I’m in a Colorado State of Beer

Posted on October 24, 2013 by melsmosaic

I had Billy’s Joel New York State of Mind rolling through my head so couldn’t think of a better title for the post. So, after visiting wine country in Oregon, I headed a time zone east and a couple states south to check out Ft. Collins, Colorado. I had my fix of wine so hit the breweries this time.

The problem when you go to breweries (proper) is that there are too many choices. Sometimes overwhelming. I tried to do samplers at most of them when possible. The other problem with beer? *NOTE — I am not dismissing beer, turning it down, or crossing it off my list at all! Just making travel notes for future reference. Unlike wine where you can spit, that’s not really an option with beer. Proceed with caution. And jumping three days forward, my hosts mentioned that when they moved to Colorado they noticed the beer hit them much more quickly (than when at sea level) for awhile. Thanks! You couldn’t have told me that when I got here? I wasn’t going to say anything…

Anyway….

Brewery 1: Black Bottle Brewery. Too many, way too many, beers to pick from. I honestly can’t remember which one I finally opted for to enjoy over dinner, but it was good! Some of the beer names are great, Social Insecurity being my favorite.

Brewery 2: Cooper Smith’s Pub & Brewing. Great place to both enjoy some great food and beer. I had a sip of several before deciding what to have. I do remember one that had the name ‘chili’ in it. You could taste that green chili in there — it wasn’t necessarily hot but you knew it was there.

Brewery 3: Pateros Creek Brewing Company. It’s a little bit hidden, so you have to know where to find it. They apparently have great social events in the evening, FYI, if you’re a local. It’s a small place, but nice brews. I happened to get there right before a downpour so spent a little bit of time there chatting with the beermaster. Aside from that conversation, I think I found that CO, or at least Ft. Collins, has a like of chilis, because they also had a beer with some kick. Hmmm… They also make gluten free beer. I have several friends who would be thrilled.

Brewery 4: Equinox Brewing Company. Sampling flight = 6 beers in 5 oz. pours at 5,000 ft. elevation. That’s where that whole idea/thought of no spitting/dump bucket REALLY came into play. I loved the (light) IPA. I say light as in I didn’t feel like I was bouncing off the walls, on a trampoline or on those OLD SCHOOL pogo sticks. Just a nice amount of hops. There was a red on there, too. Dang! The weekend I was there, the Great American Beer Festival happened to be in town (Denver, close enough) and many brewers were near the bar so I shared my sampler with them and it was very interesting getting their feedback/comment/sipping notes on the beer.

More to come…

Travel = Great Food!

Posted on October 23, 2013 by melsmosaic

When I was in Oregon it meant I had to eat out. Darn! My friends and I explored several places, I only remembered to get pictures at a few.

Day 1: Dinner at McMenamins – Zeus Cafe. Quite the variety. One person has chickpea fries, one went with mussels for appetizers. For dinner, I had a great thin crust pizza with grilled chicken, arugula, tomatoes and something else…I can’t remember what because it was so good!

Day 2: Lunch at Yara Lebanese Cuisine. Any place that makes Baba Ghanouj without dairy to put a ‘lactard’ on cloud nine is unreal (at least in my book). So, we had a mixed plate/yara platter appetizer then I had a house salad, and friends had kababs.

Dinner at Pok Pok. Yes, I had to use the bathroom and what did I find when I was in there? Oh, that they were elected for The James Beard Foundation Awards. This has happened for many, many years.

Anyway, other cool stuff on this place. You go put you name in line/on the list. They give you your buzzer and mention there is a bar across the street where you can wait. They are connected to these guys so you can tell the other bar what your buzzer number is and they’ll take care of it. They let you know when your table is ready. Nicely connected!

When we got our table, jumping ahead a bit, great food! I tried the Yam Tuna — thai style tuna salad with ginger, garlic, thai chilies, green onions, lemongrass, tomatoes and Oregon (oh, yes, local!) Albacore in spicy lime and fish sauce dressing. Some of it had some kick! I can see why this place is well known and recognized.

Day 3: Lunch in wine country!!!!!!!!!! Received several recommendations to try Red Hills Market. People told me it was sort of like a Dean & Deluca on a nice local level. You walk up to the counter, order and then they bring it to your table. I enjoyed a nice salami and arugula sandwich and a delicious bean soup. It was a sort of cloudy day so fit the weather perfectly.

Dinner was based on a recommendation from one of the wineries. You can never go wrong with Mexican! So, my friend and I checked out Verde Cocina. Fresh, delicious, perfect!

For me, the three staples at a mexican restaurant are a margarita, salsa and guacamole. Check!

Here, they serve you nice warm corn tortillas instead of chips with your goods. Deadly…

For dinner, they had ceviche…SOLD! I love the stuff.

Day 4: Dinner at Petisco. Little, local restaurant in the neighborhood where I was staying. I was so thrilled because I was able to have French Onion soup for the first time in ages because they use olive oil (vs butter) in the base and the cheese on top…manchego. What more could one ask? Great way to end my trip in Oregon!

Wine from A to Z, literally and figuratively

Posted on October 17, 2013 by melsmosaic

To wrap up my winery visits in Oregon, I spent some time with the CEO of one of my favorites vineyards, and found out more about it. I went to what I thought was only A to Z. Well, there is so much more to it! They also produce Rex Hill wines, which is actually the primary one at the tasting room, and a few people who work there produce their own wines in small quantities.

William (Bill) Hatcher gave me a tour of the cellars and I got to taste wines that were still ‘grape juice’ — as in had no alcohol content yet — to slowly working up to perfection. The ones I sampled went from 1-7 days ‘old’ (there is a much more technical name for this) and it was interesting getting a ‘feel’ for what the process entails. There is also a labeling system for each wine as they are being produced, then I got info on bottling, corking, distribution and more.

After that I tasted many of their amazing offerings, from whites to reds, Chards to Pinots. I don’t love Chards but wow! Bring…it…on. I spent more time talking to Bill about the history of the company, what has brought them to where they are and what/where they hope to go in the future. This is yet another location where I wanted to load up on tons of bottles but I did have to travel across the country to get home so it wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do. I somehow left with only three, knowing that would give me reason to go back. The William Hatcher bottle in the middle is Bill’s own and was quite amazing!

OR Winery Visits

Posted on October 16, 2013 by melsmosaic

After checking out the first Oregon winery, I was nice and warmed up. I checked out several others during the rest of my days in wine country.

Adelsheim Vineyard — Not what I was expecting, as in many whites. But, lots of reds, too…

Bergstrom Winery — Took/could taste a ton of influence from France.

Alexana Winery — First, fun road to get there/a little off the beaten path! Great variety of wines, hard to pick from (as in which was best).

Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards — that fishing lure of a logo pulls you in then you get the goods! I love Pinot land!

Sokol Blosser Winery — They just remodeled their tasting room, which was very nice to check out. I had never had a Rose from OR. There is a first (amazing) time for everything! They also make an ‘everyday’/table wine under the name of Evolution.

Great time, great wines, keep ’em coming Oregon!

Oregon Winery Tour

Posted on October 16, 2013 by melsmosaic

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted because I was in a wine lover’s paradise — Willamette Valley (OR) — for a couple days. I visited some wineries, met some great people and enjoyed some phenomenal varietals.

To start off my trip, I booked a tour at penner-Ash. Notice the typing on that. The owners wanted something basic for the appearance of the name/logo, as in lower case, but Ash wanted his name capitalized. But, when you read the logo it’s not the easiest to catch.

While on my trip, it was high harvest season. Grapes were being picked, processed, etc. So, I got to see lots of good stuff! Grapes fresh off the vines:

One of the next processing steps — they start at the top, get pressed and move their way down:

Grapes in the process of eventually making their way to us:

Tasted five great wines while there. All were amazing and it was tough to narrow down which ones to buy.

The tasting room at penner-Ash is so nice — it overlooks fields and hills. It was a beautiful day when I visited so I could see so much landscape. I recommend checking this place out next time you’re in the area.

Japan #4: Beer…a button away

Posted on July 12, 2013 by melsmosaic

It’s Friday, the weekend is only hours away. So what better to do than loop back to the Japan trip theme and talk about BEER??? T minus 4 hours until Happy Hour.

There are beers around the world and I was looking forward to having true Japanese beer while in the country of origin. But the best thing I found while there were beer machines. What is that you ask? You want a Coke, Sprite, Mountain Dew? You go find that machine and throw in a couple bills and voila. Over in Japan…OH, you can do the same thing for beer. HEAVEN! You can tell they aren’t as strict on the drinking (age) as we are.

Also want to highlight a couple of the beers I enjoyed, overall. There is the ‘normal’ Sapporo, which I only had once. I also only saw it on tap one time. Otherwise I looked for the ones we don’t get here or I haven’t tried. Pictures below (Asahi is the one also available in the machine).

Chocolat et moutarde

Posted on June 30, 2013 by melsmosaic

I’m in this French kick for some reason. I spoke the language all through elementary school and it has correlated to my posts, so it’s not totally out of left field.

Anyway, a couple friends were recently in Paris and brought me back some treats from the well-known city in France. They know me quite well and are fully aware of my lactose intolerance. They did some good, deep digging over there to find some non-dairy-containing chocolate (considering the dairy loving area), along with some mustard. The latter was not one I would expect.

The chocolate was super dark and had sesame seeds. Wow — what a finishing taste. For the mustard(s) — I received a pack of four Dijons, all with different flavors. Talk about potency (in a good way)! Absolutely amazing. It’s great when people you know go away and bring edible souvenirs.

Japan #2…Traditional Fare, from restaurants to 7-11

Posted on June 6, 2013 by melsmosaic

When most people think Japan (myself included), sushi is the first thing that comes to mind. The great tour guide we had on our trip to Mt. Fuji and Hakone educated us on the fact that that is not the case. It’s a special meal for the locals. Maybe only a few times a year. It’s intricate to prepare, not quick and easy. Traditional fare can include the components of it — rice, sashimi — the raw fish, and the seaweed. We also learned about a KEY staple in Japanese cuisine, miso soup.

During our tour we were given a sample of the local fare at lunch with a bite of several varieties of food, a bit ‘westernized.’ It was very nice.

That night we did the true Japanese style hotel and meal. I did not feel comfortable taking pictures in the restaurant but it was about a 9 (small) course meal with a taste of everything. It was amazing. A couple soups, several unidentifiable objects that were pretty good, some good seaweed pieces (that were purple-ish), amazing fish and other assorted tastes. Overall, definitely a meal to remember. The size was perfect, since you get a small sample of everything. And I was able to conquer the food with chopsticks! I discovered that soy sauce is not used all that much in Japan — more a Chinese staple. They provided us with a small bit and that was all — maybe a teaspoon or two.

The next morning, breakfast called. It was at that point when we realized the Japanese diet/regimen is quite similar throughout the day. Most of the dishes the waitress brought to the table were very similar to dinner. One of the oddest was the cold (super super) over easy egg on angel hair- ish pasta, which was also cold. That threw me off because I was expecting both components to be hot. For that meal I think I only tried a tiny bit of everything and much of it was less than I was hoping for, very unfortunately. But as I was taught, you have to try it all. Coffee is also hard to find. Very fortunately we came by a coffee machine in the lobby of the hotel…caffeine!

The next cool, interesting thing in Japan is 7-11. What do we think of it as here…convenience store. Coffee, soda, snacks, gas station. There, OH NO! High quality food, no lie. They have awesome sandwiches that are pre-packed and last for awhile (loved the PB one) and sashimi that I wish I could have everyday. And so affordable — about $3 for a huge pack!

Next food subject…still can’t decide!

Japan #1

Posted on June 5, 2013 by melsmosaic

Last month, personal travel took me to Japan. What an experience; from culture to scenery to food. I learned so much about any and everything. I didn’t get to take nearly enough pictures of the food I enjoyed/didn’t enjoy, but wanted to share some of what I experienced. There will be a few parts to this over a few days.

The hardest thing about being in Japan is the language barrier. Every other place I’ve traveled I’ve been able to communicate with the locals. This time, not even close (note – the one extreme is when I was trying to ask something and I spoke to the waiter in French – in Japan! One time when I couldn’t remember the Spanish word for butter, while I Spain, and whipped out the French there, that was not extreme – but while in Japan – whoa!).

When a restaurant in Japan offers an “English Menu” that normally means you get to look at pictures or plastic samples. Not so bad, I guess, and quite entertaining. The night we arrived we saw a rough idea of the tuna ‘sashimi’ with some type of sauce. Another great example was when we were near the Sumo stadium and saw bowl upon bowl, plate upon plate of display. It couldn’t look more real. I just wonder — how did they make these?

There are amazing vegetables in the area, especially at markets, though prices were high. But let me tell you — if you buy a tomato, they wrap that thing for you like it’s the most precious thing on the face of this planet. They also have some great samples of seafood, and I’m going to use the word ‘local’ stuff. I tried some things, steered clear of others. If I could identify it for the most part, I would give it a try.

Some of the best seafood bites were near the renowned seafood market. I didn’t get there to see the hands-on action because it can be hit-or-miss to actually get in. You need to arrive by 4:30am. Sometimes they let 20 people in, sometimes 100, sometimes nobody at all. Depends on the day, the mood. So, we went down to the market around 9:30am and saw the shops that were selling the food they purchased from the market.

That’s the first rundown of the trip. More to come.