Sight Glass

Sight Glass is a coffee shop near Civic Center Station.

Inside the shop is spacious and you can see coffee beans being processed from roasting to brewing.
This is their philosophy: customers should be able to see what's inside the cup.

This is in the middle of the shop!

There was a coffee class at this shop, and it was a good opportunity for me to learn about coffee since I don't usually drink coffee.

First, we learned how coffee beans are processed.
Coffee trees can grow huge, but are usually trimmed to 10-12 feet. Unlike wine grapes, the age of the tree doesn't affect the flavor of coffee.
Harvest is done when the ripeness is right. Overripe fruit creates fermented flavor and under ripe fruit has peanut flavor.
After fermentation, beans are washed and dried.
This drying process is critical for the flavor and how the beans age.

Then we got to smell the different aromas of four coffee:

Esperanza from Honduras (citrus and nuts aromas)
Psasje from Colombia (grapefruit and brown sugar aromas)
Yetatebe from Ethiopia (complex aromas of incense, spice and cream)
Gachika from Kenya (floral aroma, tobacco and tropical fruit)

The first two (from Latin America) had woody character and the latter two (from Africa) had spice character. It was interesting to find that there was distinctive character difference depending on which continent the coffee was from.

Aromas of some coffee, especially cheep coffee, somehow give me headaches, but these coffee had beautiful aromas and I enjoyed them a lot.

Sake Bar in Emeryville

There is a food court called Public Market in Emeryville.
It's still under construction but many of the shops are already open, and someone told me that there was a Sake Bar, so we went to check it out.

The bar The Periodic Table offers sake, shochu and liquor from Japan. There are also beer taps of craft beers from local and Japan.

Besides glasses of sake, there are 3 or 4 tasting course which you can choose the combination from the menu, and we tried 4 sake tasting course.
This was our choice.

Shichihon yari Junmai
Maboroshi Junmai Ginjo
Seiden Omachi Junmai Daiginjo
Seiden Gohyakumangoku　Junmai

Otsumami was this beautiful cheese plate and pickles.

Maboroshi and Seiden Omachi (Omachi is the name of the rice which has umami and earthiness) were the best with food.

Seiden Gohyakumangoku was good with salty pickles.
Gihyakumangoku is also a name of sake rice, and known to have light aromas and textures, and a clean finish.

We were support to have just appetizers here and go to dinner, but the selection of sake was good, otsumami was delicious, people were knowledgeable and friendly... we became too comfortable and decided to stay here for dinner.

Shiba Ramen is a ramen shop next door. These two shops are owned by the same owner and we could order ramen from the bar, so I ordered clear ramen with pork chashu, and JC ordered White Bird (rich, creamy soup) with chicken chashu.

The ramen was gooood! And the chicken chashu was unexpectedly delicious (I stole from JC)!
Soup was rich, had good flavor but not heavy or greasy.

There are good ramen stores opening around the bay area recently and we tried some of them.
For me, Shiba ramen is one of the best.

Good drinks and good ramen. What else can I ask for?
Highly recommended place!

Manhattan

Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, vermouth and bitters.
JC made one using bourbon (corn whiskey), and Lillet instead of vermouth.

George T. Stagg Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky has subtle and decent sweetness, and it shows in this cocktail.

Pizza with Spanish wine

When we make pizza at home, it's usually that I make the dough and tomato sauce, and JC does the rest (shaping, topping and baking).

The tomato sauce was made with tomatoes I harvested during the end of the tomato season (until December!). Those had less sweetness and more sourness, and the resulting sauce tasted like that.

JC used three kinds of cheese: chevre, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Wine was Bodegas La Horra Corimbo Ribera del Duero 2010

Black fruit, preserved red fruit, cumin, vanilla and chocolate.

The pairing was good although the wine with lesser oak notes would have worked better with this light-flavored pizza.

Rakkyo trial

Rakkyo is indispensable pickles for Japanese style curry rice.

I love the sweet and sour pickles and spicy curry combination, and pickled Rakkyo can be used to make finger food, so I pickle them whenever I could get my hands on Rakkyo onion (you can only find them at supermarket in early summer).

Finding Rakkyo onion is the hardest part.
The process of pickling is not that complicated (clean them, pickle them in salt water for a week, drain, then pickle them in vinegar and sugar) so I wanted to try something different this time.

I made Rakkyo using two kinds of vinegar to see how different the result would be.

After some months of pickling, the result came in.

The one with simple distilled vinegar tasted just like standard Rakkyo I buy at supermarket.
It's delicious and I have no complaint.

The other one, made with expensive brown rice vinegar, had similar flavor but more depth.
If the standard Rakkyo has supporting role, this Rakkyo has more presence by itself.

So Rakkyo can be made with any kind of vinegar, but the quality of vinegar really makes difference.

Chateau Musar

Chateau Musar 1999

Chateau Musar is the renown winery from Lebanon.
And this chateau is one of the reason I started this blog.

This bottle has been open for more than a week and is still very good.

Black cherry, plum, raisin, chocolate
Tannin is very soft. Deep and complex.

I've been drinking little by little everyday.
It shows reliable consistency while provides development so I can enjoy the small difference every time I try, and I detect no signs of deterioration.
Gosh, I might love their wine too much.

Yuzu Marmalade making

The season of yuzu is almost over.

We harvested fruits to make marmalade.
It weighed more than 10 kg!
There will be lots of marmalade!

First, squeeze yuzu juice.
Clean inside and julienne skins then blanch them.

Mix skin, juice, sugar (5 kg) and water, and cook.
Add seeds when it started to boil (for pectin), and keep cooking for 40 ~ 50 min.

To check the consistency, spread some of the marmalade on a plate and cool it down in a freezer. This is a tip from JC's friend who is a chef.

As we expected, we ended up with a lot of marmalade!
If you ran out of glass jars, you can keep marmalade in a plastic bag and store in a freezer.

I don't like it too sweet so used less sugar, but if you want more sweetness, you can add honey when you use.

These are also tips from the chef.

I made a steamed cake with this marmalade. The recipe is from "Yuzu" by Shigeko Nakamura.

Next day, I mixed marmalade and soy sauce, then marinated beef in it for quick Yakiniku (BBQ). Yummy.

Gruner Veltliner from California

Vocal Vineyards Alfaro Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains Gruner Veltliner 2015

Gruner Veltliner from California with sleek design.

White flower, bruised apple, green tropical fruit, white mushroom.
Creamy mouth feel.
There was distinctive cedar aroma. This probably was because of pines surrounding vineyards, not oak.

JC said this wine was made in Austrian style.


This oily-textured wine went good with grilled fish with smokey flavor.

Note:
It's better to drink this wine early once it's opened.
Fruits were lost and woody note became almost harsh two days later.

New Years Feast

The first sake we opened this year was Urakasumi Junmai Daiginjo

Made with Yamada Nishiki rice.

Apple, pear. jasmin and caramel. Subtle umami flavor.
Smooth and easy to drink.

We had this sake with new year feast: grilled lamb, vegetables and yakitori.

The flavor of food could have been a little too strong for this sake.
As for lamb, JC opened Domaine J. Despesse Cornas 2005

Domaine J. Despesse is a small producer from Cornas, northern Rhone, and this bottle is a gift from JC's friend.
100% Syrah.
Pink, red and purple flower, dried fruit, pepper and a lot of mineral.
This wine cut the greasiness but didn't disturb the flavor of lamb.

Good wine, good sake and good food.
Happy new year.

Count Down

JC is working and I'm home alone for the new year's eve, but I'm well prepared.
My count down partners: Champagne (half bottle) and caviar.

Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose

Billecart-Salmon is an environmentally conscious winery founded in 1818.

Fresh apple, pear, tarragon and cream.
Lively but delicate bubble.

The wine softened the saltiness of caviar while kept its freshness.
Great pairing!

Best wishes and wines for this coming year.
Happy new year!