A'Roma Ristorante

Saturday, April 2, 2011 A'Roma is a new place for me. A little out of my way but less than 30 minutes drive from my house. I would guess the city would be either Cerritos or La Palma. Near the 91 freeway and Orangethorpe. The dinner was "Hook & Ladder Winery" out of the Sonoma/Russian River area. I had stopped by their winery a few years back. Good every day solid wines. Reasonably priced. Josh DeLoach the owner's son and winemaker was hosting. This used to be the DeLoach winery and some of the acreage and name was sold off. The renamed themselves "Hook & Ladder" because the founder of the winery was a fireman. There were approximately 60 people in attendance tonight. Family style seating. Bread was put on the table along with a dish of butter that had a marinara sauce in the bottom of the dish. People seemed to like it that way. I really prefer my butter "plain". I really like the taste of pure butter. Bread was good. First Course: Blackened Shrimp on a nest of Capellini pasta tossed with julienned sauteed vegetables. This had an Asian twist to it. A bit different for an Italian restaurant. People really liked this dish. I was not that big of a fan of it. It did pair very well with the 2008 Russian River Gewurztraminer. Second Course: Osso Buco Manicotti. Manicotti pasta filled with Osso Buco veal, ricotta, parmesan and braised vegetables with a avery light marinara sauce. This dish was excellent. My favorite of the evening. Paired with a 2008 Russian River Pinot Noir. Wine was too young and tight. You got a real taste of alcohol on the back palate. After taking the wine and sloshing it back and forth between two glasses it improved quite a bit. The alcohol went away and the fruit became a bit more vibrant. I still did get an oaky/tannin taste on the back palate. Main Course: Beef Short Ribs - slow cooked beef short ribs in a red wine reduction served with a creamy polenta and oven baked broccoli with pine nuts and shaved parmesan. Meat was excellent. polenta was good correct, sauce was very good. I felt the broccoli could have stayed in the oven a few minutes longer. I would have preferred a more "roasted" taste to it. The wine for this dish was the Tillerman Red Blend, Russian River Valley. This wine is their "staple" They make and sell more of this blend than any other wines in their portfolio. It has always been a nice solid wine for the price. Dessert: Panna Cotta with a strawberry/grand marnier sauce. Good flavor. A nice light ending to the meal. Pours of wine were generous. You could have seconds or even third pours if you wanted. They ave a themed wine dinner at A'Roma every few months. I would definitely go back.

New Place In Town

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Went to a "new" place tonight for a wine tasting. New to me but I recall seeing this place years ago. Close to the Belmont Brewing Company. ABC Liquors & Wine in Long Beach/Belmont Shore. The tasting was held upstairs in the ":Attic". Narrow steep stairs. Old building but that's what they had then when the building was built. They set around a tray of cheeses. Some were excellent and meats. Tonight's theme was Patricia Greene wines for Oregon. 6 wines were poured. Pours were generous. They also at the end of the evening put the bottles that still had wine left in them on the table for you to help yourself. For $20 it was good. I will seek out some other tastings here in the future but with the sucked parking it would have to be a winery that I was really interesting in. Their tasting are also on Wednesdays and that is my Happy Hour night out with friends.

March Gathering Of The Winos

Sunday, March 27, 2011 Today's them was Rhone Blends from California or France. You would think that people who say they have an interest in wine and seem to think that they something about wine would know what a "Rhone Blend" was. NOT. 100% Syrah is not a "blend". California blends with Zinfandel in them are not. Wines from provence are not Rhone blends. Interesting to see who brought what. We had 27 wines today and 6 of them did not conform to the theme. Hosts food dish was ribs which the wines paired well with. This again was a gathering that had a lot of appetizers and just a couple of desserts. Since it is always pot luck you get what you get. Out of all the wines a few I found that I really liked were the 2008 Les Pallievas, Lesacines Gigondas, 2007 Perrin & Fils Cotes du Rhoine Villages, 2006 L'Aventure Cote a Cote and the 2004 Tablas Creek Espirit de Beaucastel. The 2001 Caudulet de Beaucastel also was nice. We had one corked wine and one oxidized wine. That's the luck of the draw when it comes to wines. Next month off to "Mendocino" for the theme.

Loire Valley Wines at Delius

Friday, March 25, 2011 Full house tonight at Delius , www.DeliusRestaurant.com, , for tonight's wine themed dinner. Sat at the table with George Pavlov the wine rep. First time meeting him. First Course: Duo of Oysters, one with raw citrus granite, black pepper vinaigrette and a baked oyster with horseradish, parmesan, garlic, micro arugula. Both were excellent. Served with a 2009 Clos de La Chapelle, Muscadet, Sevre et Maine. Very good pairing Second Course: Pork Belly Sous Vide, citrus glaze, cantaloupe spears, Upland cress. Wine was a 2008 Vincent Raimbault, Vouvray. Good food , but I personally like the glazed pork belly on the regular appetizer menu better. Again was a good pairing. I particularly liked this Vouvray, Third Course: Baby Arugula, toasted walnuts, blue cheese, balsamic reduction. Two wines were served with this. I was told because of the blue cheese. Wines were 2008 Joel Delaunay Touraine (Sauvignon Blanc) and a 2006 Xavier Frissant, Renaissance, Touraine Amboise (Malbec, Cab Franc & Sauvignon Blanc) Food was good, Wines were good. I could have done without this entire course. Other people loved it. I just do not happen to be a fan of greens with wine. Fourth Course: Pan roasted duck breast, pancetta & lentil stew, mini slices of brussel sprouts, micro mirepoix. Paired with a 2009 Pascal Bellier, Cheverny (Pinot Noir & Gamay) As always duck cooked to perfection. This was a top notch dish along with a very good wine. Dessert: Raisin spice cake with walnut gelato, mascarpone gelato and carrot syrup. OK when I first saw this on the menu I am wondering how this is going to taste. Sounded a bit off to me especially the carrot syrup. The syrup was on the outside of the plate. and had a very good flavor. Carrots are naturally sweet and I doubt if too much is any sugar was added to this syrup. The cake had wonderful flavor but to me the two gelatos were the absolute best. None of the wines were expensive but all paired well with the food. This makes for a very delightful dining experience. My favorites of the night were the oysters and the gelatos. I could have eaten a couple of dozen oysters and a pint of each gelato and been a very happy person. The two wines I enjoyed the most were the Vouvray and the Cheverny.

Penfolds at The Sky Room

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Sky Room at the Breakers Hotel in Long Beach hosted a wine dinner this evening. It has been several years since I have been here and the view is still spectacular. The City government hasn't had an opportunity to screw that up yet. They seem to have gone out of their way to screw everything else up in the city.

Penfolds was the wine of the evening. I was the first to arrive at the table and the wine rep, Matt from Penfolds along with Margaux Pierog the rep from Heirloom Wine Group were already seated. I was poured at glass of Penfolds 2009 Bin 51, Edna Valle Riesling. Nice and dry with a slight sweet hint of fruit. I was also offered a pour of Champagne which was the second label of Salon. It was very nice. I had met Margaux at Delius when they had the Hartford Court dinner last year. Always pays to know the wine rep. She was doing a blind tasting of the champagne to see if she could identify it. Margaux is an Advanced Sommelier.

A small reception in the bar upstairs (steep stairs) was being held so we climbed up. They were pouring the Riesling for this portion along with a small plate that had a raw oyster(very small) on a bed of salt and a Risotto/Mozzarella ball (fried). Then we had to climb down the stairs (steep) to go into the main dining area. This I do not think was a wise decision on managements part.

Dinner was held a very large round table with a stunning view of the shoreline and ocean.

First Course: Grilled Calamari with tempura vegetables and walnut sauce. - they took a tentacle of calamari and stuffed it. The stuffing, sauce and vegetables were good but I thought the calamari was tough. Certainly not the great calamari we have had at the Seafood Palace. This was served with Penfolds 2009 Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay.

Second Course: Duck Confit Tacos, napa cabbage, black forbidden rice & berry gastrique. The small shell portion (flat) was very hard to cut. Some people picked it up with their hands but I wasn't keen on that as then I would have a very messy wine stem. The Duck filling was very good. The wine paired with this dish was a Penfolds 2007 Bin 138 GMS, Barossa Valley. I thought this wine was the best of the evening.

Main Course: Fennel Herb Crusted Lamb with peppercorn pomme frites. Flavor of the lamb was excellent. But the chops (3) were way too fatty. Served with a Penfolds 2006 Bin 128 Kalimna Shiraz, South Australia. This was also a good wine and a good pairing.

Desert was a Pecan and Cheese Duo - a couple of pieces of cheese on the plate along with pecan halves with a soft cheese sandwiched between. OK, nothing to write home about. They also then brought a small creme brulee tart which was good. Served with a MV Club Reserve Classic Tawny Port.

We then had a pour of the 2009 Penfolds Grange. You could taste how good the wine should be but unfortunately it was going through a "dumb" stage and was not showing well at all. I have had Grange before so I know how good it can be and how long the bottles age. This particular year, 2009, the Grange is 100% Shiraz.

All in all a nice evening with decent food but nothing spectacular. The wines were good along with the company. I would attend another wine dinner at the Sky Room to see if I still feel the food is not quite up to the level this restaurant should be. I do not write off a place because of a "missed" dinner.

Himilayan Again

Thursday, March 17, 2011

A very small group of us went the the Himilayan at Peters Landing in Sunset Beach tonight.

We started out with two appetizers , a Vegetable Pokora and Samosa's. A couple of new dishes that we had not had before Rogan Josh (lamb) and Garlic Chicken. The chicken had the best garlic cream type sauce on it. I will definitely remember this one. We also had Lamb Saag, Shrimp Marsala and Lamb Vindaloo.

The wines brought were:
2004 Melville Clone 115 "Indigene" Pinot Noir
2005 Lucia Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir
2006 Ken Brown Clos Pepe Pinot Noir
2003 Shirvinton, McLaren Valle Shiraz
2005 Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits
Albecht Mann Alsace Grand Cru, Pinot Gris

Even though we arrived at 6:00 for dinner we were still at the restaurant at 9:30. A small group which made for very good conversation. And the wines weren't bad either. We just lingered over the wines. and talked. CJ was just back from India. His mother passed away and he spent several weeks over there for the funeral. At least he did get to see her before she passed away.

The Factory BYOB - Napa Wines

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

At The Factory in Bixby Knolls tonight's BYOB theme was "Napa" wines. When I think of Napa I immediately think "Cabernet". So I found it strange that the main course was chicken breast with a lemon sauce. Nothing on the menu screamed "CAB" and knowing people they will bring red wines to this dinner. Some people just do not know how to pair wine and food together to make dinning an enjoyable experience.

We started out with a lamb meatball with two sauces. The sauces were white and a dark red/purple tone. The lamb was good and the sauces were good. Too bad we didn't know what they were No one let us know. This dish did pair well with a few of the red wines that were brought.

Next was a mixed green salad with sliced beets, fennel, shaved Manchego cheese and walnuts with a herb, lemon olive oil dressing. I was surprised that this went well with a Neyers Merlot that was brought.

A plate of crisp baked potato rounds along with seasoned vegetables was served. I found that this paired better with a Chardonnay.

The main dish of Lemon Roasted Chicken was set before us. This had a bed of onion & garlic noodles which was very good. But no way did this dish pair with red wine. And a few people were doing that. I felt it paired well with the 2009 Twisted Vine non-oaked chardonnay that I brought. Other people must had agreed as it was the first bottle emptied.

The menu of the website had dessert as a chocolate pudding with lemon & coconut infusion. Do not know what happened but we were served a vanilla ice cream with basil and something else in it. Again no explanation or description of what was served.

There were 15 people at this dinner tonight. The crowd has fallen off. Those two bad meals in a row last year apparently influenced people and they have not been back. A young couple has this restaurant and they have made a few mistakes in the past year. Hopefully they have learned from them and will be successful in their endeavor.

There was one person in attendance that was so full of himself it almost became laughable. All he talked about were ratings and $ and especially with his wines. But this is the person that wanted me to try the BV Tapestry with the chicken because he thought it was so good. I think I hurt his feelings when I said it was ok but not a good pairing and that my chardonnay was a much better wine paired with the dish. Most of the time this person brings mediocre wines and then brags about them

I did not keep a list of what wines were on the table but along with the 2009 Twisted Vine Chardonnay and the BV Tapestry there were numerous Sauvignon Blancs which I tried none . A Josph Phelps Syrah, Neyers Merlot, Turnbull Caberent & Chardonnay, Joe Gott Sauvignon Blanc and a Domaine Caneros Bubbly. A couple of Chardonnays and a Pinot Gris were seen also,