The Unofficial Hunger Games Dinner Party

With the movie premiere less than two weeks away, we gathered to test our knowledge of Hunger Games trivia, discuss our favorite scenes and characters, and -- most importantly -- to sample a few of the recipes from The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook by Emily Ansara Baines.  This was no recipe testing dinner party, however, and everyone modified their book recipe at least a little to suit their level of laziness or personal preference.  After all, cookbooks ultimately are meant to inspire -- not to direct.

"The Effie"

Mission accomplished.  Our hostess kicked the evening off with "The Effie" cocktail, an original creation blending vodka, strawberry lemonade, and sparking wine into an appropriately effervescent and colorful libation.  We toasted, naturally, with her signature line: "May the odds be ever in your favor!"


Given Effie's potency, we snacked steadily on basil-wrapped goat cheese (the very first food mentioned in the books), "Peeta Chips," and an array of other non-HG related cheeses while the meaty main dishes were finishing up on the stove.

Garlic-herb goat cheese wrapped in fresh basil leaves: Prim's offering to Katniss the morning of the Reaping.

And then the Games really began.

Our clever hostess had prepared napkin parachutes filled with nuts and fruit (and wine infused chocolates -- hello, we live in Napa) to keep our strength up in the arena, setting the scene for our battle royale.

She had also made place cards with quotes from the series, challenging us to recall the identity of the quoted speaker. It was pretty hard to answer while shoveling food into our faces, but somehow we made it through without choking.  On the menu:

Pork Chops For The Victors

OH: "I would eat anything coated in this breading."
Who wouldn't? Basil, rosemary, Parmesan cheese, and plenty of salt.

Lamb Stew With Dried Plums

Despite the pressure  of this being Katniss's favorite thing to eat, the recipe did NOT disappoint.
Tender meat, savory-sweet with prunes and ginger ale, but full of veggies as well
(though we left out the zucchini ). Faaabulous with mashed potatoes. And pork chops.

I'm Not Bitter Greens Salad

Baby chard, kale, and spinach tossed with roasted Anjou pears, nuts,
and cranberries in a lemon-honey vinaigrette. A must to balance the
meaty richness of the rest.

Katniss's Craved Cheese Buns

Super savory with sharp cheddar, Old Bay, and garlic power.
Also ridiculously quick and easy to make.

Capitol-Grade Chocolate Cake

with fresh raspberry ice cream

The BEST chocolate cake I have eaten in years. Super moist, tender, chewy,
and packed with real chocolate flavor. Capitol-grade indeed, though unmistakably from District 12.

The spectacular success of every one of these recipes resulted in several unwanted pregnancies (of the food baby sort), and quarts and quarts of leftover lamb stew, which no one seemed too upset about.  We can always put it up in cans for our next revolution.

If you haven't already, get out there and read the Hunger Games trilogy.  It has something for everyone -- suspense, action, human suffering, a love triangle, and plenty of gore for young and old.  Be warned though that they are completely addicting... I read the entire first book in a single sitting, the same day I got it.  Don't make plans following your acquisition.

The movie inspired by that first novel premieres March 23, 2012.

K + L = Killer Lunch

I visited downtown Sebastopol for the first time today, learning about the organic business community-to-be at the old Barlow Apple Factory location. The site is still under construction -- and still in the throes of the local permit game -- but developer Barney Aldridge says the complex should be up and running by this September, with several tenants already in place and several more moving in this July. Since talking about development projects is hungry work, Barney, a prospective yoga studio tenant, and the charming Kosta Browne boys (who will be moving their production facility and opening a tasting room at The Barlow) all sat down with me at K&L Bistro on South Main Street for some sustenance.

Karen and Lucas Martin run this bustling little rockstar of a restaurant, delivering international flavor through local ingredients and a decidedly French technique. Grazing through most of the appetizers, our group managed to hit the gorgeous grilled Monterey sardines, spicy tuna tartare with sriracha and avocado, salt cod gratin, and the absolutely delectable steamed pork buns with Hoisin sauce, scallions, and Asian slaw. These porky little beauties were so nice we had them twice, accompanied by some bright and sassy Dutton Goldfield Dutton Ranch Chardonnay.

My favorite single item of the lunch, however, was the outrageously French wild mushroom omelette with green salad.  The thing was textbook: pale, tender and juicy egg exterior folded into the classic torpedo shape, barely concealing a cornucopia of earthy wild mushrooms, fines herbes, and gruyère.  Pure bliss with the DuMol pinot noir we'd broken into.  



Vive la succulence!



An omelette and a glass of wine was one of Elizabeth David's favorite dinners, but I think it's just as perfect for lunch.  Well done, K&L.

Flowers For My Valentine

Nothing says "I love you" like fresh flowers on her opakapaka. 

Chef Perry Hoffman knows what he's doing in this department. These hand picked blooms bring colorful whimsy and tenderness to a succulent opakapaka filet, served over green garlic puree with a medley of braised cardoons, sunchokes, and slivered picholine olives.  The dish is the second course of the Sweetheart Menu being served at étoile today in honor of the holiday. Don't miss the unfiltered Newton Chardonnay pairing with this... one of the most dynamic pairings I've had in a while.

Other heart-melting delights from the prix-fixe menu include an enticing Dungeness crab salad with Moro blood oranges, Miner lettuce, and curry pickled crones; a well-endowed Liberty Farms duck breast with wild mushrooms, shaved asparagus, duck sausage and pickled onions; luscious La Tur cheese served with heirloom beets and chervil; and a three-way of Valrhona chocolate mousses doused in vanilla marshmallow fondue.

Best New Brunch Dish You Haven't Tried

It’s time to share the first must-eat sleeper hit of 2012: brunchtime biscuits and duck confit gravy at the Ledson Hotel’s Centre du Vin.  

The Centre du Vin just started serving Sunday brunches towards the end of last year, so most people haven’t discovered it yet… which means no wait list, and your choice of seating on the pretty sidewalk terrace or inside by the elegant fireplace (awesome for rainy winter mornings).  Though most of the brunch menu is frenchy-french classics like quiche, omelettes, crêpes, truffle hollandaise and the like, you must not miss the delectable franglais of freshly baked biscuits swathed in confit-infused gravy.  The delicate strands of ducky goodness are magic.  Irrestistibly delicious magic.

The Centre du Vin chef confided that he eats one of these for breakfast every Sunday, but that hardly anyone else orders the biscuits. What?!? Help restore the chef's faith in humanity - and keep the dish on the menu - by following his tasteful lead!

Centre du Vin is on the Sonoma Square at 480 1st Street East (between East Napa & East Spain Sts.), in downtown Sonoma.  Brunch is served Sundays only.

'Tis The Season To Be Truffly

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December in Napa is a time of great feasting and celebration.  It's also (rather conveniently) the height of truffle season, which means endless temptation and a dramatic spike in my dining out expenditures.  This year, I branched out from my usual truffle snuffling routine and headed to Bouchon with six of my favorite gourmands for a Périgord-themed regional menu, only to find that the kitchen wanted to offer us a private, top-secret, one-night-only truffle menu instead.  Mais oui, mon chef!  We will accept.  (Especially when you greet us with complementary bubbly!)

Note the truffles' sex appeal steaming up beneath the plastic.

Thus began an epic parade of decadence, not soon to be forgotten.

A sealed bowl of fresh black and white truffles -- protected from our lascivious hands by a sheet of plastic wrap -- appeared first out of the gate, as the platter for a round of silky foie gras mousse canapés.

For those who care, the little pebbles in there with the truffles
are coriander seeds, juniper berries, and black peppercorns.

With the foie devoured, they took off the cover and passed that bowl around the table for each of us to take a hit.  It was all I could do not to bury my face in there and never come up.

Fortunately I resisted, because there was some serious caviar on the way.  Oh, yes.  Each little brioche toast round was piled high with delicate beads of delight, ready to burst in your mouth.  Once again, the little bites hovered on an invisible floor above an iPhone that was live streaming the Bouchon kitchen-cam:

This was all BEFORE the dinner technically started... the séduit-bouches of the evening.

They did the trick. We were primed and ready for the main event.

Despite appearances, this is not Texas toast.

Our first course was a classic frisée salad with crisped lardons, fines herbes vinaigrette, poached egg, and buttery toasted brioche. With. White. Truffles.

This dish was everything you hope for in a French salad.


Crunchy, soft, hot, cold, tangy, meaty, earthy, fresh, silken, and altogether just a modest little bowl of awesomeness.

Not pictured: my individual sauceboat with another half cup
of the buttery nectar. 

The ribeye steak with truffled béarnaise also hit a home run into the bliss zone.  Gorgeous medium rare beef, well seasoned, and sliced just thick enough to let you feel like you had a mouthful without choking you: this is what's for dinner.  Bouchon's béarnaise, however, will live forever in my memory as the embodiment of all that is rich and perfect in this world.  If truffle butter manifested itself in cloud form, this is what it would be.
I wish I had packed up the leftover sauce and taken it home to bathe in.

The ultimate in sweet-savory desserts.

Truffle-themed desserts make one think of rich chocolate ganachey-type things, perhaps with a neat infusion of herb or spice or tea to mix things up.  Our truffle dessert did no such thing -- this was a revelation.  Classic choux pastry profiteroles were stuffed with an intense white truffle/vanilla ice cream, then doused with black truffle-infused salted caramel sauce.  Several people commented that the combination sounded totally unappealing, but made perfect sense once you tasted it.  The balance of sweet, salty, and earthy was spot on.  Another memory to fondle for years to come.

After dinner, the uber-gracious staff let us peek backstage in the kitchen and meet chef Michael Sandoval, who seemed just as excited about creating our truffle menu as we had been eating it.  Love him.  He was especially pleased with our dessert... so here's hoping it becomes a regular fixture for Bouchon's winter menus.

While we were back there, we also got to check out the kitchen cams in other TK establishments, and spotted the man himself in the Las Vegas Bouchon kitchen (upper left window in the picture at right). It was the perfect end to a phenomenal experience.

The excuse we needed to spring for this over-the-top truffle junket was Serve from American Express, a new online payment system that lets you send money to other Serve users just by sending an email.  It's designed to make settling up with your friends and family easy, instant, and awkwardness-free.  Serve is encouraging people to sign up this month by giving away FREE MONEY with every new account... which certainly comes in handy this time of year, as my fellow truffle whores can attest.

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A Mutinous Night To Remember

Last Sunday night I was invited to hit the Third Annual Mutineer Magazine Red Carpet Party in downtown Napa, a one-night-only transformation of the Napa Valley Opera House's downstairs area into a bass-blasting underground club full of artisanal cocktail drinks, "beverage influencers," and the people that love them.  A red carpet entrance, festive spotlights sweeping across the sky, and lots and lots of cameras brought extra flash and sizzle to a chilly Sunday night.  The attendees dressed to match -- Mutineer Editor in Chief Alan Kropf was prancing around in tux and tails, the ladies sparkled in sequins and fur, and even the die-hard hipsters broke out their new suspenders in honor of the festivities.

The reason for the event? To celebrate the evolution of fine beverage culture in the Napa Valley, highlighting eight local bartenders in The King's Ginger Holiday Cocktail Competition,  three local beverage entrepreneurs featured in the magazine's new Inspired Voices section, and Mutineer's success with the Clean Water Crusader campaign, in partnership with A Child's Right.



The King's Waes Hail; photo by Phil Jimcosky,
Mutineer Magazine



Thanks to event sponsors Chinaco Tequila, Luxardo, and Anchor Distilling Co. -- the parent company for Chinaco, Luxardo, The King's Ginger, Anchor Steam, and several other hot artisanal spirit labels -- the evening was not wanting in liquor.  The eight Napa Valley bartenders took turns handing out tasting portions of their original King's Ginger cocktails (you can see the recipes online on Mutineer's blog "Previews" leading up to the event), while two imported SF mixologists crafted round after round of the savory juniper-scented "Just in Thyme" (with No.3 Gin) and the smooth, Chinaco-laced "Aztec Two-Step" with cucumber, grapefruit juice and bitters. 

I would be lying if I said no one was taking palate-cleansing tequila shots in between rounds. 



Photo by Phil Jimcosky,
Mutineer Magazine.



Anchor Steam beers, Dry Soda and blk water were all flowing freely too, but for once in Napa there wasn't a glass of wine in sight.  (Gasp!)  This was first and foremost the night of the cocktail.

In keeping with the theme, local chef Gary Penir and pastry maven Sara Wurst supplied cocktail-inspired passed hors d'oeuvres like the delectable agedashi & poached scallop shooters topped with King's Ginger foam, margarita spheres (Chinaco tequila margaritas spherified with calcium chloride in classic molecular gastronomist style), juniper and basil crackers with Luxardo limoncello mousse, and pork belly yakitori with Sangue Morlacco, which guests snapped up as quickly as  the servers could offer them.



Photo by Phil Jimcosky, Mutineer Magazine.



For me, the highlight of the evening (other than breaking out my fur stole for the first time in years) was checking out The King's Ginger.  I've been fascinated with this stuff ever since I learned the story behind it.  In 1903, King Edward VII of England ("Edward the Caresser" to his friends) was living the good life pre-World War I with lots of carousing, thrill seeking, gambling, sailing, and riding around in his horseless carriage.  This enjoyable lifestyle understandably worried his doctors, who created a ginger and lemon-based "tonic" (read: extremely strong alcohol) "to warm and revivy His Majesty" during his rousting about.  Thus The King's Ginger was born.



It's strong stuff... 41% alcohol by volume... and has a spicy ginger burn, offset with a healthy dose of sweetness and lemon peel citrus notes.  The most successful cocktails -- in my opinion -- were those that balanced out the sweetness with acidity and sourness. 



The winner! Photo by Phil Jimcosky, Mutineer Magazine.



Bartender Michael Jack Pazdon of Solbar in Calistoga took home first prize with The King's Waes Hail: a frothy coupe of Calvados, lemon juice, Carpano Antica and Luxardo's Maraschino Originale, shaken together with an egg white, then crowned with a few drops of gingersnap spice tincture, Genevieve Genever-style gin, dehydrated apple chips, freshly grated nutmeg, and rosemary flowers. Phew.  A lot of work to make, but a clear winner for the judging panel.

I never thought I'd see the day the Napa Valley Opera House hosted a hipster red carpet event, but I'm glad I did.  Mutineer's millenial-generation energy is introducing something new to Napa Valley, and helping local beverage innovators reach a broader audience at home and around the country.  This I think is fantastic.



Napa Valley Film Festival: So Close, You Can Almost Taste It

The first annual Napa Valley Film Festival kicks off next week on November 9th, and -- as you might expect from a film festival event in an epicurean capital -- the movies are only one part of the draw.

Besides the 100+ films, there are tons of food and wine tasting opportunities, film-inspired dishes, cooking demos, and local celebrity chef-studded dinners to make it abundantly clear where you are.  Lounges at each of the main festival "villages" around the Valley will be stocked with local delicacies and libations, and many local businesses are offering discounts to festival pass-holders venturing out on their own. 

There's even a panel discussion about the "rise of foodie culture" on Sunday the 13th, in which I will be participating as the local food blogger alongside other far more famous people like Christopher Kostow of (3 Michelin-starred!) Meadowood.  Obviously, food is playing a pretty strong supporting role in this production, so don't miss out.

For a rundown of the most exciting culinary goings on, check out the tablehopper 707 scout report (that's me writing there too):

A Food Lover's Guide to the Napa Valley Film Festival

For the complete festival schedule and descriptions of all the different ways you can get tickets, consult the festival website. 

And I will see you at the [snacks before and after the] movies.