A little bit of New Mexico for our eyes...

(July 27th-28th, 2013) With traveling out of state frequently, and hosting events for my interns the weekends that I was in town this summer, it was nice to finally have one weekend where Kim and I could just relax without any real responsibilities. So, to start it off we headed up toward Chimayo to get out of town for the day!

The Santuario de Chimayo is a holy chapel where, according to legend, the sands are known for their miraculous healing powers. Chimayo itself is a small, New Mexican gem located on the high road from Santa Fe to Taos. Like other New Mexican towns, it's got that quaint, old fashioned feel to it mixed with a splash of parochial Roman Catholicism, art, and breath taking natural beauty and impossibly blue skies. Since my last visit to Chimayo several years ago, they had significantly expanded the grounds of the Santuario to include a new shrine to Our Lady of Lavang Vietnam. Interesting and unexpected, like much of what's found scattered throughout New Mexico.

The next day Kim and I went out for a hike up the Piedra Lisa trail on the Northern end of Albuquerque. I always like this hike as it's relatively short (maybe 2-3 miles) though steep enough to get fantastic vantages of the city. Plus, as it's a South facing slope, it's also the first trail up the mountain to thaw in the spring, extremely important when you're planning on partaking in the summer mountain racing season...

The notable thing about this hike, though, is that it's Echigo's first hike!

Back to traveling though...

California Weekends

(July 20th-21st, 2013) The rest of the weekend was slightly less decadent than the start. Saturday saw Nate, Mai, Kim, and me headed up to go rafting on the Russian River, sandwiched between stops at farmers' markets and a sea food monger. Amongst other things, Kim and I picked up some cranberry beans - a variety of beans that are red and white marbled with a nutty flavor to them. We saved some for planting next year. A pleasant, relaxing day to say the least, complete with a stop at a brewery and some collective home cooking.

Sunday was a bit more decadent to make up for taking it easy on Saturday. Our first stop for the day was Joseph Phelp's vineyard, one of Kim's favorites. Mai's military discount was stupendously amazing - about half off of an otherwise very expensive tasting bill.

This was probably the first time that I had a wine that was more than $200/bottle (it came with the tasting and, as I said, thank goodness for Mai's military discount). Despite the price tag, it was worth every penny. The insignia wines there are highly recommended. The tastings were delicious/serene/relaxing/wow. There's enough privacy at the vineyard that you can have a corner of the patio all to yourself without being disturbed (or, more importantly, without disturbing others) as you try each of the wines brought to you.

After Joseph Phelp's, we headed to the Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch for brunch.

Looking back on the weekend, this is what stands out the most as being such a pleasant surprise. Much like the restaurants in Albuquerque that I enjoy the most, this had that farm to table vibe about it with simple, not too expensive food. Starters were potted pig with homemade mustard and toast. Very similar to a pate. The server had recommended that you break up and mix the white film on top (i.e. fat) with the rest of the potted pig to make it extra smooth.

Next, the Sunday brunch cinnamon rolls. Pretty standard, but good nonetheless.

On to first courses: on the left was a little gem wedge salad with Point Reyes blue cheese dressing, bacon, and radishes. On the right, carpaccio of LMR beef with arugula, San Joaquin gold cheese, citrus, toasted almonds, and radishes. Both dishes: fantastic.

Second courses were just as good as the preceding. At top, heritage St. Louis ribs with Point Reyes blue cheese coleslaw fresh out of the smoker. On the left, the Farmstead eggs Benedict on grilled baguette with smoked pork, Tabasco hollandaise, and fried potatoes. And on the right, grilled California rainbow trout with wild mushrooms, fennel, almonds, and bacon vinaigrette.

Unfortunately, we were too rushed from needing to get to the airport to catch our flight home to more thoroughly explore and enjoy the Long Meadow Ranch, but I have a feeling that we'll be headed there again soon if possible.

Decadence in San Francisco - The Return!

(July 19th, 2013) It seems as if Kim and I can never go too long without a visit to the West Coast. Between me needing to visit colleagues in Livermore every so often, having Nate and Mai up in Fairfield, and wine country, there's a seemingly endless list of reasons for us to go. Like the first decadence in San Francisco post, this trip started with Kim needing to travel out that way for work. And, much like the last trip there, I found myself with a day on my own to explore the city and to live in its decadence...

As usual, once I arrived in the city I set off on foot to visit Chinatown, Little Italy (see the pictures from the previous visit for a rather accurate recap of how I spend my morning), and eventually made my way down to the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building where I waited for Nate and Mai to join me for an afternoon of decadence.

I always enjoy the Embarcadero on a summer day, with the giant fountain sculpture, the street markets, and the bustling shopping across the street in the Ferry Building.

The decadence got underway when I learned that Nate and Mai were running a few hours late, which gave me more than enough time to sample the Ferry building's goods...

After stopping at the chocolate shop, wine shop, and salt shop, I made my way past the butchers and cured meat shops to Hog Island Oyster Company.

Nate and Mai finally arrived, at which point we set out for...more oysters at the Waterfront Restaurant, followed by a trip to the Rogue Ales Public House where we imbibed flight after flight of Rogue ales.

Once Kim and her coworker joined us, we headed to a speakeasy, Bourbon and Branch. Like other speakeasies, a password was required before you could enter. To get into the library, tell them "books." I recommend making reservations for some of the more interesting rooms though.

Inside the library it was dark and warm. The libations were varied and unique. And everything, superb. If we had made reservations a few days in advance, we might have ended up with a private room, or at least a private booth tucked away in some other interesting corner of the building...

Last stop for the evening was Luce. Many courses, but, as promised, I have notes!

First, a gift from the kitchen: tuiled squash, and creme fraiche. It was super fresh, like your garden. Nate: "I could write a poem about this...it's my grandmother's house!"

Next: clockwise from lower right - Abalone. It's rate to have this fresh, but it didn't disappoint, it was fantastic. Everything continued a trend of freshness. The abalone was crispy on the outside and the perfect texture on the inside. Second, beets. These were served with a beet puree and goat cheese. The puree had a smoked flavor to it that made the dish. And last, amberjack. The amberjack was the highlight of the first half of the meal. The roe on top of it popped and was slightly tart. The amberjack itself would have been a heavenly serving of sashimi, but the accompaniment just made it delightfully delicious.

Accompanying this feast we had bottles of the Jaffurs Petite Syrah and the Bedrock Zinfadel. The somnelier was exactly what you'd expect from a Michelin star'd restaurant - slightly pretentious but very knowledgeable. Somehow this combination was very offputting to Mai, but the rest of us enjoyed it.

Main courses: first, the lamb loin, which was paired with yellow tomatoes, herbs, granola, and yogurt. Simply delicious and Kim's favorite.

Next, the Halibut. What made this dish was the sauce surrounding it, made from local Manila clams and diver scallops with baby artichokes, shiitakes, and roasted vegetable bouillon.

Last but not least, the lobster, poached in salted butter and lemon verbena with Chanterelle mushrooms, charred yellow corn, and green strawberries. The dish had been cooked in the sous-vide style, which left everything so tender. After this meal, if there was any debate in our heads about whether to cook something or sous-vide it, the answer was immediately to use sous-vide. Too bad sous-vide machines are so expensive!

Dessert: pistachios with a white balsamic powder, pluot gelato, and panna cotta. The balsamic powder was fantastic. Somehow they had managed to capture the essence of balsamic vinegar in a powder!

And thus (well, after a couple hours of commuting back to Nate and Mai's house) ended the first day of decadence in the bay area...

Meet Our New Puppy!

(July 4th, 2013) Our dog, Soju, has always been a bit on the special side. Case in point:

Well, we worried that Soju would suffer from the lonely child complex. Studies show, after all, that pets live longer and have fuller lives if they have companions. So, we looked up Shiba Scout Rescue, a rescue organization for Shiba Inus based in Colorado, found a dog on their website that we thought might be a good fit, drove up to Fort Collins for the weekend, and then adopted our new little girl, Echigo!

Echigo had a rough life in a puppy mill before she was rescued. So, we've aimed to make her feel love and to teach her how to be a pet (she still doesn't get the whole chew toy thing, but she's learned all about walks, treats, and even some playing with Soju...)

When she was first rescued, Echigo was horribly overweight from having been just kept in a cage for years and literally used to breed puppies. How the puppy mills are legal operations, I don't know, but what they do to the animals there is just inhumane.  Echigo's come a long way with us already, but more on that in a forthcoming post...

I just want to conclude with what a wonderful organization Shiba Scout Rescue is. They genuinely care about these dogs and do everything that they can to give them a better quality of life. If you ever are looking for a new charity to donate to, or some place to get a new dog from, consider them.

Lavender Fields and Farms by the Bosque

(June 21st, 2013) Contrary to popular belief, Albuquerque isn't really a desert. It's true that we are mostly in a high desert, complete with the requisite cactus and tumbleweed, but even the high desert is littered with Junipers, sage, wild flowers (such as Indian paint brushes), buffalo grass, and tons of other naturally occurring vegetation. As you get closer to the mountains, the ecosystem transitions into something more mountainous, which eventually gives way to an almost alpine, high altitude forest near the top of the Sandias.

In the other direction, the river introduces another unique ecosystem - cottonwood forests and farms (pecans, vineyards, and lavender). One of the more well known lavender farms in the area is attached to Los Poblanos, which is annually ranked as one of the most romantic inns in the US. Having been to Los Poblanos several times for the annual lavender festival, Kim and I thought that it was about time to go and enjoy the restaurant there, La Merienda.

The dinner itself was nice enough, but it was an odd evening since our waitress was having some...issues. Possibly with her boss, possibly due to some family crisis, we couldn't tell which, only that she was a bit upset but doing her best to put on a good face to finish her shift.  Poor girl.

To start, the field plate with sauteed field greens, a sunny side up egg, piny nuts, crispy capers, and pickled chard stems. The lighting in the following images will be a bit weird...we were eating outside and it started off bring enough, but, due to the aforementioned issues, it ended up quite dark by the time we finished as you'll note in the progression of photos...

Next, the Monticello Feature Plate, which was savory goat cheese under a layer of black pepper macerated strawberries, topped with grissini and Monticello NM 16 year aged balsamic vinegar. Savory is the key word here as it was not what you'd expect just looking at the picture. Good, but unexpectedly interesting and almost too savory.

Main course number one: the Los Poblanos pork loin, larded and brined. Served with a honey red chile glaze and root vegetables from their garden that were roasted with corriander.

And the second main course for us, the lamb two ways - a chimmichurri rack of lamb and a carnitas style shoulder of lamb, served with blistered young onions and shallots. All of it was fantastic and highly local. And you can definitely tell the New Mexican influences on the cuisine....red chile glaze, carnitas style, pinon (pine nuts), etc.

We never really figured out what dessert was as it was on the house since dinner had taken such a long time. In fact, even though we had arrived in the middle of the dinner rush, our order wasn't put in (due to a slip up) until the very end, so the pork loin was the last that they had in the kitchen, and definitely the last cut that they would have wanted to use. Below is a chocolate mousse of sorts with a raspberry glaze on top, and above is a brioche with a peach sauce of sorts. We may never know anything other than it was good. 

From here on out, hopefully, I've got more detailed notes about all the food that I enjoy posting pictures of...

And yes, we ended up being the last to leave. Night had come, and the peacocks had gone to roost elsewhere.

Acoma, 2013

(May 27th, 2013) Like the swallows of San Juan Capistrano, every Memorial Day weekend marks my return to Acoma for their Seed Run. I really can't extoll the virtues of doing this race enough in terms of the positive support of the community and knowing that your race entry fee is going towards a good cause. And, for those of you that need more incentive (though I can't fathom why), most people that participate win pottery:

The race itself runs around the periphery of the "Sky City" (the Acoma pueblo, which is situated on top of a mesa), and consequently has some extraordinary vistas to enjoy while running or standing around. Below, the start and finish lines:

This year I managed to drag a few folk along, Kim and her sister Abbey

As well as one of my students/colleagues at work, Ryan

We both won nice pots. It's all by age group, and it goes either three or four deep (which is usually more than there are entrants in a given age group).

So, consider this a heads up for you to start getting ready for it. It's 8.3 fun miles in the warm (not hot) desert sun of late May. Unquestionably, this is my favorite race to do in New Mexico.

New Mexico Dining

(May, 2013) I don't often talk about the Duke City dining scene nor Santa Fe's Gastronomy, but that might be because I'm so rarely here due to all of my travel. Spring and early summer were a slight renaissance for me...staying home in New Mexico for the most part (with only a trip per month or so). I had originally thought to title this post a tale of two tastings, but the Dickensian comparisons don't seem very apt. Nevertheless, that's what this post will be about.

The first tasting was during Albuquerque's Beer Week at Chama River Brewery. Outside of staples such as Portland and Fort Collins/Boulder, Albuquerque has one of the highest number of craft breweries per person as you'll find anywhere in the nation. And some of the breweries are starting to become recognized outside of New Mexico as top notch. The talk of New Mexican breweries starts with Santa Fe Brewery, but after that, La Cumbre, Marble, Chama, Monk's, Nexus, local favorites Bosque, Tractor, Il Vicino, and slightly farther afield, Rio Grande and Sierra Blanca. The list really keeps going on, but don't take my word for it, visit the New Mexico Brewers Guild website. (and this is to say nothing of the ultra locals such as Kelly's, Broken Bottle, Turtle Mountain, etc, etc, etc.).

For the beer week collaboration dinner, there was an interesting mix of beers and meals. They didn't go together quite as well as the executive chef might have liked, though. Some beers Kim had to finish for me, others I had to finish for her. And others, still, we figured were best left unfinished. That's nothing bad to say about the diverse collection of beers, but at some point over the last ten years American beers have tended to become too hoppy. There seems to have been some unmentioned hops-arms race that led to brewers coming up with hoppier and hoppier beers with IBU's that exceed the average American's IQ score. Being one that's not that into hops, this often means that half the craft beers on a menu are just unappealing to me.  Give me an Ayinger any day.  The food was interesting enough, though...

Gnocchi in Brodo: parmesan broth, peas, crispy ham, pea greens, and gnocchi. Paired with Nexus' Cream Ale. Good beer. As for the Gnocchi in Brodo - pea greens. They were fan-frickin'-tastic. Who knew?

Roasted Beet Carpaccio: green chile goat cheese (green chiles are a staple ingredient in true New Mexican food, unless it calls for red chiles), mizuna, pinon gremolata, and olive oil. Paired with La Cumbre's Hefeweizen. As this was getting into the end of spring, the Hefeweizen proved to be my favorite beer of the night.  The beets just caused our mouths to water in anticipation of what our garden might yield this year.

Tea Smoked Cobia: served with bamboo rice, ratatouille, and a ginger lemon sauce, then paired with Chama's Noble Session Ale. The cobia was a light fish, and it had been smoked on a bed of jasmine tea leaves. This gave it a pleasant, though subtle flavor. The bamboo rice, similarly, was a very underwhelmingly subtle taste.

Shepherd's Pie: lamb loin, lamb ragu,  caramelized carrot puree, crispy potatoes, faux marrow. Paired with Chama's Big Lebrewski (a hoppy hopped up beer). Not quite what I envision a shepherd's pie to be. And, while I'm a big fan of bone marrow, the faux marrow doesn't have me sold yet.

Last course - Chocolate Bouchon: burnt marshmallow semifreddo, graham crumble, chocolate pearls, dried cherry compote, and Marble's Irish Porter on the side. The semifreddo (ice cream) tasted like marshmallows, and the chocolate pearls were fantastic, though strange. The one thing that I remember most after finishing this dish, though, was wanting a basket of bread as I was still famished. True to fine dining styles, the above dishes were all quite meager in size. And, as the meal was spread out over 3 hours, it didn't do much to curb my appetite.

So, maybe I should have stuck with the tale of two cities comparison as my recollections of the second tasting fair far brighter...

For my birthday, we headed to Farm and Table's Wines of Argentina tasting. Regular readers of this blog already know of my infatuation with Farm and Table, so it shouldn't be much surprise that I'm going to glow on about them over the next few paragraphs. The tasting was just thoroughly well done, leaving us satiated, and wanting to buy the wines that we tried. As a very important side, this meal marked a turning point for my fancy meals - I started recording diligent notes to have on hand for when, many months later, I go to write about the experience...

First course was a  Strawberry Sorbet, served with pecorino, white balsamic, and black pepper. At first, flashbacks to the blt sorbet from the North Pond passed through my mind, a rather bad memory. The pepper proved to be a bit reminiscent of the North Pond's savory dessert approach, but only a little. The white balsamic was in powder form - how neat is that? The wine paired with this was a Crios Rose of Malbec. This was sweet, but less so after the sorbet. The wine itself came from Salta, the highest vineyard in the world at 10,000 feet.

Second was a Wild Sockeye Salmon, served with peaches, chipotle, pecans, and butter. The peaches proved to be where the butter was hiding, and the chipotle and salt rub on the salmon - c'est magnifique. The paired wine, Hermanos Torrontes, was dry, but became crisp after tasting the peaches. Each of the wines had a character that evolved dramatically with the food pairing (the first went from sweet to mellow, the second from dry to crisp, etc). Someone in the kitchen knew what they were doing.

Third: Grilled Chicekn with corn, parsley, garlic, lemon, and mint. The garlic, lemon, parsley, and mint formed a dressing over the grilled chicken. Served with this was something resembling a warm chicken terrine, and a corn croquet. The dressing was a great compliment to the grilled chicken, and the corn croquet was delicious. The terrine, well, it was as most terrines are. For the wines, this and the rest all came from Susan Balbo. This one was a Crios Syrah/Bonarda, which had a big, big taste to it.

Intermission: Avocaddo with jicama (a southwestern root that's usually pretty juicy), and sugar. The jicama was pickled, which made the dish in my opinion.

Round four: Beef Short Ribs, served with spring onions, quinoa, cinnamon, currants, and corriander. The demi-glace was sweetened with the cinnamon and currants (an underused ingredient in my opinion). In the back was the quinoa crisp, and on top the green onion tied in a knot. Somehow, the green onions were mild, which went great with the super-tender beef sort ribs. Paired with this was a Ben Marco Malbec (again, by Susana Balbo).

Last: Crispy Crepe Napoleon, served with dark chocolate and blackberries. Despite the name, this wasn't very crispy. The chocolate and blackberry ganache combination was delicious as one might expect, but the sugar on top would've been better if it was salt (though I'm slightly biased...). Overall, very sweet...too much with the sugar on top. The Susana Balbo Late Harvest Malbec was paired with this. By comparison, it tasted like a normal wine, not a sweet or fortified dessert wine.

Okay, next post won't be about food, I promise.