Steak from the fireplace

Eastside Road, March 29, 2011—

LUNCH TODAY IN Sonoma, where we'd visited the Quarry Hill Garden (very much worth while) and would, after lunch, visit the Mission, the Barracks, and General Vallejo's house. Lunch itself was a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich which almost qualifies for the Hundred Plates: I'll have to meditate a few hours or years on the possible reasons it doesn't make it.

Afterward, really really good ice cream at Michoacana Natural Ice Cream. This is one of the best ice creams I've tasted. A kind of custard flavor, I forget the name, Chunga or something like that; and Mexican vanilla. Smooth, deep, eggy, creamy. That's all I'll write, beyond the numbers:

Michoacana Natural Ice Cream, 18495 California Highway 12, Sonoma; (707) 938-1773

But dinner! Ah, that was another matter: easily the best dinner we've had for several nights. Eric cooked a three-pound tri-tip and a few decent Italian sausages on the Tuscan Grill in his fireplace, over oak firewood. The steak, I think, had been seasoned only with salt, and was fairly slow-cooked.




With it, as you see, a few squares of polenta. Those we spread with mascarpone, braised greens, and olives. The combination was absolutely delicious, and that combination combined with the grilled steak to perfection.

Various leftover whites, 2009; Petit Sirah, Preston of Dry Creek, 2007 (superb)