Cyrus/Flag Day 2011

three years ago a friend and i had a conversation about one day having the meal of our lives at The French Laundry. a couple days later upon curiosity, Helen looked up reservations for FL and lucky for us, someone must have canceled. she found an opening for the following saturday.  now, if you don't know the French Laundry, then just know that at one time it was known as the best restaurant in the US, they generally accept reservations two months before the date and it costs $270/person for a nine course meal. so we gathered a couple of other foodies and went to TFL. while dining on the meal of our lives, we somehow realized that it was also Flag Day 2009. from that day forth we decided to make it an annual thing to dine on pretentious food on Flag Day.

this year we wanted to go to Cyrus. this restaurant holds two Michelin stars and is located in the quaint town of Healdsburg. i have never heard a negative thing about Cyrus so it was the perfect option for Flag Day 2011. we made reservations months in advance, which lead to months of anticipation. as anticipation increases, so does the amount of hype i have for a place. this is concerning because i end up anticipating perfection and if the experience isn't perfection, then i am underwhelmed. i'm happy to say that Cyrus lived up to all of my made up hype.

Marjie and i all happy to start the experience.

Kim, Doris and Helen, equally excited.

the meal started off with a three tier platter with canapes. there were five tastings and each represented one of the different tastes, salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami.

bitter: radish with who knows what. i can't remember. 

salty: clam with a chorizo powder.

sweet: again, i can't remember. but this had a very thin containing layer and once you put it in your mouth it bursts with a sweet liquid of some sort. it was a pretty entertaining spoonful. 

sour: citrus tart. i dig. 

umami: broth that had a very mushroomy taste. 

next we were served the amuse bouche of compressed peaches and onion puree. i didn't think it would work but it definitely did. a refreshing start to our meal. it also helped the cleanse the palate between the canapes and the main event.

two types of salt, a cow butter and a goat butter. the goat butter was surprisingly awesome. and the cow butter was intensely rich in a good way.

an assortment of possibly the best breads i've had in my life. incredibly buttery brioche, the nuttiest multigrain, the most perfectly crisp and moist chive biscuit, cute little sourdoughs, the most amazingly garlicy bread there ever was, and my absolute favorite, a feta olive bread that was soooo flaky and buttery. heavenly.

as i've stated in this blog before, Kim and i share our food so that we can taste as much as possible. for every course where an option was offered, we each chose the opposite so that we could have it all. 

first course:

corn and bacon tomago dofu with pickled okra: the dehydrated corn and bacon added a nice texture to the sweet tofu. the okra was a tad slimy as okra always is, and the kale in the little pouch was biter in a good way. i can't say i loved this dish. lucky for me i got to taste a second first course...

sea scallop with watermelon and coriander broth: refreshing and light.

second course:

glazed gulf shrimp with banana blossoms and coconut milk froth: thoroughly enjoyed this dish. although it looks a bit phallic, don't you think? including the milk froth. haha!! 

seared foie gras with morels and fava beans: the texture of the foie gras was perfect matched with the fava beans and morels tortellini. i love morels. they are a funny looking awesome mushroom. the sauce that accompanied this dish was aaaaamazing with the brioche bread.

third course:

sea bass with artichokes in sake lees, pea sprouts and dashi: a very well cooked piece of fish. but what stood out was the broth. it had a super lightness to it but provided a perfect enhancement of flavor to the fish.

fourth course:

miso poached chicken with spring onions and maitake: the chicken must have been cooked sous vide because it was evenly cooked throughout and had an almost velvety texture, if that makes any sense. the maitake was roasted to perfection. the flavors were strong and the lightly crisp portions added a great texture. this mushroom made me do a little happy dance in my seat. no joke.

we were given a little guava and gingerale popsicle as a palate cleanser.

fifth course:

lamb roulade with farro and pickled ramps: a nice dish. it didn't blow me away. the lamb was a little less tender than i thought it would be, but they wrapped it in a nice thin layer of crispy fat of some sort that was good!

beef short rib with mung bean sprouts and cherry tomato confit: SO good!! really tender and perfect. the little tomato confit bursts in your mouth with the most flavorful tomato i've ever had.

sixth course:

cheese course!! we got to choose three cheeses to try. Kim and i shared and got to try six!! all were very good.

along with the cheese came these things to pair them with.

two kinds of bread along with lavash.

hazelnut and date bread and an apricot (?) sauce.

some kind of gelee.

seventh course:

vanilla bean fontainbleau with rhubarb, hibiscus and lime, and yogurt streusel: surprisingly my favorite dish of the day! this was refreshing yet substantial. it was light, sweet, tart, creamy and texturally appealing. it was by far the best thing i ate that day. my heart stopped for a moment eating that.

eighth course:

milk chocolate peanut butter bar with honeycomb parfait: the peanut butter bar was rich and creamy. the chocolate ice cream and peanuts added texture. but the star of this dish was the honeycomb parfait. it had some form of whipped creamy stuff with pieces of honeycomb and chocolate ganache. 

plum wine cake with strawberry: cake with a bruleed top, shaved strawberry shortcake and plum wine. i didn't particularly like this dish because i don't like alcohol and i could definitely taste it in the dish.

after eight courses, you'd think it was the end and everybody could leave happy with their tummies smiling. but no, no. Cyrus won't have you end with just that. they brought out a cart with even more goodies. mignardises:

rum and coke lollipops, coconut and almond macaroons, chocolate with a salted caramel filling, toffee and chocolate with almonds on a saltine cracker, calamansi chews, rich truffles, meringue kisses, tangerine gelees and pudding.

we each took one of everything to go but we had to eat the pudding there.

chocolate pudding with coconut panna cotta and chocolate covered rice crisps. awesome.

my box of treats to-go. including a chocolate walnut brownie that was meant for the following day.

again, you would think that this was the end of Cyrus experience. but no!! they brought out one last little surprise for all of us! fresh fried doughnuts!!!

bourbon and maple glazed doughnuts!

 one tiny little warm last bite to send us off into the best food coma.

then they presented us with the menu for the day.

Doris, Kim, me, Marjie and Helen. 

 so that was our awesome Cyrus experience. it not only met all of my expectations, it blew my away! in fact quite honestly, it was almost as good as my experience at The French Laundry, only it was half the price! i would recommend Cyrus for anybody that appreciates quality food and the fine dining experience.

although Cyrus was the main event for the day, we couldn't make a trip out to Healdsburg without stopping for food finds elsewhere as well. early in the morning i called ahead to The Model Bakery in Napa to have them reserve some of their famous english muffins known to all by the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate, in which celebrity chef Michael Chiarello claimed them to be the best english muffins in the world. i had tried to get my hands on those enlgish muffins on three separate visits to Napa to no avail. this day i wanted to make sure that we were going to get them and we did!!

the next day i ate one toasted with a little bit of butter and it was absolutely the best english muffin i've ever had to date. some people say it's greasy but i say it's buttery. i want more now!!

then we headed to Bouchon Bakery to pick up some french macaroons.

the amazing strawberry rhubarb, espresso and pistachio. unfortunately they sat in my car while we were at Cyrus and the fillings melted a bit altering the texture of the middle. oh well, they still taste effing fantastic.

last, we went to The Downtown Bakery and Creamery to get the famous donut muffin seen on The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

donut muffin. NOT the best thing i ever ate. it was actually really dense and dry. a throwaway item in my opinion.

i love Flag Day!!! this annual day is almost better than any holiday in my eyes!!! we've already decided that next years Flag Day will be at Meadowood in Napa!!!! let the anticipation begin!!!

mini Seattle trip

a few weeks ago Kris and i went up to Seattle for a super quick trip. we left SF at 7am on saturday and returned at 11pm on sunday. the whole reason for such a quick trip was to cheer on our friend Pat. he graduated with a doctorate in physical therapy and is now officially certified to help with anybody's achy needs. this is just a quick recap of the weekends events. saturday was a non-stop, very random day.

a lunch celebration was had at Pat's girlfriend's mom's restaurant, China Star. good ol' chinese food.

tired from partying the night prior and waking up at 5am to catch the 7am flight, Kris and i headed to our hotel room to take a nap as soon as there was an opportunity. an hour later we were awoken by banging on the door. Pat came to tell us that he'd set up "flying lessons" in an Alaska Air Boeing simulator. uhh...awesome much?? Jenny, Pat's gf, took us to the Alaska Airlines training facilities and introduced us to their friend who generously took some time from his day off to allow us a chance at an awesome experience.

from the outside it looks like a gigantic virtual box that moves much like the Star Tours one at Disneyland. when you're in this moving contraption it actually feels like a real plane...well....except if you "crash." that wouldn't be so pleasant.

from the inside it looks like an actual plane. they've set it up so a screen through the window can display any airport and it's surrounding areas. because we're from SF that's what he chose. thank God we didn't actually have to deal with all of those intimidating buttons and controls!  we pretty much just handled the steering. i don't know if you know, but the foot pedals control the wheels and the steering wheel-like thing, called the yoke, controls altitude as well as the ailerons, which turn the plane left or right. 

i did pretty well on the take off and throughout my time in the "sky," however when it came time to land...let's just say i more than likely would have ended up in the ocean or landing my nose into the ground. you know, female asian driver. what more would you expect? i'm really not a bad driver in real life, i swear!

i can't go to a new city and not try to find something delicious to eat. it's just not me to pass up an opportunity to find something worthy of an edible pit stop. while we were driving towards our dinner destination i looked on Yelp and found High 5 Pies, which was featured on Food Network and i'm glad i did! i made Jenny bee line towards High 5 Pies before dinner so i could pick up some after dinner dessert.

this, my friends, is the peanut butter chocolate pie. it has a graham cracker crust and house made whipped cream. it was rich in flavor without being overly heavy. so SO good! i was pretty sad after i took the last bite. 

this is the cherry almond pie in a jar. their pies in a jar were the focus of whatever episode on whatever show they were on Food Network. initially i thought it was a cute idea. but personally, i found that shoving a pie in a jar means lots of crust and very little filling. i didn't love it. and i didn't love the cherry almond either, but that was the only option for the day for pie in a jar. no worries. that peanut butter chocolate pie made up for it. 

the last time i went to Seattle, i tried going to Paseo for their famous roast pork sandwich but they were closed for the winter. WHAT? what does that even mean? why would you close up for the winter? you're not an ice cream shop!! i digress. this time i made it a point to find my way to Paseo, but again i sadly did not get a chance to try the sandwich. they were sold out by the time i got there. i figured i might as well not waste my trip out there so i got the roast pork plate. whether it came in sandwich form or plate form, i thought i could grasp why others felt the roast pork was amazing. unfortunately it didn't wow me. if anything, it actually was a tad dry if you ask me. you know when meat sticks to your teeth when your molars dig in to them? yeah. that happened. 

after dinner, we met up with Pat's family and other friends to take the Underworld Tour. this underground tour took us throughout the portion of Seattle that was built on top of. apparently old Seattle used to reside below sea level. we figured that the "underground" tour was going to keep us dry, so we stupidly didn't pack umbrellas even though we all know that Seattle is known for their never ending rain. i mean seriously, a local told me that people up there need to take vitamin D supplements because they don't get enough sun. how depressing!!! again, i digress. 

so "underground" really means semi-underground or underground halfsies style. just about half of the tour was held outside in the POURING rain. initially upon stepping out in to the street we were instantly wet and by the time the tour was over we were soaked. this is the post tour picture of us unhappily soggy. if you didn't already notice, half an eyebrow had washed off. cool. i must have looked super put together with that wet hair and half brow. good thing we were headed for a club. haha!!

we tried teaching Pat how to dougie, but he pretty much looked like he was doing the robot the whole time. some people, you just can't help. ha!

by the time we finally dried off, we fortunately also had drinks in our system. sad faces turned into happy faces!

and then this happened!! i know you don't know what's going on here but i laughed hysterically for a solid three minutes as Kris danced up and down the back of this booth. 

we were told that we had to get the late night hot dog with cream cheese. we opted for a hot link to split and that bad boy was gone within two minutes. the addition of cream cheese made it creamy good. that was saturday in a nutshell.

sunday was the Day of Pat. he has spent three years (3? 2. no, 3. 3? i can't remember.) in Tacoma slaving away at school and at clinicals to become the next great physical therapist. he has spent lots of time testing his learned skills on friends and strangers and is now equipped to handle your physical rehabilitation and preventative needs. 

Pat and Jenny.

at the hooding ceremony. notice his name, Patrick Alan Toy.....and we call him Pat....P.A.T.  just an observation. we also call him Pattoy. that's way more fun. 

the hooding ceremony wasn't the end of it all. there was the school ceremony that was held outdoors on the field in the pouring rain. they called out 700 names over the course of three hours. i repeat seven hundred!!!! three hours!!!! needless to say Kris and i did not sit out there in the freezing wet to see Pat walk across the stage again. instead we took his car keys and took a nap in his car/watched the Simpsons on Kris' ipad. now before you all go thinking we're insensitive jerks for not toughing it out, remember that we flew all the way to Seattle to congratulate the new physical therapist. he knows we were up there for him and it didn't bother him that we didn't feel like being soaked two days in a row. 

CONGRATS PAT!!! you done did it!!!