The eight hundred dollar "foodie" weekend [Wine country]

[See all pictures here]

Ubuntu [Napa]
******

We started off on a high note, very high indeed, at the much-talked-about Ubuntu in downtown Napa. No one who knows us would mistake us for vegetarians, and this being a strictly vegetarian restaurant, the bar was set a bit low. Still, Jeremy Fox came out of Manresa, and was recently nominated along with the current chef of Manresa, Coi, and Cyrus, for a James Beard. So we were not without expectations.

Innovation, execution, seasonality, and purveyance, I'm happy to report that the caliber at Ubuntu matches (or exceeds) that of our dinner appointment, or any Bay Area high-brow eatery for that matter. Especially of note was the superlative combinations of flavors that striked brand new to me.

Note: CAPPED ingredients are from their own "bio-dynamic" garden.

- chickpea fries with HERBS romesco sauce ($6)
Robust and luscious sauce; a tad boring fries.

- cool english peas and GOLD PEA SHOOTS in a consomme of shells, with white chocolate, CHOCOLATE MINT, macadamia, PURPLE SNAPS ($12)
Unbelievably fresh and sweet tender peas, peak of the season, in a sublime broth literally made with pea shells! There was some tangy addition to the consomme, not sure exactly what. And chocolate + peas?? Totally worked like magic.



- an expression of 'ORION' FENNEL: roast, falafel, "mayo", etc. scented with house blend ras el hanout, local citrus ($12.5)
An "expression" sounds like some self-aggrandizing fancypants terminology, but it was no boast. Served on a gorgeous plate, this was fennel elevated to worshipful status. I don't normally care much for fennel, but found myself competing with Amnie for equal shares. Unctuous roasted fennel set again fresh and fronds; little balls of fennel falafel exploding with umami; light-as-air fennel foam; mayo with i-dont-know-what kinds of subtle flavorings; and then the counterpoint of jewels of roasted citrus. I never knew fennel can BE so much, and we were both left longing for more.



- cauliflower in a cast iron pot, roast-puree-raw, "our vadouvan", 'DELFINO' CILANTRO, brown butter toast ($14)
Again like the previous two creations, Ubuntu took one star (or in this case rather pedestrian) ingredient and managed to stretch its potentials to hereunto unimaginable levels. I remember the first time at French Laundry, there was a cauliflower dish that everyone coo'ed over, thinking how can one do that with *cauliflower*. Well this dish blows that one out of the water. Lip-smacking roasted cauliflower (I was repeating over and over "how did they do that!") layered over with the most sinful creamy puree, contrasted with paper thin slices of fresh cauliflower that grew like a garden out of the pot. Every brown bit of roasted cauliflower was like a hit of ecstasy to me.



- mushroom pizza bianco with homemade goat's milk ricotta, royal trumpet confit with puree of trimmings, three THYMES, egg
This dish was ordered to make sure we had enough to eat, starving as we were. But actually we didn't need it at this point. Weakest dish of the meal, the egg (our request) made the center soggy, and while the trumpet slices had bite, the trimming puree needed another kick. Didn't finish.

- vanilla bean "cheesecake" in a jar, napa strawberries roasted with VERBENA, teeccino-nut crumble
Of course, desserts goes into another compartment. This whimsical pot was more cream than "cake"; in fact there were no cake. But the crumble played beautifully crunchy against the rich velveteen of the "cheese". Ok strawberries. (I'm pretty much never going to be wow'ed by strawberries unless it's the "frais des bois" variety.)



- mini vegan carrot cupcakes, "cream cheese" frosting, tiny candied CARROTS
I don't know where they found carrots that small! The frosting, weirdly, was quite salty.

It's always a good sign when I am plotting the return to a place before even writing the check. I was thinking mid august or early sept would be perfect - if spring was this good, can't wait to see what Ubuntu can do with a late summer harvest!

Yes, this was 6 stars!

$92 for two, all incl.


Cyrus [Healdsburg] #3
*****

JT & W just came back from Cyrus not two weeks ago, with fairly disappointing reviews. Judging honestly, I think we had a rather good experience - solid food with definite highlights, even if without the special magic of last year's "Super" weekend visit.

Started with the usual canape of 5 flavors, fried sushi rice ball with soy and shittake (umami), seared grapefruit (bitter), japanese sour citrus meringue (sour), compressed cucumber with pink salt (savoury), guava gelee (sweet). Apparently "compressed" was the new "dust" or something, because it made more appearances later on. I frankly thought it yielded lackluster results.

- Plum Dandy: orange vodka, plum wine, lemon juice, five spice, mint and fresh cherries
Mixology is really an art, and this was a very fine example. Mysteriously delicious.

- Today's "choice" salts were a pink hawaiian and a white welsh.

- Amuse: Kanpachi sashimi with fried pink river shrimplets
Highlight #1. The shrimps reminded us of those served at Ron Blaauw, absolutely bursting with "tiny" flavors.



- Breads: Mini epi, seeded wheat, rosemary brioche, green olives
The unassuming seeded wheat was in fact so good that I had 2. Rosemary + brioche?? Who'd thunk it'd be so om nomm!

One thing about Cyrus, they aren't anal about us doing different menus. Such lack of arrogance is refreshing. So I opted into a 5 course tasting, and Amnie went, of course, for the 8; and both of us making substantial substitutions from the vegetarian menu.

- Thai marinaded lobster with Avocado, Mango and Hearts of Palm
As good as I remembered from last time, the time where I almost took the dish a second time for dessert. Highlight #2.

- Foie Gras Torchon, tamarind "smear", dates gelee



- Chilled sweet pea "consomme" with breakfast Radish kimchi
Coming right after Ubuntu's pea consomme, the comparison was not in Cyrus's favor! Soup was somewhat monotonously sweet, and kimchi radish, while refreshing, does not surprise my palate.
Strangely, I got an el Bulli tweezer (say 15 inches long) with this dish.



- Corn and black truffle risotto with Taleggio
Goooorgeous plate (CIM, spain). Anything with truffles for Amnie. More foam than risotto (not a bad thing in an 8 course tasting).



- Soft shell crab with sweet corn, sauce billi-bi
The side coated in rice flakes and pan-fried was delicious. The other side didn't hit the pan apparently, and a "soft" soft-shell crab does not make for good eating (what with the meat squishing out and the shell being chewy). I fondly thought back to those most exquisite of soft-shell crabs of Venice not so long ago.

- Slow poached egg with new potatoes and asparagus, vin santo mousseline
Very delicious; ingenious sauce made actually with vin santo!

- Wagyu beef with burdock and shiso, oxtail umeshu consomme
To me the star of the dish was not the authentic japanese Wagyu (frankly, we had better in Japan), but rather the consomme, its sweet sharp tanginess intertwines beautifully with the full-bodied richness that only oxtail can furnish.

- Porcini mushroom with spring onions, fava beans and smoked carrots
The same umeshu consomme adorns this bowl, except now it was paired with a mushroom stock. Equally thrilling. And of course, fresh porcini is always a pleasure. Highlight #3.



After Italy, Amnie thought to get a bit adventurous with cheeses. Out comes the artisanal and farmhouse cheese cart, with nary a hard cheese in sight. The three "light" cheeses we picked were all downright inedible, pungent reminders that I don't enjoy anything smelling like an outhouse compost pile, regardless of culture.
On the other hand, the dried fruits and nuts were delish.

- Verjus sorbet, blood orange riesling soup with crystallized picholine olives

- Chocolate cake and watermelon
Solid chocolates. Watermelon four ways: granita, compressed, mousse/sorbet, and pickled rind. An intriguing pairing.

- Strawberry rhubarb bread pudding
Still delicious but we were getting sooooo full.

- Mignardises: lychee gelee, chocolate truffles, cookies

As always, the service as Cyrus was the culmination of class, warmth, knowledge and subtlety. As a result, tip was more costly.

$308 for two


We spent the night being graciously hosted by Cristina, in Mill Valley. As the day broke, the house came alive, literally, with the sounds of the children. Tristan even "prepared" breakfast and apparently came to check up on us three times before us lazy-heads rolled out of bed. (We'll see who's sleeping in when he's a teenager.) Breakfast was such a spread that we ate more than we intended - strawberries and cherries, italian hazelnut jam and dutch hagelslag.

It being Sunday, of course we would be remiss not to visit the incomparable St. Rafael farmer's market, the north bay's largest (probably Bay Area's largest). Strawberries, cherries, and all manners of spring legumes were the big ticket stars. The lot of early peaches and apricots underwent extensive tasting, unfortunately coming short under the scrutiny. Their time will come soon. Purchased some lovely looking gai lan and sugar snaps, but couldn't dish out the $8 for a bag of succulent english peas. A new dimsum tent had a healthy queue all morning, but the "chicken man" was not in presence and perhaps consequently, the RoliRoti chicken was on the bland side. Can't trust these underlings!

After a social call to Amnie's coworker in Sausalito (old house, lots of outdoor living space, and view of Richardson Bay & Tiburon), we undertook a hike in Lucas Valley, which to our dismay consisted of an hour of non-stop steep uphill, ending with a breathless view of the whole valley abound with fancy mansions. Somewhere in the distance was Skywalker Ranch...

With appetite thoroughly worked up, we went on to the final event, the raison d'etre of the whole weekend outing - Outstanding in the Field's farm dinner event. Nicasio, a pea shoot of a town, unfortunately sat enveloped in fog when we arrived, though Katy's sunny reception lifted the chill for a bit.

Most of the 140 guests were already gathered atop the hills of Devil's Gulch Ranch when we pulled up in the last shuttle, munching on plates of very fine crostini with peppered bellwether farm sheep's milk ricotta, mariquita farm fava beans, and mint. The 2006 Stubbs Estate Chardonnay being served made excellent pairing. We roamed amongst the vineyard's vine lines, spied on the "kitchen" operations, and chatted up the swedish chef (hehe) Staffan Terje of Perbacco. Logs of pork were being loaded up on the charcoal grill while Mr. Terje explained how he intended to make a Cherry panzanella with the enormous slabs of bread he's tearing up by hand. He also clued us into some other fancy foodie event called Cochon 555 (5 pigs, 5 chefs, 5 wine makers), which unfortunately is going to be one we can ill afford.

The tables were already set amidst the pinot noir's, a lovely line of starched white, blond woods and twinkling glasses, flowing along the graceful curves of the hill. It looked every bit as striking as the pictures on the website, regardless of the grays of the sky.



Back to the congregation. A welcome speech saw everyone gathered in a huddle both for better hearing (bullhorns would've crimped the style) and some welcomed body heat. The group descended to a nook in the knolls to pay a visit to farmer Mark Pasternak's ranch animals. Chickens roamed the perimeters of the stand of three pens, hens with their chicklets in tow. In the middle yard, the belly of a big sow was so large even us laymen were able to tell she's about to pop any day now. Beyond the next fence squeaky pink piglets ran around on their tiny little legs. Mark stood on a tractor to tell us about the pigs, how important the feed is to the taste of the meat (he once, in earlier years, came by some fish meal by the cheap, and fed a few pigs before slaughter. Turned out the meat was literally inedible). But when his wife went in to the pens and brought out 2 little black and pink piglets barely 2 weeks old, everyone horded over to the fence like paparazzi's and completely ignored Mark. I gots to get me a pair of those!!!



Seating was a tricky business on a 140-person table. Who you sit next to matters much to the enjoyment of this (social) dinner. Perhaps across from the cute lesbian couple? No they sat too far up hill. A group of mid-age asians? Move along! Finally I settled on a flat section with empty seats around, leave it to chance to pick our dinner mates.

It is important to emphasis here how FREEZING cold it was at this point. I had a sweater and jacket on, fully zipped, and yet could hardly stop my teeth from chattering literally. How could it be so damn cold HERE, in MAY! Some people apparently had experience. They brought wool blankets and mittens, I even spied a pair of ear muffs!

First came more wine, a 2008 Pey-Marin Vineyard Riesling that I thought was a bit too young to drink. But the course it accompanied was amazing! Grilled asparagus from Zuckerman farm and from beneath the very vines we were seated next to came in heaping platters (all food were served family style), topped with luscious mounds of burrata, roasted spring shallots, and mint vinaigrette. The asparagus were so packed with flavor I hesitate to think I've ever dined on this vegetable before. And everyone just devoured the cheese with the bare minimum of the civilities usually associated with a dinner between strangers. That's when you know you're amongst foodies.



And what foodies there were! Apparently we picked the most prime seat. Across from us sat Umberto, the owner of Perbacco and the boss of our star chef of the night. His whole family was in presence. Next to us was "farmer Ken", owner of a renovated historical farm in Napa, and who is, by his own admission, the first one around to experiment with farming truffles! Apparently Ken made a 6 months study in Italy and France and then managed to import 650 french hazelnut trees inoculated with the fungus. If he is successful, a certain "Mr. Keller" and "Mr. Danko" already signed up for some supplies. Boast or truth, we have been invited to come see ourselves, an invitation we certainly intend to follow up on (perhaps next time we go to Ubuntu). Along with a Ms Myako and her friends Lara and Scott, we engaged in boisterous discussions of the dishes, the season's ingredients, restaurants of the bay area far and wide, and anything about food. Not surprisingly, Umberto knows more about restaurants than even us, and every chef and all the saucy details of who's related to who and who's funded by whom. I took notes.

The next course featured a fine Pinot Noir, again from Stubbs, paired with agnolotti quadrati stuffed with our host farm's rabbits, in roasted jus and bellwether farm pepato. The chill lessened the impact of this dish most notably - the sauce, enriched with liver, soon dipped beyond optimal temperature.

The farmers and cheesemakers and other producers of our dinner ingredients made rounds along the tables to chat with folks. Though we already had busy conversations amoungst ourselves. Looking up or down the long table I could see everyone enjoying their food and wines, glasses chinking, chatting, laughing, generally having a grand ol' time.

Next up, the logs of pork we saw earlier, held up better against the cold: a slow roasted devil's gulch porchetta (Mark had many, many more pigs than he showed us, of course; 2 pigs a week for Perbacco alone) with grilled spring onions and cherry panzanella. Juicy loins wrapped in pork belly were themselves wrapped around an incredible blood sausage, served with sweet sweet roasted grapes. The panzanella I couldn't get enough of, especially since it starred my favorite fruit. Another Pinot (made using grapes grown around us) was poured.

Dessert incorporated another prime-of-the-season fruit, yerena farm strawberry crostata with vanilla bellwether farm creme fraiche and marinated strawberries. Simple, fresh, and bowl-lickingly yummy.




When the chef's team came by they got a huge round of applause, which must've beat working heads down in a kitchen!

If it wasn't so damn freezing, I'd think people would've stayed around to do more drinking and chatting. People on wine get so much happier. But as it was, most started to leave when the desserts were cleared out. Down below, a "bus line" formed. When we got up into the shuttle and the heated air smacked our red noses, a collective cheer went up. In the end I have to say the dinner lived up to my expectations: good food in an extraordinary setting making for a unique experience.

(The dinner already paid off dividends. Last thursday when we visited Perbacco, Signore Umberto brought out their house-made Culatello, and comped us two dishes on the house!)

$400 +tx, for two