I bought this wine during a recent trip to the Gold Country in California. I loved most of the wines at that winery, but this one was one of my favorite ones. At $26 it was pretty expensive for me – but I did like it a lot.
We drank it a few nights ago along with a simple dinner of french bread, soft cheese, sorpressata, coppa and olive oil. It was, once again, very good, with a rich flavor, full body, soft tannins, and memories of dark berries. It was also succulent and buttery. Mike liked it too, but I don’t think as much as I did.
In all, one of my favorite wines.
Page 108 of 162
I never buy top sirloin, because I don’t find it to be the most flavorful of steaks, but it was on sale at Safeway and I figured it was worth a try. I looked for a recipe in epicurious.com, and found this one for Grilled Steak Verciano. I made it last night and it was *very good*. It imparted the meat with a strong flavor (lots of it from wine, so don’t make it unless you like red wine), and both Mike and I loved it.
I didn’t get the grill hot enough before I cooked the steaks, so 4 minutes on each side led to a very rare steak. Next time I’ll get it hotter, but I’ll probably do 5 minutes on each side anyway.
Grilled steak with wine-soy sauce marinade
1/2 cup red wine
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dried rosemary
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2-pounds top sirloin steaks
Mix the red wine with the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, garlic and salt. Add the steaks and cover well on both sides. Marinade in the refrigerator for 6 hours, turning half way through.
Heat a grill to medium-high. Grill the steaks until done, about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.
Marga’s Best Recipes
I noticed that Cafe Sorriso has changed ownership. If anyone goes and has a comment, please put it in my original review page (like above).
Horatio’s Lounge is undergoing a renovation – the whole bar was close on a recent visit, so we had to have our desserts at the restaurant. But it’s opening in the next few days. I’m not sure if I’ll get there any time soon, so if you go, let me know how it looks. The desserts we had at the dining room weren’t as good as usual, they tasted stale. Hopefully, it’s a momentary glitch.
It seems that the Italian restaurant on Bancroft and Dutton is actually getting ready to open and the Vietnamese restaurant at East 14th and Estabrook, is progressing.
Anyway, if you know of something happening in the vibrant San Leandro restaurant scene, please comment here.
Note: Raaga has closed. Indian Oven has opened in its location.
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I was visiting my parents in the SF Valley this weekend, and my sister Kathy suggested that we go to Thai West for lunch, a favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. Alas, it was close for Sunday lunch, so we went hunting for another alternative. Raaga was the first such alternative we found – and I was glad we did.
We got to the small strip-mall restaurant around 12:30 PM on Sunday (July 2008). The place was deserted, and they were just putting out the lunch buffet. I hope people in the area are late lunchers, because no one came while we ate.
The food was very good. The buffet consisted of three meat dishes (chicken curry, goat curry and tandoori chicken), and 2 or 3 veggie dishes – I noticed a vegetable sambaal and some daal, I’m not sure if they had something else. There was also rice, vegetable pakoras, raita and things of the sort. They brought fresh nan to the table, and it was very good, thick and warm.
I loved everything I had. The tandoori chicken lacked the red dye that is usually used to give the dish its distinctive color, but it was juicy and very flavorful, without being spicy. Indeed, Mika, my picky 6-yo, ate quite a bit of it. The chicken curry was both rich and deep, a tiny bit spicy and somewhat sweet, with layers of complexity. It was not the sort of dish you tend to get in a buffet – I really enjoyed it. The goat curry was almost as good, well balanced, rich in flavor, giving you something new, yet familiar (to eaters of Indian food). Kathy tried the veggie pakoras and she thought they were very good as well, Mika even ate a couple of bites without complain.
Service was great, if silent.
The bill came up to $38 after tax. They only charged us for 3 buffets (there were 3 adults and 3 kids, but the kids mostly ate rice), and we had 4 drinks. In all, I thought it was very affordable for the quality of food.
Raaga
10110 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Chatsworth, CA
818-407-8898
Never say never, right? Reading back my old review of Pea Soup Andersen’s, it sounds like I’d sworn never to go back – but last weekend we found ourselves driving down south and hungry by the time we got to Santa Nella. And your choices for food in Santa Nella are limited: Pea Soup Andersen’s, the restaurant at the traveler’s center (which might have changed names since that review), and fast food. So I thought we’d give Pea Soup another chance. I probably wouldn’t again.
It’s not that the food was particularly bad. Mike actually enjoyed his croissant club sandwich ($9 or $10). But it wasn’t particularly good either. My BBQ Western Burger (~$10) came with bacon, 2 onion rings and BBQ sauce (I asked for it on the side), but it was cooked medium-to-well-done, rather than the medium rare I had asked for. As a result it was dry. It still tasted fine, however. The portions were very generous, though I wished they were smaller and so was the price tag. I’ve noticed that prices of burgers at restaurants have gone through the roof (I recently had a $17 burger at Adagia), but come on! – if I pay $10 for a burger I want it to be good, if not excellent.
Anyway, I think next time I may actually drive a couple of miles out of the way to Los Baños and have something to eat there instead.
Pea Soup Andersen’s
I-5 Exit 407
12411 S Highway 33
Santa Nella, CA
209-826-5534
Original Review
Marga’s I-5 Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
I have one restaurant left to review from my trip to Sonoma & the Lake Country, and that is Omelette Express, a breakfast and lunch joint in Windsor. We had breakfast there last week, when visiting the area.
I only had a bagel with cream cheese and a mocha, so I can’t really say much personally about the food. The bagel ($2.50) was a little bit too soft, but otherwise fine. The mocha ($3.50 or so) was pretty nice, but not stellar.
Mike had ham, onion, bell pepper and cheese omelet ($11), which he thought wasn’t very good. It came with potatoes that were under-salted and sort of soggy, they left much to be desired.
Service was friendly and efficient.
In all, I wouldn’t go back not just because of the mediocre omelet, but because they don’t offer the sort of things I like for breakfast (pancakes, waffles, etc.), and because they seem quite overpriced. However, if you do go, pick p one of the paper take-out menus they have around. When we went, they had coupons for $3 OFF breakfast and lunch.
Omelette Express
150 Windosr River Road
Windsor, CA
(707) 838-6920
M-F 6:30-3 PM
Sa-Su 7-4 PM
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
Sometimes it seems like grapes for wine are grown in every region in California. Recently, I have discovered the wines of the Gold Country and Paso Robles, and early this week, I discovered those of the Lake County (or to be more precise, those on the eastern side of Clearlake). While I was surprised at how good the little-known Gold Country wines were, and disappointed at how mediocre the much-better-known Paso Robles wines were – I was unprepared for how much I’d dislike many of the wines from Lake County. No wonder I haven’t come across them in other venues. In all, I went to five wineries in the region, the wines of the larger one were generally good, but the other ones left much to be desired. All the wineries we went had a $5 tasting fee – which only in the case of Ceago was justifiable.
Last weekend we headed to Sonoma and the Lake county for a little vacation. Our last evening, a Monday night in July 2008, we stayed in Clearlake Oaks, a very small town on the eastern side of the lake. Monday night is a bad night to eat at Clearlake Oaks. There are very few restaurants to begin with, and none of them were open that evening. Our only recourse if we wanted to eat was to drive to the city of Clearlake proper – not a very long drive, but it was getting lake.
There are a few Chinese and Mexican restaurants at the entrance of Clearlake, as well as what I imagine is an American restaurant at one of the hotels. Mike wanted something else, however, so we drove all our town, unsuccessfully as it turned out. We ended up at the Cactus Grill almost by default. It wasn’t a bad thing, as our meal, though not spectacular, was satisfying enough.
The little restaurant has a small dining room and patio – the dining room wasn’t air conditioned and it was an extremely warm night, so we decided to eat outside. It was quite pleasant.
Service was quite good, the waiter brought us chips immediately – though I had to ask before being told that they had a salsa bar inside. They had about 8 salsas to chose from, both mild and hot, the one closer to pico de gallo that I chose was pretty good.
Mike had one of their burritos, and he was quite pleased with it. It was large and tasty. I had the carne asada plate – which came with rice, beans, guacamole and salsa, as well as huge, very hot, flour tortillas (corn tortillas are also available). It wasn’t really different from a fajitas plate. The carne asada was a bit (only a bit) tough, but it had a very pleasant, somewhat vinegary, marinade. There wasn’t a lot of it (specially as I don’t eat either rice or beans), but I was satisfied. The guacamole tasted commercial, the type of bagged guacamole you can get at Safeway or Costco. It wasn’t bad, but I would have preferred homemade, fresh guac.
In all, it was a nice dinner. I wouldn’t be hurrying back, but if I was in the area I might visit it again.
Cactus Grill Restaurant
3900 Bayliss Ave
Clearlake, CA
(707) 994-0905
Marga’s Restaurant Reviews
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
It’d been a couple of years since I’d last gone to Buon Appetito in Hayward. I’d meant to go back and try the pastas, but for one reason or another, it never came back. Finally yesterday, Lola and I were looking for a place to go to dinner, and Buon Appetito popped into my head.
The place looks just like before, though prices have gone up a few dollars. The menu, featuring pastas and Italian main dishes, is available online.
Dinner starts with fresh French Bread served with a sauce made from garlic, Parmessan cheese, olive oil, and either red pepper or tomatoes (I couldn’t tell what was giving it that red color). It was delicious, and I ate much more than I should.
Lola ordered the Ravioli con Pomodoro, ravioli filled with spinach, swiss chard, pinenuts & ricotta cheese, that comes with a tomato & artichoke hearts sauce. She felt it tasted very Italian, like the pastas she’d enjoyed in Florence, but felt it was underseasoned. I don’t think she’d order it again.
I went with the Gnocchi al Sugo di Carne – pottato gnocchi in a beef and carrot sauce. I liked the consistency of the gnocchi, they were dense without being heavy. The meat sauce was hearty, with chunks of stewed meat and carrots. There was nothing wrong with it, but I didn’t really like it. I’m beginning to think that I may prefer Italian-American food, to that which more closely approximates the style of the mother country. In any case, I enjoyed my dish and the leftovers, but I wouldn’t necessarily order it again.
Service was very good, and the kitchen boxed my leftovers for me – the type of service you rarely get anyway.
In all, I will return to Buon Appetito, but I may stick with the main dishes, which were so good last time.
Buon Appetito
917 A Street
Hayward, CA
510.247.0120
http://www.buonappetitorestaurant.net/
Original Review
Bay Area Restaurant Reviews
UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED
Update: We’ve been to Thai Satay many times since it opened, though less frequently since Mai Thai came to town. While the restaurant was inconsistent at the beginning, it greatly improved in later years. Mike still orders their chicken penang to go quite often.
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Thai Satay is San Leandro’s only Thai restaurant, and as such we visit it from time to time. Mike often gets pad thai from there to take to his School Board meetings, and we go there for lunch once in a while. Yesterday, my friend Lola was visiting, and we decided that Thai sounded good.
I had the roasted duck, which comes in a bed of spinach and rice, accompanied by a strong, somewhat sweet sauce. The duck was nicely salted and tasted great, but it was very, very fatty. There seemed to be more fat than duck. I sort of enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t order it again. The sauce was pretty good with the rice, however.
Lola had a combination of masaman curry and basil chicken. The curry was good, though a bit heavy on the potatoes, but the chicken was unbelievably dry. The flavor, mild and inviting, was very good, but Lola couldn’t stand eating it. She did like the soup and salad which came with lunch.
At $9 each, the dishes were a bit pricy for lunch, but from time to time you can get “buy one, get one free” coupons at the SL Times.
In all, while Thai Satay doesn’t have the best Thai food in the world, it does have the best and only Thai food in San Leandro.
Thai Satay
1376 E. 14th Street
San Leandro, Ca
(510) 351-2345
http://www.thaisatay.com/
Original Review
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
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