The Chilaquiles @ Miguel's Restaurant, Calistoga (minus the sour cream)
I was first introduced to chilaquiles while I was living in Los Angeles. Back then, I was working a prep cook at Houston’s Santa Monica, trying to get some real-world kitchen experience before heading off to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Since I was working mostly mornings at that time, the “family meal” at Houston’s was often chilaquiles, which I would best describe as breakfast nachos, for lack of better terminology. These meals would assume varying forms from day to day, based upon whatever [... read more ...]
A picnic table at Pride Mountain: Perhaps the best argument for bringing along a lunch.
I’m back in the Napa Valley after an extended trip down to the Santa Ynez Valley for some wine tasting. It was a successful journey, and one that I plan to embark upon annually. But before I rehash the details of my venture down to Santa Barbara County, I still need to acknowledge my trip to Spring Mountain last week, where I tasted the wines of Behrens Family, Pride Mountain and Paloma. Each of these three wineries is most certainly worth a [... read more ...]
As I spent 2009 combing the Napa Valley for great wines (the one definite perk of living here and being in the wine business), I decided to pay special attention to the Cabernets that were priced at $50 or less, hoping to one day compile a list of favorites. In order to confirm their merit, I plan to eventually put all of these wines into blind tastings alongside a few of their $100 counterparts, just to see how they fare against the big boys (I suspect that many of these lesser-priced wines will easily rise to the top). But [... read more ...]
Close-up: One of the stained-glass windows at Terra Valentine.
I was at Terra Valentine the other night for an open-house event, drinking through the winery’s three delicious estate Cabernets. I had tasted these same wines several months ago, having also visited the winery during the summertime. Originally, it was the 2005 Yverdon Vineyard Cabernet that had lured me up Spring Mountain Road, although I think that their 2005 Wurtele Vineyard Cabernet ended up being my favorite of that day. For me, the key difference was that the Wurtele Cab exhibited a more subtle use of oak than [... read more ...]
For as many California wineries that claim to model their Chardonnays after “the classic Burgundian style,” very few actually produce wines with any sort of true “old world” character. While I’m not trying to criticize California’s efforts, I’m simply pointing out that most California Chardonnays skew towards the opulent “apple-pear” side of the spectrum, as opposed to the austere “flinty minerality” of something like a top-level Chablis. But while I admittedly enjoy many of California’s fruit-forward Chardonnays, the local product can sometimes taste homogenized. Fortunately, for those of us who enjoy variety, there are always exceptions to [... read more ...]
