Wed., Mar. 25 2009 @ 2:12PM
Fellow
SFoodie blogger Tamara Palmer and I were headed up to the
Culinary Institute of America's Napa Valley
campus in St. Helena, aka Greystone, to attend a seminar on Japanese food.
But the fertile springtime valley held a number of other temptations, and we were determined to sample as many as time and budget would allow.
On the way up, we detoured to Yountville to give Tamara a glimpse of the (surprisingly modest) renowned
French Laundry, and, after catching sight of
Thomas Keller's
Bouchon Bakery down the street, decided to try some pastries for breakfast on its tree-shaded patio, where we were joined by a group of school kids appropriately wearing berets.
We shared a gooey cream cheese danish, and an excellent pain au raisins, and I sprung six bucks to bring a modest-sized brioche bread pudding home to my mom.
We did NOT spring $50 for the pot of foie gras.
We
drove past stately Greystone, all the way to Calistoga, heads swiveling
back and forth, goggling at the famous and not-so-famous vineyards on
each side of the road.
There was enough time
before we were due to check in to dash back to Dean & Deluca and
take a million pictures of cheese, spices, jarred goods. Tamara could
not resist buying a few of the $140-a-pound crystallized mint leaves.
After the Japanese food seminar, we stopped at
Woodhouse Chocolate
in St. Helena, where exquisite confections, daringly conceived and
carefully hand-painted or airbrushed, tempt the wealthy (or the
foolhardy, like us) willing to spend $1.85 each on morsel-sized
chocolate stuffed with quatre epice or preserved cherries, or $24 on
chocolate spears of white or green asparagus. The window displays were
worthy of Tiffany.
And we couldn't resist
taking another turn through Dean & Deluca. Tamara had thought of
somebody she had to buy more crystallized mint leaves for.
On the way back, stuffed with wagyu beef, candied tuna, and expensive chocolates, we slid into a
Sonic Drive-in we'd discovered was on our way home, in American Canyon, just a few minutes past Vallejo. I'd been intrigued by their wacky
commercials; Tamara had friends that swore by their drinks -- especially those with lime in them -- and their tater tots.
Their
ordering system is peculiar, involving a credit card slot, a
disembodied voice, and a genunine roller-skating carhop who brings you
your food on a red plastic tray (that she does NOT leave hooked up to
your car). We had a Cherry Limeade, a Lime Slush, a double patty melt
on Texas toast (of which we each took one or two experimental bites),
and a container of tater tots. I thought the drinks were vile and
pesticidal, the patty melt soggy, and the tater tots were, well, tater
tots. High point of the meal (which cost less than four chocolates at
Woodhouse, and which we ate less of than four chocolates at Woodhouse):
learning that the drink called Ocean Breeze is blue coconut. Well of
COURSE it is!
When I told fellow
SFoodie
blogger Robert about our Sonic drive-by, he asked, eagerly, if I'd
tried the deep-fried mac'n'cheese. "I didn't SEE any deep-fried
mac'n'cheese!," I whined. (And I still don't, on their supremely
annoying talking
menu.) "There were sausage biscuits with gravy....".
Hope springs eternal. But I'd rather spring for more Woodhouse chocolates.
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