A Day in Napa
November 19
We slept in a bit today, and then decided to wander out into our neighborhood to find a breakfast spot. We ended up at Café Mason, on a street corner I remembered from my last visit to San Francisco. We were just up the street from Biscuits and Blues where I drank way too much Jack Daniels and smoked a cigar before having to fly out early the next morning for client meetings. Ahh, memories…that was one bad taste in my mouth.
Café Mason turned out to be just what we needed. I got my seafood fix, ordering a bay shrimp and avocado omelette. It was packed with fresh herbs (I found rosemary, thyme and parsley), lots of avocado and tomato, and a dozens of tiny, savory shrimp. Kelly got his corned beef hash fix in an “Irish benedict”. Our tummies were very pleased with us for hours afterward. I love that feeling of well-being you get when you eat something that is just what your body needs. Although I’m not sure if any body needs Hollandaise sauce, Kelly still claimed he felt great.
We headed towards Napa after that, to the Copia food and wine museum. We found our way without too much trouble, and arrived at 1:30 PM, just in time for an Oregon Pinot Noir tasting. I’m in! There was a lot of swishing and spitting going one, and I did find a few that were very good—my favourite, of course, the Torii Mor Olson Vineyard Pinot, ran around $65 for retail. Expensive tastes get old after a while. Another one that I very much liked was the Erath Vineyards. The 2002 Estate Selection was so mild it put many of the other tinny and watery Pinots to shame. I know it’s stylish to like Pinot Noirs, thanks to the movie Sideways, but I get sick of having to try so hard to find a good one.
Sadly, none of the ones that I liked and could afford were available for sale anywhere but the vineyards, so I had to settle for picking up some new Napa Zinfandels and Syrahs to bring for dinner with our friends Isaac and Alix at Alix’s sister’s place. I of course can only remember two of the three wines now, and not my favorite one—I tend to get too into enjoying myself and not into recording details. We had a Renard Syrah, and a Storybook Mountain Zin. Thomas—if you’re reading this, please send me the details on the first wine we drank at your place!
But I digress—we spent some more time at Copia, looking at the exhibits (sorry no pictures were allowed). I’ve always thought that since I’m into both food and exhibit design, that a food museum would be the ultimate project. And that’s what Copia is. The exhibits were well-done, but it was a fairly small space. I could imagine filling a 5,000 square foot exhibit gallery with the history and science of food. But this theme was nicely focused on food in America, and Americans’ relationships to food. The last exhibit was a compilation of food clips from movies over the years, from Big (the mini corn cob scene) to The Big Night, which made me giddy.
Driving back to San Fran later on, we discovered the way we should have driven out to Napa. We came out on the freeway, over the Bay Bridge, only to discover as the sun was setting that the drive back towards the Golden Gate Bridge took us through Sonoma and winding roads with great vistas of vines as far as the eye could see. So we missed a bit of scenery—but now we know for next time.
Isaac prepared dinner with all fresh ingredients from the Embacardero Market—locally grown and made Italian sausage on fresh pappardelle with roasted peppers and tomatoes, locally raised free-range chicken breasts with fresh herbs, and a salad of seasonal greens. We finished off our meal with a gorgeous Muscat, courtesy of Thomas and Courtney, paired with triple cream cheese and a local blue cheese, as well as some salted chocolates (part of the new sweet-savory revolution), filled with burnt caramel, hot chilis, and ginger. Yum on both the food front and the company—we don’t see enough of Alix and Isaac, so we soaked it up while we could.
We slept in a bit today, and then decided to wander out into our neighborhood to find a breakfast spot. We ended up at Café Mason, on a street corner I remembered from my last visit to San Francisco. We were just up the street from Biscuits and Blues where I drank way too much Jack Daniels and smoked a cigar before having to fly out early the next morning for client meetings. Ahh, memories…that was one bad taste in my mouth.
Café Mason turned out to be just what we needed. I got my seafood fix, ordering a bay shrimp and avocado omelette. It was packed with fresh herbs (I found rosemary, thyme and parsley), lots of avocado and tomato, and a dozens of tiny, savory shrimp. Kelly got his corned beef hash fix in an “Irish benedict”. Our tummies were very pleased with us for hours afterward. I love that feeling of well-being you get when you eat something that is just what your body needs. Although I’m not sure if any body needs Hollandaise sauce, Kelly still claimed he felt great.
We headed towards Napa after that, to the Copia food and wine museum. We found our way without too much trouble, and arrived at 1:30 PM, just in time for an Oregon Pinot Noir tasting. I’m in! There was a lot of swishing and spitting going one, and I did find a few that were very good—my favourite, of course, the Torii Mor Olson Vineyard Pinot, ran around $65 for retail. Expensive tastes get old after a while. Another one that I very much liked was the Erath Vineyards. The 2002 Estate Selection was so mild it put many of the other tinny and watery Pinots to shame. I know it’s stylish to like Pinot Noirs, thanks to the movie Sideways, but I get sick of having to try so hard to find a good one.
Sadly, none of the ones that I liked and could afford were available for sale anywhere but the vineyards, so I had to settle for picking up some new Napa Zinfandels and Syrahs to bring for dinner with our friends Isaac and Alix at Alix’s sister’s place. I of course can only remember two of the three wines now, and not my favorite one—I tend to get too into enjoying myself and not into recording details. We had a Renard Syrah, and a Storybook Mountain Zin. Thomas—if you’re reading this, please send me the details on the first wine we drank at your place!
But I digress—we spent some more time at Copia, looking at the exhibits (sorry no pictures were allowed). I’ve always thought that since I’m into both food and exhibit design, that a food museum would be the ultimate project. And that’s what Copia is. The exhibits were well-done, but it was a fairly small space. I could imagine filling a 5,000 square foot exhibit gallery with the history and science of food. But this theme was nicely focused on food in America, and Americans’ relationships to food. The last exhibit was a compilation of food clips from movies over the years, from Big (the mini corn cob scene) to The Big Night, which made me giddy.
Driving back to San Fran later on, we discovered the way we should have driven out to Napa. We came out on the freeway, over the Bay Bridge, only to discover as the sun was setting that the drive back towards the Golden Gate Bridge took us through Sonoma and winding roads with great vistas of vines as far as the eye could see. So we missed a bit of scenery—but now we know for next time.
Isaac prepared dinner with all fresh ingredients from the Embacardero Market—locally grown and made Italian sausage on fresh pappardelle with roasted peppers and tomatoes, locally raised free-range chicken breasts with fresh herbs, and a salad of seasonal greens. We finished off our meal with a gorgeous Muscat, courtesy of Thomas and Courtney, paired with triple cream cheese and a local blue cheese, as well as some salted chocolates (part of the new sweet-savory revolution), filled with burnt caramel, hot chilis, and ginger. Yum on both the food front and the company—we don’t see enough of Alix and Isaac, so we soaked it up while we could.
posted by Noelle | 11:15 AM
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