Ah, Paris

“Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.” -- Charles de Montesquieu



As a transit point, it's hard to beat Paris, especially when accommodations are gratis (thanks, Forest!) and we have a full culinary schedule. As a prelude to a week in Provence, we spent a packed two days in the City of Lights, and seemed to be eating most of the time! Arriving around noon on Thursday, we got to nap for a bit during the afternoon at our friend Forest's apartment while she was at work, in an attempt to offset our jet lag and be ready for a long evening.

By early evening, we were somewhat rested and headed out, dressed to the nines, with Forest, to our first stop:Bar Hemingway at the Paris Ritz. The space itself was fun, if tiny, and contained all the requisite Hemingway memorabilia. However, none of us were thrilled with our cocktails, and mine at least was made differently than I'd requested. Normally this sort of thing would not merit a mention, but at €28 each, there really was no excuse. My advice: skip it. We did have one minor celebrity sighting while at the bar; we saw Hildi Santo Tomas from Trading Spaces. Or her identical twin.

After Bar Hemingway, we headed off to the headline act of the evening, a meal at Le Meurice. Le Meurice was not our first 3-star Michelin restaurant, and it won't be our last. As could be reasonably expected from such a place, it was elegant without being ostentatious, the service was spot-on, the wine list was fantastic, and most of the food was excellent (and all of it was fantastically prepared and presented). There were a few things that were not especially exciting (nothing was bad, or even average, by any stretch of the imagination), but Le Meurice is not known for being on the cutting edge of gastronomy, so we hadn't been expecting anything along the lines of foie gras cotton candy or mother-of-pearl sorbet. I will say, though, that the blush is off the rose, at least a little, in terms of my personal take on the level of restaurant that Le Meurice represents. In other words, it was a great evening and I have nothing but positive things to say about Le Meurice, but at the same time it's hard to recapture the sheer novelty of our first time at places such as Taillevent, the French Laundry, or Arzak.

One thing to note for wine lovers: We ordered a bottle of 1998 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape in anticipation of the visit we had planned for the following week to that winery; if you get a chance, don't pass one of those up! Also, Forest and I both tried very old Bas Armagnacs; I had a 1942, she had a 1962. Surprisingly to me -- though I haven't researched to find out why this might be the case -- the 1962 was better.

As with similar experiences in the past, I was presented with a menu that included prices; the girls' menus just listed the food options. Very old-school. I wonder how the staff decides who gets the prices if the guest party is more ambiguous, such as two men, two women, adult children and parents, or some other combination where the "traditional" male host isn't clearly evident or is missing entirely.

The next day (Friday), Wendy and I had lunch reservations atL'Astrance. It was a beautiful day, and the two of us had never been to the Eiffel Tower together, so we took the opportunity to go there first. As a great option for skipping most of the lines, we elected to walk up to the second level rather than waiting for a lift. We were able to spend some time enjoying the view before heading acriss the Seine for lunch.

L'Astrance was a really fun space. The designers must have had an interesting time retrofitting an oddly-shapped room with a sleek, modern interior; one interesting decision was to shoehorn in a second floor, where our table was located (along with just a few others). The side effect of this was a very low ceiling. I think it was just over 6 feet (slightly under 2 meters) high, so I couldn't stand up straight! The food at L'Astrance is probably best described as whimsical. The lunch was fairly light (or at least it read that way on the menu), but somehow unlisted courses kept coming out! All of the dishes were inventive and beautiful; as a lunch option, the setting was less-obviously formal as well, so it was a great way to spend a few hours relaxing with each other in the middle of the day.

On Friday evening, we started the evening by meeting several friends of ours and of Forest at for drinks at the Experimental Cocktail Club. Great little bar; they have a good menu, fantastic spirits selection (especially for Europe) and really know what they're doing, plus they have extremely reasonable prices. Forget the €28 of Bar Hemingway; €8 was the norm, for far better cocktails.

A big group of us then proceeded to dinner at Spoon, an Alain Ducasse restaurant. The idea of the restaurant is novel: each diner is, in theory, able to freely combine any of a selection of sauces and condiments with their ordered items to give them various flavor profiles. In practice, the menu was disjointed and confusing, and the food not especially good or memeorable. On top of that, the service was lousy (and unapologetic). Definitely skip Spoon.

Here's my quick report card for culinary Paris this time around:
Bar Hemingway: C-
Le Meurice: A
L'Astrance: A-
Experimental Cocktail Club: A
Spoon: D-

On Saturday, we boarded a train (just barely!) bound for Avignon!

Our full set of Paris pictures can be found here.

Walla Walla Wrap!

While having nightcaps at 26 Brix we met a great guy named Frank who is a vineyard developer- nice job hu? Frank was telling us about this property he was working on in the Blue Mountain and offered to take us on a tour the next day. Poor Frank was also doing shots with a guy from Texas so the next morning he wasn't feeling all that great but still rang us up and told us to meet him.

The vineyard was gorgeous! Sitting on top of Blue Mountain with 360 degree views of the Walla Walla valley. Much of the grounds were new plantings with others still young.

We headed back into town for lunch and after finding everything we had marked down closed on Sunday we ended up at Luscious by Nature for the second day in a row, it was good though and they have different specials each day.

Two quick stops on the way out of town at Reininger and L'Ecole and then it was on the road home with our trunk full of wine!
All photos here!

Walla Walla Wine Trip, Day 2

On Saturday we had a leisurely breakfast at our B&B -- our hostess was sick, so a friend was substituting as cook -- and then went back to the beautiful Waters Winery, which shares space with Gramercy where we'd been the night before. They make some fantastic wines; we especially enjoyed their 2006 Syrah (we both have a weakness for syrahs anyway) and their 2007 rosé.

After Waters, we drove out towards the Walla Walla airport, where quite a few wineries have set themselves up on land that was previously a military base. Many of the smaller and newer wineries are just using the old barracks or other existing buildings; our first stop, Dunham Cellars, was fortunate to have the use of a remodeled airplane hanger, which is a fantastically roomy space. I'd seen Dunham's 'Three-Legged Red' in several stores, mostly because I'm a sucker for a cute dog on a label. For some reason I hadn't really established in my mind the fact that the maker was in Walla Walla. When I discovered that Dunham was one of the wineries we were going to visit, I was looking forward to meeting Port, the famous 3-legged border collie.

We drove up to Dunham and were promptly greeted by a border collie named Maysy (with four legs) who made it very clear that I was expected to throw a tennis ball for her, but Port was nowhere to be seen.


After a couple of tosses of the ball, we went in to taste. I saw a table set off to the side with several bundles of flowers on it, along with pictures of Port. When I went over to get a closer look, I saw the note: Port had passed away the week before, at the age of 13; the flowers and pictures were a memorial. I know I never knew Port, but that news was devastating to me for some reason. He was obviously well loved and had a good life at and around the winery, but it's still terrible for anyone to lose a friend.

Dunham's wines were great, but we can get several of them locally already, so we settled on just one bottle of the '04 Cab-Sauv 'X', and two of their '04 Syrah.

Eventually we moved on to Buty. We'd heard good things, but didn't actually find their wines particularly to our liking. It didn't help that they were in one of the smallest of the older military buildings, and it was warm and muggy.

After a brief stop at the ultra-small 428, we left the airport area and went to one of the highlights of the day, K Vintners. It's hard not to like K; they have a beautiful winery, a fun attitude (the White Stripes were blasting out of the back when we were there), and best of all, fantastic wines.

Before heading back into town, we stopped in for a pre-arranged appointment at Abeja. Built on the grounds of an old, restored and modernized farm, Abeja is both a B&B and a working winery. Somewhat predictably, their wines tend to be a little on the high-priced side of things, but we still managed to leave with a few!

We stopped in Walla Walla at the magic-themed Sleight of Hand Cellars, and then were back out in the direction of Waters again, but this time to visit Va Piano. Our hostess was obviously tired after a long day of dealing with wine limos; we felt bad for her!

After that it was a change for dinner at Saffron, an after-dinner drink at 26 Brix again, then bed for a well-deserved slumber.

Wine Weekend in Walla Walla

We took our first road trip to Walla Walla this weekend to do a bit of tasting and some shopping. Have never been this far east in the wine country I was really looking forward to the trip. The weekend was also their annual Balloon Stampede but we only saw a few the first night driving into town. I guess the balloons go up real early in the morning, we aren't really the morning types so...

Our friend Abra has mentioned many times Glondo's in Cle Elum as the place to stop for beef jerky for the drive to Walla Walla so that is exactly what we did. We actually got their beef jerky and some pepperoni sticks. The beef jerky is so thick and meaty, you can see the smoke ring around the meat. My car's jockey box has a small cooler built into the back of it and this became the meat box for the weekend!

Although it is not in Walla Walla I wanted to stop at Kiona on the way as I hadn't been there for about 12 years and the last time I tasted it was in the finished basement of their house! They have come a long way! They have a brand new HUGE tasting facility with amazing views of the surrounding area and Red Mountain AVA which is becoming known around the world for it's fantastic grapes. We also stopped at Goose Ridge cellars which I had read a little about as they are all estate fruit and make some very nice and affordable wines.

Back on the road we checked in to our B&B quickly changed and were out the door to a private meeting with Greg Harrington at Gramercy Cellars. I have wanted to meet Greg for some time so was super excited! Greg is the youngest person in the states to pass his Master Sommelier Exam at the age of 26 and has directed the wine programs for Emeril's and Wolfgang Puck's restaurants. He and his wife moved from New York and started Gramercy in 2004. We met him and a friend of his who was visiting from Finland where he writes and teaches about wine. These two were so interesting to taste with, so much knowledge and passion for the wine! Greg had us taste from barrels and then we created a few blends which was really fun. After we stepped outside and tasted a few of his bottled wine. This is good stuff, get it if you can! The 05 Lagniappe Syrah was especially delicious as was the amazing 21 Grams Cab- a collaboration of Greg and Jamie's (winemaker for Waters) cabs bottled together. They only make 75 cases of this and Greg was so nice to send us on our way to dinner at 26Brix with the barely opened bottle!

Wonderful dinner at 26Brix and great cocktails after in their bar. A good start to the weekend!

San Francisco through the iPhone

Dayne and I had a great time this past weekend in San Francisco! The weather was amazing and we got to see our friends and help them celebrate their birthdays. We did however forget our camera so all photos were taken using our iPhones. Not the best but surprisingly ok quality.

We flew down on Thursday night a

nd miracles of miracles our flight arrived o

n time at 8:30pm- this is the first time in the last 3 trips that we haven't been really late. We like to stay in the Union Square area and like the Kimpton chain so we picked one of their hotels that we hadn't stayed at in the past. After checking into the Serrano Hotel we headed out for a snack and a few cocktails at Absinthe. We've been before but it was a weekend night and quite packed. This was nicer- quieter and we could chat with the bartenders a bit.

Besides a few cocktails we tried the St George absinthe. It is really anise scented and has a strange aftertaste to it. It also had a bit of a nasty smell after it sat in the glass. We just shared one but didn't finish it. We'll stick to Lucid for now!

The next morning we grabbed a cab and headed to Tartine Bakery. Since we are normally in the city on the weekend only we've never come here as they say the line can be an hour long on Sat and Sun mornings! But it was Friday morning so we only waited about 10 mins. It is very cute and the pastries all looked beautiful!

After speaking to a local in line we decided on the bread pudding, pan au chocolate and the ham and cheese quiche. The bread pudding was a bit too creamy for us, good but we like a texture that has some crispy bits! The pan au chocolate was great but didn't match the one's we get at home at Cafe Besalu. The quiche was also quite tasty but again didn't have that same ethereal quality of the ones at our favorite cafe. But it is well worth the stop especially if you aren't as lucky to live in Ballard or close to it! :)

As usual we had a fantastic time shopping in Union Square. Did I mention the weather?? It was about 77F on Friday and just gorgeous!! We took a break for lunch at Cafe Claude which was suggested to me and it was perfect! We had a table outside and the food was exactly what we were wanting for lunch. Look at this gorgeous steak tartare!

As I mentioned we were also visiting some friends who's birthdays were Friday and Saturday. Friday we met one of the birthday boys and his gorgeous wife for dinner at Quince. None of us had been there but we all loved it. Good places stand out by paying attention to little details such as personalizing the menu for our friend. All of our food was excellent! I am especially in love with the ravioli stuffed with ricotta and served with a raw egg yolk on top and a brown butter sauce. mmmmm......will be copying this at home! Also my squab was served claws on the legs and tiny head roasted and perched on the plate staring at me. Love it!

After dinner we had reservations for a few cocktails at Bourbon & Branch which was a nice way to end the evening.

As we like to do in places that we repeatedly visit we picked something new to explore- this time it was taking the ferry to Sausalito. Saturday's weather at around 80F was perfect for the trip! We didn't even need a windbreaker on the ferry and there were lots of boats in the bay. It was also the first time since a trip about 5 years ago that we could see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sausalito was very cute and a nice way to spend an afternoon. We just walked around and checked out some galleries and shops- enjoying the views and the sun. We even got a bit sunburned and we were only out and about for a few hours! Sad!

The rest of our weekend was spent at our friend's house in Redwood City where the birthday party for two involved sipping a lovely glass of Grand Dame, blind tasting 6 Pinot Noirs and 6 Cab's, snacking on wonderful food and catching up. Thanks guys for hosting and putting us up!

Click here for the rest of iPhone San Francisco

South Africa wrap up

We really enjoyed our time in Cape Town and felt that we got to see most everything in the 5 days we were there. The full batch of photos from the city is here. We weren't sure if we were going to get to see the top of Table Mountain as it had been covered in clouds since our first day in town. The winds at the top were so strong that the cable car had been closed for 3 days. But finally on our last day the clouds cleared, the wind died down and a 2 hour queue formed! With the help of our favorite cab company we were whisked to the front of the line and had our tickets within minutes.

It's quite stunning, the views from the top. There were people repelling one of the sides and others hiking up from the bottom. You could really get a sense for how widespread the city is and even see the areas of the townships. We spent a while wondering around taking lots of pictures of the views before heading back to the cable car. They have signs posted that say if you hear the hoot get back to the cable cars right away! I wonder if they have had to leave people up there?

Before we left Cape Town Forest treated us to a sail! We had a couple of bottles of nice bubbly and enjoyed the views from a different perspective this time. So fun!

Our last night in town we had a fabulous dinner at Savoy Cabbage to celebrate Forest's bday which was coming up. Nightcaps after at Planet Bar at the Mount Nelson Hotel just about put us over the edge but we rallied!

The way home for Dayne and I had quite a few hiccups- the first being our connection from Cape Town in Jo'Burg was missed and we had to stay at a business hotel without luggage for the night. ugh. The next day we were at the airport for about 6 hours and finally got on a flight headed for home via Senegal. While refueling in Dakar we were told that due to a mechanical malfunction our plane needed to stay within 2.5 hours of land so what was going to be an 8.5 hour flight turned into an 11.5 hour flight after sitting on the tarmac for almost 4 hours so they could re do the flight plan et al. When we finally arrived in Atlanta our connection was long gone so they put us on a flight to Salt Lake. It was snowing and freezing and we were in short sleeves and Dayne in flip flops! Of course we had to walk outside to the tiny plane that then got us to Seattle. The luggage however was a different story! :)

Cape Town and Langa

After our longer-than-expected day on the beach, the next couple of days were dedicated to spending some time in Cape Town proper. We started out by wandering through a local market; Forest felt a hand tugging on her bag at one point, but we didn't actually lose anything, and that was the closest we came to any theft in our entire stay.


Our first goal was to see the Castle of Good Hope, a former British military fortification turned military history museum. During the Changing of the Guard, we witnessed what turned out to be the smallest cannon we've ever seen being fired. It might defend agains pigeons, but not much else. It was odd to be in a very European castle in Africa; I'm not sure anything similar exists on the continent.

Next, we walked over to the District Six Museum , which was first class. It put me much in mind of the National Civil Rights musem in Memphis, Tennessee, in style and content (if not size -- it's actually quite small). The original District Six residents, roughly 60,000 of them, had been forcibly evicted in the 1970s by the national and city governments in a blatantly and unapologetically racist move. The museum chronicles the lifestyle and culture of the former District Six, and presents a history of the removal and just-beginning re-population aof the area by some of the original residents. I believe all the volunteers and emplyees at the musem are former residents.


I have to say that the U.S. isn't always dramatically better. Though not as broad in scope or overtly racist in nature, California's Ellis Act evictions are not entirely dissimilar. Glass houses, stones, you know the saying. [Side note: I heard something about some other U.S city's historic forced evictions on NPR the other day, but can't remember the city and can't find the reference now -- anyone else know hear the article?]

We'd been previously introduced via email to some friends-of-friends that lived in Cape Town, Brett and Johann. We'd coordinated by phone once we arrived, and arranged to go out to dinner with them. They picked us up and we drove north of the city to the suburb of Blouberg, which to my mind looked like any modern suburb anywhere and was not particularly interesting in and of itself. The saving grace for Blouberg was the view; located at the closest land point to Robben Island, Mandela's home for much of his imprisonment, Blouberg has the postcard-standard view of Cape Town across the bay, with Table Mountain framing the city.



Johann took the next morning off from work to drive us around a bit, which was both unexpected and great for us. To top it off, he brought along a bottle of 20-year South African brandy for me to try, nicely chilled in a small cooler. Now that's a way to start the day!

Johann drove us up the flanks of Cape Town's Signal Hill to see the Noon Gun. Now *that* was a real cannon! The wind was blowing incredibly hard; in fact, Table Mountain was closed (again) because of it. We didn't at first think the gun would be all that interesting, but in fact all of us are glad we went, especially since it was something we'd probably have skipped if Johann hadn't wanted to take us. I couldn't believe how loud the thing was!


We spent some time wandering through the BoKapp Muslim neighborhood, which was quiet as many stores and restaurants were still cosed for the holiday week.

We also shopped and ate on Long Street, which surprisingly was reminiscent of portions of New Orleans.

We had to stop in to a Cuban Bar! Yes, it was kind of a Disney-fied Cuba, but still.



The following day we went on a tour of Langa, which depending on your standpoint and definitions is a township, community, neighborhood, or suburb. Regardless of terminology, the place was completely different than anywhere else we'd been, and probably more indicative of how far too many people live that anything else we'd seen on the trip.

To start the Langa tour we stopped in the Guga S'Thebe cultural center , which is kind of a artisan showcase, historical resource, and a community center for kids. We were fortunate to have several of the kids demonstrate a traditional gumboot dance . Yes, it's a show for tourists, but it had the advantage of being culturally relevant o the poerformers as well as being something they not only enjoyed doing, but were obviously taking pride in doing well.



As far as the actual Langa apartments, shacks, houses and other living quarters -- all were small, but those that we saw were neatly-maintained by their occupants. I suppose there's no room for a slob when sharing a place that small. For all the pride that people took in their individual homes, no matter how small or fragile, and their own personal appearance, which was never less than immaculate, the streets and alleys were another matter. Kids walked around broken glass and other garbage on bare feet, and everyone seemed to ignore the garbage cans in favor of the open grounds between the houses.



The saddest thing, in my mind, is that even in post apartheid South Africa, people are still living in those conditions. In many cases it's not because they're incredibly poor (though that's also a huge problem), but that no one will sell to them in the more-desireable parts of town. Students, doctors, lawyers, teachers, all were forced to live in housing that rivals the worst slums I've seen anywhere, even though many were holding down decent jobs and some even owned cars.