My hat is off and my respect is paid to our nation’s fallen soldiers today. This year, it was really our visit to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor that reminded us the price we’ve collectively paid.

We took advantage of the weekend to spruce up Crystal’s new apartment. She finally has both a dining room table and coffee table! Not to mention proper storage for the few dozen bottles of our wine strewn about. We also took a road trip down to Carmel - although we’ve both spent plenty of time down there we’ve actually never been there together alone. Instead of the usual Little Napoli that I hold close to heart we had lunch a block up Ocean Avenue at Flaherty’s - a dozen kumamoto oysters, a bowl of clam chowder and club melt. It was a relaxed Saturday.

A few random pics…

My favorite shoes - I have a closet full now.

Fried Mochi with Kinako and Sugar (This was another item Crystal’s mother made us for breakfast while in Hawaii, I found the frozen Mochi and Marukai Market)

“Wally Sunrises” This was something I concoxed while at Shebani’s for brunch. The original used a pear cider that I found at Whole Foods, Prosecco, and topped with a red wine. This version used Korean crushed pear juice/puree with a dry champagne, topped with a pinot noir - personally I prefer the dryer, less sugar laced versions with only a hint of fruit.

Cheese plate made with our bounty from Carmel - did I ever tell you that Carmel houses one of the best hidden cheese shops in the bay area? Crystal picked up a aged white cheddar and a delicious gorgonzola. Driscoll Farms provided the berries.

Beef Udon with Poached Egg. This was dinner tonight, I tried to replicate the beef udon at Izumiya in Japantown (San Francisco), but only came mighty close. Yummy.

-Wallace

Bottle cages are a touchy subject amongst road cyclists. The utilitarians will argue night and day that the $5 aluminum cages is all one needs, the traditionalist who swears “Steel is real” will argue the old elite style cages are the best, the exotics and weight weenies love the carbon offerings.

Well, recently my elite cages drove me crazy and I took the opportunity to look at different cages. Little did I know that half an hour later I would place an order for two Tune carbon cages and Tune by Tacx bottles. I’ve lusted after these ever since they were released but Tune could hardly keep up with the demand, nevermind the ludicrous price tag.

These are as minimalistic as a bottle cage would get, a simple piece of carbon fiber wrapped around the bottle then cut to only the necessary pieces. Anyways, I found these for a bargain so I couldn’t resist. Got them in the mail last week then replaced my current cages. Took them on their first ride this past Saturday and I absolutely love them. If you use Tacx bottles, or are willing to switch I can vouch for these. Fit and finish is not as great as I expected - especially for the price, but the cages perform. My bottles don’t rattle, I don’t need to fight with the cage for my bottle, and they seem to slip right out and slip right in. I’m happy again.

You can pick them up at Posh Bikes, they also have a even lighter kevlar version.

-Wallace

This weekend was blistering hot - so hot that I wanted to do a whole lot of nothing, however Outstanding In The Field came up and this has been 3 years in the making for me so we did some light furniture shopping then headed up Highway 17 with cars over heated all over the place on the shoulder. We finally arrived at our destination - Blue Moon Organics in Aptos, California.

We kicked things of by checking in, dropping off our plates (it’s Outstanding In The Field tradition) then joining everyone else for appetizers, and apparently our first course:

Greg’s roots, Chris’ Olive Oil, Foccacia from Gabriella’s of Santa Cruz

Storrs’ 2007 San Lucas Sauvignon Blanc

Steve Storrs of Storrs Winery was actually pouring for us, I’m a huge fan.

We had more then a few minutes to ourselves, so putted around but never far from the shade. The scorching 92 degrees was getting to me so I made my way back to our car to change into shorts, a tshirt and flip flops - a stark contrast to the denim, button up and chucks I arrived in. HOT.

Jim finally made his way in front of the group along with Leah who’s been involved with the Outstanding In The Field operation going onto 6 years now, and Greg Rawlings who runs Blue Moon Organics.

Outstanding In The Field is about connecting people to the food they consume, and to highlight local produce, cultivation, and businesses. Everything we had at the table was grown and produced in the surrounding areas including the olive oil, baked focaccia, and wine.

Greg was awesome, I’ve never witnessed anyone so passionate about growing strawberries - and organically at that. I also learned a few things, they grow theirs on white plastic which is almost a deal killer amongst many strawberry farmers, and while others grow for shelf life, size, brightness, etc - Greg grows a varietal that was perfected some 30 years ago called the Chandler - and although these are some of the oddest looking strawberries one will ever encounter, they had the absolute best flavor.

He went on even further talking about trials and tribulations about not just his strawberries, but what it takes to keep Blue Moon Organics running. Everyday is an adventure, or so they say.

Now, finally it was time for dinner. We grabbed our plates and headed to where the infamous table was set up.

While munching on more of that rosemary focaccia, sampling meyer lemon infused olive oil and enjoying Storrs’ delicious chardonnay our second course arrived:

Grilled Romaine
H & H’s Squid, Jerry’s Lemons

Storrs’ 2007 Christie Vineyard Chardonnay - Santa Cruz Mountains

I loved this salad, especially how the ingredients were combined. Although Crystal enjoyed the grilled romaine, she was less then enthusiastic about the ceviche style prepped squid.

and shortly after, our third course:

Caleb Coe’s Beet Salad

Storrs’ 2008 Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

I, unlike President Obama and many others, enjoy beets. I really do like them, whether pickled for salads or fire roasted with an entree - I think they’re great. However, these beets were perfectly cooked - not soft and deconstructed as many of them are but still had that freshness about them. Really enjoyed this salad, as did Crystal.

The intermission between the third and fourth courses afforded me the ability to stroll around and snap pictures. The sun just started to set so I figured I’d shoot their bus, “Outstanding.” What an astoundingly gorgeous bus. Shame to hear they’re retiring it, and glad we were able to see it. Substance is always better then just a pretty face, unfortunately this bus has left the crew stranded more then just a couple of times. I’m sure if walls could talk…

Onto our fourth course -

Jim Dunlop’s Pig, Herbs, Sea Salt
Roasted Field Vegtables
Fennel Custard

Storrs’ 2005 Santa Cruz Mountains Petite Sirah

Bacon makes everything better, or so the saying goes. Although the pig, stuffed with herbs and sea salt was fantastic, it was the roasted vegetables that really did it for me. Those golden carrots were just out of this world.

Oh, the fennel custard? finger licking good. One of the few plates I wasn’t shy about grabbing seconds on.

While we were busy munching down - Jim, Steve, Chris and a couple others visited us and chatted about our day, their goods, and insights. Great conversation.

Finally, meet Anthony Kresge. This is the man responsible for head chef’ing our dinner this evening, and what he did with those strawberries we talked about was nothing short of amazing - as in, I’ve never had anything like it.

our fifth course -

Anthony’s Strawberry Soup

Richard Donnelly’s Chocolates;
Rosemary, Mint, Bittersweet

Strawberry soup! You heard right, just pureed strawberries topped with hints of mint, sea salt, and who knows what else. It was sublime, out of this world, jaw dropping, table dancing, hoot and hollering - delicious.

with that we concluded our much anticipated dinner. Had a few words with Jim, a tour of the bus and left wondering when we’ll be able to participate again.

In summary, if this is something that you’ve been on the fence about I’m going to strongly recommend you go. Yes, it’s hit or miss if you read the reviews, and you can for always tell yourself it’s an obnoxious cost to dine on a farm but I’ll tell you what - don’t forever wonder, just do it and the cost? Well…as my buddy Joe says, “one can always make money, we work for a reason - and that reason is to experience.”

So go experience Outstanding In The Field. Make a weekend out of it. We certainly had an Outstanding first experience, and now we’re hooked. Onward to next time.

Pictures in my Flickr:
Album 1
Album 2

-Wallace

ps. If you’re wondering about our experience at Michael Mina’s RN74 earlier last week - it was also excellent, however on a culinary level, a whole different world. I felt the food was a bit on the heavy and saltier side (Crystal enjoyed this), and the portion size was perfect. It’s not tower food, but well prepared and well presented. If I had to choose two items out of our dinner to eat again it would be the Shitake Tempura and Foie Gras. After all, the jewels on the menu are always in the appetizer (or as they call it, “firsts”) section.

A few weeks ago someone asked me, if you could have a drink with a celebrity who would it be? I was so tired, I couldn’t really respond - there were many at the edge of my lips, but musicians seem to stick out - Tom Waits, John Meyer, John Doe, and so forth. Then it struck me - Dave Grohl, I’d love to grab a beer with Dave.

Dave Grohl is a legend amongst mere men, or so I’d like to think. Although people have lipped about him being a complete maniac to work with I, like most others, only realize the public side of Dave and from that - I think he’s a pretty awesome guy. He’s got this energy around him that is just of full raw positive energy, seeing him at his concerts - the way he interacts with his friends, the public, not to mention his wife and daughter just makes him seem that much more approachable of a guy.

Dave has always referred to himself as a stickman, rather then a lead singer. I’ve always enjoyed his creativity, music, and pure unadulterated passion for the music industry. Rumor holds that he’s also a car guy - BMW’s if I recall correctly. I wonder what his thoughts are on BMW’s new M3? or if he’d rock a 135i hatch if they bring those here.

Either way… Dave Grohl is who I’d like to have a beer and hang with.

-Wallace

This was an awesome weekend - Frank and Carol FINALLY tied the knot! We were incredibly privileged to be part of such a special day for the both of them. It was a long time coming and although I’ve always known Frank has a big heart, I realized just how big this guy’s heart was on Saturday.

Congrats you two! Now go party! Best Bar-B-Cruise evAr.

Sunday was obviously mother’s day and it just so happened to land on Crystal’s move date - so what did we do? Move of course, then visited my mother and celebrated with a BBQ at their Evergreen house.

However moving was more exciting, Crystal finally has her own place and her pet bunny has become the guard bunny.

She didn’t enjoy this little dolly excursion too much, in fact she was confused most of the time. Other then that her curiousity got the better of her as soon as we got settled.

-Wallace

We haven’t been diligent gastroseekers this year, between our schedules we haven’t had much collective time to inquire about the new. The few moments that we have gone were memorable though, but Nopa shines in particular. I’m excited for next week, due to the solar system aligning, a lunar eclipse, or thru sheer coincidence we have two culinary experiences that I’m excited about.

The first is RN74, this is Michael Mina’s newest project which opened just a couple weeks ago in San Francisco’s new Millenium Tower. Turns out it’s a few short blocks from Crystal’s office and I’ll be speaking Berkeley that afternoon so it’s a perfect segue.

Then this following Saturday we’ll be out in Aptos for Outstanding In The Field. This has been an event I’ve been salivating to attend for the past 3 years, opportunity finally shone through this year. I have always believed that when one could, one should partake in a meal of the visionary’s original design. Visionary being the chef/cook/mom and design being its original location, service staff, so on and so forth. Therefore when the events were published this year I narrowed a selection immediately based on location then realized that Jim Denevan was only heading one event, that made things much easier so Saturday, May 16, 2009 is our dinner at Blue Moon Organics in Aptos, Ca.

After hearing the tales of many past patrons these events are really hit or miss, I figure that if one was going to be the dinner of a lifetime it would have to be Jim’s meal. Otherwise it’s like having a meal at kitchen stadium but w/o an Iron Chef present. Regardless, I’ve waited too long and this is exciting. I’m excited.

-Wallace

While I was in Hawaii earlier this year Crystal’s mother made this souffle style pancake that I thought was phenomenal. By the time we arrived back in California I soon craved what she called a ‘baked pancake.’ Crystal asked for the recipe and soon it was in her inbox.

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Flour
Pinch of Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit, then mix all the ingredients in a big bowl. I usually begin whipping the eggs, then the milk, followed by the cup of flour and finally a pinch of salt. Now find a large pyrex pan and coat it in butter, pour the mixture into the pan then toss the whole thing into the oven for 20 minutes - do not open the door to check on it.

The mixture will puff up and rise, as soon as the 20 minutes comes up remove the pan and let cool. Don’t panic if the whole pancake mixture shrinks, it’s supposed to. Finally when it settles cut it up and serve. I prefer mine with the typical maple syrup, Crystal on the other hand prefers hers caked with powdered sugar. You could also try serving it with sliced strawberries, peaches, eggs, sausage, bacon or maybe even use it in place of bread for a breakfast sandwich.

-Wallace