Martini House

This coming Sat. Spencer and I are going up to Napa Valley (St. Helena to be exact) and having dinner at the Martini House. Before today I had no idea this place even existed. But never fear we have a HEAD CHEF in our ward, a good one at that. His name is Adam Brown, and is one of the nicest men... knows his stuff too! Anyway - He taught this class I went to in Nov. that was amazing. Ummm, yes I attempted the menu he made for us at this class, and nope wasn't even close to the perfection he created - oh well. At least I tried, right?
With that said, today I walked up to Spencer and Adam, who were deep in food conversation (anyone who knows my husband knows how this happens... the man LOVES food, good food. And Adam, well food talk would be expected from him.) and Adam turns to me and said, "So I heard you re-created something I had made at that class". I was completely embarrassed, for one: I completely forgot the name of everything I made. Don't know why? And two: it wasn't even close to anything like his meal. And I told him this and laughed. He then let me in on his little secret. One of the many reasons (believe me there are MANY) my meal wasn't melting in my mouth like his Pork Chop did, was that the plate he made probably cost him close to 175$. Yes, he spent 300$ on two meals (aka plates) he taught us that night. And... well mine, didn't cost close to that. He said he uses the best of the best when teaching a class, makes sense why he would - it really was the best cut of everything. He was talking about truffle oil and all these other little things I didn't want to spend money on... and thus he made me feel a whole lot better about attempting to copy his masterpiece.

But back to the fun stuff....the Martini House. So Spencer was deep in conversation about restaurants with Adam, and asked him where there was some really good good food. We told him we had not come across really (sad I know) place in the S.F. area that had us at first bite. We don't go out that much to nice restaurants, and so we don't have a lot of experience in the food around here - but still S.F. is known for it's food; or at least that is what I am told by many visitors. So we should have found somewhere yummy right, or somewhere that had us saving up to go back. Anyway - he mentioned a few - I will have to jog my memory and let you all know the ones he said that were amazing. He did mention that we probably would spend some money, but it is worth it. One of the places he mentioned (2x) was the Martini House. He couldn't say enough good stuff about this place... so once Spencer had the name memorized, he came home and made reservations. And so we are off to Napa Valley to celebrate 5 years of marrige, to eat some yummy food and have a day in the vineyards. Here is to Sat.

I haven't been this excited about food to come, in a long time. I will let you all know how it goes.