So you're probably wondering at this point: okay, you've thrown massive amounts of cocky talk and food pr0n in our general direction for us to know you had a hell of a swell weekend in Napa Valley (French Laundry, Bouchon, BarBersQ) and San Francisco (supperclub). What the heck was the special occasion?
Right, right, so you're probably not actually asking or wondering about this. :) But let me show you anyway!
A good friend of mine had a conference in San Francisco the last week of January, and decided to troll OpenTable.com exactly two months and one day before her trip to see if she could book some coveted French Laundry reservations. She succeeded - somehow! - and since her sister had a timeshare at Vino Bello in Napa Valley, they decided to make a nice big trip out of it and invite us along for the spendy thrill of a ride. That's enough of a reason to visit our Toronto friends, so on Saturday we hurled a weekend bag into the boyfriend's Prius and drove up to Napa Valley!
We got off to a rocky start - the resort is located in some mysterious nowhere land (it looked like a corporate park) and our Prius's navigational system could not find it at all. We ended up having to pull up Google Maps on our mobile phones and visually comparing it to the car's map.
But, for my first time in Napa, I couldn't have stayed at a better resort! I have a mental checklist of what makes a hotel/resort room/suite "awesome" - on that list are things like a jetted whirlpool tub, spacious marble bathroom, fancy shower heads, fireplaces, large balconies, separate sitting areas, fancy king-sized beds with canopies and pillowtop mattresses, wall-mounted LCD TVs, kitchenettes, washer/dryers, and of course, FREEBIES - that extra something to make you feel like you're truly on vacation. Vino Bello hit every single item on that checklist, AND threw in a complementary bottle of tasty red wine for each room. I'd expect any other hotel to offer the cheapest wine they can buy in bulk, so I am happy to say that this bottle tasted neither bad nor cheap, and that we all enjoyed it very much.
Wth the timeshare arrangement and all, my perception of price here is probably very skewed. Suffice it to say, it was pleasantly inexpensive - and thank goodness, because The French Laundry was not.
We got a divided suite with a shared front door - inside the front door there were two separate, secondary front doors, each keycarded, for maximum privacy. Our room was a mini studio, with a kitchenette and spacious bathroom. Their one bedroom was one of the most phenomenal suites I've ever seen, with a fireplace in a plush sitting room, full kitchen and breakfast bar, an expansive balcony overlooking the pool, a humongous, canopied king size bed, in-room jacuzzi tub, and huge marble bathroom. To our amusement, the extra-large shower stall sported a total of five shower heads; one primary rainforest showerhead, and four mini ones on the wall that you could point in any direction. To slightly less of our amusement, it took each of us an embarrassing amount of time to figure out how to turn the damn thing on.
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As a spa junkie, I also have nothing but good things to say about Spa Terra, which is located within Vino Bello/Meritage Resort's impressive wine cave. The facilities are a bit more modest compared to some other full-service spas (as in saunas and steam rooms, not happy endings) that you can find around the SF Bay Area. They had a hot tub and a very nice sitting/relaxing room, nice showers and a full locker room, but not much else that I could see. For the full experience of indulgence, I would definitely recommend shelling out the extra cash for some pampering at any Las Vegas hotel on the strip, or Burke Williams in Santana Row (San Jose, CA) or Kabuki Springs (Japantown, San Francisco, CA).
But I do have to mention that the 50 min. deep tissue massage I got was one of the best I've ever had...and I've had quite a lot of massages. I'm pretty hard on my body, partially because I enjoy being athletic and partially because I'm in denial about getting older and creakier...so between physical therapy and rolling around on the ground on tennis balls, a nice deep massage to loosen up sore and tired muscles is a frequent must-have in my life.
Overall:
Unfortunately, it was pretty wet weather for a weekend in Napa. We were sprinkled on during our morning at Bouchon Bakery, and completely drenched while trying to tour a vineyard. But it was luxurious, beautiful, and a flat-out awesome place to chill at during the day, and to crash in after my fooding adventures at The French Laundry and Bouchon Bakery rendered me nearly comatose.
So, while I'm not saying I'd pass up a timeshare in Aruba or Cancun for it, I'm glad that Vino Bello was one of the most enjoyable timeshare/resorts that I've had the pleasure of staying at!
I am a huge fan of Dine About Town as an idea. It gives people an opportunity to sample some of the best restaurants San Francisco has to offer - and usually, it's a three course, pre-fixe menu consisting of some of their most well-known dishes. I noticed that Crustacean had their soft spring rolls and famous garlic noodles (alas, I did not make it to Crustacean during Dine About Town), and Ruth's Chris had choices between a 12-oz. ribeye, 6-oz. sirloin and stuffed chicken - all of which I'm sure are good (and from personal experience, the ribeye is amazing).
Unfortunately, I think Dine About Town creates a lot of strain for the staff and chefs of their respective restaurants, as they get a lot more people coming in for lunch and dinner and probably have to make some sacrifices in order to reduce wait times for everyone. This is somewhat the reputation that preceded supperclub in San Francisco when I went during DaT in January. Ordinarily, supperclub is a fairly pricey, 5-course pre-fixe experience - $60-80 average a head. I won't presume to guess how busy they are on a typical night, but during Dine About Town, it was absolutely packed and unpleasantly crowded, and there were only three courses served. As a result, the whole experience - though original, exotic and quirky - felt like it was dragging on a little (We all shared the semi-joking opinion that it would've been a whole lot more fun if we were all high.)
The fun part about supperclub was that it felt very exclusive and exotic, as the 'club' in 'supperclub' suggests. The lobby is alive, plush, exciting and sexy, and so are the bartenders. Unfortunately, waiting for seating (they seat you all at once in the main "dining hall") with the other bazillion patrons feels rather like cows being herded towards their enclosure.
The main dining room is fantastic. bold, cold and white, with splashes of silky red cloth across the walls and ceiling. It's an open two-level single room, filled with snazzy lights and beating club music, with white platform beds and large white pillows extending along three walls. They serve your food over a span of three-ish hours, so it's nice to be lounging/reclining/lying down during the slightly boring down-time in between.
The first course was a salad. it was quite a decent portion, served on a rather strangely long dish, with mystery bits (carrots? beets? nuts? hey, it was dark!) topped with bleu cheese, wonton crunchies, and a tangy vinaigrette. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked the bleu cheese. It tasted like feta. Er...maybe it was feta?
Apparently the second course was kobe beef, complemented by a mix of what Yelpers say was polenta and/or ratatouille. This was probably my favorite course of the night. I've had kobe beef once before in my life, but unfortunately they came in the form of raw medallions I had to grill myself, so I probably messed it up.
Supperclub's kobe beef was 95% delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, grade-A quality beef; and 5% sort of rubbery chewy weirdness. I guess my quest for the real mind-blowing kobe beef experience continues.
The brownie and ice cream dessert was served in a silver dogbowl and refused to be photogenic - something about a dogbowl just renders it visually unappetizing, maybe. Entree-wise, it was tasty, but a little boring.
I have strangely low blood pressure, so after a meal I tend to crash hard into a food coma unless I remain active. Large platform beds and lounge pillows are not conducive to activity, so by the end of dessert I was wanting to lie down and nap. There was just so much downtime between each dish, and we didn't feel like racking up a huge drink tab, so by the end of the night hanging out at someone's place with wine and cheese sounded a lot more fun. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy supperclub's overall awesome concept of eating in bed, but three hours of it is definitely more than enough.
If I had come with just my boyfriend for a romantic experience, we probably would have gotten bored or irritated sooner - but luckily I came with a large group, which prompted them to seat us in a semi-secluded corner instead of along the wall, shoulder-to-shoulder with people on both sides. Seven of us is more than enough to make for endless lively conversation, so we had a fantastic time overall.
Would I go again? Once, perhaps, on a non Dine About Town night just to see what it's like - because I think it was definitely watered-down for the cheaper masses. But if I ever have a guest from out-of-town that wants a quirky SF experience, I'd probably just head over to AsiaSF!
It's nice not to be in college anymore, where I would snarf down anything put in front of me on a plate, or eat leftovers from a $5.00 lunch for two days because I needed the money for something else. Now I work in the heart of San Francisco and make some nice pocket change to spend on some of the best restaurants in the world. So I know I've become somewhat of a snob about eating out, dinnertime foods, and restaurants.
But enough of that! Today I'm blogging about being a snob about dessert! :)
I was introduced to BonBonBar by a friend recently. Nina Wanat, the founder of BonBonBar LLC, hand-makes chocolate candy bars and marshmallows. (And she blogs about desserts!) My friend had ordered a sample pack, which included a package of 4 vanilla marshmallows, a package of 4 passionfruit marshmallows, a dark chocolate caramel nut bar, and...well, to be honest, I get fuzzy on what else was in the sample pack because I was sort of occupied with the first three. :)
The chocolate bar was absolutely amazing. The ingredients are top of the line: Mixed Nuts, Cacao Nibs, and Buttery Salted Caramel make up the gooey center of a modest bar of Dark Chocolate. I was absolutely amazed by the salted caramel! It had some of that French Laundry butter with fleur-de-sel magic - natural, expected caramel goodness with just a tiiiny tang of something else that keeps your tongue stay alert and your taste buds say WHOA.
And then I had the marshmallows...holy crap holymoly holy crapola @#$%^$%# ohmygod duuuude, they were good. (I can say dude, damnit. I live in California and so does Nina.) I absolutely loved the vanilla marshmallow - surprisingly dense and flavorful, yet with a melt-in-your-mouth, light texture. But oh man, then came the passionfruit marshmallow. JenC has a picture of my face when I bit into the passionfruit marshmallow: it's not a very photogenic moment of mine, but you can sure tell I'm really enjoying that marshmallow.
Price-wise, yes, these bars are considerably more expensive than those bars you grab on your way through the checkout stand. These are probably even a tad more expensive than the factory direct bars like Scharrfen Berger and Ghiradelli. As for the marshmallows, definitely the most expensive marshmallows I've ever had. But I would put in writing that these are so very worth ordering (I guess blogging counts!) I didn't even LIKE marshmallows before BonBonBar's marshmallows - unless they came with lots of chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers. I'll definitely be ordering more BonBonBar chocolate and marshmallows - but I'll be snarfing them down one by one.
I should really (re-)try those other delicious looking chocolate bars too....
Sunday morning in Napa Valley - day 2 of our weekend stint - found us standing line nice and early(ish) at the Bouchon Bakery. Another Thomas Keller restaurant, Bouchon's reputation also precedes itself, but I figured that since this weekend was TFL weekend, adding Bouchon to the list was probably a bit excessive (on the wallet). The wait in line was considerable but pleasant, similar to my trip to Tartine Bakery a few weeks ago: the people are friendly and excited, and the eye and nose candy is just unbelievable. @_@ I picked out treats for Alan and myself and settled down w/ the Chan Clan at a table in the small courtyard adjacent.
The sticky bun, topped with sweet pecans, was heavenly and reminded me a lot of the morning buns at Tartine. The eclair was decent, the signature Bouchon sweets were memorably rich and chocolatey, and the pan chocolat (chocolate croissant) was unanimously the least impressive (but still not bad). I also pilfered bites of a to-die-for bacon and cheese scone off of the Chans. After stuffing our faces, we sat around for a while, frantically digesting, and absentmindedly commenting on how the birds that were scavenging crumbs off of us were rather fat, and were probably the most well fed birds in the world.
Then, after exercising off our subsequent sugar rush with a lengthy shopping trip at the Napa outlet mall, The Big Evening highlight arrived. Jen, Vivien, James and myself dressed up nicely and headed to...
First thing we noticed about the place was that service was near perfect. The waiters and waitresses all spoke with the same soothing, pleasantly modulated, low voice that impeccably described every single dish placed before us. They noticed every piece of tableware/silverware accidentally knocked out of place or dirtied, every half-empty wine glass or water glass, every dropped napkin, every crumb on the table that needed dusting off. They were so attentive - unlike any other food service I've ever known - it was almost a dance routine.
We were seated in the upstairs area, and the girls promptly set up our three cameras (two mounted on gorillapods of various sizing). Jen had done her homework, and knew that we wanted (1) a kitchen tour after our meal, and (2) a special request of "coffee and donuts," one of their famous desserts. Not only did they fill both requests without hesitation, they added another dish into our presentation, knocking up our Chef's 9-course tasting menu to a whopping 11 courses, spanning over 4 hours of eating time. @_@
My battery threatened to run out about halfway through the meal, so my food pr0n macro shots get exponentially worse as the meal progresses. There were "only" 9 courses, but several of the courses involved a choice between two pre-fixe options, and for each one we split 2 and 2...so, when added to all the unlisted things we ate as well, we must have each sampled something like 16-18 different dish presentations. I still haven't tried to count them, maybe some gentle reader can inform me of just how much I ate. @_@. I frequently knock fancy-schmancy restaurants that charge you a boatload of money and then give you a tiny little artistic layout of food, but quantity was nothing to complain about this time - after TFL I was about to fall into eternal food coma.
So! without further ado, a brief (at least I'm trying to be brief, this is not going to be a brief entry, come on I have like 18 dishes to cover) summary of TFL!!!
They were not on the menu, so of course I am clueless as to their official dish titles. The round creampuff-like appetizers were filled with fragrant cheese and crispy and warm on the outside. The second appetizer was a salmon cone, topped with chives. Inside the cone I believe was some creme fraiche.
Oysters and Pearls.
The signature opening to the meal after two
appetite-whetter mini-dishes. The presentation of the meal, which is as
important as the food itself, was finely tuned and coordinated.
For Oysters and Pearls, two waiters bring the four little dishes - the interior of which is no larger than a personal sized ramekin - and set them down across from each other, simultaneously. This proved to be exceedingly difficult with three obsessive women, three cameras and two gorillapods mucking about the table. As the camera noob, there would be many hisses of "Wei-Ling! Wei-Ling!" as I messed up their routine while trying to get a good manual macro shot in low lighting.
Egg Custard with white truffle oil (unofficial title)
Yet another dish off the menu! This is an egg custard, prepared right in its own shell, with white truffle oil and topped with a chive chip. We were licking the insides for every last bit of the tasty custard, it was so delicious. I think it was the truffle oil that made it so good.
Most other restaurants treat bread as cheap filler, but The French Laundry honed it into a seamless transition between meals. The first "interlude" was a simple dinner roll, presented with two types of butter, one unsalted and one lightly salted with fleur de sel. We completely obliterated the generous container of salted butter - it was, without exaggeration, I have ever tasted in my life. I could not help myself and heartily slathered all the bread I ate with the stuff. They served like 6-8 other types of bread two more times during the meal - currant bread, mini baguettes, multigrain, on and on - and each time, we all reached for the butter with fleur de sel. ^_^;;;
A light, palette cleansing salad to prepare us for the meat dishes that are coming up. Lots of delightfully different flavors in amounts just enough to fill your mouth and not overpower: Cara Cara Oranges, Pine Nuts and Niçoise Olive Oil. Not my favorite dish, but it was a great way to get into the richer dishes that followed.
Foie Gras.
I've honestly never liked Foie Gras because of (1) the strong taste and smell, and (2) the origin of the food. But at this point I realized that the talented kitchen staff at TFL could probably turn even my most hated foods into savory dishes, so I gave it a try. I ended up eating a darn good chunk of it (while crying tears of sadness for the animal it came from).
As much as I don't believe in cruel treatment of animals for food, I can't lie, it was a delicious terrine of foie gras; but, the 100-year-old balsamic vinegar absolutely stole the show. The foie gras was served with a silver tray with three types of salt - each type rarer, harder to obtain, and more exotic than the last. Unfortunately, since foie gras is inherently salty, there was much not use for it - we ended up just sampling the salt with the subsequent dishes and even just subsequent bread/butter :)
It's hard to make me a tuna fan. I ate too much tuna as a kid, enough to jumpstart that part of your body that makes you start fearing certain tastes when one becomes older.
But the bluefin tuna serving was perfectly tender, not sushi nor overdone, and the accompanying almonds and mini cauliflower flourettes were perfect little jewels of explosive taste that complimented the mild tuna's flavor.
One of my favorite main courses. The mitts are authentic fresh Maine Lobster. The "melted" garlic's recipe is a completely mystery, but it was the most delicious garlic-in-paste-form I've had since my college days at Berkeley - a modestly popular italian place called Gypsy (located in the south side "grease court"), which baked garlic bulbs until they were easily crushed into a deliciously stinky spread on lightly toasted bread, served with every one of their pasta dishes.
Every dish that we sampled has a combination of strong and mild that go perfectly with each other. The baby artichokes and sweet carrots were wonderfully complementary matched with the seafood.
I was very wary about this dish, but it was actually quite good. I'd never tried uni (sea urchin) before, but I'd heard nightmares of badly prepared uni that tasted horrible. TFL's take on uni was to serve it in "tongues" over a bed of buckwheat noodles, vegetables, and a - you guessed it - black truffle vinaigrette. Truffle power!!
I was wary of this dish as well - I know what sweet bread is, and I'd never felt any particular urge to try it before. Of course, the combination of sweet bread and Caraway Späetzle, Sweet Peppers, Savoy Cabbage, Crème Frâiche and "Souce Goulash" made this a tasty dish worthy of the TFL lineup, but at the same time, it wasn't ...sock-knockoff fantastic. Just not my thing, I suppose. Although, the "melted" savoy cabbage was to die for.
I assume poularde is the fancy schmancy french world for Chicken. :) Mmmm Wilted Arrowleaf Spinach, potato confit, Hobbs Shore Bacon and Sherry Vinaigrette! My other favorite main course. The chicken was just so perfect...not dry, not undercooked, not tough. I was sorry to have to share this one, hehehe.
Lamb Ribeye.
Mmmmm! The lame was as soft and tasty as kobe beef. (now that's an awesome thought - kobe beef done French Laundry style. Salivary glands are activating at the thought of it) The lamb slices melted in my mouth, the sauce was delightful, and I even liked/ate the mushrooms - I HATE mushrooms. In fact, I normally don't eat about half the things I enjoyed this evening.
After the amazing meat dishes, it was time for a cheese platter. It was hard to follow up, since the meat dishes were the best I've ever had in my life, and unfortunately I've sampled a LOT of good cheeses. I enjoyed the matching of the apricot and fennel bulb with it, though.
Pear Sorbet.
The pear sorbet was completely exploding with flavor. Overpowering in any other setting, but the panna cotta and the ginger snap helped keep it in check by grounding your tongue with milder, breadier flavor. It's really amazing how TFL knows exactly that each dish is a sensory experience - each dish knows exactly how to teases your senses to the brink of overpowering, and then pulls it back to safety with a perfectly matched complement.
Waaah, I'd been looking forward to this for the entire meal! This was an off-the-menu appetizer (or dessert?) that was equally as famous as Oysters and Pearls. The doughnut was incredible, again with the "melting in your mouth" sensation. The taste was familiar, though - I kept thinking that I must have had some chinese pastry that was derived from the same ingredients - but never of this level of softness and flavor. The semi-freddo was sweet (but not overly so), and consisted of layers of cream and chocolate so that it kept changing as you ate it away. The fact that it was not overpowering made it a perfect complement to the doughnut, which was lavishly sugary.
Chocolate "Dobos."
The best brownie ever. I completely inhaled the little decorative crisp and candied chestnuts. The brown bread ice cream was not impressive at first, but as the complement to its sweeter half, it was perfect.
Or in other words: cake. It was good (can you tell I'm running out of adjectives?) By far the most explosive and tasty was the passionfruit gelee though. I am madly in love with passionfruit (or anything passionfruit flavored), and this gelee was phenomenal. Everything else on the dish was muted (not bland, but easy on the tongue), and that little chunk of orange was why.
Tea Interlude
I picked a white tea that was described as "picked from the a mountaintop by monks." I just thought that was crazy and worth mentioning. :)
These candies were like little afterthoughts to end your meal on a sweet note. Unfortunately, by this course we were all so stuffed we had to have them packed away to go! I did manage one chocolate covered macadamia though, and found it extremely pleasant and different - less chocolate, more macadamia than usual. The flavor of the macadamia, therefore, was less overpowered by chocolate, and made it a much lighter dessert.
Afterwards
We managed to totter downstairs and take a quick peek-tour into the kitchen. The kitchen is modestly sized, and everyone working in it is surprisingly young - the head chef of the night, Corey Lee, was supposedly 30 or so. He was standing around, not looking particularly busy, and probably a bit flustered at three asian women (and one white dude) staring at him with hearts in their eyes.
We managed to find our way home via the darkened streets of Yountville. Jen had to drive this time because James and Vivien had ordered a second bottle of red wine for the latter half of their meal. I remember looking up in the crisp night air (it was 10:30 at this point, 4.5 hours after we had begun our meal) and seeing a huge black sky full of bright constellations.
Back at Vino Bello, I crashed and fell unconscious for about one hour before I could get back up and rejoin the world of the living. The French Laundry was definitely the most amazing dining experience I have ever had. When I can, I will definitely be back, though it will have to be an ocassion worthy of the bill. ;)
*END* (aka *crash* from food coma)
For the complete collection of food pr0n, more food detail commentary, people shots, restaurant shots, and the rest of this trip's photos, please visit my Flickr Set for this trip!
