I delivered my guest to SFO so she could catch an international flight that was supposed to leave at 0600. That usually means that passengers need to be delivered to the airport 2 (?) hours in advance.
When we arrived at the Terminal, there were no airline personnel around. Or maybe we were at the wrong end of the Terminal. In either case, she’s on to colder climes and I made my way to bed. I slept to 10:00 and made brekkie. Then I fell asleep again. Just woke up and am still exhausted!
Oh yeah, 恭喜發財! Happy Year of bacon, I mean pork chop, I mean the pig!
I’ve recently realized that the Napa Valley, for all of its greatness (great wine, great food), CAN be overdone.
Two weekends ago, I did my annual pilgrimage to Silver Oak and surrounding wineries. This past Friday and Saturday (CNY eve, yes I know…) I did Napa all over again with my visiting from overseas friend. I can truthfully say that’s I’m knackered. Too much good wine, too much good food, too much CHOCKY (yes, S-A, it IS possible) that I’m actually craving something more ghetto, something more common.
Maybe like a chef salad? Or a Chicken McNugget? No, not THAT tired of good food yet…
Friday was a great day of wine and food. It started with Domaine Chandon. Champagne, whoops I mean “sparkling wine” and salmon. Not bad for the first snack of the day…
Salmon. Looks good and it’s so easy to assemble!
Lunch was at the Rutherford Grill along with a visit to BV. These two always go together. For over three hours!!
Rutherford Grill’s famous Spinach and Artichoke dipSomeone’s at the dip…They make a great rotisserie chicken! Moist and everything!
By the time we finished lunch, there was only time to hit one more winery before closing time. And that was V. Sattui again. Remember the adult ho-ho? Well, we bought one and mostly split it.
IMG 3574A mostly devoured Adult Ho-Ho. And it wasn’t all me! My half is still on the plate..
It was SOOO rich and filling that there was no dinner! That was a lot of chocolate…
Saturday we went to Copia for their annual “Death by Chocolate” event.
This….is Copia’s parking lot
And yes, the title of the event was an accurate description. Besides the very long demonstration events where dessert cooks were making desserts (takes a very long time to do that), there was a tasting event from 1300-1500 on both floors. Every form of gourmet chocky and wine to complement it. So much that I’m actually swearing off sweets.
For a week.
Copia also has a fancy restaurant named after Julia Child. We had a small lunch.
Cream of Cauliflower soup.The happy diner.A very good burger
Things in Napa usually shut down by 17:00 so it was back to SFO to wind up this visit. And if you live in The City, you know that traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge is crap going inbound. So we wound up watching the traffic roll in from the Headlands instead.
After 20+ years, I visited the Magic Kingdom AKA Disneyland with an out of town friend. Even though a lot of things have changed here (where’s Fort Wilderness?), much of the charm is still there.
The Main Street dragThe Lion KingParades several times dailyParking lotThe queues are still there (Space Mountain with loud RedHotChiliPeppers soundtrack)We built this place!
As far back as I can remember, people have always complained about the high price of food and beverage at Disneyland. The stalls scattered all around the park are pricey but the sit down restaurants are strangely reasonable, considering what you get.
For good sit down food, this wasn’t that bad. IMG 3453IMG 3449A tower of beignets!
And naturally, the day ends at Disneyland with fireworks.
IMG 3487Fireworks begin at 21:30 instead of 21:00 now
I realized during this trip that my interest in transportation began with a visit to Disneyland when I was very young. A LOT of the rides and attractions here revolve around transportation.
Space Mountain
Autopia
Matterhorn
Big Thunder Railroad
Monorail
All are things that society needs to get around (or will get soon). That explains my facination with transportation maybe?? Some things here are more recent necessities…
The most cheerful security checkpoint in California. Not operated by TSA
Me?? Calming?? Who writes these silly quizzes I wind up taking???
Your Blog Should Be Blue
Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere.
You tend to avoid conflict – you’re more likely to share than rant.
From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.
In general, you support a free economy and business interests.
You tend to think people should fend for themselves, even when times get tough.
However, do think the government should help those who are truly in need.
If you’re planning to fly to London on a mainline carrier and then hub out to other parts of Europe via low fare carriers, DON’T!!
The “brilliant” minds in the UK have DOUBLED the tax that you have to pay for inbound and outbound flights, unless you’re transiting through on the same ticket. If your final destination is London or anywhere in the UK, you’re gonna get reamed. So forget the UK! Apparently Amsterdam (?) is the new low fare hub for Europe. Informative article about the new parasitic tax here.
Now what do I mean by “hub out”? To “hub out” means to fly a mainline airline to a city that’s a low fare airline hub. Using that city as a base, then continue flying elsewhere using low fare airlines. Example: I usually fly Singapore Airlines (best flights I’ve ever had!) to Singapore and then will fly JetStar or AirAsia to other destinations (usually KUL or BKK). It’s a good way to stretch your travel dollar and it’s fun too.
One of the advantages of living in San Francisco (The City) is that the Napa Valley is close by. VERY close by. 45 minutes (with no traffic) close by. That means that Wine Country events are within striking range from home. Which means, I wind up going to a lot of release parties…
Silver Oak had its 2002 Cabernet release party today. This will be the last release party at the current facility in Oakville as it was damaged just before last year’s release party and it was decided to build a new facility instead of rebuilding the old one. So my frens and I headed out at 0830 to Oakville.
…was supposed to be here at 0800, it’s now 0830! Latelatelate
A Silver Oak release party is when the winery releases a vintage for sale to the general public. Its also an excuse for food, autographs and US$20 bottomless glasses of the vintage being offered from 0900 to 1500.
Here’s the deets on the Silver Oak 2002 Napa Cabernet releaseBottomless glasses waiting for refillsI bought two bottles this year, it was THAT good!
Since the event runs from 0900 to 1500, there’s a small window of time to actually get here and enjoy yourself before the unkempt hordes arrive around 1200. You can also get free, close by parking if you get here early. We got here around 1000 and immediately began sampling the wine and provided snacks.
Prior to last year’s winery fire, the main building used to be open for viewing with food vendors inside, in addition to the ones outside. This year, there was just a handful of food vendors outside hawking chili, mini roast beef sandwiches and fruit cocktail along with the usual gift vendors.
It was crowded this year but not as bad as it was last year…
A very interesting crowd gets here before 1100.
IMG 3360IMG 3367Some people brought their doggies. This was a big golden retriever. He looks happy.
After the event, most people who are already here continue their Napa day by visiting other wineries. We visited Plumpjack, Heitz and ended the day at V. Sattui for a late lunch.
Plumpjack is down the street from Silver Oak and they were offering tastings of two wines and you keep the glass for US$10.00. The red was a 2004 cab that seemed pleasant enough for an everyday wine but had a strange aftertaste. It was a nice place for camwhoring tho.
People who are food enthusiasts are “foodies”. So people who like wine are “wineys”?
New this year was a visit to the Heitz Winery. It has a swish tasting room that was recently built and they had a full FREE tasting of two cabs, a chardonnay and a kick ass port.
IMG 3378One of my frens bought a bottle here. Now all we have to do is get him to open it…
The nice thing about small wineries like Heitz is that you can discover some neat wines that you normally wouldn’t be able to try because they aren’t widely distributed. Also, the vineyard is usually behind the visitor’s center. Like so.
IMG 3386IMG 3380
The end of the tasting day came at V. Sattui which is our traditional pit stop for food and still more wine.
IMG 3387IMG 3394
You go inside and buy picnic sets and then you buy cheese and bread and wine and desserts. Then you go outside to the picnic area. Mind the signs and don’t stay that late because…
IMG 3389The V. Sattui picnic area, right in front of the wineryThis was lunch. Gorgonzola and brie cheeses, some pate and a baguette. Also some off dry Riesling. Mmmm.
Then we went back in and bought more wine. I got two bottles of the Gamay Rouge and one of the Muscat. One of my frens bought a cases’ worth so we got the 10% discount! Cool!
Who is that!? That’s OK, he drove today.
As the day ended and the sun went down, it was a painful slog to get back to the City. Traffic. It took so long that I passed out when we left and sobered up by the time we hit Berkeley. Still 40 minutes away! It took a while to get home, but I wasn’t driving!
Not the road home; just a road..
Silver Oak 915 Oakville Cross Rd Oakville, CA 94562
My brief visit to Waikiki Beach (5 hours total) over 5 days in O’ahu demonstrates my aversion to known tourist traps. But first, some clarification…
There IS a difference between a tourist trap and a tourist attraction.
A tourist trap can be an attraction that has allowed the area surrounding it to get all whored out with businesses whose sole purpose is to relieve dumb tourists from their money, regardless of taste or cost, because they are there. Examples: Waikiki Beach, Great Wall of China (Mutanyu Section), Fisherman’s Wharf (San Francisco), Times Square (NYC).
A tourist attraction is an place or item of interest where the “whoring out” that a tourist trap has is either non existent or unnecessary for the place or item of interest to exist as an attraction. Examples: USS Arizona Memorial, USS Missouri, Diamond Head, North Shore. I don’t think you can accuse the above Hawaiian attractions of being “whored out” or “tourist traps”.
Sometimes there are reasons to brave tourist traps. In some cases, it’s the only way to visit an ancient wonder (Great Wall) and in other cases, it’s the businesses that are part of the tourist trap area. In San Francisco, the only reason to go down there (if you live here) is that the Wharf has The City’s only (ONLY) In & Out Burger and Hooters as well as the old school seafood restaurants. In Waikiki Beach, there’s a firing range (yep) and several good ramen shops. And like the idiot that I am, I went to Waikiki Beach to eat ramen…
The first shop I hit was on my second night in O’ahu. Ezogiku Ramen is a chain of ramen shops that are scattered all over O’ahu along with the original shops in Tokyo and Sapporo. Yes, I got the addresses to the shops in Japan and they’re on my “to eat” list now.
As you walk in, it ain’t glam, it ain’t frou frou, it’s good ramen and beer!
After reading about the history of Ezogiku and its Japanese roots, I asked the waitress (who was bringing me a beer, yeay!) what the specialty of the house was. Waitress: “Miso Ramen” Me: “One please!”
I’m very easy to please!
The miso had that “zing” that we all love in our miso ramen. Or maybe that was a touch too much MSG. But in either case, it was very well done. The noodles were snappy and the scallions were good too. The slice of cha siu was cold, like it was taken out of an icebox and put onto the bowl and the broth could have been a bit warmer.
Many of the customers inside the shop were Japanese and if I closed my eyes while slurping down the noodles in my bowl, I could imagine I was in Tokyo in some unknown ramen shop. Bliss. Until a squad of PRC tourists came in, excessively loud (in both dress AND volume) and hungry. Then when they all got their food, the slurping began. A great sound! Guess they love ramen too.
Enter here for hearty, unpretentious ramen
Ramen Ezogiku Waikiki 2146 Kalakaua Avenue Waikiki HI 96815 808-926-8616
Warning: There ARE differences between shops that share the same name. There’s an Ezogiku Ramen on University Avenue down the hill from UH. Other than sharing the name, the ramen here was mediocre. I won’t go on further because it was a big disappointment as this was to be my last meal before I caught the red-eye back to the mainland. A word of advice: If you go to a ramen shop and you see the bowls coming out of the kitchen with heaps of bean sprouts on top, think carefully before you order. Too much bean sprouts on bowls of ramen is like maki (sushi rolls) that’s all rice and not enough fish. It’s FILLER! Run away!!
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