Cabs and Pinots: An Overview of Wine Country

One of the many benefits of living in the Bay Area is being close to Wine Country. An hour or two North of San Francisco, I frequent the area often, exploring the fantastic wineries and indulging in the wonderful restaurants.

Breakfast

No one should be wine tasting on an empty stomach! Boon Fly Cafe located at the Carneros Inn draws long wait times for a table in the morning for good reason. Nothing can compare to the "Four Boon Fly Donuts and a Cuppa Joe" and the "Green Eggs and Ham" to start your morning out right. They also have a nice porch swing outside to relax on while you wait for a table =).

Wineries

After indulging in some breakfast food, it is time to start exploring some of the many wineries! There are hundreds of wineries, each employing unique philosophies and practices to produce the finest end product. A particularly fun winery to start off at is Domaine Carneros. Located 5 minutes away from Boon Fly Cafe, this winery's main building is designed to look like french château with a sweeping terrace, large winding stairs, and fountains. The winery is famous for their sparkling wines, for which they offer a small flight for sampling along with cheeses and charcuterie. The terrace provides scenic views of the surrounding vineyard and is a great place for photos and getting a little tipsy.

Another winery worth exploring is the Kenzo Estate. A relatively new winery, the property is a sight to behold with state-of-the-art equipment and incredible attention to detail. The reservation-only private tours offer a glimpse into the thought and detail that went into making their wine from the crushing, storing, and blending of their grapes. It is interesting to learn some of the initial struggles and difficulty that new wineries have with developing great wines. The tour begins with a sampling of their chardonnay and ends with a sampling of their three red wines blends. Although the wines are relatively young and require some more refinement as many vines require 10+ years before they are truly providing the best flavor, the tour and tasting experience is definitely worth the price of admission.

More recently, I was able to tour Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma. Hanzell Vineyard's winery tour and tasting is also spectacular, providing insight on how a renown winery maintains its quality and edge throughout the many years it is in operation. The property is beautiful with scenic views of the valley atop a small hill. As one of the oldest and well established wineries in the Sonoma Country area, the winery has spent years perfecting their yield and cultivating tactics to ensure the best tasting wines. The property's wine cave, library, and tasting room has beautiful antiquated charm blending old and new. The library is particularly special as the interior was made entirely from redwood and had bookshelves full of Hanzell Pinot Noir bottles listed from the 1960's to present day. Reservations are hard to get so plan ahead!

Food

Food and wine go hand-in-hand. Fortunately, many of top restaurants in the Bay Area reside in Wine Country. The restaurants in the area offer an amazing wine selection delivered directly from the vineyards. My recommendation is to buy a bottle or two as you are tasting and pay the corkage fee as restaurants tend to charge 3 to 4 times the retail price. Be sure to buy a few bottles to take home as well!

Morimoto in downtown Napa is worth visiting for one dish: the toro tartare. The appetizer is beautifully presented, containing two clear flat plates: one with chopped toro and the otherwith dried seaweed paste, wasabi, crème fraîche, chives, avocado, rice cracker crisps and soy sauce. Two tiny metal spatulas are provided to mix the toro with the variety of toppings. The restaurant serves a variety of Japanese fusion cuisine and has an outdoor seating area along the boardwalk.

For a more secluded dining experience, étoile is unique in that it is the only fine dining restaurant on an actual vineyard property. As a result, the venue and experience feels private with tall trees and fruit trees surrounding the restaurant. étoile offers a wide selection of French-inspired Californian cuisine and is a wonderful way to end a day of wine tasting.

Another fantastic dinner spot is Olive and Vine in Glen Ellen. The beautiful open kitchen and rustic Italian cuisine features seasonal fruits and vegetables from the area. Unpretentious and homey, this restaurant is worth visiting for a quiet dinner in the Sonoma area.

Not all of Napa is relegated to fine dining! One of the best casual lunch spots is Ad-Hoc Addendum. This takeout style restaurant features completely outdoor seating with plentiful picnic benches and tables. On the menu is Ad-Hoc's most popular item: Fried Chicken. As getting reservations for Ad-hoc is incredibly difficult, this option provides a fun inviting atmosphere to enjoy a nice picnic outside in their private garden.

The famous bakery Bouchon is also a great place to grab a quick bite and a few sweets. The line can appear to be daunting at first but moves remarkably quick. Besides the giant macarons, be sure to try the different tarts and breads they offer. Great gifts to bring back home.

R&R

Beyond food and wine, Wine Country is also great place to shop, hike, and relax. One of my favorite activities of late is getting massages to work out all the knots from sitting and working on a computer all day. The Spa at Auberge du Soleil is one of the best spas that I have ever been. Part of the luxurious Auberge Du Soleil hotel, The Spa is usually only available for hotel guests, but is also available for day use if they are not too busy. The outdoor areas contains cold, warm, and hot plunge pools as well as steam and sauna rooms. The spa is also co-ed in the pool area which is perfect for couples and sunbathing. I spent an entire day at this spa and am looking for another opportunity to go back as soon as possible.

I have only just scratched the surface of what the Wine Country has to offer. Living in the San Francisco, there's no better escape from city life. Hoping to visit the sweeping vistas, wonderful restaurants, and warm weather soon!

Kyo Ya: A Small Sanctuary in the East Village

Going off the radar is a welcome breath of fresh air in the hustle and bustle of New York City. The restaurant Kyo Ya is the place to do just that.

Located on East 7th Street and 1st Avenue, Kyo Ya has no signage outside besides a carved wooden "Open" sign. The entrance is below street level, down a short staircase, and surrounded by an iron gate. Reservations are not available with OpenTable, only by phone. The restaurant has no website and its menu is seasonal and constantly changing.

Once seated in the elegantly appointed wood dining room, you are treated to a truly unique dining experience. I happen to be a fan of the simplicity of Japanese food. From fresh cuts of raw seafood to the savory dishes, the care and attention of the cuisine is in its preparation and simplicity. Kyo Ya definitely showcases this attention to detail in the careful selection of ingredients and the composition of each dish.

With assistance from our server, we ordered a wide selection of dishes and enjoyed them izakaya style.

One of the most memorable parts of Kyo Ya is its tea service. They do offer an extensive sake and beer selection, but I went with tea to accompany my meal. The waitress provides a selection of labeled teas to smell. Once you have chosen a tea, the waitress brews the tea in a separate pot at your table. Throughout the evening, the waitress continually pours and brews more tea throughout the meal.

The first cold appetizer was refreshing and unique. Their homemade tofu had an earthy quality with a fuller texture than the usually smooth texture of store-bought tofu. The tofu had a strong soybean flavor and was complemented with some chilled uni and tapioca starch to make a slightly sweet broth.

Our second appetizer was gorgeous. All of the ingredients, from the sweet shrimp to the different mushrooms, were incredibly fresh. Similar to how Amaebi sushi (sweet shrimp) is served in traditional sushi restaurants, the head is deep-fried and served on the side.

Our first entree was a buttery black cod presented on a stone plate with several different palette cleansers that went from salty, to sour, and then to sweet. As shown here, I was consistently impressed how each dish was carefully and beautifully presented in imported handmade Japanese pottery. The dishes and utensils were also replaced every course, with special utensils and share plates for each course. While I am usually upset that restaurants do this, the intention here is deliberate and important, as each dish is consumed in its intended form with no ingredients from other dishes contaminating the simple flavors.

The standout dish of the night was the "famous" sweet potato tempura. As the dish literally has "famous" in its name, I had high expectations. The sweet potato was boiled twice, fried with tempura batter, and served over a bed of fried greens. The potato was delicate, sweet, and flavorful, with a wonderful crunch from the tempura. It was served with a light soy sauce and Mongolian salt on the side.

Another speciality of Kyo Ya is its "pressed sushi". This preparation is different in several ways. First, most of the raw fish is marinated whereas most nigri and sushi is served plain. Second, the sushi rice is prepared by adding shiso, two kinds of ginger, scallion, fried kelp and sesame seeds, which is different from the traditional vinegar and sugar sushi rice is normally seasoned with. Lastly, the fish is placed on top of the sushi rice instead of being rolled with nori. The flavors were distinct and tasted quite different than any salmon roll I have ever had, especially the flavored sushi rice.

Probably one of my all-time favorite things to eat is pork belly. Slow-cooked at Kyo Ya, this was melt-in-your-mouth wonderful. It was served with snow pea, a light sweet glaze, and spicy mustard.

Our last course was uni and yam kamadaki rice dish served in a traditional clay pot. The uni was a special type of sea urchin that was more firm so it could stand the cooking process.

When you next find yourself in New York City, I would highly recommend getting away from it all at Kyo Ya.

breakfast

I thoroughly enjoy mornings spent at Tartine.

Mornings spent eating banana cream tarts, drinking four barrel coffee, and people watching. There is no better place in San Francisco for people watching then Tartine bakery. I see old friends gossiping over croissants, couples taking a pit stop on their morning run, and families contently eating without a word exchanged. The best way to start a day.