Nom Nomming in Napa

Napa -- Day 1

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Warning: This post is full of food porn, so don't read if you're on a diet or if you're hungry.

I woke up and went downstairs to walk on the treadmill for awhile.  A guy was on the other treadmill and told me that there were no towels.  I joked that he would need to use his shirt.  After he left, another guy came in and was doing different stuff, and kept walking in back of me (the room was kind of small).  It didn't bother me.  I guess I’m just not used to that behavior while I walk outside, which is my usual routine when I’m not at Zumba.  Bro and I had breakfast downstairs and the guy that had been walking back & forth behind me was there.  We did not make eye contact.  We hadn't made eye contact in the fitness room, either.  I could be a spy.

Our Vantage Point at Greystone

We made our way to Napa, and I waved at the Peju winery as we headed straight to the Culinary Institute of America, where we had lunch reservations at Wine Spectator Restaurant at Greystone.  We were seated near one of the cooking stations, but we couldn't see much.  Bro ordered a Moylan's Kiltlifter Scotch Ale, and I ordered a 2012 Charles Krug Sauvignon Blanc once I figured out what I’d be eating for lunch. Bro found a Goonies skull formation of holes in his bread, but the picture I took does not do it justice.  I ordered a roasted farm chicken  (sous vide) with crispy potatoes and English peas with Morel mushrooms, and Bro ordered the blue cheese cured strip loin of beef -- medium -- with watercress.  Bro’s meat was 2 pieces, stacked, and one was medium rare and the other medium well, which, he guessed, just evened out to “medium”.  

Bro's Steak

My Chicken

We both enjoyed our meals, and then we ordered dessert.  I would have ordered souffle because the other table’s souffle looked yummy, but then I found out that it was coconut, and we decided to order cheesecake instead.  The server advised that it would not be like a real “cake” cheesecake, and we were intrigued and ordered it anyway.  It turned out to be, like, from a tube, and it was delicious. It included fresh local strawberries and the "crust" was a brown butter graham cracker powder.

"Cheesecake"

We then walked around inside CIA for a bit so that I could visit my hippo corkscrews.  There weren't any bats visible outside, so I couldn't show them to Bro, but I still tried to look for them even though it was sprinkling.  

I didn't feel like walking around wineries in the rain, so we decided to go to the Napa Welcome Center and obtained some discount coupons for a few wineries.  I wanted to go to Morimoto’s to show the menu to Bro, and they had a dessert / pastry section, so I bought a cute little Yuzu Meringue tart.  I came very close to ordering the sugar cookie mustache, but I figured that I only wanted to take a picture with it, and preferred to buy something that I wanted to actually eat that was different than the usual pastry.  It came in a cute little box, too!

Yuzu Meringue Tart

We checked into the hotel and rested for a bit.  After 3 straight days of drum corps, it was strange to have an evening with no actual plans.  We were already going through some drum corps withdrawal, especially SCV withdrawal, because we won’t see their show in person again until August.  

I wanted to introduce Bro to Gott’s Roadside.  He was very pleased to meet this establishment.  He ordered a Western Bacon Blue Ring burger, and I ordered a Wisconsin Sourdough Burger and onion rings.  

My sourdough on left, Bro's Western on right

We walked around Oxbow Market for a while and discovered an organic ice cream place called Three Twins.  I had a “Teensy” scoop of the Chai Tea flavor, and Bro had the same size of  Rice Milk Horchata.  Both flavors were delicious!  Bro was even thinking of a way to bring some home, but changed his mind later.  We returned to the hotel and called it a day.

Enjoying organic ice cream