Culmination: Morimoto

Yesterday was extremely successful, I would say. Day started off with us heading back to Oxbow to try out the world's best english muffins (as rated by foodies on the Travel channel, so I'm taking their word for it) at the Model Bakery. The breakfast sandwich (scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, cheddar cheese on the world's best english muffin!) was just... awesome. Muffins were worth the hype. They were thick and gooey and yumm. Also had a really great cup of chai tea which was just beautiful. Since we were there, we trolled around the market for the second time in as many days, and spent a chunk of time at Whole Spice again, this time to purchase some spices for ourselves. Hagan and I both bought some of this Napa Valley Rub, and he bought some other chili bbq rubs that I stayed far away from (the girl working said they were HOT. Not my cuppa tea). We left the market and walked down the street a bit (not even a full block, really) to the Copia co-op garden. It's this big community garden that's rented out by a bunch of local restaurants so that they can serve fresh grown, fresh picked local produce.


Around that time it started to rain, so, back we went to the car, this time to head "up-valley." We were making our way up to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and the Beringer Winery (oldest continuously running winery in Napa). We stopped along the way at Dean & Deluca's, a winery and also store that sold all kinds of locally produced foodie things. Think artisan jams, cheeses, chocolates, plus local produce and wines. They had a pretty neat selection of cooking ware, including these large pink salt slabs. Hagan and I had been wondering aloud what a person would DO with such a salt slab (besides feed it to your horse or local deer), when the butcher (I forgot, locally raised meat products, too) came up and informed us: generally people use it as a serving tool. The salt maintains its temperature really well, apparently, so you can use it as a heat source or a cold source depending on what you're serving (hot pad to keep warm food, warm; cold pad to keep cold food, cold (like sushi)). Apparently salt is naturally anti-microbial, so you only have to wipe it down with a cool cloth to maintain it ("just," he said, "don't stick it in the dishwasher." He was serious. I wonder how many people pay for those and do that very thing, only to have their salt slab melt away. Silly people). Anyway, that was kinda cool. I bought some farm fresh raspberries that were dying to be eaten and literally just melted in my mouth (they didn't make it out of the car), and some chocolate covered cherries that I've been trying to hold off on eating... we'll see if they make it back to Arkansas.

Left Dean & Delucas and made it up to Beringer Winery. It's on this BEAUTIFUL property, and claims to own 2,000 of the 45,000 acres of land used in the valley to grow grapes. Pretty big deal considering there are wineries everywhere you turn. We passed a bunch of big names on our way, including Sutter Home and Robert Mondavi Winery (apparently he's the biggest name in wine around here. Maybe around everywhere. I dunno, I'm not a wino), and then arrived at the beautiful Beringer Estate. You need to see pictures of this house. So many around here are Victorians, but this one was just... wow. We did a little self-guided tour of part of the property, and were luckily inside when the next wave of rain hit, this time accompanied by hail. It was doing that all day; rain lightly, stop, rain heavily/hail, stop, drizzle, stop, etc. And it was especially confusing because the "stop" points were sunny and beautiful. Strange weather. We left during a dry spell and continued up the highway to the CIA. Yet another beautiful building (though not as beautiful as the Rhine House at Beringer). We went into the little visitors area and checked out all of these old cork screws (cork screws have changed over time, and the grips can be pretttty weird. Like the one made from a goat's foot. Or the one shaped like a human foot. Or the large collection made from various types of animal horn), and then spent a good deal of time in the store admiring all of the tools. Holy cow. It was making us salivate. About that time we realized it was 2:30 and probably past time for lunch (though we did have a late breakfast), so onwards we went.


Hagan worked at this hoity toity resort in the summer, called Meadowood, so we went there for lunch. When we were arriving, we turned down this unmarked road going through a vineyard. I was looking at Hagan like he had three heads and asked why we were going down a shady little side road, wouldn't there be a sign saying "Meadowood?" He laughed and informed me that such a sign would go against all that Meadowood stands for (mainly, privacy and peace for its clientele). We had to pause at a gatekeeper's house before being allowed on the property (only pause because Hagan knows the guy from having worked there in the summer), and up we went. It's BEAUTIFUL. Tucked up in the foothills on the side of the Valley, it has all those great foresty, woodsy, damp smells. We passed two pools, a spa and multiple tennis courts before reaching the grill. At Meadowood, there's a grill (where we ate) and a restaurant (that has 3 Michelin stars, one of 2 restaurants in the American West that has so many; where we did NOT eat). Grill looks out over the golf course and croquet lawn (yeah, my thoughts exactly). I got to meet a bunch of Hagan's former co-workers, and we had a wonderful lunch in a nearly empty grill with a beautiful view. I had some tasssty fish and chips (though the batter could've used some more flavor. I'm being picky, though, because I was spoiled last semester). I had exactly 12 french fries. They were uniform in size, and were stacked Jenga-style in the corner of my plate. I am not making this up. Each level had been salted before the next row was added. Yeah.


After lunch we had to scoot without dessert because of a last-minute meeting that we had set up in the morning. A woman from the St. Helena Farmer's Market (St. Helena is another town in the valley, where French Laundry and Chef Keller's other restaurants are located) had emailed Hagan in the morning, agreeing to meet with us. So off we went to the Napa Valley Roasting Company to meet with Amanda over coffee (more chai tea in my case). She was pretty great, and we had a nice time chatting with her. We were telling her about meetings we have set up for today and she was saying how they would be able to give us really good info of the sort we seem to be looking for. So that was encouraging.


After our meeting, Hagan and I were both wiped. We had been doing a lot of driving and standing, and so we headed back to the House of Hagans around 5. We played with doggies and ate that ganache from the previous night (tassssstyyyyyy, but a little dry. We probably should've eaten it the night before). Then we chilled out. I read books and Hagan did, too. He also made dinner reservations at Morimoto, a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar owned by Iron Chef Morimoto. HO-LY COW.


I cannot rave enough about the meal we ate. We sat at the sushi bar, first of all, so the whole time we were eating, we were watching these guys preparing sushi right in front of us. We started off with some edimame (soy beans, I think they're steamed, and served salted in their pods), and then each of us ordered sushi. I had the chef's combination, so I was presented with 10 pieces of whatever sushi the sushi chef felt like preparing for me, plus a barbecue eel roll. We finished with desserts; I had chocolate and banana fried ice cream, and I could have died on my chair and been content. This ball of banana ice cream had been dipped in chocolate that was then rolled in rice crispies and then deep fried. It was served on a bed of bananas sauteed in what I would guess was brandy, and the server brought out a little pitcher of warmed caramel to pour over it. Next to it was a little pile of chocolate (think the consistency of boxed chocolates that have the gooey chocolate center), topped with a little fried cookie. I repeat: HOLY COW. The only other way you're going to understand my joy is if you had been there and seen the blissed out faces I was making while eating this food. The fish melted in your mouth. Like, MELTED. And the dessert. UGH. SO GOOD. Besides the food, the service was phenomenal Our waiter was so friendly and easy to ask questions of, which was nice since maybe a quarter of the menu was fish we hadn't heard of. GREAT food experience.

Back to Hagan's and back to reading before heading to bed. Now it's about time to head out. It looks like today is going to be a rain all day situation, not an on and off deal, so I need to get myself prepared. And anyway, my belly is about ready for another whack at the world's best english muffin :)