La Trattoria

Last night we tried a new (to us) restaurant for dinner.  They've been open since November of 2001 and the restaurant is owned by a husband and wife team.  They serve Italian cuisine, mostly Northern Italian in the winter months, more Southern in the summer.  The name of this quaint little restaurant is La Trattoria which means "the cafe" in Italian.  You won't find your typical Americanized, over cheesed Italian food here.  It's more like something you would get if you visited an Italian family and mamma from the old country cooked for you.  They use mostly local and organic foods, serve vegetarian and omnivore alike and have a nice wine list.  The menu changes daily, so you'll never know for sure what your choices will be for that night.  They're small and busy, so make reservations.  (707-822-6101)

Last night this was there menu:

We started with the marinated vegetables, lentil salad, pecarino and salami.  The vegetables were mostly rutabagas, and carrots and they were subtly marinated.  I usually don't care for rutabagas, but these were quite good.  The lentil salad was extrememely simple, a mild sauce and mellow herbs.  The cheese was excellent and the salami locally made and delicious.  We also ordered a bottle of Il Montaggio from our local Fieldbrook Winery. 

A small house salad that comes with the main course was served next.  A blend of various local and very fresh greens with a mild vinaigrette.

For the main course John ordered the braised pork shoulder in white wine and onions served with scalloped rutagabas and potatoes and barley.  The sauce was so mild that the flavor of the pork stood out on it's own, tender and delcious.  The barley was simply barley, cooked probably, in their own vegetable stock, and was perfectly done.  As I mentioned before I'm not a big rutabaga fan, but the scalloped rutabagas and potatoes were incredible.  John was having what I call a Ratatouille moment. That moment in the movie where the food critic, Antono Ego, is taken back to his childhood with the first bite of his dish or ratatouille.  John felt like he was home having a childhood Sunday dinner.  It was over the top comfort food.

I ordered the potato, leek, and caper ravioli's (they make their own pasta) topped with spinach, fava beans and pecarino cheese (lots of it!) with a basalmic browned butter.
The pasta was perfectly made and cooked.  Like savory little pillows on your tongue.  A perfect blend of the mild soft potato and leek contrasted by the capers.  The spinach was not over done, a brilliant green, and the fava beans were buttery.  The ravioli's didn't have much salt on them, but the pecarino cheese had the perfect amount of saltiness that none was needed, and was an excellent contrast the the basalmic browned butter.  Just enough basalmic to have the flavor, but not be sour.  Heavenly. 

We were too full after dinner to have a big dessert, so we ordered a couple glasses of port.  Benjamin Port, which was served with two small pieces of good chocolate. 

The service was excellent, considering the number of people and that the husband (James Becker) was the only waiter on duty, besides two bus boys, while his wife (Patricial Cambiancica) cooked in back.  There was minimal wait time and the tables were turned quickly but without being rushed.  The prices were reasonable for such good food as well, and I cannot wait to go back and see what they have on their menu the next time.  I highly recommend this restaurant.  It's relaxed, casual, the food is of very high quality, but not pretentious, nor are the owners.  Be sure to check them out.

Lunch from Roy's

Roy's Club Italian Restaurant. I've had some great dinners at this place. It's old style. Like the place I use to go to as a child, called the Empire Room, where Carol the waitress always brought Dad his bourbon and water, Mom her Vodka and Tonic and me a Shirley Temple, unless I was feeling feisty and wanted a Roy Rogers before taking our dinner orders. It's dark and red complete with oil paintings of Italian ruins and live music and the first thing on your table is the antipasta plate. Just like the Empire Room. But just to the right side of this lovely old restaurant is Roy's deli, where you can buy old style meat cuts. Coppa, headcheese, prosciutto, freshly sliced. They have an awesome little grocery store full of Italian imported goodies, but best of all they make sandwiches to die for. So, when I had to work my first full day in a while and I actually had a lunch hour I decided I'd to Roy's and get myself a sandwich. It was a hard decision between all the yummy things on their menu board, but I finally set my sights on and Italian Dip. I love French Dip's, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with an Italian one. I was right. It was wonderful. It was sliced Focaccia bread loaded with fresh roast beef with provolone melted on top served with a side of auj ju. I was in absolute dip heaven!

Dem Bones

The other day I was walking through our local Ray's Food Place and discovered this:


All I could think was, "too cool!" I could roast my own marrow bones. Yes! My fantasy is to make them taste like the roasted marrow I had at Restaurant 301 for our anniversary a couple of years ago. I've loved marrow since I was a child, and my father and I would fight over the marrow in the bone on the round steaks mom would cook up about 3 nights a week, or so it seemed. The roasted marrow at 301 brought back a lot of childhood memories. The chef took this way beyond that little bit of round steak marrow though. The texture was buttery and a great contrast to the crunchy toast it was meant to be spread on, and the flavor was simple and smoky. It was paired with a dry rose, which was perfect with the smoky flavor.

But, having never cooked marrow bones before, I wasn't sure what to do. In searching for a recipe I discovered that Anthony Bourdain's death row meal would be Fergus Henderson's roasted marrow and parsley salad. ( He likes to play this game where he asks you what your death row meal would be). Well I just happened to find that very recipe on line.

So here is Fergus Henderson's recipe, and I hope I can make it good enough to be worth declaring as a death row meal

* 12 x 7-8cm pieces of middle veal marrowbone a healthy bunch of flat-leaf parsley, picked from its stems
* 2 shallots, peeled and very thinly sliced
* 1 modest handful of capers (extra-fine if possible)

Dressing

* juice of one lemon
* extra virgin olive oil
* a pinch of sea salt and pepper
* a good supply of toast
* coarse sea salt

Method

Put the bone marrow in an ovenproof frying pan and place in a hot oven. The roasting process should take about 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the bone. You are looking for the marrow to be loose and giving, but not melted away, which it will do if left too long (traditionally, the ends would be covered to prevent any seepage, but I like the colouring and crispness at the end).

Meanwhile, lightly chop your parsley, just enough to discipline it, mix it with the shallots and capers, and at the last moment, dress.

Here is a dish that should not be completely seasoned before leaving the kitchen ... A last-minute seasoning ... by the actual eater ... especially in the case of coarse sea salt, gives texture and uplift at the moment of eating. My approach is to scrape the marrow from the bone on to the toast and season with coarse sea salt. Then a pinch of parsley salad on top of this and eat. Of course, once you have your pile of bones, salad, toast and salt, it is "liberty hall".

Serves: 4

This recipe is taken from Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson. Published by Bloomsbury and distributed in Australia by Allen & Unwin. $45 (HB).

And hopefully it will taste as good as this looks:

Places to eat in Mendocino

I finally have some time to write a bit today. I've been wanting to list some of the great places my husband and I ate at a couple of weekends ago in Mendocino County.
Obviously from my last post you can see we had dinner at the Ledford House and found it to be a great place to eat. If I get the chance, I will definitely eat there again. The next morning we found a little restaurant in the town of Mendocino called Bayview Cafe'. It was upstairs on Main Street and has a great view of the bay, just as the name implies. The menu wasn't fancy, but the eggs florentine I had was excellent. John had eggs benedict and really enjoyed them. I never got a chance to get a bite of his food, so I'll have to take his word for it. Mendocino, being a tourist town, provided some great people watching while we ate, when it was possible to take your eyes off of the view outside. It's such a pretty little town. (if you go to Bayview Cafe' be aware that they do not take credit or debit cards. Cash or check only)

After lunch we went out to Point Cabrillo Light house and walked breakfast off. We enjoyed checking out the historical light keepers house and were surprised to see that it was possible to stay in one of the restored houses. They are in the process of restoring a third building which will probably be available for lodging in the future. After that we headed north to Fort Bragg to explore. On our way we ran on to the little town of Casper celebrating their Abalone Festival. The urge to stop dissipated as we drove through and saw the lack of parking and the masses of people. We also knew that only "judges" were allowed to eat the abalone. I really didn't feel like going to an abalone festival where I can't eat abalone. So we continued on to Fort Bragg.

John drove around scoping out all of the taqueria's in town so he'll be able to try them out next time he's in town for work. Hopefully I'll get to try a few out too. We ended up driving down to Noyo Harbor and checked out the local color. We decided to go to Silvers at the Warf and have a couple of cocktails. We ended up ordering fried calamari and oysters on the half shell. Yum! The calamari was great, but the oysters were amazing. They were so fresh, they tasted like the ocean smells on a clear breezy day on the Pacific Northwest. They didn't need a sauce, but the one provided was delicious. It was sweet, but with a heat that showed up a few seconds after swallowing the oyster. It had an Asian flavor to it, and would be great with shrimp. I definitely want to come back to Silvers for dinner. Oh, and the bartender makes a great bloody mary.

By evening John was feeling bloated and not so hot after so much rich food. We ended up eating at the Mendocino Hotel in Mendocino. We just had soup and starters, but I very much enjoyed my dinner. I had a french onion soup and John had the clam chowder. He enjoyed it, in spite of not feeling all that well. He ordered a ceasar salad, but didn't feel well enough to eat it. Next I had the Napoleon of Ahi Tuna Tartare which was chopped and mixed with a sweet sauce and served on top of crisp won ton's with cucumbers and a siracha emulsion. Nicely presented and very good. I also ordered their California Artisanal Cheese Plate. I wasn't too impressed with this. First of all no one told me what kind of cheese I was being served. I figured out that one was a Chevre, and the other some type of blue cheese. There was a hard cheese with peppercorns in it. I think it was a sheep cheese and it resembled a mild parmesan. These were served in two very large triangles, which seemed odd. There were basic water crackers, chutney, and fruit on the plate as well. I would have preferred crisp baguette with the soft cheeses. I was too full to eat much, and decided it was good enough to take back to our room for a midnight snack. What most impressed me about the Mendocino Hotel was the craftsman style decor. A very pretty place and the food and service is good enough that I would be happy to come back and try a full dinner, but I'll skip the cheese plate next time.

The next morning before heading home, we had to try one more place. We went back to Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg and found a tiny little restaurant, right on the water called Chapter and Moon. We were greeted (if you can call it that) by a grumpy looking old man, who looked like he was tired out from busting knee caps for the mob the night before. He handed us a one page menu with 3 items on it. Egg's cooked any way you like with your choice of meat, which included bacon, sausage and ham. There was also French toast, and Omelet of the day. Uncle Guido informed us that the omelet of the day was, "a sausage omelet with some other stuff in it. You know, like peppers and things." Well all righty then! He did get around to asking us if we would like coffee, which we were pleasantly surprised to be served a very strong, dark and delicious cup of joe. I assume other beverages were available because I saw customers drinking tea, orange juice and other juices. They also appeared to have a bar of some kind. Well, we went for the sausage and stuff omelet and were not disappointed. The eggs were light and fluffy. Cooked perfectly. The sausage tasted like it was home made and I liked that the omelet wasn't loaded down with a ton of cheese. There were no peppers in it, but there were carmelized onions and tomatoes. The hash browns were unusual and very good. They were more like tiny little fries, cooked to a perfect crisp and they were light and crunchy in your mouth. Other than Uncle Guido, who actually added to the charm of the place in his disturbing demeanor, the service was excellent. It turns out that the chef is locally very well known from working in several of the great restaurants in the area and decided to start her own restaurant. She bakes all of her own bread for the meals, and the sourdough toast we had with breakfast was yummy. I would loved to come back to this place and try one of the pulled pork sandwiches I saw on the lunch menu. I highly recommend this place. Especially to people who have a hard time deciding what to have for breakfast. Your options are limited, so it's easy to decide, and you can bet whatever you order is going to be good.

So there you have it. A fun and food filled weekend. And I actually managed to not gain a single pound through it all! Woo Hoo!

Reporting Back

I have to say the Ledford House was definitely no disappointment. Heavenly is what dinner was. We started with two cocktails. I had a vodka martini and John a Tangeray Gin and Tonic. We ordered a bottle of 2004 Navarro Pinot Noir, which turned out to be absolutely "yummy". Our starters were a dozen oysters on the half shell with a wonderful sauce and escargot. My first escargot ever and it was delicious! They also served fresh bread. Half white, the other half a rustic seeded bread that was wonderful. There was extra virgin olive oil to dip it in, plus the basalmic vinegar that the olives were in. Our main courses were, for me, the braised rabbit. Oh My God!!!! YUM! I haven't had rabbit in years. I forgot that it really does not taste like chicken. This dish brought back child hood memories, and then chased past them with the wonderful sauce that was sitting in my bowl mixed with the mashed potatoes. John had the cassoulet. Another big fat YUM! You can look at the menu on my last post to see what was in it. All I got to taste was the duck, and it was wonderful. For desert we had port (complementary because is was our anniversary) and we shared bread pudding. This is one of the best bread puddings of all time. The caramel sauce was still sugary, just like the bottom of your cereal bowl when you were a kid, the part you liked to lick out when your parents weren't looking. The whole dinner was delicious and magical, including the beautiful sunset over the ocean just as we were seated. I highly recommend the Ledford House for your next dining experience in the Fort Bragg area. Tomorrow, or soon after I'll tell you about the other places we ate. Lots of yum coming up.
Check out more about the Ledford House at http://www.Ledfordhouse.com