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Winding Roads, Open Skies, and No Cell Service!

November 11, 2009 in Travel, wine by traveleatlove | No comments

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning after another bad night of sleep. I think that is my only gripe about visiting California. I just can’t seem to get more than a couple of hours, and I never catch up with the time difference like I do easily in Europe. Looking at our trusty map, we realized that our next destination, Timber Cove Inn, was quite the drive. I decided to miss the closing brunch of the Foodbuzz Festival, and we hit the road. It turned out to be a good thing. We took Route 1 which is entirely along the coast, and it was narrow, winding, and pretty scary at times! The two and a half hour drive we planned for ending up taking closer to twice as long. It was 100% worth it! We left San Francisco and drove to Point Reyes Station about an hour north of the city. Point Reyes Station is a small Western town, complete with a Western saloon and a feed store that also houses a yoga studio, art gallery, and grocery store. Sue from Cowgirl Creamery talked about the town in her Foodbuzz session on Saturday as that is where the creamery and cows are, and I was excited to be able to see it for myself. Next time, I am planning an entire day for this drive. There were many cute villages along the way as well as fun activities like hiking and sprawling beaches for picnicking.

We decided to get a quick lunch in the local deli/Mexican joint/video store/wine shop. I opted for the bean tacos which came with tons of cilantro, onions, shredded cheese, and hot sauce. Note to Boston taco shops, cilantro is amazing. Pile it on!

Drizzled with a squeeze of fresh lime, this was spicy and tangy with a nice citrus kick. Tacos in California are so much better than tacos in Boston, I want them now! Once on the road again, we passed by miles and miles of gorgeous open countryside and rocky coasts. The fields were full of free range animals. We saw plenty of cows, horses, chickens, fields of wandering pigs, and even this guy.

We passed many oyster shacks along the road with picnic tables and oysters pulled fresh from the sea. Next time we will definitely be stopping. But we had a mission, and that mission was getting to Timber Cove for some much needed fresh air and relaxation. Timber Cove Inn is a rustic, beautiful lodge located about 14 miles North of the town of Jenner on the Sonoma Coast. It offers an otherworldly beauty in its surroundings, and a comfortable, well built place to rest for a couple of days. The architecture blends in well with its surroundings, an effort that I appreciate in places where the natural beauty speaks for itself. There were no McMansions here.
Alexander’s Restaurant The back of the inn
The view from our balcony Our cozy room complete with a fireplace

Enjoying a refreshing seltzer water

The inside of the inn from the balcony outside of our room
We watched the sun from the comfort of our balcony, and it seemed to just drop into the sea. Timber Cove Inn is essentially in the middle of nowhere, in a good way, without city light pollution to distract from beautiful sunsets and starlit nights. It was so incredibly quiet and was enveloped in a gentle shroud of misty, salty air throughout our stay. We slept with the sliding door open and listened to the gentle crash of the waves on the rocky coast. They offer free wi fi internet, but my cell phone did not get service within about 2 hours of the inn which caused me a little bit of panic. . . however for most people on vacation this is a good thing. There is so much more to say about Timber Cove Inn, so I will leave off here but will be back with dinner and breakfast tomorrow!

Tags: California, Northern Sonoma Coast. wine country, Sonoma, Sonoma Coast, Timber Cove Inn, Travel, wine tasting

Outstanding in the Field. . . or Warehouse

November 11, 2009 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | No comments

After a long and filling day meeting bloggers and eating lots of yummy food, the Foodbuzz festival attendees were treated to yet another culinary delight, an Outstanding in the Field dinner in the Greenleaf Produce Warehouse.

We all met up at the Hotel Vitale and were bussed to a warehouse district of San Francisco. It was a little bit shady. . . Once inside, however, it was absolutely enchanting. A long, winding series of tables dressed in white tablecloths and set with mismatched plates and chopsticks awaited us. Randall Grahm from Bonny Doon Vineyard was pouring wines all night, and started us off with a crisp albariño. Baskets of spicy shrimp crisps arrived on each table, and servers passed tonnato on crostini. Somehow I still had an appetite from the tasting pavilion. That’s what happens when I run in the morning!
With Andrea and Mardi
I spent a lot of time talking with so many bloggers whose blogs I had never read, and I am quite excited to start reading them. I have a stack of blogger business cards as well as a ton of recipe cards to start in on as soon as I have time. Once we sat down, we were treated to quite a feast, starting with plates of pickled vegetables. Kimchi deliciousness, I could eat it all day long. The first course was a mushroom dashi with maitake, shimeji,and enoki mushrooms.

It was followed by grilled calamari with a brown butter ponzu reduction with cucumber, kaiware, frisee, and yellow pear tomato with chojang and sesame vinaigrette served over udon noodles. The thick noodles paired well with crunchy cucumber, sweet tomatoes, and ocean-y calamari.
Seltzer water from The Seltzer Sisters was flowing throughout the meal in old fashioned seltzer containers. Anyone who knows me knows my love of fizzy water, and the containers, which were fun to use and cute to look at, kept it fresh extremely bubbly, just the way I like it. There was also mushroom risotto with koshikari rice and crispy maitake mushrooms and sea trout baked with dashikombu, fried garlic, and Japanese curry powder.

It was served with the most amazing Brussels sprouts I have ever had.
They were roasted with ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, and bonito flakes. Salty, caramelized, and to die for delicious, I could have eaten the entire serving bowl. Brussels sprouts have such a bad rap, but I would guarantee pretty much anyone would love this dish. Believe it or not, I also bravely consumed soy braised beef cheeks with baby carrots and fingerling potatoes, OB beer, and denjang demi. Foodbuzz is for adventurous eating, and this beef was melt in your mouth yumminess. The evening ended with koshikari rice pudding with cookie crumble and warren pear which was served with a 2008 Bonny Doon Vinferno, a sweet, almost syrupy dessert wine that paired well with the creamy rice.

We capped the night off with prosecco in the Hotel Vitale.
What an incredible evening! All of the food and wine was locally sourced and scrumptious, and sharing it with new friends made the night fly by. Thank you to everyone who contributed: GreenLeaf Produce ABS Seafood Bonny Doon Vineyard County Line Harvest EO/Small World Trading Company Frog Hollow Farm Far West Fungi Iacopi Farm Marin Roots Farm Marin Sun Farms The Seltzer Sisters Totally Bamboo And of course all of the amazing chefs from Namu, Hog Island, and Walzwerk, and Outstanding in the Field who are truly outstanding. I came away from this night with such an appreciation of farm to table cuisine and a desire to cook a lot more. I have to say that there were definitely things on the menu that I had never heard of before, and I can’t wait to learn more!

Tags: farm, Food, foodbuzz, wine

New Zealand, Part 2

November 10, 2009 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | No comments

Hi again, it’s Kelly here from She Wears a Red Sox Cap. If you haven’t had a chance, check out Saturday’s post about Dunedin. After my three days in Dunedin, I started to feel a lot better and was ready to start exploring with two of my college friends. We started by taking a 4-hour bus ride from Dunedin to Te Anau. We stayed at a nice hostel there over night and then began our trip to Doubtful Sound. Doubtful Sound was named because James Cook (same Englishman who claimed the eastern side of Australia for the English and named it New South Wales) found it on one of his explorations and “doubted” he would be able to fit his vessel through the narrow opening to the sound. A trip to Doubtful Sound begins with a boat across Lake Manipauri.

As I mentioned in my last post, it was “summer” in New Zealand when I was there but I was wearing a fleece the whole time, and obviously “summer” had not reached the mountain tops…

After two boat trips, you have to take a bus ride over a mountain pass. On the bus we stopped at the Manapouri Power Station.

Manapouri power station is VERY cool because it takes advantage of the difference in height of the mountains between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound, creating a dam. The water flows through penstocks into generators (shown in picture, I believe) which creates electricity for a LOT of New Zealand. Doutbful Sound itself is by far the most amazing thing I saw in New Zealand. It leads all the way out to the Tasman Sea. The water is a gorgeous shade of dark blue, the mountains glow with white snow…but it cannot be explained in words. See for yourself…

If you look closely, you can see the adorable fur seals that are fortunate enough to call this gorgeous place their home…

If those pictures do not convince you to sit on a plane for 15+ hours to get to New Zealand, I don’t know what will… I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about the South Island of New Zealand. This is only the very beginning of what beautiful sights can be seen in this country. I still have to go back for more… Thank you, Kelly, for sharing such amazing photos and writing about your time in New Zealand! You definitely have me convinced!