Chef's Crab Fest at Bistro Boudin, Fisherman's Wharf, SF.

Bistro Boudin and Glodow Nead were kind enough to invite me to a special media dinner previewing crab season at Boudin.

We started off the evening with a little tour of the vast Bistro Boudin space (upstairs) at Fisherman's Wharf. Among other attractions, they have a neat Boudin museum and private banquet room. You can schedule to tour the museum and bakery here.

The Boudin bakers must have so much fun with these creations.

The main dining room. I love all of the dark beams and openness.

We were seated in a cozy private table in the Buena Vista Carneros Tasting Room, which was perfect for our event.

Chef Misael Reyes with Casey Shaughnessy-Gray of Glodow Nead. Chef Reyes, who is originally from El Salvador, was once Francis Ford Coppola's personal chef. He is also the only non-family keeper of Francis Ford Coppola's mother's recipe book--very cool.

Chef Reyes and prepared a lovely, crab-centric menu for us that was nicely paired by Sam, the Buena Vista Carneros Tasting Room manager.

Dungeness Crab Louis - Fresh Picked DUngeness Crab with Deviled Eggs, Avocado, Bibb Lettuce, Asparagus, RIpe Tomatoes & Louis Dressing.

Paired with 2008 Condes de Albarei Albarino

The crab was fresh, light and delicious. It went perfectly with the slightly tangy Louis (Thousand Island) dressing and mix of vegetables.

Dungeness Crab Mac & Cheese - Aged Vermont Cheddar Cheese, Fresh Cream & Freshly Picked Dungeness Crab with Buttered Soughdough Breadcrumbs

Paired with 2007 Buena Vista Carneros Chardonnay

Light, creamy and delicious. The crab wasn't overwhelming, but was present and, most importantly, the mac & cheese wasn't too salty or greasy. I happen to particularly love mac & cheese with shell pasta, too.

Soughdough Tortilla Taco - Fresh Dungeness Crab with Avocado, Red & Green Cabbage, Cilantro, Crema Fresca, Pico de Gallo & Roasted Tomato Salsa

Paired with 2008 Sagelands Riesling

Boudin's twist on fish tacos? A soughdough tortilla, of course! What a fantastic and fantastically Boudin idea! The tortillas were great, especially since I'm not typically a huge fan of corn tortillas. The crab was, of course, wonderful although they also offer fish tacos on their menu. The Roasted Tomato Salsa could have used a little more kick though--it was a little bland for my taste. The wine was my favorite wine of the evening though, and, more than the others, really enhanced the flavors in this dish.

Here is a photo of the full-sized portion of the Sourdough Tortilla Tacos. Thank goodness they cut down the portions for our dinner--even with our portions I walked out absolutely stuffed!

Cioppino - Dungeness Crab, Shrimp, Calamari, Mussels & Fish Simmered in a Spicy Saffron-Tomato Broth

Paired with 2007 XYZIN Zinfandel

What a beautiful dish. The calamari and mussels were just divine. They were cooked perfectly. My shrimp was a bit overcooked, but other than that, I really loved this dish. The crab was fresh and succulent and the broth--oh goodness, the broth! I loved the broth, especially with the toasty sourdough garlic bread.

The full-sized portion. Again, such beautiful presentation.

Left to right: Casey of Glodow Nead; Jason and Lizzie of ABC 7Live; Scott of Bistro Boudin; Susannah of YumSugar; Alison of Glodow Nead; Steven of the Nob Hill Gazette and myself.

I had to get a shot of all of us with our crab bibs on! What a fabulous group of people to enjoy a wonderful evening of food and wine with. It was lovely meeting you all.

Trio of Creme Brulee - Double Vanilla with Wafer Cookies; Peanut Butter with Ginger Snaps; Bittersweet Chocolate with Manjari Wafer.

Paired with 2007 King Estates Pinot Gris Vin Glace

What can I say.. I love dessert and I love modern creme brulees! I was already completely stuffed, but couldn't help myself! The peanut butter and dark chocolate were my favorite--so lovely.

A nice little cappuccino to finish off the evening. I only wish I wasn't too full to finish it!

Scott Shuttleworth, a managing partner at Bistro Boudin, and fabulous co-host this evening. Scott was a generous to provide each of us with a Boudin tote filled with all sorts of goodies--very classy.

I really love this tote. I'm going to cary it everywhere.

This limited Boudin baseball cap isn't even available in the gift shop!

Buena Vista Carneros 2007 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

A crab, of course! This is surprisingly soft, too. And as much as I love dungeness crab, I think I'm really going to enjoy this soughdough crab, too!

Bistro Boudin, Glodow Nead, Buena Vista, Casey, Alison, Scott, Chef Reyes and Sam, thank you all so much for such a lovely evening. Cheers to crab season!

Website

Yelp

Pinot at Andre's.

Savannah Chanelle Vinyards, 2007 Pinot Noir, from the Russian River Valley.

Wine and pizza tasting at Una Pizza Napoletana, SoMa, SF.

Una Pizza Napoletana opened a block away from the SF Station office! I'm so excited--our part of SoMa is finally getting cool! Haha. After hearing all of the hype, I've wanted to try it, but they aren't open for lunch and I haven't made it out for dinner just yet.

But! Much to my surprise, there was a fabulous wine tasting there today so I decided to stop and meet a couple co-workers there before heading into the office!

There was SOOOO much wine! And so many fabulous people!

My boss, Chris, chose this bottle out of the chaos and it turned out to be a nice, easy, red with bubbles! ;)

Anthony Mangieri, workin' that oven! Una Pizza Napoletana takes "minimalism" to a whole new level--it's actually kind of refreshing, it's just a big space with high ceilings and this beautiful oven. :)

Neapolitan style margherita pizza. Beautiful. Delicious. Super yummy crust--that isn't burnt! I learned this just recently, but the crust on Neapolitan style pizzas are meant to be browned spotty. But okay, this one may be a tiny bit burnt on the bottom, but the top half is perfect! ;)

Website

Yelp

Uvaggio wine pairings at Ristobar, Marina, SF.

What a lovely, casual event with great wine and good food! I tried four of the Uvaggio wines with an assortment of yummy bites from Ristobar. The Uvaggio whites are bold and crisp and not afraid to be true white wines--it's so refreshing to see that!

The Uvaggio Muscato Dolce was fabulous with these sweet treats.

A special thanks to Lauren Eastman & Associates, Rivera PR, Uvaggio and Ristobar for the fun tasting!

Uvaggio Website

Ristobar Website

Yelp

World Cup, Wine & Swine: Part 2, Cahill Winery, Sonoma, CA.

These guys were the best! They were so enthusiastic about the wine and gave us loads of free tastings! The tall olive oil to the far right was absolutely amazing.

Cahill wines! The 24 degrees is a wine is 24% alcohol! A wine that you can do shots of?! Haha.We used it to make a nice wine cocktail for me..

The 24 degrees wine, strawberry lemonade and a little soda water. Mmm!

Cahill is a very humble winery that has been going for 6 years now. They have some great products and are just the nicest people. Thank you so much, Cahill!

Website

World Cup, Wine & Swine: Part 1, Cahill Winery, Sonoma, CA.

Wine!

World Cup US vs. England! :) My long lost friend Tyler invited me up to Cahill winery (where he got his start in the wine business on a semester off from college) for this amazing Wine & World Cup party! Such a great idea and this warehouse room was perfect--I swear, it felt like it was air conditioned!

A buffet of Costco goodies--my favorite! I'm excited to say I have a few new favorite Costco delights now: the artichoke-japaleno dip and their salsa!

Post-game agenda: tastings, playing catch, Russian River, and a huge pig roast!

Website

Mumm, Napa, CA.

Grapes!

I love me my bubbly! :)

I got a glass of the Blanc de Blancs and it was very nice and crisp with some apple flavor.

The whole group!

Haha. :)

Ooooh, Napa.. :)

Turnbull and Beringer, Napa, CA.

Turnbull.

Turnbull reds are my new favorite wine.

The Beringer estate is really as lovely as everyone says.