Friday, June 29, 2018--We made a pilgrimage to Plymouth, California, in Amador County for cigars, wine and hamburgers. It sounds strange, but the restaurant for lunch, Taste, is in Plymouth, about an hour from Sacramento, in Amador County, the site of many wineries. One of the dishes they serve for lunch is a mushroom cigar, a stuffed Chinese style roll, standing on a small patty of mashed potatoes. Absolutely exquisite. Wines that never leave Amador County, made in small amounts, predominate on the menu and are available at the local tasting room about a mile away, Amador 360.
Taste is an upscale restaurant in a downscale town. In fact, except for a few buildings, Plymouth is hardscrabble, fighting to regain some of its lure from its Gold Rush days. But it's on the way. We enjoyed the visit a lot: when was the last time your hamburger was made of trimmings from New York strip steaks? Ben enjoyed carrot and ginger soup, Richard enjoyed steak tartare followed by an open faced steak sandwich with an egg, and John enjoyed that house hamburger, served only on Fridays. We all had a flight of wines--Ben and Richard enjoyed local reds while John enjoyed local rosés--some very dry rosé of zinfandel. Very pleasant.
Along the way we stopped at a roadside farm for vegetables. It has obviously been around for quite a while, with its old tractors and farm machinery and ancient shipping labels plastered on the barn walls. The local vegetables are straight from the fields, but the imported, non-local, veggies seemed very pricey. We loved the garden ornaments in the shape of animals and, yes, even a dragon.
We returned to Sacramento to prepare for another lovely meal out. This time at Allora, a restaurant that has been open for three months east of Sacramento. Ben enjoyed three different types of Pacific oysters, John an insalata di friuti di mari. Richard had a fine anchovy laden salad and Andres a mixed salad. We moved on to short rib for Richard, bucatini with sea urchins and sea scallops for Andres. John enjoyed cavatelli with veal sweetbreads, while Ben had a reprise of the seafood salad. Andres and Richard know the maitre-d. That made the evening more fun. We introduced Richard and Andres to one of our favorite wines: aglianico, an Italian wine, but this one was made from the aglianico grapes grown by Italians in Paso Robles.
Our hosts agreed that Sacramento is not a place where there is lots to do--but we managed to keep very busy. One of the points Richard noted is that many of the chefs who wanted to open in the Bay Area found it too expensive moved up river to Sacramento. The end result is that the capital of California has an excellent restaurant scene. With wineries not far away in the lower heights of the Sierra Nevada, it has an excellent wine scene too.
Our first stop was the State Capitol. It's a huge place, built nearly 150 years ago, centered in a large park, surrounded by palm trees and looking over the city. In the 1970s it was taken down to make it eathquake-proof and rebuilt with the same material put back in their original places (including the tiles). Our tour guide, Isabelle, took us around the building and enjoyed telling stories about the place. It was not crowded, no collections of fourth graders from school, and the Senate and the Assembly were both in session. For political junkies like us it was a good time--listening to how dreadful the soft drink industry is in subverting taxes on sugared drinks! We also noted that the Rotunda is the site of large statements defining various LBTQ people.
We lunched at a salad restaurant, Jack's, where your salad is assembled in front of your eyes. John had a chicken achiote salad, a combination of quinoa, black rice, chicken and some other veggies, like roasted corn. Very spicy. Richard and Ben had assembled salads with lots of lettuce. We found Ben's coffee (see earlier blogs from detailed descriptions) at a cafe in an alley.
We moved from there to the excellent Crocker Museum, built by one of the Big Four who constructed the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s. They took a trip to Europe about 1870 and came back with a collection that forms the basis of the museum. Our interest was to see the well-reviewed exhibit of women at work from the 18th century, mostly French. An excellent show, though heavy of drawings and prints, with fewer oils. It's well put together and was worth the visit.
At the same time we saw an exhibit by Cyrus Tilton, called The Cycle, about the growth of locusts, including two fully grown locusts, apparently going at it. The smaller pieces in the exhibit were slices of earth with locust eggs in them.
Dinner last night at home, which Andres put together. We had previously headed to the Cortis Bros. grocery story for wine and came back with a Haarmeyer Chenin Blanc from local Calaveras County. It was superb. Dinner was a feast of zucchini soup, poached salmon, Chilean tomato and hearts of palm salad, potato salad and dessert of glazed pound cake with peaches, nectarines and cream. Great night. Even Lily the cat enjoyed the evening, being given a special treat of chicken.
Sacramento, California, July 28, 2018--Well, it was a first for John: With his sciatica, Ben decided it was time to get wheel chairs for the long distances in airports. It works! Southwest is to be thanked for arranging the wheels in Washington National, St Louis and Sacramento. It made life a lot easier, and the added advantage is boarding first--and getting the A row with all its leg room. Yeh!
We took a picnic lunch to enjoy during the plane change, so a slight 20 minute delay in St. Louis was of no consequence and the flight across the country from there was smooth and mostly clear.
The Sierra Nevada were lovely with their snow-tops and seemingly full reservoirs.
We made it to friends Richard and Andres by late afternoon, a lovely glass of chardonnay or so, and then to a local restaurant for dinner on their patio. The food was very good at Hook and Ladder, in their neighborhood. We enjoyed a Luna Pinot Noir, cold asparagus soup, roasted octopus and for Richard and me hamburgers, for Ben an artichoke white pizza and for Andres a nicely done pork chop. Huge portions. The staff was very helpful and when they didn't have a bottle of wine in the cellar that we asked for comped us with an extra appetizer--three stuffed poblano peppers that we enjoyed splitting. The place is attractive--and has attractive bartenders, too.
Early to bed (by Calfornia time) and today off to the Calfornia State Capitol for a tour and then this afternoon to the Crocker Museum for what is reviewed as an excellent showing of paintings from the 18th and 19th century of women at work. More to come.
Friday, June 29, 2018--We made a pilgrimage to Plymouth, California, in Amador County for cigars, wine and hamburgers. It sounds strange, but the restaurant for lunch, Taste, is in Plymouth, about an hour from Sacramento, in Amador County, the site of many wineries. One of the dishes they serve for lunch is a mushroom cigar, a stuffed Chinese style roll, standing on a small patty of mashed potatoes. Absolutely exquisite. Wines that never leave Amador County, made in small amounts, predominate on the menu and are available at the local tasting room about a mile away, Amador 360. 
Taste is an upscale restaurant in a downscale town. In fact, except for a few buildings, Plymouth is hardscrabble, fighting to regain some of its lure from its Gold Rush days. But it's on the way. We enjoyed the visit a lot: when was the last time your hamburger was made of trimmings from New York strip steaks? Ben enjoyed carrot and ginger soup, Richard enjoyed steak tartare followed by an open faced steak sandwich with an egg, and John enjoyed that house hamburger, served only on Fridays. We all had a flight of wines--Ben and Richard enjoyed local reds while John enjoyed local rosés--some very dry rosé of zinfandel. Very pleasant.
Along the way we stopped at a roadside farm for vegetables. It has obviously been around for quite a while, with its old tractors and farm machinery and ancient shipping labels plastered on the barn walls. The local vegetables are straight from the fields, but the imported, non-local, veggies seemed very pricey. We loved the garden ornaments in the shape of animals and, yes, even a dragon.
