It appears that it has been a long time since I last posted. Lots of things going on but nothing tectonic. What got me back onto the bloggityblog is I have been trying to eat better and less than in the recent past. This has been going on for a week now and it’s ok but I miss tasty things somewhat. I have discovered that a large tortilla has more calories than an entire crown of broccoli and that a single serving of peanut M&Ms is most of the way to a 4oz beef tenderloin. So, if you want to not be starving all the time you pretty much have to eat food-food and not deliciously-sugary-fatty-food. Which isn’t to say you (me) can’t still go to Mighty Fine on Sunday. You just have to plan around it a little.
My friend Bill (the only person who ever comments here /props) is getting married at the beginning of July and I’m going to be in the wedding party. Andy and I escorted him to Northern California for the ersatz bachelor party. We all flew into SFO on Thursday morning and spent the afternoon bumming around the touristy part of San Francisco including a visit to the Tcho chocolate factory. We bought some goodies and took the little tour which was both informative and mis-informative and which caused Bill to have to wear a beard net in addition to the hair net a photograph of which made it onto bookface. Thursday night we drove out to Fort Bragg during which I was car sick and gave dinner back to the nature from whence it came.
Friday was the wine day. Fort Bragg and Mendocino are near the mouth of the Navarro river which highway 128 follows through Anderson Valley. They make a lot of wine in Anderson Valley which mostly seems to focus on Pinot Noir. We stopped at Navarro, Husch, Handley, Tolouse and Roederer. All of them were friendly and most had free tasting although I suspect that was assisted by the fact that Andy can’t go 10 feet out his door without buying a bottle or six. I got four bottles of desert wine, a late harvest Gewürztraminer and a late harvest Muscat Blanc from Navarro and two bottles of late harvest Riesling from Handley all of which are delicious like the candy. Friday we also discovered that the following Saturday was the serendipitous 16th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival so we stopped at Anderson Valley Brewing in Boonville to buy tickets. Then we drove back out to the 101 and into Healdsburg for dinner.
Dinner at Cyrus.
I’ll get this out of the way first. Dinner at Cyrus was the finest meal I’ve ever had. Not that I travel the world eating all of the most exciting Nouvelle Cuisine but I like good food and eat it on occasion. We had the eight course tasting menu with wine pairings which is actually more like 11 – 12 courses but that’s how they roll. They gave us each a copy of the menu including a substitution they made on the fly based on a conversation we were having with the waitstaff. Here’s a transcription:
Canapés
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Amuse Bouche
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Chilled Salmon with Ginger and Daikon, Snap Pea – Basil Broth
Riesling, Schäfer-Fröhlich “Grosses Gewächs – Felseneck”, Nahe, Germany 2007
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Humane Foie Gras and Cherry Blossom Parfait, Barley, Sea Beans and Shiso
Tokaji Aszú, Királyudvar “6 Puttonyos”, Hungary, 2003
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Black Sea Bass with Pea Sprouts and Asparagus, Lemon Verbena
Verdejo, Shaya “Habis – Old Vines”, Rueda, Spain 2009
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Crispy Chicken with Miso and Morel Fondue
Pinot Noir, Williams Selyem, Sonoma Coast 2010
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Spring Lamb Tataki Hot Pot
Cornas, Robert Michel “La Geynale”, Northern Rhône, France 2006
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Artisanal and Farmhouse Cheeses Presented Tableside
Rice Ale, Echigo Brewing Co., “Koshihikari” Nigata, Japan
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Goat Milk Panna Cotta with Rhubarb, Parsley-Lime Ice
Moscato D’Asti, Braida “Vigna Senza Nome”, Piedmont, Italy 2011
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Yuzu Crémeux, Bergamot Meringue and Cream Cheese Ice Cream
Beerenauslese Cuvée, Kracher, Burgenland, Austria 2008
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Mignardises
So we sat there and talked and ate and drank for something like three hours and it was awesome. The food was excellent. The service was also amazing. The staff would have, if we’d wanted, been content to let us eat and talk amongst ourselves. However, when we started asking questions and talking to them they had thoughtful things to say about the nature of the service they were providing, the restaurant and so on. At one point we were talking about the beer festival and wondering if they had ever done a beer pairing. So we asked the head waiter and the result was that they replaced the Pinot Gris in the upcoming cheese course with the rice ale and it was excellent as well. Anyway, if you’re in Healdsburg and want to have an awesome meal for all of the monies you should go to Cyrus and they will help you out.
Saturday we got up and derped around the house for a while and then drove back down to Boonville and attended the beer festival. It was excellent fun and they had ton of different brewers, mostly from the Pacific coast but I think there was an Austin brewer there and a few others from distant parts. The most interesting thing I had was a pomegranate cider and I also had Stone Vanilla Porter and a dark Saison that were excellent. Of course all the beer was good and the food was good too.
Sunday we drove north up the PCH looking for redwoods. We found a few including one that we could drive the car through and we spent some time walking along a river bank in the trees. Then Monday it was back into San Francisco and back to Austin and a good time was had by all.
Let’s see, what else is going on? I bought and have played a fair amount of Diablo 3. Work is going along although I’ve had almost no time to work on any of my actual goals this quarter so I’ll be throwing myself upon the mercy of the court again as per recent history. I read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I enjoyed it as much as most of his books. It has the same weird supernatural feel that basically everything I’ve ever read by him has. I didn’t find the climax particularly climactic nor the resolution very satisfying but the characterization was good and it was worth the time it took to read. I also read The Night Circus which was shorter and faster to read but was also excellent. One thing I don’t appreciate in my magical, fantastical books is dancing around the magic and this book doesn’t do that. I just started Reamde and it’s starting to go somewhere after 140 pages (really around 80 or so) so it meets my interesting-in-100-pages-or-fail test that others (including the whole System of the World thing) have not.
That’s about it for now. I have about 1 hojillion pictures that need uploading to the gallery but I’m out of gas for now so instead you just get a big ol’ wall of text. Cheers.