Dining Out / QuiltCon in Pasadena

I am often asked how I choose the restaurants to dine at when I am traveling.  So, today I am sharing one of my plans when I drove to Pasadena for QuiltCon in February.

First, I draw a very rough map of the area.  How far from point A to point B?  Mainly my hotel and the convention center. How far to walk, how far to take a shuttle?  I use Google Maps on my iPhone when I travel, so I know where I am going and it will tell me how far it is by car or by walking

Now for the list of places that interest me.  I find these through Yelp using the search "farm to table" because I want to eat the freshest foods.  I find they are the most delicious.  After the choices are narrowed down, like for dinner places, I use Open Table to get a reservation.  We also ate at Wahoo's Fish Tacos and PF Chang's.

The Meat District is where we dined on Thursday night. We took the hotel shuttle.  Their memus are in the shape of cleavers!  The boast of having the best burger.  I ordered mine medium, it came crawling off the plate. That's how they like to serve it. It didn't cut the mustard.  No real 'meat' flavors, because in my humble opinion, it wasn't cooked enough.  Salt would have been good.  Those bones in the middle?  Bone marrow. I didn't order them, but they tasted like fish, which can't be good.  Were they stored next to fish in the frig? I don't recommend this restaurant.  The service was good though.

This restaurant wasn't on my list, because some friends recommended it. Dog Haus - with a great selection of hot dogs - all kinds - great selection.  A nice outside patio and within walking distance to the Pasadena Convention Center. It's in Old Pasadena - around the corner is Blick Art Supplies.  I can't remember today what was on my dog, but it was utterly delicious.  Good fries, tatertots and sweet potato fries.  I would highly recommend this restaurant.  Come to find out there are two of these restaurants near me in Orange County, CA.  Hot dogs!

A longer walk that first realized, but such great scenery along the way and the lunch was oh so delicious and fresh. They have wonderful salads, you can have meat added, and lovely veggie sides. I had one of the most delicious cookies there (white chocolate and cranberry).  Tender Greens - and they have many other locations, which I am happy about.

This was a great find.  Azeen's Afghani restaurant, on Yelp, of course.  A small and intimate restaurant with great service, larger portions to share and the food was divine!  We had a table of 7 people who could talk easily and hear ourselves. Great setting.  A car ride away from our hotel.

Napa and Foodie Delights

We had lunch at this farm to table restaurant, Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch.  The food was divine and we could have lingered here all afternoon.

We did alot of food sharing at our table with three of us.  The soup was savory and warm. 

Be still my heart.  Meyer Lemon Meringue pie with a graham cracker crust.

An afternoon appointment at Elyse Winery in Napa.  Their wines are so great, especially their Nero Misto, Zinfandel and the Jacob Franklin.  It is a small winery and it is by appointment only.  You will not be disappointed.

Two of the wines that we tasted.  There was more, but these too stood out.

The countryside is so beautiful in Napa

Coffee...the nectar of the Gods.  We love coffee. A trip to Oxbow Public Market became a daily ritual for us. And look at the name of the coffee!!! 

We had Decaf Flat Whites, and it was the most delicious cup of coffee...ever! and decaf. go figure.

We stayed at Embassy Suites in Napa.  They make breakfast for you. My daily routine was oatmeal, pancakes and sausage. A great way to begin each day!

This restaurant was a great find in the Whole Foods/Trader Joes shopping center in Napa on Trancas.  Heritage Eats.  You can choose your veggies, rice and meats.  Hot delicious food. And they have Vietnamese coffee too!  We ate here a couple of times.

Taking pictures of our food.  We are such geeks!

another cup of delicious coffee

Breakfast at Grace's Table in downtown Napa.  I Googled breakfast places and this came up boasting the best eggs benedict and pancakes.  So we went to check it out. Delicious!  Link to yelp is here

Ventured out to Napa Roasting Company, which is on the way to Oxbow Market.  We got our coffee to go!  They supply many restaurants in Napa with their coffee.

C Casa in Oxbow Public Market has a place for really unique tacos.  We would recommend this culinary delight. Clean, crisp and spicy flavors.

The Ritual Coffee sign.  Had double Flat Whites so we could get larger cups.

another cool restaurant inside the Oxbow Public Market is the Kitchen Door.  Love the pots and pans display.

Shelves on one side displayed vintage collections of cooking tools

I loved the rolling pin collection.  This restaurant is large and has a nice seating area.  A variety of dishes on the menu to choose from.

The Eight Noodle Shop restaurant.  We ate at this restaurant twice for dinner and it did not disappoint.  Great dishes. Noodles, veggies, great flavors and not expensive.

a trip to the local fromagerie in Dayton, WA

Monteillet Frommagerie in Dayton, WA.  If you are ever nearby, I would highly recommend going to this establishment.  Located on a farm off the beaten path, which made it even more intriguing.  Erin was our host to taste an amazing selection of cheeses with wine pairings.  Oh my gosh - too wonderful for words.This is the chevre - 3 varieties:  would be excellent on toast or made into a cheesecake. There is even a wasabi one!These five were my favorite, probably because they were the most flavorful.  Provencal (in the ramiken)was absolutely incredible - tasting the goats milk, salt, rosemary, truffle oil, garlic, peppercorn, etc.  I could have eaten the entire bowl full, but I didn't - had wee bites with rose and a red table wine, the perfect compliment - and the taste of it changed with the different wines.Here is Erin with her wine selections.  She was delightful, funny, passionate about cheese, and a pleasure to meet.  I think that Natalie Portman looks like her. Our visit to this charming cheese farm was the highlight of our day!