little shops which were still open.
Dinner that night at Redd
in Yountsville where I had only had lunch in the past so I decided to splurge
and go for the tasting menu. I was NOT disappointed!!! It started with creamy sunchoke soup with
sunchoke chips, followed by tuna tartare with Asian pears and fried rice,
scallops with cauliflower puree, almonds and capers, duck breast with farro,
kale and chanterelle mushrooms, Sonoma
lamb with couscous and arugula and chocolate mousse cake for dessert!!!
In the morning I took a
walk around town before having breakfast at Fanny’s. Deanna
fixed French toast with berries and syrup which was delicious and then I headed
out to Napa to
visit the Di Rosa Galleries (www.dirosaart.org)
where I had booked a guided tour. There
are sculptures and very unique art inside the enormous house and buildings
owned by Rene DiRosa as well as outside all over the grounds. I was so fortunate to be the only one booked
for the 10 a.m. tour so we spent almost 3 hours looking at some wonderous
things! Afterwards I drove to St. Helena and had lunch at Cooks on Main Street . The portabello mushrooms and crescenza cheese
on focaccia bread with arugula and theflourless chocolate cake with whipped
cream for dessert were both excellent!!!
Driving back to Calistoga
I stopped at the Bothe-Napa Valley Park and wandered through the redwoods until
it started to get dark and then stopped by the Castel di Amorosa, an
authentically styled 13th century Tuscan castle and winery just to
have a look around. You can take a tour
of the castle and sample their wines but it was too late to do either one. I returned to Calistoga to “regroup” and then
set out for the Farm in Sonoma
(almost next door to di rosa galleries!!!) for a delightful dinner. The Farm is in the Carneros Inn with high
ceilings, a fireplace and fabulous food.
Again I decided on the tasting menu and had: Mendocino uni with sunflower sprouts, crudo
of Hawaiian kampachi with edamame and radish sprouts, lobster nicoise with
tomato jam, California
squab with toasted farro and slow cooked garden greens, crispy shortrib with truffled
salsify, redwood hill goat cheddar with hot pepper jelly and ricotta beignets with
persimmon four ways!!!
In the morning Deanna
fixed crisp little apple puffs for breakfast and I returned to San Francisco and turned in the car. Lunch at Prospect, a restaurant owned by
Nancy Oakes of Boulevard was wonderful.
I started with kabocha squash hummus with pomegranate seeds and homemade
crackers and followed with a prosciutto/eggplant caponata/arugula and burrata
cheese platter. Dessert was a decadent
salted chocolate caramel tart with caramel sauce and caramel ice cream!!! I could barely make it to the De Young Museum
after all that food!!! There was a veery
extensive Bulgari exhibition of their jewelry through the ages which also contained
some pieces from the collection of Elizabeth Taylor. Ongoing videos of famous people were shown wearing
some of the jewelry on display which was quite interesting to see. David Hockney’s “big” exhibition was also
quite interesting with his large scale, multi-canvas oil paintings and digital
movies shot with multiple cameras of the English countryside.
Dinner at Nopa, another of
my favorite restaurants, was great fun.
I like to sit upstairs overlooking the kitchen where you can see all the
“action”. I had crisp flatbread topped
with tapenade, squash, caramelized onions and crescenza cheese sprinkled with
arugula. Dessert was a chocolate pot of
cream with cocoa nib cookies!!!
In the morning I stopped
by the Xanadu Galleries on Maiden
Lane designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and housing
some very fine Asian art. Lunch at
Cologna near Jackson Square
was a burrata cheese salad with beets, a crisp slab of freshly made focaccia
brad and a “chocolate bar” for dessert.
Bart back to Oakland
Airport and a quick
flight home. It was a really great
trip. I saw so many new and wonderful
things, tried a few new restaurants, tasted some delicious food and thoroughly
enjoyed myself!!! Until the next time!!
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