Parrothead Pilgrimage

Went Margaritaville Cafe at Universal City Walk after a business conference.

La Serenissima Winery Tasting

We were invited to a private tasting event at a local San Diego County winery, La Serenissima.  La Serenissima is located in the far northern reaches of San Diego County near Warner Springs and Sunshine Summit at over 3200 ft elevation in shadows of Palomar Mountain.  The wines are a mix of Italian and Spanish varietals and the more commonly grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Merlot.  The grapes are estate grown and the wine is estate cellared.  It's a very beautiful setting for the winery and they make the most of the location and the terroir.

Omakase at Uchiko

The accompanying photo album is a record of the dining experience that Jennifer and I had in Austin, Texas.  Uchiko is the restaurant of Paul Qui, winner of Top Chef Texas in 2011.  We were in Austin for the inaugural Grand Prix of the United States held at the newly built Circuit of the Americas in Austin.  When we were presented with the menu by our server, Tim, we both saw the 10 dish tasting menu and simultaneously decided "Omakase" was it.

Joe Greensleeves, Redlands, CA

My wife and her mom go there often. I was able to join them for dinner last night (1.22.2011) and really enjoyed our meal. The service was attentive but friendly and never intrusive. The specials for the evening included a favorite of mine, whole petrale sole with sauce vert. My wife ordered the halibut and her mom order pasta with cracked black pepper and romano cheese.

The salads are ala carte but well worth the extra cost as they are made with the freshest ingredients of the day and the dressings are light, but flavorful. I had the Chef's Special Salad - Romaine lettuce, Boston lettuce, baby mix tossed with avocado, sweet fennel, cucumber, and onion with an extra virgin olive oil, vinaigrette dressing. The wife ordered the Orange salad - mixed green salad tossed with oranges and black olives, made with an orange dressing.

My fish was delectable and perfectly done. The waiter de-boned it perfectly tableside with no bones remaining on the serving.

Mother in law's pasta was excellent. Fresh pasta, the finest extra virgin olive oil and imported Romano cheese; when she ordered she didn't think the could eat a lot, but actually ate the entire order.

They offer a wide variety of food on the menu and has been consistent in their quality and service. I will definitely return when the opportunity is presented.

• Joe Greensleeves Restaurant
  220 Orange St, Redlands, CA 92374

Hello Again!

Well, it's been almost a year since posting. If anyone has been reading this, I'm so sorry for being negligent. I've been posting on Chowhound instead of here. I'm going to resolve that issue now.

What is the reason for this change? Over the weekend, Jennifer and I went to see the movie "Julie and Julia". It's a Nora Ephron movie treatment of a book by Julie Powell in which she wrote about her project of cooking all 534 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year and write a blog about it. Ms. Powell wrote the book in 2002 when she was at a very low point in her life and was searching for something to fill a seeming void in her life. There has been much discussion on many different websites both for and against Ms. Powell and her project and her writing. I have not read the book yet (it's on my Wishlist on Audible, so maybe soon). Let me just say that as usual the movie is very "Hollywood", and Meryl Streep as Julia Child is so amazing that you think that you are actually watching clips of Julia's old PBS show at times. Jennifer and I enjoyed the movie for what it was, pure entertainment; but it also motivated us to re-examine the classic French preparations so we made "Boeuf a la Bourgignone" from Julia's cookbook for dinner last night. It was delicious and not difficult, but not simple if one did not have some cooking experience.

Some who have criticized Julie Powell for her project might be a bit elitist in their perspective. I think that it was great that she was able to pick something that interested her, set a goal, and follow through despite the failures and the issues that she encountered in her personal life. Her mother seemingly was opposed to her even trying to do something like this, her college women friends all of whom were so self absorbed as to be the stereotype of yuppie New York women that we all love to hate. I say "Bravo" Julie! But let's see what else you can do now.

I am going to try to post more of my personal thoughts and experiences here as well as on the other discussion areas, which may be redundant, but oh well!

Bon Apetit!

Hart Family Winery

Over the weekend my car club had a planned tour through Temecula and southern Riverside county to the mountain community of Idyllwild.

The first stop on the tour was Hart Family Winery; Joe Hart is a long time Alfisti. Joe is a pioneer winemaker in the Temecula, planting his first vines in the early 1970's. The winery is the first winery that you encounter when entering the Temecula Wine Country. We have stopped at Hart many times in the past and always enjoyed the intimate atmosphere of the winery and tasting room.

This year Joe was kind enough to give the club a private tour and tasting of his latest and greatest bottlings. Most impressive was his Grenache Rose. I have not been a fan of Grenache in the past as it was a bit too floral for my nose, but the Rose was just delightful. Served slightly chilled, it did have some floral notes, but not over powering and the hint of acidity kept the palate clean. Nice fruit but not sweet tasting at all.

The Sauvignon Blanc was also a great warm weather wine with crisp clean characteristics, but the bouquet retained the tropical fruit notes of Sauvignon Blanc.

The last stand out was called Three and is an homage to the Rhone blends of Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah. Blended nicely with no one grape overpowering the others.

Bottle Shock

The second event of our date was seeing the movie, Bottle Shock. The movie is about the fabled Judgment in Paris of 1977 when British wine merchant Steven Spurrier arranged a blind tasting of California wines and French wines. Based on the book by George Tabor, who was the only journalist in attendance at this historical event. Because I'm such a wine geek, I wanted to see this Hollywood treatment. I very much enjoyed the scenes filmed in Napa and seeing the places that we have been to. Still, it was a "hollywood" movie and focused on the familial relationships of the Barrett's who owned the Chateau Montelena winery and Steven Spurrier's efforts to discover new ways to promote his wine shop in Paris.

I think that more could have been made of the character of Gustavo Brambila, the winemaker at Chateau Montelena at the time, but that was only a back story.