What I’ve Been Drinking of Late, Part 18

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A formidable wine to go with a formidable steak.
A formidable wine to go with a formidable steak.

2019 Shafer One Point Five

When it comes to wine, one of my most painful regrets happened decades ago at Napa’s Shafer Vineyards.

I was enrolled in a multi-day wine course at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone Campus in St. Helena. On the last day of class, we took a field trip to Shafer. Arranged in front of each of us was an array of nearly half a dozen glasses of some of the most impeccable Cabernet Sauvignons I’d ever had. I sipped, savored, enjoyed each mouthful blissfully, and then — I spit it all out.

Because right after class, I had to drive home in traffic, hours away. Ouch, the pitfalls of being your own designated driver.

All that glorious wine down the spittoon. It still haunts me. So, when a sample bottle of the 2019 Shafer One Point Five landed on my porch, I nearly leapt for joy.

The name “One Point Five” takes its name from “a generation and a half,” which is how John and Doug Shafer described their father-and-son wine-making partnership. This wine is 83 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 12 percent Merlot, 3 percent Malbec, and 2 percent Petit Verdot.

The grapes come predominantly from Shafer’s two Stags Leap District sites: the “Borderline” vineyard near the winery and Shafer’s hillside estate vineyard, which is the source of some of its most coveted wines.

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Dining Outside At Bao Bei Inside State Street Market

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A trio of baos from Bao Bei. (Front to back: pork belly, fried chicken, and smoked mushroom.)
A trio of baos from Bao Bei. (Front to back: pork belly, fried chicken, and smoked mushroom.)

When a friend and I met up recently to finally check out the massive food hall in downtown Los Altos known as State Street Market, we made a beeline for the one vendor we’d been most wanting to try: Bao Bei by the former husband-and-wife team behind the Michelin-starred, upscale Korean restaurant, Maum in Palo Alto, which shuttered during the pandemic.

Chefs Meichih and Michael Kim named this casual spot after a Mandarin term of endearment they lovingly call their young son. It specializes in a blend of Korean-Taiwanese street fare. With a dearth of progressive Asian restaurants in Los Altos, it’s a welcome find, too.

The 33,000-square-foot space has plenty of seating, both indoors and out. Inside, you’ll find half a dozen vendors to choose from. More are on the way, too.

The bear that greets you at the front of State Street Market.
The bear that greets you at the front of State Street Market.

Bao Bei is located inside on the left-hand side. You order at a touch-screen kiosk, choosing your items, paying with a credit card, and then entering your phone number to receive a text alert when it’s all ready.

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When Life Gives You Leftover French Fries…

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When life gives you extra French fries, make this awesome Spanish tortilla with them.
When life gives you extra French fries, make this awesome Spanish tortilla with them.

I know, I know, French fries are so addictive, that’s it’s rare to have any leftover.

But on the one-in-a-million occasion that occurs, do yourself a favor and repurpose them in “Tortilla Esapanola on Vacation.”

It is an upcycled and comforting version of the Spanish tapas classic, the eggy tortilla.

This wonderful recipe is from “Burnt Toast and Other Disasters” (William Morrow, 2021), of which I received a review copy. It’s by Cal Peternell, New York Times best-selling cookbook author and former head chef at Chez Panisse for nearly 22 years.

This clever, witty, and useful book is all about transforming leftovers, failures, scraps and the like into delectable dishes.

As Peternell writes, “If…you are the kind of cook who never makes mistakes, in or out of the kitchen, then pass this copy along to someone else who does. However, if things sometimes go sideways, like they do in our kitchen, then I hope you’ll use this collection of family fixes, hacks, and more than forty sauces to not only save dinner, but make it redemptively delicious.”

Yes, it’s basically a book we could all use on our shelf.

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Vietnamese-Style Sauteed Artichokes

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Artichokes take to Vietnamese flavors uncannily well.
Artichokes take to Vietnamese flavors uncannily well.

Besides the abundance of raw, fresh herbs and addictive umami of fish sauce, the other aspect of Vietnamese food that I adore is the French influence on the cuisine.

Case in point: “Vietnamese-Style Sauteed Artichokes.”

Artichokes are certainly not a veg you’d normally see in Vietnamese dishes. But they work beautifully in this recipe from the cookbook, “Tasting Vietnam” (Rizzoli, 2021), of which I received a review copy.

Written by Anne-Solenne Hatte, an actress and model of French and Vietnamese heritage, the book showcases the home-cooking of her maternal grandmother, who grew up in the rice fields of Hanoi, then emigrated to Washington, D.C. and then France, where she opened the restaurant, La Hanoienne.

From surviving the famines of Vietnam to raising nine children in France, her grandmother’s cooking sustained and satiated through the decades, preserving tradition but also adapting to her surroundings along the way.

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The Cake That Hides A Dramatic Surprise

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Put some green in your life in a different way this St. Patrick's Day.
Put some green in your life in a different way this St. Patrick’s Day.

There are cakes, which when cut, tumble out a hidden torrent of rainbow sprinkles or M&Ms.

This cake also boasts a surprise center, but a far more sophisticated one.

Cut into it with a fork, and a gush of melty, brilliant-green, matcha-chocolate will flow out instead.

This genius recipe for “Matcha Chocolate Lava Cakes” is from “The Honeysuckle Cookbook” (Rodale, 2020) by Dzung Lewis, a former Bay Area financial analyst who moved to Los Angeles to pursue her passion for cooking with her YouTube channel “Honeysuckle.”

There are several techniques to create the molten center of lava cakes. This one relies on freezing matcha ganache — melted white chocolate mixed with matcha and a little oil — in an ice cube tray until solid. The frozen cube then gets set into the cake batter, so that during baking, the frozen ganache slowly liquifies within the set cake.

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