Making it Through the Mud in Calistoga, Sarafornia

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri Krasov

So, pigs like mud because it massages their skin and makes them feel good…  How about them humans?

I have to admit, I was not up to that muddy business everyone was raving about. When it comes to any kind of dirt touching moi or anything I’m wearing I’m out of there. It might be slightly pathological, but “squeamish” doesn’t cut it.   

It took me a lot of nerve and natural curiosity to finally try the world-famous mud bathes in Calistoga. And, I had to do it in two steps – from a water-drawn thin mud looking like diluted black ink to the thick blanket of pure muck – the kind you get stuck in somewhere in the back roads of Russia at the end of a rainy season.  

Surprisingly, I enjoyed both.

What brought me to Calistoga were its distinct AVA wines and its unique for a Napa Valley town character. Despite being part of the ultimate tourist destination – California Wine Country – Calistoga remains a charming hideaway, less crowded, less commercialized, and more open to leisurely pursuits of honeymooners, romantic couples of all ages, and other deserving vacationers.

A historical anecdote relays how the geyser town in the foothills of Mount St. Helena got its name. An early settler and founder of Calistoga, Samuel Brannan, wanted to make it a “Saratoga of California” in honor of the hot springs resort in New York, but for some reason mispronounced his words, and announced “Calistoga of Sarafornia” to the world instead.

Sure enough, a century and a half later, the founding eccentric’s presence is widely felt in the town.

Spacious Brannan’s restaurant on the main drag occupies a corner building with large windows. Inside, atmospheric and richly decorated bar and dinner hall serve classic cocktails, steak house staples, and excellent local wines, like Brian Arden Syrah from Masked Man Vineyard and Cultivar cabernet sauvignon – both produced in Napa Valley.

My Berkshire-Duroc pork chop was served with mustard greens, cannellini beans, and grain mustard jus, and was predictably good.

My husband’s braised lamb shank with roasted garlic infused polenta and sautéed Swiss chard was fork tender and flavorful, so I had to have some of that, too.

For the night, we settled in a charming little cottage with all imaginable conveniences belonging to Hideaway Cottages – a sister property of the popular Dr. Wilkinson’s Hot Springs Resort. I found out that our lodging was named very appropriately. Hidden among the trees on a side street there was a real hideaway beyond the gate – a shaded alley lined with secluded white-walled cottages, each with a little garden in front of it. A sparkling swimming pool and a hot tub were kid-free and therefore endlessly appealing for us and other weekender guests – mostly couples.  

All the cottages are named after beautiful cities of the world – Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and even Erevan – the capital of Armenia, and Kiev – the capital of Ukraine.

Our home for the night had a cozy fully equipped kitchen with a breakfast nook, a family room with a big-screen TV, and the most luxurious bedroom with a plush bed.

The hotel also provides continental breakfast of coffee, fresh baked pastry and fruit. 

After breakfast we were enjoying the mineral water pool on premises, and that could count as exercise. We used the excuse to head to town for brunch.

Café Sarafornia, named after Sam Brannan’s notorious line, has it written on the wall of its boisterous dining room. It also has a line out the door, waiting to be seated, but the food is worth the wait.   

The oldest continuously run restaurant in the Napa Valley, Café Sarafornia serves lavish breakfasts all day long.

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My smoked salmon plate contained a good chunk of lox with capers, sour cream, and fluffy potato pancakes baked with red and green bell peppers.

My husband, who likes his morning meal on a sweet side, indulged in cheese and apple blintzes with blueberry compote.

Calistoga, which has always been the major resort area, is known for its historic hotels. 
Mount View Hotel & Spa maintains its century-old appeal, but attracts visitors with fully redecorated fresh modern looks and a secluded spa area with a heated outdoor pool.

The hotel offers a number of room and treatment packages for romantic couples, and a list of specials for the area attractions. Friday nights at Mount View luxurious lounge are wine tasting nights that sometimes turn into movie nights on a large screen TV.

At the Mount View Spa, my bathtub was filled with water-based natural mud packed with plant extracts, minerals and vitamins. It seemed non-threatening enough to enjoy it by the candle light until it was time for my massage and then unlimited swim in the sunny pool. That was quite a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Next, I explored the local wineries conveniently located in downtown Calistoga.

August Briggs is a very small producer making 13-15 different wines each year, with only five of them going into retail. Most wines come from a single vineyard in Napa or Sonoma, and four – from a vineyard in Calistoga.  Obviously, the best way to try August Briggs wines, embellished with a gold dandelion logo, is to come to the testing room or join the wine club.

I tasted 2009 Russian River Valley Chardonnay – golden, buttery, and toasty, with aromas of citrus, caramel, and pear, and flavors of ripe melon, apricot, and sweet cream – only 201 cases produced, and 2012 Leveroni Vineyard Carneros Chardonnay with great minerality – 193 cases.

Then there were some excellent pinots of Dijon Clones with their purity of fruit and complexity of aromas, and then Napa Valley Syrah and Petite Sirah with intense colors and distinctive flavors.

2009 Dry Creek Valley “Two Moon Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon impressed me the most with its layers of intense tastes from black currant to plum and dark chocolate.

Before heading for Vermeil Wines/OnThEdge Winery – the legendary local institution, I stopped at the equally legendary art gallery called Ca’Toga, solely dedicated to the multi-media art of Carlo Marchiori. Drawings, watercolors, acrylics, ceramics, bronze sculptures and murals overwhelm the gallery floor, walls, and its vaulted ceiling, creating a full-immersion experience in the midst of whimsical imagery delivered with high technical execution.

I could’ve spent a couple of hours at the gallery studying its many wonders, but I decided to plan another visit that would include a Ca’Toga Villa Tour of the artist’s residence filled with Roman ruins, statues, fountains, and trompe l’oeil frescoes.

Vermeil Wines was conceived by Dick Vermeil, Super Bowl winner and two-time NFL Coach of the Year, while winemaker Paul Smith founded the OnThEdge Winery.      

The paraphernalia-filled testing room reflects both personalities and offers a full line of critically-acclaimed wines.

I was lucky to meet here MarySue Frediani – a winery partner, a third-generation representative of a well-known wine growing family, and a walking encyclopedia of all things Calistoga.

Following MarySue’s expert advice, I tasted the most enticing and well-rounded collection of wines – each better than the next one, marked by so much love and attention to detail that after visiting the Vermeil Wines/OnThEdge tasting room I had a feeling of achieved perfection.

I thoroughly tasted the barrel-fermented 2011 Vermeil Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley with a little Semillon in it; 2010 Dry Semillon from Luvisi Vineyard in Calistoga; 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon rose; and especially 2008 OnThEdge Charbono – a rare grape from a vineyard on the edge of Napa-Sonoma. Apparently, there are only 93 acres in all of North America that grow Charbono, and the Frediani family owns 10 of them.

Other amazing wines I tried included OnThEdge 2006 Nonna’s Secret red wine blend; 2010 zinfandel ”1956 Block” from Frediani Vineyard; 2005 Library Selection Syrah, also from Frediani Vineyard, and 2007 Cabernet Franc – 96%, with only 4% cab sauv, tasting like black cherries dipped in chocolate.

Late harvest 2008 Frediani 1956 zin and 2009 late harvest Semillon with a taste of lychee fruit were sweet, but not sticky and gooey – just perfect, same as everything else in this amazing place.                         

By the late afternoon I was totally in love with the city of Calistoga and ready for the ultimate mud experience – the real stuff at the Roman Spa Hot Springs Resort.

Baths at Roman Spa offer the authentic Calistoga adventure – massage, mud and mineral baths – a local tradition of over 100 years. The thick black mud, silky to the touch, consists of the volcanic ash, natural peat, and geothermal mineral water.  

Sliding into the bathtub, filled with mother-dirt, I felt like a summer worm in a ripe plum – or what I imagine the worm must feel like surrounded by the sweet softness of the fruit. I felt warm, weightless, fully relaxed, and happy. Ancient Romans were known for inventing all kinds of indulgencies, including Terme, or thermal bath resorts more than 3000 years ago, and Roman Spa in Calistoga provides this kind of restorative and nourishing indulgence for its patrons today.

Additional information at: www.calistogavisitors.com   

Little White Lies Are All About the Truth

By Emma Krasov

The usual French film premise – a group of 30-something friends divided into couples, ex-couples, couples on a verge of a break up, and surfacing love triangles – is the first obvious thing in Little White Lies by Guillaume Canet, presented by MPI Pictures.  The second obvious thing about this movie is the heavy use of rock and jazz hit songs intended to illustrate every character’s inner struggle, or a conflict between two characters. The classic songs for some reason come from a previous generations’ fan book – Nina Simone, The Isley Brothers, Janis Joplin, David Bowie, Creedence Clearwater Revival…  

The not so obvious thing in this film is that most of the characters are hard to identify with, since in the first hour or so we learn very little about the majority of them.  When we do learn more, it seems sometimes hard to believe. Can a young, good looking, kind, smart and successful doctor fall for a grumpy, arrogant, slightly educated B&B owner past his prime? Can a normal-looking man pursue a rather homely woman to a degree under which he turns into a needy lovesick teenager occupied only with her text messages and decidedly nothing else in his life? Can a night club junky be a center of everyone’s love and devotion? There might be more to any of these characters, but we still don’t know it from their actions and dialogs that rotate around summer vacation activities and petty squabbles.

While for the best part of the film nothing is happening besides trivial things like going on vacation in a group, settling at the B&B, eating, drinking, boating, etc. etc., eventually the plot thickens and brings up some drama and a hint at complex relationships within the group. As always, Paris and the beaches of, presumably, Provence, play a role equal to that of the acting ensemble. Some very distinguished actors’ presence surely helps – like Marion Cotillard, Francois Cluzet (both on photo), Benoit Magimel, and Jean Dujardin. Little White Lies premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Cesar Award for Best Director (G. Canet). The film opens on August 31 at Landmark Theater in San Francisco, Shattuck in Berkeley, and Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, California.          

French Cuisine, Russian Art, and International Music Spell Good Life at Bon Vivant Café

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri Krasov

Palo Alto, California, is known internationally for the city’s cultural and historical traditions, Stanford University, always sunny weather, and upscale restaurants catering to the Silicon Valley crowd.

A recent addition to the restaurant scene is Bon Vivant Café on a quiet side street right off University Avenue.

Bistro-style marble tables with blue glasses on them line the outer wall of the café, while stepping inside it is easy to imagine being in a Parisian restaurant. Spherical crystal chandeliers, old silver, freshly cut gardenias and potted orchids compliment the white table cloth establishment that is also an art gallery and a music hall with a grand piano in a corner of the spacious dining room.

Music-themed artworks by a Moscow painter Andrey Anisimov cover the walls, and on weekends the diners are treated to classical music, jazz, or rock and blues performances by famous musicians from different countries. 

Bon Vivant Café’s kitchen is headed by Brandon Paige, an experienced chef with Aqua (San Francisco) and MK (Chicago) stints under his belt.

On the night we dined, our exquisite meal started with a glass of Provencal rose, Whispering Angel, and airy cheese puffs, gougers, served in a red enamel cocotte.

A bowl of chilled melon soup with charred prawn, basil seed, and tarragon float came next. The velvety sweetness of pureed cantaloupe was balanced out by the fleshy seafood and minty flavors of herbs and spices. This soup alone could be well worth a visit to Bon Vivant, however, since all produce comes from the local farmers market, the house specials change with the season.

Charcuterie board, suggested by our attentive server, included silky duck liver mousse, tender rabbit rilette, salami, stone ground mustard, and cornichons.

Black kale salad had a wonderfully chewy texture and was garnished with savory parmesan vinaigrette and lemony croutons.

Although it was hard to imagine the baby beet salad ingredients on the same plate, they worked splendidly together as a testament to Bon Vivant’s creativity and the popularity of its original recipes created in house. Cooked red and orange beets were served with marinated plums, cottage cheese, granola, and arugula, combining all tastes and textures imaginable.

There is also a smoked trout salad – a very satisfying dish that uses excellent house cured fish, boiled heirloom potatoes, crispy shallots and citrus crème – delish!  

Roasted sweetbreads en papillote came as a star of the starters menu. This is a very French dish that requires a lot of prep work, but done right can outshine anything else.

Bon Vivant’s sweetbreads were probably the best I’ve ever tried – both in America and in France.

For the main course, my dining companion chose an intriguing sounding roasted wild boar, prepared to chef’s specifications. That turned out to be a medium-well lean gamey loin, its texture enhanced by soft creamy polenta, ratatouille, and olive vinaigrette.

I was in a mood for a more conservative chicken “Grand Mere” with a side of petit carrots, English peas, and in lemon-thyme jus. Its golden-brown goodness did remind me of my grandma’s roasted chicken, but my grandma was an outstanding cook.   

Our desserts were crepe Suzette with fresh orange wedges – a twist on a classic dish, only lighter – and rich chocolate pot de crème with shortbread cookies.

Dining in Bon Vivant is a guaranteed pleasure, plus art and entertainment in a good company. No wonder the place is packed for lunch and dinner, and often reserved for private parties, birthdays, and corporate celebrations.

Bon Vivant is located at 535 Bryant St., Palo Alto. Call for reservations 650-485-3228 or visit www.bonvivantcafe.net.        

East, West, and Harmony at E & O Asian Kitchen in San Francisco

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri Krasov

Redesigned, renovated and renamed, E & O Asian Kitchen in the heart of San Francisco is geared for smooth sailing. Everything in this elegant restaurant seems to contribute to an exceptionally harmonious dining experience.

The restaurant’s ambiance is elegantly dark, with minimalist bamboo-shaped vertical lights backing the bar and yielding just enough luminosity to the candlelit dining area to provide a cozy intimate feel.

Attentive and efficient servers, clad in black, are happy to provide suggestions, but judging from the few items I’ve tried at E & O, you cannot go wrong with anything from the menu.  The kitchen, led by Chef Sharon Nahm in collaboration with Arnold Eric Wong, perfected the art of modern Asian cuisine, so every dish here is an inspired little masterpiece.

Starting your meal with the restaurant’s signature cocktails created by lead bartender Carlos Yturria is a no brainer, since there are wonderful libations on offer for every taste.

Simply-sounding Beefeater Gin, sea beans and lime Sea Witch caught my imagination, and it was light, peridot-green and wickedly refreshing – with slim salty crunchy sea beans mocking seaweed in a tidal wave.

East Meets West made with Wild Turkey bourbon, lemongrass and soda, was pale pink, almost beige, and subtly creamy on the palate.  

Other notable cocktails include Gazebo made with Hangar vodka, pineapple, basil and lemon, and Concubine with gin, St. Germain, house made orgeat and lime – but hey, a girl can try only so many in one sitting. 

The enhanced dinner menu offers scrumptious starters, and among them humble pickle jars. A daily selection of house made pickles should never be overlooked. I tried all four specials of the day, and couldn’t decide which were the best – crunchy rainbow carrots with coriander, chewy shiitake with sea beans, bright yellow lemon cucumbers, or crimson li hing mui mangoes.

Oxtail dumplings from the short but enticing dumplings menu were served with black beans, carrots, and 5-spice nage, and were very hard to share.

Asian "Gnocchi" from the Rice & Noodles menu are short cut on bias rice sticks generously interspersed with chunks of beef filet, cabbage, chili flakes, and topped with spicy soy sauce. 

Another dish from the same menu section is a wonderfully satisfying Japanese “bop” – a little platform of crispy rice holding a construction of pickles, spinach, chili, and marinated plum crowned by a soft-fried fresh egg.

Seafood choices include a sweetly tender wood roasted char siu black cod, garnished with sautéed pea tendrils, which makes for a light yet filing dish.

Among meat and poultry offerings there is a moderately spicy black pepper shaking beef, smothered with red onions, tomatoes, chili, and watercress.

Most of the dishes we tried were suggested by our knowledgeable server Sandra, and manager Holly Friedmann made sure we and other patrons were well taken care of, as well as the entire skilled staff of E & O – my new favorite in Downtown San Francisco.  

E & O Asian Kitchen is located at 314 Sutter Street in San Francisco. Lunch is served Monday-Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Hour 3 to 6 p.m. Dinner Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m., Monday-Wednesday from 4 to 10 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m. A Late Night Bar menu is available Thursday through Saturday evenings until midnight or close. For more information, visit: www.eosanfrancisco.com. 

AgroTourism in Rural Romania

Guest Blogger Erin Caslavka, photography by Jon Deinzer

  On the streets of Sibiu, pedestrians stop to gaze into store windows filled with jewelry from Turkey, shoes from Italy or clothing from China. But just outside the fortified walls of the city is a an outdoor marketplace waiting to be explored, where shoppers can fill their bags with the treasures of Romania: luscious local fruits, vegetables, honey, eggs, and cheese.

The farmer’s market on the outskirts of Sibiu, about a 10-minute walk from the city center, was the embodiment of all we’d come to suspect based on the lush, verdant fields and hillsides we’d driven past during the month of May. Romania isn’t exactly the “breadbasket of Europe” - that title’s been assigned to the Ukraine. But with its close proximity to the former Soviet state, Romania can boast very similar rich, fertile soil. With such a cache of terroir riches, it’s no wonder that at the Sibiu farmer’s market we spied plump tomatoes the color of rubies, mounds of cabbage in translucent shades of green, golden local honey and ivory-toned cheese. 

Anyone who’s interested in the Slow Food Movement, or a devotee of farm-to-table dining, should have a trip to Romania on their travel radar. Although the culinary influences at most Romanian restaurants are clearly Eastern European, the abundance of fresh produce and recently-harvested food products makes dining in the countryside an adventure unto itself.

Most people are aware that truffle hunting exists in France and Italy, but truffles in Transylvania? Believe it or not, an option available to foodies is held in the area near Biertan (with its fortified Saxon church) via Pacific Perfect Tour’s “Gourmet Truffle Weekend.” Accommodations are provided in guesthouses that have been restored to keep their traditional architecture intact (but with the added conveniences of modern life), and during the daytime, you head out for a truffle hunt with a guide and his trained dogs. The search for the “black diamonds” of the culinary world is thrilling in-and-of-itself, but following your foray into foraging, you head back to the kitchen for a lesson in how to prepare a meal utilizing the highly-prized fungus.

Anyone who’s seen the menu of an upscale restaurant would agree that those truffles are an expensive addition to a dish - an ingredient, you might say, fit for a king’s pocketbook. So imagine for a moment while you’re in Romania, dining on one of the world’s most expensive food products, that you are royalty: where would you stay? If you’re a prince from Great Britain, and you happen to be named Charles, you’d stay in a traditional home painted the deep blue color of the Romanian sky.

 From the outside, the Prince of Wales’ house doesn’t look like much; but pass through the gates and you enter an interior courtyard that reveals a garden, grapevine-draped walls and a covered, outdoor dining terrace. The house has three double bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen, and is filled with simple-yet-comfortable furnishings. On the day we visited, the housekeeper was cleaning up after the previous night’s guests, and preparing the house for the next set.

There aren’t too many places in the world were you can literally sleep in the same bed as a living monarch, but in Romania, you can. Most likely because Prince Charles (himself a staunch advocate of sustainable and organic farming) is only able to ‘get away from it all’ and stay at his farmhouse a few days out of every year, his house - located in the Transylvanian village of Viscri (a UNESCO World Heritage site) - is open to paying guests. Not only is the experience unique, but a portion of the rates you’ll pay for staying overnight are gifted to a local orphanage.

Although the prince (and sometimes his son Harry) is considered a town resident, nevertheless life in the rural village is still much as it was hundreds of years ago: cows are still milked, chickens are still relieved of their eggs, rows of seedlings are still planted and harvested, and gypsies still arrive on a schedule all their own to make charcoal in the countryside.

 A 15-minute drive from Viscri will take you to the charcoal makers who supply fuel for the fireplaces in the village (and for sale elsewhere). Fourth-generation charcoal makers, the transient workers - a husband, his wife and their apprentice - construct huge cylindrical mounds of wood, cover them with a layer of hay, and finally ash and dirt. A fire is set inside the enormous wood pile and allowed to burn for days, turning the once-brown wood into pieces of dark-gray charcoal logs; whereupon the charcoal makers will bundle them up for market.

In rural Transylvania, visions of an earlier version of the world still exists. So save the window shopping and boutique-ing for the other Europe; in Romania, embrace the slow pace of life and enjoy the pleasures that ‘the simple life’ provides. 

Perfect Tour is the third-largest travel company in Romania, and is a widely-experienced travel source when it comes to assisting group and independent travelers. We worked with its US division, Pacific Perfect Tour, to help us make the connections we needed within Romania. They can be contacted at:

Pacific Perfect Tour

Phone: (818) 726-5151 / Daniela Ionescu

Email: office@perfect-tour.com 

For more information go to:  http://www.perfect-tour.com/perfect_tour_provides_travel_services_for_movie_production_companies.html