Eating and drinking in London

I just realized that it's been a while since this has been updated.


I will say that part of the reason is that I've been laying low for a while as far as major expenditures. I was saving money for the trip I had to take in November to India and England.


Now that is over, and I can get back to writing this. Because I have a few new things to share.


I've been writing about India at my regular blog. I'm going to write about the London part of my trip here. Because it was London where I did more hearty eating and drinking worthy of this blog.


That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the food of India. I certainly did. But I can't say that I hit as many of the major restaurants there for various reasons. I did most of my eating at the various hotels and resorts we stayed at in India, or at my father in law's house. One restaurant we did hit was called Vindhyas, and I will speak about that later.


But my guess is that most of you who read this blog would most likely find yourself travelling to a place like London over a place like Mumbai, so I will give you a few places and items I recommend in London over the next few posts.


I'll start with beer.


I did get to try several of England's finest ales in London. I'm here to say now that I am definitely a fan of English Ale. The flavor is so much more interesting than anything made in the major breweries of America.


I'm reminded of what the great Eric Idle said in one of Monty Python's live sketches in their movie from the Hollywood Bowl. He described American beer as kind of like making love in a canoe... it's fucking close to water!


Now I'm not really a beer snob. I've drank my share of Coors Light and Budweiser in my day, and I will continue to do so. But let's just say that I won't be dedicating any blog postings to their flavor.

The first beer I had in London was an ale called Old Speckled Hen. And that had the distinction of being my first ever pint in London.I enjoyed this tremendously. It wasn't too bitter, though you could faintly taste the hops in the background. It's just a good full-bodied mildly fruity ale. I expected this one to be more bitter than it was, and was mildly surprised. I would definitely order this again when I go back.

The next one was Spitfire Ale (which I didn't take a picture of). This one had more of a bitter kick to it. But it wasn't too bitter to be unpleasant. It had a good balance of fruity flavor behind it to counteract the bitterness. Bitterness is good in my book when the flavors around the bitterness are just as strong. I personally preferred the Old Speckled Hen over it, but enjoyed the Spitfire just as much.

I also tried a lighter lager beer called Tiger. I was told by the bartender who recommended it that it is an Asian beer that happens to be very popular up in Scotland. It's a little clsoer to an American style of beer, and I have since seen that it is sold in parts of America, though apparently not in every part. Anheiser Busch is marketing it here. I'd like to find it because it was pretty good. It wasn't anything special, just good.


I couldn't leave England without finding a good hard cider. I am a fan of hard cider's since my days in Boston when I used to enjoy a drink called Cider Jack. I can't seem to find that anymore. But I did find something close to that with a cider called Bulmer's.

It had been a long time since I had hard cider as good as this. If you've ever had Magner's cider here in the US, it's apparently the same thing with a different name. It's far from bitter and much fruitier obviously. People in America might think something like this is a chick drink. Maybe it is (my wife liked it a lot). But I think it can be manly since it is from Ireland. Nothing in Ireland is a chick drink. Then again... I might be wrong. I'll have to ask a full blooded Irish guy sometime. But I don't care if it is or not. It tastes really damn good.

I did get a chance to try Fuller's London Pride. But I tried it on the plane ride home. It was advertised everywhere in London, so I'm guessing it's one of the big names in England. It was tasty, though I did try the canned version so I'm thinking I may have missed out on a better taste from the bottle or draught. If I find a bottled version in America, I'm picking some up.

Next posting, I'll talk food. I hit more than a few London restaurants, and enjoyed a few English style breakfasts. By the way... British style back bacon is tremendous and way better than American bacon. There, I said it!

Sept 14, 2008 - The review of Le Bec Fin

Tonight was the night. I finally got into the main dining room of Le Bec Fin. And I'm saying it now... this review will be long. Because I have a lot to say about this place.

When I was younger, I never could envision myself dining in a place like this. Places such as Le Bec Fin were not for me. In fact, I used to think that kind of experience was highly overrated. Why would I want to spend loads of money on such a pretentious meal when I could get a very satisfying meal at the local Chinese buffet for $7? Really, in my 20's that's the way I used to think. Of course, I was a cheap bastard at the time since I wasn't making great money. So eating at $7 Chinese buffets was the height of my culinary experience.

Now... I'm still a cheap bastard. But I am a cheap bastard making somewhat better money. And every now and again I can afford to treat myself. Though meals such as this one are rare for me. It's probably only been the last few years or so where I've started searching out the occasional fine restaurant. I would say after I turned 30, I started appreciating some of the finer things on occasion.

I've heard the name Le Bec Fin for a long time. All my life, I knew it simply as this French restaurant in Center City that was really exclusive and expensive. But I can't say that I really got the desire to eat there until the last few years. As my tastes got older and I assume somewhat more refined, I did start to wonder what it would be like to eat at a place like that. So I started building up the experience in my mind.

From what I was learning about the place, eating there would be a major league chunk out of my wallet. I had heard that the dinner menu was a fixed price menu of $165 a person. Now, from what I learned, when you paid that money you got 6-9 courses of the finest French cuisine imaginable. You ate what was on their tasting menu that night and you couldn't choose. You were also there for at least three hours eating away. They had seatings at 6:15 and 9:30pm for dinner, and that was it. This was a highly exclusive place. Jacket and tie required... the whole nine yards.

Well, even with my tastes becoming more refined, that sounded way out of my league. I kept it in the back of my mind as something that maybe I'll get to do one day before I died. But it seemed way out of reach to even step foot in that place.

Then, this past year, something happened to change all that thinking.

The link above tells you more about what happened, but short story is that the proprietor, Georges Perrier, decided to lighten the place up. Le Bec Fin went more casual. It went to an A la carte menu instead of the fixed menu. Now, instead of potentially spending $400 for a couple to eat at the place, you could conceviably eat there for $100 a couple. But Georges claimed he wasn't going to dumb down the food. Even though he lost his precious fifth star in the Mobil Travel Guide (Le Bec Fin was one of only 18 restaurants in the US that had that 5 star rating at one time), he was still going to have an incredibly unique experience.

So it was now a chance to experience at least a part of that 5 star dining experience without going too crazy to do it. Now it seemed more realistic.

I tested the waters a couple of times before tonight. I found out that the bar at Le Bec Fin which was downstairs was more accessible. In other words, you could go to the downstairs bar and order off of a bar menu to get some of the same food that you got upstairs. It was a different experience and some different dishes from the main dining room, but it was from the same kitchen and the same fine chefs. It even had a different name called Le Bar Lyonnais, but it was the same Le Bec Fin building. So one day, when I'm hanging out in Philly on my own, I decide to go to the bar and see what they had. I remember it well because it was a few months ago. My goal was to order the cheapest thing on the menu just so I could say I had a taste of the place.

So what did I order? I got a bowl of French Onion soup. The price for the soup... $10.

Now the way I figured it was that if this place really served good French cuisine, then they had to make a good French Onion soup. It's the same kind of premise I have about Italian restaurants... if an Italian restuarant is good, then they must make a good meatball.

I'm here to tell you, the French Onion soup was the absolute best I have ever had. I'm talking real French Onion soup with real Gruyère cheese, and real homemade french bread in the bowl. It was so much better than those chain places that dump some mozzarella cheese in the bowl and a few croutons. No, this was the real friggin deal.

So with that, I got a little more daring. I decided to try the dessert. Le Bec Fin is world renowned for it's dessert cart. And the bar downstairs offered a sampler plate straight off the dessert cart where you tasted 4 slivers of different desserts for $12. What the hell, I gave it a shot.

I'm here to tell you this as well... best damn desserts I ever had. I mean, these desserts were as rich as rich can be. I remembered the signature dessert was named Gâteau Le Bec-Fin. You might as well call it Death by Chocolate. Most definitely the richest chocolate I have ever tasted.

Well I was hooked. I knew I had to do the full meal in the main dining room sometime.

A couple of months back, I took the wife to the downstairs bar for a drink just because we were in the area. Didn't eat anything this time except a taste of dessert with the wife since we had already eaten. But during that trip, I found out that they were going to participate in Restaurant Week in September, where you could enjoy a three course meal for $35 a person.

That was my ticket in. I could afford that. I booked a table for tonight.

Now, someone earlier on this blog had mentioned in the comments when I brought this trip up the possibility that the restaurant might not bring out their A+ food for something like this. I admit I thought that too. But I still figured that the food, while they certainly wouldn't be sending out their most exquisite and complicated dishes for $35 a person, would still be top notch A material. At least, I hoped they would.

So we arrive tonight and get seated in the main dining room. And I start looking over the menu. In fact, it was online in advance, so I'll share with you the choices we had.

First Course (choice of one)

- Seasonal soup (Chilled Artichoke Soup)
- Chicken“Ballottine”, homemade mustard, toast and petite salad
- Smoked salmon Savarin, shellfish emulsion
- Cold Taboulé salad and squid, citrus vinaigrette
- Vegetables “Tians"

Second Course (choice of one)

- Roasted chicken breast, spicy semolina and vegetables, natural jus flavored with vinegar
- Roasted beef, mash potatoes and sautéed romaine salad, Bordelaise sauce
- Roasted pork loin, spatzle and celeriac puree, natural jus
- Sautéed scallops, fennel and fresh heart of palm fricassee, Champagne vinegar émulsion
- Salmon confit in olive oil, crispy Basmati rice, mango and Pecan nut emulsion

Third Course

- Coffee cake
- Creme Brulee
- Chocolate Le Bec Fin cake
- Sorbet

First thing I notice... this menu is not nearly as complicated as the regular dinner menu. While the whole regular dinner menu was available if we wanted it, this particular menu was especially for the $35 deal. I did expect that. But that fear planted in me earlier started creeping up that maybe we weren't getting the whole A+ experience. However, the service was attentive, and the room was quite nice. So I went with it.

The wife and I both chose the same appetizer. We went with the Chicken Ballottine. You get two slices of the chicken, which was rolled up with some mushroom and truffle mousse, and a piece of toast with a dollop of spicy mustard. Pretty basic dish, I thought. Someone near us ordered the soup, and when I saw it come out it looked damn good. I started wishing I had the soup instead. But our appetizers came out and they looked good too. I took my first bite of the Le Bec Fin dining experience.

And my first thought... not bad.

Wait a minute... just "not bad"? Not "exquisite" or "mouth-wateringly good"?

The chicken was served cold. It was meant to be that way. But it had a taste like it had been prepared earlier and sitting in the fridge for a little while. I'm guessing it was prepared well in advance and sitting in a fridge chilled, which made it taste like a leftover.

Now, with the toast and mustard, it made for a pretty tasty open faced sandwich. I would have enjoyed this in another smaller scale restaurant, like maybe a small gourmet deli or something. But for a restaurant to this standard, it came in slightly under grade. In fact, I overheard a diner at the table next to us call the same dish disappointing.

This dinner may have gotten off on the wrong foot. I started kicking myself for not getting the soup.

Now a few positves to begin. The wine list at Le Bec Fin is usually long and intimidating. The cheapest glass of wine is $11, with many more glasses getting way more expensive, even into the three digit range. But for this promotion, they were serving a house pinot grigio for $7 a glass, as well as a house red. Based on our food choices, they recommended the white pinot grigio. That seemed more reasonable. They even told us the name and vintage of the wine. It was Ca' De Rocchi 2006 Pinot Grigio. I found out later that it retails for about $14 bucks a bottle in the stores. So it's not high end stuff, but it was far from cheap. So that worked out well, and meant that my wife wouldn't be ordering a $17 glass of wine like she did to me last time we drank at their bar. In fact, it also meant that a second glass was easier to swallow.

And I will say this as well... the french sourdough bread was tasty to nibble on while waiting for courses to arrive, and was served early and often. It is apparently made right there, and it tasted like it.

Now get this... here is how dedicated they are to presentation. When the appetizers are put down on the table by the food runner, one of the main servers notices that they put my wife's dish down in the opposite direction that it was supposed to be. So a completely different guy comes over, takes my wife's dish, and spins it 180 degrees to the proper serving angle. Then he goes behind us and says something to the food runner about it.

Now that's some friggin class right there.

So for our main courses, my wife goes for the chicken dish, and I go for the salmon. Excuse me... the salmon confit. And they are properly presented. So I take my first bite hoping for something better than the appetizer.

And I got it.

This piece of salmon was perfection. Now we were getting what we came here for. And the wife starts raving about the chicken. I take a taste of hers, and I must say they got a hold of a piece of juicy and fresh chicken right there. This wasn't no Perdue oven stuffer roaster, no sir. And the flavors that were added to the salmon, the juices of the emulsion were incredible and added to the flavor very well. The basmati rice had pieces of crispiness that added really good texture.

Now I knew the chefs had taken this dinner seriously.

So for dessert, the wife gets creme brulee, and I go for the signature chocolate Le Bec Fin cake. The deal is of course that we get to try each other's dessert. When I saw her creme brulee, which was a good sized portion and is one of my favorites, I almost offered to trade her dessert for my cake. Then when I took my first bite of the cake, I quickly rescinded that offer.

This is just the best damn chocolate cake there is. I mean, when you do something like that signature gourmet dessert over and over again for about 35 years, you're bound to have something really special.

So the official word on the meal is this. After a mildly disappointing appetizer which still wasn't bad, the meal fully made up for it. And while these weren't their most creative culinary creations on the menu, they are still many notches above other places. While not an A+ tonight, it was a solid A- at least, or an A on the lower end of the scale. The appetizer was about a B+, the main course a solid A, and the dessert A+ for sure.

And one of the most fun parts of the evening... we got to see Georges.

Now, Georges Perrier, the executive chef and proprietor of Le Bec Fin, is arguably Philadelphia's most famous chef. I had hoped that he was overseeing the dinner somehow. Well, there he was going through the dining room checking that all was going well. He has several restaurants now, but Le Bec Fin is his signature place and the place that made his name. Here is a guy that has won just about every major cooking award there is in the world. Truly one of the greats in cooking.

And here he is, berating his staff right in the dining room.

So right behind us before dessert is served, not more than a few feet away from our table, I hear Georges bellow out in his thick French accent to our head server, "Pain dish... pain dish! I do not like that!"

He said a few other things too in that brief tirade, they may have been in French, but that is what I remember most.

The problem... the table next to us still had their bread dishes on the table as dessert was about to be served (in French, apparently "pain" means bread... just Googled that). Those dishes apparently are supposed to be out of the way and off the table before dessert. And he saw that they were still on the table. And he let our server know about it in very blunt terms.

Well, she jumped to that table next to us, and cleared those dishes right away. But when he left the room, she did something really funny. She talked about him behind his back. She cracked that he usually calls her "stupid f-ing girl" when he does that. Apparently she has known him for 20 years and they talk to each other that way.

Then, she cracks that she must be important because he calls the hostesses out front just plain "girl". To which I immediately cracked, "Oh, so you have a special title I see."

And the diners who's table the bread dishes were on got a little nervous. First of all, there was still bread on the dishes. One of them laughingly said "what if I had still wanted to eat the bread?" And then she clutched on to what was left of her wine glass for fear that would be removed too.

Hey... when Georges says it's time to get the bread off the table, it's time to get the f-ing bread off the table.

Yeah, you think he's a bit demanding?

We also saw Georges pull out a bottle of the house red wine and take a swig of it in a glass near us. Apparently they taste all the wine themselves to make sure the bottles are good and will pair well with the food. In fact, the sommelier apparently takes a taste of each bottle they serve right when it is opened before it is poured in someone's glass just to make sure no bad bottles are there.

Now that's friggin class right there.

Oh by the way... the total bill was as follows. Two three course meals at $35 a piece, 4 glasses of wine at $7 a piece, and two coffees. Somehow that came out to $90 before tax.

I didn't question anything at the time. I just glanced at the final price of $96, threw down $120 and let it be. But as I'm driving home and thinking about it, I realized then that the math didn't totally add up. Either that, or they gave us a break on the 2nd glass of wine and the coffee was free. Or they just screwed up. I don't know.

All I know is that we got out of there much cheaper than originally planned. I was banking on the bill being around $110 before tip in advance.

Well, that didn't suck at all.

Apologies for this being long, but you don't eat at a world class restaurant like this and only write a few paragraphs about it... at least not in my world.

I'm sure this will not be my last trip to Le Bec Fin. And next time... I might even try the escargot. Just to see what the fuss is about.

Smoking with Eddie Ortega of 601 Cigars

About a few weeks ago, I got to enjoy something you don't get to do everyday.

It's not often that you actually get to enjoy a good cigar with the man who owns the company of the cigar you are smoking.

Back at the end of July, the last Saturday in July to be exact, I made my annual trip up to the Lehigh Valley to see the Philadelphia Eagles training camp. In recent years, this trip has included a second part to visit the Cigars International superstore in Bethlehem, PA.

To me it is an absolutely perfect day. I enjoy seeing my favorite team live and in person in the morning, get a few autographs, then I head over to Bethlehem for a couple of hours and veg out in the cigar lounge with some fine smokes.

Well this year, things changed a bit. I would up driving over an hour to the training camp site, only to find out just before I got there that the morning practice had been cancelled. Not because of weather, but because a water main break flooded the field. So the training camp idea was done for me, and it was only 9:00 am.

I'm thinking I might have to kick around town for a couple of hours before the cigar shop opened, but a phone call to the shop informed me that they actually open early. So thankfully, I got to head to the shop for a morning smoke instead. I'm not usually a morning smoker, but why not give it a try for once? Not like I had anything better to do.

Let me say something about Cigars International. Not only do they have a great website with really good deals, their superstore in Bethlehem is amazing. Imagine a cigar warehouse with a huge lounge in the back. I love the choice of brands too. They get some cigar brands that you don't often find at normal cigar shops, and they get exclusive lines of cigars from some brands that aren't sold anywhere else. I'll tell you about my cigar purchases later.

As I get there just before 9:30, I see that they are hosting a cigar event at 10 am with Eddie Ortega, who owns a cigar brand called 601. He was arriving to promote his cigars, and apparently to give out some free samples.

This trip, which started out so disappointing, quickly became worth it when I heard the words "free cigars". In my world, that brightens my day quickly.

So I'm browsing around the store which isn't crowded at all, and Eddie Ortega shows up for his event early, well before 10 am. So I got to meet him well before the afternoon rush of people. He struck me as a very nice guy, and seemed to love meeting fellow cigar smokers. So we got to chatting right away. As we are chatting, he hands me a free sample fresh out of a new box.

Now, he didn't just hand me some run of the mill stogie here. The brand he was sampling was his new line called Cubao. And the stick he handed me was the Lancero size, which looked to be at least a good hour and a half smoke. Just for kicks, I asked him how much it would cost me to buy one of these cigars individually, and he said around $9 to $10. Which, according to Cigars International website selling a 5 pack of Lanceros for $48 is about right.

Well, anyone who hands me a $10 cigar is immediately my best friend, at least for the next couple of hours.

Honest review of this cigar is that it may not be for everybody. But it was definitely for me. This cigar had three things going for it that I liked. It has a corojo wrapper, it's medium to full bodied, and it is Nicaraguan. I'm learning more and more that I like fuller bodied cigars, and I'm learning more and more that Nicaraguan cigars are top of the line. Eddie claims Nicaraguan cigars are every bit as good as a good Cuban. I think I'm starting to believe him based on other Nicaraguan smokes I have had.

If you don't like these things, this cigar might overpower you a bit with it's flavor. But if you do, this smoke is for you. It had a great peppery flavor right off the bat that stings the tongue right in the back of the throat. About 4 or 5 years ago, I might not have liked that as much. Today, I've grown up as a cigar smoker and I dig that kind of flavor much more.

Eddie lit a Cubao up with me, and we got to talking. One thing he shared with me is his recommendation of the Partagas Series D cigar. Let's just say that you can't exactly get that cigar in the US. But when I make my trip to London, England later this year on the way back from India, I will be searching for one of those.

We also discussed the best way to cut a cigar, and surprisingly he just likes to bite the end off of the cigar and start smoking. He says the cigar cut just isn't that big of a deal to him. I know many cigar smokers that might think that idea is hogwash. In their minds, if it isn't cut by a double guillotine cutter that costs $70, it isn't a good cut. Well, when the owner of the company tells you to just go ahead and bite the end off of one of his $10 cigars, you take him at his word. I'm here to report that the Cubao smokes just fine that way, thank you.

I did eventually leave him be to speak with other customers as they filtered in, but I also bought up one of his 601 Green Oscuro Corona for my 2nd smoke of the day. It's not often that I smoke two cigars in a sitting, but what the hell. Eddie warned me that this was probably his strongest smoke, which is why I bought the smallest size he had.

My thoughts on the 601 Green Oscuro... not as peppery as the Cubao. It's more of a smooth smoke for me. Fuller bodied, definitely. I remember thinking that I could handle a larger size of this smoke if that was the only cigar I was smoking all day. But after tackling the Cubao first, this small size was about all I could handle that day. You don't smoke this cigar on an empty stomach. I wouldn't mind having this cigar on hand after a nice steak dinner. It was definitely a good choice for sitting there in the cigar lounge with a group of guys from Virginia I had met as we talked some football.

This is probably the best compliment I can give Eddie Ortega. When I made my trip up to Cigars International, I had my eye on several cigars I knew I had to grab ahead of time. I bought 5 other cigars there. Two of them I had been waiting to try for a good while but couldn't get at home. These were the Montecristo Media Noche #3 size, and the Perdomo Reserve Maduro. Aside from the other cigars I grabbed there, these two in particular I had been waiting weeks to try. So, after buying those cigars I had been waiting weeks to try, I wound up smoking two of Eddie's cigars instead that day. I wound up saving those other two cigars for another time.

Let me say this as well... I eventually smoked that Montecristo Media Noche a couple of weeks later, and while it was a good cigar, I found myself a little let down by it. For my standards, I thought it was a little less flavorful than it should have been, especially for a maduro. Montecristo usually doesn't disappoint me. Perhaps I should have had less expectations going in. The Perdomo Reserve Maduro, however, lived up to my expectations. That's a fine cigar.

So Eddie's 601 and Cubao cigars have converted me. They wound up being better than at least one cigar I had been waiting weeks to try, and just as good as another. Since our meeting, I have picked up a 601 Blue Box-Pressed Maduro which is sitting in the humidor waiting to be smoked at a later date.

Big thanks to Eddie Ortega of 601 Cigars for good smokes and good conversation. Hopefully we will meet again sometime.

A few cigar notes... and a future review

I figured I'd throw out a few cigar reviews this time of recent smokes. It's been a while.

And I do have a big night planned on Sept 14th. As of now, I have reservations for what might be the finest restaurant in Philadelphia that evening, Le Bec Fin. I've been wanting to eat there for some time, and that week is Philly Restaurant Week where you can eat at just about any fine restaurant in Center City for $35 a person. Believe me when I tell you, Le Bec Fin is usually not that inexpensive. I will definitely be writing that one up.

Anyway, here's a few cigars that you should try if you get a chance.

- Te-Amo Honduran Blend World Selection Series

Te-Amo is usually not that great of a brand. They're a Mexican brand, and highly cheap. But this line they have put out got some great reviews in a couple of cigar magazines I read recently. The World Selection Series has a Nicaraguan blend, a Honduran blend, and a Dominican blend. I bought one of each at $3.50 a stick. I've only smoked the Honduran so far. I must say for a company that usually puts out cheap mediocre cigars, these are much more high end for a low price. Good flavor, decent draw, and stayed lit pretty well. I am impressed.

- 5 Vegas Cask Strength

Only smoke this one if you like really full bodied cigars. In fact, I'm not sure if they make them anymore. The one I recently smoked I had in my humidor for about a year. And the place I got them doesn't seem to carry them anymore. Too bad, because I loved it. Maybe the extra aging helped it to smoke better. And if there are any for sale out there, go ahead and grab one.

- Punch Maduro

I'm starting to realize that I like Maduro cigars more and more. I once thought I was a more mild to medium smoker, but now I'm guessing that I'm a full-bodied smoke kind of guy. Make sense since I'm a full-bodied guy I guess. I got a hold of one of these at a Punch tasting event a short time ago at a local cigar shop. I was highly impressed. Punch is another one of those good brands that may not be as good as some of the higher end stuff, but they deliver a high end type of smoke at a more reasonable price. Anytime you can get a great smoke in the $3 to $4 range where others cost over $10, you've got to go for that.

Just thinking of my next idea...

I promise, I'm not done yet.

Just debating what the next post will be.

Stay tuned!

Chapter 9: Napa Valley wine

At some point, I gotta talk about the San Francisco area portion of my trip. Guess I oughta start now.

I can't sit here and say that I am an expert on wine... yet. I would say that my knowledge of wine is just above the novice stage. I've learned a lot more about it in recent years. I don't have a good enough palate to tell you which grapes were used in the wine. But I have moved into a realm where I am more than just a casual drinker I believe.

Up until now, my major wine experiences have been in the state of PA. Pennsylvania wine is becoming bigger. The area I live in near Philly is seeing more than a few wineries pop up within driving distance of the city. And they are putting out some pretty good product. Sometime soon, I will devote a blog posting to PA wineries.

But let me tell you something... PA ain't Napa! Napa Valley is another world when it comes to wine. You probably knew that already, but you don't really know it until you've seen it.

Imagine this... driving for miles and miles, and all you see are fields of grapevines, literally one after the other on both sides of the road, and right next to each other. I mean, it is grapes, grapes, grapes, and more grapes as far as you can see. It's not like grapes, grapes, corn, and grapes. Or grapes, grapes, lettuce, and grapes. Or even grapes, grapes, Spam, and grapes. Everyone there grows grapes and nothing else, at least in the area I was in.

Let's put it this way... if you don't like grapes, don't go there.

I have 4 Napa Valley wineries to report on. Our tour took us to 4 wineries deep in the heart of Napa Valley. We didn't just go to Sonoma and turn around, no. We went right into the heart of everything. At least that was what the tour guide told us. And between 4 wineries, we got to sample 20 different wines total. I got a lesson for sure.

The first winery was V.Sattui Winery.

You know what the best thing about V.Sattui was? The food at the deli was tremendous. This is where we got to eat lunch, and they have a deli on premises that does nothing but gourmet sandwiches and dishes (if you ever go there, try the gnocchi... it's phenomenal).

Now, don't you think it is a little odd that I'm talking about a winery, and the first thing I say is that it has great food? There's a reason for that. The wine itself... not bad, but not memorable. In fact, during our tasting (I liked the fact that they gave us a $5 tasting option which was cheaper than the other wineries that charged $10), I would say that this was the only place of the 4 where my wife and I tasted a wine that we didn't like. If I remember correctly, it was the Sattui Family Cabernet that didn't work for us. Other wines, such as the riesling, were quite good. But the fact that one did not taste good kinda sat with us for the rest of the tasting. In fact, we also got to hear from the guy pouring the wines how another one of their wines was absolute crap and he wouldn't recommend it to anyone even though it was a popular wine (I don't remember the name of the wine).

Gee, it's real good when your employees tell the customers that something you sell is crap. I mean, bravo for his honesty. But it's not a good sign.

This place does have some good wine mixed in with some not so good. Perhaps it is more for your individual tastes. I just thought the food was a better experience here than the wine.

We then moved on to Domaine Chandon.

Now this place was pretty. I mean, this place reeked of class. They specialize in sparkling wines. The deal here was for $10 you got a tour and a tasting. For the tour, we got a gentleman named Mark who is pictured above in the black shirt giving the tasting lecture.

Mark defines the word "perky". I mean, this guy behaved like he poured coffee directly on his Frosted Flakes earlier in the morning. Very nice guy, very boisterous voice, and as I said, entirely too perky For some reason, he kept calling us "Lively Group". Not "A Lively Group", just "Lively Group." At least 20 times during the tour he would yell out, "Let's go, Lively Group!" After about 15 times, it gets a little old. But he was a really nice guy. And did I mention perky?

But here's the thing about the tour. We saw a grapevine in a cage which was set up just for the tour so the guide can talk about the grapes. We didn't see the grapevine field itself. No, we just got a cage with grapevines in it. Then we went inside to see the barrels. Then we got a little lecture on aging wine while standing next to those barrels... and that was it.

Litereally, this was what we saw for at least 70% of the tour...

Forgive me if I wasn't impressed with the tour. They should just call the tour "Come look at our barrels!" Because that's what it felt like. I was expecting a little more.

But the wine tasting was outside on the grounds which was pretty cool as you can see from the photos above. And the wines they gave us were all tasty. All 3 of them.

You know, I would have gladly given up the tour to get to taste two more wines instead. This place gave us the least amount of wines to sample among the 4 wineries we toured. That was disappointing. We had about 6 wines at V.Sattui even though one of them was crap. We got 5-6 glasses of wine at the next two places we visited. To get only three after a half hearted tour let me down a bit.

I did grab a bottle of their pinot noir rose from their shop because it was on sale for half price and I love a deal. Haven't touched it yet. I'll let you know when I do.

Now you may think that I was disappointed so far. I mean, these two places were good experiences overall, but they had things about them that let me down. Now let me tell you about the places that didn't let me down at all.

The third place we visited was Andretti Winery.

If the name sounds familiar, the owner of the winery is race car driving legend Mario Andretti. This place was definitely the most impressive looking of all the wineries. I mean, he built this place right. The pictures above are only three of what I took. I probably took more pics of this winery than all the others combined. As you can tell, it is quite gorgeous. I was told that Andretti on occasion shows up at the winery and had been there the previous Friday, but he was not around that day. Bummer. That would have been cool to see him.

So the tasting had an interesting wrinkle. $10 gets you 4 wines of your choosing, which we did. On the list, I saw a port wine that was available. I inquired about it, but found out that you had to pay an extra $2 to taste the port. To which I replied, "Gee, that's a shame." This place was probably the most expensive place of them all. And for some reason, I felt too cheap to pay an extra two bucks for a mouthful of port.

However, the guy doing the pouring decided to be nice that day. He poured me a taste of the port on the house. Very nice of him. It is called the Montona 2003 Zinfandel Port.

Gang, imagine a thick sweet wine that tastes like chocolate and berries. That was the Montona 2003 Zinfandel Port. This wine made me go "WOW" after tasting it. This one gets my award for best tasting wine of the tour.

I do regret not buying a bottle of it. Truth was I was saving my money for the final winery on the tour which the tour guide told us was the best deal for buying wine on the tour. But that port at Andretti Winery is something I'm not going to forget. Maybe somewhere down the line I'll find a way to get a bottle of it, if I can only find a way to get it shipped to PA (don't get me started on wine laws for shipping to PA, which are pathetic). And as a result, I have decided that I want to try more bottles of port in my life. It has opened my eyes to a new world of wine.

So now, we come to the fourth and final winery of the tour which is Rutherford Ranch.

Truth is, this place wasn't much to look at compared to the other wineries. That's why I had to resort to taking a pic of the wine glass just to get something that resembled artistic. But the wine was tasty.

During the tasting, one of the wines came with a piece of dark chocolate just to enhance the flavor. Of all 4 of the wineries, they were the only one to do something like that. It came with the Rhiannon Red Wine. And it worked well together. Nice touch.

But here's the best part. It was $10 for their tasting. And the deal was with that tasting meant you could take the price of the tasting off of one bottle of wine in the store. Which meant that a $20 bottle of wine became a $10 bottle of wine. That was the deal I was waiting for.

I wound up buying a bottle of their Napa Valley Zinfandel Port with my deal. The wife picked up a bottle of that Rhiannon Red with hers. And we even threw in a small bottle of their Cabernet Sauvignon which was the first bottle we drank when we got home. This place definitely gets the award for best combination of taste and price.

While their Rutherford Ranch brand is priced in the $20 range, they also have a side brand called Round Hill which is priced under $10 a bottle. In fact, the white zinfandel of Round Hill was $4.50 a bottle. I didn't get any, but I thought it to be a good touch to market a Napa Valley wine to cheapskates. As a result, I don't know if it is any good. But I'm willing to bet it might not suck.

That's all I got for Napa Valley. I may never get back there again in my life. But who knows? It was definitely worth the $95 a ticket for the bus tour. At least I didn't have to drive back to San Fran after sampling 20 wines.

Chapter 8: Burgers... East Coast vs. West Coast

Don't let the title fool you. I'm pretty sure that there really isn't much difference between burgers on the east coast vs. the west coast. But it's more fun to title things that way.

Rather, I do think that there is a difference between what people consider good on either side of this country.

I've heard so many good things about In-N-Out Burger. It seems to have a cult-like following on the west side. I had to figure out what the big deal was. So going to In-N-Out Burger at least once was a goal of my trip out west.

I did fulfill that goal twice. Once in Vegas, and once in San Francisco.

My official verdict on In-N-Out Burger... pretty darn good.

First thing I figured out is that you really have to order a double from them in order to get a significant amount of meat on the burger. In Vegas, I ordered a single burger. While it tasted pretty good, I figured out it didn't have as much meat on it that I thought it would. In the San Francisco In-N-Out near Fisherman's Wharf, I went for the double and was more satisfied.

I do give it up to them. They do make everything fresh. It's important to do that at a burger joint. They do take some pride in what they do. It's definitely 2 or 3 steps above any McDonalds out there. And toasting the bun helps the taste, even if there is less meat.

I can see why people would love it.

But there's a reason I only said "pretty darn good" instead of awesome, or incredible.

No, it wasn't the best burger I ever had.

This is a burger chain, and anytime there's a chain restaurant involved, I will always judge them more harshly than an individually owned joint.

Let's just say that if you put an In-N-Out Burger in front of me for free, and told me I could have that, or pay 5 bucks for a Bartley's burger from Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, let's just say I'm going to shell out the 5 bucks for the better burger.

OK, who am I fooling? I'll find a way to eat both burgers.

Actually, if you want to compare chains, I'll walk away from an In-N-Out burger to get to a Five Guys burger. The Five Guys chain started in the DC area from what I am told, but they are taking the Northeast by storm. They might be the best burger joint in Philadelphia right now, which is saying a lot for a chain.

I might say that again, I'll find a way to eat both burgers, but in this case, a Five Guys burger is so satisfying, I don't need a second burger. They're that good.

Hell, my wife even loves Five Guys burgers... and she doesn't even eat a lot of red meat. She won't eat a steak. But put a Five Guys burger in front of her and she'll go nuts.

So don't get me wrong. Kudos to In-N-Out. It is a tasty burger.

But let's just say that if I get back to the west side of the U.S. and A. anytime soon, In-N-Out burger won't be a must-have this time. Though I wouldn't say no to one, I just won't go out of my way to get one.