EARTHQUAKE!!!

Well last night was pretty exciting for about 30 seconds!  I was on the computer when I heard a series of muffled bangs or thumps.  Then I felt the shaking.  I moved pretty quickly to the doorway and found Beth in the kitchen doorway.  We stood there and held on as the whole complex started swaying pretty violently back and forth.  It was almost like standing on the deck of a boat in rough seas.  The wine glasses were clinking, and it seemed as if I could see the walls and ceiling flexing.  Poor Kitty-No-Name hightailed it for the safety of the underside of our bed for the second day in a row!  (Monday, we had very rare thundershowers, and the thunder must have freaked out Kitty.  When I got home hours after the storm, she was nowhere to be found.  After about 30 minutes, I coaxed her out of her hiding spot in the back of Beth’s closet.)

Suddenly, I thought of my 29-gallon tank and glanced over to see the water rocking back and forth pretty good.  I ran over to steady it in case the shaking worsened, but it was pretty much over by then.  Beth and I were both on-line at the time and both went to the various earthquake reporting sites like USGS.  It took a few minutes for the sites to update and show us it was a 5.6 magnitude centered about 9 miles east of San Jose.  Both the cell phones and land lines were tied up for about an hour. 

It was definitely the largest quake I have been through, since I moved to California in 1993 and had missed the ‘89 Loma Prieta quake.  This was pretty scary, since our townhouse is on the second floor, there was quite a bit of movement!  I wasn’t in danger of soiling my pants, but if stuff started breaking and falling on the floor, that would be another story!

ROCKY PATEL VINTAGE 1992

I have been looking forward to trying some of Rocky’s famous smokes for some time now.  Last Sunday the sun was out and it was about 75 degrees on the balcony so I decided it was time.  I decided to go for the Vintage 1992 first, since I have read that the 1990 might be a little better and milder.

I love the look of these cigars!  A nice, box-pressed torpedo with a nice, dark Ecuadorian wrapper with two beautiful, burgundy and gold labels.  The cigar started out mild to medium with a chewy flavor and a peppery, slightly sweet nose.  It had a nice, slow burn with very light gray ash and a smooth, easy draw.  As the tars build and heat up, the flavor increases in intensity, becoming medium to robust with notes of coffee and wood.

After the midway point, the cigar really shows its teeth, with spicy, chewy flavors dominating in the mouth.  It burned very well, without danger of going out until well after the half-way point.

Overall, this is a quality smoke.  The “exhaled” smoke had a great, balanced nose throughout the whole cigar, but the taste on the palate was just too robust for a everyday smoke for me. 

Coming soon…..review of Rocky Patel Vintage 1990

More Thoughts on Thomas Keller’s Joint

Now that Steve has had his say, I wanted to add my two cents worth on this world class restaurant.  One thing I noticed, and liked, was the lack of any trendy foam in any of the dishes.  Now, I don’t claim to be any culinary expert, but I just don’t see the appeal of foam.  To me it looks like spittle.  I don’t care what flavors you put in there.  Go to any 7-Eleven and you can probably get a handful of different flavors and colors of foam out of the mouths of 10-year old boys with slurpees.  Foams just do not look appetizing to me.  Maybe I am biased because Marcel (Top Chef) was such a foam-head!

Overall, although it was a fabulous meal at the Laundry, I think I enjoyed the dinner we had recently at Manresa a little more.  Maybe it is because Manresa was my first foray into such high-end cuisine.  However, I think it had a lot to do with the wine pairings we had at Manresa.  Tasting an obscure wine that was matched perfectly with each course was really amazing.  Now, I’m sure we could have had the Sommelier at the Laundry come out and choose a perfect wine for each course we ate, however I would never be able to recover from credit card debt if we did that!  It also seems as if the dishes at Manresa were a little more exciting or visually stimulating to me.  It’s probably just my mind playing tricks on me.

SCHILLING WINS AGAIN!

My hat is off to Curt Schilling.  I didn’t think he could do it, but he did.  He pitched a great game and Okijima was lights out!  Papelbon closed the door, thanks to a timely pick off at first base.  Other keys to the game were J.D. Drew coming through with a timely hit and Mike Lowell driving in the winning run one more time!

WORLD SERIES: IT AIN’T OVER!

Just had to write a quick thought on the Series after last night’s lop-sided score.  Hold on Sox fans, it ain’t over.  If you read my post about a week ago, I predicted that the Series would either be a rout like in 2004, or it would be a tight series going to a seventh game.  Now, after watching the Sox dominate Game One, some may feel that it will be a rout in four games.  I don’t think so.  Oh, I will be more than happy to watch the Sox win another title with a sweep, but I don’t think it will happen.  Here’s why.  Last night’s game may have ended 13 -1 in favor of the Sox, but it was much closer that that.  In fact, I think the game could have gone either was for the first few innings.  Just ask Josh Beckett.  When asked about being “locked in”, he said he didn’t even know what the term means.  I believe he said something about executing good pitches at crucial times.  I belive he knows how good the Rockies offense is, and he was very glad to win the game and only give up a run.  The Rockies had like four doubles in the early innings, one was nearly a home run!  Beckett was very close to walking a couple more batters, and was helped out by some great defense too!  I’m telling you, if the Rockies had scored one or two more runs early, it would have been a much different game.  And all the pile-on runs were the result of the Colorado relievers being rattled.  Let’s just hope Schilling can strap it on one more time and “outfox” the Rockies hitters and the Colorado rookie on the mound is still rattled.

SUNDAY: FOUR MICHELIN STARS? YUP, ALL IN ONE DAY!

Sunday was the big day.  We got in the car and made our way back over the mountain to Napa, Yountville and the French Laundry.  I will keep the review short, as I am a complete rookie in the fine dining scene as compared to Steve, and I’m sure his blog will soon contain a fabulous review.  The place was very nice.  Beautiful gardens in the back, great unpretentious service, and absolutely fabulous food!  Beth and I had brought a 2001 Joseph Phelps Insignia and a 1994 Chateau Haut Brion and Steve ordered a bottle of Champagne to go with the first courses.  Our waiter also suggested a Tokai dessert wine to pair with the foie gras and the wine was spectacular.  I was worried the the Haut Brion would be corked or spoiled, but it was actually very good.  The Insignia was great!  After all the dessert was eaten and the coffee drank, we paid the bill and took a tour of the kitchen.  We could barely do anything from being so stuffed with food, so Sonia suggested a walk around town.  I was in the mood for a cigar so a walk sounded good to me!

We strolled down the street, through a park, past Bouchon and the Bouchon Bakery just enjoying the beautiful weather.  Then we walked back to the car and said goodbye to the three-star gem and headed south towards the one-star Gary Danko’s in San Francisco.

Yes, Steve had requested trying to make it to Gary Danko’s right when they open at 5pm to get seated at the bar.  Well, thanks to Garmin and a little luck, we pulled up to the valet at 4:58pm and stood outside behind two other people with the same idea.  The doors were opened and we were in!  Of course, we were all so stuffed from the four hour lunch that we couldn’t eat anymore, could we?  Well, for those that know Steve, or have heard of his exploits (such as eating 15 dozen raw oysters at Acme Oyster House in New Orleans), you won’t be surprised to hear that he did a pretty good job of sampling the fare at Danko’s!  The rest of us had an appetizer or salad and that was about it.  I had the glazed oysters with Osetra caviar and it was delicious! 

After Danko’s, we took Sonia to SFO and said goodbye, then headed to SJC and dropped off Steve.  I turned on the AM radio and listened to the Sox game.  They were winning.  It was a perfect weekend.

NAPA; DAY TWO

We woke up, showered and hit the road by 9:30am in search of breakfast!  My plan was to go to The Crepe Escape in Santa Rosa, where Beth and I tried to go last year, but found it to be closed for vacation.  I must mention the fifth member of our Napa weekend here.  Garmin, our sweet little navigator with the British accent was the latest to join our family just for this trip in fact!  Garmin informed us that there was a Crepe Escape in Rhonert Park that was closer than the one in Santa Rosa so it was decided we would go there.  Long story short, that place was closed when we got there too!  Now, never having eaten at a Crepe Escape, I have already sworn them off!  Bastards!  So we found a little coffee shop and had coffee, tea and pastries before getting down to business.

Our first stop was BR Cohn at the south end of Sonoma valley.  We had to pick up our wine club shipment anyway, and since Steve is a HUGE fan of olive oil, it was a no-brainer.  We all had a free tasting of their latest wines, then moved over to the gourmet tasting of olive oils.  Steve was polite, but I could tell he was a little underwhelmed by their offerings despite Beth and my constant raving over the past few weeks.  No matter, Beth and I stocked up on 3 bottles of their estate grown olive oil! 

Next stop was Oakville Grocery.  Garmin took us over a little, twisty mountain road to drop us into Napa valley, and it was a nice little surprise!  The road was nearly free of motor traffic, although it was littered with spandex clad, serious bikers.  They must have been serious to want to tackle that long and steep a climb!  I, apparently like thousands of others, read about the Oakville Grocery on the Internet which identified it as a great place to grab some delicious treats while in wine country.  This was apparent as we drove up and saw the swarming crowds of tourists surrounding the building.  We managed to sidle our way through the isles to give the merchandise a once over before I reached my panic threshold and bolted for the great outdoors after determining they had no Foie Gras for sale that day.  Sonia even managed to purchase a couple small items by the time Beth, Steve and I made it through the line for the bathroom.  Rating:  I will skip it next time unless the parking lot is empty.

The rest of the stops on Saturday are kind of fuzzy in my mind, I don’t know why!  I will just list them the best I can.  We hit BV and did the $15 dollar tasting.  We were not impressed by the wine or the old lady pouring it.  Steve did like a wine called Beauzuaux pronounced BOZO.  Too funny!  Rating:  I’ll let you know after I open one of the BV Georges de Latour in our cellar, but the wines at the tasting were not inspiring.

Corison Winery:  one of Steve’s favorite Napa cabs, we pulled in to the little winery and were pleasantly surprised to find we were the only ones there!  That changed after about 10 minutes when a gaggle of ladies from a bachelorette party rolled in.  Oh well, worse things could happen and Steve didn’t seem to mind.  As far as the wine, it was good.  The two pricier selections were very good.  Rating:  Very good.

Rubicon: formerly known as Niebaum-Coppola winery.  Beth had been here about ten years ago and was less than impressed with the wine and the staff.  Now that the winery has been renamed to focus more on the wine and less on Coppola, it seems to be better.  Steve paid for us to do the tour after the tasting, which was cool.  We got to go down into the storage caves and do a barrel tasting.  The wine was very good and our pourer was nice as well.  Rating: very good

Heitz Cellars:  Popped in here and found their Trailside Cab to be very nice!  Steve bought a bottle of the Ink Grade Port for consumption after dinner.  Rating: definitely recommend stopping at this nice little tasting room.

Frank Family Vineyards:  Last stop before returning to the hotel, picking up wine I brought for dinner and going to dinner.  Got there about 4:15 and even though they close at 5, the place was packed!  I guess everyone knows it’s a fun place to taste with good wine and the tastings are still free.  Had to wait outside for people to leave, but finally got to taste.  Wasn’t wowed by the Zin like last year, maybe because I had already tasted fifty different wines.  Our pourer was a riot and made it a ton of fun as usual.  Rating:  Please don’t go here.  It’s like…um…closed or something.

We had dinner at a place called Latitude in Rhonert Park.  It was on a tiny, man-made lake.  That was the good part.  The food was OK.  My three friends ordered first and all ordered what I was going to order, the seared Ahi.  So I was forced to get the beef shortribs and it turned out to be a stroke of luck!  The tuna poke appetizer Steve ordered was good, but too heavily seasoned with soy sauce/salt.  The seared ahi, on the other hand was under seasoned.  The shortribs were spot on, but too rich for my stomach filled with the remnants of 1/2 acre of grapes.  We really weren’t feeling like drinking a bunch of wine, so I saved the BV Georges de Latour I brought and Steve had them open his bottle of Corison which was very nice.

Following dinner, we went back to the hotel and I fired up a CAO Criollo and gave Steve a RyJ tubo from the wedding.  We uncorked the new bottle of Ink Grade port and sat on the bench in front of our rooms talking baseball, drinking port, puffing on cigars and enjoying the beautiful weather that Steve and Sonia bring with them when they visit.

After we finished our stogies, Steve and I sat down and played a Heads-Up, no-limit hold ‘em tourney in my room.  Sonia had already thrown in the towel after a long day of drinking and gone to bed.  Beth was barely hanging on watching TV, and after the second or third time the blinds went up, Steve began to fade fast as well.  I took advantage of his weakened condition and my favorable cards and managed to beat him heads-up.  Did he let me win just so he could go to his room and go to sleep?  Well, if he did, he did it with class and dumped like a champ!

NAPA WEEKEND; DAY ONE

Beth and I spent the weekend in Napa with my college friends Steve and Sonia.  Steve managed to secure a reservation at the French Laundry so he invited us and we made a weekend out of it.  Friday after work, after packing a bag, some great wine and my poker chips, we got in the car and headed to SJ airport to pick up Steve.  After no more than five minutes in the car, it started pouring cats & dogs!  Luckily, it was just a brief shower.  The airport was jammed with people, but we managed to pick up Steve, get the car fueled up and headed up to SFO to pick up Sonia.  We picked up Sonia and proceeded across the Golden Gate, arriving in Santa Rosa around 1 am.  We then opened a bottle of Heitz Cellars Ink Grade Port and didn’t have any trouble finishing that off during a couple hours of catching up.  So it was off to bed at 3 am which was like 6am for Steve and Sonia!

PLAYOFF BEARD STILL IN EFFECT!

Unbelievably, the Red Sox have made it to the World Series.  With some good breaks and some good baseball, the Sox turned the ALCS around.  Unfortunately, Beth and I were spending the weekend in Napa with Money and Sonia, so I didn’t get to see much of games 6 and 7, but it all worked out for the best and now I can be glued to the TV for the World Series.  Props to Dustin Pedroia for saying to hell with his critics and to Youkilis for just being a stud.  Obvious credit to Beckett, Ortiz, Rameriz and Lowell for shouldering the brunt of the load. 

Well, I guess one of my predictions finally came to fruition, in that it will indeed be the Red Sox squaring off against the Rockies.  Yes, Colorado has won a gazillion games in a row, and yes they have great pitching and great talent, but they have had a record eight days off to think about anything and everything.  My prediction for the World Series is one of two outcomes:  One, the Sox make like 2004 and sweep, making the National League look pathetic in the process.  Two, it’s gonna be a great, tight, edge of your seat series that goes seven games with the Sox winning of course!

RED SOX ON THE ROPES

Sadly, the bats of the Red Sox have fallen nearly silent under the pressure of having to score runs.  Except for the middle of the order, Red Sox hitters are gripping the bat too tight, swinging when they should be taking and taking when they should be swinging.  It just looks like the Indians are the more confident team right now.  Maybe Beckett is too worn down to have gone on three days rest, but if I were Terry Francona, I would at least have inserted Jacoby Ellsbury for the anemic Coco Crisp for game 4.  Maybe even take Lugo out of the lineup to try to get some hits or at least not hit into so many double plays.

The only reason I have any hope left is Josh Beckett.  If the Sox can win Thursday’s game, maybe returning to Boston will spark their bats into producing a slew of runs, which they will need to support their faltering pitching staff.