OUR NAPA VALLEY NEW YEAR TRADITION

Today we indulged ourselves in another of our New Year Traditions, the Annual Sale at Vanderbilt and Company in St. Helena in the Napa Valley.
We left home a little before 8 a.m., to assure that we'd be there for the 9:30 a.m. opening on this, the first day of the sale. It was a clear but very cold early morning with temperatures in the low 30s...very cold by Northern California standards.

We had an easy drive up which left us with plenty of time to get tea/coffee and pastries at the Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Company around the corner from Vanderbilt.


We had Louie with us, so all our dining for the day was outdoors. We found a sunny spot on the deck at the Roasting Company and spent a pleasant half hour sipping our drinks with our pastries. It was tea and a Morning Bun for me and coffee and a toasted Bagel with Cream Cheese for Jim. Louie ate scraps from our pastries and sipped water from the communal dog bowl on the deck.



My personal tradition at the Vanderbilt Sale is to be the first one in the store when the doors open. Curiously, this is an extremely civil sale where loyal customers like me do not storm the doors and have fights over merchandise...nothing like one Saks after Christmas Sale where I witnessed well-dressed women fighting on the floor for possession of marked-down purses!





So what's so wonderful about Vanderbilt's Sale?...by the way this is the 24th Annual one. Vanderbilt and Company sells the most beautiful of table top items and other home furnishings such as linens, towels, soaps, and lots of gift items. They have one of the largest selections of Vietri ceramics from Italy that I know of in the Bay Area. The store is friendly and attractive. AND, for the sale, which goes on for a few weeks, lots of items are marked down 50%...remainders, discontinueds, odd pieces...and everything else, including special orders, is 20% off. Of course Louie is welcome here too which means that Jim is not left standing out in the cold. We spent over an hour here and came away with two bags of "stuff," including a marvelous wedding present for some special friends, new cloth napkins and placemats for me, a glass serving plate, and miscellaneous towels and other gift items.

After that, we walked up and down the main street in St. Helena, checking out other favorite shops.

By now it was just about time for lunch and we headed to Yountville for lunch on the patio at Bouchon, one of Chef Thomas Keller's several restaurants in Yountville. Bouchon is Keller's French Brasserie..yes this is the Thomas Keller of French Laundry just up the street.


At noon the temperature was in the 50s and it was delightful sitting outdoors.



Louie had his own bowl of water and also snatched things off our table.






We shared a salad of red and white endive, Roquefort, walnuts, and apples...very tasty, but they forgot the apples.

We both decided on the day's Tartine...an open faced sandwich with Fries. Today's Tartine was braised pork..sort of pulled pork...with pickled onions and pickles. Our server advised us that the serving of Fries is very large and suggested we choose another side dish for one of us. We chose the sautéed Butternut Squash with currants.




We passed on dessert but lingered over coffee, enjoying the beautiful Napa Valley day and chatting with others who were dining on the patio.




For one final stop, we went into the Bouchon Bakery next door to buy a loaf of bread to take home to a neighbor. He's happily enjoying Olive Herb Bread as I write this.




It's a day like this that makes everyone want to live where we do.

DINNER FROM ZINGERMAN'S

I had never heard of Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, until a few weeks ago when I received one of their catalogs in the mail..along with several other catalogs trying to tempt me with Holiday shopping ideas.

My usual policy with mail-order catalogs is to throw out those that come from businesses I do not know.

But, something about the Zingerman's catalog caught my attention and I started reading its entertaining contents. I was fascinated by descriptions of its deli foods, sourcream coffee cakes, freshly-baked rye and pumpernickel breads, and lean corned beef.

Also, J's birthday is today and Louie and I couldn't think of something unusual and fun to get him...does he really need another shirt or sweater from Nordstrom?

Not wanting to act without a good reference, I emailed our dear friends, the S's, including their son who went to college in Ann Arbor. They raved about Zingerman's, comparing it to Zabar's in New York City.

So Louie and I ordered the "Sherman's Sure Choice Corned Beef Reuben Sandwich Kit for 2." When I was placing the order, the web site conveniently advised me that I could spend a few more dollars for the same shipping charge...not wanting to pass up a "deal," I added Homemade Chopped Liver and a Pumpernickel Bread to the order. Such a deal, no?

Zingerman's ships perishable foods by Overnight UPS..it costs a fortune, but so do many shirts at Nordstrom...and you can't eat them.

The box arrived today.



The Corned Beef Reuben Kit was packed in a large waterproof tote bag.




It included a pound of corned beef, containers of potato salad, cole slaw, Russian dressing, two garlicy dill pickles, four slices of Swiss cheese, a loaf of rye bread (made wth real rye flour), and two very chocolately Magic Brownies.







The Kit came with detailed instructions for heating the bread and the corned beef and for then assembling the sandwiches.






And, while I was heating stuff, we snacked on Chopped Liver.





We used one Brownie as a Birthday Cake!



By the way, I am guessing that Zingerman's makes much bigger sandwiches than I do.This Kit for 2 has enough for us to have another two sandwiches tomorrow night. Yum!



And, Happy Birthday, J!

A GOURMET CORNER IN BERKELEY

Berkeley folk care about what they eat and what they drink. At the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Cedar Street are three businesses that exemplify Berkeley's passion with food and drink.

Café Fanny is a casual café, on the order of those one finds in France. It dates back to 1984 when Chef Alice Waters, said to be the one who "invented" California Cuisine, opened it as a place to serve delicious, uncomplicated food. To this day, this is what Café Fanny is all about.

Most of the seating is outdoors...there is just a bench and a standup counter inside. Yet, rain or shine, there are crowds here for Breakfast and Lunch. Order at the register and you will be called when your food is ready.

J and I stopped here today for lunch.

J chose the day's soup...a white bean with ham.




I ordered my favorite, an open faced Egg Salad on toasted Levain bread. Anchovies garnished the egg salad.



We were lucky enough to find a sunny table on a cool April afternoon.

By the way, the tables face the small parking lot that Café Fanny customers share with customers of Acme Bread and Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, the other two occupants of this "Gourmet Corner."

Acme Bread has a small shop here where people line up throughout the day for a loaf of freshly baked bread or some of their yummy pastries. Today we noticed Apple Tarts and Chocolate Croissants among the pastries. Kermit Lynch is known for the Italian and French wines that the shop personally imports.

There is a real Kermit Lynch, who divides his time between Berkeley and France. When in France, he scouts out little-known wine makers and imports wines from those that he likes. The wine shop also features a small selection of olive oil and other imported food items. Wines are displayed warehouse fashion, but be assured that any you buy will be excellent...a knowlegeable staff is always ready to help you in your selection.