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California Gourmizing
--by Simone
A No. 1 dream-destination for European travelers is California.
Share the wine & dine addresses we get recommended in Europe for California -
Lets start with the wine:
The best Bordeaux-WINE which has won 1999 at the "CHALLENGE WIN Expo Du Vin", in France, gold, was Ernest
& Julio Gallo`s "Turning Leaf" - ZINFANDEL" a Bordeaux from California, and where a good wine
grows, a good kitchen is not far. Round the vineyards you find a most delicious Gourmet-Scene. The tour begins:
~ The Bungalow San Diego
4996 West Point Loma Blvd, Ocean Beach, Tel. (619)-2242884, daily from 07.00 pm - 10.30 pm
The menues of the house are following history: THE BUNGALOW offers e.g. at the day of the assault at the Bastille
in Paris, a French fish-festival. At the time of the Munich October-Beerfestival, Beer is celebrated in different
ways. Any other day you will be spoiled with very delicious food, how about fresh Atlantic-salmon,
filled with crab?
~ Cafe Bizou Los Angeles http://cafebizou.com/index.htm
14418 Ventum Bldv., Sherman Oaks, CA 91 403, Tel. (818) 788-3536, daily from 11.00 am - 02.30pm, and 05.00pm -
10.00 pm
No meal costs more than 10.00 US$. Grilled Monkfish on saffron-risotto, Salmon in Sesame
crust on a Merlot-sauce - everything is prepared à la minute. Specialty: if you bring your own wine
with you, you pay only 2.00 US$ for the opening of the wine.
~ Wine Cask Santa Barbara http://www.winecask.com/
813 Anacapa Street, Downtown, CA 93101, (805) 966-9463, daily from 05.30pm -10.30 pm Mo-Fry also 11.30 am - 14.30
pm
Belongs the wine-shop to the restaurant or the other way round? Nothing to care about. The choice of 2000 different
wine lables at cheap prices has sensational world class.
~ 360 Hollywood
6290 Sunset Blvd., Penthouse, Hollywood CA 90028 (323) 871-2995, daily from 06.00 pm - 10.00 pm/ Weekend: till
12.00 pm
Not the food plays here the main role - the Clue is the glass-Penthouse with the 360°-view over Hollywood.
Chicken made in buttermilk (17.00 US$), Banana-cake in choco-coat for 9.00 US$ will satisfy your stomach, while
you can look around at the city or at the famous people like Madonna, Will Smith or Bruce Willis having a fish
with pistachios.
~ Sierra Mar Big Sur http://www.postranchinn.com
Highway1, PO BOX 219, Big Sur, CA 93920, (408)667-2200, daily from 06.00pm to 120.00pm, Reservation needed.
High over the Pacific one of the Restaurants with the most spectacular view you can find."...universally lauded
as the most unique hotel in America, an environmentally correct haven of coast-hugging ocean lodges and stilted
treehouses." ambiance, food, the Digestif served at the Terrace, while by a clear sky the stars are blinking
in the sea - there is no wish open more.
Here some of the menues. They are as spectacular as the view:
- House Cured Salmon Napoleon with Crispy Potato Cakes and Shaved Fennel
Curried Pumpkin and Mussel Soup
Porcini Dusted Monkfish with Bloomsdale Spinach and Beurre Rouge
Petite White Pumpkin Filled with Risotto
Grilled Veal Paillard with Swiss Chard, Parsnips and Shrimp
Valrhona Chocolate Marquise with Citrus
Earl Grey Parfait with Tangerine Sorbe
This place and this food you will never forget.
~ Aqua San Francisco http://www.kerrymenu.com/Aqua.htm
252 California Street, S.F., CA 94111, (451) 956-9662, daily 11.30 am - 14.30 pm and 17.30 pm - 23.00 pm, Sunday
closed
Aqua is one of the best, but too one of the most expensive restaurants you can go to, but you will be enchanted
to pay the price. It's worth it:
- “Prime Rib” of Arctic Char "Imported Black Truffles, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Caramelized
Onion Jus $29.00"
"Porcini-Crusted Atlantic Cod Steak" Wild Mushroom Risotto, Beurre Rouge $26.00
"Sautéed Filet of Petrale Sole" Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Littleneck Clams, Braised
Artichokes $24.00
"Hawaiian Swordfish “Au Poivre” Pancetta-Wrapped Shrimp Dumplings, Port Wine Sauce $28.00 // same price: "San
Francsisco-Bay fish at Zinfandel-sauce"
"Chocolate Tasting Plate" Milk Chocolate Napoléon, Warm Chocolate Torte, White Chocolate Ice Cream
"Classic Crèpes Suzette" Roasted Pears and Frangipan Filling, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
To get the chocolate tasting plate offered, you will do anything!
~ Chez Panisse Berkeley http://www.chezpanisse.com/restaurant.htm
1517Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94709, (510) 548-5525, daily 05.30pm - 03.00 am, weekends:lunchtime too 11.00am
-01.00 pm
An exception in America`s cooking world: Alice Waters cooks only local products- and the reduction on the original
taste of these tastes wonderful.
- "Capra à la moutard provençale" ~Silver Creek kid goat roasted
on the spit over rosemary branches and oak wood with roasted garlic, anchovies, and wine-braised white beans. or
"Tagliatelle with tunafish, beans and citrus-sauce."
Price more on the expensive side.
~ The French Laundry Napa Valley http://www.sterba.com/yountville/frenchlaundry/
Here true Haute Cuisine is celebrated. Chief Thomas Keller has made his kitchen-education in the Top-Gastronomy
of France.If you wisdh to dine at his house you have to make the resrvation weeks before you are aloud to dine
at Monsieur Keller`s house.The menue`s have a price between 65.00US$ - 95.00US$
Dinner sample
- "Three bean salad" with golden zuchetti, warm summer pole beans,snap peas and
summer truffles"
"Filet of new England cod, with cod cakes "Clam chowder"and parsley infused extra virgin olive oil"
This restaurant is really only for a 50 years-marriage-festivity- or if you have won 1,000,000 (million- and
this not in beans)
~ Auberge du Soleil Napa Valley http://www.aubergedusoleil.com/html/frame-pn.htm
180 Rutherford Hill Road CA 94573, (6707) 963-1211, daily from 07.00am - 02.30 pm and from 06.30 - 09.30 pm
The ambiance here both warm and trés chic. Mediterranian. The crew is mixed Italian-Asia-Provencale, quite
a exciting style for the kitchen. Chief cook SUTTON'S SCENE plays out in the 120-seat theater that is Auberge du
Soleil's restaurant. Warm and inviting with it's large cedar columns, rough timbered ceilings, fireplaces and French
doors, the restaurant opens to its large dining terrace overlooking the verdant valley. His
signature menu (enter this link) is "Sharing of the Senses" – so called because, in Sutton’s words,
"Food is the only art form experienced by every sense".)
~ The Grille Sonoma http://www.sonomamissioninn.com/
at the Hotel Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, daily from 11.00 am - 02.30 pm and 05.30 pm - 10.00 pm
Forget everything you heard about vegetarian food. Greener & fresher you can't eat than here. The first-class
soups and salades are only one side of the genial chief-cook, Toni Robertson. Her fish and meat preparations are
so fine and aromatic, that you hardly can make a choice. Here's a bit of the Inn you can try at home! These recipes
are tested, served and popular with guests here at Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa; they should be just as popular
with your friends and family. Enjoy!
-
Ingredients: 2 cups - Low Fat Yogurt //1/2 cup - Sugar //2 cups - Non Fat Milk //1/2 pkg.
(.5 oz.) - Powdered Age-Agar //1 stalk - Vanilla Beans //1/2 cup ea. Assorted Fruits (Raspberries, Mango, Kiwi,
Strawberries, Blueberries, etc.)
- Preparation:Strain yogurt with cheesecloth to remove excess water. Bring sugar, vanilla
beans, non-fat milk and agar-agar powder to a boil. Remove from heat and let the mixture completely cool down.Fold
low fat yogurt into the cold mixture. Pour into Jell-O molds or ramekins. Set overnight in the refrigerator.To
assemble: Puree assorted fruits. (There should be at least three different kinds of fruits and colors.) Remove
Panna Cotta from mold. Garnish with fruit puree and fresh mint.
- Organic Root Vegetable Risotto (serves four)
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Ingredients: 4 cups - Assorted Roasted Root Vegetables (Celery root, parsnips, sweet potato,
rutabaga, baby beets gold, red and chioggia, Jerusalem artichoke, etc.) //1 cup - Lundberg Brown Arborio Rice //3
cups - Vegetable Stock //2 tbsp. - Chopped Shallots //1 tbsp. - Chopped herbs //1 tbsp. - Olive Oil or Grape Seed
Oil //1/4 cup - Grated Vella Jack Cheese //Salt and pepper to taste
- Preparation:Sauté chopped shallots with olive oil. Add Arborio rice and sauté
until the rice is nicely roasted. Slowly add the vegetable stock continuing to stir until the rice absorbs all
of the stock. The rice should be chewy, not crunchy. Add the roasted root vegetables, chopped herbs and grated
jack cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
~ Freestyle Sonoma http://www.winetravel.com/dine/yr97/oct19.html
522 Broadway, (707) 996-9916, 11.30 am - 02.00 pm and 05.30 - 10.30 pm (Thuesday and Wednesday closed)
One of the "Young Wild" ones, famous New Yorker Restaurants give recommendations for the Freestyle. (Zoe,
Aureole, River Cafe). American-European-Japanese cooking. Exciting and loud ambiance.
" We serve Celtic sea salt from the marshes of Normandy-" is explained. This salt is less salty than
most salts because of its high content of minerals. Butter the bread and crunch some salt on the butter with your
fingers." I did. The bread is still fabulous despite the Normandy marsh.
"Devil's food cake with malted milk chocolate sauce. $5" It's Valrhona chocolate
cake, of course, and as perfect as cake gets. The malted milk sauce was an inspired touch. It came with wonderful
homemade espresso ice cream.
" Warm Gravenstein apple galette. $" A purse of perfect puff pastry held our own Sonoma County Gravenstein
slices spiced to perfection and topped with unembellished house-made mascarpone cheese.
Maybe it was this warm apple-gallette which made Adam lose Paradise
~ Willowside Cafe Santa Rosa http://www.sterba.com/sro/willowside/
3535 Guerneville Road (707) 523-4814. from 05.30pm - 22.00 pm // Monday-Tuesday closed
Understatement: a wooden hut, a very long dining-room, furniture from the fleamarkets - but the cuisine: premium
first class. The best you can find in North-California. Gorgonzola and red onion marmalade). Here the vignards
and their helpers enter for lunch. http://www.sterba.com/sro/willowside/food/.
Look at the entrees in this link. For every taste a mouthfull.
Satisfied? Exciting and wonderful places. California Cooking, California wine, California
landscape ~ For Europeans a dream destination!
Maybe we'll meet somewhere ~
Simone ~
http://www.ejgallo.de/index.html Gallo`s wines explained in German
http://www.insideneworleans.com/entertainment/food/1999/landmark_vineyards.html
take a breath
http://www.dailywine.com/nov98/Gallo/gallo.html take
a sip
http://www.winewatch.com/showroom/winerys/California/Sonoma/Gallo-son/Default.htm
grape stomp contest, you can join
http://www.sonomacountyfair.com/harvest/GrapeStomp.htm
same
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