Monterey: Peter B's and Restaurant 1833

What I love about craft beer is, like food, almost every city or region has beer that is locally made. I love the concept of eating local and what better way to experience the city you're in than through your stomach. I highly encourage getting fat and getting drunk like the way the locals do.

Restaurant 1833

I like to research what restaurants to visit whenever I am in a different city. I stumbled upon a blog, a lot like this one that raved about Restaurant 1833, so I had to see for myself.

Restaurant 1833 sits on the corner of Hartnell and Polk Streets in the historic Stokes Adobe home. They promise an experience of a “storied past retold.” The restaurant has seven unique rooms some with a more romantic ambiance and others meant for large gatherings. I sat in what was once the “living room” which is the more casual bar area. According to locals, the restaurant's popularity skyrocketed after landing a semi-finalist spot for the prestigious James Beard award for best new restaurant. 

I ordered the pan-seared rock cod with leeks, mussels, tomato, Yukon gold potatoes in cream sauce. I enjoyed the dish though I devoured it in minutes along with my glass of wine because I was starving. The fish was well seasoned, the mussels tasty and the tomatoes provided a good bite of freshness. The one criticism I do have (sounding like a Food Network judge) is the uneven proportion of sauce to starch, too heavy on the sauce side. But, I am a starch fiend so I prefer a lot of more potatoes. Dishes are priced around $15 to $40. You can tour each of the rooms, which I unfortunately did not do. 

Peter B’s

Monterey is not really a beer town and they only have one brewery in the city: Peter B’s which fortunately for me was located behind my hotel at the Portola Hotel and Spa. I met a few regulars and the conversations I overheard were all talk about beers and beer week indicating that I was at a legitimate beer place. For me, regulars are an excellent indicator of any establishment. If you like the regulars at a place, there’s a good chance you’ll like the place. We tend to flock to our own kind.

I enjoy sitting at the bars in different cities because I meet interesting people. At Peter B’s, I sat next to these two guys, one of whom turned out went to my college (but about 20 years ago). We chatted about living in Sacramento and all of the changes it has gone through since he’s moved and of course, we talked about the beer.

I had the IPA and the Red Ale, two of my favorite types of beer and the place is decent. The IPA was pretty hoppy, initially a little too hoppy for me but had a good aroma (that I like to say smells like flowers but I’m told it’s not flowers, it’s the hops). The more I drank the IPA, the more I liked it. The Red Ale was a little more smooth and malty. I did it wrong, I went hoppy IPA then went to the Red Ale, you should reverse that order because your pallet is overwhelmed by hops and you aren’t able to fully taste the flavors of the red ale. I had to order an artichoke which Castroville, a Salinas Valley town is famous for.

Until the next pint, cheers!

Amador Wine Tasting

Originally posted August 10, 2012 on sarahsbackpages.blogspot.com


Every now and then I put down a pint of beer and I like to tap my inner housewife and drink wine. Here are some "iPhonetography" from a quick wine tasting trip with some friends just 40 minutes east of home. Amador County around the Shenandoah Valley is one of my favorite places to wine taste because there's good wine, great scenery, friendly people and free!.

Bray Vineyards

Driven Winery

And here are some people I like to call my first and second wheel. I met Jen and Justin in college and even then before they were husband and wife, they were my first and second wheels (I their third) and we have had boat loads of spontaneous adventures.

The spoils

Other wineries we visited but not photographed were Sobon Winery, which is the oldest winery in the Amador County/Shenandoah Valley area and Drytown Cellar, which is where I go the wine on the left called Vino de Mocca. That Vino de Mocca is chocolate, orange, vanilla, coffee beans, grapes... nectar of the gods (or at least the ones who love dessert wine).

Salud!

NorCal Mini-Brewery Tour

Originally posted July 17, 2012 on sarahsbackpages.blogspot.com


Northern California has some great craft breweries, some of the most popular in the country. Here's three I visited on Saturday... not a bad way to spend a hot day.

Bear Republic Brewing, Healdsburg
The Bear Republic brewpub is located in downtown Healdsburg which is very wine-centric since it is located in the Napa Valley. The place is filled with fancy shops (french bakeries, cheese shops and wine stores galore!!) and boutiques.

If you're ever in Healdsburg, and I highly recommend visiting the city, stop by Bear Republic, have a pint or two if you want a break from the wine.

Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa
Russian River Brewing is about 20 minutes south of Healdsburg. Russian River Brewing is not a very large brewery, compared to some other craft brewers but has won countless awards and they produce one of the most coveted beers in the nation, Pliny the Elder. The brewpub is located in downtown Santa Rosa and it is always packed with beer enthusiasts. The food is also very good.

If you ever visit, grab yourself a growler because their beers are not often available at your local pub.

Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma
Lagunitas is about 20 or 30 minutes south of Santa Rosa and is located in an office park. Lagunitas has a great outdoor patio with a mini amphitheater and another mini stage for live bands. I think this is where all of Petaluma comes to party.

At Lagunitas, I met this lady waiting for her date she met on match.com. She introduced her date as her "match.com" date to my friends and I as if the situation between the two of them was not awkward enough. When he briefly walked away, she told me that Lagunitas was a great place because if your match date doesn't work out you can usually find someone else in the crowd. I wonder how the rest of their date went?

Brew tours are fun as long as you're not the designated driver. Cheers!

San Francisco Beer Tour

Originally posted July 26, 2012 on sarahsbackpages.blogspot.com


A few weeks ago I visited two breweries and one pub in San Francisco. Brewery tours have become one of my favorite ways to spend the day.

21st Amendment
21st Amendment is a brew-pub located in the South Beach area. I love the names of their beers. They have this watermelon beer that's quite popular with the ladies. Also, as a bonus if you visit this brew-pub, The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen is just right across the street (!) if you aren't into the food at 21st Amendment, but the food at the pub is pretty good.

Toronado Pub
Over in the Haight-Ashbury is Toronado Pub. This place does not serve food, it's small, has a dive vibe but has excellent beer selection with a range from Russian River on tap to Dog Fish Head. The restrooms are covered in graffiti/art? (including the toilet seat). Also at this place you may run into more than one old man with dreadlocks that go to the floor and instead of the stench of cigarettes permeating from the outside, you will smell weed.

Speakeasy Brewery
If you head a little south is Speakeasy Brewery. They only have a tap room which happened to be filled with "Punks" the day we visited. Yes boys and girls, the punk scene is still alive. I stuck out like a sore thumb.

Now officially on the search for an opportunity for another beer tour somewhere!

Eating New York City

Originally posted March 2010 on sarahsbackpages.blogspot.com

There are at least 1000 restaurants in Manhattan alone. I have this theory that you could eat out every day and every meal for an entire year in New York City and not repeat any restaurants.

Here's what I ate during my long weekend in the Big Apple.

RISE AND SHINE: CAFE'S AND BAGELS

City Girl Cafe

This place was recommended to me by Amber, whose blog I love to read and she happens to be my friend :). She visits Diners Drive-Ins and Dives featured on the Food Network. I recommend her blog :).

She told me about this article in the NYTimes and how the city is getting more quality coffee that rival coffee towns like San Francisco. This place called City Girl Cafe was featured in the article and it was conveniently located 5 blocks from our hotel in SoHo.

Here it is.. located on 63 Thompson Street. Please note that we had just gotten off a red-eye flight. This is a pre-warning for how we look in the pictures. We decided to get some coffee the minute we got off the plane -- besides we couldn't check in yet.

We ordered some apple pastry and homemade granola.. and thinking about these pastries is making my mouth water. The granola was soft and moist like a brownie. The coffee was okay. I don't think it was anything special.

Speaking of brownies... apparently they are so good at this place they have to put up this sign. Sadly, I didn't get to try any.

The inside is cute, but very very tiny.

Umm.. some bagel/deli place with guys who sexting. I can't remember the name

At this place, we decided to try a New York bagel. The guys working in there were a bit weird. You would walk up to the counter, say what you want, the guy working the counter hardly says a word then goes back to texting or something. We think he was sex-ting... gross.

An authentic NY bagel... I don't know what the difference is with other bagels. I just hear people say that all the time.

This looked like Gelato-- but it's cream cheese! They customize cream cheese. For instance, if you wanted the vegetable cream cheese, they put fresh carrots, celery and red peppers. There is also fresh scallion cream cheese and bacon cream cheese. I got scallion, Bethany got jalapeno and Molly got veggie -- what no bacon? She didn't know it was an option. The servers however put way too much cream cheese. They scoop it with their gloved hand and plop it onto the bagel. Spreading is a foreign concept to them.

Once Upon a Tart

We discovered this place while walking around SoHo. Can I just say how much I LOVE SoHo? I wish I could live there. 

Anyways. This place is called Once Upon a Tart and they have an adorable window display.

Can you tell what movie scene the right one is from? It's kind of hard to tell from the glare, but that is King Kong.

Spinach and Mushroom Tart. It was good, but I like the red bell pepper tart better. 

Delicious Mandolins... mmmmm..

Once Upon a Tart just oozes cuteness.

HAUGHT DAAWWWG!! (a.k.a Hot Dog)

Of course there was going to be a special section for the hot dog... this is New York after all! The hot dog stands are on every corner. I believe these hot dog stands are a big part in what makes New York City one of the best cities in the world.

Sabrett Hot Dog

Sabrett hot dog stands are all over the city, especially downtown and midtown Manhattan. I liked their hot dogs the best. I don't have a picture of it, but I do have this pictures of us right after consuming the dogs and right before walking the Brooklyn Bridge.

If you look closely in the back of the picture on the left, you can see the umbrella of the hot dog stand.

Hot Dog Stand infront of The Met

This place was not a Sabrett hot dog stand because it was more like roach coach and they also made knishes. This hot dog was decent. One weird thing I found out about New York is that they don't really have relish. This is the one time relish was available. They do have this onion sauce thing which is delish. I think it's onions in tomato sauce.

We ate these on the steps of The Met. Very Classy. Very New York.

Gray's Papaya

I was so excited to try this hot dog but was highly disappointed. It wasn't different from any other hot dog. It tasted ok, it just wasn't spectacular.

I'm glad I tried it . It's all about checking things off the list.

FODDER AND LIBATIONS

Spanish/Tapas

The first night we got there we had dinner at this place called Spanish/Tapas in the East Village. I didn't get any pictures because I was too tired to think about pictures. We had that red-eye flight and just finished watching Mary Poppins (which I fell asleep half the time). The tapas were sooo good. We had tomato with mozzarella salad, calamari, potatoes and the best red wine Sangria I have ever had.

Antique Garage

I am in-love with this restaurant. Antique Garage is located in SoHo and it's decorated with antique flea market style. The plates and silver ware don't match and there is an old car (this time an old corvette) at the front. I hear that the car changes. At one point they had an old timey taxi. I heard about this place from Jamie who is my friend Julie's friend from Brooklyn. She was kind enough to meet us for dinner and she found this amazing place.

I didn't get a photo of the exterior so here's one I got from the web.

Behold the meat and cheese platter... nuff said.

Bethany got the lamb (it was a little tough but delicious) and Jamie got this pasta and cheese dish (it looked good, but I didn't try it).

I had stewed vegetables and endive salad. The stewed veggies were served over greek yogurt and it was fantastic! The sour creamy yogurt and the soft veggies worked well together. The salad was also very good but there was cheese on there... and I had already ate a ton of cheese from the appetizer.

For a cocktail, I had the Old Fashioned Manhattan, pictured on the right. As you can see Molly being big sisterly and mature. (In the picture: Wes, me and Molly)

Salt

We found out about this place from Bethany who found this great deal -- a $25 certificate for $4. So, she decides to buy 4 of the certificates (equaling $100) only to find out later that we can only use one certificate per sitting! Oh well... we tend to do things like that. Salt restaurant is again in SoHo and it's this small country style decorated restaurant. The seating is communal and the food is simple. You pick a protein (pork, chicken or fish) and two sides or you could pick a chef's entree. 

I picked the chilean sea bass and for my sides I picked mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. The chilean sea bass is an entire fish (head to tail) which I am used to because that's how Filipinos (Asians) cook fish. The reduced balsamic vinegar also added this really nice sweetness to the mild fish. I love fish. I can eat an entire fish and not feel guilty about it.

Bethany ordered the beet ravioli served over some sort of tomato broth. The ravioli was really good. Instead of using pasta for the ravioli, they used won-ton wrap! It was different but worked well.

Molly ordered the braised pork belly. When she ordered this, our handsome waiter/model said "oooh." 

For an appetizer we had bacon wrapped dates in balsamic vinegar. This is one of the best things I have eaten. The dates kind of taste like sausage... yummm.. so savory.

Our waiter/model recommended this wine from Austria, which tasted a lot like Cider so I'm not complaining. For dessert we had a lemon tart with lavender crust, bananas in rum and sugar and Earl Gray tea ice cream. Everything tasted like lotion except for the bananas. Molly was right, anything with lavender tastes like lotion. To quote her, "I feel like I'm eating Crabtree and Evelyn."

I really liked the ambience of this place. You definitely need to make reservations because it's small and it got packed. You could also buy fancy salt and preservatives which unfortunately we forgot to do.

Swift Bar

This really cool bar in the village is named after the author Jonathan Swift. The night we visited this bar, I wanted to go watch some slam poetry at The Bowery. The gang wasn't really feeling it though. The decor of this place is like a pub -- a cool one though not one that's too mass produced or manufactured looking. They specialize in scotch and whiskey. 

The interior and the DJ. He didn't play great music but we made some requests and he played The Cure. Finally! But we weren't too hard on him, he was cute with a foreign accent.

Reppin' Cali-for-nye-yay! This was such a fun night. We ran up almost a $400 tab! That's because they sell $18/glass of scotch. FYI about NYC bars, they NEVER check I.D. Which is crazy because I always get carded because I still look 20 ;) hehe... not really.

That reads on the Swift menu: Sarah was Here Cali-for-nye-yay and Molly was here and you missed her.

Later that night/morning we went to get a slice of pizza. The pizza was gross. Molly ordered ham and pineapple (aka Hawaiian) and they served canned ham. blech!

Unnamed Bar in SoHo

I can't remember the name of this place but it is 3 blocks off of Bowery, so I think it's East Village? Jamie recommended this place. It's a dive and kind of underground-ish. The bathrooms are kind of gross. We didn't stay long but I can see that place being fun. I had some Brooklyn Brew and it was not bad -- not bad at all.

Salud!

THE SWEETEST THING: EXTRAS AND GOODIES

We also made little stops along the way for desserts and other things.

Magnolia Bakery

We went to the Magnolia Bakery in Greenwhich Village and it was tiny, packed with people and hot. The line was outside. I really wish I could've stayed inside longer and got a good look at all of the cupcakes and cakes!

This is a vanilla cupcake.

Dean and Deluca

I have always wanted to go to this place. I see it in movies and I see the sign every morning on the Today Show. Dean and Deluca is located in the Rockefeller Center and it's not the grocery store, which I was kind of bummed about, but that's okay. We still helped ourselves to some treats.

Iced Latte and Lemon aide... very refreshing because it was getting warm out there!

We had a lemon bar which was just okay... we should've gotten a cupcake instead!

Brooklyn Flea

I heard about the Brooklyn Flea from this blog that I love called Design Sponge. When I went on the flea market's website I knew I had to visit and they had some really good food vendors.

Papusas... where have you been all my life? I have never had papusa until this market and OMG... I can't stop thinking about it. It's basically a fried tamale without the sauce.

Some greek desserts... the one on the right is deep fried something smothered in honey. mmm.

If you're in NY next time, consider stopping at the Brooklyn Flea... so worth it. It's housed in this really old building and on its walls are beautifully painted murals.

New York is such a great city. I miss it already. The food didn't disappoint, neither did the shopping, the entertainment and of course the good company. I didn't think we ate that much during this trip, but now that I have written this blog.. holy moley... we did eat a lot.

Happy eating adventures!