Unlikely Culinary Adventure

After our DAT experience at Garibaldi’s on Presidio, we had dinner with our friends, John and Peter, at Bar Agricole, in SF. I encourage you to try this place. A limited menu because they only serve what is fresh or in their own garden but every dish was fabulous! I had the best game hen I’ve ever eaten and Bill even liked the beet dish! We ordered several desserts and shared tastes. It’s the first time that I’ve liked all of them. In fact, I’m going to try preparing the blood orange sherbert with blood orange granita this weekend. If you are ever in the City, give this place a try!

Sometimes our culinary adventures occur in the most unlikely places! Last Friday, Bill and I ate lunch at the California Café in the Stanford Shopping Center (behind Nordstroms). We meet with our First Friday Wine Group each month . It’s been a regular meeting place for this group for over 10 years and the fare there has been predictable and decent. Not fabulous but not bad and they have been more than kind and generous with our group so we’re pretty loyal diners.

HOWEVER, this past Friday, the Executive Chef, Mark Pettyjohn, offered to prepare a 4-course lunch for us rather than our usual ordering off the standard menu. What a totally unexpected surprise!! The meal was of gourmet quality and prepared with innovation and to perfection. I’ll share the menu with you and wines the group brought to drink with each course, because you too can have this great adventure for an unbelievably low price (keep reading)!

Our first course was a Seared Day Boat Scallop, served over Parsnip Puree, with a circle of Vanilla Beurre Blanc. The scallop was melt-in-your mouth seared. I love parsnips and found that the puree was the right foil for the scallop. He added a little leaf of frisée that would seem rather insignificant but it added just a nice touch of crispness to the otherwise smooth mouth feel of the scallop and puree. We had two rich buttery style chardonnays with this dish. One was a wine you can only buy at the winery, a 2008 The Mountain Winery Chardonnay. If you have ever been to the Mountain Winery outdoor concerts in the Saratoga hills, you may have purchased a bottle. Jeffrey makes this wine for them so while not a Mount Eden wine, it has that wonderful "Jeffrey" signature to it. The other Chardonnay was a 2008 Rhys Winery that is also from the Santa Cruz Mountains and also went well with the scallops.

Our next course was a Roasted Pork Tenderloin, served with Caramelized Apple, Cider-Coriander Reduction. The pork tenderloin was still pale pink in the center, moist, tender--how I think pork should be prepared. The caramelized apple was a nice complement to the pork as was the cider-coriander reduction. I liked the very fine 2008 Blanc fume de Pouilly Sauvignon Blanc, Domaine Didier Dagueneau from France because it cut the sweetness of the dish but I was in the minority. Others in the group thought that a pinot noir would have been better but I don’t think the pinots would have stood up to the sweetness of the caramelized apple and reduction.

Next we had Grilled Portobello Mushrooms over Goat Cheese Polenta, and Truffled Mushroom Jus dribbled around the edge of the plate. He sprinkled some white truffle oil over the dish that added a nice aroma to the dish since the truffles in the dish were Oregon truffles that don’t have the earthy aroma that Italian truffles do. Several people commented that this was the best presentation of Portobello mushrooms that they’ve ever had (I agree!). We had an Italian 2007 Icardi Nej Pinot Noir, Langhe Rosso and a 1985 Saint-Joseph Red Rhone, Le Grand Pompee with this dish and even tried a New Zealand 2001 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir that was generously added to our repertoire but none of them were quite the perfect pairing. Of what we had, the Rhone came the closest.

Our main entré, even though each of the dishes were more like big bites than full courses, was a Cocoa Nib Crusted Lamb Chop over a slice of Potato Confit , accented with a Blackberry Demi-Glace. Cocoa nibs, BTW, are perfectly roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small bits. They add a subtle chocolate flavor to any dish and do not melt but add a crunchy texture. Again the lamb chop was medium rare and quite generous. We were commenting on how unlike New Zealand lambs the chops were. I loved the yukon potato confit dish, slow cooked in duck fat at a very low temp oven for 2 hours. It was like having mashed potato texture without the mashing. AND, as you can tell, I forgot to take a photo of this dish! Sorry...
I brought a bottle of 1997 Joseph Phelps Insignia for this dish but when we opened it, it was corked! We were all bummed by this discovery since this was supposed to be a great vintage and a wonderful bottle of cabernet. Our ex-cookbook club member, Bob, brought a wonderfully full and earthy barolo, a 1995 Nebbiolo Poderi Luigi Einaudi Nei Cannubi. It was a great pairing for this dish!

Our dessert was Caramelized Pear slices, sprinkled with Blue Cheese and candied walnuts, accompanied by a small slice of Puff Pastry. This dish was again a fabulous entré that we all loved! It was served with a 2002 German Mosel Eiswein, Weingut Johann Peter Reinert Riesling that we also all loved! It was the perfect choice for this dish with enough acid for the sweetness but enough sweetness to stand up to the caramelized pears. Some thought it was the best wine of the afternoon and since eisweins are my favorite dessert wine, I agree!

AND, here is the best part! YOU can have this kind of experience every Friday at the California Café “FIVE BITES DINNER” for only $20, including tastes (not full pours) of wine. If you like any of the wines that you taste, you can buy a bottle for your table from the winemaker at retail price. There are about 60 people who make this their Friday night dinner destination, so you do need to call (650/325-8068 ) and make reservations. Mark is raising the quality of California Café dining to new levels and I hope you will all give this place a try either for a regular dinner or on their "Five Bites" Friday. Hope to see you there soon!

We were all impressed with this lunch menu, to say the least, and hope that Mark stays at the California Café for a long time. He's offered to do something for our Cookbook Club so we can discuss this at our next Mastering the Art of French Cooking dinner on Feb. 19. BTW, have you selected your recipe yet?

Several of the cookbook club members miss Bob so I am enclosing a photo of him since he was in attendance at this lunch! He just celebrated 50 years of marriage and is enjoying his grandchildren, teaching and his life with Diane. I'll keep trying to get him to come to one of our cookbook dinners. Here are some of the other members of our First Friday Wine Group...some of whom you will recognize!