Kitchen Creations

I have been getting a lot of mileage out of my kitchen lately. The cooking bug comes and goes, but I've been on a roll. Hwah! *flex muscles*

First was dinner with Pete and Kevin (and an empty chair where Kit would've been sitting). Caribbean was the theme, to go with the season.



* Jamaican Jerk chicken
* Rice and black beans, Haitian style
* Avocado & mango salsa
* Papaya, lime, pineapples
* Jamaican Spinach Soup
* Boscobel Beach Ginger Cake

There was even Jamaican hot sauce. For kicks, we made blender cocktails too! Hummingbird: Rum cream liqueur, coffee liqueur, strawberry syrup, banana, milk, ice. Sounds très bizarre but it was very yummy.

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The next weekend, we hung out with some S'poreans at Soergel's Orchard in Wexford. Took a hay ride to the farm and picked strawberries for 2 hours.


Our basket - came out to just over 4 lbs

What does one do with 4 lbs of strawberries? Freeze a portion, and make jam with the rest.


Homemade Amish white bread, lightly toasted, with homemade spicy strawberry jam

After reading several recipes that emphasize strongly on storing in sterile jars, we boiled the jar and the whole nine yards before putting the jam away... but in the end we finished it in 3 days anyway. Hehe.

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After the Jamaican dinner, I was still crazy about those Hummingbirds so I bought a lot of ripe bananas. I figured if they didn't become cocktails, I could make banana fritters to go with the other leftovers. We finished all but two lonely dark bananas. Inspired by the desire to spice up Sunday breakfast, I made chocolate chip whole wheat banana muffins.



I think I've graduated from being a tragic failure of a baker to a mediocre so-so one. Not bad! It lasted for a few breakfasts. Great on the go.

That's it for now. Tune in next time for another episode of Kitchen Creations! *fluttering cape and superhero music*

Breakfast as it should be

Toastbox breakfast: Pork floss thick toast, soft boiled eggs, strong java


Yakun breakfast: Kaya butter toast, soft boiled eggs, strong java too

I miss breakfast in Singapore.

We used to live fairly close to Killiney Kopitiam (the original, the one on Killiney Rd), and that was my first introduction to kaya toast and the classic Singaporean breakfast combo. Then we moved last year, and Toastbox just happens to be literally across the street. I only discovered Yakun during this last trip - I felt like a traitor to Toastbox. The eggs and coffee are superb at both, and I guess it depends on whether I'm in the mood for buttery thick toast or buttery pieces of kaya toast.

Oh, eggs and coffee, how I love thee. Soft boiled eggs, half boiled eggs, runny eggs... In Pittsburgh, it's called 'dippy eggs'. I don't know what they do with the coffee, but nobody makes it quite the same.


At Yakun

How does the sock do it?

Sigh. Let's not even go into all the wonderful hawker fare (yes, for breakfast!) - chwee kway, hot rice porridge, yong tau fu, nasi lemak... Now I'm back to Cheerios and 1% milk, and spoiling myself with granola and plain yogurt on weekends.

Can't wait to go home again...

V-Day in Singapore

Back from Singapore! Spent the last 2.5 weeks at home celebrating Chinese New Year with the folks and regressing to my teenage years again. Hubs saw the Real Deal - lion dance performances, street markets, fresh flowers galore, the mad swapping of mandarin oranges, red and gold banners and decorations everywhere...

Lots of pictures, but first, a quick recap of Valentine's Day. (Yes, I know it's a manufactured holiday and a piss-poor reason to get sappy and cutesy for one day, but it was the first time ever that I had a Valentine in Singapore. Tells ya something, dunnit?)

On V-Day eve, hubs came home from the 'gym' with a bunch of flowers in one hand, and dou hua (soy beancurd) in the other. Love! I had spent the last few days nursing a horrid cold, but felt much better by then. On the 14th, he took me out to a fancy Indian dinner at Rang Mahal in the Pan Pacific. (Alright, I found the place, but he bought dinner.) We splurged on the V-day menu (inspired by the Kama Sutra - wooo!); it was a 10-course meal, each plated elaborately and creatively, and came with a glass of rosé sparkling wine. The foodie was thrilled. Here it is:

Welcome drink - Passionfruit Kiss

Amuse Bouche
Enigmatic Masala Puri

Soup: Pumpkin and Pine Nut Shorba Ecstasy
Clove and basil spiced pumpkin broth with roasted pine nuts

Sensuous Casanova Oyster
Juicy tawa seared oyster caressed with light cashew gravy, crowned with precious saffron and a dash of nutmeg

Sorbet: Adam & Eve Sorbet
A refreshing lime sorbet on betel leaf with luscious honey drizzle

Main Course: Desirous Nahari Gosht
Tender lamb shanks slow simmered in a rich stock of Indian spices including fennel, clove, cinnamon, mace and black cardamom to ignite the senses - Royal Nawabi way
Fragrant pulao of juicy green peas and pomegranate jewels
Kukuri rosemary carrot

Accompanied with Sesame Chili Olive Naan (from the bread bar, made fresh)
Boorani raita - Garlic and cumin flavored yoghurt
Dal meloni - Combination of urad, channa & moong lentils

Dessert: Gulkand rasmalai
A romantic pairing of homemade cottage cheese dumplings in reduced flavored milk and Indian rose marmalade

Tea
Kashmiri kahwa with fragrant saffron & almonds

Petit Four
Date & chocolate kulfi lollipop in ice igloo

Everything tasted divine. (The ice igloo was rad.) Some of the descriptions were over-the-top and gave you goosebumps(!); we were even seated in a private booth with rose petals around a candle centerpiece. Towards the end of the meal, we got a gift from the restaurant - a list of aphrodisiacs, most of them found in our dinner, and a little bottle of 'liquid love' (body chocolate). Everything was very well done, I'd love to go back some time.





More later...

Greek Affair

The way to my heart is music - so I tell many. Those who really know me, however, know that food is the truest way. Oh, where do I begin... How do I love thee? Hubs calls me a wookiee - what can I say, the man knows me.

Saddled next to my love for food is the love of entertaining, and of wine. Had plenty of both this past long weekend. (Sidenote: We've concluded that the only way we'll ever keep our place clean and uncluttered is if we have company over... all the time.)

On Saturday, we invited E's undergrad minions student workers from the lab to dinner. Two of them were Singaporean, so I toyed with the idea of making down home hawker fare (eg. Hainanese chicken rice, rojak). But it's too frumpy. Then I considered local fare, like steak or salmon filet and a casserole, but they can find that anywhere. Finally, I settled for neither here nor there - Greece.

* Olive and cheese platter, black mission fig compote
* Spring mix salad with fig-infused white balsamic vinaigrette
* Melitzanes Imam - roasted Greek/Turkish aubergine with cinnamon
* Spanakorizo - spinach and rice with tomatoes, sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and freshly squeezed lemon
* Mint-garlic lamb chops
* Tzatziki - cucumber yogurt dressing
(Most recipes from allrecipes.com)

Paired dinner with a good California chard. Dessert was chocolate fondue with an assortment of fruits. (The guests brought an Alsace Gewurztraminer and Michel Cluizel chocolates - good taste!)

The next day, we had a friend over to catch up on Grey's Anatomy. Made more spanakorizo and melitzanes imam, and performed an encore of the chocolate fondue with creme de menthe. Kicked a bottle of Jadot's Macon-Villages (meh).

I had the day off on Monday, so I spent the afternoon reading at the cafe. Dinner was a break from Middle Eastern to Far Eastern - hae du bop at our favorite Korean restaurant. Baked a double-layer white cake with strawberry filling and Cool Whip frosting for a colleague's birthday today.

And... back to Greek today - leftovers. :) Got a 2006 La Crema Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast; my first La Crema, and I picked it over the Russian River Valley version. Very good! I was already giddy with excitement when I uncorked the bottle and caught a whiff of it. It was buttery, silky smooth, oh so palatable.

I'm saving the rest of the bottle to savor later, but I think I'm done with the Greek/Mediterranean/tomato stuff. 'Twas good while it lasted, but the kitchen will be taking a break for now. Phew!

Vino!

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! The 2007 vintage was released on November 15th, and there was much rejoicing around the world. It's a simple fruity wine that's bottled soon after the grapes are harvested (and meant to be savored just as hastily), made from Gamay grapes in the Beaujolais region of France. A unique method called carbon maceration is employed, which means instead of crushing the grapes first, the grapes are fermented from inside the skin. Because it tastes like alcoholic fruit juice, it's the 'ditzy blonde' of wines - it's one wine that won't be offended if you drink it with ice cubes(!). Probably the only reason wine drinkers even care about the BN is the marketing hype... yeah. (Hard to ignore a wine that's so widely anticipated and celebrated; so well-loved you would... bathe in it? Une piscine de Beaujolais au Japon - sacre bleu!)

Got two bottles - the regular BN from Georges DuBoeuf and a Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau from Leonard de Saint-Aubin. I'm saving the latter, which I'm skeptical about, for our private sipping pleasure and taking the DuBoeuf to Thanksgiving.

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While I was huddling around the wine rack picking out another bottle for tomorrow, I took advantage of the little daylight left and snapped some shots.


My dusty collection





No fear of being thirsty in the House of Meow!

Wine: check. Now, for my Thanksgiving contribution... I volunteered appetizers, but I only have ideas for dessert. Foolish? I'd better wish on my lucky stars that the grocery stores will be open later. What should I make? (Maybe I should pop open a bottle to help me think. ;)) The kitchen calls...

Escapades

Been giddy with happiness all week.

* The boys had a BBQ fundraiser on Wednesday; we graced it with our geezerly presence. Dinner was a hot dog and a burger, and lots of great conversation.
* Watched Riverdance live on Thursday. It was hubby's first time, my second. Six years ago, I scraped together everything I had in my piggy bank to see it on Broadway in NYC. I still remember the seedy hotel in Manhattan where I stayed (it's what I imagine a nice POW camp would be like), walking around city block upon city block foraging for food, sitting in the back of the plane on the red-eye to LaGuardia, and being completely mesmerized by the dancers on stage when I was finally in the theater. Overall a sucky experience except for the show, which was what I was there for anyway. (It was also my first and last time in the WTC; 9/11 happened 3 weeks later.) Anyway, I was really glad E finally got to see it; he claimed to have always been fond of Celtic music. It looked like a smaller production than the Broadway version (due to a smaller stage), but I enjoyed the flamenco numbers and the dance-off a lot more this time.

By Friday I wasn't just giddy with happiness; I was squealing with joy. On a whim, we decided to drive down to DC for the opening of the 95th annual Cherry Blossom Festival. This would be the third sakura matsuri we've been to, but the first that we've gone at the beginning. It's been a while since we went away for a weekend, and it was a much needed break from the routine.

250+ miles and some highway adventures later, we met up with Ed, Fonda, Jen, Maria, Mike, and 2 of Mike's friends at Mie N Yu in Georgetown. We mingled among the urban sophisticates and took a tour of the place (they have a freakin' Bird Cage!) before shimmying on to Third Edition. Midori Sour in hand, we parked for a while on the rooftop patio by the tiki bar, checking out the beautiful people through the corners of our eyes. The DJ rocked. The dance floor was a mosh pit. At one point, some dude started dancing with me (as people are bound to do in clubs), but Ed (not hubby!) told him to beat it. Too bad, cos I was having fun, and I'm glad E let me have some fun too.

We stayed till closing; it was about 3am and people spilled out into the streets like bees being smoked out of their hives. We parted ways and by the time we got back to Maria's, it was about 4am. Woot!

Saturday: Late start. Rolled out of bed, showered, and got ready for a full day of sight-seeing. Aaron joined us at the metro station; we caught up on each other's lives during the ride to the Smithsonian. Like veritable tourists - camera bag, sunglasses, maps - we trekked down to the monument where the Kite Festival (Tako-age Taikai) took place. People were spread out in every direction on picnic mats, kids running around, little kites and big kites puttering along the grass and soaring in the sky... It was beautiful.






Big lizard kite - I get such a kick out of this picture because it looks like a lizard sticker on a postcard :)


Kite in the sky

Walking around on an empty stomach really worked up an appetite, so we made a quick detour to Chinatown for a bowl of noodles before heading to the National Building Museum at Judiciary Sq. E really wanted to take a picture with the women in kimonos, but even with goading from Maria, none of us had the guts to ask them. Somehow, though, I ended up in a picture with them.


Optical illusion: Between Aaron and E, I look like a midget, but with the Japanese women I felt like a big clumsy ogre.

We spent a good deal of time figuring out directions to our dinner venue, Sushi-Ko. It's the oldest sushi house in Washington, located at the northern end of Georgetown, and I figured it would be appropriate. I've been nutty excited about this place and made reservations for 6.30pm, so when we were lost in Dupont Circle at 6.25pm, I was a little frantic. Still... everything worked out.

We ordered a bottle of 'Snow Beauty' nigori (unfiltered) sake and, in a bold moment of fiscal recklessness, I ordered the omakase. The courses were:
1. Smoked salmon and ikura in lemon dressing
2. Miso soup with oysters
3. Lobster tail with ponzu sauce and sliced avocado
4. Nigiri sushi (including a raw-ish shrimp one - a first for me)
5. Mussels in (?)
6. Creme Brulee/sweet beancurd/flan

It was heavenly. I can't say I've had very many six-course meals, and even though the servings were petite and artful, I was stuffed by the end.


Hubby: "If we're gonna pay this much for the meal, we're going to take a picture, dammit!" That's me picking up my nigiri gingerly.

It started getting chilly after dinner; we huddled at the bus stop as we waited to be whisked back to the metro station. Upon returning to the Mall, I realized we had completely missed the Lantern Walk, but we enjoyed strolling around the Tidal Basin anyway.

(Man, I really should get to bed.) Finally, some pictures of the star of this weekend:



Click on the images to view a larger image

Recipe

It's funny growing up in a polyglot household. My mum sent me a recipe for pineapple tarts (my childhood favorite, and now one of hubby's too) - it was originally published in Indonesian, but fearing my tenuous grasp of my mothertongue will cause a serious botch-up of the recipe, she translated it into my other mothertongue, even though she knows I'm going to translate it all into English anyway. (For the record, I fare reasonably well comprehending both languages, but I'd have to squint and pause for longer than I'd like. Success in a kitchen is all about expediency.)


Nastar (Pineapple Tarts)

Ingredients:
200g butter
3 egg yolks
50g powdered sugar
1 Tbs milk powder
250g plain all-purpose flour
25g corn flour
1/2 pineapple, crushed
100g sugar
2cm cinnamon stick
1 egg white, beaten

1. Cook the crushed pineapple until the liquid boils off. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon.
2. Mix the butter, powdered sugar, egg yolks, and milk powder until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the plain flour with the corn flour. Add the flour mixture evenly into the butter mixture, removing any lumps.
4. Using a spoon, roll the dough to form a cup and fill with the pineapple pulp mix. Seal into a ball and smooth the edges.
5. Grease and flour a baking pan. Place the tarts carefully in the pan and brush the tops with egg white. Bake for 20 minutes in 350 degrees F or until golden brown.

* Disclaimer: No responsibility shall be claimed for pineapple tarts gone wrong from any misinterpretation of the original recipe.

EDIT:
It came out great! Messy and a bit of a chore, but yummy. Corn flour = cornstarch. I reduced the amount of sugar, like I do with every recipe. The glazing doesn't quite work for me. Anyway, here it is...

Flaming Kitchen

One week before Chinese New Year, and I've already begun gorging myself! What can I say... you can take a girl out of Singapore, but never Singapore out of a girl.

Presenting the food orgy, in chronological order:

Wednesday: Neesha was in town, so Courtney, Mel, Chris, E and I joined up at Pinati's for some Middle Eastern fare. The place has the best hummus in town - we think the secret's in the tahini. Warm pitas fresh from the oven... mmm! We ordered shish kabobs and rounded dinner with the most decadent chocolate souffles.

Thursday: Had L & W over for dinner. I made the usual Chinese - pork with black soy beans simmered in a clay pot, baby bok choy - and a stray Indonesian dish, fried tempeh with kecap manis (E's favorite). We munched on edamame and broke out a semi-sweet table red. The highlight of the evening was the dessert that L & W had brought - cupcakes!! Not just any cupcakes, these were gems from the new bakery up the street that I've been craving for.


From Dozen: Orange Blossom, Snowball, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Vanilla Vanilla, Milk Chocolate

Friday: We invited Liz over for dinner. After a hurried trip to Whole Foods to fetch 2 lbs of yellowfin tuna and packed-'n-ready haricot vert (I'm a lazy bum, I know), I whipped up pepper-crusted seared ahi tuna, short-grain rice, the beans, and chopped salad, while E gave Liz the grand tour of our teeny apartment. We opened the organic pear wine from Four Chimneys (Liz raved on about it) and, even though we were stuffed, managed to have rich brownies (laced with chocolate ganache) for dessert.

It had been a rough week at work, and toiling in the kitchen after hours wasn't the best way to decompress, but I was pretty psyched... iron chefs never shy from a challenge!

Saturday: Another night with Liz, this time trading the kitchen for a huge tabletop grill - hibachi at Yokoso. There was a long wait, so we hovered at the bar and ordered a Sakura (sake + cherry brandy) and Malibu coconut martini. The martini was bliss in a glass. Our chef at the grill looked kinda young and new, and he took things slow and simple. Basic knife-flipping, easy does it with cracking the eggs and slicing the shrimp. The part during dinner where the lights go off and the flames go up, we had a tame baby flame. :) At least he made a little onion volcano.

Sunday (finale): No company for dinner, but it was fun all the same. It's the time of year for fondue; instead of the classic Swiss, we made one with gorgonzola, port, and walnuts. Dippers include seared beef tenderloin, granny smith apples, and cubed Italian bread. We had generous servings of port with the meal. Delicious - definitely will do it again for company.


Gorgonzola, port, and walnut fondue - recipe from Rick Rodgers

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Watched Pan's Labyrinth on Sunday. I walked in expecting a fantastical journey a la Chronicles of Narnia, but left feeling somber, shaken, and a little depressed. It was well done, and at parts I felt like I was cuddled up with a good book, though I couldn't stand to watch the gory scenes. The two realities were cleverly woven; I can't decide if the story ended well or not.

The Spanish definitely added to the enchantment (pun). Whenever E recognized a phrase, he'd lean over and repeat it excitedly in a whisper, "Vamanos!" "Un poco!" Pretty funny. Dark theater, dramatic scenes, and a boy shows off his vocabulary with vim. :)

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Countdown to Chinese New Year begins!

Appetite for the World

It all started with our cotton anniversary.

E and I celebrated 2 years of not killing each other yet by going out to dinner. Last year we went to Casbah, a Mediterranean place with a stocked wine bar, which was pretty good. This year we decided to split one fancy dinner into 2 nice meals, for the heck of it.

First, we went to Abay, Ethiopian cuisine on S. Highland Ave. Very neat. There was regular seating, as well as tables that looked like oversized rattan tagines. We got a platter with kay wat, doro tibs, kay sir dinich, and tikil gomen, along with a steaming pot of yekemem shai (very much like chai tea). I was so proud of E, Mr. I-hate-eating-with-my-fingers, who dove in enthusiastically with the injera, Ethiopian flatbread. The stews were arranged neatly on the injera like paint on a palette. It was amazing; we're definitely going again.

The next evening, we went to our favorite sushi joint for the usual chirashi. Best sushi in town!

Then things got a little crazy. Two of E's associates from work flew in from Atlanta; we had to take them out to dinner every night they were here. First, we took them to Joe Mama's for hearty American-Italian - I had to get the giant tiramisu-in-a-mug. Then we had South/Southeast Asian fare at Spice Island Tea House, where I had to get the Belgian raspberry wheat beer. We took a break the next evening (phew), then picked up again with Greek/Lebanese/Middle Eastern food at Aladdin's (the grape leaves are to-die-for!).

From injera to nan to pita, from Africa to Japan to Italy to Burma to Lebanon, our tastebuds toured the world in 5 days. (We now have leftovers in the fridge to last us a week, and I can't bear the thought of walking into another restaurant for quite some time.)

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Last night, after eating Rice Krispies for dinner (see above for why), I headed to Lauren's for my first book club meeting. It was a meeting of a dozen or so impeccably dressed young women, all from the glamorous world of marketing and publishing, to talk about this month's read, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a movie in making and virgin novel by local writer Michael Chabon when he was 21.

I put my contribution of a Louis Jadot Chardonnay on the table, together with 16 other bottles already there. I wondered how much we would be drinking... (book club? wine club?) I was the only one who didn't know anyone else besides the hostess, and NOT being from either marketing or publishing, I felt pretty out of it. I wished there were "Hello, My Name Is" tags for everyone. I bonded with a writer at Whirl, whose office was a few blocks away from mine. It was a fun estrogen fest where we spent 10 minutes actually talking about the book, and the rest drinking and picking at hors d'oeuvres and gossiping.

The fiances and husbands started streaming in around 10pm, E included, to make fun of all the drunks and drive them home - not before a rowdy video game on the big screen in the basement. At the end of the night (12.30am), we kicked eleven bottles of wine (not counting the 4 or so bottles that went into the mulled wine) - damn. The next meeting will be in March, reviewing Shoot the Moon, a murder mystery by Billie Letts.

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Congratulations to my best friend, my mentor and tormentor since we were 13, who recently got engaged to his gal of 8 years. It's about damn time! :) I wish the two of you nothing but the best for the future. Come visit us when you get the chance!!

Little Asian Girls Dumpling Sweatshop debut

Spent the day at J's making dumplings with IC. We had been planning this for a long time, and even went shopping at the Strip yesterday to pick out the best ingredients. We finally got together, after all the excitement. (Although between the dumplings and Asian chickiness, I think the boys were more excited than we were. E was, anyway.)

The guys were gracious enough to vacate the first floor so we could have our estrogen parade in the kitchen. Once in a while, Marek checked in, brewed fancy tea for us, and put on fantastic jazz - Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Coltrane, Miles Davis, all on vinyl.

What do 3 Asian girls have in common? Let's see - demanding mothers, impossible mother-in-laws, Korean dramas, love of food, boy gossip, the cliche 'coming to America' experience, our Caucasian counterparts and the compromises we make, going home, comparisons of Japanese/Chinese/Korean stereotypes... The hours flew by. Everything about the whole afternoon was so cliche, it shouldn't be a shock if I said it helped me get in touch with my roots. (Cliche!) It was like chicken soup for the soul.

As dinnertime approached, the guys set up the table, chilled the sake, and decanted the wine; we must've made over 250 dumplings, they likened us to a dumpling factory. We dined with Peruvian music for some global well-roundedness.

It was a blast - nothing is more satisfying than a dinner with friends.

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And now, the story told in images:

Once upon a time, there were 3 Asian girls...



... who decided to have a dumpling party...

  

... and invited their beaux and friends for a jolly good time...

  
Tasty home brew, lovingly made right in their basement

All's well that ends sweetly:


Home-made apple pie, choc cake, and British bubble tea (made with Earl Grey)

Les Pommes!

What's fall without admiring the foliage and... picking apples! Pictures from apple-picking last weekend at Simmons Farm.


Pumpkins galore! Adopt-a-Jack for Halloween?


Faces on display


Apple-picking time! A Jonagold apple tree brimming with fruit


E picks apples...


... I eat them. (I look worried here)


Bountiful harvest - half a bushel of apples for all the pies and crumbles our little hearts desire


First apple dish - honey-filled baked apples with crumble topping. 'Twas goooood.


Had an apple kick after watching an apple-centric episode on Food Network while on the bike. (Watching Food Network during a workout... am I sick?) We're down to less than half the apples we picked, and we're slowing down. There are only so many apples one can eat, y'know? Still, you gotta be crazy to deny fresh homemade apple pie. Mmmm!

Finger Lakes: Part 3 (Que Syrah Syrah)

On the second and last morning at the B&B, we slept in a little (9 o' clock) and took time appreciating the house. B&Bs are an odd concept to us; the idea of living in someone else's house, with other people, and having breakfast made for you by total strangers, is kind of creepy. But somehow everything about Los Gatos was perfect and set up in a classy, non-creepy way. The house was far from old and dated, like I imagined most B&Bs to be - in fact, it was actually kind of like a posh mini-motel, and I'm sure many guests wished it were their house. The furniture was new, the decor tastefully done, there was a heated pool and gazebo overlooking acres of farmland... It was a neat little sanctuary.

When we emerged from our rooms for breakfast, Burney had already put out fresh goodies from the oven. We sat outside again, and this time Susan came to hang out with us.


Dutch babies with peach compote paired with creme fraiche. Also accompanied by bacon, freshly baked blueberry scones, assortment of homemade jams and jellies, orange juice, coffee. What a spread!

Even though check-out was at 11am, we only left a little before noon. We ended up buying a blueberry jam and apple cider syrup. Packed up the car, said our goodbyes, and we were on the road.



First stop: Fox Run Vineyards. There was a garlic festival going on, so it was packed. We did a sampling inside and bought a few bottles before exploring the festival. I have never seen so much garlic in my life.

  

Who knew there were so many kinds of garlic?

I bought a bag of German white garlic just for kicks. Brave garlic-lovers stood in line to sample different kinds of raw garlic. There was music, food, and little cups of grape juice for the kids.

Next stop: Anthony Road Wine Company. Susan mentioned liking the table red, so we decided to investigate. We were served by a young fraternity guy who was surprisingly knowledgeable about wines. We were also impressed by the vignole - tasty stuff! The place reminded me of our hometown favorite, Stone Villa Wine Cellars. There was a fun little herb garden to the side, which we explored.


  
Anthony Road Wine Company

Onward: Earle Estates Meadery. When I was planning our itinerary, I got so excited when I saw the word "meadery", because rumor has it that mead is somewhat hard to come by. We finally had the chance to satiate our curiosity - and not only did we try mead, we also tried an apple cyser and several melomels. Mead tasted deceptively like a regular fruit wine, although it had a subtle, unique aftertaste. We stocked up on the mead and melomels.


The meadery

Check out the medals! These guys are not kidding

We also checked out their sister winery next door, Torrey Ridge. Couldn't resist getting a fruit wine or two there. After the meadery, we drove on to Four Chimneys, the country's first organic(!) winery. Au naturel from the vine to the bottle - no herbicides, no preservatives, minimal amounts of sulphites. I could taste the difference. At all the other wineries, the tasting area offered fancy crackers and snacks to 'cleanse the palette', but this one had plain good ole' Cheerios. Cute! I was particularly impressed by a dry blueberry red; E and I agreed that the pear wine was also a must-get.

Finally, we were ready to head back home, but not before grabbing dinner at Castel Grisch. E said it was more "grisch" than "castel". Kinda dated, very German, but overall not a bad place. I had visions of big German women wearing pigtails and dirndl dresses dancing with steins of beer. (I think our waiter actually wore lederhosen...) There was brass music playing in the background. E ordered something he couldn't pronounce, and I had the Schweinschnitzel. We sat outside on the deck for the panoramic view of Seneca Lake, which was just past some grapevines. Beautiful place... a pity about the 80's decor.

The drive back was a little unpleasant, because I did 5 of the 6.5 hours. I drove nicely; if we should ever be pulled over for anything, our stash of booze in the trunk would need some serious explaining. We made it home around midnight, and only needed two trips to unload our booty.

What an awesome trip. It was a great get-away and well worth the drive. Now we just need to get a bigger wine rack...