I Love Bottega

I was on a work trip to San Francisco last week.  My friend Sue was there for training as well, so we went up to Napa for a girls weekend and enjoyed some great food and some spa time.


Yountville is this cute little, small town between Napa and Calistoga.  It is also the home to my idol chef Thomas Keller's restaurants.  It is also the home of Bottega, Michael Chiarello's Italian restaurant.  If you've never heard of him before, he is a famous chef and has his own show on the Food Network called Easy Entertaining.  He makes great Italian ingredient based foods that are rustic, simple but elegant.   He has also been on Top Chef as a judge and contestant on the Master Chef version of Top Chef.  It is here that he showed his meanie side of his personality and his stubbornness. 


Well, I've heard some great things from people who visited Napa and they all said that I had to try Bottega.  So my friend Sue and I went on Friday night.  We couldn't get a table until 9pm but it worked out well because by the time we got to Napa and checked in, it was around this time.


Bottega
6525 Washington Street, A9
Yountville, CA 94599
http://www.botteganapavalley.com/index.html



After we ordered and got our drinks, they plunk down a thick, warm, rustic sliced chuck of bread right on the table.  No plates, basket or nothing, just on the table lined with paper.  They also brought a little tub of butter and this luscious thick drizzle of grassy olive oil that had tons of parmesan reggiano, garlic, red chili peppers, and herbs I think.  It was amazing!  I would have been happy with just eating this and my wine.

We then had our first course of...


I had the Shaved Artichoke Salad Two Ways lemon olive oil braised and roman fried, shaved parmigiano reggiano

Sue had the Polenta Under Glass, caramelized wild mushrooms, balsamic game sauce.  Wow!  The best dish of the night!  It was creamy and had so much flavor.  Reminded me of the time Soung ordered the polenta at Scarpetta and I wish I had.  When you are at a uber chef's restaurant and you see the polenta on the menu, order it!  Don't expect to share because it's so good, everyone should order their own.

For our second course...


I had Spaghetti alla Chitarra, imported chitarra cut spaghetti, white head-on prawns, tomato-fennel broth, basil & tarragon.  I wanted a simple pasta and sauce dish.  This was good but it was a bit too fishy for me.  I even had them remove the "head".  They didn't have that many veggie items on the menu, they were willing to make accommodations but I really wanted to try something that the chef had intended. 

Sue had Confit of Half Duck mostarda di frutta, panettone bread pudding, red wine duck jus.  She said the best duck she has had by far.  I kept thinking about the ducks that float around
Greenlake when I go running.  :)

We were both full to the max but had to have dessert. Wow! They were amazingly good. I must remember to order the desserts first so I can enjoy them more.


I had Tiramisu Profiteroles, a tramisu & sponge cake gelato, “Cocoa puff”, chocolate sauce.  Need I say more than the pic?  I, like Ted Allen, love table side presentation and love that they poured the chocolate sauce at the table.

Sue had the Salted Caramel gelato Affagato.  It came with this Peanut cookie that was to die for.  Sue was too full and didn't want the cookie so I said I wanted a to go box to eat later.  Well, the next morning I was looking forward to eating the cookie with my morning coffee before we head out...guess what, Sue had eaten all of the cookie before I even got up.  She didn't even save me a nibble. 

There was a moment during dinner when chef Chiarello was making the rounds saying hello to his regular diners and friends.  It caught me by surprise when I saw him talking to our next table to the right.  I was trying to be cool and was trying to alert Sue to by using my ventriloquist voice but she couldn't understand.  I so wanted to take a pic and meet him but I didn't want seem star struck which I was.  Well, he passed our table by and went to another table. I was so jealous.  We even talked to the waitress to ask about him and she said he would totally take a pic with me and say hello.  She said she would try to have him over.  Well...it never happened.  I need to know to seize the moment.  He was right there.  :(


There was one dish that everyone was ordering that we didn't.  It was the Truffle Fries.  Everywhere you look, every table were getting a heaping plate of rustic, homemade fries.  I was kicking myself.  Sue and I had a quick snack of "tie me over" food at the hotel when we arrived.  We had some fries and wine a few hours before hand.   I'm definitely planning another weekend at Napa and getting these fries and the polenta!

The New Mama Melinas

After a long day of shopping, cousins, mom, sister, and my little bro checked out the new Mama Melina near Uvillage.  http://mammamelina.com/


Food was good but not spectacular.  Nothing to write home about.  If you are in the area and crave Italian, you should go but not a destination spot.  Flavors were so so, exception was the eggplant parmesan.  The food and restaurant is beautiful but the flavors weren't there for me.  It's good but not great.


The Appetizers...
Eggplant Parmesan.  This was my favorite dish of the night.

Vongole con Fagioli e Pancetta (Clams, white beans, and pancetta)

Bruschette

The Entrees....
Spaghetti Pomodoro

Ravioli Con Porcini e Formaggi

Penne with Smoked Mozzarella

Pizza Salciccia e Rapini

Pizza with Mushroom and Truffle
I don't recommend this at all.  Barely any truffle favors. 

The Dessert....
Cheesecake 
This was made with ricotta.  I find this is my favorite way of eating cheesecake. Ricotta gives it a velvety texture and a lightness.

Tiramisu

The diners....my familia!

Homemade Pizza

Today, I spent the day in Ballard watching world cup and shopping at the farmer's market.  It was seafood fest in Ballard.  Samad and I were going to try and watch it at the new Market Arms.  We got there an hour before and the lines around the block.  We tried to find a few other places that were showing the game with sound and ended up at the newly open place The Noble Fir.  


The Noble Fir is a drink place in Ballard.  They don't have much food, just cheese and appetizer plates.  Their dessert menu are 3 different Theo chocolate bars...enough said.  Their drinks are great though, they have a great selections of drafts and a few ciders. I ended up drinking 2 pts of cider.  


Anyways, this lead us to the farmer's market where I got inspired to make pizza for dinner.  


The Dough
I made the dough a day ago, eager to make the No Knead Bread again with the warm weather in the air.  My friend Anya told me to use this as pizza dough a while back and we did use the recipe for the Homeless cooking a few months back.  So, I decided to make pizza instead of bread. I do have to say, this dough makes great pizza.  It can be thin and crispy if you roll it out very thin, or chewy and crusty as a thicker roll out.


The Toppings
I picked up some great porcini mushrooms, truffle formage, and fresh basil at the market.  On our way back to my place, we saw some rosemary bush so broke off a twig and put in our bag.  


The Result
I made 3 different kinds....


Truffled Porcini
This had porcini mushroom, tuffled formage, truffle salt.

Rosemary Potato
This had thinly sliced organic potatoes, porcini mushrooms, white onions, chili flakes, freshly chopped rosemary, and parmesean reggiano cheese.

Margarita
This was your classic. Made with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, but no mozzerella, thus used parmesean.  Soung was over so had to make some vegan too.

Catering with St Cloud-The Grill

A few weekends ago, I got to help St. Cloud with catering again.  This time the event was for 3 graduating law students.  Boy, it was the hippest party I've attended as part of catering team and any party.  Everyone was dressed freshly out of a hip magazine party.  There was also reality show sighting too.  Ash Fulk from last season's Top Chef was there.  I played it cool and didn't bother him but of course wanted to ask him all kind of questions.  


My job that day was to grill.  I am a veggie so I don't grill that much and when they asked me if I could do it, I said of course!  Well, I had to figure out quick.  I've grilled mostlt on charcoal but not much from propane gas grill.   Well...let me say, it was an experience.  Eventually I got the hang of it and grilled the Chicken Skewers, and then made the Mini Sliders.  It brought me memories of making hamburgers at Dairy Queen when I was a teenager.


Here is the menu:

• Lemongrass Shrimp Skewers
• Asian Marinated Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce
• Rosemary and Shallot Spiced Nuts
• Stuffed Mushrooms with Spinach Fontina, Carmaelized Onion and Pinenuts
• Cruite Platter of Lightly Steamed broccoli, cauliflfower, carrots, asparagus, and red/yellow peppers
• Carmaelized Onion and Grilled Pear and Goat Cheese Bruschetta
• Vietnamese Style Avacado Spring Roll Slice on Crispy Wonton with Wasabi Mayo
• House Smoked Columbia River Stellhead Sekwers with Orange Citronette
• Mini Sliders with Secret Sauce
• Mini Open-faced Beef Tenderloin Sandwiches with Watercress Mayo and Roasted Red Peppers

Sorry I didn't get any pics. The food was beautifully plated and served.  Good news is that John Platt, the owner of St. Cloud gave me the okay to bring camera and take pic, as well as post on this blog so next time I help them, I will get great pics.

Craft Los Angeles

Friday Night Dinner

Craft is the main restaurant of Tom Colicchio. The head judge on Top Chef. The hot bald chef!

I didn't have any real idea on what kind of food Craft was about. I don't know why but I thought it was going to be Italian. I learned actually he has more French cooking roots and Craft displayed that.

The most memoriable thing of the night was that it was the first time I had truffles. Not just a truffle oil infused dish, no I actual truffle slices on a dish. Wow!

They served all the dishes family style. I'm not used to seeing fancy places serve this way. The other nice thing they did was serve us complimentary little things inbetween the courses we ordered. It was a nice unexpected surprise. Here are what we ate....

Amuse Buoche

Prawns on Cracker

(Sorry...no pic )

I don't like prawns. The texture and fishy smell usually creeps me out. They brought out this small plate with 2 water crackers topped with 3 chunks prawn slices that was tossed in some oil, seasoning and chives. Soung is veggie too so she wasn't going to eat it. I wasn't going to eat it but we didn't want to be rude so I said I would take a bite. Wow...it didn't taste like any prawns I've had before. No fishiness at all. Light, savory, crisp. Yum.

First Course

Heirloom Tomato Salad

Sweet as honey yellow, red, and pink heirloom tomatoes. The plate was dressed in a small pool of green olive oil and aged balsamic, where the thinly sliced tomatoes were laid, it was topped with little bit of salt and microgreens. I would have to say this was my favorite dish of the night hands down. The simpliest ways are the best ways to prepare highest quality ingredients.

Wild Arugula & Parmesan

Nice slight bitter greens with aged parm cheese.

Main Course

Roasted Halibut

This fish was the most decadent white steak of fish I had seen, it had this nice seared golden crust. The sauce was roasted red pepper sauce with golden raisins in this buttery sauce. It was amazing subtle flavors, but the fish was slightly over cooked and not as moist as I had hope.

Ricotta Cavatelli & Black Truffle Pasta

Homemade pasta filled with ricotta, light buttery sauce, and topped with shaved black truffles. Prior to this I think the only truffle item I've had was the truffle fries at Baguette box.

Sides

Potato Gratin

Wow...best gratin I've had. Perfectly thinly sliced potatos, cooked just right to a velvethy texture in a rich cream sauce that was so good. It had a nice baked golden crust at the top. This was my 2nd favorite dish of the night. I've tried to make this dish but yet to make this right. Maybe I'll have to get his cookbook for this.

Assorted Wild Mushrooms

This was okay...different mushrooms sauteed in some herbs and some kind of fat. I like my mushrooms carmalized and moist, this was again a little dry.

Roasted Asparagus

I didn't have any of this, Soung said it was good but not the best.

Palate Cleanser

Stawberry something rose water something "gelayeee". In another word..fancy jello. :) It was good, beautiful.

Dessert

Peach Crisp with Peach Ice Cream

Good seasonal peach with lot of crunchy oat buttery topping. We ordered a side of peach ice

cream which I'm sure was freshly made had nice chunks of peaches. The only thing is it had more topping than peaches and I like lot of fruit in my crips or cobblers.

Beignets

Light as air dough fried and covered in sugar/cinnamon, served with a salty chocolate sauce and citrusy honey.

After we ate our dessert, they gave us a small plate of lavendar shortbread, chocolate bark or toffee, and dice size brownies. I hate it when anyone puts lavendar in food. It tastes like soap in my mouth. I was relunctant to try this one but I have to say, it was the first time the lavendar didn't over powered the food. It was very subtle.

After the check, they gave us a take home gift of pecan biscotti. They just had really nice touches, services was superb, and beautiful ambience at the restaurnt. We had some leftover dessert that they boxed up. They don't just bring the leftovers boxed to your table, no they give you a number like a coat check. When you are ready to leave, you take the number to the front and they give you the leftover in a bag. How classy is that. I know I can't eat like this all the time but boy it was memorable. We need one in Seattle. I'm going to write him a letter.

The one thing I felt good about is that I think I could make all the dessert and sweets we had. They were simple things but refined. I'm more about rustic than refine thus prob want to do it my way. I read that the pastry chef Shannon Swindle actually has type I diabetes. Interesting...I can't wait to become a pastry chef!