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!
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