St Helena – Goose & Gander

We spent Saturday touring wineries around St Helena. I was first introduced to Heitz at a work dinner years ago and fell in love with their Martha’s Vineyard cab which has gone up considerably in price so wanted to try their other offerings. Sadly they don’t allow dogs in so we had to leave her in the car even though they have this amazing back patio that she could’ve chilled on. We had a few glasses out here before the wind picked up and the staff suggested we taste all four cabs side by side so headed inside. The tasting ended with one of the best ports we’ve ever had that I immediately thought to use in a blue cheese cheesecake with port reduced blueberries that is a steal at $35.

Made the short drive up to Goose and Gander for lunch. I was unfortunately lured in by the prospect of pulled duck BBQ, it didn’t taste smoked and it had as sweet, ketchup based “bbq” sauce on it. I barely ate one and that was after giving some to Yuki sitting on the ground next to us. The pig ears were excellent and we ordered some without sauce so the fur ball could enjoy. Tartar was very nice with the deeper, gamier venison while the asparagus was nice and refreshing.

Vietnamese Sticky Pig Ear

BBQ Duck: masa a la plancha, avocado, chipotle slaw

Venison Tartar: avocado, cured egg yolk, puffed wild rice, usual suspects

Asparagus: duck egg, frisee, bacon

Yuki didn’t like being forced to sit by the flowerbed – best Shiba Inu

San Francisco – SPQR

For the long weekend K and I headed down to SF to see a few friends and mainly stay up in wine country to drink lots of grape juice and eat some incredible meals. We started off by thankfully getting on a flight 45 min earlier than booked which meant we could head into this amazing pasta restaurant that much quicker to head up to wine country for the night. We’d visited once before two years ago and it was my friends first time and they quite enjoyed everything we ordered. We both had the fettucini since it sounded so good and we weren’t disappointed.

Wagyu Beef “Pastrami”: smoked and crispy potato, black radish

Frito Misto: clam, shspring vegetables

Milk Braised Bufala: smoked burrata, rapini and espelette pepper

Smoked Fettucini: sea urchin, smoked bacon and soft quail egg

Garnet Yam Gnocchetti: beef and black garlic “bolognese,” scotch kale, red wine bellavitano

Ricotta Tortellini: honey, cheese

“Biscuit” donut: rhubarb, strawberry, red verjus, tahitian vanilla bean gelato

Bread Pudding: caramel

Marshmallows