Wine Wednesday - Outside Lands 2014

So after all those pre-Outside Lands posts, I'm sure you're wondering what I actually decided to try while I was there? Here are the food and wine dishes I enjoyed during the festival. I really made the most of the wine tastes so I could try as much as possible. At $2-3 per taste, it made my wine tickets last much longer and when I did want to grab a glass and go, I already knew what I liked. The prices below are per bottle, not Outside Lands prices.

Wine

2012 Qupé "Bien Nacido Cuvee"

Qupé was my first stop at wine lands. The weather was unexpectedly nice in the Outerlands so starting with the white blend seemed fitting. The blend is about 2/3 Viognier and 1/3 Chardonnay. I really liked the way these came together. Viognier can be a little too frilly for me while Chardonnay can be too oakey but together, they balanced wonderfully. The Viognier was definitely the more prominent of the wines allowing a lot of floral notes to shine through.

Price: $20

2013 Verdad Sawyer Lindquist Vyd Rosé of Grenache

Verdad is a little side brand of Qupé and I was really excited to try their Grenache Rosé. It was a really high acid crisp rosé with notes of cranberry, strawberry, and lemon.

Price: $18

2012 Qupé Central Coast Syrah

The Syrah was also very nice. It was a dry red with notes of dark berries, cranberry, and hint of tobacco. The last note was really hard to pick up and I spent a long time just trying to figure out what the last taste was before I got it. 

Price: $20

2013 Rosé of Pinot Noir 

Red Car is a wine that has a very distinct label and even though it was on my list, I had a big feeling of Deja Vu when I approached their booth. I'm sure I've tried it before but the problem with trying so many wines all the time, is that stuff falls through the cracks. This rosé was much lighter in body and flavor than many others that I have enjoyed. Fermented like a white wine, without any skin contact, the pale salmon color is much lighter than a traditional rosé. This is definitely a wine for people who want something very very light. 

Price: $25

2011 Calder Charbono

My favorite thing about wine tasting is finding wines I've never tried before so as I was wandering around the wine tent and found a red called "Charbano," my interest was piqued. I asked the booth what it was as many times wines with interesting names are blends. The winery representitive gave me a really condescending response that it was a varietal. She then told me it was similar to Pinot, Gamay, or Barbera. It was really frustrating though that her first answer was still rude. I always thought the point of Wine Lands was a way to get exposure for your wine. I understand that a lot of people there just want to get drunk, but there are also people genuinely interesting in discovering new wines and if they ask about something unique that you have, don't shut them down. The pervasive snootiness that some people have with wine drives me crazy. I've meet so many friendly and amazing people in the wine industry who just want to educate people on what makes their wine special and that gets ruined when others have rude and condescending attitudes to people curious about wine.

But I digress... the wine itself was super interesting. Per their site, Charbano only has 70 acres in California and is extinct in France. The wine had a very intense nose. The earthy, berry taste was definitely reminiscent of Pinot. It was a very interesting wine and I'd love to try it again. Maybe next time I'll get to talk to someone willing to share more about the wine with me. 

Price: $28

Broc 2013 Love Red California

It's hard not to love the Love Red blend by Broc. The primarily Carignan blend also includes some Valdiguie and a dash of Petite Syrah. It's an very balanced blend and a smooth light red with cranberry and smokey notes. 

Price: NA

Kibo Junmai Sake

These little cans of sake made their appearance at the press tent and I had to have a taste. I don't drink sake often but it's something I really enjoy. I particularly love to have some when I eat sushi, but as a person who generally gets sushi as take out to eat at home, I don't have good sake nearby to pair with it. I've tried to buy inexpensive bottles before but they tend to not be good quality and come in huge bottles that are more than I could drink in a night. So when I saw these little cans of Kibo sake, I was really excited. The cans are going to retail for about $5 each and are the perfect size to have with one meal and not worry about wasting the rest of a bottle. Besides having a great size and price though, I was pleased with just how drinkable the sake was. It's light and refreshing and definitely something I could just sit around sipping, with or without sushi. 

The little can also honors traditional Japanese packaging. The brewery where it is made was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. However, in the 3 years since, they've been able to re-build and launch their new sake. 

Price: $5

Sean Thackrey "Pleiades XXIII" Old Vine Red Blend

This is really the kitchen sink of red blends. The wine includes Sangiovese, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, and more. The nose was beautifully filled with ginger and cloves. The red was very light with a little of spiciness and earthiness. The hints of ginger carry through from start to finish. It's probably worth noting that it's one of the few wines I went back and got a glass of. I'm basically adding it to my K&L cart right now...

Price: $24

2013 Wind Gap Trousseau Gris

This was another wine that showed up in the press tent and I was excited to try it. I love Trousseau Gris and this one didn't disappoint. The nose is super light. The wine is very high acid, with tangy lemon and grapefruit notes. This would be an ideal wine for a hot summer day.

Price: $24

Food

 The first night there, I was really craving a lobster roll. I knew this had to be my dinner that night. I was a little disapointed with it though. It still tasted awesome but for the price ($19!) it was not nearly as full as the one's the restaurant. It didn't really live up to my picture of an overflowing lobster roll. As you know, this inspired me to make my own rendition of the New England dish.

One of the fun little perks of the Press Tent was a special food and wine press release. One of the presenters was the owner of AQ & TBD. Even though I wrote about their restaurants, I wasn't familiar at all with the dish they were bringing to the event. However, they brought one of their Spaghetti Sloppy Joe sandwiches to the press event and Dan was able to snag it. Since it's basically gluten on gluten and wrapped in gluten, I let him enjoy the whole thing. He loved the sandwich though and has been bringing it up constantly. Apparently the dish is something you won't ever find on their menu but just a late night snack that the restaurant employees like to enjoy after their shifts. The treat was a way for the fancy restaurants to have a more low key dish for Outside Lands.

I still needed to eat though. I really wanted to try a bacon flight from Baconlands at the GastroMagic stage but they were sold out. Who sells out of bacon???? I really needed my bacon fix though so we went to the Bacon Bacon truck. I snagged this awesome double burger and instead of onions, they gave me extra bacon. It was happiness. 

We were able to sit back with wine and bacon and enjoy the Killers. It was definitely a great way to end a really long weekend. Until next time Outside Lands!

Taste of the Bay Area - What to Eat at Outside Lands

Since this blog has me expanding into the food world as well, I really wanted to comment on all of the awesome things to eat at Outside Lands. As much as the festival is about music, it's also a celebration of the Bay Area and in no way is that more obvious than all of the local restaurants and food trucks that set up shop in Golden Gate Park for the weekend. The list of food vendors is absolutely huge, and it was tough to narrow down my picks to the (still pretty long) list below. Since this blog was initially about exploring the bay area, I've already written full blog posts on some of the places below. Most of those were written several years ago and it says a lot that a food vendor can still be doing so well after so much time.

4505 Meats

4505 Meats has long claimed to have the Best Damn Cheeseburger in the City and even though I mostly eat paleo, I love me a good burger sometimes and I can attest to their claims. A lot of burgers in SF try to be something really fancy and crazy. 4505 goes a different route though and just gives you good juicy meat on a quality bun. You can spice up your burger with bacon or an egg which are both great options. I do have to say though, this burger is not for the clean eater - especially if you add the egg.

They are also bringing their famous chicharonnes to the festival. These golden crispy nuggets of fried pork fat are what I like to call "paleo chips" and they're awesome. These ones in particular have a lovely sweet and spicy seasoning to them that will have you licking your fingers.

Blue Bottle Coffee

In the early days of this blog, I was trying to find a way to explore the city while studying for the worst exam I've ever taken. I found the best way to kill two birds with one stone was to study in a different coffee shop each week and of course, the infamous Blue Bottle was my first stop. Blue Bottle coffee is amazing and it's strong. This will be the perfect pick-me-up when the long and crazy days at the festival are wearing you down.

Pica Pica Arepa Kitchen

Pica Pica is one of the places I've written about before. When I first visited this place, I was brand new to arepas and the texture was a little foreign to me. I've since become a much bigger fan of them and have even tried making them at home. This one is high on my list as a great lunch option for Outside Lands. It's also very helpful that the arepas are easy to hold and eat. In a festival situation, that can be super handy.

Tacolicious

My first experience with Tacolicious was at their stands on Thursday at the Ferry Building. My favorite lunch time escape would be to get a bunch of different tacos with the amazing mild green salsa and sit on the water enjoying them. That was heaven for me. Tacos are high on my list of favorite foods and Tacolicious is high on my list of taco joints so that says a lot. They are bringing fish tacos, chicken tacos, and veggie tacos so try them all!

TBD/AQ

These two restaurants share an owner and a street in SoMa and one night I accidentally had the pleasure of going to both. That's a whole different story that you can read about but the point was that the food was great and the customer service was even better. Bad service will turn me away from a place so quickly even if the food is amazing but these guys really know how to treat customers and they made a really memorable impression on me.

Little Chihuahua

Little Chihuahua brings together the best of two things I love - Mexican food and eating fresh, healthy ingredients. The restaurant has grass fed beef, organic veggies, and gets all of its meat and produce sustainably. It's definitely a great compromise between delicious food and healthy eating. Guilt free burritos all the way!

Woodhouse Fish Co.

This is the stop for all of the seafood lovers. I'm clearly an oyster lover so I'm really happy that Woodhouse is bringing some to the festival this year. However, I'm a little more happy that they are also bringing their amazing lobster rolls. I've never met a lobster roll I didn't love but Woodhouse really knows how to overflow their buttery rolls with tons of amazing lobster.

Food Trucks

Bacon Bacon Truck

The Bacon Bacon Truck in no way needs my endorsement. Everything they sell has bacon in it and the only time I've seen it without a line is when I've spotted it driving down the street. Whenever this happens, I need to restraining myself from running after it with a handful of cash like it's an ice cream truck. The Bacon Bacon truck is simply amazing. I've been fortunate enough to try several of their offerings and it's all great. I personally recommend the pork belly friesb ut really - you can't go wrong with bacon anything and everything here delivers.

Curry Up Now

This is a little bit of a bittersweet one for me - Curry Up Now is one of my favorite trucks and they are not at my local Soma Streat Food Park nearly enough (I maybe dash over there whenever I see the tweet that they're there), but they aren't bringing my favorite dish to the festival - Chicken Tikka Masala Fries. Few things make me happier than the mildly spiced chicken over waffle cut sweet potato fries. What they are bringing though are Samosas and Kathi rolls and if they're half as good as my treasured fries, they will be amazing.

Señor Sisig

Señor is Filipino Mexican fusion. While this might sound like a terrible idea, it's done perfectly. Chicken adobo tacos will change you. I also just love how many options they have. The full truck offers tacos, burritos, taco salads, and more. For the healthy eater - the salad does an amazing job of letting you enjoy awesome flavors without any of the guilt that comes along with the tortilla. I always appreciate a food truck that has those kinds of options because it is pretty rare.

Sharona's Chocolate Shop

Three words - Chocolate Covered Smores. As we all know, I try to eat paleo. However, I tend to cheat or make exceptions when I'm at fun events. Chocolate Lands at Outside Lands was definitely one of those times. Sharona's Chocolate Shop had these giant chocolate covered smores and they were full of chocolately marshmallowy goodness. They were super rich and since I don't normally eat sweets, I had to save half of mine. However, after a little time in the microwave it was the perfect post-show snack to have before bed that night.


So I honestly have to say this was one of the hardest posts I've ever had to write. Thinking of the words to describe some of my favorite restaurants - so easy. However, reliving some of my favorite food experiences has my mouth absolutely watering. I'm pretty sure they are going to have to roll me out of the festival because no person should have lobster rolls, pork fries, chocolate covered smores, a million tacos, and a cheeseburger all at once (plus the wine!) but I'm going to try.

And then I'm going to look like this...

Day 6 - Korea - World Cup Eating Challenge

I can still dress Brazilian!

Changing focus from teams that are winning and my favorite teams has really shaken up my schedule. My original plan had been to take every opportunity to make Brazilian dishes. However, I realized that would mean I'd miss some opportunities for other teams. Therefore, Tuesday became Korean day and next week I'm taking up my last chance to make Paella. It's funny how this challenge has really evolved from "I want to make Brazilian food" to truly eating globally for a few weeks.

One of the things I really wanted to do was try to cook as many of the dishes as possible. I've been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest looking up recipes. However, it became clear that for some of the countries, the amount of items I'd have to purchase to even make a simple dish would just be very prohibitive or I didn't feel confident that I'd hit the mark. I realized that there were some instances where I'd be much better off just grabbing a bite out.

So I was very happy when I saw that Seoul on Wheels was going to be at the Soma Streat Food Park on Tuesday. It was perfect - I could go grab a bite of Korean food and watch some of the Brazil - Mexico game in the sun.

Seoul on Wheels, like many popular food trucks, has taken ethnic food and incorporated it into more casual dishes like tacos, burgers, and fries. I was hoping for something a little more traditional so I tried ordering dumplings but they were all out. There were other items like kimchee and rice bowls that I could have opted for as well but I wasn't in the mood for them so I settled on tacos.

I got short rib and chicken tacos and they were really good. The short rib was a dollar extra and had a lot of fat and cartilage left despite being boneless. I think I would have preferred trading that out for another meat option. The chicken, however, was amazing. Both tacos had great sauces and flavor and they were perfect for a light lunch.

Phew, I was really worried there

While I have your attention, I also just want to sing the praises of the Soma Streat Food Park. When it came into my neighborhood a couple of years ago, it was so hard to not try to go there every day. It's such a convenient dining option and perfect for groups with varying tastes. Dan and I love watching football there on Sundays with some bottomless mimosas and watching a bit of the World Cup there provided a similar experience. I actually couldn't believe how crowded it was for a weekday. Definitely check it out!