2007 Halter Cabernet Uncorked

M brought over a bottle of the 2007 Halter Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon last night. The last time we opened it at Bonsoiree, I gave it the thumbs down right out of the bottle, though it eventually opened up and softened considerably.

Same situation this time around. When first poured, the nose was something awful. Hot and simply impenetrable, like its inky body. In contrast, we’d just finished the bottle of the 2007 Kiara Merlot from the Winemaker’s Porch B&B, which was a light, easy sipper. I warily took a sip and grimaced. The tannins were so tight and dry that my mouth immediately puckered.

We let the wines sit in our glasses for a good half hour before we cautiously approached it again. To our relief, the wine was much more approachable now. It was now smooth and actually quite a delight to drink. We’ve still a half bottle leftover, which would be a nice treat this evening. And I think we’ll hold on to the last bottle we have for a few good years before we break it out.

California Dreamin’

Currently on the flight back to Chicago, writing this (all all the other CA posts) courtesy of Chromebook and Virgin American’s in-flight wifi system.

I’m already missing California. Thankfully at least, we’ll be returning to a Chicagoan summer, and there’s lots of sailing and flying trapezing to look forward to over the next few months before the weather turns south again.

But I can’t wait to move out west. The beautiful weather year round, the plethora of excellent Chinese cuisine, the close access to the vineyards (even better, the possibility of one day owning a vineyard), the amazing scenery and varied geography. Even driving on the highways were a pleasure. Vs in the midwest, where we just had flat lands stretching out into the distance, the roads here are windy, hilly, and never boring. There’s the coastal scenery, the in-land mountain ranges…

Gotta start the planning!

Burma Superstar in San Francisco

Before we left for the airport, Bruce picked us up for a quick spin around the city before he brought us to one of his favorite go to places in Richmond, Burma Superstar. I think this is the first time I’ve had Burmese food, and I’m hooked. Gotta try to find a restaurant in Chicago.

For drinks, we had the ginger infused beer, which was most refreshing (although, we still found the ginger beer at Dux de Lux hard to beat).

For appetizers, we had an Indian-inspired vegetarian somusa soup that was most satisfying. It had just a tinge of lemon grass to it. We also ordered the tea leaf salad, which was topped with peanuts and crunchy fried garlic. Delicious (and I’m regretting not to order a plate to go to eat on the plane). For the main course, we had the spicy chicken with basil sauteed in lemongrass, garlic and sweet peas. Even though I had gone into the restaurant feeling stuffed from a disappointing dim sum in Chinatown just an hour earlier, I couldn’t help but dig into the dishes Bruce ordered.

Santa Ramen in San Mateo

When Bruce suggested ramen for dinner, after a long day going up and down Big Sur without food, we jumped at it. According to him, the best ramen to be had was Santa Ramen in San Mateo, though this was debated by Chi, whom we met later in the evening, who insisted that equally excellent ramen could be found in Japanese town in San Francisco proper.

We didn’t have the luxury of time to test out both their assertions, but we thoroughly enjoyed Santa Ramen. The spicy pork broth I got was flavorful and not too savory, a main failing of many ramen places. And the noodles had just the right texture and consistency – chewy and springy. We lapped up the food in contented silence, enjoying the crunchiness of shallots and spring onions with the noodles. Being greedy, we also ordered small plates of simply grilled squid with a dash of lemon, crispy hot chicken karagee, and fried tofu.

I’d return to Santa Ramen anytime! It beats the overrated Ippudo in New York hands down (when we were there last May, we had to wait 3 hours to get a seating, and the broth turned out to be way too salty and oily).

Santa Ramen
1944 South El Camino Real
San Mateo, California 94403
(650) 344-5918

Driving up Highway 1

They say Highway 1 is the most scenic drive in North America… I didn’t really take much stock in that until we drove up it ourselves, from Paso Robles to the famed coastal road. The drive over the arid brown mountain ranges to the coast reminded us of the mountain ranges we drove across from Malaga to Cordoba in Spain. And when we got to the coast, the shimmering blue waters alongside the craggy hills reminded us of the drive from Marlborough to Kaikoura in New Zealand (although, we didn’t have to drive through fog in NZ).

Fog rolling in fast in the distance

We met up with Bruce at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, for some hiking amongst the redwood trees. It was wonderful to meet up with Bruce again; the last time I had seen him was when he came down to Singapore for a short visit.

Everyone wanted to hike down to the waterfall by the beach, but there was no permitted access down the steep slopes. A few boys made the steep descent down anyway, but a ranger was already on hand to apprehend them when they finally came back up. According to the ranger, just the day before, some joker had to be evacuated out by helicopter because he’d hurt himself scrambling down the slopes.

Dining at Artisans

I wanted to dine at a nice restaurant in Paso Robles, and Artisans came up on all the review sites I looked at.

Located in downtown Paso Robles, the restaurant serves up locally grown produce and foods.

We shared a starter salad of fresh crab meat, cucumbers and avocado. It was most refreshing, given that it was blazingly hot outside. The crab was slightly chilled, but very succulent and sweet, and we washed it down with a wine flight of wines from the local vineyards. The 2009 Albarino from Silver Horse had just the right amount of lemon in the body that paired beautifully with the salad.

For our mains, we shared a generous serving of Alaskan Halibut paired with crispy potatoes, baby onions, bacon, carrots, and mushrooms. The fish was delicately cooked, and yielded easily to our eager knives. We also ordered two side dishes of jalepeno cornbread with a side dish of honey butter and a vegetable dish of cauliflower, broccoli, and spinach sauteed with dried chilli.

The jalepeno cornbread was easily the star of the evening. I’ve never had such fluffy cornbread – it looked and had the consistency of a lady finger in a tiramisu, rather than the usual dense and dry cornbread that I normally end up with.

We polished of all our food with relish, and still had enough room for dessert. We ordered a trio of creme brulee – the standard vanilla flavor, along with a chocolate malt and molasses. These were delicious as well, though to be honest, by this time I was more engaged in a conversation with our dining companions next to us (the Rasmussens), and consequently failed to pay close attention to what I was eating.

Artisans is a definite must visit in Paso Robles, and the locals definitely agree. The Rasmussens visit quite often whenever they are in the area. Although we also made reservations at Thomas Hill Organics the following evening, another highly recommended restaurant in Paso Robles, we ended up ditching it for hearty tasting hangover food – In and Out burgers. Hehe.

Dim Sum at Koi Palace

The last time I went to Koi Palace, was in July 2008, as part of my Journey to the West trip from Chicago to San Francisco, before I bade the US goodbye for than an indeterminate length of time. Bruce had brought PY and I there, and while I remembered the dim sum as being delicious, the most unforgettable dish on the menu is the Indonesian thousand layered cake dessert (kueh lapis). Such a painstaking cake to have to create, layer by layer! I still remember happily enjoying biting through each layer of it later on that day, on our hike in Muir Woods.

So the moment we picked up our rental car at the SFO airport early Friday morning, we drove straight to Koi Palace. I was so crestfallen to find that it was closed! But then brightened up immediately a heartbeat later when I realized they only opened at 11am. It was then 1030am. Wah, back in Chicago, dim sum could be had at 9am if we’d wanted!

But the short wait was worth the while. When they opened at 11am on the dot, there was already a throng of people lining up to get in. We were the second party to be seated. Hehe. And although there were only two of us, we went nuts with the ordering, picking a total of 7 dishes, including a ginormous bowl of beef congee. The congee turned out to be the highlight of our meal, and afterwards, we toyed seriously with the idea of returning for another meal before we flew back to Chicago. The porridge was so smooth, and so flavorful with the ginger and pickled vegetables. The rice crepes with dough fritters and XO sauce was delicious too; the rice crepes were silky smooth and the fritters fresh and crunchy. Our one slight complain about that dish was that they were too generous with the fritters – they were so large that there didn’t seem to be enough rice crepe to go around! Hehe.

And our favorite test of a good dim sum restaurant – the runniness of the salted egg yolk custard bun. Koi’s more than passed the test, and we bit into the piping hot and creamy custard with relish.

We ended up having to pack the char siew buns, egg tart, and a slice of fried taro cake to go, but they made for a lovely snack in the car later on. Pity we didn’t get to try the crispy fried noodles dish that we saw other tables enjoying, nor the roast duck. But there will definitely be a next time!

Wine Tasting in Paso Robles

Our singular most memorable vineyard experience took place in Paso Robles, although funnily enough, no actual wine tasting was involved.

We were finishing up our wonderful meal at Artisans on Friday evening, when I looked over at the dinner plates of the couple next to us and started salivating to see the enormous and juicy looking scallops that the gentleman was enjoying. So I started up a conversation, and before long, we learnt that they were the neighbors of the B&B we were staying at, and that their 20 acre plot of land included 10 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 6 aces of Syrah, and 4 of Merlot. We chatted easily through the rest of their meal, and before we left, were invited for a tour of their vineyard the next morning.

The lovely couple were the Rasmussens, and their vineyard is the Rasmussen Vineyards, currently still a private family owned production. They’re still waiting for a final permit before they can start making and selling wine on the property. In the meantime however, they are bottling the bulk of their wines over at Midnight Cellars, while keeping a few barrels as garage wines.

We were excited at the opportunity for a private tour, and so early next morning, popped over for a visit. While the cellar and future tasting room is located at the bottom of the hill on their property, Larry and Elaine, when they make their weekend trek up to Paso Robles (Larry is still a partner at his architectural firm in Ventura), stay at the top of the hill in a beautiful contemporary glass studio that Larry designed. Next to the studio is a standalone building built into the slopes of the hill. We wound our way down the stairs into the main room, where we entered into an airy room with full length glass windows that open up to the view of the valley below. There was a murphy bed disguised as a cabinet, and a walk-in wine cellar. Larry drew out a bottle of his 2007 Kissed Syrah, a garage blend that his son Niles had made, and gave it to us.

They also brought us down to the cellar and tasting room at the foot of the hill, where they wanted to give us a sampling of the wines still sitting in the barrels. Alas, they couldn’t locate the wine thief. But, they did find a bottle of their 2002 Syrah, their first ever labelled wine, as well as a half bottle of their 2006 late-harvest Syrah garage wine that they had made as sort of an afterthought, from the super ripe grapes left on the vine at the end of the harvesting season. These, they pressed too into our hands.

We’ll have to find a way to thank the Rasmussens for their welcome and generosity when we get back, but it seems that in Paso Robles, such friendly behavior is more the norm than anywhere else. Perhaps it’s because the region is not as developed and commercialized as Napa Valley further up north, but most places we went, the people working the tasting room were delightfully warm, and took the time to chat with us. Back in March, when our friends visited, they had also surrendiptiously bumped into the owner of Denner at a restaurant, and were also invited to stop by the winery for a visit the next day.

Winemakers Porch in Paso Robles

Check out Paso Robles, our friends urged, you’d like it. We did, and what an excellent suggestion! Of all the wine regions we’ve visited, Paso Robles was surely the most memorable, if not for the wines, for the generosity and friendliness of the vineyard owners.

Located about 3.5 hours south of San Francisco, Paso Robles today is perhaps the Sonoma of 10-15 years ago. The wine scene is fast developing, and currently, there are over 200 wineries in the region. Most of them are still small production, family owned wineries, although about 6 months ago, Fiji Waters came in and bought out Justin Vineyards, one of the most highly reputed wineries in Paso Robles.

We rolled into Paso Robles late on Friday afternoon, having driven in from San Francisco. Our place for the evening was the lovely Winemakers Porch, a B&B on a working vineyard perched on the top of a gently rolling hill overlooking the grapevines. The B&B is run by Marlowe and Corrine, and they named the vineyard after both their middle names. While they sell most of their wines to other wineries, they keep about 4 barrels to make their own garage wines, which they shared with guests. As part of our stay, Marlowe gave us a wine and barrel tasting, and before we left, thrust two bottles of their wines for us to bring back with us. I’d highly recommend the Winemakers Porch to anyone else wishing to make a visit to the area; if waking up to the sun rising over the golden-hued grapevines isn’t enough, there’s Corrine’s phenomenal breakfast on their back porch to look forward to every morning.

The first morning, we first tucked into a bowl of freshly cut oranges and grapefruit marinated in Grand Marnier (what better way to kick off a full day’s tasting in the vineyards?). For our mains, we had a generous serving of the fluffiest waffles drenched in maple syrup and topped with peaches and blueberries, along with sides of sausages and an egg.

For our second breakfast, we had hot apple strudel fresh from their oven. The layers of crust were thin and crunchy, absolutely heavenly! That alone would have made my day, but then we also got a serving of ham and egg quiche with rosemary potatoes. We both cleaned our plates, and the enormous servings helped see us through the rest of the day until evening.

Evidently, the B&B is very popular as a destination for couples to get engaged at, because while we were there, there was just one such proposal from the couple staying across the hallway from us. Hehe. According to Corrine, there have been 4 proposals over the past 6 years, and one of them took place right underneath the huge tree in the top picture.