Farmstead/Wine Tasting/Morimoto - September 17, 2010

Sheri and I woke up the next morning to partake in the hot springs at the motel.  They're more like super-heated pools.  One was indoors and heated to jacuzzi temperatures, with a little bit of bubbling action.  It could hold close to 40 bodies.  Mmm, human soup.  We soaked in the jacuzzi for a short while.  There were only three other people in it.  The other two pools were outdoors and heated to a comfortable temperature.  No one was swimming.  I'd imagine that it would be more crowded on Saturday and Sunday.  There were lounge chairs scattered throughout.  I didn't bring a camera so you'll have to use your imagination.  Or click on the links above.  We did some laps to work off some of the calories we were to ingest today.

After checking out of the motel, we headed off to our next gastronomic adventure.  Farmstead is located in Long Meadow Ranch in St. Helena.  The restaurant is known for providing a "farm-to-table" experience.  It was highly rated by Yelpers, and it did not disappoint.  We ordered appetizers and salads to share, along with dessert.  One of Farmstead's popular appetizers is the "potted pig".  It would either make you salivate with longing, or make your stomach turn.  It's pretty much a jar of shredded pork (like kalua pork in Hawaii) topped with pork fat.  Like you emptied a frying pan full of bacon grease into it.  It sounds gross, but tastes so good.  If you like eating pork fat (like the edges of a pork chop, or Chinese roast pork), you'll love this.  The potted pig is accompanied by lightly salted toasts and homemade mustard.  You stir and mix the meat with the fat to create a spread.  The consistency reminded me of deviled ham or tuna that you put on sandwiches.

Sheri and I spread the potted pig onto our toasts and carefully took one bite, not knowing what to expect.  Our eyes lit up!  It tasted so good.  It wasn't salty, but you could taste the pork flavor.  The toasts were perfectly crisp too.  Normally I'm not a fan of bruschetta bread because it hurts my mouth to bite into it, but these toasts crumbled well.  The mustard was also very good.  A little went a long way as it would overwhelm the delicate pork flavor.  The potted pig was so rich (can't imagine how) that this appetizer could be easily shared by four people.  Somehow we managed to finish the whole thing.

We also ordered two other appetizers that were raved about in the Yelp reviews:  homemade potato rolls and cheddar biscuits and the meatballs.  We weren't a big fan of the meatballs.  The flavor didn't seem extraordinary; I wouldn't order them again.  The cheddar biscuits were a winner.  How could you go wrong with cheese and melted butter?  So much better than Red Lobster's cheddar biscuits. (and probably double the calories)  We also liked the potato rolls (topped with sea salt), but we were so full from the potted pig that we couldn't eat it all.

To lighten the meal and to sample fresh veggies from the garden, we ordered salads; one was a tomato salad and the other was an arugula salad.  The tomatoes were to die for...obviously picked from a garden, they were so sweet.  The cheese was so soft.  The arugula was not too peppery, which I prefer.  The salads were so big that we could have gotten away with sharing just one.

Our stomachs were exploding by now, but we had to order the chocolate mousse pie.  Too many people mentioned it in the reviews.  One bite of it, and we somehow managed to find space. ;)

The crust was made from graham crackers and the mousse was so light, yet chocolatey as Scharffenberger chocolate was used in the recipe.  Fresh whipped cream.  Heaven.  We were definitely satisfied with our meal.  Next time I come here, I will just order the potted pig, the cheddar biscuits, the tomato salad, and the pie. :)

Wine tasting was next on the agenda.  We headed over to the V. Sattui winery.  It's a very popular place, where people picnic on the grounds, but I had never been here.  This was the winery that funded the Castello di Amorosa.  We were too full from lunch, so we did not do a tasting here, but just walked around and looked at the wine cellar.  The wine tasting room, the general store, and the bakery were so full of people.

We headed down the road to Beaulieu Vineyards.  By this time, our stomachs cleared enough room to do some tasting.  Upon walking in, they gave us a free glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  Not exactly my favorite.  Sheri had a 2-for-1 tasting coupon!  She did the cabernet tasting while I got the regular maestro tasting.  We also got a bonus tasting of the sweet wines, and Sheri ended up buying a bottle of port.

We had an appointment to visit Cakebread Cellars at 3:40pm.  We ended up being a bit early, but the hostess was able to get us on the 3:10pm tour, yay!  We were led to the winemaking facilities and tasted the wines inside.  I was excited to see grapes on the vines!

We had time for one more winery before heading to dinner, so we stopped by St. Supery, which is our aunt Valerie's favorite winery.  We were full from the previous tasting and didn't intend to do another, but they offered one free tasting of our choice, so we couldn't say no.  Sheri and I tasted their moscato, and it was very good.  We each ended up buying a bottle, and another bottle for our aunt.

Time for dinner!  I made reservations for Morimoto Napa on OpenTable over a week ago.  This is one of the restaurants owned by the Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.  It is located along the Napa riverfront.  We arrived a bit early, so we took a stroll on this so-called riverfront.  It wasn't very exciting, though there was a couple romantically holding each other and kissing in front of it.  There were also a lot of "riverfront" lofts for sale.  I don't think that sales are booming (not counting the economy).

At 6:30pm we entered the restaurant and were promptly seated at a table next to a window that offered a bit of a view of the riverfront.  It was also one of the few semi-private tables as tables were put pretty close to each other, and we at least had a window on one side. Service was very good and unpretentious; we weren't scoffed at when we chose "ice water" over bottled water.  Sheri ordered a "Tokyo Tea" and I got a pot of Morimoto-blend green tea.

Morimoto Napa offered an "omakase" tasting menu at $110 per person.  As much as I wanted to try it, I figured it would be too much food and opted to select a bunch of appetizers (which of course were raved by Yelpers) to share.  That was definitely the way to go, especially after watching our neighbors eat the "omakase" menu; they were hardly able to finish.

We started with the hamachi tartare, which consisted of pulverized yellowtail stuffed in a wooden box, accompanied by several different types of toppings, stuffed in its own wooden box.  Metal scoops were provided to slough off a chunk on your plate.  A cup of shoyu (or soy sauce) was provided, along with a palette cleanser: a little round Japanese fruit which I forgot the name of, but I know it ended with "momo".

The toppings from left to right:  nori paste, fresh wasabi mixture, creme fraiche, chopped chives, avocado mixture, mini toasted rice balls.  I was initially excited about the nori paste as I love the seaweed flavor, but it ended up tasting similar to hoisin sauce, so I was bummed.  The creme fraiche and chives were to be combined together to provide a "baked potato" flavor.  It didn't work for me.  The avocado mixture was like watered down guacamole.  I like guacamole, but it didn't have a lot of flavor.  The rice balls offered an interesting texture to the tartare, but I wasn't excited about it either.  My favorite topping ended up being the shoyu mixed with the fresh wasabi, which is close to the traditional way of eating sashimi!  All in all, the dish looked very pretty and the seemingly complex way to eat it had increased my anticipation, but once I got to scooping the hamachi and adding the sauces, I ended up disappointed.  I probably wouldn't order this appetizer again, but if I had to, I'd try the tuna version.

Next was the spicy king crab.  I was hesitant about all the sauce on it (seemed like the theme of Morimoto Napa was all about sauces), but once I saw Sheri's eyes roll into her head after taking one bite, I knew it was a winner.  The Yelpers weren't kidding when they reported that the appetizer was a good size.  There were big chunks of king crab pieces on the plate, and plenty for two people to share.  The king crab was cooked to tender perfection, and the savory sauce was a combination of Sriracha hot sauce, some type of mayo base, and mixed with tobiko (tiny fish eggs), which gave it a "crunch".  It worked perfectly.  The color of the sauce matched the color of the shell, so it looked like the pieces were unshelled, but they were.  You just have to lift the meat out with your fork.  Very clever plating.  Sheri said that next time, she'd order the appetizer and not share.  I would have to agree. :)

We felt like oysters, so we ordered a half dozen.  I had originally expected the oysters to be merely shucked, but getting to know the theme of the restaurant, I was not surprised to see sauces on them.  There were three sauces:  Thai fish sauce with jalapeno, a ginger sauce, and cocktail sauce.  I enjoyed them all (freshly shucked oysters with meat loosened and no pieces of chipped shell always makes me happy) but I really liked the Thai fish sauce.  I didn't need to squeeze any lemon into any of them.

We each ordered the same entree, which was a half order of the sea urchin carbonara, an Asian version of the Italian dish.  It consisted of rice noodles in a creamy sauce with peas and pancetta, topped with a quail egg yolk, a piece of sea urchin (or uni) and shredded nori.  The portion looked small, but it was so rich, I couldn't imagine eating a full portion.  It was very good.  I wanted to lap up the sauce like a soup.

We ended dinner with two desserts, as we were afraid that everything would be too small.  We were completely wrong.  The Morimoto ice cream sandwiches and the basket of his signature "doughnuts" were humongous.  Also, tonight was the first night they rolled out a new dessert menu, so we were among the first to try out the new dishes!

The ice cream sandwiches were very creative.  The first one we had was kaffir lime-flavored.  At first, the sound of it didn't seem appetizing, as kaffir lime leaves are used in Thai cooking.  I took a bite of it, and it reminded me of a Thai restaurant entree, but it worked as a dessert.  In fact, it ended up being my favorite one of all.  The next one was dark chocolate, and it was okay.  I liked the flavor of Farmstead's chocolate mousse pie better.  The last one was peanut butter, and I thought I would like this one the best, but the kaffir lime one still beat it, not that it wasn't good.  Sheri and I were so full by then, but we had to try the signature doughnuts.  They pretty much were doughnut holes sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, with six different types of toppings to dip them in (in clockwise order starting from the bottom left):  Japanese molasses, lavender honey, lavender sugar, candied ginger sugar, green tea sugar, and soybean sugar.  I found that the cinnamon sugar overpowered almost all of the toppings.  The only toppings I could actually taste were the molasses and the lavender honey (oh so good).  I probably wouldn't order the doughnuts again, but would eat the ice cream sandwiches a second time.

There were four individual bathrooms at Morimoto Napa; two of them were marked man/woman, one was marked woman, and one was marked man; all were occupied.  The man one opened up and a lady stepped out.  I asked if it was "okay to use", and she said yes so I went in...usually I don't like to use a men's restroom because of drips and spills.  It was pretty clean.  As I did my business, right across from me was the urinal, and it was so eerily lit and had a minimalist design that it looked like something from outer space.  There was a huge blue mat/tablet inside it. ;)

After dinner, we drove to our domicile for the night, the Sheraton Sonoma County hotel in Petaluma.  As it was a popular weekend in Napa/Sonoma, all the affordable rooms were completely sold out for Friday night, so we had to truck it to Petaluma.  There was construction on the road, which added a huge delay to our trip...I'm guessing at least 30 minutes. :(   The room was very spacious and clean.  Love beds with duvets.

We didn't mind having to stay in Petaluma, as it was next to Sonoma, where Saturday's adventure would start.  What a day!  Our tummies were full of delicious food and libations.  Another day of gluttony to go!

Napa Valley/Mustards/Castello di Amorosa - September 16, 2010

For completing our latest project, the company hosted a group dinner at Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga.  There were buses that left from the company campus in the afternoon and returned late that night, but I ended up driving myself to make it a long weekend.  I invited my cousin Sheri to be my guest for dinner and to participate in a gastronomic trip of Napa Valley.  All restaurant reservations were selected from Yelp reviews and booked using OpenTable.

Once done with my morning meeting, I hopped in the car and met Sheri for lunch at Mustards Grill in Yountville.  They're famous for their pork chops and the owner, Cindy Pawlcyn, was on Top Chef Masters.  I've been here many times, and practically everything on the menu is good.  We started off with half portions of the three greens salad.  As it was Sheri's first time here, she had the pork chop for her entree.  I ended up ordering their "lamb of the day", which was in the form of a burger.  The pork chop was delicious as usual, and the lamb burger was to die for.  For dessert, we had the baked good of the day, a flourless chocolate cake.  There are no pictures available as firstly, I had eaten here before, and secondly, we were too hungry to remember to take pictures, as we didn't eat breakfast. 

After lunch, we headed over to our home for the night, Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort.  There was a lot of traffic through St. Helena heading into Calistoga.  Dr. Wilkinson's is better described as a motel rather than a resort.  The grounds are clean and well-kept, and our king-bedded room was a good size, though the property reminded me of the movie Psycho.  At first, we went into the wrong office, as there was one office to check in for the spa treatments, and one for the motel itself.  I was a bit confused when we approached the front desk and a man dressed in clinical whites was asking what time our treatments were.  Eventually we were pointed to the right direction.  We were an hour early for check-in, so either we could use their changing room and partake in their three mineral pools, or we could take a stroll around town, which we ended up doing, as it felt too hot to go into a heated pool.  The outdoor temperature felt like it was in the high 80's/low 90's. We ducked into bookstores and grocery stores for air conditioning. 

Around 3pm, we headed back to the motel and checked in.  There was a cute tray of individually wrapped Jelly Belly candies in the room...never seen these before.  It was still too warm outside to consider using the heated mineral pools, so we just stayed in the room chatting and relaxing before getting ready for the dinner at the castle, which was only 5 minutes away.  The first time I saw Castello di Amorosa was when the girls went out for my friend Melissa's 40th birthday at Indian Springs Resort and Spa.  I saw it outside the window as our limousine drove by.  Then I saw it again on TV from "The Bachelor", with Jake.  He had taken Vienna and Gia there for a double date.  I remembered Vienna getting lost looking for Jake and Gia amongst the many corridors and tunnels under the castle.  This time I got to visit the castle in person, and having taken a tour, I understand how Vienna got lost!

The drive up to the castle was stunning, with a curved driveway flanked with cypress leading up to the edifice.  The castle was surrounded by vineyards, and as it was harvest time, the grapevines were laden with fruit ripe for the picking.  I was very excited to see the grapes (and very tempted to eat some, but didn't).  The castle had a drawbridge-like entrance (it didn't look like it could actually pull up) and had a portcullis at the door.  It was hard to walk around on high heels with all the stones laid on the ground.

We were led to an area where there was wine tasting and passed hors d'oeurves.  I tasted the Pinot noir and it was so smooth, with hardly any aftertaste of tannins.  We also tried the rose, which was good too, but not like the Pinot.  I didn't see a lot of appetizers floating around; only got to try a mushroom bruschetta.  I found my good friend Karen (along with her husband Paul) and we chatted until it was time to take a mini-tour of the castle.

The tour guide led us under the castle, where the wines were being aged in natural caves which needed no air conditioning nor humidifiers.  There were so many corridors, one could get lost easily.  We learned that it took Dario Sattui about 14 years to build the castle using the money made from the V. Sattui winery, and most of the materials were shipped from Italy.  We also saw the "dungeon", filled with antiques like a real iron maiden, a stretching table, and other torture devices.  There was also an enormous wine cellar made with remarkable brick workmanship, with tons of arches.

After the tour, it was time to be seated for a plated dinner.  The courtyard was lit up by stringed lights, giving it a very romantic feeling.  Too bad the castle isn't allowed to have weddings or receptions as it would be a perfect location.  For dinner, we had the non-vegetarian 3-course menu:

Olive oil poached sea bass with fresh thyme-braised baby fennel, served in wine sauce 

This dish was okay.  I am more used to eating oily Chilean sea bass.  This variety of sea bass reminded me of  halibut or swordfish, and was cooked well for this type of fish.  The fish was paired with a Chardonnay, which was good.  The vegetarian menu offered a salad instead of the fish.

New York steak with masala-porcini sauce, roasted fingerling potatoes, and tomato-braised blue lake green beans

The steak was prepared medium-rare, and it was very tender.  I wasn't a fan of the tomato sauce on the green beans.  It seemed a weird combination, as the acid from the tomato clashed with the mushroom wine sauce.  The wine offered with the steak was a red blend, and it tasted terrible compared to the Pinot noir from earlier.  I actually preferred the Chardonnay over it!  The vegetarian menu offered a sort of lasagna in place of the steak.

Butterscotch brioche bread pudding with warm Scotch caramel

The bread pudding was very yummy.  I liked that it came warm.  I had to pace myself eating this so that I wouldn't be the first at the table to clean the plate. :)  A muscat was served with dessert and it was very good.

After dinner, we headed over to the chapel where formal pictures were being taken, but the photographer was nowhere to be seen.  We then walked over to the Great Hall where the DJ was set up, but since dinner had started so late, dancing was delayed until after the raffle.  There were big prizes offered, like iPads, Blu-ray players and other electronics; the grand prize was a large Sony Bravia HDTV.  I didn't win anything.  The photographer set up in the Great Hall, so Sheri and I were able to get a photo taken.  Once the raffle ended, the music started up, but by this time, it was 11pm and we were beat.  Sheri and I headed back to the motel, looking forward to the next day's gastronomic delights...