Sunny, Sunny Sunday in Napa County

Well with a week and one day to go before we fly to good ol' CDG in Paris we decided to take in the sights and flavors of Napa Valley. The drive thru Jamison Canyon, Highway 12 was easy and the intense green of a wet spring has colored every hill and dale with an emerald sheen. The yellow of mustard flowers blended with purple wildflowers by the acre. Amazing scene, a sight in California that is repeated over and over mile after mile everywhere you go this time of year. Makes me glad to have a home here and know how very fortunate we are t live here even if it is part time. In a blind-minded moment I forgot my little camera but with three of us it would have been an intrusion to stop the car for me to grab, yet again another shot of this tranquil and spectacular countryside. We stopped at the new Oxbow Market built near the river amidst Francis Ford Copola's buildings of COPIA, The American Center for Wine, Food, and the Arts that recently suspended operations. Too bad, a great idea and with, I thought, a monied backer who would support COPIA for a long time to come. I apparently was wrong. Anyway the market is running, if not full speed ahead at least nearly fully rented and well attended. Prices were, as expected and as we've seen before, NOT competitive with any other market anywhere,
high and higher. People stood with their hands in their pockets but little money or goods were exchanging. We ate at the wonderful Argentinian dining spot named Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, just superb! The Cachapas, a 100% sweet corn pancake, folded and filled with pulled pork was truely fabulous! We divided one by three to maintain a low financial profile which is the way of life in the US of A these dark days. A small salad with Papaya vinegarette was crunchy, sweet and lovely. Three smallish corn flour papusas each filled with either black beans, cheese or chicken, they were each delicious with a crusty exterior and a soft, flavorful interior. Amazing!
What a find!
___
Then off to St. Helena further up the highway amid the acres upon acres of grape vines grown so carefully and tended beyond the possible under my care (that's for sure!). Money, money, money surrounds this entire region, huge wine cooperatives, French corporations, E & J Gallo, so many wineries belong to one or the other of these, all sold out for hard cash when the game was rich. Now...the wine glut is well known but the prices are still high, what are they thinking? On the way into The Valley (as it is known) there are HUGE, Refinery sized storage tanks on the hill above the highway...thousands upon thousands of Napa's finest lies therein...aging in-bulk as the glut continues. With the world financial situation the way it is it might be time to drain the swamp and start over. Sure.
St. Helena itself was good fun, the downtown area is all small shops, antiques, homewares, women's clothing stores, hardware and cooking supplies. An interesting walk, I did buy ONE thing, a fish spatula, very flexible under Mario Batalli's label...for pulling resistant bread for my cast iron dutch oven. I needed it Saturday night! The bread was stuck like I'd glued it and I had a terrible time getting it loose...and yes, I had buttered the pot and sprinkled corn meal on the bottom as well, still I had problems.
We returned to the car largely empty handed except for my spatula and Audrey's kitchen towels and wanderred off to a snack at a nearby drive-in "Taylor's" where the line to the window was 30 customers deep! Just good ol' American snack food, french fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, rootbeer floats and malts and shakes. The place is popular among locals and visitors alike.
We ordered mini-corn dogs with fries, a vanilla coke (fountain made) for Kelly, a rootbeer float for Aud and I had a Coke float. Terrific way to end the day! We drove back along the highway and turned left to cross the valley a short ways to the road known as Silverado Trail. We drove it along to the signs to Lake Berryessa and our home port of Fairfield/Suisun about a 1/2 hour away along the winding, forested road.

The 2nd of January, 2009

My Duck's B-Day! Whoopee! She being now 64 wanted the Beatle's "When I'm 64" to play so I found it on Youtube...of course...as part of the Yellow Submarine movie and played it several times for her. The cats purred along with it. Then we read the paper and off to Hurley's, my favorite restaurant, in Yountville. We've been many times, t'ain't cheap but the food...the food! Terrific by any measure. Certainly among the top 10 in the Bay Area and gives Bouchon virtually next door in Yountville a run for it's money. Today we got a table next to the fireplace sans fire...it was lined instead with 10 small candles...kinda funny but...ok. The service is impeckable and soon with our water came the menu's including a 2 course lunch prix fix at $18 US. Kelly took the salmon w/ mashed potatoes and the bread salad and I the Chicken Florentine w/wild mushroom risotto and the very delicious squash and pear soup. Each meal was wonderful and enhanced by the two glasses of wine we chose. Not a bottle as we had to drive both to Napa and then on to home some 25 miles distant. We DO NOT drink and drive while in the US. A good rule to follow. Always have a designated driver at hand or be one yourself and either don't drink or stop very early. Lunch was $58 US and I left a 10 dollar tip so 68 for both of us. Not bad given the quality of the experience. Afterwards we were off to Napa to find the new indoor market that everyone is talking about. After a not so encouraging roam about downtown Napa we gave up and returned to the car top search once again by the river. We found it soon thereafter. A big hall like those in many villages in France with a wide variety of small businesses dealing with either wine or food. No real bargains exist as this is Napa afterall. Nonetheless it was a nice place to while away some time and we will at sometime go there to buy cheeses and the occassional beautiful beef available. All in all a very nice day with my Ducky on her 64th.