Nesting

A few readers have sent me emails wondering where I’ve wandered off to.  Over the last few months, I’ve The local tomato and burrata sandwich with razor thin onion rings at Artisan, a restaurant Tommy Oldre of Tablas Creek Winery aptly calls Paso's culinary gem. Best enjoyed with a super crisp glass of Paso Robles Grenache Blanc.road tripped to Santa Barbara, explored the winding, walnut grove and vineyard studded roads of Paso Robles, and spent eight perfect days kayaking, snorkeling and eating my way across Oahu.

While I have, in fact, been quite the wanderer lately, I have also been rooting myself here in Napa (I mean, seriously digging in my heels) and it is this puttin’ down roots process that has distracted me from detailing all of my recent, delicious adventures.  

What do I mean by rooting? Well...last weekend I moved into a beautiful old house with my fiancé, a wonderful man I have mentioned on this blog during the past two years, although typically as a food and wine geek like myself and not as my significant other. This transitions us to the obvious news that I am engaged! Our Southern Fried Wedding, as we have taken to calling it, is in just a month and a half. There will be Champagne; there will be braised collard greens; there will be fried chicken; there will be baked pies and cobblers for dessert; there will be Willie Nelson on the play list.

And there will be a baby girl come January. You can see how a gal might get sidetracked by such a succession of changes. These days, when I am not unpacking boxes, organizing the big day and trying to keep up with the demands of my day job (Mama needs a steady income!), I’m online trying not to cry at the overwhelming number of baby monitors there are to choose from. The few times I’ve opened up my laptop to write anything personal, my brain has fizzled, cracked and creatively “shorted out.”

Which is too bad, really, because I have been enjoying some amazing meals in some of the most unlikely places –There's a reason owner Craig Mitchell parked his sushi spot and warehouse less than a mile from the airport: The fish at Mitch's is flown fresh from Japan every single dayincluding a three table sushi joint attached to a warehouse in a seedy downtown Honolulu neighborhood just a mile from the airport. If you get a chance to experience Mitch's, you must order the spiny tail lobster, which the chef filets so quickly, its antennae still twitch when he plates it before you. I was two months pregnant when my fiancé ordered this house specialty. When I told him it was cruel and unusual torture to eat such delicious sushi in front of me, he generously said he'd share his miso soup, which came with every order of the lobster.

As if miso could ever sub in for the prettiest lobster tail flesh I have ever seen – it was delicate, with an iridescent cellophane coloring and texture that looked remarkably similar to grapefruit. Happily (for me), the rest of the lobster went into the miso, where it stewed for an hour. The evening passed in a decadent fashion for everyone, and although I wasn’t allowed to nip at even the smallest piece of raw fish, Mitch’s remains a highlight of our Hawaii visit.

There have been other meals, both abroad (does Hawaii count as "abroad"?) and at home, which I hope to tell you about soon. I must confess, however, that although it has wreaked havoc on my personal writing schedule, this season of rooting has been just as exhilarating, overwhelming, terrifying and soul delighting as many of my travels.  I hope you'll be patient with my scattered and inconsistent posts over the next months. I do plan to check in semi-regularly with my food and wine loving friends here at Aficionada. After all, I’m eating for two these days, which means I should have twice as many exciting restaurants and menu ideas to share!

The mystery for me is how the team at Morimoto de-bones the branzino but manages to maintain its fluid, fishlike form.Side Note: If you’re in the Napa area during the next few months, you may want to check out Morimoto, which just opened this week (I attended their soft opening last Monday and indulged in a rich, deep-fried, whole-but-boneless branzino that rivals the version they sometimes serve at San Francisco’s Slanted Door, which is my whole branzino gold standard). If you’re leaning toward  equally fresh but less expensive fare, C Casa, a sustainable taqueria at Napa’s Oxbow Market, offers some of the yummiest tacos and small plates in the area. I have become addicted to their spiced lamb tacos with goat cheese and tomatillo salsa, as well as their broccoli cabbage slaw and white beans with jalapenos and all spice.