Travel
Recipe Needed Alert: Lomo Saltado
June 14, 2011 | 
Author We recently had a visitor with us via Rotary Group Study Exchange — she was delightful, and we all learned a lot about each other and our respective cultures and countries (and she learned about outlet malls, muhahaha) but anyhow, it reminded me of one of my favorite dishes — lomo saltado. This is a combination of beef cooked in a special way, rice, and, well, french fries.
However, all I have for recipes are those I find in various Google searches. If you have one you’ve tried, that you really really like, please post it here, and I’ll give it a go (and post pictures, steps, etc.) …
Help a hungry brother out…
Dining at the “Mouse House”
I grew up visiting Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I lived in Virginia for over twenty years and every couple of years my parents would treat my younger sister and I to a trip to the “mouse house,” as my dad called it. You can imagine my excitement when I moved to California ten months ago and realized that I lived within a two hour drive of Disneyland! I don’t even have kids and I was dying to go!
My husband and I just got home from our first ever trip to Disneyland in Anaheim. We took our dogs to the farm, packed up all our gear, and drove down the I-5 to Anaheim. Now, I know what you are thinking… what are a grown man and woman doing going to Disneyland? Well first, we love all things related to Disney and second, they have some amazing restaurants there. Parents take your kids to Disneyland when they beg: alcohol and delicious dining await you!
So my husband and I have what we call the Disney diet which we developed over the course of our honeymoon in Disney World (I know, we are so sad.) It consists of one big meal plus turkey legs, ice cream, gummy bears, cotton candy, and pickles for snacks throughout the course of the day. On a side note, my husband managed to unintentionally lose five pounds eating the prescribed diet while on our honeymoon in December. Anyways, we decided to dine at the Wine Country Trattoria at Disney’s California Adventure while in Anaheim. I try to be the classy one in my marriage and this seemed like an “adults only” kind of place away from crying babies and tired kids. If you live in Southern California, if you are going to Disneyland, or if you are one of those Disney nerds with season passes, PLEASE make reservations to eat at this place. The food was delicious, they have beautiful al fresco dining, and they have a side patio with a wine bar!
The trattoria features twenty or thirty wines available by the glass and they have wine flights so that you can taste multiple wines over several courses. We each ordered a different glass of wine and the waiter was knowledgeable enough about the wine and menu to help us each pair a glass with our entrée. Now, we ate off of a prix fixe menu to get special tickets to the World of Color show that night. It should be noted that all of the dishes we ordered were also available on the main menu. It should also be noted that I was too lazy and too happy with my food to take pictures of all of my courses, I apologize in advance!
We ordered a salad as an appetizer. The salad had goat cheese (my favorite) with reconstituted figs, nuts, and herbs over a spring mix with some kind of fig-balsamic dressing. If you put goat cheese on a salad, it’s going to make me happy so I was very pleased. Also, I loved the dressing which was sweet and tangy all at the same time thanks to the fig flavor. I ordered the sustainable fish for my entrée. The fish of the day was halibut and I got a giant juicy piece with just the right amount of pesto on top. The chef served the halibut with a tomato ragu with cherry tomatoes, potatoes, and herbs. It was so good. The tomatoes were soft and tangy and just the perfect consistency, soft but still with texture, not mushy. The fish was cooked perfectly and the pesto provided a clean flavor to the dish without over powering the dish with herb and garlic flavors. The hubs ordered the New York Strip Steak with gorgonzola potatoes and green beans. The steak arrived medium rare, as ordered, and dripping with a delicious sauce. The green beans were crisp and the gorgonzola potatoes were amazing! The blue cheese did not over power the potatoes and provided that perfect salty, creamy, blue cheesy flavor.
As if we had not stuffed our faces enough, we got a dessert sampler to share. It came complete with tiramisu, vanilla panna cotta, some chocolate hazelnut creamy thing, and a strawberry crostata. The tiramisu was delicious and was my favorite of all of the desserts on the sampler. It was your standard tiramisu, well executed, and with a cute pistachio garnish. I ate the panna cotta but I wouldn’t order it if I went back there. The flavors were very boring in comparison to the other treats on the platter. The texture was silky and creamy but the vanilla flavor was overpowered by the berries on top. Not the worst thing I ever ate but definitely just average. I wish that I could describe the chocolate hazelnut lemon nugget that we had but I don’t even know what to call it. Kind of like a mix between a pudding and a chocolate with my favorite flavor combination, chocolate and hazelnut. In the middle there was a dab of something yummy and lemon flavored. Now, I know that you are thinking that chocolate, hazelnut, and lemon sound disgusting together but the lemon really makes the dessert more refreshing and less sugary sweet. Very pleasant combination. Finally, I tried the fruit crostata. It was miniature, it was strawberry, it was delicious but it wasn’t anything super creative or out of the box, just very well executed and rather tasty! The whole platter was whimsical and fun and you got to sample all of the desserts in the menu. It was a great final touch to the meal.
We ate outside on the terrace underneath the vines and amongst the flowers. I almost forgot we were at Disneyland because the restaurant was so quiet and charming. Our meal was very reasonably priced with generous portions, great service, and just downright delicious food. So the moral of my dining story is that next time your kids/spouse/whoever beg you to go to Disneyland, say yes because a wine country experience awaits you at California Adventure. I enjoyed my meal and I will definitely go back for seconds the next time I visit the “mouse house.”
Wine Country flowers
“This Is the Motor City”
I know you saw it. It’s the most talked-about Super Bowl ad here in Michigan and, I hope, around the rest of the country. On the surface it was an ad for a luxury car, though I couldn’t tell you — even after repeated viewings — which one.
But really, it wasn’t an ad trying to sell you a car (although I’m sure Chrysler would be thrilled if you bought one). No, at its heart this was an ad promoting Detroit … the maligned, beleaguered, down-on-its-luck city of Detroit.
Here, watch it with me again and then we’ll talk some more:
The narrator calls Detroit “a town that’s been to Hell ….” Yeah, that’s true.
I moved to one of its suburbs in 1978, the year the city was named the Murder Capital of the United States. There had been riots in 1967, with a mass exodus known as “white flight” soon thereafter. Some neighborhoods resemble war zones; I’ve personally walked through them, and recognized some of the skeletal remains of buildings shown in the ad. And each time a new administration has come in promising redemption, hope that something in the city might be salvaged has eventually vanished.
The last few years, in which the economy has been so dreadful, hit Michigan very hard; Detroit was dealt nearly unsurvivable blows. Businesses closed down, and General Motors even required a government bailout in order to survive. Unemployment in Detroit has officially been as high as 30%.
And yet … the complete line of narration in the video says that Detroit “is a town that’s been to Hell and back.” Those last two words are critical.
In the middle of the ad, shining in the midst of all the grit and grime and gloom that is admittedly a very real part of the city, you see the gleaming, golden Spirit of Detroit statue, with rays of light shining forth.
There is a definite resurgence in the city, a faith that Detroit has suffered enough and will regain its former glory. And to me, at least, is seems as though food is leading the way.
Slows Bar-B-Q — only 5 years old — has been named one of the country’s best barbecue spots by Bon Appetit and been featured on the Travel Channel‘s Man vs. Food. Its owner, Phil Cooley, is a tireless supporter of Detroit and has stated: “We need a strong urban core that’s going to attract people to stay and create.”
Avalon International Breads is a phenomenon with a small and immensely popular storefront in the heart of the city. The bakery (which is open, so that you can watch the staff at work creating treats like my personal favorite — the Dexter Davison Rye Bread) supports urban farming initiatives and buys local and organic foods to the greatest extent possible.
Then there is the Hockeytown Café, named “No. 2 Sports Bar in America” by ESPN2 … those are folks who know their stuff! And the Bucharest Grill is a destination for “hipsters and townies,” according to The Detroit News, despite not even having a sign out front to advertise its abundantly generous servings of traditional Romanian cuisine.
But there are also the long-time standbys — the ones who didn’t flee, the ones who’ve stood by the city that welcomed them.
There’s Xochimilco [so-shuh-MIL-koh], one of my favorite restaurants, offering some of the best authentic Mexican food there is. The Lafayette Coney Island, where I used to eat lunch with my friends each day when I spent a summer working in downtown Detroit, received a rave review from Roadfood.com. Greektown — a strip filled with fabulous restaurants and bakeries — was always a destination for Jeremy’s birthday when he was younger, after a trip to the Auto Show and a ride on the People Mover (an above-ground railway).
We are reminded that “It’s the hottest fires that make the strongest steel.” Detroit has been through the fire — figuratively and also literally. But the strength and resilience of its people are investing the city with a renewed energy and another chance at life.
Every day, there are people who sustain Detroit both with food and with “their hard work and conviction,” as the ad proudly proclaims. This is the spirit of Detroit.
This is the Motor City.
“floo·zie \ˈflü-zē\: a usually young woman of loose morals.” Thus a Food Floozie is not a woman who can be seduced by virtually any man, but rather a woman who can be seduced by virtually any food (other than sushi).
For more blathering about recipes, restaurants, beverages, ingredients, and anything else even tangentially related to food, please come visit me Monday through Friday at Food Floozie or check out my mostly-regular Tuesday posts on AnnArbor.com.
Posted in Blogging, Restaurants, Travel | 
Tags: Avalon, Chrysler, Detroit, Food Floozie, Hockeytown, Motor City, Restaurant, Slows Bar-B-Q, Super Bowl | 
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An afternoon with the winemaker at Schug Carneros Estate
Last summer I interviewed Mike Cox, winemaker at Schug Carneros Estates. I had just learned that not all wine is vegan and Mike’s interview educated me further. At the conclusion of the interview Mike suggested I visit next time I was in Sonoma.
I did. On a grey, cold day in Sonoma earlier this month my husband, two friends and I visited Schug Carneros Estates.
Vince, Lisa, Dave and JL at a vineyard the previous day
Mike had quite an experience planned for us!
We started outside.
A few interesting tidbits:
*Schug sits on 50 acres in Sonoma, in the Carneros appellation.
*The Chardonnay grapes are on the flats, the Pinot Noir grapes on the hill.
*Schug uses both stainless steel and oak barrels for fermentation.
*Harvest is in October and bottling is in July and August.
Once inside
we wound our way to the reserve room, but only to grab our wine glasses for a particularly special tasting.
Schug red wines are vegan but the whites are not. That is, once the whites are finished they are no longer vegan (many wineries use animal products in the finishing process). Mike took us out to taste the wines in various stages of the fermentation process so that I could try some whites. Nicest. Gesture. Ever.
It was great to hear Mike react to the wines as he tasted them. He spoke about what he might do to each wine to attain the taste he is looking for. We enjoyed new whites and reds directly from the barrel. I loved this part of the tasting because it helped me understand the robust process, from vine to barrel to bottle, and beyond.
Back to the reserve room
for red — sweet, glorious red —wines.
*2007 Rouge de Noirs Sparkling Pinot (This was surprising and delicious. So much so that we ordered a bottle of rouge brut with dinner at Bistro Jeanty!)
*2008 Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
*2008 Pinot Noir, Carneros
*2008 Schug Estate Pinot Noir, Carneros
*2007 Pinot Noir, Heritage Reserve
*2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Heritage Reserve
*2006 Merlot, Heritage Reserve
Can you believe this tasting? It’s true; I enjoyed every wine immensely, particularly the 2007 Pinot Noir and the 2006 Merlot. This red wine lover was in HEAVEN.
Because of air travel restrictions with liquids (I’m a carry-on only gal, thank you very much) we were unable to purchase wine to take home. I did the next best thing. I joined the Schug wine club!
Mike spent hours with us. It’s a bit impossible to describe how meaningful this special experience was, from standing atop a hill overlooking the vineyard, to sauntering from barrel to barrel for a taste here and a taste there, to sitting in the reserve room and slowly, methodically tasting the reds. Mike shared his wealth of information about the science and agriculture behind winemaking, and, equally important, his passion for winemaking.
Our heartfelt thanks to the incredibly generous Mike Cox (read more about him here) for giving so much of himself — his time, his expertise, his enthusiasm. We will never forget the experience.
Schug Carneros Estates
602 Bonneau Road
Sonoma, CA 95476
(800) 966-9365
info@schugwinery.com
Originally posted on JL goes Vegan: Food & Fitness with a side of Kale. You can follow JL on Twitter and Facebook.
Food and Wine Pairing at Vineyards at Southpoint
This past Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting Vineyards at Southpoint, one of North Carolina’s many wonderful wineries, located on a gorgeous rolling property near Chapel Hill and Durham.
North Carolina ranks seventh in the U.S. in wine production; its 100th winery just opened this month, with more scheduled to open this year.
There are more than 400 vineyards in the state, and no – they don’t all grow muscadine grapes! The NC wine industry is a significant part of the state’s growing reputation as a culinary and agro-tourism destination. (Click here for more on NC wines!)
Vineyards at Southpoint produces an impressive variety of wines, from light whites and Rieslings to a deep, full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. At my visit, we tasted five wines, and had the additional great delight of sampling ideal food pairings for each one.
Dave Allison was our wine and food expert for the day. A winemaker and chef, Dave presented perfect pairings, while explaining exactly why each food went with each wine.
It’s complicated and simple at the same time. The complicated part is understanding the flavor elements in both the food and wine, and how they alter, map to, or overpower each other. The simple (and fun) part is trying as many as you can and deciding what you like best!
We started with the 2007 Viognier, a light fresh white that starts off dry but has a slightly sweet finish. It was my favorite wine of the day for drinking by itself, and it paired exquisitely with a simple snack of macadamia nuts. We also tried it with a crunchy, salty cracker with some creamy bleu cheese (wonderful!).
Next we tasted a wine called Niagara, made by Southpoint’s sister winery, Horizon Cellars. This one was sweet and acidic, and worked especially well with the salty and smoky snack of hummus, olives, and crackers.
The next wine, a 2006 Cabernet Franc, was a dry and relatively light red – good with lunch fare like sandwiches. I found it particularly tasty with a fun little appetizer that I’m going to make for every cocktail party from now on – a slice of baguette drizzled with Asian dressing and topped with half a grape tomato. Simple, and one of my favorite takeaways from the day.
The 2006 Chambourcin is made from a grape that grows particularly well in NC. It is very full-bodied with a gorgeous color, and it pairs well with spicy/herby foods. Dave presented it with a yummy treat of sundried tomato cheddar on a cracker topped with a bit of pepperoni, and I could have eaten heaping handfuls of those!
Last, we enjoyed the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, a Gold Medal winner. Classic and rich, it was sublime with a bit of bread and bleu cheese. (My personal favorite of the day.)
Although we didn’t have it with a food pairing, I want to mention their Double Gold Medal winning Prestige Reserve. At only $22.95 per bottle, this wine is a steal! I could easily see this wine costing $70 or more outside of the state.
There’s so much more I could rave about at Vineyards at Southpoint — their passion for wine; the breadth and savvy of their business vision; their sustainable farming techniques; their vast knowledge of grapes, wine, and food; their hospitality and friendliness; I could go on…
But I’ll cut this short and simply invite you to plan an afternoon on their patio the next time you visit North Carolina. You’ll enjoy meeting Dave and owner Guy Loeffler (and you’ll probably even see me there). Cheers!