This past summer, we visited Harley Goat Farms in Pescadero for a cheese making tour...
It was really fun and during the tour we met their llama, Bart. Truly, he is the ugliest llama I have ever met, but he was really friendly and very sweet. In order to get to know you, Bart gets really close to you, like literally an inch from your face, so he can sniff you out. It's really funny when he's not doing it to you :).
During the tour, they explained that llamas are natural bodyguards for goats. Before Bart came to live at Harley Farms, some evil-doers came in the middle of night and stole many of their goats. Bart was injured, I think and needed a home, and so the kind souls at the farm adopted him so he could shepherd the goats. Security problem solved!
Sadly, I received an email this week saying that Bart passed away in January :( and Harley Farms is having a memorial service for him this coming Sunday at the farm. I'm a fan of their Facebook page and there has been such an outpouring from the fans at this news - it's really quite touching! So I thought I would post a few pics in memoriam since I've told many of you about the farm and how worthwhile the tour is, but when/if you go, you won't have the chance to meet Bart....
Here he is (look at his teeth :D).....
I know this is a strange post, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Bart and just wanted to do my part to remember him :).
Seems like everyone I talk to lately is working on the SF 100 Things to Try Before You Die list published by 7x7...quite a cool list, but for me it's a little much :). If I attempted this list, I would narrow it down to:
#4 Spicy crab and grits at the Front Porch This just sounds so interesting to me for some reason. I think deep down, I must be a Southern girl at heart cuz I love the cuisine, especially fried anything. I'm on the hunt for authentic Southern fried chicken (preferably in the South Bay) - any recommendations?
#5 Chasu ramen at Katana-Ya Most of you prolly know that I am a total ramen addict. I am not convinced that I could love any ramen more than I love Halu, but I'm still game on trying potential contenders.
#12 Porchetta sandwich at RoliRoti Porchetta - need I say more? Everytime I've been to the Ferry Bldg there are always a gazillion people in line though. This one might take a while to check off the list.
#13 Soup dumplings at Shanghai House We were in the city today checking out the Allemany Farmers Market (very cool btw, see details a little later in this post) and were gonna go try the XLB at this place afterwards, but after eating delish Malaysian food, a pesto and egg pizza AND Bi-rite ice cream, I was stuffed.
#33 Prime Rib at House of Prime Rib Everytime someone eats here and describes their meal to me, I'm totally drooling.
#51 Maccaronara with ricotta salata at A16 I have no idea what maccaronara is, but it sounds delish. And I've always wanted to try A16.
#70 Omakase menu at Sebo I've read some reviews about this on 7x7 and the food sounds incredible. Japanese food done right.
Things I've already tried on the list: #17 Tea leaf salad at B* #35 Salted caramel ice cream at Bi-rite Creamery #36 Deep fried chicken wings at San Tung
As I mentioned above, today we visited the Alemany farmer's market to try Malaysian Lacy crepes YUMMY :).
I met the owner and her friend who are the sweetest people on the planet and they were so excited to meet a fellow Malaysian. Turns out she's an ex-pastry chef who worked at the Raffles hotel in S'pore and is planning on opening a Malaysian restaurant in the city - she even said she would hire me :) he he. I think I would be doing more eating than cooking. Here are some pics of what we ate:
Malaysian Lacy crepe with Mint Chicken Curry
Curry Puff!
Go try out her food! It's really really yummy :).
And oh yes I cannot forget to mention this - anyone wanna be on Check Please Bay Area with me? I'm seriously considering submitting an application. It's due Jan 21st, so don't delay :).
Greetings from Seattle! Like my pic of the Space Needle :)?
Seattle is totally rocking my world! It’s been a really tasty two days so far. I can’t wait to share my “eatings” with you :P.
We arrived on Wed afternoon via Amtrak and we had dinner reservations at Dahlia Lounge, part of Seattle celebrity chef Tom Douglas’ restaurant empire. His restaurants are all pretty close to each other – Dahlia Bakery is right next to Dahlia Lounge and Lola’s is right across the street. His pizzeria, Serious Pie, is around the corner. I’m usually pretty skeptical about celebrity chef establishments, but Dahlia had such great reviews that I decided to take a chance. I was crossing my fingers that this wouldn’t be like my Mesa experience in Vegas (utter disappointment).
And I am very pleased to tell you that it was the BEST meal that I’ve had during my trip (so far). Here's what we ate:
Appetizer: Seafood tapas sampler
Dahlia serves what they call "Little Tastes from the Sea Bar" which are one/two bite seafood tapas. Totally reminds me of Gochi back home. The sampler came with five of the tapas:
-Dungeness crab with apple gelee, apple julienne and celery leaf
-Kona kanpachi sashimi with ginger julienne, white miso eggplant
-Geoduck with pickled cucumber and mango sambal
-Smoked black cod with hot mustard
-Ahi tuna tartare with yuzu and avocado
I really enjoyed all of these tastings, except for the geoduck. I've never had geoduck raw before and it was a little too salty and briny for my taste. The mango sambal was excellent though. My favorites were the crab and apple gelee and the smoked black cod.
Our first course was a red wine braised beef tongue served with roasted pearl onions, baby potatoes and dijon mustard sauce. The tongue was extremely tender and all the components worked very well together. The tongue was also served with a reduction of the red wine braising liquid which resembled a demi glace.
For the entrée, all the chowhounders raved about the rotisserie 5 spice Peking duck, so I had to try it! They even split our entree into two separately plated portions for us which I thought was a lovely touch. The duck was served with spicy brussels sprouts, roasted acorn squash and pear poached in duck fat and vanilla bean. YUM!!!!!!! The duck was good, but the brussels sprouts and pear were the highlights of the dish for me. I know, I know, it sounds strange - you just have to trust me on this. I'm still trying to figure out what was in the brussels sprouts so I can try to recreate the dish on my own....
Along with the duck, we also ordered a side of Dahlia fries with curry ketchup and mustard aioli. Perfectly crisp, well seasoned and the curry ketchup was delish :).
On Thursday, we explored Pike Place market...The last time I was in Seattle for a girls trip, we went to Pike Place pretty much every day. I would have done the same thing on this trip, however Pike Place was closed on New Years (today) boo :(. So we had slim pickings today in terms of good eats. It's ok though - I'm making up for lost time by going back tomorrow before we leave for home!
Our first stop was Le Panier, french bakery known for the best croissants outside of France:
We had some great Caffe Umbria coffee and a Sable noisette cookie, Apricot croissant, and chocolate croissant:
I cannot fully express how much i LOOOOOooooooove this pastry shop! I love it so much that I bought myself a t-shirt - they only had yellow in my size, and yellow is not my favorite color, so that says a lot :). The pic above is of their apple filled pastry - so pretty! We ordered a ham and cheese filled piroshky as well as a Marzipan pastry which is my absolute all time favorite :).
Pike Place fish market is always fun to visit. Here's the monkfish on display - they have it rigged so that they can scare visitors by yanking on the tail so that the monkfish jerks up when you aren't expecting it. It's funny to watch people jump when the monkfish "comes alive" :).
For New Year's Eve dinner, we had reservations at The Brooklyn, which is a popular Seattle oyster bar and steakhouse. No pictures, but we ate:
- Beer and oyster sampler...Our beer fav was the Deschutes Black Butte Porter
- Crab cake served with mango chilli, wasabi aioli micro greens, strawberries
- Truffle dusted Black cod, lobster bisque sauce, and served with with a butternut squash and fennel gratinee, golden chantrelle mushrooms in a smoked chardonnay oil
- Steak a poivre, asparagus, roasted golden beets, mashed potatoes
- Chcolate truffle cake
Dahlia Bakery is also terrific - I had baked goodies from their practically everyday. They are famous for their coconut cream pie, but I'm not a fan so I stuck with their cookies (oatmeal apricot, chocolate chunk, dark chocolate truffle) and cupcakes (caramel popcorn). We also had their breakfast sandwiches which were quite good.
Tower of cupcakes in their window display!
On New Year's Day, we had dinner at Serious pie...
Isn't their logo cute? I really wanted a t-shirt but they don't sell them. I was joking around with the host and asked if I could get one if I washed a dish, but he wasn't too keen on that idea :).
We ordered the pizzas ahead of time for pickup because the place is tiny and you have to wait about an hour (at least) to get a table. We got the chanterelle mushroom and truffle cheese pizza.....
and the cherry bomb pepper and sweet fennel sausage pizza...
Both were quite good, the crust on the mushroom pizza was a little thicker and chewier which is more to my taste, but the cherry bomb pizza was also delish. I think at $15 - $16 for a personal size pizza, I was expecting a little more, but overall the pizzas were outstanding in terms of the crust, quality toppings and uniqueness factor.
I'm finishing up this post from the Seattle airport, which thankfully also has free wifi thanks to Google :). I'm sad that vacation is over and it's time to go back to normal daily life. But it's a new year and I have lots of exciting things to look forward to back home as well. I'm thankful for all that I've been blessed with, so Happy New Year everyone and here's to more foodie adventures in 2010!
