A Taste of Beringer

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The warm glow of a Christmas tree lights the way inside the ancient Beringer Vineyards wine caves.

I’ve been on many a wine-tasting tour in the Napa Valley.

But recently, I had the pleasure of enjoying a very special one.

Just what made it so memorable? It was the fact that my 22-year-old niece tagged along with me for what was not only her first trip to Napa, but her first time touring a winery.

Noodle Niece, as she so requested to be called because of her fondness for udon, ramen and all things pasta, developed a growing curiosity about wine after spending a college semester studying in France. Since her parents are not vino drinkers, my husband (aka Meat Boy) and I decided it was our duty to introduce her to the delights of the Napa Valley.

What a fun time it was, too. There’s something wondrous about getting to experience the familiar anew again. And there’s something downright delightful about catching a glimpse as someone’s face changes from nonchalance to “Wow!” when they discover tastes they’ve never had before.

The glam Rhine House at Beringer.

With Meat Boy the designated driver, Noodle Niece and I piled into the car on a sunny but chilly afternoon for the drive to Napa to visit Beringer Vineyards. Meat Boy’s good friend, who works for Beringer, had arranged for us to enjoy a private tour and tasting (normally $35 per person).

We thought Noodle Niece would find Beringer especially interesting, because it is the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley and is designated a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Indeed, Beringer even continued to operate legally during Prohibition, according to our cordial guide, Michael. Apparently, a lot of doctors and priests were using Beringer wine back then for medicinal and religious purposes. Uh-huh.

Private dining room inside the cave.

Barrels being aged.

One-of-a-kind, hand-carved barrels.

Another Christmas tree decorates the caves.

Established in 1876, Beringer also boasts an extraordinary 1,200 linear feet of aging caves that naturally help keep the wines at 58 to 60 degrees year-round with a humidity level of 75 to 80 percent. The caves were hand-chiseled by Chinese laborers who also built the Trans-Continental Railroad. Look closely, and you’ll see the actual pick marks.

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Sweet Treats at the St. Regis

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Traditional Alsacian holiday cakes at Vitrine. (Photo courtesy of Marc Fiorito)

For Chef Romuald Feger of Vitrine, the restaurant inside the glam St. Regis San Francisco, winter is an especially sweet time of year.

As a child growing up in the Alsace region of France, he fondly remembers his Grandmother Alice lovingly baking more than 20 different kinds of bredele.

These holiday biscuits or small cakes are a staple there. And his prolific Grandmother would turn out upwards of 50 pounds of these treasured baked goods, most of which found their way into the lucky hands of friends and family.
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Breakfast is Big

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Breakfast is becoming a very important meal of the day for restaurants. By the way, that's a pistachio-citrus brioche from Bouchon Bakery in Yountville.

If you think you’ve seen more restaurants doing breakfast and brunch this year, it’s not your imagination.

With restaurants struggling to make a buck in this lackluster economy, more and more of them have decided to add brunch or breakfast to their menus in hopes of enticing more customers through their doors.

Will this trend continue when the economy picks up?

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A Cookie For Coffee Lovers

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Everyday oatmeal and coffee make this cookie not so everyday.

Coffee and oatmeal. Is that not a perfect way to start the day or what?

Me thinks it’s even better if you add a little chocolate — OK, a lot of chocolate — and a big ol’ heap of buttery macadamia nuts.

Maybe these “Espresso Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies” aren’t exactly as nutritious as a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal with skim milk and raisins. But man, are these cookies loaded with chewy goodness.

For these cookies, I used a sample of a new product: Barry Callebaut Espresso Chocolate Chunks. No doubt you already know the Callebaut name as a maker of fine professional quality baking chocolate. Here, semisweet chocolate is mixed with vanilla and ground chocolate for rich, smooth tasting chunks that meld the complex bitterness of coffee with the more mellow, slightly sweet taste of chocolate. A 16-ounce bag sells for $8.95 on the King Arthur Flour site.

Espresso chocolate chunks.

In keeping with the theme, I adapted an oatmeal recipe from — where else? — the “King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion” (Countryman Press). I’ve had this book for five years, ever since it came out. What I love about this book is that it provides numerous variations of the same recipe. For instance, if you’re looking to make an oatmeal cookie as I was, you’ll find a chewy version, a crunchy version, a crisp variety, a soft one, and even others for a “Date-Stuffed Oatmeal Sandwich” and a “Flourless Oatmeal Drop.” Read more

A Sweet Time at Parcel 104

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The best flan you'll ever eat.

If you needed to borrow some sugar, Santa Clara’s Parcel 104 was the place to be last Friday night, where the sweet stuff was on display in full force.

The restaurant’s pastry chef, Carlos Sanchez, hosted a select group of guests — including yours truly — for a decadently sweet holiday dessert party. Sanchez, who is also trained in the savory side, is now doing double-duty as Parcel 104’s chef de cuisine, too. So, he threw in a couple of savory courses just to keep things especially interesting.

The party got started with a demitasse of golden beet soup. Eggnog-like in color and very rich, the soup is deceptive. The creaminess hits you immediately, and then the sweetness of the natural sugars of the yellow beets powers through.

A surprising soup with the flavor of beets.

Next, a signature salad from Sanchez — a crispy nugget of flattened, breaded moist chicken atop seasonal greens with thin slices of pear, orange and persimmon. A Ranch-style creamy dressing with the heat of habanero woke things up, and added a perfect counterpoint to the sweet, refreshing fruit.

A crispy nugget of chicken with creamy habanero dressing.

Slightly warm citrus risotto followed. It was like a creamsicle in your mouth. Unlike rice pudding, where the grains are cooked until they almost break down, this dessert risotto was done al dente, giving it a more interesting texture.

Tangerine risotto.

That was followed by one of Sanchez’s most popular desserts — coffee flan. Even the so-called flan haters at my table went nuts for this version. This was no wiggly-jiggly flan. It is extremely firm and dense, yet out-worldly smooth. Take a spoonful in your mouth, and it’s almost like foie gras terrine in texture with an unbelievably unctuous quality.

A glittery, gooey chocolate cake.

Lastly, caramel-filled chocolate cake that was all aglitter with gold dust and served with an ajillo pepper ice cream. The velvety ganache gave way to gooey, thick caramel and a crunchy chocolate-cookie crust. The pepper in the ice cream was subtle, giving it a floral quality and a mere tickle on the back of the throat.

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