Best Food
Considering we basically ate our way through this vacation, this really is quite an award. I ate so much good food that I was actually looking forward to toning it down when I got home. This award goes to Celadon in Napa. I made reservations because it was Zagat rated and I had seen the chef as a guest judge on Top Chef and I remembered the restaurant name. I did confuse things a bit because I thought the chef was a woman and it's a man. It was definitely underrated on Zagat with a food score of only 24 (30 being the highest possible). I would rate it about a 27 or 28, as I think D, V & M would as well. We all agreed this was the best food. Also very cool was that the restaurant owner actually came out to talk with us about what wine we should choose. At that time, we hadn't figured out he was the owner and just figured he was the sommelier. He suggested a Pinot given our various meal selections, to which D replied as long it was a bit bolder ... sometimes Pinots taste a bit like grape juice to D. The guy laughs at D and walks away. We all thought this was hilarious and reserved judgment on the wine until it arrived. Turns out, the guy knew what he was talking about it and the wine was excellent for a not-too-pricey-price. We eventually figured out he was the owner, making the Zagat review accurate when it noted the owner often gives personal service. If you're ever in Napa, I highly recommend this restaurant.
Most Scrabble Games Won
Me, including two games with 7-letter words, thank you very much. I think we played about a total of 15-20 games while there. Vic was the winner of the 30-second games where we'd have to go within 30 seconds. We actually had to buy a travel Scrabble game despite the fact that both sets of couples own one - we both forgot our games - gasp!
Money Least Well Spent
Teatro ZinZanni. I'm not even going to type what we spent per person (when it was all said and done with wine, tips, cabs, etc) on this evening. It was a five-course meal served during a show that was similar, though not nearly as good as, a Cirque De Soleil show. The food was not good at all; M likened it to cafeteria food and V called it dreadful. The show started off horribly and I was steeling myself for a horribly dull evening, but it did get a little better once the acrobatics and those types of performances started. In any case, it was recommended to us by a client of V's and we can't figure out why anyone would recommend it. Anyway, anyone out there visiting SF, avoid this show! It's better to save money and go to French Laundry (Thomas Keller restaurant in Napa - very difficult to get reservations - I'm assuming it must be delicious!)
Most Ridiculous Idea
I had two pretty good one-liners early in the trip and had dreams of a brilliant blog post that would be amuse and impress my readers ... all 7 of you. However, turns out that I only had two great one-liners and that would just be silly to blog about. Nonetheless, I think it was an interesting topic, so it's getting an honorable mention here.
Best "When In Rome" Experience
M works with this guy who apparently knows all the best hole-in-the-wall joints in Denver and other cities. He happened to visit this place in Chinatown that had been featured on Rachael Ray's show, but couldn't remember the name of it. Internet to the rescue: House of Nanking. We walk there from our hotel, a 20-30 minute walk. It was 2:30 pm and the place was packed, but we got there at just the right moment and got seated immediately. The waiter comes up and asks if it's our first time - we say yes - he says "I'll take care of you" and proceeds to write down our drink orders and then just continues writing. He walks away. About 2 minutes later a large plate of food and four small plates with forks are plunked down on our table without explanation - the small plates are not distributed. We all look at each other perplexed because we've not seen a menu, nor ordered anything other than Diet Coke. V says maybe we got someone else's food. I wondered if maybe it was like when you go to a fancy restaurant and they give you a starter from the chef. After about a minute of confusion, we all decide, what the hell? So we distribute the plates and dig in. Delicious! Not sure what we were eating, but yum! Shortly after we finish, another huge plate of food arrives - this time it's lightly fried calamari in a citrusy/creamy sauce - again delicious. Next comes a plate with pork dumpling and a fried pancake of some sort with shrimp in it - D does not partake (those being two things he does not eat) so V & M and I polish those off. Next comes a plate of a beef and noodle dish - again good, but not as good as the first dish. Finally, we get a plate with shrimp, mushrooms, and some other stuff. Again, good, but not great. The first two dishes and the experience of just sitting down and having food arrive at your table without actually ordering made it great! I thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
Worst Signing
Muir Wood Ocean View Trail. I wanted to see some redwoods, but I didn't want to drive clear up to Eureka where the really big redwoods are located (the one you can drive through, etc), so I printed directions to the Muir Woods just outside of SF where there are simply big redwoods. While we're there, V sees a sign that says Ocean View Trail 1.9 miles. We figure a 1.9 mile hike isn't bad and since V and D both have some pretty kick ass cameras, a good picture or two might result. So we start the hike. And we hike. And we hike. Put that sentence on a loop for a while. I'll wait here. Oh, did you think you might get to an ocean view after hiking simply because it was an Ocean View trail?! Silly you. The ocean's pretty big and damned if we never found it. The worst part was that when we reached what we believed to be the top of the trail, there's the damn road. You can drive to the view. There should be a law against making you think it's a view only a hiker can see.
Best Service
We went to an upscale restaurant called Gary Danko one night in San Francisco. The food was excellent, though we all preferred Celadon. However, the service was amazing. They were extremely polite without seeming like they were faking it. They also served and removed all four of our dishes in unison. There would always be two servers to come to the table and each would grab or place two plates at once. At the end of the night, they presented V and I with little packaged muffins (very fancy packaging) for our enjoyment in the morning. M & D got the bill. I like that type of sexism.
Dullest Activity
This would be anything to do with a winery. I didn't exactly have high expectations for the wine country part of our trip considering I find most anything to do with wine exceedingly dull, pretentious, and a bit ridiculous (can you tell how I feel about it?) However, the dullness exceeded my low expectations. And we only made it to two wineries. I think we were all a bit befuddled with why people rave about wine country, but hey, we gave it a whirl. I think if we'd truly booked some tours and done more research on which ones to go to, it might have been somewhat better, but in the end, for me, it comes down to not really Getting it on this whole wine obsession.
Best Reunion
Meeting up with Jen at an Italian restaurant in the Mission district. It was great to catch up! I can't believe I'm still good friends with someone I've known since 5th grade. Pretty cool. We had a nice chat and some good food, though it didn't blow me away (the food, not the chat - the chat was excellent - great to see you again, Jen!)
dude, i was totally cracking up at your description of the ocean view trail. i think that's happened to me before too. in fact, i'd say 9 out 10 of my hiking experiences are like that - overrated. you should have taken a picture anyway (of the non-view)
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